Chapter 578: Our Handling Fee Is Justified

Leather Shoe was an ordinary Venice government official. His main job was to provide temporary shelter for the tramps in Venice.

If every tramp were to seek help from him, Venice would run out of public funds. The Merchant Alliance was only maintaining Venice’s social benefits system. It wasn’t running a charity organization.

These government officials knew the best way to use public funds.

They would help those tramps who fainted on the roads.

This kind of tramp was easily killed by accidents. As long as the officials made sure there weren’t too many deaths, it wouldn’t create too much of a problem.

Recently, Leather Shoe encountered a huge problem. A lot of tramps suddenly appeared in Venice.

He initially ignored them because he thought the tramps were displaced by the recent war. Eternal Kingdom had a fierce battle with the Hades Devil King, Mammon, near Venice a short while back.

However, he discovered that things weren’t that simple.

When the temporary shelter was filled up, Leather Shoe discovered that most of the tramps were Goblins and Gnomes with green words above their heads. There were a few Orcs too.

What about the Houndhead Men? Houndhead Men weren’t intelligent creatures, so they were all imprisoned.

On the first day, he thought the tramps were displaced by the war. As time passed, Leather Shoe found that it wasn’t that simple.

“Why do the tramps have green words above their heads?”

When his Orc colleague asked him, the Gnome, Leather Shoe, discovered his blindspot.

Yes, why were there green symbols above their heads? He recalled the reports about Eternal Kingdom and the large number of warriors of Eternal Kingdom appearing in Winterfell. He suddenly understood.

These tramps…

They had formed an extensive tramp organization. The strange green words above their heads had become their symbol.

“Yes, It must be like this.” Leather Shoe felt a sense of danger. He reported this matter to his superior, and he was given a new order.

“Continue to give shelter to these tramps.”

Was the Merchant Alliance becoming a charitable organization?

Leather Shoe wanted to ask for clarification, but he obeyed his superior and continued to provide shelter to these mysterious tramps. After some time, he discovered that he wasn’t able to depend on Venice’s public funds to sustain the tramps. An awake tramp happened to overhear Leather Shoe grumbling to his colleague and gave a very good suggestion.

“Why don’t you request help from society? I know of many creatures who are willing to give a helping hand. They will only require a little bit of salary.”

Leather Shoe was tempted. However, since a salary was required, Leather Shoe was in a dilemma. Where could he find the money?

The tramp provided the answer to Leather Shoe’s dilemma.

“Aren’t you preparing a lot of food every day? The food requires money. Why don’t you save the Magic Stones from the food expenses and use it as salary?”

That was a very good idea, but there was a problem. If there was no food for the tramps, causing them to die of hunger, Leather Shoe would be held responsible. Though they were tramps, society had a lot of compassion for them. If a large number of tramps died under his watch, Leather Shoe would be unable to shoulder the responsibility.

The tramp quickly said, “It’s alright. Just try it for a day. Anyway, they won’t die of hunger, and you can relax a bit. My friends can help you deal with the tramps outside and look after them as well. Then you won’t have to stay here and watch over us!”

Leather Shoe felt that something wasn’t right because he wasn’t following the proper procedures. His conscience warned him of the consequence of losing tens of tramps if he let strangers watch over them. Moreover, many creatures were smuggling and selling creature organs right now.

The tramp said, “Don’t worry. You can leave some money for yourself after paying us. Take it as a handling fee of sorts.”

When Leather Shoe heard those words, he immediately slammed the table and said, “We’re not doing charity work for the handling fee. However, the handling fee is necessary. Since you suggested it, I’ll assign this mission to your friends.”

Leather Shoe and his colleagues agreed to the suggestion, but they didn’t know that the gamers of Eternal Kingdom were carrying out a large-scale mission. The assigned gamers were gathering other gamers who went offline indiscriminately in Venice. They were being brought back to the temporary shelter.

The assigned gamers were able to obtain Magic Stones for keeping watch over the gathered gamers in the shelter.

But they had to pay handling fees to Leather Shoe and his colleagues. They were thrilled to be able to earn Magic Stones just by keeping watch. More importantly, they were able to stay in the shelter when they got offline to sleep.

They could earn Magic Stones while sleeping. Where could they obtain such a good deal?

That day, many gamers came to register, but Leather Shoe didn’t want to have too many temporary workers. Finally, ten gamers were employed. These ten lucky gamers went offline during the night. When they came online the next morning, they each received a Magic Stone from Leather Shoe.

Working three days in a factory only yielded a Magic Stone, whereas they could earn one Magic Stone per day in Venice as a temporary worker. It was a good deal.

What about the work in the temporary shelter? Who was working if the gamers went offline to sleep? It was of no concern. As long as the gamers kept the door of the shelter open, there would be a continuous stream of gamers coming to the shelter to go offline. It was dangerous to go offline on the streets of Venice because they could die from being hit by carriages.

It was much safer to go offline in a temporary shelter.