Chapter 209: Zombie Siege of Victoria
At Gu Xi's inquiry, Luna quickly explained the situation in Victoria City.
It turned out that the last incident at Westminster Abbey added the final straw to the already precarious situation in Victoria.
It ignited the powder keg that is Victoria.
The city's seventh transformation began ahead of schedule.
For the nobles in Victoria, this was an opportunity and a celebration.
But for Aridowei City, it was a huge problem because in this mirrored world, a new Aridowei City would appear again.
This would make the already chaotic mirrored space even more chaotic.
If it were only this, it would be fine. At most, the mirrored world where Aridowei is located would have more cities to conquer.
But this chaos temporarily cut off the connection between Aridowei City and Victoria City.
It made the two cities unable to contact each other, which is why Luna and Shaya were trapped in Victoria and couldn't return.
If not for the owl Gu Xi sent, risking its life to deliver the message to Luna, Luna might have planned to take Shaya through the mirrored dungeon again.
After Luna explained the situation, Gu Xi turned to look at Shaya.
Gu Xi noticed that behind Shaya, there were a few undead.
Among these undead, besides a skeleton mage leader, the others were ones Gu Xi had never seen before.
Their skin looked like burned clay, with fiery patterns on the surface.
"Who are these?"
Gu Xi pointed to the undead and asked.
"They are the caretakers I hired for the small building, the sheriff of Greenwich Street, and the sister next door. However, they encountered some issues and are in bad shape."
Shaya explained the origins of these undead.
Gu Xi looked at them and thought to himself that they indeed didn't look good. They had become undead, so how good could they be?
But Gu Xi did not ridicule them. Instead, he asked, "What is the situation in Victoria now?"
"What else? Coal slag riot."
Shaya pouted.
"Coal slag? The steam power energy behind the small building? How did they riot? Is it because of the lack of it in the city?"
Listening to Shaya, Gu Xi became even more confused.
"No, sir, their situation is actually like unburned coal slag."
"They? Coal slag?"
Gu Xi looked at the undead in front of him in surprise. He couldn't see any direct connection between these undead and coal slag.
Perhaps seeing Gu Xi not understanding the relationship, Shaya quickly explained.
"Actually, the coal slag disease first appeared in the steam factory. According to the church, those workers who were constantly exposed to steam power slowly got carbonized.
This carbonization is irreversible and can only be resisted by taking the breath of other living people.
But those who had their breath taken would also get carbonized, even if they were not factory workers.
They then needed to take the breath of others.
Moreover, it was discovered that the bodies of workers who died of carbonization were the best fuel, so the sick workers were usually not taken for treatment but locked in the factory to work until they died.
Even if some carbonized patients escaped from the steam factory, they could not escape the factory owner's pursuit."
"My goodness, working in that factory means even your bones are sold."
Listening to Shaya's explanation, Gu Xi was stunned. Even as a necromancer, he thought the factory owners in Victoria were too much.
"This time, it wasn't a big deal initially. Many people in Victoria knew about this, but to survive, everyone had to fight hard.
This coal slag riot had many causes, but the key point was that some people planned to rebuild Victoria.
Sir, do you remember the rising land prices in Camden?"
"Yes, I remember."
Gu Xi certainly remembered that incident. It was because of that incident that he met Shaya.
"Some nobles heard about it and started hoarding land.
When the incident at Westminster Abbey happened, the church, military, and royal family's attention were all focused there, so some nobles had their own ideas.
They chose to forcibly demolish some buildings.
For example, burning down a neighborhood and considering that the area could not be rebuilt, taking it back for national management.
I stayed in Victoria mainly to deal with this trouble."
"They are really cunning."
Gu Xi somewhat looked down on the nobles' methods.
"But they overplayed their hand. They set the fire but couldn't put it out. The fire spread to the Isis River area where a large number of poor people were being transported to the steam factory to work.
Most of these poor people had already contracted the carbonization disease. Being confined, not many knew about it, but the fire released them.
These poor people, driven by survival instinct, ran around Victoria, frantically absorbing the breath of the living. The carbonization disease spread exponentially.
In the end, the entire Victoria was walking coal slag."
Gu Xi understood. Victoria had doomed itself.
The current situation was like a carbonized version of a zombie apocalypse.
"When you left, what was the situation in Victoria?"
"Not optimistic, I'm afraid. The church and the royal family were focused on Westminster Abbey. They couldn't spare any attention.
The army had no orders and couldn't enter the city. The nobles' private soldiers couldn't withstand the attack and could only guard their territories.
So Victoria is probably done for now.
Being razed and rebuilt is the best outcome."
Hearing this, Gu Xi understood why Aridowei City determined Victoria was undergoing the seventh transformation.
It seemed the city wasn't just undergoing significant changes but was about to be completely rebuilt.
"What about the small building over there?"
"When we left, the building was still there, but its survival is uncertain."
Hearing this, Gu Xi fell silent.
He realized the situation in Victoria was very complex. Investing his limited forces might not help much.
But just as Gu Xi was about to give up on Victoria, he saw Luna.
Gu Xi understood that Luna was closely tied to Aridowei City.
Even if he could use other means to expand Aridowei City now, he couldn't sever the connection between Aridowei City and Victoria.
If he gave up on Victoria now, it would be difficult to reconnect in the future.