When the first ray of sunlight shone through the gaps between the branches of the big tree onto Wu Lai's face, he frowned and squinted his eyes as he sat up from the rope bed. Last night's sleep was not sweet because the rope bed was not woven finely enough, leaving marks all over his shoulders, back, and limbs, which not only caused pain but also brought a vague feeling of numbness.
Over breakfast on a rope bed, chewing dry bread, Woolley felt lonely and confused again, as always.
After picking up all the bread crumbs that fell on his lapel and stuffing them into his mouth, Wu Lai felt that he should be full, so he stuffed the remaining half of the bread into the package and carefully slid to the ground while holding onto the tree trunk.
The bodies were still there, but it seemed that a few were missing, perhaps they had sunk to the bottom of the water, or perhaps they had floated up due to decay and were then carried away by the current that rose a little in the evening. The only thing Woolley was sure of was that the stench was much stronger today than it was yesterday.
"Get to work." As Wu Lai said this, he took out a piece of fine linen two elbows long from his bosom, folded it into a long strip and put it loosely around his neck. After testing it several times to make sure it was exactly what he imagined, Wu Lai took it off and sprinkled some wine on it. Although this wine was not good, the alcohol concentration was not low, and it was still competent for simple disinfection. Wu Lai did not want to get sick by fiddling with the corpse.
Play with the rope, make it into a noose, and then throw it into the river bay.
A few minutes later, after several failed attempts, Wu Lai finally managed to get a corpse by the neck, which undoubtedly brought him one step closer to success. It was easy to drag a corpse floating in the water to the shore, but it was difficult to get it ashore. When Wu Lai found that he did not have enough strength to do this, he looked at the big tree closest to the river bank.
It would be nice if there was a pulley. Wu Lai thought so and took out the dagger from his belt. This dagger was a gift from his father on his tenth birthday. In Wu Lai's memory, this was a very rare experience. This copper dagger was made very beautifully, but not very sharp. Wu Lai even felt that the only good thing about this dagger was its scabbard, because the rose engraved on it was very valuable.
After pulling out the dagger and taking a closer look at it, Wu Lai began to mutter again. Ever since he came to this world and was able to speak, the two things he did most in secret were to judge the backwardness of this world and to exercise strictly. However, these two things seemed a bit boring, at least for now.
"At least my parents gave me some start-up capital back then. This time it's good..." Wu Lai muttered to himself as he looked up to find a suitable branch. Without a pulley, it was not difficult to use the branches to make a labor-saving lever bracket to pull the corpse up.
More than an hour later, the first body was finally pulled ashore from the river bend.
After Wu Lai took a look, his face suddenly turned pale, and then his stomach began to churn uncontrollably. Before he could run two steps, a fluid mixed with a sour and fishy smell gushed out of his mouth and nostrils. Fortunately, he managed to lift the cloth covering his mouth and nose in time.
Two minutes later, Wu Lai wiped away the tears caused by vomiting and the saliva remaining on the corners of his lips, and staggered back to the corpse.
It can be seen that the body collided with the reef in the river after falling into the water, so the face from the forehead to the back of the head is missing - this is one of the important factors that caused Wu Lai to vomit. Because it was soaked in the water for too long, the skin on many parts of the body had disappeared, revealing a slightly whitish fat layer. In the wounds caused by chopping or collision, the dark brown muscles were showing a light green. The belly of the body was bulging, but Wu Lai knew that this was not because of drowning, but because the body's internal organs were rotting - if it was another day or two, the belly of the body might be swollen.
As he approached the corpse, Wu Lai reduced the frequency and intensity of his breathing as much as possible, then he stretched out his trembling hands, which were tightly wrapped in linen, toward the corpse.
A minute later, he untied the corpse's belt...
Five minutes later, he tore off half of the corpse's armor...
Another five minutes later, he pulled off the corpse's boots...
Then he used his dagger to cut the rope around the corpse's neck and kicked it into the river bend with his eyes closed.
After stepping aside to catch his breath for a long time, Wu Lai returned to where the body had been lying and began to count the harvest.
A belt with a silver plate weighing about five shekels on it. According to the custom of Seneca City, this silver plate can be exchanged for four silver coins. Although its weight is the same as five silver coins, it cannot be used directly as currency after all.
This half-body armor is not heavy, weighing about 120 shekels. Excluding the worthless lining and leather belt, Wu Lai estimated that he could recycle 96 shekels of brass from it. According to the price in Seneca City, 96 shekels of brass is worth at most eight silver coins. But that refers only to brass. You must know that what Wu Lai has in front of him is not a pile of brass, but dozens of brass armor plates. If it is sold at this price, the price can at least double, because brass is also the most important strategic material in the world.
As for the pair of exquisite-looking boots, Wu Lai was very disappointed because he neither found anything valuable from the boots nor had the confidence to keep the shoes and wear them again when they fit his feet in the future - although he was making money from the dead, being appropriately particular could reduce the guilt to some extent.
Half an hour later, the second body was pulled ashore. This time, Wu Lai only found a pile of brass armor pieces...
After a short rest, Wu Lai threw the newly made rope loop to the third body...
After three days, Wu Lai had to consider leaving. Although he had pulled up a total of 41 bodies in these three days, there were more bodies in the river bend than he had imagined. Especially after he put a few short wooden forks and a stone in front of the rope loop, the bodies sinking to the bottom of the river bend also became his "prey."
When Woolley decided to stop, at least one-third of the bodies in the river bend had not been "plundered" by him.
The three consecutive days of horrifying actions brought a rich harvest. The brass armor alone collected nearly 2,600 shekels, and the value of brass alone exceeded 200 silver coins. But the brass armor was by no means the largest part of the harvest. Wu Lai also found seven money bags, which contained a total of 162 Hurrian silver coins and five Hurrian gold coins. Although the Assyrians and the Hurrians had been enemies for generations, the weight and calculation of the currency were the same. The weight of an Assyrian silver coin or a Hurrian silver coin was one shekel, and each Assyrian gold coin or a Hurrian gold coin could be exchanged for 60 silver coins. In other words, the "searching money bags" alone brought Wu Lai a "reward" of 462 silver coins, but this was still not the largest part of the harvest.
The most abundant harvest was a necklace - on this gold necklace weighing about six shekels, a thumb-sized sapphire was inlaid. Wu Lai could not guess the actual price of this clear and lustrous gem, but he knew at least two things. First, the world did not have the conditions and technology to artificially synthesize gems. Second, compared with this natural sapphire, the six-shekel gold necklace was just a drop in the bucket.
The reason why Wu Lai could draw the second conclusion with certainty was that he knew about the widespread love and grading of gemstones in this world. Among the common gemstones in this world, sapphire ranked higher than emerald, chrysanthemum, ruby, red tourmaline, and carnelian, and was second only to aquamarine and amethyst.
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So it is the biggest part of Wu Lai's harvest.
"The person wearing it must be at least a minor noble." Wu Lai thought so, because common people could never afford to wear something like this.
Its appearance also made Wu Lai consider giving up the brass armor plates, because there were too many brass armor plates and they were too heavy. With Wu Lai's current physical condition, it would be difficult for him to just take those gold and silver coins away from here. The basic weight unit of this world, "shekel", is basically equal to the ounce in Wu Lai's previous life. In other words, the 162 silver coins, five gold coins and the gold necklace alone weighed more than ten kilograms.
Wu Lai, who inherited a bit of stinginess from his alcoholic father, struggled for half an hour over whether to keep or remove the brass armor plates. Finally, he gave up with a heavy heart - the last two pieces of bread left in the package were not enough to provide him with the calories to carry the brass armor plates. Besides, the slope of nearly 75 degrees also made him strongly doubt his own confidence.
"Two hundred silver coins, maybe I can buy a good old gladiator, a disabled one, hehe." As Wu Lai muttered to himself, he remembered an American TV series he had watched in a world with only one moon. The Colosseum existed in every city-state in the Assyrian territory, but not in Seneca. Although it was also called a city, it was built less than 160 years ago and was the least large in size and population in the Assyrian territory. Therefore, according to the opinion of the small group of Assyrian nobles, Seneca was not qualified to own a Colosseum.
"A towering building starts from the ground, so let's take it step by step. Alas, I didn't expect that in this life I would start the struggle for money, house, car, wife, and face at the age of twelve..." Wu Lai sighed as he climbed to the top of the mountain.
That night, Wu Lai wrote a long "cave diary" by firelight in a cave halfway up the other side of the mountain. "With this money, I can start my life freely... For twelve years, I have been obsessed with my past every day, and I thought that I had been transmigrated like those novels said. But just now, I suddenly felt that maybe it was not because of my soul that I came to this world with my memories, but the original Wu Lai of this world, who had the memory of Wu Lai in another world since birth. If this is true, then which Wu Lai am I? However, the pronunciation of 'Wu Lai' in this world is exactly the same as the 'rogue' in the world in my memory. It is really ridiculous to be called a rogue for twelve years... As I was writing, I suddenly thought of my father, the drunkard and miser named Simon Glyndore. If the soul of this world is immortal and has a place to go, I sincerely hope that his soul can live a life of debauchery every day..."
The diary was ultimately not finished for a simple reason—he was too tired.