The city of Mil-Zyka is a peculiar union of city-states, as the name suggests from the pre-war ruins of two seats apart. Although Mill City, located in the north, is more prosperous because it is closer to the Michigan Heath and is more likely to receive outcasts, it still has to be the south when it comes to which pocket has money, so the wastelanders prefer to call it "Zika City" for short.

In recent days, Zhika City has had a good time, as the starting station of the western side of the Great Lake trade, the Zhika City Wharf can be called a rare and crowded place in the wasteland, whether it is the continuous fishing fleet in summer or the lake demon hunting ships that chisel the ice and tread the waves in the cold winter, the inexhaustible dragon carp in the Great Lake have raised hundreds of thousands of Zhika people, and it is a kind of pride to be well fed this year, and this pride and strength are really revealed in the dock tax policeman Cole.

"Two hundred barrels of marinated fish, three hundred pounds of frozen meat, four barrels of rum!" Cole shouted loudly, his thick fingers holding charcoal and writing in the account book, and on the other side, of course, there was a tax audit runner who handed over Swan brand cigarettes with a smile.

Smelling the peculiar sunny smell of cigarettes, it was genuine flue-cured tobacco, Cole's nose snorted lightly, and said in his heart that this old boy knew each other. The runner lit a match and waited for Cole to smoke it, and quickly stuffed a few cigarettes and alcohol into the backpacks of the tax police officers around him, nodding his head and being diligent.

Since the other party was on the road like this, Cole must have been familiar with the symbolic inspection of the bulk cargo on the surface of the cargo ship and settled the account, as for the tarpaulin and the cabin compartment of the ship, he did not look at anything. Cole threw a piece of salted fish to the listless mixed-breed search dog at his feet, and the dog, who didn't smell the contraband, chirped and swallowed, and barked twice and refused to go again.

"For every ten barrels of fish, you will receive two coins, and three for ten pounds of frozen meat, wine~" Cole frowned and counted the price with his fingers.

Without waiting for Cole to say the amount, the runner with a few whiskers on his jaw immediately understood, approached and whispered: "Sir, I understand, I understand, there is a bucket of filial piety to the dock." ”

Colton's fine eyes and laughter turned into a slit, and he patted the runner on the shoulder, and boasted: "Well, sensible!" Lao Tzu is tired and tired to settle accounts for you all day long, Zi'er didn't see a few more, or you, the turtle grandson, know the reason, I won't check it, that's good, the rest of the things Lao Tzu is in charge of you and exempts you, bring the tariff, and pay five hundred together. ”

The runner didn't know if it was a belly in his stomach, he held a money bag in both hands, Cole took it, handed it to his subordinates and weighed it, and felt that the weight was good, turned around and flicked the cigarette butt into the water, and waved to the lock on the other side of the dock to pull up, and the boat could be let in.

"Damn, how many of these can fall on my head?" Seeing the runner who had entered the port spitting into the water, Cole snorted and complained to a few of his yellow-clad tax policemen.

These big characters can't read the alphabet where do you understand the chief's thoughts, and he laughed a few times and fooled him, but if the fishermen lined up outside the lock really thought that these honest docks were easy to talk about, they would have to peel down a layer of skin.

The runner who had just been pitted had just tied up the boat, coughed a few times into the cabin, muttered and cleared his throat, and shouted, "Okay, the work is out, you!" Send this barrel of wine to the dock tax, the eggs, a barrel of wine is worth all the taxes, dogs, fish intestines! ”

Two or three sailors resting in the cabin heard the boss speak, and hurriedly began to carry the goods, not to mention that these lean men were not as thick as pickled fish buckets, but their hook-like fingers grabbed the buckets

Along the way, he slammed a bar to his shoulder, and immediately walked down the boat that was still slightly undulating, shouting the trumpet and piling it up in the dock warehouse.

When the pickled fish barrels were almost emptied, the sailors stepped barefoot on the plank and gradually made some strange sounds, and the runner, who had finished dealing with the chores, returned to the cabin with his teeth, pulled up the dark board, and said to the people hiding inside: "Now the outside is loose and the inside is tight, don't talk to the yellow helmet when you go in, the place is not far away, and it is convenient when it gets dark." ”

Simon stretched his waist, and suddenly there was a "click" sound of bone joints, and only enough people to bend down to get out of the dark board drilled out of five or six people, and finally drilled out of Marco even made a few "baba" sounds, swept away the fishy scales on his clothes, and took out a box of cigarettes from his crotch before taking a deep breath.

Simon looked around, this time smuggling into the inner city of Zhika really made everyone suffer a lot, the mental head was bad, the light in his eyes did not decrease, Simon took out a few gold coins and handed them to the runner who was also a smuggler and smuggled for a living, and said: "The extra is the barrel of wine money." ”

The runner looked at the three carved gold coins in his palm, and the exquisite pattern made him reluctant to take two bites to see the color, anyway, the black-haired and blue-eyed man in front of him was a reliable intermediary as a guarantee, and the prepaid fee before their departure was enough to make a steady profit.

"Your cargo boxes are painted green, and they are stored, so you can pick them up within three days." The runner is talking about the "pickled fish bucket" full of equipment and supplies, of course, out of the rules, the runner will not check it privately, if you look at the first M5 rifle and exoskeleton accessories and dare to accept this work is two words.

Stepping onto the inner city pier of Chika, the oncoming lake breeze blew away the lingering stench in his sideburns, and Simon looked at Lake Michigan outside the majestic semicircular locks hundreds of meters away.

"Boss, where are we going to live?" Marco asked. Although this old backstreet mercenary often brags about traveling all over the five cities, this is the first time he has come to the inner city of Zhika.

It's not that the inner city of Zhika is limited to pure-blood citizens like the black walls of the steel city, but the inner city of Zhika gathers the essence of the entire western Great Lakes region, where the Zhika Council, the Combine Headquarters, the Five Lakes Shipping Committee, the New O'Hare Airport, and the Zhika Bank are all here.

Beyond the partition wall, the buildings inside are neat, and the smoke is quite good, which is really no worse than the E area of the steel city. Simon looked at his watch, the hour hand pointed to 11 o'clock, it was too early to meet the other group of Hydras, Mukair's Hydra with special abilities definitely didn't need to do this, but the other dozen or so Purple Blood Team were not so omnipotent, so they had to smuggle in.

Without Simon's orders, the Purple Blood team members consciously dispersed in twos and threes, went to the dock warehouse to change into clean clothes, and paid attention to the location of the special "pickled fish bucket", which was the Black Star coin given by Simon - a large coin of Steel City, one can be worth 100 yuan. It is used as a tax to offset the inner city gate.

Simon secretly calculated in his heart, only a few steps away, the tax card set up three ways, the first is to enter the waters of Zhika, the patrol boat collects the reputation of "shelter money" 50 yuan, the second is the goods tax of the wharf tax police, the total value of only four or five thousand yuan is charged 10% of the tax, I don't know if it is a tacit agreement between the government and businessmen to smuggle, the last is the tax on entering the inner city, which is still 50 per person.

Entering the inner city, the flow of people dropped sharply, and heavily armed soldiers could be seen almost everywhere, especially at the food ration office

Armored infantry, taking the opportunity to buy cigarettes, Simon inquired about the news by the way. It turned out that the animal tide riot in the ruins of Zhika destroyed a large amount of farmland outside the city, and the autumn harvest was reduced by at least 30%.

Of the five major cities in the Great Lakes Industrial Zone, Steel City, Ford City, Mill-Cheek City, Railroad City, and Tombstone City, only Steel City will lift the ban on food rationing in the autumn, and the rest of the city-states will not talk about their own production and consumption, and many of them are waiting for the food delivery of Iron City.

"It's sad this winter, bread has doubled compared to last month, and in November it has to rise to 30 yuan a kilogram." The cigarette stall owner sighed.

Simon nodded thoughtfully, the land in the north of the old alliance is not very fertile, and it is mostly supplied by the central plains, and as soon as the nuclear explosion comes, a large piece of land in the central and western regions will be desertified, and the land that eats the nuclear explosion can pass without radiation to death, thank God, and the irrigated land can be planted with a yield of 15,600 pounds per acre The blade grain is a fertile field, and it depends on whether God is willing to give the face no acid rain. The only thing that can continue to be supplied in large quantities is aquatic products, and the Asian carp, which used to annoy people to scratch their heads, is alive and kicking, growing bigger and bigger, and the cities that rely on the lake are naturally happy, but what can they do without the lake?

But these are not within Simon's consideration, he is an out-and-out Hydra, just with more than 30 elite combat forces under his hands, he is an uncle wherever he goes, and his sympathy is preserved to prove that he is a person, and he has not fallen into the outcast outside the city, whether it is fragrant or smelly, it is a piece of meat.

So in recent years, people have become more and more religious in their faith.

There is a chapel on every street in the inner city of Chika, and almost all the residents of the inner city spend most of their time praying in the church, except for their daily production and rest. So it's no surprise that Simon's group came to church together.

Simon found an inconspicuous bench and sat down, squinting at the priest holding a cross high at the side of the pulpit, a white robe wrapped in a rare fat body, and the inhabitants who prayed together below him did not see a single fat man out of ten.

"Thank you, Lord, that it is Your death, Your resurrection, that allows us to be born again. It is the Blood that flows from Your Cross that covers all our sins. It enables us to be freed from Satan's accusation of all our transgressions. And the LORD Holy Father shall no longer punish us for our transgressions, so that we may be gathered together with joy and glory before the glorious seat of our heavenly Father. Praise all flesh. Alleluia! Alleluia! ”

A "hallelujah" sounded, and Simon called out twice together. The church was full of people, and at midnight there were still two groups of people who could not sit still.

"I really can't tell that you are all devotional Hydra who serve the Lord." The crowd on the other side of the bench sneered, and suddenly dispersed, vaguely encircling all the retreats of Simon's side.

Simon held the back of the chair with one hand, buckled the python's revolver with the other, and his eyes were only staring at the enamelled crucifix, and said flatly: "This is the church, are you going to do it in the sanctuary?" ”

"If you know it's a sanctuary, why don't you just take it! You've fallen into the net! Purple Blood! "There are still several capable people in the United Sect Hydra who are left behind in the city, and it is completely enough to consciously deal with Simon who is alone, as for the other "half-humans" with shallow blood, they are not in the eyes of the law at all.

"So, it's just an ordinary house, with four walls and a roof, what's the big deal?" Simon smiled. And the crucifix statue looking down on everyone is still the same look of compassion for the ages, and it has not changed in the slightest.