"You bastards, hurry up and get to work, don't even think about being lazy!"

In the empty stone hall, the man's impatient commanding voice came.

He was probably fed up with his subordinates who always liked to fight against him, so he decided to give these people a hard time.

Sure enough, as he yelled and cursed, although most people followed the orders to deal with the debris, there were still a few people who narrowed their eyes and looked at the man with unkind looks.

The light in his eyes kept flickering, as if he was thinking about how to get rid of the man in front of him without anyone noticing and replace him with a more obedient branch stronghold manager.

"Ah."

Seemingly aware of some people's malicious glances, the man - that is, Mizuki - had a rather ferocious smile on his handsome face, ruining the handsomeness and beauty on his face.

"What, are you planning to secretly secretly kill me? Who do you think is here to feed you, give you something to drink, and even help you get benefits from Lord Orochimaru?"

Sure enough, as he spoke these words, the ill intentions in some people's eyes dissipated a lot, and they acquiesced in the correctness of Mizuki's words.

As combatants and handymen, they are undoubtedly qualified.

But as management, not only do they not understand, but they often make a mess of things.

The manager who originally guided them had always managed the branch stronghold in a mess, so he merged it with other strongholds as a last resort, and then handed it over to this person who seemed to only rely on Orochimaru's reputation to carry out fake management.

.

Although the opponent is not strong, they can definitely easily defeat them if they are swarmed, but in that case, they will lose their stable living environment, and they will be completely abandoned by Orochimaru, whom they respect.

For them, who regard Orochimaru as a god, this is something more cruel than death.

"Okay, if there's no problem, go over and work. Look at the mess you've made here. As expected, you can't do anything without me."

Mizuki began to sneer mercilessly.

What responded to him was the silence of a group of people, who silently picked up the tools in their hands and started to work.

Mizuki was already used to this kind of scene. Not only were these people not smart, they were also fearless of death. Only with the help of Orochimaru's name could he completely shock them and make them behave obediently.

Although Mizuki didn't think Orochimaru was a wise and powerful leader, and his uncontrolled human experiments also proved that the opponent's bottom line was very low, the cohesion he gathered by using people's hearts should not be underestimated.

Many people here know that he is a more terrifying figure than the devil, but in this world where even survival is difficult, they can only guarantee their survival by working with the devil.

Over time, they began to believe in the devil, and continued to hypnotize themselves, allowing people like Orochimaru to become their belief in living.

Over the years, Mizuki has seen countless such things. And every time, Orochimaru can succeed.

It can only be said that compared to the lords in some countries who prey on the bottom, even guys like Orochimaru can be called perfect 'saints'.

If you want stability, you must either rely on a powerful person like a big country in troubled times, or risk your own life.

And those who take refuge in Orochimaru have an element of gambling on their lives.

"Well, these guys are lucky to have branch management like me."

Mizuki smoothed his hair from his forehead and smiled narcissistically.

After many selections, he finally got his wish under Orochimaru, and obtained the manager's authority from a branch stronghold manager who was attacked by Kumogakure Anbu. He arrived at the new branch stronghold and assumed the position of manager.

There are hundreds of people in charge.

Among these hundreds of people, more than half are ordinary people, including many old, young, women and children. A small number of them are experimental subjects who were cursed by Orochimaru and thrown here, both unfortunate and lucky.

The reason why they are called unfortunate or lucky experimental subjects is because once they are selected and engraved with a curse mark, their life and death are extremely unpredictable. Judging from the information Mizuki has learned, the survival rate of a cursed experimental subject is about

It's one tenth.

In other words, out of every ten normal experimental subjects, only one can survive successfully.

In this turbulent era, there are a lot of people floating between small countries. It is often possible to see wanderers who are forced to migrate and leave their homeland. Orochimaru only needs a little inducement to get a small amount of food.

, a steady stream of fresh experimental subjects is obtained.

A branch base is a base that is allowed to be established based on this environment.

But unlike the other branch strongholds, this stronghold managed by Watergate is a very standard "nursing home" and a concentration camp for abandoned people.

The old, young, women and children who could not be called an excellent labor force, as well as a group of cursed seal experimental subjects who were abandoned here to fend for themselves, and who daydreamed about returning to work under Orochimaru... In order to manage this place well, Mizuki put a lot of thought into it.

Just by gagging hundreds of people with food, he almost became bald.

During the most difficult period of land reclamation, he, the manager, ate wild vegetables together.

Compared with other branch stronghold managers, in order to ensure sufficient food in the branch stronghold, he deliberately reduced the population of the stronghold and only allowed the strong to eat. He treated everyone equally.

Because of this, and Orochimaru's prestige, he was able to accumulate enough prestige here to command hundreds of people to act.

After all, the food problem is a top priority. The food allocated to the branch every year is simply not enough for consumption. The Otogakure Village headed by Orochimaru is still a small village that no one cares about. In addition, Orochimaru has spent all his resources on a certain area uncontrollably in recent years.

One of the Uchiha descendants was hit hard, and the lives of the rest were quite difficult.

Thinking of this, Mizuki couldn't help but sigh that people are indeed different.

Sometimes, if you don't work hard while you're young, you won't know what true despair is.

Working under Orochimaru, if you don't have an excellent bloodline, you will have no future at all. Mizuki has long seen this.

"I thought you couldn't control the people here, but it seems I thought too much."

A voice suddenly came from behind, sounding quite emotional.

"Um?"

Mizuki turned around and looked at the person who appeared behind him. He had silver hair and a breathable mask that could cover most of his face. The person was leaning against the wall leisurely, holding the latest version of a book in his hand.

"Intimate Paradise".

"It's you, Kakashi. Why do you have time to come to my place?"

Mizuki felt slightly relieved when he saw that it was Kakashi coming.

"It's already the end of May, why do you think I came here?"

"Huh? Is it already this time? Sorry, I've been here all day clearing land, and I almost lost track of time."

After hearing Kakashi's words, Mizuki couldn't help but scratch his head.

He is a spy planted by the Kingdom of Ghosts here in Orochimaru, so he naturally knows what day will come next.

"But for this kind of thing, can't you just ask someone under you to come over? There's no need for you to come over in person."

As he spoke, Mizuki took out a relatively thick booklet from his ninja tool bag and handed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi put down the book "Intimate Love in Heaven" in his hand, which turned out to be a heavy book with some damage to the corners.

After opening it and filtering it quickly, pages of resume information were flipped through Kakashi's fingers.

There is no doubt that this is a roster of characters.

"Nothing missing?"

Kakashi raised his head and glanced at Mizuki.

"Of course, in order to get this roster, I risked my life a lot and was almost killed."

Mizuki's words did not convince Kakashi.

Mizuki must have spent a lot of effort to obtain such a roster, but to say there was any risk to his life would be a bit exaggerated.

"In a few days, someone will take over this stronghold. Please prepare in the past few days so that no accidents occur."

Kakashi nodded, put the roster away, carefully put it into his ninja tool bag, and said to Mizuki.

"Are you leaving now? I still want to entertain you well."

"Don't go to such trouble. There will be many more days to work together in the future. Then, I'll leave it to you."

Kakashi formed a seal with his hands, and with a whoosh, the figure disappeared from the wall.

"He really comes and goes without a trace. This guy's strength has become stronger again."

Mizuki sighed.

With his strength close to that of a jounin, he was not aware of this, which shows that the opponent's strength has reached a level that ordinary jounin would find difficult to defend against in the first place.

If indiscriminate assassination is carried out...

Just thinking about it made Mizuki shudder.

If the target of Kakashi's assassination was him, he would probably be wiped out silently in his sleep.

Fortunately, this is one of our own. If we were to stand on the opposite side, we would have a headache.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I hope there won't be any accidents over there. If there is an accident, all my investment will be wasted..."

Mizuki sighed. Although he looked calm on the outside, he was still a little uneasy inside.

In any case, a ninja of Orochimaru's level is quite a deterrent to him.

His reputation as a Sannin has been deeply ingrained since he was very young.

Among the three ninjas, the most dangerous one is undoubtedly Orochimaru. Once the opponent actually takes action, it means that he is fully prepared.

In contrast, placing all your bets on junior ninjas like Uchiha Sasuke is undoubtedly a huge gamble.

If he wins, he will have a better foothold in the Kingdom of Ghosts and can be promoted to a position quickly.

If you fail, you won't be punished, but if you want to go further, with your own talent, the road to promotion will be a bit difficult. And in a new environment, it will be difficult to go far without one person supporting each other.

◎

boom!

"ah!"

As the human body that hit the wall began to vomit blood and scream, the battle in the corridor of the stronghold finally came to an end.

The walls and floor were stained with a lot of blood, and the experimental subject that had entered the cursed seal looked like a corpse lying on the ground, motionless.

They looked like dead people, but the people who did it were not ruthless. They left these people breathing and made the experimental subjects unable to move.

"The number of riots has become more frequent these days. If this continues, it will be endless. Is there no way to solve it once and for all?"
To be continued...