"Sir, do you want brown bread? For only two cents, you can take this bread that is longer than your arm."
"Beer, three cents a glass, every man loves it."
"Twenty cents, no more. I'm going to take you to Essentuk City. You won't be able to come back until dark."
"Are my toes pretty? How about giving me five cents and I'll let you kiss them?"
Walking on the dirty and noisy street, Wang Xu, wearing a Chinese tunic suit, covered his nose with a handkerchief.
The ground is really dirty. There are horse dung and cow dung everywhere. When you step on the ground, you don't know whether you are stepping on mud or dog excrement.
This is the new world that Wang Xu found, a country similar to the United States in 1880 during the Great Depression.
The only difference is that this world is very small, only about one-tenth of the earth.
In this world, there is only one country called the Free Federation of Candia, which occupies a land roughly the size of North America. Other than that, the rest of the world is ocean.
The Candia Federation is corrupt, degenerate, and has done nothing. The rich collude with government officials to make a lot of money, and the poor often die of exhaustion in factories just for a job.
On the street, the gentlemen in tuxedos sitting in carriages and the barefoot homeless people waiting for alms formed a sharp contrast.
As Wang Xu walked along, he even saw a six or seven-year-old boy who had no clothes to wear and could only run around naked.
I also saw a little girl from a wealthy family dressed up like a Barbie doll, with jewelry on her hands, hugging each other, and eating cream cakes.
Poverty and wealth, nobility and lowliness, filled his experience.
This is the worst of times, with a large number of homeless poor people settling on the roadside, among trash cans and flies.
This is also the best era. As long as you have a vision beyond ordinary people and know how to take money out of other people's wallets, you can become a master in a few months.
"There are no cars, no lights, and no electricity. The steam engine has just appeared 30 years ago. Trains are still a new product. The human production model is transitioning to mechanical production. The old era is alternating with the new one. Here, rich people eat caviar every day.
Drink red wine while unemployed workers starve to death on the streets. It’s really a contradictory era.”
Wang Xu walked on the street, watching with cold eyes, looking at the world.
And just when he thought that this was an ordinary world with no value other than being reduced to a logistics base after being conquered, a somewhat uncommon term changed his attitude.
wizard...
This is a word Wang Xu heard from a gentleman by chance.
Then, he used some tricks to get unexpected news from this gentleman.
Three hundred years ago, the masters of this world were wizards. They possessed extraordinary power and were the real ruling class.
Wizarding families, large and small, form the upper class society. Ordinary people who cannot become wizards are all slaves serving wizards.
But on an accidental day, overnight, all the wizards disappeared, leaving only the descendants of wizards who could not become wizards and did not possess extraordinary powers.
On that day, now known as Revolution Day, the wizard family, which had lost the protection of wizards, was all hanged by the angry people.
It was also from that day that, in order to deal with the possible revenge after the return of the wizard, mankind invented flintlock guns, artillery, and steam engines, and has since embarked on the road to technological renaissance.
"A wizard who can control thunder and lightning, a wizard who can freeze lakes, a wizard who can extend people's lifespan, a wizard who can make meteorites destroy cities..." The more Wang Xu listened, the more extraordinary he could feel that the wizard was in this world.
It's more mysterious than he thought.
According to legend, there were originally three continents in this world, and the other two continents were shattered by the wizard's extraordinary power.
Wang Xu compared it. If this legend was true, if the two shattered continents were as big as the current continent, even he would not be able to crush the entire continent.
Similarly, no one knows how the wizard suddenly disappeared three hundred years ago, and no one knows where the disappeared wizard went.
Three hundred years is enough time for dynasties to change and for people to forget many things.
To today's people, wizards are just a lie used by country people to lull children to sleep, just as nonsense as disobedient children being captured by scarecrows.
But Wang Xu didn't think so, because he could feel that the energy in this world was very active, and it didn't look like a land of apocalypse where extraordinary power could not be born.
Therefore, Wang Xu plans to stay here first, take a good look at the world, and then decide on his next action.
...
"Dear sir, this building of mine is definitely the best. It has four floors and a total of 68 rooms. You can live in the top floor yourself and rent out other floors. You can get an extra income every month. And it
The geographical location is very good. To the east is the wealthy area, to the north is the port, to the south is the train station, and to the west is the slum area with the lowest prices. You can get everything you want here."
Standing in front of a four-story, round-shaped apartment building, Wang Xu listened expressionlessly to the landlord's introduction.
As an Asian, Wang Xu's appearance is quite different from that of Europeans and Americans in the Candia Federation, so he always gets extra attention here.
Of course, the Candia Federation only has European and American people, and has never seen Asians or Africans. Although they may think Wang Xu looks a bit weird, they will not regard him as a monster.
However, in order to integrate into this society faster and not make himself appear too isolated, he needs to own his own industry to provide convenience for himself.
With ten diamonds and a little help from a memory modifier, Wang Xu got $10,000 from a jeweler.
In this era of the Great Depression, when a loaf of black bread cost two cents, a cup of beer cost three cents, and the average monthly salary was 60 cents, ten thousand dollars was a huge sum of money, enough for a worker to work for fifteen hundred cents without food or drink.
Year.
"How much?"
Wang Xu looked around with the landlord and was quite satisfied with the apartment building.
First of all, the location here is very good, with convenient transportation, well-informed, and accessible to people from all walks of life.
In addition, it is very close to the library, so it is convenient for Wang Xu to go to the library to check information and look for clues about the wizard.
"Five thousand dollars." The landlord tried and said a price he thought was reasonable.
Wang Xu was silent for a moment. It would take a worker seven hundred and fifty years to buy this building if he worked without food or water. It was not cheap.
"Three thousand US dollars..." Wang Xu slowly said: "The economy is very bad now, I think this price should be very suitable."
"this..."
The landlord was at a loss for words. Nowadays, the economy is in the Great Depression and a large number of factories have closed down. Life is not easy for everyone.
Before the Great Depression, he would never have agreed to the price of three thousand US dollars, but now he was hesitant.
"make a deal!"
Pay the money, write the contract, and then go to the police station to file it.
After a set of procedures, Wang Xu spent a total of 3,200 US dollars, of which 3,000 US dollars was the purchase price and 200 US dollars was the handling fee for the police chief.
This money must be given. If you don't give it, you will be troubled by others.
There is no need for the Sheriff to come forward. As long as he reveals a little bit, there will be countless gangsters who want to flatter the Sheriff and come in groups to smash the windows of your house.
After paying the money and receiving the key, Wang Xu transformed from an unemployed vagrant to a member of the wealthy class in West Sabel City.
Although this amount of money is not enough to impress the real predators, it is enough for some decent people who heard the news to send Wang Xu invitations to attend the dance.
Wang Xu threw all these invitations into the trash can. He had no time to argue with those people.
If he had the time, he might as well go downstairs to have a drink and read historical documents about the Wizarding Age.