Swish!
Sword Draw.
Ethan's sword was so fast that no one even saw him draw it.
But the burly man who had been charging toward the soup pot had already been split in two by Ethan. He hadn't even realized what had happened. His legs were still desperately running forward while the upper half of his body fell from midair.
All the previously restless, masterless players froze in fear. No one dared fight or snatch food anymore.
"I'll say this one last time. If you don't want to line up, then don't come in," Ethan looked around at the crowd, "If you want to eat my food, then you follow my rules. This is your final warning. Anyone who breaks the rules again dies."
"Y-Yes, Lord."
The crowd answered, trembling with fear.
They immediately formed a line again and followed the person at the front toward the large pot.
Cook Four and the two female residents from the kitchen began ladling soup into bowls for them.
Ethan glanced at it.
There were bits of lava pepper, chunks of Cockroach Immortal meat, and some kind of plant roots in the soup.
He didn't know exactly what they were.
But he guessed they were new crops grown by Farmer One and the others.
"This soup is so good."
"It's so warm... sob... I feel like even my heart has warmed up."
Satisfied voices rose from the crowd.
Just then, Ethan received a system notification.
[Resident qualification verified. Accept this resident?]
[Yes!]
[Residents +53]
[Basic residents. Loyalty: 60%. Abuse will reduce loyalty, while rewards and proper care will increase it.]
[If loyalty becomes too low, residents will run away.]
[If residents are illegally imprisoned and abused, they will fight back.]
"Why only fifty-three?"
Ethan looked over the crowd.
There were definitely more than fifty people here.
Including those still wandering around outside, there had to be at least a hundred.
'Is there be some requirement to recruit these residents?'
'For example...'
'Do they have to eat food given by the lord, or enter my territory first?'
Ethan decided to test it. He had Cook Four fill a bowl of porridge, then walked to the manor gate.
Some of the mindless players didn't follow the others into the manor to line up for food. Instead, they continued wandering aimlessly, as though they had no destination at all.
Ethan suspected this was something the mastermind had designed so that these mindless players would pass through different lords' territories.
That would prevent any single lord from gathering too many residents at once.
If the lord of an area couldn't take in that many mindless players, then most of them would simply drift around like wandering ghosts.
But the strangest part was that these mindless players seemed to have some kind of special protection.
They weren't affected by the monsters in the Mist Forest at all. Even without carrying torches or kerosene lamps, they weren't attacked by the Soul-Seizing Voids.
That was very strange.
But now wasn't the time to investigate.
Ethan held the bowl of soup in front of one of the mindless players. The player's nose twitched, then, like a small animal that had been starving for a long time, he buried his head in the bowl and started eating.
[Resident qualification verified. Accept this resident?]
[Yes!]
[Resident +1]
"So that's how it works!"
Ethan's eyes lit up.
He immediately beckoned to Guard Three.
"Go to the dormitory and call everyone over!"
"Yes, My Lord."
After receiving the order, Guard Three could tell that Ethan was in a hurry.
So he practically ran.
While Guard Three was fetching people, Ethan simply took out the various travel rations the attendants had prepared for him and handed them out in small pieces to the wandering ghosts along the road. Before long, he had taken in another dozen or so residents.
Then he noticed a mindless player lying by the roadside.
The player was clutching a mushroom that had already been half eaten and was convulsing nonstop.
"Poisoned?"
Looking at the man, Ethan suddenly remembered the photo David, the Lord of Region Two in the alliance, had posted while they were meeting earlier.
'Damn! I almost forgot!'
'Those Boom Boom Mushrooms growing all over David's territory!'
He wondered how they were doing now.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Ethan hurried back toward the manor.
On the way, he happened to run into the attendant rushing over, so he gave an order.
"Go find the Healer Girl and have her treat that person. See if he can be saved. If not, forget it."
"Understood, My Lord."
Then... Ethan remembered something else.
"I need to deal with something in the alliance right now. Take some people and hand out food to those special players on the road. Try to guide them all into the manor, treat them to a meal, and help them settle down."
"Once I'm done with what's on my plate, I'll come back and make further arrangements."
"Understood, My Lord."
The attendant carefully memorized every instruction.
Ethan knew that anything entrusted to the attendant would be handled well, so he left without worry.
After returning to the manor, Ethan found a random place to sit and quickly opened his magic book.
However, as he casually flipped it open and was about to turn to the [Lord Channel], he instead saw a message from David in the [World Channel], where he had tagged everyone.
'This guy's house is full of Boom Boom Mushrooms...'
'Yet he is fine?'
'And he even made a fortune?'