The information provided by the breakfast shop owner seemed accurate; the homeless here were considered local citizens, and being unregistered wasn't a major issue in this city.
After completing civil registration, living locally for more than three months, without committing crimes, and paying taxes, one was considered a good citizen!
At this time, the city was quite tolerant of outsiders, provided they genuinely intended to live there long-term.
However, as outsiders with little experience, finding good work wasn't easy.
"This sounds like an easy way to get by, so how did you all end up homeless?"
Bai Mu was certain these homeless men didn't have divorced wives.
"Aren't we just getting by?" The homeless men exchanged glances: "This city isn't short of people. Why don't we find jobs with better reputations?"
So their reputations had collapsed.
"That's none of your business. Do you have any money left?"
The homeless men looked indignant. Who would be homeless if they had money?
"No! We're going to scavenge!" Several homeless men hurriedly ran off.
"I'm not going to rob you anymore."
Bai Mu felt he was being slandered. Last night he retaliated, but it wasn't a good time to fight in broad daylight. Why were these homeless people so afraid?
He had obtained new intelligence; finding the city hall wasn't difficult. Outsiders here without relatives to vouch for them or money would basically have no choice but to do manual labor at first.
If they had a skill, they could do something else, but the problem was that Bai Mu didn't know much about this era; his history wasn't good.
His phone had a full battery, but the environment easily caused him battery anxiety. He had time travel encyclopedia information on his computer, but who would store that on their phone for no reason?
His computer hadn't traveled with him.
"So, am I really going to have to do manual labor?"
Bai Mu found the bulletin board the homeless people mentioned. He could find recruitment information in those places, but these recruitment ads basically required 'reputation'.
Even some jobs involving moving goods had corresponding requirements; it wasn't something you could just do if you wanted to, unless you didn't care about the income. And those jobs that didn't care about income, the homeless people all shook their heads.
According to the homeless people, there are occasionally some unusual recruitment notices here, and even people with unknown identities can participate—the bottom line is already so low, don't even think about whether it's legitimate or not.
However, the information doesn't explicitly state this; the highlighted part is 'unemployed,' and the homeless people fall into this category.
He actually found such a recruitment notice, but the recruits were for drug testing.
That's out of the question.
Other recruitment notices… still manual labor!
In these notice boards, easy and lucrative jobs are practically unavailable to most people. The most recent recruitment notice Bai Mu is seeing is from yesterday.
Bai Mu found a special recruitment notice, requiring strong physique, courage, and preferably a special profession like a gunman.
The recruitment period is four days, cleaning work, specifically cleaning a section of sewers in Rota City, with a daily wage ranging from 20 to 500 yuan. The currency here is very valuable.
Based on the breakfast purchases and information from the homeless people, 1 yuan is roughly equivalent to 10 yuan in modern currency, though this may fluctuate.
So this daily wage is already very high.
Furthermore… a professional?
Bai Mu grasped the key information: in modern cities, there were professional gunmen, and being called that meant it was a legal profession.
Was this place overly civic-minded?
The recruitment ad from two days ago hadn't expired. He noted down the address and set off. He wanted to find some clerical work; since they could blatantly ignore language barriers here, his education wouldn't allow him to immediately start manual labor!
"Hello, I'm here to apply." Bai Mu found the address provided in the recruitment ad and was very polite to the burly receptionist.
The strongman glanced at Bai Mu and handed him a form.
"Fill out the form."
"That's it? No assessment?" Bai Mu felt this place was too naive.
"What kind of assessment? Just be strong." The burly man poked Bai Mu's chest. "Are you brave?"
"Yes."
"Do you dare to hit someone?"
"Generally, I'm reasonable. If you poke me again, I'll hit someone!"
"Hahaha, nice muscles. I'll give you an extra 10 yuan a day."
This sounded a bit insulting, but considering the prices in this world, Bai Mu picked up a pen and started filling out a form.
The pen was a ballpoint pen, and the ink flowed smoothly.
Bai Mu deftly twirled the pen in his hand a few times, while Matt only glanced at it casually before looking away.
While filling out the form, Bai Mu could write in the language of this world, but it was very clumsy, like the rustiness that comes from years of typing on a keyboard and suddenly having to write by hand.
"If this is a cheat code, it's too ordinary."
After filling out the form, the burly man glanced at it, ignoring the blank sections.
"Bai Mu… good at chopping wood? Not bad. If you don't have a place to stay, go to the dormitory over there. Meals are provided. You'll get an extra 10 yuan per day, making it 120 yuan in total. It's government-guaranteed. Anything less than a day will be counted as a full day. No problem, that's settled. My name is Matt."
"How much is the daily wage for those with guns?" Bai Mu asked curiously.
Matt casually replied, "An extra 50 yuan for those with guns. More depends on what kind of gun you're carrying."
Arriving at the dormitory, there were already quite a few people there, mostly strong-looking. Those who didn't look particularly strong were not to be trifled with; they had revolvers.
"More people? Almost enough, right?" someone said to their friend.
The friend nodded: "Matt needs ten people, that's about right."
"Friends, I'm new here, can you share some experience?"
"What experience do you need to clean sewers? Just be brave." The first person to speak sized up Bai Mu. He
was about 1.85 meters tall, strong but didn't look like a worker; he seemed more like an ordinary person from a well-off family.
"You should be looking for rich landladies, not doing the work of a sewer cleaner,"
the only person in the dorm with a gun chimed in. "Some landlords would welcome you too."
"Hahahaha," the others in the dorm burst into laughter.
Bai Mu found an empty bed and sat down. "My abilities don't allow me to go find pretty landladies right now."
"Don't be scared to death later," another 'scavenger' shuffled his cards. "Want to gamble?"
"I have no money."
"Your shoes are nice, you could use those."
Bai Mu shook his head. "How about we have a fight?"
Seeing Bai Mu's stronger physique, the gambler who suggested the bet curled his lip and refused. He was confident he could win at cards, but a fight was uncertain.
Besides, there were almost ten people here; it wouldn't be worth getting injured and kicked out by Matt.
Not long after, Matt arrived at the dorm with the last person. "Everyone, enough people. We're leaving in two hours!"
Sewer cleaning shouldn't be too difficult as long as you can tolerate the smell, but is it normal for this job to offer such high pay?
But Matt was really generous with the money; 110 yuan here is equivalent to over 1,000 RMB on Earth. With money in hand, everything is easy to discuss.
"Those without equipment, come with me to get your gear." Two hours later, Matt returned to the dormitory.
The equipment storage area was a small warehouse. The so-called equipment wasn't the professional gear Bai Mu had imagined, but rather axes, machetes, spears, and a series of other things that seemed unrelated to cleaning sewers…
Who would prepare this stuff to clean sewers?
He picked up a rusty axe and tried it out; it wasn't very comfortable to handle.
When filling out the form, Bai Mu wrote that he was good at chopping wood. This wasn't just a random answer; it was for fun and stress relief, and it wasn't his job, so he genuinely knew how to chop wood.
"Are we cleaning sewers or killing people?"
"Of course we're cleaning sewers! Who prepares this stuff to kill people?" Matt waved his hand, seeing everyone had their equipment, and they set off!
Bai Mu thought it made sense; this stuff was definitely too much for killing people.
A group of people, who would be under close surveillance wherever they went in a normal city, arrived at a sewer entrance in Rota City, where police officers were already waiting.
"Same as before, just come out after you're done cleaning, and we'll have someone check it." The officer there glanced at Matt's group and nodded; the cleaners Matt brought this time were of good quality.
Matt had cooperated with the police department many times before, and the officers trusted his ability to judge people and his cleaning skills. Even though Matt always brought new faces, his cleaning completion rate was consistently high.
The police department would only pay the remaining balance after the sewer cleaning was completed; how Matt distributed the payment was his business.
"Wait for my good news!" Matt laughed a few times and led the way into the sewer.
Unexpectedly, the cleanliness exceeded his expectations. After a moment's thought, he figured it was probably related to the living conditions of this era.
And once they arrived, the relaxed atmosphere in the group became tense.
Bai Mu looked around; since it wasn't about killing people, it must be about killing something else. Just cleaning up garbage was simply not worth the city's prices and daily wage.
"Captain Matt, I think I see a huge, black tentacle!" Bai Mu exclaimed in surprise. This job was definitely not legitimate!
"Since you see it, cut it down!" Matt charged forward, his heavy machete slicing into the extending tentacle.
The dark tentacle was cleanly severed, spraying out ink-like liquid. His move was swift and professional, highlighting his skill. Bai Mu understood why Matt thought chopping wood was a good skill.
The man who wanted to bet on Bai Mu's shoes swallowed hard, grabbed his spear, and charged forward. He was already here; it would be a waste of his daily wage if he didn't try.
Matt was picky. When he was recruited, he was with others, but Matt had filtered them all out, leaving only him.
The reason he was kept was because he was the strongest gambler among gamblers, and he was short of money!
The others all had their own reasons for needing money; otherwise, who would easily do this kind of work?
In Rota City, the best place to dispose of a body is the sewers, where natural cleaners always thrive, and these people are the cleaners who keep those cleaners away.
(End of Chapter)