About the Limitations of Rules

The Iron Forks left behind after killing the Imps were just casually scattered in the Wheat Field outside.

They were just gathered together when cleaning up the battlefield.

"It's these."

Narot picked up an Iron Fork, which was still stained with some dark red blood, emitting a strong smell of Sulfur.

But he didn't care at all.

Instead, he weighed the heavy Iron Fork, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Lord Shen Mu, according to the Kingdom of Swadia's purchase price for iron products and iron ingots, this Iron Fork can be exchanged for 20 Denars!"

Shen Mu stood beside him.

5 Swadian Footmen protected the surroundings.

The 2 Lake Rats Recruits who also came over held a Torch each, illuminating this Wheat Field.

"20 Denars for one Iron Fork."

Shen Mu raised his eyebrows slightly, looked at the nearly 30 Iron Forks at his feet, estimated in his mind, and said with a little surprise, "Then all these Iron Forks can be sold for about 600 Denars?!"

"Yes, that's right."

Narot's face was even more excited, and he said longingly, "If the Kingdom of Swadia and the Kingdom of Vaegirs go to war, and the iron ore trade from the Curaw region is blocked, then the price of iron-related trade in the Kingdom of Swadia will skyrocket. If we're lucky, these might even sell for 1000 Denars!"

"That's really good." Shen Mu nodded.

This was indeed possible.

After all, the Kingdom of Swadia in the Mount & Blade: Warband background was basically a land of constant warfare.

Coupled with that quite famous wise man in the entire Mount & Blade series, King Harlaus.

He was fond of grand achievements.

And also stingy.

He also liked to grant all the occupied towns, castles, and villages to himself.

He basically plunged the Kingdom of Swadia, a wealthy country with sufficient grain production and invincible heavy cavalry, into years of continuous warfare, making peace difficult.

Even in the original Warband, among the five kingdoms, the first one to be destroyed was often the Kingdom of Swadia.

Narot's business failed precisely because of the continuous fighting, which also made him a homeless person after bankruptcy.

"So, you plan to take these Iron Forks back to Dhirim and sell them as ironware?" Shen Mu asked.

"Yes." Narot stated his idea.

It was basically the method of earning the price difference.

Moreover, for the Kingdom of Swadia, ironware and iron products were inherently in short supply.

In times of war, as long as this ironware was melted down, it could be turned into iron ingots and forged into weapons or armor again.

Iron itself was a strategic resource.

"Do you want to see other things?" Shen Mu thought for a moment, and took Narot back to the Stronghold Main House.

But at this time, Shen Mu took out a bag of Edible Salt.

"Lord Shen Mu, what is this?" Narot frowned slightly, looking at the contents in the translucent packaging, his face puzzled.

"Salt." Shen Mu opened it, and the snow-white refined salt appeared inside, grain by grain, like the softest sand.

"Salt?" Narot's eyes lit up, and he subconsciously reached out to take a little, put it in his mouth, but his face changed: "This..."

"What's wrong?" Shen Mu saw his furrowed brows.

"Is this... Edible Salt?!" Narot pursed his lips, his expression looking very strange: "Indeed, this is indeed Edible Salt, and it has a strong salty taste, but... why does it feel so strange?"

"Strange?" Shen Mu also frowned slightly: "What makes you feel strange?"

"Lord Shen Mu, this Edible Salt is indeed real, but I feel there is some difference from the salt I usually eat."

Narot hesitated to speak.

He seemed to be weighing his words: "I feel that this Edible Salt is as if... it lacks a soul."

This analogy made Shen Mu frown even more.

"Lacks a soul? You mean these salts lack a soul?" Shen Mu felt it was quite absurd.

Since when did Edible Salt have a soul?

"Yes, Lord Shen Mu, perhaps you don't believe me when I say this, but the feeling this salt gives me is truly that it lacks some most important soul."

Narot continued to speak hesitantly: "I don't quite understand why, but in my heart, this is the feeling it gives me."

As he spoke, he seemed to have thought of something, pointed to the single kitchen room next to him, where the large cabbages, rice, and flour, including those cans, were still on the shelves, his tone even more complex: "And these things, the feeling they give me, is that they have no soul."

"Hmm?" Shen Mu frowned even more, because he found that what Narot pointed out were all ingredients from Blue Star.

"What about this wheat?!" Shen Mu pointed to the several bags of wheat piled together.

These were rewards from the Mount & Blade System.

"This wheat... there's nothing wrong with it." Narot hesitated to speak, and also seemed to find something wrong.

but he really didn't understand why this was happening.

"The wheat is fine," Shen Mu repeated, pausing thoughtfully, then raised a finger and pointed at the old books and clothes piled up next to the fireplace with the firewood, asking, "What about these?"

"These... give me the same feeling, that they have no soul," Narot's voice was much lower.

But Shen Mu didn't say much more.

He rubbed his chin.

Shen Mu had already come to a conclusion: "Could it be because of the rules?"

Blue Star had no rules of its own.

After all, it was a world focused on technology.

However, the Mount & Blade world and the Undead World both had their own special rules, and perhaps some of these rules were interconnected.

After all, the Mount & Blade world was nominally a rule-based world similar to history.

But after Shen Mu merged countless DLCs and MODs.

Fundamental changes had already occurred.

It was infinitely converging towards fantasy rules.

"So because of this reason, items from the two worlds can be interchanged, but items from Blue Star itself cannot."

Shen Mu thought this.

At the same time, Shen Mu also thought of something that was happening now.

That was, the cold weapons made on Blue Star had extremely limited killing power against undead monsters, and were even greatly weakened.

This included the native humans on Blue Star.

When facing even the lowest-level skeletons or zombies, if they didn't rely on fire, they would face a life-or-death crisis.

This was also why, in the three years since the Necromantic Rules descended, Blue Star's population of hundreds of billions had directly decreased by seventy to eighty percent.

Even the humans who remained, as long as they hadn't obtained a Spiritual Realm Mark and hadn't received a Spiritual Realm inheritance.

Then they could only huddle around fires, using the rising bonfires to avoid and resist undead monsters.

"So, if that's the case, Blue Star's local resources can't provide me with any help."

Shen Mu pondered, "If I want to exchange for supplies and Denars from the Mount & Blade world, I need the output from the Undead World?"

This was a bit tricky.

[Ding! Temporary Mission System detected an event!]
[Mission Issued: Invasion of Demon Troops.]
[Mission Brief: Not far from your stronghold, there is another Demon Stronghold. They came from the abyss, massacred a human stronghold, took it for themselves, and began to wreak havoc on the surroundings. Now, they seem to have sensed the presence of living people here and are starting to attack this place.]
[Mission Requirements: Resist the demon attack and kill the Demon Commander.]
[Mission Rewards: ① 20 Deserters who come to defect; ② 30 Refugees who come to defect; ③ 5 Military Ration Trailers; ④ 1 acre of Wheat Field (Harvest Season); ⑤ 1000 Denars.]
[Hint: On the night three days from now, this force composed of a large number of Low-level Demons will launch an attack.]

Just as Shen Mu was thinking, a dialogue box suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"Hmm?" Shen Mu was slightly stunned, looking at the content in the dialogue box, and immediately raised his eyebrows slightly: "Invasion of Demon Troops? The Demon Troops from that Spiritual Realm Scene before will come to attack me in three days?!"

This was truly something Shen Mu hadn't expected.

"However, if they are demons, I can get a lot of iron weapons, right?" Shen Mu's thoughts also stirred at this moment, and he thought of something.

After all, according to his predecessor's memory, the probability of demons, this kind of monster, holding weapons was much higher than that of those undead monsters!