In the square, more than a dozen corpses hung from tall poles, gradually turning into mummies under the sea wind.
Like salted fish hanging beneath the eaves of fishermen's homes, they sometimes bumped against the walls, making dull thudding sounds.
These people had been caught taking water without permission and were eventually hanged from the poles.
By family.
At first, people were terrified, but gradually, they got used to it.
Perhaps they had simply become numb.
Every day, outside the living quarters, groups of beautiful women gathered. They tried to trade their bodies to the army families living in the district for food or bottled water.
Trading food and bottled water was legal. Everyone knew that the Peng Joe People were deliberately dividing them and creating conflict, but each person could only follow their rules.
Because they had guns, the people could only obey.
On Gefra Main Island, the flare had practically become synonymous with wastepaper. The currency was rapidly depreciating. In the past, a bottle of water here had cost only twenty-five cents.
But now, even a dollar couldn't buy a bottle! The Peng Joe People had opened the Royal Bank. While they plundered the people's wealth, they also used flare as payment for labor.
Work could earn food, as well as money!
The Peng Joe People did not forbid private transactions. They controlled the source, and that was enough for them.
At first, people could buy a bottle of water for one dollar, then two dollars.
Now, in just over ten days, the price of bottled water had risen to five dollars—and it was still climbing.
The higher its price went, the faster the flare depreciated!
To fill their stomachs and keep from going thirsty, people could only work hard under such a High-Pressure Rule.
Of course, some