Chapter 231 — Another Kind of Talent

"Fine, fine, fine, you're chosen, you're chosen," Gao Yang said, withdrawing his hand from Amber's head with satisfaction and sitting back down behind the desk. "Actually, I've been curious from the very start. With your shadow talent, your stealth skills, your proficiency at pilfering and skulking... some of these skills may not sound especially dignified out in the open, but there's no denying they're the way of survival in the 'gutter.' And you, who are masterful in these things—how could you possibly not know some friends who make their living in the shadows? Why didn't you say so from the beginning?"

"You never asked at the start," Amber said with a pout. "And like you said, they're all disreputable friends, hardly any of them presentable. Back in my early years, when I was wandering far and wide, I even teamed up with them to cause trouble. But later I settled down in the old Cecil territory and got a more stable way of life, so naturally I stopped dealing with them much..."

"When you say a more stable way of life, do you mean going from committing crimes on the run to committing them at a fixed location?"

"Yes, yes, yes~~"

Gao Yang: "..."

After a moment of awkwardness, he cleared his throat and steered the conversation back. "In any case, I need you to step up and help me gather a group of talents in this line. I don't care about their origins or their pasts. I only require that these people be quick-witted, observant, and capable of maintaining at least a basic loyalty and obedience so long as the money is sufficient. I want you to bring these people into the territory and then put them through short-term training."

"So long as the money is sufficient..." Amber couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth at Gao Yang's phrasing. "You really do put it bluntly."

"I have no choice," Gao Yang said with a sigh. "You know as well as I do what the Cecil territory is built on—over eight hundred original settlers, nearly ten thousand refugees and slaves. That's the main structure of the territory's population. Beyond that, the talents we've hired and brought in by various means simply can't meet demand. There's no way I could raise an intelligence corps from a territory like this. As for the people you know—their character may be questionable, their pasts may not be clean, but the fact that they've survived proves they have flexible minds and the ability to protect themselves, and in whatever environment they live in, they must be sharp-eyed and keen-eared. In this age, people with these abilities can't just be trained up casually."

Starting from the "gutter rats" at the bottom of society in every region and building the most rudimentary intelligence network—this was an idea Gao Yang had conceived long ago. He knew those "gutter rats" were despised by nobles and even by townsfolk, but he knew even better that people who could survive in such a social environment were born to be the best spies: they were quick yet steady, cautious yet bold, sharp-eyed and keen-eared, skilled at observation, and nearly all of them had their own information channels—channels that were even one of their means of survival. Mercenaries and adventurers roaming from place to place would gladly buy intelligence from the gutter rats of every region; so long as the money was right, the latter were the most reliable sources of information.

These two groups—one at society's margins, one at its bottom—shared a natural symbiotic relationship.

Of course, the "gutter rats" had plenty of flaws as well: they were the weak, yet they had almost nothing to do with goodness. They could not possess any noble sentiments, nor any real concept of loyalty. They would sell you intelligence for money, but they would just as readily sell your secrets to someone else for money. They were a people with virtually no morals or discipline to speak of, because those two things were utterly useless in their lives.

But Gao Yang didn't care—or rather, compared with those people's value, he could fully accept this small blemish.

Their loyalty could be bought with money, and that was enough. For now, at least, it was enough.