Did I misunderstand?
Just moments ago, Wang Jixuan had a gun pointed at his head and had reacted decisively. Now, his gaze was a bit hesitant.
A few waiters, under the booming laughter of the manager, Thomas, lowered their guns aimed at Wang Jixuan.
Wang Jixuan slowly released the doll-faced bunny girl he had pulled in front of him as a shield. She was coughing and holding her neck, tears welling up in her eyes.
Wang Jixuan aimed the fake revolver at an empty space nearby and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Colorful ribbons burst out from the gun.
“Hahaha!”
Thomas, the 'Old Goat', laughed so hard he could barely stand.
“Cough! Ugh!”
The bunny girl, clutching her bruised neck, complained with teary eyes, “I just wanted to celebrate with you… why did you have to be so rough? It hurts!”
Wang Jixuan shrugged. “Stress response.”
“Not bad at all!”
Thomas eagerly beckoned him over. His flamboyant makeup and stubble created a striking visual effect.
“Come with me! She was supposed to take you to settle in and give you some benefits, but I’ll take you instead. Hahaha! I told you, surprises can lead to unexpected situations.”
The bunny girl sniffled, looking very wronged.
“This way.”
Thomas walked ahead in his high heels, swaying from side to side.
Wang Jixuan smiled apologetically at the bunny girl and calmly followed.
They exited through the back door, where a somewhat bulky handmade car with thickened skin was parked in the alley. Wang Jixuan imitated Thomas and sat in the back seat.
‘This self-moving vehicle seems to use some clever technique to constantly leverage against the ground,’ Wang Jixuan thought.
In Mu Liang's memory, he had never experienced riding in a car; he had only seen them in textbooks and movies. Those little cars running around were seen as a significant mark of humanity's golden age.
Once inside the car, Thomas seemed to transform into a different person, skillfully applying a facial mask and reclining the seat back.
The driver asked, “Where to today?”
“Didn’t have time to ask. There was a bit of unpleasantness inside,” Thomas said in his deep voice.
“Where do you want to go, Brother Zhou? Your uncle’s resources are enough for you to choose any small leader position in the seven major gangs. I’ll personally take you there and help you arrange things.”
“I wouldn’t recommend the Black Fire Gang. They’ve gotten into some serious trouble lately, and they’re about to face a big crisis. When a gang goes through a crisis, many mid-level and lower-level members die, and a lot of their workers get taken as scapegoats.”
Wang Jixuan asked, “Do you have any recommendations?”
“Recommendations?” Thomas pondered for a moment. “The Black Fire Gang has the most resources and opportunities. They deal in organs and blood, which is the most profitable business in the lower city.
“Don’t even think about the 47th and 48th floors; those areas are used for sending labor to the fortress outskirts. They’re extremely dangerous and don’t offer much profit. You’re new to the lower city, so you wouldn’t know these things yet.”
Wang Jixuan replied, “My uncle mentioned some things, but I don’t quite understand.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“The lower city must exist, my uncle said.”
“Hahaha! Damn, my facial mask! This expensive piece of junk!”
Thomas lightly slapped his own face, speaking quickly. “Is this really hard to understand? The upper city serves the warriors, with technology, social support, and ample food, all for those warriors who have a 60% mortality rate. They protect the fortress.
“The noble lords are also enjoying these benefits.
“The middle city is a comprehensive factory. Like the upper city, it enjoys all the legal protections of the fortress and follows ancient legal principles.
“Every resident in the middle city can obtain resources within a reasonable range: food, electricity, clothing, shoes, belts, underwear, etc. They also have regular light entertainment activities and sufficient medical resources. Children born there are taken care of by the fortress for six years at no cost, and there’s that damn enviable gene-matching marriage.
“The upper and middle cities perfectly form the ecological system of the fortress.
“But if the fortress wants to gain more resources, what should it do?”
Wang Jixuan thought carefully and slowly shook his head. “I don’t really understand these things.”
“Exploitation. Some populations can be exploited without protecting their human rights or caring about the laws of the upper and middle cities.”
Thomas’s low voice had a sharp edge. “This is the origin of the lower city. It was originally called the additional layer, built downward after the fortress had been running for decades.
“The purpose of the lower city is to exploit.
“Old Huang, drive a bit further. Just pick any street and let our big clients see the real lower-class neighborhoods, not this fake, prosperous garbage joy city.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
The older driver smiled and agreed, driving the car out of the alley and onto the narrow street.
Along the way, there were armed individuals everywhere, but they all recognized the Old Goat’s vehicle, so no one dared to approach.
About two minutes later, a dim light appeared outside the car window.
It was a cluster of iron shacks piled up like pigeon cages, surrounded by filthy ditches. Only a third of the streetlights here were working, casting a dull yellow glow.
As the sun of cultivation rose higher, Wang Jixuan’s vision improved. He could see many scenes that the driver and Thomas couldn’t, including those… unremarkable eyes.
“Come, take a look at them. This is also part of the work of the intermediaries.”
Thomas calmly explained, “Look at them. They survive on the bare minimum, with no way to question the source of what they consume. As long as they can live, that’s enough.
“Despair surrounds them. If they were given a job that could support themselves and their families, even if it only allowed them to eat half-full, would they work hard? Would they even ask for unpaid overtime?
“And if they were casually beaten to death or died of illness, who would care? Because the rulers of the lower city are the gangs, and the gangs don’t take responsibility for them.
“Having children is also a hassle; they rely on people with some knowledge of physiology, who are deliberately trained by the gangs.
“This is just the most basic level of exploitation.
“In fact, the entire system of the lower city is designed by the upper will of the fortress. Each of the seven major gangs has its own business.
“The major gang on the 46th floor is the Joy City and the Silver Party. Joy City is a place for officials from the upper and middle cities to entertain themselves, allowing them to form small groups and solidify their circles, satisfying their stronger desires than ordinary people.
“The Silver Party is a partner of Joy City. Besides providing muscle for Joy City, they also turn people into commodities. You see how handsome and obedient the waiters in my shop are? Most of them are bought from the Silver Party’s territory, very compliant and particularly clever.
“The 47th and 48th floors are occupied by separate gangs, not because they are strong, but because they deal in heavy labor industries, which offer pitiful profits.
“Our fortress currently has four major outer expansion areas, responsible for supplying the fortress with minerals and other resources. The main role of the gangs on the 47th and 48th floors is to send wage-free miners to the outer expansion areas, just like slaves.
“And on the 49th floor, there are three major gangs. It’s the most crowded area. Do you know why?”
Thomas eagerly posed the question.
Wang Jixuan answered, “Because the bottom layer is the farthest from the upper city?”
“That’s part of the reason. The other part is that they can continuously expand their territory downwards by digging tunnels.”
Thomas winked proudly. “The three major gangs on the 49th floor control different businesses. Wanlijin controls brewing, the Black Fire Gang controls organs and blood, and Hellfire controls the additives for tobacco.”
Wang Jixuan was a bit confused. “Brewing?”
“Have you ever had alcohol?”
“No.”
Wang Jixuan meant that Mu Liang had never had alcohol.
Cultivators not only liked drinking but also enjoyed adding various spiritual roots and herbs, as well as certain body parts of magical beasts into their drinks.
Wang Jixuan didn’t like that.
Thomas looked out the window at the street scenery and said in his rough, deep voice, “Aside from the industrial alcohol mixed drinks from my shop, brewing requires a key resource, which is food or fruit that humans can normally consume.
“I grew up in Wanlijin’s territory. If Wanlijin didn’t brew alcohol and instead distributed the food resources they control, one-third of the lower city’s population could eat an extra starch stick every day.
“That’s just a hypothesis.
“In reality, each gang consciously keeps most people in the lower city living in a barely surviving state. The gangs also regularly distribute vitamins and anti-darkness drugs, which are all shipped down from the upper city.”
Wang Jixuan quietly pondered.
“This is the fortress.”
This flamboyant uncle, Thomas, seemed a bit sentimental as he looked at the street scene, murmuring, “This is the fortress.
“Brother, what do you think is the most important thing about living in this world?”
Several answers came to Wang Jixuan’s mind.
Talent? Insight? Roots? Willpower?
The flamboyant and sorrowful uncle next to him had already asked and answered himself: “It’s the place of birth.
“Being born in the middle city, if you’re above the 28th floor, you can enjoy complete protection, at most dealing with some bullying and harassment. Below the 28th floor, there’s a risk of being kidnapped. Being born in the lower city usually leads to what you see before you.
If you’re lucky and look good or have enough quirks, you’ll be taken to Joy City to work in the service industry. If you’re strong, you’ll go to the gang as a muscle or cannon fodder, ultimately getting killed by someone else.
Ordinary people, if they don’t work in the gang’s workshops, just lie around here, and after death, their bodies are sent to the oil refinery. There’s not much difference between the two; the more you eat, the more work you do. If you’re born into that small group of noble families in the upper city, wow, you’re truly lucky.
“Hard work won’t change much.
“Oh, right, if you’re in the middle city, there’s a tiny chance to change your fate—assuming you have good physical qualities and the fortress needs a large number of soldiers while reducing the industrial population, you can enlist normally and fight for a chance to become an officer in the upper city.
“The upper-level warriors are all high-quality individuals selected through genetic screening in their embryonic stage.
“In the lower city, there’s not a single opportunity. If the fortress needs a large number of new soldiers, it will activate the fortress war protocol. The lower city gangs can pull out fifty thousand young men and women at any time, implant chips in their brains, turning them into protocol soldiers. Even if they don’t die in war, they’ll only have a few years left to live due to aftereffects.
“Don’t underestimate the will of the fortress; it’s cold and cruel, showing no mercy to individuals, prioritizing the survival of the group.
“The lower city gangs control this will.
“Never forget, we are living in the twilight of human civilization.”
Thomas stretched lazily.
“This is your first lesson, as noted in the package. Remember to give feedback and a good review when you write to your uncle later… Alright, now choose. Do you want to be a waiter on the 46th floor, or go to the 49th floor to brew alcohol, harvest organs, or make chemical agents?”
“Let’s brew alcohol,” Wang Jixuan said softly.
The Wanlijin Gang borders the Black Fire Gang and often clashes, which was his goal.
Thomas said, “Wow, that’s a rare choice. Wanlijin has always been suppressed by the Black Fire Gang because they have too little profit. The other two are incredibly lucrative!”
“Isn’t the Black Fire Gang off-limits?”
Wang Jixuan shifted the conversation, looking into the uncle’s eyes, revealing a hint of the weariness of his true age. “What about you, Thomas?
“I suspect your life hasn’t been smooth sailing. You should be a successful person in the lower city. How did you manage it?”
“Are you being polite?”
Thomas frowned and said, then sighed, staring out the car window lost in thought.
He didn’t want to talk about it, really.
(End of Chapter)