Chapter 26: The Fortress
Chapter 26: The Fortress
Misunderstood?
Wang Jixuan, who had just had a gun pointed at his head and fought back decisively, looked a little hesitant.
Several waiters put down their guns pointed at Wang Jixuan as the store manager Thomas greeted them with a laugh.
Wang Jixuan slowly let go of the baby-faced bunny girl who he had pulled in front of him to block the bullets. The latter covered her neck and kept coughing, with tears in her eyes.
Wang Jixuan held the fake revolver and pulled the trigger towards the open space nearby.
Snapped!
Colorful streamers spurted out from the muzzle of the gun.
"Hahaha!"
'Old Goat' Thomas laughed so hard that he couldn't stand.
"Ahem! Ouch!"
The baby-faced bunny girl covered her bruised neck and complained with tears in her eyes:
"I just wanted to celebrate with you... why did you hit me so hard... it hurts so much!"
Wang Jixuan shrugged: "Stress."
"Good skills!"
Thomas greeted her eagerly. His seductive makeup and stubble gave her a special visual impact:
"Come with me. Originally, I should have asked her to take you to settle down and give you some benefits. But now I'll take you. Hahaha! I told you, this kind of surprise will be unexpected."
The bunny girl sniffed, her face full of grievance.
"This way."
Thomas walked forward in his high heels, his body swaying from side to side.
Wang Jixuan smiled apologetically at the bunny girl and followed calmly.
They left through the back door, and a handmade car that looked a little bloated due to its thickened skin stopped in the alley. Taoist Wang followed suit and sat in the back seat.
'The frame can move on its own, it seems to be using some clever tricks to constantly leverage the power of the ground.'
This is what Master Wang commented.
Mu Liang had no memory of ever riding in a car; he had only seen cars in textbooks and in film and television materials.
Those cars running all over the streets are seen as an important symbol of the golden age of mankind.
After entering the car, Thomas seemed like a different person. He applied a facial mask on his face with skillful movements and lowered the seat back.
The driver asked, "Where are you going today?"
"I didn't have time to ask because there was some unpleasantness inside."
Thomas said in his powerful male voice:
"Where are you going, Brother Zhou?
“The supplies your uncle has paid for are enough for you to choose any position as a small leader in one of the seven major gangs. I will personally send you there and help you arrange it.
“I don’t recommend choosing the Black Fire Gang. They’ve been in some trouble lately, really big trouble, and they’re about to shed their skin.
"When the gangs shed their skin, many middle-level and lower-level members will die, and many illegal workers in their territories will be arrested and used as scapegoats."
Wang Jixuan asked, "Any places you recommend?"
"recommend?"
Thomas thought for a moment:
"The Black Fire Gang has the most money and opportunities. They deal in organs and blood, which is the most profitable business in the downtown area.
"Don't worry about the 47th and 48th floors. They are used to transport labor to the fortress's outer expansion areas. They are extremely dangerous and not very profitable. You just came to the lower city and don't understand these things."
Wang Jixuan said: "My uncle told me something, but I don't quite understand it."
"Which part do you not understand?"
"The lower town must exist, my uncle said so."
"Hahahaha! What the hell, my facial mask! This crap is so expensive!"
Thomas slapped his big face gently and said quickly:
“Is this difficult to understand?
“The upper city serves the soldiers. The technology, social facilities, and sufficient food are all for the soldiers whose mortality rate is as high as 60%. They protect the fortress.
“Those noble lords are also taking the opportunity to enjoy these benefits.
“Midtown is a comprehensive factory. Like Uppertown, Midtown enjoys the protection of various laws and regulations of the fortress and follows the ancient legal concepts.
"Every resident of Midtown can obtain supplies within a reasonable range, including food, electricity, clothes, shoes, hats, belts, underwear, etc. They also have regular light entertainment activities and sufficient medical resources. Children born will be placed in collective care institutions and raised by the Fortress for free for six years. Of course, there is also that damn enviable genetic matching marriage.
“The upper city and the middle city have actually formed the perfect ecological system of the fortress.
"But if the fortress wants to get more resource output, what should the fortress do?"
Wang Jixuan thought carefully and shook his head slowly: "I don't quite understand this."
"Exploitation. Some people can be exploited at will. There is no need to protect their human rights. There is no need to care about the laws of the civilized world of Upper City."
Thomas's low voice was somewhat sharp:
“That’s where the Lower Town came from. The Lower Town was actually originally called the Additional Level, which was the part that was expanded downwards after the fort had been in operation for decades.
“The purpose of Downtown is to exploit.
"Old Huang, drive forward a little, go to any street, and let our big customers see the real lower-class residential area, not this garbage and happy city pretending to be prosperous."
"Okay boss."
The elderly driver agreed with a smile, drove the car out of the alley and drove along the narrow street.
There were militants everywhere along the way, but they all knew the old goat's car and no one came forward to cause trouble.
About two minutes later.
A dim light appeared outside the car window.
There were hundreds of tin houses stacked like pigeon cages, surrounded by stinking ditches. Only one-third of the dozens of street lights here were working properly, illuminating a dim light.
As the days went by, Wang Jixuan's eyesight continued to improve. He could now see many scenes that the driver and the agent Thomas could not see, as well as those... dull eyes.
"Come and take a look at them, so that you can understand that this is also the work of the agent."
Thomas calmly introduced: "Look at them, they use the minimum intake to survive, and they can't ask where the food they take comes from, as long as they can stay alive.
"They are surrounded by a sense of despair. If they are given a job that allows them to support themselves and their families, even if it means they can only eat half full, will they work hard? Will they take the initiative to ask for unpaid overtime?
“Even if they were beaten to death or died of illness, who would care? Because the rulers of the lower city are gangsters, and the gangs are not responsible for them.
"It is very difficult for them to have children, and they have to rely on people who have some knowledge of physiology, and these people are deliberately trained by the gangs.
“This is just basic squeezing.
“In fact, the entire system of the downtown was designed by the upper echelons of the fortress, and each of the seven major gangs has its own business.
“The big gangs on the forty-sixth floor are the City of Joy and the Silver Party. The City of Joy is a place of entertainment for officials from the upper and middle cities. It helps them form small groups, consolidate their own circles, and satisfy their desires that are stronger than those of ordinary people.
“The Silver Party is a partner of the City of Joy. In addition to providing thugs to the City of Joy, they also turn people into commodities. Look at the waiters in my store. They are handsome, cute and obedient. Most of them were bought from the Silver Party. They are very obedient and very smart.
“The 47th and 48th floors are occupied by separate gangs, not because they are powerful, but because they are engaged in industries that require heavy physical labor and have very little profit.
"Our fortress now has four large outward expansion areas, which are responsible for supplying the fortress with minerals and other resources. The main role of the 47th and 48th level gangs is to export unpaid miners to the outward expansion areas, just like slaves.
"And there are three big gangs on the 49th floor. It's the most crowded. Do you know why?"
Thomas asked the question with great interest.
Wang Jixuan replied: "Because the bottom floor is the farthest from the upper city?"
"Partly because of that, and partly because they can keep expanding downwards and digging holes."
Thomas winked triumphantly:
"The three major gangs on the 49th floor control different businesses. Wanlijin controls the brewing of wine, the Black Fire Gang controls organs and blood, and the Hellfire controls the ingredients that can be added to tobacco."
Wang Jixuan was a little confused: "Wine making?"
"Have you ever been drinking?"
"No."
Wang Jixuan was saying that Mu Liang had never drunk alcohol.
The cultivators not only like to drink alcohol, but also like to add various spiritual roots and herbs, as well as certain body parts of certain monsters, into the wine.
Taoist Wang doesn't like that.
Thomas looked out the window at the street scene and said in his rough and deep voice:
“Except for the wine blended with industrial alcohol in my store, winemaking requires a key resource, which is the grain or fruit that humans can normally consume.
"I grew up in the territory of Wanlijin. If Wanlijin stopped brewing and instead distributed the food resources they controlled, one-third of the people in the downtown area could eat one more starch stick every day.
“It’s just a hypothesis.
"In fact, the gangs are consciously making most people in the lower city live in a state of barely maintaining life. The gangs also regularly distribute vitamins and anti-darkness drugs, which are all transported from the upper city."
Wang Jixuan thought quietly.
“This is the fortress.”
Thomas, the charming uncle, seemed to feel a little sad when looking at the street scene, and murmured:
“This is the fortress.
"Brother, what do you think is the most important thing in this world?"
Several answers were on Wang Jixuan's lips.
Talent? Comprehension? Bones? Perseverance?
The charming and sad uncle next to him has already asked and answered himself:
“It’s the place of birth.
"If you are born in the middle city, you can enjoy complete protection if you are above the 28th floor. At most, you will have to deal with bullying and harassment. If you are below the 28th floor, you are at risk of being kidnapped. If you are born in the lower city, it is likely that you will see what you see in front of you. If you are lucky and good-looking or quirky enough, you will be dragged to the City of Joy to work in the service industry. If you are strong, you will go to the gangs to be thugs and cannon fodder, and eventually be killed by others. Ordinary people, if they don't work in the gangs' workshops, they will be paralyzed here, and their bodies will be sent to the refinery after death. There is actually not much difference between the two sides. The more you eat, the more work you do. If you are born in the small group of aristocratic families in the upper city, wow, you are really lucky.
“Working hard won’t change anything.
"Oh, yes. If you were in the middle city, you would still have a chance to change your fate. Assuming you have good physical fitness and the fortress needs a large number of soldiers and reduces the industrial population, you can join the army normally and fight for the opportunity to become an officer in the upper city.
“The top warriors are all high-quality individuals selected through genetic screening during the embryonic stage.
"In the Lower City, there is no chance at all. If the Fortress needs a large number of new soldiers, the Fortress War Protocol will be activated. The Lower City gangs can pull out 50,000 young and middle-aged men and women at any time, implant chips in their brains, and become soldiers of the protocol. Even if they don't die in the war, they will only have a few years left to live due to the sequelae.
“Don’t underestimate the will of the fortress. It is cold and cruel. It has no mercy on individuals and will prioritize ensuring that this group has a greater chance of continuing.
“This will is in control of the downtown gangs.
“Never forget that we are living in an era that marks the end of human civilization.”
Thomas stretched himself.
"This is your first lesson. It's stated in the package. Remember to give your uncle a favorable review when you write to him later...Okay, now make your choice. Do you want to be a waiter on the 46th floor, or go to the 49th floor to brew wine, harvest people's organs, and make chemical preparations?"
"Let's brew some wine," Wang Jixuan said softly.
The Wanlijin Gang borders the Black Fire Gang's territory and they often fight with each other, so they were originally his targets.
Thomas said, "Wow, this is a rare choice. Wanlijin has always been suppressed by the Black Fire Gang because they have too little profit. The other two are making huge profits!"
"Isn't it true that the Black Fire Gang can't choose?"
Wang Jixuan changed the subject and looked into the uncle's eyes, showing a little bit of the vicissitudes of his true age:
"And you, Thomas?
"I guess your life isn't all smooth sailing. You should be a successful person in downtown. How do you do it?"
"Are you polite?"
Thomas frowned and said something, then he sighed and stared out the car window.
He didn't want to say it, really.
World view chapter, introduction to the internal ecology of the fortress.
You may find this a bit long-winded, but these are the basic settings and must be there. The next chapter will be the plot advancement~
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(End of this chapter)