Chapter 1154: Chapter 153: Props
Due to the fear of nuclear war during the Cold War period last century and the distrust of the authorities, the United States has always had a culture of building private shelters.
Some ordinary families would buy land in the backyard or countryside, dig the ground,
and build underground radiation shelters using materials such as steel reinforcement, cement, and lead plates,
storing all kinds of items inside the shelter,
such as generators, fuel, radio receivers, sleeping bags, gas masks, radiation suits, medicine boxes, and a large amount of canned food enough for a family of three to last a long time.
Nowadays, some American construction companies specialize in building high-standard safety shelters,
fully equipped with water and electricity, furnished with cinemas, gyms, medical rooms, spa centers, kindergartens, broadcasting stations, and other facilities.
Many wealthy individuals would anonymously purchase such shelters for private use,
while middle-class families who aren’t as wealthy can pay annual membership fees, so when disaster strikes, they qualify for access to shared shelters.
Of course, as the facts have proven, the best-laid plans often go awry.
These underground shelters might be effective against nuclear radiation or bomber attacks,
but when facing extraordinary occurrences triggered by the Killing Field games, they are utterly useless,
and some remote, deserted shelters could even become breeding grounds for abnormal events.
Only transcendent elements can resolve transcendent elements.
Private shelters are ineffective. To survive and live longer,
one must become a transcendent or reside in city buildings.
"I saw on TV a few days ago that the protest waves in the United States are quite intense."
Wang Congshan casually said, "Their city building projects are under tight schedules, and the final capacity is not very large.
Wealthy individuals and middle-class families live there first,
which means some people will have to move later or won’t be qualified at all."
"Hmm."
Li Ang nodded,
The private enterprises that underwrite the city’s building projects in the United States have signed contracts with the federal and state governments,
in addition to aggressively selling real estate to make a fortune,
they also have to somewhat fulfill the social responsibilities mentioned in the contracts—some well-off American families may apply for low-interest loans to buy houses, repayable within thirty to forty years.
There are also housing giveaway lotteries for social welfare—each family can get a lottery ticket weekly, winning means free accommodation in city buildings.
But these measures are just a drop in the bucket,
in the current situation, ordinary American citizens living in old towns and countryside face daily threats.
No matter how much joyful education they receive or enjoy the influence of democracy and freedom, they realize what’s most vital is their own lives.
Protest waves rise and fall in major cities,
and quite a few Americans with a bit of sense, seeing the thriving Special Affairs Bureau’s city building projects across the ocean, put on the Guy Fawkes mask (the smiling mask from the movie "V for Vendetta"),
holding banners that oppose Wall Street, megacorporations, demanding improvement in housing, healthcare, education, and employment conditions,
calling on the federal government to dismantle monopoly corporations.
It angers monopolistic enterprises in the United States, which collaborate and produce biased TV programs, documentaries, and on media platforms advocating "beware of foreign forces playing the ’protect people’s rights’ card."
Li Ang sipped his milk tea, fully understanding the logic behind it.
In the past, capitalists possessed capital, controlled production processes and financial decisions, economic actions aimed primarily at profit, ultimately seeking absolute monopoly, infinite growth, and a long-term maintenance of this system to protect their right to control production materials.
Now, due to the arrival of the Killing Field games,
transcendent elements replacing capital with more advanced, pure, and direct force superiority.
Capitalists not only want to possess the power to control production processes, financial decisions, and production materials,
they also wish to gain control over the distribution process of transcendent elements and the transcendent power system.
The most typical example is the European Heavy Industry Group,
they recruit new players from the public, offering them generous rewards and favorable conditions,
recruiting them into the company, providing systematic training and equipment support.
Of course, this is not charity; employees of the European Heavy Industry Group have to pay a portion of the rewards obtained in script tasks to the company to gain internal contribution points, exchanging them for better, superior equipment and tools to survive successive life-and-death tests.
Steady European Heavy Industry Group, fleeting players.
Besides, the European Heavy Industry Group builds experimental centers globally, studying strength seeds and genetic elixirs.
If ordinary people lacking luck or talent want to leap over the dragon gate, they must seek help from multinational corporations, sign labor contracts, belong to the company.
The European Heavy Industry Group aims to become the largest transcendent power distributor besides the Killing Field game—they not only can control the allocation and flow of transcendent powers,
but can also directly control the life and death of low and middle-level transcendents and ordinary people.
In fact, they already do.
The European Heavy Industry Group has in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and other places,
Thousands of companies under various names and types,
having millions of employees from all levels across all continents. Ordinary people can live their entire lives within the system of the European Heavy Industry Group.
The pathway of the European Heavy Industry Group evolves from controlling the materials of production,
into controlling humans themselves,
growing into a behemoth surpassing all monopoly organizations such as cartels, syndicates, Concain, and Trust.
American enterprises, domestically in the United States,
due to historical reasons and various obstacles, cannot rampage like the European Heavy Industry Group in South America or Africa,
but it does not stop them from secretly pushing for further control over "people."
What’s that phrase?
Human life is valuable, but not that valuable.
In the eyes of transcendent element monopolistic corporations, ordinary people are only potential providers and cultivation vessels for transcendent elements.
Restricting the city building entry qualifications is more beneficial for corporations to control ordinary people—limited survival conditions and terrifyingly high housing loans force ordinary people to either actively or passively sell all rights to corporations, falling into a living net woven by corporations,
until reduced to indentured workers or even...
slaves.
Written as corporate employees, written as slaves.
The only fortunate thing is that transcendent element monopolistic corporations, although having these advantages,
still, at this stage, don’t quite match national organizations in terms of resource utilization efficiency and total amount.
Moreover, transcendent element monopolistic corporations are not absolute supreme force owners—figures like Michael, Lose Control, Su Ni Sheng, and Li Ang are.
"As long as supreme force owners exist,
transcendent element monopolistic corporations must be cautious.
In a sense, am I now the guardian deity protecting the largest ordinary populace from the invasion of transcendent element monopolistic corporations?"
Li Ang’s mind wanders aimlessly.
The myriad anomalies triggered by the United States’ city building are only a microcosm of the global human society.
Even the former world dominator, the beacon of humanity, the United States, could slip to "no ordinary people or dogs allowed in,"
so places like South America and Africa must already be rushing headlong into chaos.
But none of this has anything to do with him anyway.
Slurp slurp.
Li Ang quickly finished his milk tea, and with Wang Congshan and Chaichai leading the way, continued exploring the city skyscraper.
"This is the new Experimental Middle School of Yin City, and today happens to be a holiday, so all the students have gone home. By the way, a few days ago Teacher Shi gave a speech as a representative at our senior year mobilization meeting. I haven’t been back to school for a long time, and I really miss the days when you only had to study hard without worrying about anything else..."
"Oh, this is the city skyscraper’s tram, with tracks embedded in high-strength ceiling building materials, allowing for high-altitude travel.
The public transportation system of the city skyscraper is quite good, very convenient,
with buses, elevators, trams, and shared bikes,
citizens basically don’t need to drive themselves,
high-emission cars have been banned recently, and tiny electric vehicles are restricted,
in a little while, perhaps not many people will buy cars anymore? More might use cars as luxury items.
Additionally, surveillance cameras are everywhere now, crime rates have plummeted, and citizens aren’t afraid even while walking at night—armed patrols can arrive within a minute and a half after receiving an alert."
"This is the Enchanted Pillar, engraved with dozens of different spells. Usually disguised as a power pole, it’s buried in every corner of the urban area.
If necessary, members of the Mobile Detachment only need to remotely control it from the command center to make the Enchanted Pillar cast spells.
Such as ’Idle Retreat,’ ’Soundproof Enchantment,’ ’Extinguish Flames,’ and so on.
Mainly used to prevent unusual events and to protect citizens."
Wang Congshan casually explained the internal structure of the city skyscraper to Li Ang, raised her hand, and clapped,
immediately changing the color of the ceiling above the three, transforming it into a sky with a few white clouds.
"This is the city skyscraper’s weather control system. To prevent citizens from becoming depressed while living in a closed environment for a long time,
high-resolution liquid crystal panels are installed on the ceilings of each floor,
combined with a super large fresh air system and precipitation facilities,
they can simulate spring, summer, autumn, winter, as well as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy weather."
Wang Congshan laughed and clapped her hands again, causing the ceiling two meters ahead to start raining, "Typically, weather changes are decided by the municipal committee based on citizens’ psychological health status,
but sometimes citizens can also participate in public voting, deciding whether it should rain on a certain floor the next day—I personally quite like rainy days."
As she spoke, Wang Congshan waved to stop the rainfall on the ceiling, lightly jumped forward,
splashing clear water as her sandals under her dress stepped into the puddle.
"Ha!"
Wang Congshan turned around with a smile, tilted her head, and smacked her lips, "Hmm... how do I put it?
Although our city skyscraper project is very good and humane, ordinary people might really find no opportunity to step outside the city skyscraper for long-term periods in the future."
"Hmm."
Li Ang nodded, "Not just this generation, but even the next generation, and perhaps the one after, may not be able to leave this skyscraper.
After all, the monsters outside will only increase, becoming harder to eliminate,
unless someday the slaughter games suddenly stop, or citizens relocate to the safer Portal World."
"Ah, it’s already twelve o’clock."
Chaichai, who had been playing with her phone the whole time, raised her arm, "Cosplay event, cosplay event! I need to go to the cosplay event!"
"Uh, okay."
Li Ang nodded, "Where’s the exhibition hall?"
He came to visit the city skyscraper today not only to meet Wang Congshan but also because Chaichai had been pestering him.
Chaichai signed up for a cosplay event some time ago, not as a photographer or cosplayer,
but as a maker of cosplay costumes—her tailoring skills have always been good, often making props for herself and Li Ang,
sometimes she would whimsically, and artistically, create some cosplay outfits she likes.
She didn’t get any compliments from Li Ang for making these clothes,
posting on the Swarm only resulted in hearing a bunch of flattering praises,
so she posted photos of the costumes online, unexpectedly receiving a warm welcome.
In certain circles of fandom culture, she even earned the nickname ’Teacher Chai,’
and a fairly large cosplay event sent her online alias an invitation.
Hence, Li Ang was dragged here by the exuberant Chaichai.
Li Ang greeted Xing Hechou via friend communication, canceled the Idle Retreat barrier nearby, and headed to the cosplay convention.
At the exhibition, they saw various costumes made by Chaichai.
Chaichai chuckled, "How about it? Are my costumes pretty good?
This one is the Rainbow Feather Dress, youthful and floating like a rainbow.
This one is the classic Stepman Armor, light but secure, invulnerable.
This one is the Navy Admiral’s Justice White Robe,
and this one is Akatsuki’s red-clouded black windbreaker..."
"Pretty good."
Li Ang nodded, he had to admit, Chaichai’s crafting skills were excellent, the costumes of various styles didn’t feel out of place on cosplayers, "Wait, hmm...
Why do I feel like those costume materials seem like leftover scraps from the Forging Furnace?"
Li Ang squinted his eyes, carefully looking again,
his eyelids inexplicably twitched.
Indeed, the costumes on these cosplayers in front were pieced together from leftover scraps of the Forging Furnace,
and vaguely, they could feel the fluctuations of transcendent elements within.
"Uh... about this."
Chaichai looked up at the sky, poking her fingers, "I noticed that you never touched those things in the corner cabinet of the Alchemy Workshop. And according to Double Blade Turkey, those materials were substandard, useless,
so I used them to make clothes.
Ahem, don’t you think these clothes have a certain charm?"
"Made with transcendent materials, of course, they have charm."
Li Ang shook his head helplessly, taking a sweeping glance, "Goodness, the Rainbow Feather Dress can lighten the wearer’s gravity, enabling long-distance gliding;
the Stepman Armor, which looks like a light plastic prop, can withstand machine gun fire;
the Navy Admiral’s Justice White Robe can enhance the wearer’s physical constitution;
the Akatsuki’s red-clouded black windbreaker is even more outrageous,
I feel like if the unsuspecting cosplayer gets in the mood, and folds their hands, they could actually cast Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Goodness, did you make a batch of genuine goods and slip them into the movie set’s props?"
Chaichai blinked, "Yikes..."
