Chapter 302 Take a Look

"Did you... switch rooms with the previous family?"

The family of three lived in a small dormitory that should have been occupied by four people, but instead, these four hooligans lived in a relatively luxurious single room.

The sanitary conditions were certainly not much better, but at least the space was spacious enough, with a living room and a kitchen. In the living room, there was a table of unfinished card games, and the kitchen was filled with the dual smell of detergent and grease.

The large bedroom was divided into four parts by baffles. The bed was directly sawed from the upper and lower bunks in the dormitory. The sheets were also damp and greasy, but what caught Mikael's attention the most were the large and small bags piled on the ground. He opened a blue bag at random, and it was full of green cans. He then opened one of the few small red bags, which contained more than a dozen detonators.

"Tell me, how did that guy owe you money?"

"Hehe... He didn't want to work, so he borrowed money from us to be exempted from military service, and then he couldn't pay it back..."

"Why doesn't he work?"

"Oh, sir, you're asking even though you already know the answer! Who wants to go to work? If you have that much time, wouldn't it be nice to just play games and sleep at home?"

"Maybe that's the case for him."

Mikael took out a can and weighed it in his hand, "But for you, why would you lend him money? What did he pledge to you? Huh?"

"Hey... Hehehe..."

The leading thug slowly opened the cabinet next to him, searched around for a while, and finally took out two gold bars.

"Hey, there are only two left. This little bit of stuff can only be used to get two days of exemption from military service, but when the collapse is over, these will be treasures!"

"Since you already have these things as collateral, why do you want to bother him again? If he doesn't pay back the money, won't these collaterals be yours? No, to be precise, this is not like a mortgage, but more like a pawn."

"Of course that's true, but if everyone does this, our material reserves would have been borrowed out long ago, and these gold and silver can't be eaten, and there won't be so much market demand for a while, so debt collection is still necessary. Besides..."

"Besides?"

The gangsters didn't want to tell the truth, but for some reason, when Mikael stood there, the real thoughts in their hearts kept coming out of their mouths:

"Besides, this family is so poor now that there is no need for them to exist. Kill them all and empty the room, then There will be new immigrants moving in, and then we can... uh..."

"What if they don't need to borrow money?"

"How is that possible... We will drag them into gambling... In short, we will do everything we can to make them owe money. Of course, there are some who don't want to borrow money, but we also collect protection fees!"

"..."

Looking at the extremely gloomy face of the adult in front of him, the leading thugs were anxious, but they kept talking:

"They need to give us half of the materials they get from work, and we will give the other half to the 'building manager'. The price is clearly marked, and there is no deception."

So that's it. Logically speaking, although the taste and ingredients of D-level materials are extremely poor, and they are almost all highly processed foods, they contain a lot of calories. After careful calculation, a family of three with a young child, as long as the father keeps a stable job every day, the materials obtained are basically enough for the minimum survival. If they occasionally produce, there will be surplus.

But this is just on the surface. Not to mention that after a D-level material is deducted from many levels, it will not have 80% of the original share when it is distributed to the grassroots level. After that, it will be exploited by these so-called gangsters and "building managers".

If the man works honestly, he may be able to make a living, but the situation in that family just now...

And judging from what these guys said, family situations like that are not uncommon. Life is so difficult, boring and full of pain. Instead of struggling, it is better to live a happy life. If the debt is really collected, just give up.

"It's almost time for the two shifts to hand over. If that man comes back, what are you going to do?"

"Kill... Kill him..."

Mikael's chest rose and fell quickly, and then he calmed down again. He asked:

"One last question. Are there organizations like yours everywhere?"

"We don't know about other buildings, but this is the case in our building. There are probably two or three people on each floor, or even one person like us... I guess, the territory has been divided in advance. If you are really dissatisfied, you will have a fight!"

Mikael closed his eyes, and the scene of [Tower] played in his mind in a loop-

Two or three dead men sat around a corpse, holding the meat just dug out of the corpse and feasting on it.

Hearing the sound coming from outside the door, the dead men held the flesh in their hands, but their necks twisted 180 degrees behind their backs, grinning at the people who came.

Their lips were full of blood, and their teeth were filled with meat shreds. The corners of their lips twitched twice, and slowly lifted up, as if they were laughing.

This was the most terrifying impression that the tower had left on him.

Open your eyes, then close them again——"Puff!"

There was a pool of blood and flesh on the ground in front of you. Before you could react, another shadow fell——

"Puff!"

The blood and flesh splashed on your face, warm, sticky, and smelly. Just thinking about it, you can't clench your fingers into a fist.

This is the current [Tower].

There are no dead soldiers or collapsed beasts here.

Everyone living here is human, but there seems to be something mixed in that is not human.

What an irony...Mikael thought silently in his heart.

Maybe Honkai Impact is not a disaster for mankind, but a kind of salvation, right? At least, human beings can usher in a heroic and tragic ending, instead of heading towards irreparable decline in filthy self-destruction.

"Okay, I don't have anything more to ask."

"Then walk slowly!"

"Well, you guys... walk slowly."

…………

When Mei and Michael finally took the elevator to the fifty-third floor, Michael also finished handling everything and walked slowly out of the room where the gangsters were.

Seeing Michael's figure, Mikael raised his eyebrows, and the fire in his heart ignited again - after all, as the mayor of the Third New Paradise City, this guy has an unshirkable responsibility for everything that happens here. .

But he didn't do it after all. No matter how angry he was, he couldn't save anything.

At least he and Mei are now in close contact with this darkness. Then, if there is still time, if there is still a chance, they should be able to make corresponding adjustments to make these people's lives easier.

Mikael leaned out from the railing. At a distance of more than a hundred meters, there were two small dots that almost merged together if not carefully distinguished. In the room behind him, blood that had not yet cooled down seeped out from the crack in the door. .

Nearly ten minutes had passed since the death of the mother and son. The whole building was quiet. Mikael knew very well that not everyone participated in the overtime work tonight. There would always be people who asked for leave, paid money and supplies and were exempted from duty. People, the proportion of these people may be very small, but considering that a building can accommodate 40,000 to 50,000 people, even if it is only one percent of them, there are still hundreds of people still resting in this building.

They may not have heard the muffled sound of heavy objects falling to the ground and flesh and blood exploding, but it was hard not to catch the heart-rending cry. After all, this building is a closed structure. The sound rushes back and forth in the space surrounded by four corridors, and cannot find an entrance or exit. After reverberating countless times, it can finally only get through the cracks in the door and get into everyone's ears. .

But no one made any sign. They used not-so-thick doors to isolate themselves from the outside world. As long as what happened outside did not affect their own interests and safety, they would not care.

"Will anyone collect their bodies for them?"

Michael asked Michael.

"Logically speaking, yes, several towers will share a funeral team. After all, in this era, accidental death is a normal thing. Of course, when will they arrive, and even whether someone will send a report to them at this time , are all a problem.”

"Then you'd better contact me proactively."

Mikael kept swallowing, and his Adam's apple kept going up and down like a leapfrog machine.

It's not good for the body to be exposed all the time.

"...Understood. However, Mr. Mikael and Dr. Mei, our next step is to continue to inspect the situation in the tower, go to other towers, or take advantage of the last two hours of overtime to see the situation in the factory. ?”

Mikael's breath suddenly became heavy. He stood there and took a deep breath for a long time. He did not give any response, but walked towards the elevator on his own.

Mei shook her head and tried to rub her frown away with her thumb, but no matter how hard she tried, the two eyebrows seemed to be stuck together and could not be separated.

The elevator takes three seconds to cover each floor, and for the fifty-third floor, it takes about two and a half minutes.

The large elevator car was dull and cold, and finally it was Mikael who spoke first:

"Those people just told me that when these rooms are vacated, new immigrants will move in. What's going on?"

"Huh?"

Michael pursed his lips, and for a moment he didn't know what the meaning of Michael's question was - isn't it normal to fill someone up when there is a vacancy?

No, the more normal it is, the more serious the problem behind it is.

Like, where did these people come from? Why can they be replenished quickly?

"Actually... not everyone can live in the tower."

After saying this, Michael glanced at Mikael and Mei, only to see that they had no reaction. It seemed that he had expected this.

"There is nothing we can do about it. After receiving immigrants, the population of Third New Paradise City has exceeded 25 million, and it needs 500 such towers to meet the residential needs... Of course, when we applied for funds from the headquarters, it was indeed This number was applied for, but due to the inevitable loss of funds during the transfer process, just over 400 towers have been built so far.”

The inevitable loss of funds during the transfer process...isn't this corruption...

“What about the people who can’t live in the towers?”

"Uh... this problem can be divided into several categories. First of all, people who are willing to enter the tower will be arranged to live in air-raid shelters inside and outside the protective net. Since they are not engaged in production, they can only obtain very few supplies, so a small number of them Everyone will choose to join the military police, and others will have to wait for a space to become available in the tower...

"But not everyone is willing to accept the forced working mode of the tower. These people either break away from the supervision of the coalition government and go to survive in the world outside the protective network——

"Anyway, the scale of the collapse in America is small and the intensity is low. It is not impossible for ordinary people to survive in the wild if they are equipped with weapons. Moreover, since you want to pursue absolute freedom, you must have enough courage.

"Of course, we are also happy to see this. After all, only a very small number of people do this. It will not cause too much burden to distribute their production tasks to other hundreds of millions of people, and we can also accept the materials allocated to them.

"The masters in the upper district also like this kind of people. They need to rely on weapons and equipment to survive in the wild. I only need to report a military exercise, and the ammunition diverted is enough for these people to use for nearly a year. But if they want to get these ammunition, they have to pay a greater price-wild animal and plant medicinal materials, minerals, and even as mercenaries for the masters in the upper district.

"As for the rest of the people, if they don't want to enter the tower and don't have the courage to go outside the protective net, then they can only go to the upper district and work in the service industry."

"Service industry..."

Mei closed her eyes and tried to use her imagination to describe the scene of the so-called upper city, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt that it seemed that this was the real appearance of the city.

Almost no production, a large amount of wealth, a developed service industry, and gorgeous and destructive neon lights at night...

In such a gray and dead end, seeing such a city, Mei felt... it was not worth being happy.

Since someone can live in such a chic manner, it must be based on oppression of others. For example, as mentioned earlier, the so-called upper districts are almost not engaged in production, so where do their own food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and the things they pay to service personnel come from?

Obviously, it is these people living in the tower who share the production work that should be done by them.

Besides, even if those who go to the upper district to engage in the service industry, do they really live better than those in the tower?

"The population engaged in the service industry has a high mobility, and these people are also difficult to replenish in the upper district, so they must..."

"That's right..."

Michael nodded dejectedly, "In order to ensure that these people can stay in their own positions steadily, it is best that there will never be any changes, so after these people enter the upper district, the work contracts they sign are often more than 50 years, and even more than half of the contract work period is until death."

"What's the difference between this and slaves!"

"There is still a difference. Their next generation will not be forced to sign an employment contract... Well, there is actually no difference."

Even former slaves are not completely without the opportunity to gain freedom, but after being restored to freedom by their masters, these free people will rarely leave the protection of their masters directly, but will continue to serve their masters as retainers, and some are even willing to be slaves rather than get the status of free people.

And these so-called next generations who are born free are just like the family children in ancient times, and most of them have only nominal freedom.

"But, in fact, it is not limited to 'service'."

Michael pondered for a while, then added:

"Many families in the upper district have opened up some manors outside the protective net at the city boundary, mainly planting economic crops, such as fruits and medicinal herbs. Even the most ordinary apples can be exchanged for a half-pound can of beef. Of course, it is not just economic crops, they also have factories.

"And as I said before, those who became family mercenaries in the upper district, their main responsibility is to serve as the guard force of these manors and factories."

It can be imagined that in fact, in the upper district, even as a slave-like existence, the quality of life is mostly much better than in the tower.

However, once the collapse is defeated, these people in the tower can quickly resume their original lives, and those who live outside the protective net can also be quickly re-accepted. Only these slave-like existences in the upper district...

Of course, Mei will think about these problems, which does not mean that Michael will think about these problems.

After a slight shock, after the anger subsided, boundless numbness came again, making him sink .

"Hua——"

The elevator door opened, but the three had not decided where to go next.

Suddenly, Michael's ears moved, and he seemed to hear a messy sound of footsteps, hard and crisp. The people who came should be military police wearing leather boots.

Soon, the passage they had entered before was opened, and the strong light of the flashlight shot in messily, and then five military police entered in a line.

When they saw Michael, several military police were stunned, as if they had never expected to meet their municipal officer here.

"What mission are you in such a hurry to carry out?"

Michael smiled and asked as relaxedly and lightly as usual.

"Report to the municipal officer, we have received a report that four people in Room 002N039 of this building have collectively skipped work. According to regulations, each person should be caned six times."

Michael cast his eyes on Michael, and the latter's answer was also very simple, only two words:

"Let's take a look."