"Please move aside, you're blocking the way." Gu Huaiwei's tone was gentle, with a smile on her lips, but her eyes were as cold as ice.

The dagger slid silently into her palm, and the blade flashed a cold light in the dim light, causing the slave trader's eyes to shrink.

"Don't... don't kill me!" The slave trader took a few steps back in panic, his breathing becoming rapid.

Suddenly, Carl appeared out of nowhere.

He pressed his big hand heavily on Gu Huaiwei's shoulder, and his eyes swept towards the slave trader like a sharp blade.

The other party was so scared that his face turned pale and he fled, crawling away, his figure disappearing into the alleys of the bustling market.

Gu Huaiwei only felt her shoulders sink, and she felt a little painful from Karl’s rough movements.

She dodged his hand and asked in confusion, "Why are you here? Are you closing up shop so soon?"

"How can it be so fast?" Karl snorted, his eyes widening. "I just saw you queuing up at the human meat stall, so I hurried over to remind you that the meat was peeled off a dead body, you can't eat it!"

"Oh, human flesh." Gu Huaiwei looked thoughtfully at the burnt and oily piece of meat in her hand, "No wonder it's so cheap."

"Not only that, it's also mixed with the rotting flesh of mutant animals." Carl frowned in disgust. "This kind of meat is toxin-laden. If you actually eat it, not only will your body fester, but in serious cases, you'll also be exposed to radiation."

"Is that so? So many people buy poisonous things." Gu Huaiwei shook the meat in her hand and prepared to throw it away.

"What choice do they have?" Carl's eyes fell on the distance, his face heavy, "Those people can't even afford nutritional supplements.

Anyone who can afford to stay in your Oasis Hotel is already doing pretty well.

Most people live like ghosts."

Gu Huaiwei nodded, turned her eyes to the bustling market, and casually gave the piece of meat in her hand to a beggar in tattered protective clothing at the corner of the street.

Her eyes showed no pity, but she calmly analyzed, "The lack of spending power among residents is indeed one of the reasons why the hotel's turnover is not growing."

Carl was lamenting the difficulties of life.

He saw the mother holding her child, wearing a torn protective suit, using iron sheets to cut out the contaminated tumor in the child's body.

He saw the beggar dragging his amputated leg, huddled in a corner, waiting for others to finish eating the meat, and then licking the paper towels that were still stained with meat and grease.

He saw "handsome men and beautiful women" in the red-light district who were engaged in the flesh trade despite having all sorts of illnesses, and saw intact people enter a room and then be disassembled into parts and sent out.

Carl felt sorry for these people, but there was nothing he could do to change the situation.

If my sister were here, she would definitely feel compassion for these people.

All Gu Huaiwei thought about was how to increase residents' spending power and boost the hotel's turnover.

"The most fundamental thing is to increase residents' income, create more employment opportunities, raise wages, and provide skills training for low-income workers.

Then we need to reduce the cost of living, improve the consumption environment, stimulate consumer desire, and stabilize the economic environment..."

Gu Huaiwei was mumbling something, but Karl couldn't understand.

He was in a complicated mood.

Although Gu Huaiwei appears to be very outgoing and easy to get along with.

She will enthusiastically help customers solve problems, actively promote sales, care about hotel reviews, and prepare small gifts for members.

But if you get a little closer to her, you'll find that she is very wary of others and rarely reveals anything about herself.

Gu Huaiwei doesn't seem to let others into her life easily.

She is too realistic and sometimes seems a little cold.

But what Karl didn't know was that Gu Huaiwei was sentimental and was only targeting those three or two people.

Gu Huaiwei didn’t notice Karl’s eyes.

She was still thinking about upgrading the hotel.

To upgrade a hotel from level three to level four, a turnover of one million gold coins is required.

In the future, reaching level five will be even more difficult.

She needed to expand transportation links to attract high-end clients from Midtown and Uptown.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the downtown market with its huge population.

Karl was silent for a while, and suddenly said: “Miss Gu, there is something you may not know. In fact, your hotel is a kind of salvation for the people in the downtown area.”

"Really?" Gu Huaiwei felt that she just opened a store in an orderly manner and could not bear such high praise.

“There’s a vending machine at your door where you can exchange scrap metal for food and fresh water.

The food returned to the downtown area could be exchanged for basic nutritional supplements, allowing many people to survive."

Carl has been watching all these things.

Gu Huaiwei smiled nonchalantly and said, "Don't say that, I'm just an ordinary businessman."

It is not easy to have the reputation of being a good person.

Gu Huaiwei respectfully declined.

There is a small, makeshift slave market on Trade Street.

Concentrated in the east.

Karl was worried that Gu Huaiwei would be harassed by some troublesome people, so he went with her.

The two walked side by side.

Carl said as he walked: "A proper slave should be sold for more than 200 gold coins."

Gu Huaiwei recalled the slave trader's face and asked in confusion, "The slave trader just now only offered fifty gold coins.

She said those slaves were leftovers from the toy factory. What kind of place is a toy factory anyway?

Carl explains: “The Toy Factory is where Downtown trains people for Uptown.

There are some in the eighth, ninth, and tenth districts.”

Gu Huaiwei: "Talent?"

Karl felt his nose was uncomfortable, so he adjusted the oxygen concentration of his protective suit higher, exhaled, and said slowly, "It's a place where killers and playthings are trained.

People in the downtown area were poor and parents who could not afford to raise their children would send them to toy factories.

If those kids are lucky enough, they can go uptown and make a living.”

"Becoming a killer and a plaything is not a good fate." Gu Huaiwei's eyes were slightly cold, and her high black ponytail swayed gently in the wind.

Karl’s tone was somewhat helpless: “At least there is food to eat.”

In the toy factory.

If a child has a talent for fighting, he will learn fighting techniques.

If you are lucky, you will be trained to become a bodyguard or private mercenary for the powerful.

If you are unlucky, you will be sent to the Colosseum to fight with wild beasts for people to watch and gamble.

If the child is good-looking, he or she will learn the skills of serving and pleasing others.

If you are lucky, you will be sent to the birdcage of the powerful and become a doll for them to watch and play with.

If you are unlucky, you may end up in the red-light district or some special clubs.

Gu Huaiwei adjusted the frame of her glasses, remembering the gossip she had heard in the car: "I heard from Kane that the toy factory also provides human body parts for people in the upper city."

"No way! If there's no way to make a living even in a toy factory, the lower town will revolt."

Karl didn't quite believe this at first, but he seemed to suddenly remember something and frowned.

"However, several months ago, there was indeed an explosion at the toy factory in District 8, and a batch of goods that were supposed to be shipped to the upper city were lost."