The outer city of Viña is shrouded in smoke most of the time, giving it a fairy-tale feel. It would be even better if the smoke were not inhalable particulate matter.
Yin Zhu covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, looking around as if shrouded in a thin veil, indistinct and unclear.
"No wonder all the vehicles are flying in the sky, otherwise there would definitely be car accidents." This was Yin Zhu's biggest thought during her two days in Vina City. Not being able to see clearly didn't affect her travel, but it made it easy to get into a car accident.
A dark figure emerged from the mist, and as it drew closer, Yin Zhu realized it was a robot policeman.
It stopped as it passed by Yin Zhu, scanned the back of her hand, and then moved on to the next place, just as usual monitoring passersby and acting entirely in accordance with the rules set by the system.
That's the good thing about machines; they follow procedures and don't do anything unnecessary.
The Good Spirit Officer is like an ID card and bank card for the city of Vena. Basically, you can verify your identity and make transactions by scanning a QR code, but it doesn't feel as convenient as a smartphone and has very few functions.
Yin Zhu had complained about this before, but Hirano Shan reminded her: "The main purpose of this thing is actually to monitor citizens. It's just that this function is not enabled in the outer city area for the time being. Once you enter the inner city area, all your movement paths and chat content will be recorded and uploaded to the backup database in real time."
"Is it that serious?"
"Yes, that's what the worms said."
"It feels like the technology tree of Unique Star has been developed in a very skewed way, and it doesn't benefit the people at all." This was Yin Zhu's sincere complaint.
"There's nothing we can do; after all, the gods are above us."
The recollection ends here. Based on her previous experience, Yin Zhu found the "primary school" that the indigenous people sent their children to.
There was an uncle with cat ears standing in front of the elementary school, casually drinking his wine. Yin Zhu observed him closely and noticed that he seemed to only drink a little bit each time he tilted his head back, or rather, just moisten his lips, without actually drinking much.
It's a bit like a game NPC, always doing the same thing, but the things in its hands don't change.
Yin Zhu straightened her appearance, thought about what it must be like for a local resident who "has nowhere to put their child" to be in, and then went over to chat with the gatekeeper:
"Uncle, could you tell me how many Vena coins it costs to bring a child in?"
The uncle stopped his mechanical movements, glanced at Yin Zhu, and looked her up and down: "We only accept children over 4 years old. We can take care of you from morning to night. It costs 100 Vena coins per week."
"Wow, this is a bit expensive." Yin Zhu didn't expect that this place would cost ten times more than a poor man's apartment.
The older man said with a hint of schadenfreude, "If you don't have money, you can stay home and take care of your child. Going to school is something only rich people can do. You look like a newcomer to the city who's been promoted to a permanent position, right? As someone who's been there, let me give you some advice: dump your husband as soon as possible and try to marry a citizen with a higher status."
Without a doubt, Yin Zhu was seen as someone who achieved upward social mobility through marriage.
However, this is normal. Social mobility in the city of Vina is very difficult. Unless it is a special case like "love", it is very difficult for lower-class citizens and migrants from outside the city to become higher-class citizens and live a better life.
Yin Zhu retorted with a disdainful expression, "Tsk, you're also from the outer city. Does being C-level mean you're that much higher than being D-level? It's not like you can have contact with B-level citizens."
Upon hearing this, the uncle perked up.
"Then you don't understand. Although high-ranking citizens and low-ranking citizens live in different places, it doesn't mean they have no opportunity to interact. Low-ranking citizens cannot enter the inner city without permission, but as long as a high-ranking citizen gives permission, they can still go there to broaden their horizons."
"So, you've been to the inner city? You're not just bragging, are you?" Yin Zhu's provocation wasn't particularly clever, but it was effective.
After all, many men have a strong desire to show off.
When the man talked about the inner city, he was no longer sleepy and began to boast to the stranger about his past experiences: "When I was young, I was a Class C citizen. I worked in a company and did some mechanical assembly line work every day. My boss was a Class B woman. We even had a relationship back then."
Yin Zhu carefully observed the uncle from head to toe. He was unshaven and had almost no aura, just like the old man you might encounter on the streets of Longguo. Apart from his cat ears, she couldn't see anything special about him: "She would be interested in you? Don't the rules restrict your relationship?"
What could anyone possibly want from him? Is it because his cat ears are easy to pinch?
The middle-aged man showed no signs of inferiority and laughed heartily: "You have no idea, she used to love kneading my ears back then." As he said this, the man even twitched his fluffy cat ears.
The next second, the uncle wilted: "However, although the rules allow it, she has a fiancé, who is another high-ranking citizen and also an executive of another company. So after hearing about our situation, he plotted to make me violate the rules of Vena City and tried to kill me directly. Fortunately, she has been working for me, which is why I was able to stay in the city, but I can no longer enter the company."
"So what's the point? You've never even been inside the inner city, all you've done is brag." Yin Zhu wasn't interested in this kind of melodramatic love story; she wished she had a fast-forward button in real life.
The older man rolled his eyes at Yin Zhu: "Of course, it was when we were dating that she invited me into the inner city."
"What is the inner city of Vina City like?" Yin Zhu asked excitedly. "Is it the legendary place where you don't have to pay for meals, you can live in a very large and spacious house, and you don't have to go to work every day, you can just eat, drink and have fun?"
The older man ruthlessly shattered Yin Zhu's unrealistic fantasies: "It is very good, much better than outside, but it's not as simple as you think."
After a pause, the uncle added, "It seems there's a membrane separating the inner city from the outer city. Once you go inside, there's no more smog, the air is incredibly fresh, and you really don't have to spend any money on food, clothing, shelter, or transportation. It looks like a beautiful utopia. But inside, all your movements will be recorded, and your words will become evidence in Chen Tang's testimony. I was just talking nonsense when her fiancé seized the opportunity to attack me for lacking sincerity towards the gods and for being rebellious."
"Understood. Once inside, I can't talk or run around." Yin Zhu secretly memorized this.
It wasn't that Yin Zhu didn't trust Hirano Sane, but rather that Yin Zhu couldn't obtain information from a single source. If the information was correct, then Yin Zhu would get similar answers no matter which direction she obtained it from.
This repeated verification also ensures that Hirano Sane's knowledge sources are clean and that she has no intention of deceiving them.
After hearing the same information a second time, Yin Zhu could basically confirm that the information Hirano Shan obtained from the worm was indeed correct, and the worm was most likely someone who had escaped from the inner city, just as he said.
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