The Governor's Mansion governs thirty-nine cities, issues laws and regulations, maintains law and order, and maintains social production. Some important departments are scattered in each city.
As for the difference between the outer city and the inner city, it is very interesting. Simply put, there are more "producers" living in the inner city, and more "proletarians" living in the outer city.
Well, this kind of statement is not easy to understand. Lin Tuo made an analogy with reference to the earth, and found that Ueno Star seems to be a high-welfare society with unlimited resources.
There are various energy sources in the whole society, but the most important one is ether, and the material resources here seem to be unlimited and inexhaustible.
Every resident does not need to work at all, and can receive a fixed amount of contribution points from the Governor's Mansion every month for consumption.
The Governor's Mansion provides basic housing, that is, those small western-style buildings around it. As for education, medical care, pensions, etc., there is no additional cost, which is part of social welfare.
To put it simply, people here can enjoy a very good life without engaging in any work in their entire lives. Social jobs are highly automated, and most of them are completed by ether-driven machines, while the ubiquitous network restricts crimes.
Jobs are extremely scarce, and the channels for social promotion are closed, resulting in the vast majority of people having no jobs to do. Many entertainment facilities are highly developed. Large-scale event venues like "Night City" are designed to solve the problems of imperial people, especially young people. People have nowhere to vent their energy and build it.
There are many similar activity venues in every large city, where repertoires are staged regularly. People can participate in battles, earn contribution points to spend more, and pursue higher material and spiritual needs in an already affluent life.
And this kind of entertainment is not the only way. For example, a large-scale virtual game like the original World No. 2 Dungeon "The Third Continent", because it is difficult to provide enough jobs in reality, we have to resort to virtual...
Another example is the movies in this world, which are also very interesting. When they are released, everyone can use the device to substitute a certain character in the movie, and then experience different story lines.
This leads to a "movie" that can be watched many times over and over again, once with the male lead, once with the female lead, and even a small supporting role...
And every substitution is to appreciate the story from a new perspective... Or all kinds of gambling, which are very popular with some adults, and no one will really lose everything in the game.
Even if you spend all the contribution points of the month, you can still go to the welfare organization to receive free food to last until next month...
When seeing these, Lin Tuo had a feeling, as if the only "job" of the people living in the outer city was consumption and entertainment.
Similar to the end of the Night City event, those who came by aircraft to count the losses are already one of the few general-purpose jobs in the outer city.
As for the inner city, there are more job opportunities.
Some of them are working in various institutional departments that maintain the operation of society, and some are creative positions, exporting ideas and manufacturing entertainment products.
Design a variety of new products, hand them over to unmanned factories for production, and then sell them to outer urban areas, and there are high-end service industries and the like.
Most of these jobs are transferred between the inner city.
As for the motivation of those "producers" to work and struggle, it is to earn more contribution points to purchase some scarce items.
For example, the qualification to leave the Ueno star area and migrate to the "inland" of the empire countless light years away, such as purchasing rarer spiritual and material enjoyment, or purchasing the opportunity of evolution.
For the vast majority of imperial people, there is a free evolution quota from birth, which is similar to ether quenching, so that the physical fitness can be improved in an all-round way. After that, if they want to evolve again, they need to use contribution points to purchase.
Moreover, the price is very high.
This gave Lin Tuo a strange sense of separation.
On the one hand, the vast majority of people in the outer urban areas do not have any pressure to survive, and the only thing to consider is entertainment and consumption.
On the other hand, people in the inner city cling to the few jobs and compete for resources.
On the one hand, material resources are so abundant that it is possible to build a city for entertainment, and let people consume ether unscrupulously to fight.
After the event is over, it will be repaired and waited for the second opening.
On the other hand, cultivation resources are extremely precious, or stingy, so that a "proletarian" in the outer city needs to resist the desire for entertainment and consumption, and accumulate for many years before he can buy an evolution quota.
…
"It's such a strange world." After a long silence, Huaxi suddenly said with emotion.
Lin Tuo smiled and patted her head: "It seems that you have a lot of knowledge."
"Isn't it?" Huaxi raised her head and said.
She always felt that she had a lot of experience.
It seems that Lin Tuo has never experienced the destruction of the world he lives in, but she has.
"It's really strange." Mount Sinai pulled off the weapon bag on his back and frowned. "My main doubts are their material sources. The level of civilization is high, the degree of mechanical automation is high, and a large number of low-end jobs have been replaced. I can understand." .
However, the basis of this high welfare requires almost unlimited materials and energy. Where do these come from? "
Hathaway next to him interjected:
"For energy, ether is used. Everyone in this world has the physical fitness comparable to a warrior. The concentration of ether in the entire planet is high, so use it.
There are so many and endless spiritual realms in this thing, and your Southern Continent is similar, as for matter... "
"Material converter." Lin Tuo said suddenly, "Didn't you notice that the above information mentioned the maintenance of the material converter."
Several people looked over.
They also noticed this word, but the words above were vague, and they couldn't figure out what it meant.
Lin Tuo paid special attention to this word.
According to what he sees, there is indeed a great waste of resources in Ueno Star, and resources cannot appear out of thin air. In such an "ultimate" social form, the acquisition of resources is definitely a problem.
In terms of energy, even if there is plenty of ether, the people of the empire don't have the slightest awareness of saving it.
Can it really support this level of consumption
It's matter... This reminded him of the "substance transformation" function that comes with the "Derivation Sandbox".
Using the sand table, he can turn a small cart of soil into a real continent.
In the Pacific Ocean, the 10 million square kilometers of land were not derived from the excavation of a few truckloads of soil from the mountains
Since the evolution sand table comes from the empire, it is understandable that the other party has similar technology.
Perhaps, in the empire, any tree, through conversion, can supply a super city for wanton consumption for a year.
In this way, the basis of this high welfare can be explained.
Of course, this is just his conjecture, which needs to be further explored.
"Okay, let's leave here first." Lin Tuo put away his thoughts.
"Where are we going? Find a place to live? Speaking of which, there should be a hotel here." Huaxi said.
Lin Tuo raised his wristband and looked inside. The standard time of the Ueno star area... Uh, I'm really not used to it. Anyway, there should be a while before dawn.
"Let's call a car and go shopping." Lin Tuo said, manipulating a new program inside the bracelet, trying to call a car.
These systems of the empire are also quite interesting. Unlike on Earth, there is a Meituan installed on the mobile phone. No matter where you go, you have this app on your mobile phone, but once you leave the delivery range, you can’t use it.
The system of the Ueno star area changes according to the location of the person.
For example, at the very beginning, when he opened the wristband on Earth, there were only a few extremely basic functions in it. At that time, he was thinking that it might be special equipment for combat personnel, and there were not so many bells and whistles.
As a result, when they arrived in Night City, they connected to the system of the activity area.
When we get here, "taxi-hailing software" appears.
It's very interesting.
After a simple scan, vehicles can be leased inside the software. If you set "permanent lease", it is equivalent to buying a car, but this thing does not need to be supported by yourself. When it is not in use, it does not know where it will go. just come here.
The other is similar to unmanned taxis, charging according to the distance traveled.
As for the large buses, they are free.
Lin Tuo tried to buy a virtual "monthly card" in it, spent five contribution points, and the total available mileage appeared on it...a bunch of zeros, quite a lot.
Then there is the choice of car model, some for short rides, and some for lying down. The most amazing thing is that Lin Tuo also found a "multi-person bed" model in it.
Let him fall into contemplation for a short while...
Click "Call".
Less than ten seconds later, an unmanned capsule-shaped aircraft landed in the sky, and the door opened automatically. The space inside was not large, and the layout was somewhat similar to a hard seat on a train. There was a table with sofa seats on both sides.
The three went up, sat down, the door closed automatically, and a map appeared on the virtual panel that popped up from the wristband. Lin Tuo tried to expand it to understand the whole area.
But I found that the map stopped moving after expanding to a certain range. Well, is it because I think it is unnecessary
Lin Tuo thought about it, and set the command to drive towards the inner city.
"Whoosh—" In the low buzzing sound, the aircraft soared up, followed an invisible track, and flew through the night sky.
You can even adjust the speed...
Lin Tuo adjusted to a suitable rhythm, and looked out through the glass with Huaxi and Mount Sinai.
On the earth, dots of brilliance passed quickly, and after a while, the scenery of the land was the same, which was enough to show the hugeness of the city.
Suddenly, Huaxi was surprised and said: "There is a lot of light there."
Lin Tuo looked, and saw a certain position below, which was obviously brighter than usual. He adjusted his direction and found a building similar to an open-air stadium.
Looking down from the sky, it looks like a ring lying on the ground.
Inside, the lights were brightly lit, and as they approached, there was faint music. In the venue, a large lawn was covered with various event decorations, and many people gathered together.
At the same time, in all directions, some aircraft landed one after another.
"What kind of event is this?" Confused, the three of Lin Tuo found a place to get out of the car and walked towards the venue. Sure enough, there was music coming from inside, and it seemed that there was a singing activity.
There are large groups of young men and women, some of them are more normal, and some of them are dressed in strange clothes.
Talking to each other, or gathering together to eat and have a party.
The three of them walked in quietly and looked around. Mount Sinai turned his head and thought for a while: "Music festival?"
Huaxi sniffed: "A concert?"
Hathaway didn't show up, but the voice appeared in the minds of several people:
"Live cosplay, I saw the images on the side on the billboards on the road, they seem to be characters from a series of movies."
"Hush." Lin Tuo suddenly interrupted the discussion of several people, turned around, and saw a young girl in a loose, raincoat-like clothes with slogans written all over her walking over.
There are a bunch of weird things hanging around his neck, and he is holding a stack of... leaflets in his hand?
Seeing a few people, she smiled and said:
"Welcome! I didn't expect comrades to come here so late!"
Lin Tuo's eyes fluctuated, and he said, "We were passing by and saw some activities here, so..."
"Ah, it doesn't matter!" The girl was slightly taken aback when she heard the words, and immediately became more enthusiastic, "That's just right, our promotional event is to attract more comrades to join in!"
As she spoke, she stuffed a leaflet and a small flag into someone familiarly, and introduced herself:
"You can call me Ai Ai, well, you may not know about this speech beforehand, but you should have heard our appeal! Yes, that's right, we are the initiator of Proposition 15..."
On the opposite side, the three of Lin Tuo looked at each other, pretending to be calm, and at the same time raised their ears and followed the girl named Ai Ai.
After listening for a while, I roughly understood the situation.
Ai Ai is a member of this "teaching meeting". According to her, she is an imperial youth who is keen on political movements...
Frankly speaking, Lin Tuo's eyes changed when he heard "Political Movement", but after listening to the content, he was somewhat speechless.
It probably means that the city has repeatedly delayed the construction of the new "activity area" recently, and the existing activity area has not been updated for more than a year, making it difficult to meet the entertainment needs of the city's youth.
To put it bluntly, I am tired of playing large entertainment venues like Night City... The speed of government updates and iterations is too slow, which has caused dissatisfaction among many young people.
So this social group took the lead and planned to add a proposal to the next issue of the Governor's Mansion soliciting opinions...
The event held tonight is to attract more young people to join in and "speak out"...
"So, you want us to join together? To promote the implementation of Proposition 15?" Lin Tuo asked.
Ai Ai nodded vigorously and snapped her fingers: "That's right! That's it! Don't you think this is a social problem that needs to be solved urgently?"
No... As a person on Earth, I really don't think...
Lin Tuo complained silently in his heart, and asked casually, "So what's the specific content of the proposal?"
Ai Ai shook her fist excitedly and said:
"Yes! We are going to propose to flatten Night City... and then rebuild a city with a different world style. Well, the original space is not big enough. It is best to destroy the unfinished activity area and rebuild it.
We contacted 'future' in the inner city and they could provide an entire fantasy world design job for 10% of the budget…”
Lin Tuo and the others couldn't listen to what was said later, and they looked at each other. At this moment, they could see two words from each other's eyes: earth turtle.
Yes, Lin Tuo felt that he was an idiot.
look at people.
Any proposal to bulldoze a city and rebuild it...
"Wouldn't it be a waste?" Huaxi held back for a long time, then whispered.
Ai Ai glanced at her suspiciously: "Waste? How? This obviously provides new jobs."
"..."
OK, not on a channel.
Lin Tuo pulled Huaxi down, smiled, and was about to insinuate and ask something, when suddenly, he heard a burst of enthusiastic cheers in front of him!
"Ahh, Kaguya! It's Kaguya!"
Several people suddenly looked over and found that they had already walked to a stage without knowing it.
On the stage surrounded by pools, fountains, lights and mist, a tall girl in shiny clothes stepped out, who seemed to be a certain star.
With a "snap", he shook a whip in his hand:
"Are you ready for my scourge?"
Downstairs, a large group of young men dressed as fans and holding support signs were crowded, tears streaming down their faces.
"Get ready!!"
"Ah..." Lin Tuo opened his mouth, dumbfounded.
Ai Ai next to her also smiled awkwardly, and explained: "Comrades are too enthusiastic."
No... They didn't come here for your proposal at all...
Lin Tuo was thinking, and suddenly, he froze and stared at the crowd without moving.
"Old..." Huaxi blinked, and went to pull Lintuo, but only heard the latter say: "Don't move!"
Under the flickering stage lights, Lin Tuo stared at a chubby figure holding a fan card on the periphery of the stage, and the light illuminated the profile of that person.
Lin Tuo was shocked!
This person... is exactly the same as the pilot of the search ship No. 404, who was killed by him! ! !
(end of this chapter)