Xu Cheng left, and Xu Yang walked along the wooden pier path.
The greenish sea water surged beneath the tal railings. This was the famous Monica Paradise Pier on the West Coast, a location featured in many movies and gas.
The landmark small Ferris wheel was stalled at the end of the pier, surrounded by colorful tents, with a row of tall palm trees beyond the beach, overshadowing the coastal highway and the colorful exterior walls of the hotels.
He never thought he would be walking here in his lifeti, believing that what was in gas would always remain in gas.
Just at that mont, Xu Yang received a communication invitation, sent by Rohit non.
non was once the chairman of the Western Seaboard Treaty Organization and the Chief Executive Officer of Night Gate Technology Company, a big shot who had stepped down just two weeks before the Heavenly Tribulation, narrowly escaping disaster. The Divine Radiance was also his gift to Xu Yang.
Has he returned to the West Coast? Xu Yang wondered. Shouldn’t non be retired sowhere in the Taixi Continent?
"Hello." Xu Yang answered the communication signal.
"Oh, Mr. Xu, I’m on the West Coast. Could I trouble you for a eting?" non asked.
"I’m at Monica Paradise Pier," Xu Yang said.
"I’ll be there soon."
Xu Yang leaned against the tal railing, and non arrived five minutes later.
His private shuttle machine, like a scarlet bird, parked conspicuously on the beach, with a tall robot coming out first, standing by the shuttle machine acting as a bodyguard.
"Is that robot the ’Roasting Furnace’ produced by Taixi Industrial Treaty?" Xu Yang asked.
He was quite concerned with the subtle changes in the current world. After the Heavenly Tribulation, Taixi’s companies pooled their remaining industrial resources together to establish Taixi Industrial Treaty.
"Yes, yes." non, with graying hair, wearing a gray suit, was very respectful to Xu Yang. He extended his hand to shake Xu Yang’s, a smile on his face, "Finally seeing you again, Mr. Xu."
"Why did you co back to the West Coast?" Xu Yang asked, "Weren’t you planning on retiring?"
"I indeed returned to my hotown in the Taixi Continent, but I couldn’t adapt to the environnt there. Everything is too old, the pace too slow, and people there didn’t like . I was up working at six, while others were still groggy with sleep. I felt like a catfish that mistakenly swam into a sardine cargo hold. In recent years, the environnt has worsened, isolation everywhere, crises rampant, with alien monsters everywhere, it’s really uncomfortable." non said helplessly.
"The work culture on the West Coast suits you better," Xu Yang said.
"Yes, to exaggerate a bit, this city is calling . So I returned enthusiastically, filled with visions when I arrived. I thought, though I am only an honorary citizen of the New Taixi State, I am no worse than the local citizens. I have knowledge, professional ability, and my own resources, I should be able to stand out." non said.
"Seems like there’s no nomination for you on the committee list," Xu Yang said.
"...Yes, after the Heavenly Tribulation, many people changed, many ideas changed as well." non sighed.
"The West Coast is responding to the call, preparing to establish a new community of citizens," Xu Yang said.
"Not one, but twenty. The West Coast will split into 20 distinct cities in the future: Agave Ancestry City, Xia People Street, Rainbow Flag Community, Great Aboriginal Community, Black Descendant Community, Machinist Avenue, Furry Folk Lane, Second Dinsion City, La Raphael Reserve, New Katsuragi Gang, Fifty Stars Flag... all a ss, each for their own." non lanted.
"That sounds pretty good," Xu Yang was unconcerned.
"Of course, that was your idea, advocating for the entire world to decentralize, each for their own. As this ’big shot’ returned to the West Coast, I found it to be true. They’ve all gone about their own ways, not caring about at all. The ’elite class’ and rich clubs I was used to are gone, the people who stayed began to band together based on their own ideas." non complained.
"I believe people can organize production and life themselves. Each mber is both the master of their own body and abilities, and the leader and master of the entire society, each with equal status and weight in their own society. Now, all forces that used to control everything and monopolize everything have been damaged, beaten badly. So, with the leaders gone, all is well." Xu Yang said.
"But you still want to establish a council, and the council’s army." non said perplexedly.
"Yes, but this is voluntary. The council mbers are all volunteers, and others provide resources to the council based on the principle of voluntariness. And what the council does is not managent or governance, but rather assisting the civilization to resist external enemies selflessly. To be honest, the council’s work is hard labor." Xu Yang said.
"According to your idea, there would no longer be such powerful large corporations, nor power holders forcing others around. After this, we can only sincerely believe that people will naturally move towards order and sustain themselves without managent." non said helplessly.
"Since the mont intelligent life first gave rise to thoughts from chaos and disorder, we’ve already stepped into a state of order." Xu Yang said.
"I originally ca to ask for your help to find a job on the new West Coast." non pressed his hands against the railing, "The world as I understood it has turned upside down in these six years. I miss the old world, it had many flaws, but it was clear. For instance, with huge corporations, since it leaves you nowhere to go, you just join the huge corporation and climb slowly within it. A huge corporation has its own army, law, and currency, you just need to be a cell inside this beast, and if lucky, you might rise from the feet to the brain. Then just watch those outside the huge corporations, those slogging in small companies, doing gigs on the street, selling sweat in factories. Watch how they suffer, coffee in hand, feeling that superior sense of superiority right from the heart."
"Resources have been concentrated in the ga-corporations, livelihoods are at a very low level, technology is extrely high, and life is extrely poor," Xu Yang said.
"Yes, but I had the opportunity to enter a ga-corporation from birth, so I didn’t feel it much. Now that I think about it, those born in poor areas, the rights they don’t have at birth, they can’t fight for in this life," non said.
"People were tired," Xu Yang said, "People were terrifyingly poor back then."
"Sigh, are things any better now? The West Coast is so strange now, the ’stability’ I once admired is gone, and there are no employee handbooks or life guides to steer our survival," non said.
"I feel that sothing truly ideal is sprouting within people’s hearts now, sparking sothing that will create a society much fairer than the past and form a bold miracle," Xu Yang said.
"You are the greatest idealist I’ve ever t, what you say sounds like a beautiful dream," non sighed longly, "—maybe I really should retire."
"Rediscover your past ideals. I guess you ca back to the West Coast thinking you could get a mayoral position. Now that you’re not becoming a mayor, you can still find what you truly want to do," Xu Yang said.
non looked at the rolling sea, his thoughts seed to drift back to his childhood.
"I want to." non paused, then repeated, "I want to open a bookstore."
"A bookstore?" Xu Yang was curious.
"When I was 11, I bought two books from a bookstore. One was ’Introduction to Circuit Programming Design,’ the other was ’Fire on the Abyss.’ The contents of the first book have been filed into the to-be-destroyed area of my chip, but the story from the second book, I have always rembered. The stories in the book... are so wonderful. 80 years have passed, and the stories are still so beautiful, so beautiful! The stories in the novel took on an unparalleled exotic life. I feel that we humans live on stories. So I should also open a bookstore, selling stories to young people. I’m 91 years old now, and as I near a hundred, I truly seem to have the ti to open a bookstore," non raised his head, gazing at the sky.
"Good luck to you," Xu Yang shook hands with him.
"Thank you." non sighed, "I just think, it may be very hard for people to reach that ideal state, people might even go backward."
"If it doesn’t go backward, it doesn’t deserve to be called history," Xu Yang said.
non nodded and parted ways with Xu Yang. He boarded his shuttle machine and returned to the dilapidated city on the West Coast, where millions of survivors retreating from the inland were trying to rebuild the city brick by brick.
People can’t always look down on themselves. Xu Yang thought. The past is gone forever, and history itself has been assassinated. Once renowned great existences have either fallen or been forgotten.
If civilization is like a mottled canvas, it has already been wiped clean by the relentless fire of war. Now the surviving people are painting it with colors of a new era, stroke by stroke.
The future starts from now.
...
Farosa reassembled the Throne of God’s fragnts, just like she did in Aizu City back then; she entered the Throne of God’s Space again, summoning all the Ancient Mystics.
"In the past, Orcian was giving orders on the throne; it devoured the Ascension Machine at the ti, and its power was formidable, all gods were forced to kneel forward and worship Orcian," Farosa took Xu Yang into the Throne of God’s Space.
She sat on the brand new throne, her hands resting on the armrests of the chair, waiting for the gods to appear.
"How does it feel to sit on the throne?" Xu Yang was curious.
"It’s just an iron chair, hard and stiff," Farosa mocked.
"You will make them kneel forward too, won’t you?" Xu Yang said.
"No, I won’t," Farosa was reminded by Xu Yang and at this thought, stood up involuntarily.
She stood on the black stage-like high step; below were many seats arranged in a semicircle facing Farosa. Soon they would all arrive, participating in the first council of the gods, deciding the laws of the New World.
Yan Duo and his three brothers arrived.
The Corporate Alliance originally housed the fourth giant god, and now it is released—Fayth Faye, the gaseous giant god.
It has long collaborated with the Corporate Alliance’s agents, who handed over their souls and lifespan, Fayth taught them the special spell of "vaporization."
"Will they still participate in formulating the rules of the New World?" Farosa asked.
"No, Yan Duo is going ho," Xu Yang said, "I now understand why Yan Duo insisted on finding his three brothers and returning to Nebula Village together because it would’ve been too lonely for him to go back alone."
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