...
2:30 in the early morning.
Xu Shu had been busy for most of the night before finally finding a place that seed decent enough to settle his entire family in.
Since it was already late, it was clear that handling the residency permit would have to wait until tomorrow.
Fortunately, this matter wasn’t urgent and could be taken care of slowly.
After temporarily settling his family, Xu Shu left alone.
He planned to first visit the local Star Tower, partly to explore and partly to exchange so valuables for cultivation resources.
Upon stepping out of the hotel, it was drizzling outside. Xu Shu casually inserted so coins into the self-service umbrella machine at the door and stepped out with an umbrella.
On rainy days, stars and the moon cannot be seen.
This may sound like a cliché, but in the Lower District of Bai Yujing... it’s even more of a cliché.
Because here, even on a clear day, you can’t see the magnificent night sky either.
Walking down the street, even in the dead of night, there were quite a few passersby in raincoats hurrying along, shoulders brushed, heads bowed, like rats in the sewers.
Seeing this, Xu Shu couldn’t help but sigh.
Previously, he thought of the Lower District as being at a sowhat lower altitude, possibly with fewer residents, but quiet and with a good environnt, not bustling, enough to enjoy the sun during the day and the night scene at night; life seed quite enjoyable;
In reality, the Lower District was the complete opposite; it could be described as: You can’t see the stars when you look up, and when you look down, it’s all stinking gutters, eight people crowd into one room, and even the floor can be rented!
Oh, one thing matched; the "elevation" indeed is low, but not in the way one would imagine, rather because...
The entire Lower District refers to the entire city that is "below the walls of the Safe Zone."
In other words, it is a city area that is still "on the ground."
Conversely, the "Upper City" refers to the areas above the city wall horizon — it seems the people here redefined the concept of the "horizon."
In the eyes of those in the Lower District, the Upper City has fresh air, wide views, vastness, and leisure. When leaving ho, there are interconnected sky bridges leading everywhere, as if everyone’s life is like that of a god — as for the higher "Cloud-top Mountain" area, ordinary people can’t even dream about it; it’s beyond "being like a god."
In short, according to the residents of the Lower District, in the "Upper City," even the moon is rounder, and everyone is working hard to live in the Upper City.
This is no joke, because in the Lower District, the moon is almost never visible.
Why?
Because the buildings here are as tall as the city walls; many of them are even higher than the walls.
The monster gathered by the jungle of steel spreads its claws and fangs into every corner of this small urban area, seemingly to make the most of the already scarce land resources in the Safe Zone.
These parts towering above the walls form the "Upper City," interconnected by ’sky bridge horizons,’ where eating, drinking, and living all take place above, and Upper City residents do not need to co down unless necessary.
The residents of the Lower District say they live on the ground, but it seems not much different from living underground.
Unless going to specific parks or areas, normally walking in the city, the sky is not visible at all as the line of sight has long been consud by the outer walls of high-rise buildings.
Moreover, all the garbage needs to be transported from top to bottom, ultimately sent through underground tunnels to specific treatnt centers for unified disposal.
This leads to the fact that the closer the location is to the ground in the Lower District, the worse the conditions beco.
If not for the ’air purification constructs’ appearing at intervals on the walls, operating at full capacity with a whirring sound, ensuring continuous output, the sll here might beco unbearably stinky — it is said these are products of the Mo Palace, relying solely on them ensures the basic survival needs of the Lower District residents.
Narrow, cramped, dark, damp, capital, exploitation, oppression, sickness... all sorts of unfavorable synonyms blend together to form the unchanging the of the Lower District.
"No wonder, even from far away, you can see how each of those skyscraper rooftops has been transford into various villas, gardens, and mountain resorts, only to realize that the world above and below the walls is entirely different." Xu Shu was sowhat speechless.
Honestly, even in his previous life, he had never seen such a crowded place.
Similar situations seed to only be read about in magazines describing "the world’s most crowded cities," marveling at the wonders of the world.
Even the places described in those magazines, in terms of population density, seed to be nothing compared to this Lower District of Bai Yujing.
Xu Shu even started to wonder how many people were cramd into this little city.
The entire D8B3 District alone has over two million people, but to save space for farming, the living areas have beco extrely cramped;
Yet, when looking at the D9B3 District, Xu Shu felt that the "slum" they moved into a few years ago due to his foster father’s serious illness was like a five-star hotel in comparison.
A First-class Safe Zone, a base for powerful forces, yet over ninety percent of the people in the Safe Zone live in conditions vastly inferior to the slums of a Third-class Safe Zone?
Is this reasonable?
Regardless of its reasonableness, it was laid out unmistakably in front of Xu Shu, renewing his perspective.
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