After much turmoil, the group finally completed the first step of their second task: successfully infiltrating Austin and officially becoming its citizens. The next step was to enter the Technology Building to steal equipnt for dehydrated vegetables and other devices.
"Amitabha, my sins, my sins," Monk prayed, his hands pressed together, before greedily devouring the food with a fork. Jing Shu’s braised beef with potatoes was truly delicious.
The group stayed in the assigned first-class resident housing. They went to bed early after dinner. Although it was sowhat crowded, the large castle always emitted a soft glow. Its internal temperature was as warm as spring. Crucially, the streets were even maintained by intelligent cleaning robots. It all felt like living in a peaceful, high-tech city before the apocalypse—clean and comfortable.
Of course, paying such an expensive fee only qualified one as the most basic first-class citizen. Above that level were second and Third-class citizens, just like VIP levels one might pay for—the more you paid, the more services you enjoyed.
Moreover, to survive in Austin City, the food they had brought might not be enough. They would need to work, just like before the apocalypse. Labor was eagerly sought by wanderers outside. The once-expensive Arican labor had now beco cheap; people would do anything for food. Therefore, the ordinary middle class inside the castle had to rack their brains to find other ways to earn food and continue living there.
After all, entering the castle did not an one was set for life. Inside, every transaction incurred expensive fees, monthly managent fees, and taxes. Becoming a citizen was just the entry ticket, a beginning. This was similar to the saying that buying a car is affordable, but maintaining it is not. Many people thought that paying 100 pounds would allow them to live comfortably in a securely fortified castle, but that was not the case.
Technology developers in the area, however, received great benefits. They had recently been developing various kinds of food by any ans necessary to increase productivity.
Jing Shu rembered that Wu City had even introduced a special job, ’taster,’ a few years back. This involved eating various newly developed foods in public every day. Tasters received bonuses if they remained unhard after three months and were promoted to permanent employees if they were still alive after a year. This was to help the public accept these strange, bizarre, and disgusting foods, essentially using people as test subjects... Extinct animals were considered more valuable than humans.
At that ti, there were quite a few problems. The food drove so mad, while others grew additional body parts or organs. Those people indeed made a significant Contribution Value to the food supply during the apocalypse. I hadn’t expected the United States to start so early. Jing Shu sighed. I’m starving; I can hardly care about much else right now.
Ah, if the United States started research so early, then taking so data back should count as Contribution Value, right? The idea took root in Jing Shu’s mind.
Moreover, Austin had also introduced ’birth workers,’ won specifically tasked with birthing children for Austin’s citizens. The conditions were good, with room and board provided, but they could not choose their partners. They would stay with one family to have a child one year and move to another the next to continue bearing children. Jing Shu didn’t know what to make of this.
After the tyrant ca to power and faced a sharp population decline, he implented a similar policy. He even added positions for ’fertile workers’ aged 20-45, who enjoyed formal employee benefits and autonomy. This ant if such a worker liked a single or widowed man, she could pair with him until she conceived; the man had no right to refuse. Furthermore, a man could be paired with multiple such workers simultaneously.
Refusal was possible, but it ca at the cost of food. It was said that even the handso, cold tyrant paid a significant amount of food, as many won wanted to have children with him. The details of such transactions, like money rely moving from one of his pockets to another, weren’t easy to clarify.
After childbirth, the child could be supported by the state or by the father. This ’freedom’ of choice was actually quite controversial because if a man wanted a child, he had to pay to be paired. Single n were still plentiful.
No matter what, I never considered supporting myself by having children in my past life, and this life is no different, Jing Shu thought firmly.
Regarding Austin, setting aside national and external factors, it was undoubtedly one of the best places to live in the apocalypse. Firstly, it was extrely safe; apart from security personnel, no one was allowed to carry firearms inside the castle. Secondly, it was comfortable. In a world without sunlight during the apocalypse, having a self-luminous material was indeed a boon. Thirdly, it offered relatively easy access to food sources.
I also need to set my own goals for this second mission, Jing Shu thought. First, I’ll look for suitable plants to cultivate and add supplies to my upgraded space. Second, I’ll visit high-tech places to see if I can steal so useful materials that we don’t have back ho, or just find anything else of use.
Lastly, and sothing Jing Shu had been constantly pondering, was the material of the castle walls. She had secretly observed them up close. The walls seed to glow perpetually, like LED lights, and would deliver an electric shock upon touch. They possessed unique properties, with each piece capable of illuminating independently. Moreover, the material itself maintained a temperature of over forty degrees Celsius, making it very warm. It acted like a giant heat lamp for the castle, emitting both light and warmth.
Jing Shu quietly scraped off so powder. Interestingly, the powder also glowed! I want to pry off more to take back to our country, she thought, or at least find out how this material was developed. If I can bring this stuff back, it would be a huge contribution. Plus, I’d be able to operate more openly and with greater standing in the future.
In my previous life, spanning ten years into the apocalypse, my knowledge of major global events wasn’t outdated. So, for such an incredible and precious material to exist now, why wasn’t it widespread? Why hadn’t I heard even a Shadow of it? Could the inventor have also transmigrated to this era? Besides, if this material can be used for castle walls and ceilings dozens of ters high, it can’t be *that* rare, can it? Jing Shu was utterly perplexed.
「The next day,」 the team split up. Jing Shu, Monk, and Little Black headed to the castle’s Agricultural Research Center. This facility housed everything related to agriculture, including Austin’s cultivation center and Jing Shu’s target: new dehydrated cultivation technology.
Jing Shu and her companions were there to scout the area and, ostensibly, to ’look for work.’ When it was learned that Jing Shu was a Chinese Doctor skilled in cultivating dicinal herbs, a researcher—a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty—quickly ca to greet them.
"Oh, damn! Austin has far too few private doctors, especially ones who truly understand dicinal cultivation. We primarily extract antibiotics, but we’re desperately short of other dicines. We can’t treat every illness with just antibiotics, can we? Your arrival is so tily! If you can indeed cultivate dicinal herbs, I will definitely apply for you to beco a Third-class citizen!" Eiffel exclaid excitedly, with Little Black translating in real-ti.
Jing Shu raised an eyebrow. "Forgive my bluntness, but you lack neither equipnt nor suitable conditions. Since you can cultivate various vegetables, why can’t you cultivate dicinal herbs?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)