After entering the city, the speed of the flying car significantly slowed down.
Gazing out, all they saw were skyscrapers soaring into the clouds, making Lu Yao and his companion feel as though they were insects in an ancient forest.
The entire exterior of the buildings was covered with digital screens, displaying eye-catching, gigantic advertisents.
The content varied widely, from body augntation and organ enhancent... to even blatant sales of hallucinogenic potions!
In comparison, the advertisents for "Virtual Lovers" seed particularly heartwarming.
Up in the night sky, a sweet and gentle holographic projection of a giant woman cast adoring glances at the passing traffic, the embodint of a beautiful first love.
These so-called "Virtual Lovers" were highly intelligent holographic projections, capable of shaping the perfect companion according to the user's requests.
They would not disdain their owner's tattered clothes, unpleasant body odor, or the grotesque rejections caused by cheap augntations.
Just as the massive advertisent in the sky stated: "Companionship is the greatest form of love."
Lu Yao said with a smile, "It seems you no longer need to hide your form; just disguise yourself as my 'Virtual Lover'."
Fran scoffed in annoyance and turned her head to look elsewhere.
But not all the sights in a big city were pleasant.
After looking for a while, Fran suddenly muttered, "In such a big city, the people here don't seem to be living well..."
Lu Yao nodded slightly; the city was like a giant "tack".
In the sprawling lower layers, buildings were dirty, disorderly, and decrepit, blanketed in brownish-yellow smog with no sunlight all year round.
The residents had almost all undergone cheap body modifications, their half-human, half-machine appearance barely resembling humans.
Even the stark-naked streetwalkers, who twisted their bodies like snakes to attract custors, clearly had nurous chanical parts on their bodies.
There were also countless demonstrators clashing with uniford law enforcers, chanting slogans like "Oppose Bill 571" in a chaotic uproar.
In contrast, the high altitude area where the flying car traveled was clean, orderly, and peacefully tiless.
The people there also looked more like actual humans.
At least their pricey "body augntations" were filled with a sense of high-tech beauty and were not so frightening.
At that mont, the flying car slowly stopped at the intersection of the two areas.
"You have arrived near your destination. Have a pleasant journey," said the announcent as the car door opened slowly.
The mont Lu Yao and Fran stepped out of the car, they were t with an enthusiastic "welco"!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
rlin was an important figure in the School of Life, bound to have countless relatives, descendants, and stakeholders.
Lu Yao used his "Crystal Card" to pay for the trip and was imdiately discovered.
At that mont, nurous ard personnel clad in streamlined Power Armor surrounded them in battle formations.
More than 20 Armored Flying Vehicles sped over, and many elegantly dressed, distinguished n and won erged from them.
Whether people or vehicles, a conspicuous symbol of "two snakes intertwined", akin to a simplified DNA double helix and the emblem of the School of Life, was on them.
At this ti, the high-level mbers who had rushed over were at odds over how to deal with Lu Yao, so advocating violence while others opting for diplomacy.
A bald woman over two ters tall strode forward, saying in a deep voice, "I am the President of Letu Life Science and Technology—Long Ji. May I ask your honor's surna and given na? Why do you have our ancestor's personal terminal?"
Despite her tall fra, the woman's bodily proportions were perfect, as if they had been asured and cut with a ruler.
Lu Yao took out the Crystal Card, smiling calmly, "I am Lu Yao, and I had an agreent with your ancestor. I am here to fulfill that promise."
Upon hearing this, the crowd grew tense, and a man wearing a monocle demanded, "What agreent? Why would the ancestor transfer the privileges to you? Is he still alive? Speak!"
While speaking, his monocle continued to scan Lu Yao.
The woman known as Long Ji imdiately scolded the man, "Zhuge Fu, shut your mouth! It's not your place to speak!"
Being chastised in public, Zhuge Fu's face turned black, yet he said no more.
Afterwards, Long Ji turned to Lu Yao and solemnly said,
"Excuse us, this isn't the place to talk. Would you please co to the corporate villa, where we can discuss this in detail? Would that be alright?"
Lu Yao nodded slightly and responded indifferently, "That would be fine."
At that mont, he was deep in a tight encirclent, and his casual deanor wrinkled the brows of many.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The group returned to the flying vehicle and headed towards a higher and more central area of the city.
Lu Yao and Long Ji sat together.
While Long Ji continued to observe him, she was also communicating with other high-level executives through her neural computer:
[This person has a strange magnetic field on his body, rendering all our detection thods useless! It's even hard to confirm whether he is human!]
[The virtual person by his side is even stranger, seemingly a more advanced holographic projection technology...]
Hearing these words, Long Ji's brows furrowed tighter, as she too had obtained no useful information from Lu Yao.
This man's background was a mystery. Yet, the old ancestor transferring all his permissions to him was certainly no simple matter.
At this point, Zhuge Fu's voice rose, unusually grave:
[According to the law, this man will automatically inherit 5% of the corporate shares from the old ancestor, which is absolutely unacceptable! I suggest—imdiately deploying the security forces to eliminate him!]
No sooner had he spoken than many voiced their agreent: [Indeed! How can we casually let an outsider occupy our shares!]
[If this man is sent by the 'Chairman', we are dood!]
The channel was filled with clamor, and Long Ji sneered in secret, well aware of their petty sches.
Lu Yao had inherited a variety of permissions from the old ancestor, of which the most important was—5% of Letu Life Science and Technology's shares!
At first glance, this might not seem much, but it's indeed a significant share for a large corporation; Long Ji herself held only 6%.
Since the disappearance of the old ancestor, his direct descendants had been managing his shares, and they were extrely unwilling to relinquish them now.
Even Long Ji herself certainly didn't want to, but for the sake of playing it safe, she still said:
[There's no need to rush into combat. Let's probe further. Once we're inside the corporate villa, we can have things our way.]
~~~~~~~~~~~
The luxury armored flying vehicle continued its smooth flight, with the engine noise barely audible.
Lu Yao was swiping through his crystal card, searching for information related to "Scripture."
To his surprise, the exceptionally developed network yielded only so formulaic articles of praise, not a single useful word.
At that mont, the flying vehicle convoy was passing through a densely populated area – after which lay the corporate villa.
Here too, countless protesters were facing off against law enforcent, cursing and shouting angrily upon seeing the convoy overhead, so even picked up stones to hurl upwards.
With a quick search, Lu Yao found information about this matter rather swiftly.
[Bill 571 Implentation Blocked, Sparking Widespread Public Protests]
This so-called Bill 571 was known in full as the "Newborn Genetic Optimization Law."
It stated "an absolute prohibition on naturally birthed infants!"
All newborns were required to undergo genetic modulation optimization before being born.
The poor could not afford such biotechnology, and if this bill passed, only the wealthy would qualify to have descendants in the future.
This was simply unconscionable, and pushing it forward were giants like "Letu Life Science and Technology."
In this world, all labor could be completed through intelligent machinery. Even for the slightly more complex jobs, augnted cyborg technicians were capable of outperforming a hundred human workers.
Ordinary people were stripped of even the chance to be exploited, viewed as a burden, and now stood on the verge of losing their right to reproduce.
Lu Yao glanced down at the impotent, furiously raging commoners and thought: Technology does not always bring a better life.
Lost in his thoughts, they arrived at the corporate villa.
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