Chapter 4: 3.1

Mateo drove Xu Yang to the deep level of Aizu Underground City, leaving Highland No. 26, and headed to Katagi District.

 

Katagi District is the most marginal and chaotic area in Aizu Underground City. 

 

The bustling neon lights and billboards gradually faded away, and all he could see were steel domes and icy high walls. He saw the primitive-looking underground living quarters, shops, and barracks, they barely functioned under the dim lighting. The wiring is complicated, as the wires and optical cables were intertwined in the open like insects. The environment was extremely gloomy, it is full of pitch-black alleys and bottomless cracks. The ventilation ducts appear irregularly and were connected to the huge heavy-axis fans which were placed in high places. The huge heavy-axis fans were running fast, as though, they wanted to drain all the foul stench from the underground.

 

The impoverished population was pushed out by the city to this area, which was forgotten by maps and city planning.

 

If I didn't have money, I'd be in a place like this, Xu Yang thought silently.

 

Poverty is the original sin.

 

Fortunately, I'm about to get a lot of money...

 

When I have the money, I want to escape to a faraway place, like a steaming seaside city, and buy a villa on the beach together with a yacht.

 

He saw a group of motorcyclists whizzing through the street, with guns in their hands, going god knows where to fight. Although Mateo drove fastly, he still made a sharp turn to bypass them.

 

"These people are local gangsters," Mateo said. " The gangsters take care of places where the company can't manage."

 

"I almost thought you were going to run into them."

 

"No way," Mateo said. "Brother, many local gangsters are armed robots. They could have been wrapped with explosives. A 'general' like me can't afford to take the risk." (5)

 

The Dashogun off-road vehicle is a sub-brand of Kyoto Unlimited and is low in quality.

 

Kyoto Unlimited...

 

"They are not good people," Xu Yang said. "Anjiu City is their backyard. People from Kyoto Unlimited... They are not just creating anime and figurines."

 

"Yes, Anjiu City is indeed apple in their plan, but where are we?"

 

"This is outside of our plan." Xu Yang uttered.

 

"The Katagi district is a desolated place," Mateo replied. "It takes 30 minutes for the company's quick response troops to get in. They are all bastards, the poverty rate is over 80%, no needs to even calculate the crime rates."

 

Xu Yang picked up the cash card in his arms and transferred the money to his personal cash card, which contained more than 10,100,000 points.

 

Companies, especially giant corporations that form corporate alliances, provide company employees with security, jobs, salaries, loans, and consumer coupons to ensure that a person can live a relatively successful life before he is exhausted by the age of 40 to 50.

 

Having a job in a giant corporation is the dream of billions of people around the world.

 

Xu Yang witnessed the scenery outside the car window for the first time ever.

 

Vehicles pass through shantytowns made of iron sheet houses, while poor, distressed, and barely clothed people crowded together, stood by the rocky dull wasteland and watched the speeding vehicles with their dull eyes. 

 

There are no hospitals and shops, just iron sheet houses that are estranged from each other.

 

The paradigm in the company and the paradigm outside the company are different. Life inside the giant enterprise is bright and beautiful, while life outside the company can only be called survival. No one wants to be regarded as cast-off talents.

 

"Do you believe that people can survive without the company?" Xu Yang asked.

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"I don't know," Mateo said.

 

Falling from grace is very simple.

 

Examples were resigning from work or being unemployed, unable to continue to purchase security services, being cut off from supply from your rental apartments, moving from the above-ground city to the underground city, and then moving from the underground city to the most marginal areas.

 

Company men are still considered people, and those who can't join the company aren't even considered people.

 

...I escaped from the place that was envied by countless people.

 

...Money is useless, without the protection of the company. There is always the risk of death.

 

...The most important thing is that even if you use the money to reconcile with the company to avoid being hunted, it is impossible to return to work in any company. A stain has already been left on the company alliance. I had been abandoned by the company system, and become something akin to an inhuman animal.

 

It's no wonder that so many people would rather "suffer" in giant corporations, rather than earning the big bucks outside the company.

 

These thoughts made Xu Yang uneasy, especially since everything was exactly the same as what Pan Ruiyi scolded him - without the company, you would not be able to achieve anything!

 

Even the big man beside him is relying on a certain company, and he may even be a mercenary sent by other giant companies.

 

I couldn't be bothered to care anymore.

 

Get the money and run away. 

 

Fight for yourself.

 

A giant corporation is just a place of comfort where people can be safe and sound, and slowly become domesticated, grinding away people's fighting spirit after decades of work, and making them accept arrangements.

 

Real people should never have to look like those exhausted people in the company. There must be a system that can replace the company system, and bring freedom to humans and witches.

 

Passing through a gap in the ground and approaching the entrance of the excavation site, Xu Yang saw that the excavation company had blasted out a huge hole in the ground. It seemed to have been left over from the previous era. The shape was like a palace, but most of it was buried deep in the cold rock, so it cannot be accurately determined.

 

The company had paid a huge price to get this ancient witch.

 

The place is heavily guarded with searchlights, sentry machine guns, small-caliber rapid-fire guns, metal storms, electromagnetic pulse blasting equipment, plus countless cameras placed around the venue, illuminating the place as bright as day.

 

Facing this level of defense, any strong attack will suffer heavy losses.

 

At such a long distance, he has already detected thousands of high-end company equipment in the camp, but the distance is too long and the signal is weak, so he cannot directly control it.

 

"It's too far." Xu Yang said, "I can't control them."

 

"We have a signal booster." Mateo took Xu Yang to a nearby crevice, from which the dim light of the emergency lights came out.

 

Entering the rock crevice, Xu Yang saw a whole team of mercenaries with guns and live ammunition, their faces were grim, and one of the women was tinkering with a high-power communication device.

 

Note

 

(5)可禁不起风浪

can't afford to bear the risk

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