Fueled by Cold War-era fears of nuclear war and distrust of official sources, a culture of building private shelters has long existed in America.
Ordinary families often purchased land in their backyards or in rural areas, dug into the ground,
and built underground fallout shelters using materials such as steel bars, cement, and lead plates.
They would then stockpile various items in the shelters,
including generators, fuel, radio receivers, sleeping bags, gas masks, hazmat suits, first aid kits, and a large supply of canned food to sustain a family of three for a long time.
Nowadays, some American construction companies specialize in building high-standard safety shelters,
equipped with full utilities, cinemas, gyms, medical rooms, spas, kindergartens, radio stations, and other facilities.
Many wealthy individuals anonymously purchase these shelters for their exclusive use.
Middle-class families who can’t afford to buy one can pay annual membership fees, granting them access to shared shelters when disaster strikes.
Of course, as it turns out, man proposes, God disposes.
These underground shelters might be useful for defending against nuclear radiation or bomber attacks,
but they proved useless when faced with the anomalous events triggered by the Killing Game.
In fact, some remote and deserted shelters became breeding grounds for such events.
Only transcendent elements can solve transcendent elements.
Private shelters are useless. To survive and live longer,
one must become a player, or make their friends and family players, or move into a city megastructure.
"I saw on TV the other day that the protests in America are quite intense."
Wang Congshan casually said, "Their city megastructure construction is behind schedule, and the final capacity isn’t very large.
The wealthy and middle-class families get to move in first,
which means some people will have to wait longer, or not be eligible to move in at all."
"Yeah."
Li Ang nodded.
The private companies contracted to build the American city megastructures had signed contracts with the federal and state governments.
While desperately selling properties to make money,
they also had to somewhat fulfill the social responsibilities mentioned in the contracts—some American families with good standing could apply for low-interest loans to buy homes, which they could pay off in just three or four decades.
There were also public welfare initiatives like lotteries for free homes—each family could receive a lottery ticket every week, and winning would grant them free residency in the city megastructure.
However, these measures were just a drop in the bucket.
In the current situation, ordinary Americans living in old districts and rural areas face danger every day.
No matter how much "happy education" and "democratic freedom" they receive, they know that their lives are more important.
Waves of public protests and demonstrations have erupted in major cities.
Many somewhat intelligent Americans, seeing the special affairs bureau’s city megastructure project on the other side of the ocean progressing rapidly, have even donned Guy Fawkes masks (the smiling face masks from the movie *V for Vendetta*),
holding up protest signs against Wall Street and giant corporations, demanding improvements in housing, healthcare, education, and working conditions,
and calling for the federal government to break up the monopolies.
The American monopolistic enterprises were so enraged that they colluded with each other, producing biased television programs and documentaries on media platforms, promoting "vigilance against foreign forces playing the ‘protecting people’s rights’ card."
Li Ang took a sip of his milk tea and knew the underlying logic behind this very well.
In the past, capitalists possessed capital, controlled the production process and financial decisions, and their economic behavior was primarily aimed at pursuing profits. The ultimate goal was to achieve absolute monopoly, pursue unlimited value appreciation, and maintain this system and protect their control over the means of production for the long term.
But now, with the arrival of the Killing Game,
transcendent elements with superior, purer, and more direct military advantages have replaced the position of capital.
Capitalists not only want to have the power to control the production process and financial decisions, and to control the means of production,
but also want to gain the power to control the distribution process of transcendent elements and to control the transcendent power system.
The most typical example is the European Heavy Industries Group.
They seek out new players among the civilian population, promising them generous rewards and favorable conditions,
recruit them into the company, and provide them with systematic training and equipment support.
This is, of course, not charity. Employees of the European Heavy Industries Group must pay a portion of the rewards they receive in scenario missions to the company, in exchange for internal contribution points, to redeem better equipment and props, to survive the trials of life and death.
The European Heavy Industries Group remains unchanged, while the players come and go.
In addition, the European Heavy Industries Group is also building experimental centers around the world, researching power seeds and genetic potions.
Ordinary people who lack luck and talent must seek the help of multinational corporations, sign labor contracts, and belong to the company if they want to rise above their station.
The goal of the European Heavy Industries Group is to become the largest distributor of transcendent power outside of the Killing Game—they can not only control the allocation and outflow of transcendent power,
but also directly control the lives and deaths of low- and mid-level players and ordinary people.
In fact, they are already doing so.
The European Heavy Industries Group has tens of thousands of companies of different types and names in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and other regions,
with millions of employees of all levels on various continents. Ordinary people can complete their lives from birth to death within the system of the European Heavy Industries Group.
The European Heavy Industries Group’s path is evolving from the control of the means of production,
to the control of people themselves,
growing into a behemoth surpassing all monopolistic organizations such as cartels, syndicates, concerns, and trusts.
American companies, within the United States,
due to historical reasons and various obstacles, cannot be as unscrupulous as the European Heavy Industries Group in South America and Africa,
but this does not prevent them from secretly promoting further control over "people."
What was that saying?
Human lives are valuable, but not *that* valuable.
In the eyes of the "transcendent element monopoly enterprises," ordinary people are nothing more than potential providers and petri dishes of transcendent elements.
Restricting eligibility for city megastructure residency is more conducive to the enterprises’ control over ordinary people—limited living conditions and terrifyingly high mortgages will lead ordinary people to sell all their rights to the enterprises, either actively or passively, and fall into the web of food, clothing, housing, and transportation woven by the enterprises,
until they become contract laborers, or even....
Slaves.
They are called enterprise employees, but they are slaves.
The only two fortunate things are that, although transcendent element monopoly enterprises have advantages of one kind or another,
in terms of resource utilization efficiency and total resource volume, they still cannot match national organizations at this stage.
Moreover, transcendent element monopoly enterprises are not absolute possessors of supreme force—Michael, Shi Kong, Su Nisheng, Li Ang, and others are.
"As long as there are possessors of supreme force,
transcendent element monopoly enterprises must be wary.
In a sense, am I still a protector, protecting the vast majority of ordinary people from the infringement of transcendent element monopoly enterprises?"
Li Ang’s thoughts jumped around aimlessly.
The various chaotic phenomena caused by the American city megastructure are just a microcosm of human society on a global scale.
Even America, the former world hegemon and beacon of humanity, can drop to the level of "ordinary people and dogs not allowed."
Then South America, Africa, and other places must have already plunged headlong into the chaos.
However, these things have nothing to do with him.
Slurp, slurp.
Li Ang quickly finished his milk tea, and led by Wang Congshan and Chaii, continued to stroll around the city megastructure.
"This is the new Yin City Experimental Middle School. It happens to be a holiday today, so the students have all gone home. By the way, a few days ago, Teacher Shi also gave a speech as a teacher representative at our senior high school mobilization meeting. I haven’t been back to school for a long time. I miss the life where I only had to study hard and didn’t have to worry about anything else..."
"Oh, this is the city megastructure’s tram, with tracks embedded in the high-strength ceiling building materials, allowing it to travel in the sky.
The city megastructure’s public transportation system is pretty good, very convenient,
with buses, elevators, trams, and shared bicycles.
Residents basically don’t have to drive themselves,
and high-emission cars have already been banned, with restrictions on electric cars that are too small.
After a while, maybe not many people will buy cars, right? More people will treat cars as luxury goods.
In addition, there are surveillance cameras everywhere now, and the crime rate has dropped sharply. Residents aren’t afraid even when walking at night—patrol teams can arrive in less than a minute and a half after receiving a report."
"This is a barrier pillar, with dozens of different spells engraved on it. Usually disguised as utility poles, they are buried in every corner of the city.
When necessary, members of the Mobile Task Force can remotely control the barrier pillars from the command center to release spells,
such as 【Idlers Begone】, 【Soundproof Barrier】, 【Extinguish Flames】, and so on.
They are mainly used to prevent anomalous events and protect residents."
Wang Congshan casually explained the internal structure of the city megastructure to Li Ang, raised her hand, and clapped her palms.
The ceiling of the floor above the three people immediately changed color, turning into a sky with a few white clouds floating by.
"This is the city megastructure’s weather control system. To prevent residents from becoming depressed in a closed environment for a long time,
the ceilings of each floor are equipped with high-resolution LCD panels,
in combination with ultra-large fresh air systems and precipitation facilities,
can simulate spring, summer, autumn, and winter, as well as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy weather."
Wang Congshan smiled and clapped her palms again, causing the ceiling two meters away to start raining. "Usually, weather changes are determined by the Municipal Committee based on the mental health of the residents,
but sometimes residents can also participate in public votes to decide whether it should rain on a certain floor tomorrow—I personally prefer rainy days."
As she spoke, Wang Congshan waved her hand to cancel the ceiling rain, and jumped forward lightly,
her sandals under her dress stepped into the puddle, splashing clear water.
"Ha!"
Wang Congshan turned around with a smile, tilted her head, and smacked her lips, saying, "Um... how should I put it.
Although our city megastructure project is very good and humane, ordinary people may really not have the chance to step outside the city megastructure for a long time in the future."
"Yeah."
Li Ang nodded. "Not only this generation, but the next generation, and even the generation after that, may not be able to leave this megastructure.
After all, there will be more and more demons and monsters outside, and they will never be exterminated,
unless the Killing Game suddenly stops, or the residents move to a safer door world."
"Ah, it’s already twelve o’clock."
Chaii, who had been playing with her phone, raised her arm. "Anime convention, anime convention! I want to go to the anime convention!"
"Uh, okay."
Li Ang nodded. "Where is the exhibition hall?"
He came to visit the city megastructure today, in addition to looking for Wang Congshan, also because Chaii was being annoying.
Chaii had recently signed up for an anime convention, not as a photographer or cosplayer,
but as a cosplay costume maker—her tailoring skills have always been good, and she often makes props and costumes for herself and Li Ang,
and sometimes she has whims and artistic cells sprout, making cosplay costumes that she likes.
She couldn’t get praise rewards from Li Ang for making these clothes,
and if she looked for the Zerg, she could only hear a bunch of flattering and exaggerated words,
so she posted photos of the costumes online, and unexpectedly received a lot of attention and welcome.
In some otaku culture circles, she even had the nickname "Teacher Chaii."
A relatively large anime convention also sent her an invitation to her fake identity online.
As a result, Li Ang was dragged over by Chaii, who was all excited.
Li Ang said hello to Xing Hechou through friend communication, canceled the surrounding Idlers Begone barrier, and went to the anime convention.
At the exhibition, he saw various costumes made by Chaii.
Chaii giggled and said, "How is it? Are the clothes I made not bad?
This one is a Rainbow Feather Dress, blue and red like a rainbow, with a graceful posture.
This one is a replica of a Song Dynasty infantry armor, lightweight and safe, indestructible.
This one is the Navy Admiral’s white coat of justice,
This one is the Akatsuki’s red cloud black windbreaker..."
"Not bad."
Li Ang nodded. He had to say that Chaii’s handcrafting skills were quite amazing. The costumes of various styles looked harmonious on the cosplayers. "Wait, um...
Why do I feel like those clothing materials seem to be scraps from the forging furnace?"
Li Ang squinted his eyes and scanned them carefully,
and his eyelids twitched inexplicably.
That’s right, the clothes on these cosplayers in front of him were indeed pieced together from scraps from the forging furnace,
and he could vaguely feel the transcendent element fluctuations contained within.
"Uh... well."
Chaii looked up at the sky, poked her fingers, and said, "I saw that you never touched those things in the corner cabinet of the alchemy workshop. And Shuangdao Huoji said that those materials were all defective products that couldn’t be used,
so I used them to make clothes.
Cough, cough, don’t you think these clothes have a lot of charm?"
"Of course they have charm if they’re made of transcendent materials."
Li Ang shook his head helplessly and swept his gaze over them. "Good heavens, the Rainbow Feather Dress can reduce the wearer’s weight and allow them to glide long distances;
The infantry armor, which is very light and looks like a plastic prop, can withstand assault rifle fire;
The Navy Admiral’s white coat of justice can enhance the wearer’s physique;
The Akatsuki’s red cloud black windbreaker is even more outrageous.
I feel like if that unknowing cosplayer gets excited and makes a hand seal, they can really release a Shadow Clone Technique.
Good heavens, you made a bunch of genuine props? They could be sold on the black market for several hundred or even a thousand game coins."
Chaii blinked her eyes. "Eh..."
"Forget it, forget it. After this anime convention is over, let the staff confiscate them. There are also barrier pillars on site, so it should be fine."
Li Ang shook his head helplessly, too lazy to scold Chaii for being frugal. He had more important things to deal with—
Johnson Goode from the door world had already landed with the entire crew brainwashed by the Zerg.