Chapter 1491: The Only Water Source
The young man followed Xu Huo back to the small inn.
Xu Huo hadn’t called him over just to buy things for cooking; he wanted to understand the overall situation of Zone 026.
Zone 026 was a district that had yet to fully merge with the game. This meant that, like E27-014, outside players could only enter the instances within this zone through special means—they couldn’t directly arrive in the zone itself.
The reason was likely due to Zone 026’s environment. The progress of a zone’s full integration with the game was based on the overall evolution level of the entire district, with the most important indicator being player evolution. Even zones that had formed earlier could be excluded from the game if they lacked sufficient strength.
Zone 026 had a poor evolution environment and a small population, so it had yet to merge with the game. Of course, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for Zone 026. Although resources were scarce and the living conditions harsh, there were many people who shared the same mindset as those players holed up in the slums—merging with the game would actually bring greater danger.
Zone 026 was divided into four settlements. Due to the small population, most people were concentrated in these four settlements, each separated by vast, dried-up oceans, making travel between them inconvenient. The settlement where Xu Huo was located was numbered 01—a number they had assigned themselves.
Zone 026 was never a particularly technologically advanced place to begin with. Add to that the rampant acid rain, which damaged and interfered with electronic devices, and there were almost no means of transportation like airplanes. Of course, it was also because they were poor—even if roads were built between settlements, the value wouldn’t be significant.
One settlement was equivalent to one country, but just because they were barely gathered in one place didn’t mean the cities within would help each other. The cities in the settlements basically operated independently. Cities that were slightly better off could ensure their own daily necessities and export a little, while the average ones could only manage themselves.
In simple terms, everyone was struggling, and no one was better off than anyone else. In this kind of environment, as long as no one thought about seizing others’ resources, they could coexist quite harmoniously.
However, population growth and changes in the external environment were major factors affecting life. Most cities were barely surviving on the edge of subsistence, so every year or two, they would eliminate a batch of people.
“Eliminate?” Xu Huo interrupted the young man. “Kill them or…”
“Of course not. Life is hard, but everyone has their day of being old and weak. How could they directly kill people?” The young man forced a smile. “Those who can no longer create value and become a burden will be given a sum of money by the government and then expelled. Cities with better conditions will send vehicles to take them to the slums.”
In an environment like this with acid rain, building houses was very difficult, especially for ordinary people with little skill or ability. After cities offloaded their excess population burden, they claimed to be sending them to find new places to live, but in reality, it was leaving them to fend for themselves. They would either die on the road or end up in the slums—there was no better option.
This was also why, although people kept dying in the slums, the population never seemed to run out.
Zone 026 was in a difficult position. Cities valued players the most, so the general direction was to encourage childbirth. They would pick the tallest among the short, or hope that out of ten or a hundred children, one would become a player.
With too many newborns, the elderly or those in poor health would be abandoned.
This was a fact that everyone in Zone 026 accepted.
They placed their hopes for changing the future on their offspring, willingly sacrificing their own living space for them.
“In the big cities, there are potions to test whether a child has the potential to become a player. Tests are done at ages six, ten, and fourteen. If they still haven’t passed by fourteen, they become laborers,” the young man said.
This was still relatively humane. Forcibly injecting evolved blood could indeed start an ordinary person’s evolution, but the success rate was unknown. Many people would die from illness or directly degenerate into xenomorphs. Pre-testing could, to some extent, avoid this risk.
However, it was clear that the accuracy of these tests wasn’t very high, otherwise they wouldn’t need to check every four years.
“How many cities have tapped into a water source?” Xu Huo asked again.
“Only one,” the young man said. “Only Central City has tapped into an underground water source. The other cities get their water shipped from Central City. The share we buy here is the portion allocated from Rain City ahead of us.”
Xu Huo nodded slightly. “Have all the surface rivers dried up?”
“Even the seas have dried up,” the young man said calmly. “The falling acid rain all goes into the underground rivers. The water gets less every year, so it gets more expensive every year.”
Zone 026 seemed to have once experienced a great catastrophe. The oceans had remained dry for a very long time. Even when it rained, the amount wasn’t enough to rehydrate the oceans; instead, it flowed into deeper, drier cracks, eventually converging deep underground.
The areas where cities gathered were basins with relatively low terrain on land. Of course, they couldn’t compare to certain places in the ocean, but just to choose a good water intake point, it wasn’t worth moving the entire city there—especially since Zone 026 didn’t have the strength to relocate.
That was why obtaining water on the surface was so difficult, to the point that only Central City had the capability. The cost and technology involved were another matter entirely.
“Does it rain every day in Zone 026?” Xu Huo glanced out the window.
The young man nodded. “It rains most of the time, but it’s usually light rain.”
Even with light rain, under normal circumstances, Zone 026 shouldn’t be this short of water, especially since purifying acid rain wasn’t that expensive.
After asking a few more questions, Xu Huo let him go.
Not long after, the boss came up. “More and more kids are coming here, even from outside.”
“It’s only a few dozen people,” Xu Huo said indifferently. “If there aren’t enough vegetables and rice, tell the water shop to give up their share.”
The boss choked on his words, then said, “I don’t dare.”
Xu Huo glanced up at him. “Then let the cook tell them.”
The boss turned and left.
Soon enough, the water shop, the gambling den outside, and the Underground Palace all sent over some things—vegetables, fruits, clean water—everything was available.
Among them was a map of Settlement 01 and handwritten notes on various places.
The people from the Underground Palace also sent a message through the boss, saying that if Xu Huo liked that young man, he could take him away.
Xu Huo told them to get lost.
After finishing the map and notes, the young man happened to bring in food. Xu Huo stopped him. “Does the Underground Palace have dealings with Rain City?”
The young man perked up. “Yes, but they originally came from Bai City, which is right next to Rain City. The boss of the Underground Palace is related to a player from Bai City. Sometimes he sends one or two younger kids over there.”
“Do unfamiliar children ever show up at the Underground Palace? Kids who aren’t from the slums?”
The young man finally dared to lift his head. “I’m not from the slums. I was sold here!”
(End of Chapter)