Chapter 1942: Do They Deserve to Live?
The cleanup plan might not be real, but someone in the East District must have proposed this "once and for all" solution. No wall is completely soundproof.
Moreover, even if no one had actually proposed such an inhumane method before, it couldn't be clarified now. After all, the last time East District residents despised West District residents, their solution was to drive them into the cramped West District and leave them to fend for themselves.
People can endure to survive, but if even their lives are at stake, wouldn't endurance become a joke?
Therefore, West District residents had to stand with the Rebel Army.
The same logic applied to Outer Zone players. No normal civilization would ever understand or accept a cleanup plan. Most players were emotionally normal people who would unconsciously lean toward the weak. Not to mention they still had to clear the game—if the West District ceased to exist, what would they use to clear it?
Outer Zone players existed not only in the West District but also in the East District.
The harsh living environment had engraved escape into the blood of most West District residents. On his way back, Xu Huo had already seen many people leaving with their families, as well as some utterly desperate individuals rushing into the streets, maniacally smashing things or throwing away their money, stripping naked and laughing and crying in the streets, and even some committing suicide... And this was all just from a baseless rumor about a cleanup plan.
This suffocating scene was unsettling. Fortunately, the shuttle soon arrived near the rental house. Today, an unusually large number of people had gone to the riverbank to watch the Shadow Wall. From a distance, he could still hear people shouting angry questions across the river.
But these were all helpless people. Living near the Shadow Wall already put them in a relatively better position. However, the reality was that they couldn't meet the threshold to enter the East District, and if they left the West District for other cities, they might end up at the very bottom of society.
Xu Huo bought several portions of ready-made meals from a boss who had lost all interest in doing business and carried them back.
The neighbors in the small building had already heard the news. Since most of the residents here were elderly or weak, the vast majority stayed inside the building, hoping to get some inside information from Xu Huo, the inspector.
The female neighbor was the first to approach, grabbing Xu Huo's arm and asking, "Is what the newspaper said tomorrow true? Is the East District really going to kill us all?"
Before Xu Huo could respond, someone with a hot temper began cursing the East District residents. Normally, they wouldn't dare, but at this moment, the resentment in their hearts could no longer be contained. They wished they could wade across the river and kill a couple of East District residents to vent their anger.
After letting them argue enough, Xu Huo said to everyone, "Everyone, rest assured. This news should be false. If the East District dared to do such a thing, they would become a target for everyone. Who would dare to interact with the East District then? Even for the sake of their own reputation, they wouldn't go to extremes."
The crowd felt this made some sense, but someone raised a doubt, "What if, like it says on the terminal, they poison us or make us sick, and then they deny it was them?"
"Do you know how many people are in the West District?" Xu Huo asked. "Over ten million. How could the East District kill over ten million people without being targeted by others?"
In reality, in a highly technologically advanced district, numbers were just numbers. Genocide was not a deranged fantasy but something that had actually happened. However, machines could never replace humans because the game needed players. Players represented everything. Even a city like Platinum Eye, famous for its weapons, dared not slack off in cultivating players.
The East District's population was far smaller than the West District's, and part of it consisted of players absorbed from the West District.
Perhaps this was what frustrated the East District residents the most—even if their descendants were cultivated with evolution agents from childhood, they might not necessarily become players in the end.
No matter how much they disliked the West District, the East District would most likely not cut off their own lifeline.
With his words, the crowd began discussing animatedly again. Some said the East District still needed them for labor, others wondered how the East District would handle the bodies if so many people died, and some openly mentioned the Rebel Army, vowing that if the East District really did this, they would definitely join the Rebel Army. Since they were going to die anyway, they might as well fight—what if the Rebel Army succeeded?
The residential building was noisy and chaotic. Xu Huo returned to his rental room and asked the mute girl to call the boy from downstairs up for dinner.
When the mute girl went downstairs, she couldn't find him. Even the boy's father was missing. Worried, she came back and gestured the situation to Xu Huo. He didn't say much, only telling her to save some food for the boy.
In the afternoon, he went to the game hall again. Now, the discussions in the game were even more focused on the "cleanup plan." Some condemned the East District, while others tried to explain for the East District in roundabout ways, arguing that as long as the East District residents had any brains, they would never come up with such a plan. Of course, there were also those who loved to watch the world burn, claiming to be East District residents and saying they had long wanted to kill all the dirty, smelly West District people.
It was the same puzzle from yesterday's gathering. After solving it, Xu Huo went to a flower shop and met the woman who had given him information there again.
In the game, there were many players who clearly differed from West District residents in their habits and behavior. Some of them were undoubtedly East District residents. Many sympathized with the West District, so at this time, rumors about the East District were flying everywhere.
Some said East District residents had organized protest marches, demanding that the government and Agor Corporation provide a reasonable explanation and that the East District guarantee not to harm the poor souls in the West District.
Of course, the East District residents themselves were also in an uproar. The East and West Districts were separated by a wall, but it wasn't as if no one from the West District entered the East District. In the game, one could often see some West District residents being active. Some people found them pitiable, while others believed that the pitiable must have something hateful about them. They even used inspectors as an example.
"Logically speaking, inspectors are West District residents. They should treat their own people well, right? But after entering the Inspection Department, they are even harsher toward West District residents than we East District residents are. Not all inspectors are bad people, but just from this, you can tell that the vast majority of West District residents are ungrateful. We East District set up factories in the West District, gave them jobs, and provided clean water. But what did they do in return? If you don't believe me, go interview the first batch of people who surveyed the West District. At the time, they proposed increasing welfare for the West District, but after returning, they never mentioned it again. You can imagine the reasons."
"Let's talk about resource allocation. The principle of 'more work, more reward' is never wrong. After Agor Corporation settled in Jade Spring City, it basically undertook all the infrastructure construction. Our parents also shed blood and sweat during the city's rapid development. At that time, those West District residents were lazy and unwilling to work. Not only that, but they often disrupted social order, engaging in theft, robbery, fraud, and everything else. Why should the city we built be shared with them?"
"Some people say we shouldn't have driven the West District residents out. But you need to understand what happened before the East-West District division. Because these people, who would rather live on welfare than work, thought the government was giving them too little money, they organized three consecutive armed uprisings. Besides attacking government officials and Agor Corporation executives, they indiscriminately massacred civilians. Do you know how many people died back then? Nearly a hundred thousand!"
"It was precisely because so many people died that the city government had no choice but to expel all West District residents. Otherwise, how could they face those innocent victims?"
"When it was time to shed blood and sweat, they refused to lift a finger. After Jade Spring City developed, they wanted to reap the benefits. If they couldn't get it by asking, they stole. If they couldn't steal, they robbed. If they couldn't rob, they killed. Do they deserve to live?!"