Chapter 2466: Inside the Library
Xu Huo wanted to go to the library, so he left the Painting Woman at the hotel. Before leaving, he specifically instructed her to stay in the room and not wander around.
The Painting Woman agreed quickly enough, but the way her eyes darted around showed she was feeling guilty.
Xu Huo didn't say much more and took a flying vehicle to the library.
Libraries established by the game often contained the vast majority of information within a district, even messages that wouldn't appear on the Message Collection Terminal. They would have those here too.
Xu Huo used his library card to enter and found that this library was more like a large public library. There were no player limits on the number of people, and entry and exit were free.
After entering, he chose a terminal station, activated it, and began looking up information on all the cities along that tourist route.
The focus was, of course, Mao Guo Town and Mao Tong City.
With the terminal to cross-reference the data, he didn't actually need to sift through the information on so many towns himself first. He started by focusing on the major cities.
The pharmaceutical industry in District 001 was indeed developed. Out of the twelve major cities, more than half were named after some kind of drug. Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical was among them; its city was called Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical City. These cities, relying on their control over medicinal herb production areas, had almost all become giants. Every enterprise had at least one type of medicine that no other company could replace.
Of course, the sales targets for these medicines were other districts. It could be said that as long as these enterprises could still produce medicine, they would almost never lack buyers.
Although there was no shortage of dirty tricks between these companies, they were basically nothing major. Poaching talent, stealing from each other, spending money to create scandals—in the context of the current game, these were at most jokes for after-dinner conversation, not even enough to make a proper social news headline.
Xu Huo paid special attention to their scandals, even spending money to buy information from the local black market, but he didn't dig up anything particularly noteworthy. The only explosive piece was about one of the company's subsidiaries evading taxes, which under District 001 law wouldn't even warrant jail time.
After looking for a while with no results, he turned his attention back to Mao Guo Town and Mao Tong City.
The records for Mao Guo Town were very simple. This small town had almost never had any major incidents. The locals had lived there for generations, and the greatest achievement in their lives was probably making Cat Whisker Fruits look more beautiful. As for other things, like violent crime, it was unheard of. According to the library's records, this town had even maintained considerable peace when District 001 began its evolution. When Evolvers appeared in various cities, bringing the threat of death, this town didn't have a single officially recorded conflict.
Even for the smallest city, if there had been bloodshed at the beginning of the evolution, the authorities would have had to record it, and hiding such things was very difficult. Because after the turmoil passed, the mayor of Mao Guo Town actually received a commendation from the higher-level government. It was a very small commendation, praising the mayor for his diligent work, and it only made the local newspaper in Mao Guo Town, not even reaching the city news.
Perhaps this city was really very lucky, forgotten during the chaos. After the great changes in District 001, it was still forgotten, remaining lukewarm until now. If it weren't for the tree mutation making those fruits, which only vaguely resembled a cat's head in outline, more realistic and cute, this town might not have even become the starting point for the tourist route.
Xu Huo looked up information on the successive mayors of Mao Guo Town.
There was very little information on the mayors before the evolution. Only one or two had a few more records, and those involved achievements like building bridges and roads. The mayor who received the most attention was the one in office during the evolution of District 001, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago.
Although various social news on the Message Collection Terminal didn't mention this mayor, the library had collected an exclusive interview done by a journalist.
The interview mentioned various measures this mayor took at the beginning of the evolution, such as gathering the town's residents, setting up safe points, sealing off the town's entrances and exits, installing a large number of electronic surveillance eyes, forming patrol teams, and using the large dogs raised by residents to inspect the town daily... and so on. Although these measures were never put to use, they maximized the safety of the town's residents. At that time, two people in the town also became Evolvers, but they transitioned very smoothly, even controlling their gluttonous desires well, causing no adverse effects.
The subsequent fates of these two Evolvers were not mentioned. However, after that mayor retired, his son, nephew, and grandson successively served as mayors of the town. Of course, other people also held the position of mayor in between. District 001 had regulations on official tenure, so the total time this family served as mayors wasn't very long.
This kind of situation wasn't rare in some small towns. Coupled with the fact that Mao Guo Town wasn't in a good location and wasn't developed, such a situation was normal.
This wasn't a strange thing, not even worth paying attention to.
As for the tourist route, it was a bit dramatic. Although Mao Guo Town and Mao Tong City were openly used as selling points for the route, in reality, when the route was first planned, the higher-level government hadn't included Mao Guo Town. It was a secretary working in the government who repeatedly proposed it, and it was only added later. As for helping Mao Guo Town create economic benefits, it could only be said that the propaganda outweighed the reality.
Xu Huo noted the name of that secretary and looked into his resume in detail. Sure enough, this person was from Mao Guo Town, from the same family as the Mayor Wan who maintained order in the early stages of evolution. His mother was Mayor Wan's niece.
Looking at the successive mayors named Wan, plus Secretary Wan who entered the higher-level government, it seemed this family was very influential. But in reality, after the first Mayor Wan, his son, nephew, and grandson were not blood-related, including this Secretary Wan.
After the initial pain of the evolution, many orphans appeared. Mayor Wan only had one daughter. His son, nephew, and grandson were all adopted by him and his relatives and friends. The woman who adopted Secretary Wan was also a girl adopted by Mayor Wan's brother. It could be said that most people in this Wan family were not blood-related. Although people's lifespans had increased after the evolution, the family members hadn't produced more offspring as a result. Instead, they kept adopting children. It was only in recent years, when the government implemented a mandatory "state care for orphans" regulation, making it no longer so easy for ordinary people to adopt children, that this family gradually stopped gaining new members.
There was no more detailed content in the library, but Xu Huo was very interested in this Wan family and planned to look for more information when he arrived at Mao Guo Town.
After that, he continued looking at Mao Tong City.
Mao Tong City was more interesting. It was an "independent" city. (Chapter End)