Chapter 3040: The Beginning of a Beautiful New Life
The debts on the wristbands provided by the companies that picked them up could never actually be repaid, because they imposed repayment deadlines, requiring a fixed amount of money to be returned within a certain period, but the interest would multiply exponentially over time.
The first and second repayment dates might still be manageable, but by the third and fourth, the interest had already exceeded the principal. If not repaid on time, the interest would double. By the time the debt became astronomical and impossible to pay off, the company would come to collect the total debt—which essentially meant taking the person away.
According to the residents, no one who was taken away by the company ever returned.
As for those who had connections and left the cabins early, the residents generally didn't know what happened to them afterward, because once someone left the cabin, no one was willing to come back.
Of course, players had also come, but they were usually disabled or severely degenerated. Even so, they were a minority.
"Players have great benefits," a resident said with envy. "As long as they've contributed to the district, even if they can't move, someone will take care of them. The players who are left unattended are usually those who violated district laws."
"Where do players usually retire?" Xu Huo asked.
"Player's Home," another resident said, pulling out a folded, worn paper brochure from under her bed. Judging by the date, it was already ten years old, and it was handmade, not an official brochure.
She smoothed out the creases on the brochure. "My son went to Player's Home. After his degeneration, his health deteriorated, and he needed expensive medicine to ease the pain. I couldn't take care of him, so he had to go to Player's Home himself. I visit him every now and then."
"This is what he copied for me. Look, his handwriting is really good, isn't it..."
The person next to her shook their head at Xu Huo. "Her son is dead. Someone came to report the death a long time ago."
The residents grew more emotional as they talked, gradually dispersing. But the mother grabbed Xu Huo's hand and whispered, "I'm telling you, my son isn't dead. He actually went to investigate Player's Home. His good friend went into Player's Home and never came out, so he wanted to find out the truth. I told him not to go, but he's a good kid, willing to take risks for his friend. What could I do?"
"What could I do?"
The woman's expression gradually shifted from sadness to confusion. After a moment, she let go of Xu Huo's hand, slowly refolded the brochure, and took it back to press it under her bed again.
After dawn, the middle-aged woman who had left returned. She was injured, and the backpack she had taken with her was gone. She didn't go back to her own cabin but went straight to the young man's place. As soon as she entered, she angrily explained what had happened.
She had come to Yangtao City for a better life, not to be stuck in a cramped cabin. So she had contacted a craftsman in advance, who promised her a job if she brought a set of self-made C-grade mechanical instruments. But when she brought the instruments, he took them without mentioning the job at all. After keeping her waiting for a while, he claimed he didn't know her and had people throw her out. She tried to get the instruments back, but that only got her a beating.
"What about you?" She now pinned her hopes on the young man.
"I still haven't gotten in touch with my dad's friend," the young man said, his expression grim. "He sent me some money, but when I tried to repay the debt, I found out I can't pay it all off at once. Next month's interest will be even higher."
The middle-aged woman closed her eyes. "Lend me some money first so I can pay off this month's payment. I'll go out and find work right away. I don't believe I can't find a job with my skills."
Although the young man seemed inexperienced, he wasn't so optimistic. "I asked around. Mechanical crafting jobs are hard to come by. The places that need people already have a surplus. Even some certified craftsmen can only do garbage recycling... but I heard that even the garbage recycling spots are saturated. A lot of people hang around there, only able to take low-paying temporary outsourced work, living day by day."
For ordinary people, an A-level wormhole point had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that even if someone had no particular skills, they could survive on welfare. The disadvantage was that there were simply too many talented people, and every industry was filled with elites.
The middle-aged woman grew anxious after hearing this, but she gritted her teeth and said, "I'll give it a try. That friend of your dad's—can he be trusted?"
The young man felt a chill in his heart. "Even if I can get in touch, I'll probably have to spend a huge amount of money."
The two were shrouded in gloom, but since things had come to this, they could only wait and see.
Xu Huo opened his account. Sure enough, the interest had already started accruing. But he didn't plan to repay the debt. Instead, he waited until the morning to go out and look for a job.
His profession was psychotherapist, so he could only work in related fields. Since every industry was saturated, jobs that didn't require professional certification were rare, and even with the proper credentials, it was hard to find work. The service industry was almost entirely taken over by robots, so if someone wanted to earn a bit of money, they had to go into garbage recycling.
Garbage recycling didn't mean handling everyday household waste—robots handled that too. The kind of recycling that required human labor usually involved secondary processing of items that weren't too old.
For example, discarded or outdated machinery that wasn't worth repairing by robots but was too wasteful to simply throw away would be handed over to garbage recyclers. If they could repair or piece together a complete item, it could be sold to third-level areas. This required human ingenuity, as it couldn't cost too much, nor could it be too shoddy.
Of course, for more developed districts, this wasn't an indispensable industry, but it could accommodate a significant portion of the city's residents—a leftover policy.
In fact, given the level of development in A29-025, there was no need for Yangtao City to be in such a state. But the government had deliberately retained third-level areas and intentionally restricted the welfare levels of ordinary people, probably to create a class division with a wealth gap.
Xu Huo's certification level was quite high, so he easily got into interviews. However, the interviewer was a robot. It only asked him a few questions and told him to go home and wait for notification.
The second and third hospitals followed the same process.
According to other interviewees, if he didn't receive a hiring notice within three days, it basically meant he was out of luck.
Xu Huo didn't dwell on it and went to the fourth and fifth hospitals.
Yangtao City was not small, but the number of professional psychotherapy hospitals was excessive. He applied for interviews at every one of them, but only a third invited him. Among those, only two seemingly unprofessional institutions were willing to hire him on the spot. The condition was that the salary would be only half the legal minimum, but the contract couldn't state that, so when the salary was deposited, he would have to return half, and they wouldn't provide staff dormitories.
Xu Huo didn't agree and decided to go home and wait for news.
By the third day, only one hospital notified him that he had been hired. They even sent a flying vehicle to deliver his work uniform and badge, telling him to report for work the next day.
It looked like the beginning of a beautiful new life!
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