Chapter 43 – Neo-Human

Volume 3

Kuangliu drove the Military vehicle through the Outer City, barreling along without the slightest obstruction.

Wen Yu silently studied the view outside the window.

The streets of the Outer City were very wide, probably inherited from the roads of Yanjing City before the Apocalypse.

Of course, Wen Yu had never been to Yanjing City before, so he knew nothing about how the buildings here had once been arranged.

Even so, he could still see some problems-such as the shabby shacks and tents lining both sides of the street.

These were the homes of the refugee laborers…

As those people watched the Military coming and going along the streets, traces of envy and jealousy appeared in their eyes.

After only a couple of glances, Wen Yu turned his head back, narrowed his eyes, and began resting with his eyes closed.

According to Kuangliu, the Yanjing Settlement was enormous. After more than a month of reconstruction, combined with the buildings that had survived from before, the entire Yanjing Settlement had already reached about half the size of Yanjing City before the Apocalypse.

And the largest area, the Outer City, was truly vast. At least at the speed of this Military vehicle, it would take an hour to reach the place where Sun Xuewei and the others were.

Seeing Wen Yu's half-closed eyes, Kuangliu smiled and said, "What's wrong? Is the Yanjing Settlement different from what you imagined?"

Wen Yu shook his head.

"Strictly speaking, it's exactly the same. If the entire Yanjing Settlement could let even these powerless Ordinary People live in comfort, then I'd really have to reconsider whether I should change my nationality when the Demon Disaster descends."

Hearing Wen Yu's words, Kuangliu immediately laughed twice.

"Don't you dare change your nationality. If you did that, my old man would tear me apart!"

Then Kuangliu fell silent for a moment before slowly saying, "These people don't live well. Not well at all. Do you know about the illegal coal mines from before? Their lives are about the same as trafficked laborers. Every day, they get only enough food to barely keep them from starving to death, and they still have to shoulder heavy labor. Tsk, tsk…"

Kuangliu sighed twice, then continued, "But we did give them another way out. They can join the Military. Not only can they receive military pay, but they also gain the right to live in the Inner City. Unfortunately, there will always be people scared off by the Military's death rate, unwilling to fight, or too afraid to kill Zombie and Mutant Beast. Look, people like those."

Kuangliu pursed his lips and gestured outside.

Wen Yu looked in the direction Kuangliu indicated. About a hundred meters from the road, a large crowd of people was lined up, fighting over a big pot of thin porridge.

There was not much porridge to begin with, and it was so watery that Wen Yu seriously suspected the staff in charge of this area had secretly taken away most of the rice.

But even this was what those refugees needed to stay alive.

Wen Yu even saw two scrawny children come to blows over a bowl of thin porridge!

The soldiers standing nearby merely watched with smiles, pointing and commenting from time to time.

At that moment, Kuangliu continued, "At first, I also wanted to give these poor people more protection. But then some interesting things happened!"

"In the beginning, we gave each of them a big bowl of white rice every day. When those poor bastards first received that bowl of white rice, the expressions on their faces were very… How should I put it? Those were the most beautiful smiles I'd ever seen. It was gratitude from the bottom of their hearts!"

"But doing that consumed far too much food!"

"You have to understand that right now, there are roughly fifty million Survivor in the entire Yanjing Settlement! That number is actually terrifying. The amount of food consumed every day is beyond calculation! And that's not even counting those Class Holder people with huge appetites."

"And right now, the Yanjing Settlement has only just resumed farming. It isn't harvest season yet, and with the invasion of Demon Qi, whether we can even grow food fit for people to eat is still another question altogether! All the food we have now is being taken from the strategic materials reserve."

"And since it's a strategic materials reserve, that means those supplies can't be used lightly. After all, no one knows whether we'll face even more difficult circumstances in the future."

"So, as expected, the food rations left for those refugees were reduced accordingly."

"At first, the reduction wasn't much. Only a quarter less."

"But those bastards actually decided we had embezzled the portion that belonged to them! That we were exploiting them! Stirred up by certain people with ulterior motives, those bastards raised the banners of freedom and democracy and actually launched a rebellion…"

Hearing this, Wen Yu felt utterly helpless. All he could say was that these refugees really had ideas.

Kuangliu continued.

"There's one thing I find very strange. Why don't they dare point their blades at Zombie and Mutant Creature, but instead point them at our Military?"

Wen Yu nodded, then asked, "And the result?"

Kuangliu shrugged.

"The Military carried out a massacre! Officially, it was called a purge and suppression, but in reality, it was a slaughter. Most of the refugees who resisted were actually Ordinary People. They couldn't see the gap in strength, and they couldn't see the true nature of this world! A whole bunch of them died, and then we ordered the remaining refugees to bury them outside the city. You could say they added a little fertilizer for the farming that's about to begin! I suppose that counts as the harvest from keeping them alive all this time."

"After that came heavy labor and a massive cut in food rations!"

"Only then did we understand that fairness and democracy were already things of the past. Only then did they understand that this world no longer had laws to protect their miserable lives!"

"So these people-these cowardly pieces of trash, these parasites who don't dare fight-I'll say something ugly: the fact that they're alive at all means they really ought to thank us!!!"

Wen Yu nodded.

"Now that makes sense. Pitiful people always have something hateful about them! There is no such thing as giving without reason in this world, and no such thing as love without reason either. However, I do think you should train those children."

Kuangliu shrugged.

"It's not that we aren't training them. We call this free-range raising!"

"Every day, we open the city gates. Not far outside, there's a farm established by the Military. A Zombie Farm."

"Speaking of which, Zombie are practically as precious as national treasures now. We only managed to capture these after a lot of effort."

"That place allows free entry and exit. It's meant to give Ordinary People who want to change their fate a chance to earn Point. So, we've given them the opportunity, and even provided several different paths. But they refuse to take them. That's where it gets awkward…"

Wen Yu chuckled twice.

"Yeah. That is awkward."

In Wen Yu's view, the Military's attitude was perfectly normal. The abnormal ones were those refugee laborers. The road had been laid out right in front of them, but they didn't cherish it. They were perfectly willing to move bricks every day and eat thin porridge that was practically water.

Who could they blame?

Just as Kuangliu had said, the fact that the Military let them live at all was already merciful!

"Of course, this is only the Outer City. The Inner City is much better. Things like schools and physical training grounds have already been built. After all, the culture of our Country still needs to be passed down."

Wen Yu nodded.

"The fees aren't low, are they?"

"Not that expensive. For the children of those officers, there's one year of compulsory education. After that, everything has to be paid for with Magic Crystal. As for the people outside, they aren't qualified to come into contact with things like this."

"Tsk, tsk. A strict class system!"

After hearing Kuangliu's explanation, Wen Yu smiled and shook his head.

Wen Yu had originally thought he was already ruthless enough, but he hadn't expected the people from the Military to be even more ruthless.

"This is what the Apocalypse is supposed to be, right?"

Kuangliu nodded in agreement.

"This is only the beginning. Their situation will become more and more difficult, and ours may become more and more difficult as well! When the Demon Realm officially launches its offensive, pure humans in this world may go extinct within a few years. The only ones left will be Class Holder."

"Aren't they all human?"

"No. In terms of appearance, they are indeed the same species, but their essence has already changed. Class Holder can also be called new humans!"