Chapter 7: Cruel World

The afterglow of the sun covered the dazzling city layer by layer. The gentle breeze blew and the vast golden wheat fields were dyed with a light golden yellow. From a distance, one could see large farms and scattered small towns. Youzhi is near these wheat fields.

To the east of Brilliant City, where the middle floor connects to the lower floor, is the city's granary. The production of grain and meat here can only meet one-third of the city's supply, so special liquid food has emerged as a substitute. The 10th Scientific Research Department and the 12th Agricultural Science Department jointly developed a food that uses biological cultivation technology. Although there will be some side effects, they are minimal for adults. Later, they purchased patents for some companies. Later, improvements were made to create liquid food.

Jean stood on a spacious road, with a large wholesale market behind him. They had already reached this point. A large number of food merchants from Brilliant City were still gathered here, waiting for the food to be shipped out. To the left of the wholesale market, you can I saw large food processing warehouses, lined with rooms, where a large number of people were moving.

Because of the artificial sun technology above Brilliant City, the crops here can mature five times a year, but they still cannot keep up with the supply. Originally, with the biotechnology of the 10th Scientific Research Institute, these crops can mature faster, but this is not good for It is harmful to the human body. According to long-term research, crops can only be stabilized at 5 ripens in a year to avoid harm to the human body.

The climate in Brilliant City is warm all year round. There is no distinction between seasons, and there will be no rain or snow. Most people here have only seen the seasonal changes in weather in the past from some video teaching materials.

This is also the only area where vehicles are allowed, and food wholesalers need to hire some professional mutants to carry the ingredients back, and large companies have underground transportation pipelines.

Due to abnormal body cells, many mutants can not only use some supernatural powers, but their biggest feature is their immense strength. Some mutants can even lift things weighing a ton, but all mutants need to Under the joint supervision of the 2nd City Crisis Analysis and Countermeasures Section, the 5th City Public Security Management Section, and the 8th Legal Affairs Section, you need to obtain the corresponding certificates. For physical evaluations every three months, you still need to go to the 10th Science Research Section. Get tested to prevent the variant from getting worse.

In this grain base, there is not only the 12th Agriculture Section, but also a major stronghold of the 11th Criminal Management Section.

Gene was walking on the road, holding a cigarette in his mouth, looking at a pillar-like building in the distance. From a distance, it looked like a large chimney. It was very large and was inserted in the middle of this grain base.

The 11th Criminal Management Section is the agency that manages all criminals in Bright City. Whether it is robbery, theft, murder or arson, all criminals have only two ways to go.

Either wear special collars and work under the supervision of Section 11, or they can be directly exiled to the barrier area to fend for themselves. Most criminals who don't want to leave the sun choose to work here, or work in some underground engineering facilities. , and cannot return to society again until they are released from prison.

No matter what kind of criminal they are, if they are old and weak, they will be directly exiled to the barrier area. Those who have no value to society will have no room for survival.

The 11th Criminal Management Section is also responsible for screening the barrier area once a month. The only way for people born in the barrier area to come to the sun is to pass the screening and prove that they are valuable to society, and then they can be admitted to the lower floors. identity authentication.

In the food warehouses lined with trees on the left and right, heavy trucks were started, carrying processed food and transporting it to the food trading station. The sun was almost extinguished.

Light and shadow poles slowly protrude in the wheat fields. The poles have all-round monitoring and lighting functions, as well as the function of spraying land nutrient solution. When a fire occurs, explosive water for fire extinguishing will be sprayed out immediately. Control the fire within 3 seconds.

There is basically one of these multi-functional agricultural poles 10 meters away. The pillar-like circular building in front of Jean is already close at hand. A gate is locked. The prisoners working at this point have returned to the prison tower.

The prison tower with a dark surface does not have any windows. There are only some small holes invisible to the naked eye, which maintain the temperature and ventilation function in the prison tower.

The prison tower that rises straight to the sky contains light-duty criminals from level 3 to level 5 above the ground, and heavy-duty criminals from level 0 to level 2 below the ground. What Jean is going to do this time is to go to the bottom floor to find a prisoner. The lv0 criminal, the guy called the Wise Man, was sent to prison by Jean himself.

There is a white iron fence background on the gate with an 11 printed on it.

Gene came to the door and raised his head. Soon, a concave mirror on the top of the door shot out a beam of red light. After passing through Gene's body, the small door in the middle of the door opened with a click.

"Our section chief has been waiting for you for a long time, Lord Jean."

Jean hummed, and stepped into the prison tower with a smile. Once inside, there was a long and narrow passage. There were a large number of convex mirrors on the walls on both sides, very irregularly distributed on the wall. This passage was called by the prisoners. The road to death.

Any prisoner who wants to escape from the upper level of the prison tower must pass through this road of death. The walls are equipped with light killing weapons. It only takes 0.05 seconds for the prisoner to enter the passage and it will be cut into atomic levels, so it is almost impossible to escape. appeared.

Mutant criminals are even more unlikely. They all have special collars that pierce the central nervous system. Once they resist or want to escape, the 11th Criminal Management Section has the right to directly execute the criminals. The special collar will destroy the central nervous system in an instant. Nerve damage can lead to general paralysis in the smallest case, or direct death in the worst case.

The receptionist led Jean down the passage. The nearly 30-meter passage soon ended, and a spacious hall appeared. The smell of food was exuding inside, and people from the 11th department were queuing up to eat. Among them was a tall, thin, slender, and sickly middle-aged man. He was wearing the uniform of Section 11. He had a handsome face, long black hair, and a decent manner. He was a man who enjoyed himself well with his subordinates. He was from the 11th Criminal Management Section. Section Chief, Jewell.

"Hey, long time no see Jean."

When Jewell saw Jean, he came over with a smile and a plate of food.

"Would you like to have dinner together?"

Gene glanced at the sticky curry rice on the plate and immediately lost his appetite. He had stayed here briefly and the food here was really unpalatable.

Pairs of surprised eyes in the hall cast their gaze over, and Jewel smiled awkwardly. A girl with glasses next to him walked over, bowed solemnly, and took the curry rice from Jewel's hand.

"Just take me down there."

Jewell led Jean through a passage with thick doors on the left. The doors opened slowly along the way. There were a total of 10 doors made of special materials. They were solid and solid. Only one door opened. There is a small flat elevator, and going down here is the underground working place of criminals.

"I heard that things are not peaceful in the city recently."

Jewel took the cigarette handed over by Gene. After Gene lit it with a thought, he took a puff and coughed.

"It's you, Jewell, because of your physical condition."

"Lord Jean, I hope you can advise our section chief. He has been hanging out in nightclubs in Qinglong District recently, and even brought some wardens there together. I don't know how he got into such a bad habit. , if this continues"

The girl with glasses is Jewel's secretary, Song Xuan. She is very rigid and does things in a strict manner. She is indignant and repulsed by the fact that Jewel hangs out in nightclubs.

"Xiaoxuan, I'll take you with me someday. There is a nice man in a shop over there, he's strong and..."

"No need, section chief. I've been to that store with my friends a long time ago. The men there are just a bunch of dirty guys. They talk disgustingly and look like that. As for my body, I'm good-looking."

Gene smiled helplessly and patted Jewell on the shoulder.

"Be careful, you're going to get sucked dry if you keep this up."

Jewell said, coughing.

"My health is still very good, it's just a minor illness. It should be fine for another 50 years. I can come once or twice a day without any problem, and"

With a snap, Song Xuan covered Jewell's mouth with a slap.

"Section Chief, please shut up, please. We're already here. Sir Jean is here to do business."

Jewell couldn't help but muttered as he watched Song Xuan politely lead Jean out of the elevator.

"What's so good about Jean? You respect him so much, what about me? I'm your immediate boss, but"

Song Xuan turned around and glared at Jewell.

"Section Chief, the difference between you and Master Jean is that of a reptile on the ground and the sun in the sky."

At the end of a spacious passage, there are more than twenty people on duty in a special glass house in front of them. This is the bottom floor of the prison tower. This long glass house is more like a city wall than a room.

Directly opposite is a place that looks like a mine. The lv0 prisoners below are all free. What they need to do is dig holes day and night. Originally, the lv0 prisoners were not detained here.

Under the advice of the 3rd Military Division, Bright City had started a 30-year digging plan ten years ago. The world outside the isolation barrier was no longer suitable for human habitation. Even the air was deadly, and due to the impact of planets Later, in the world that began to undergo mutations, a large number of unknown substances appeared. In recent years, they have been discovered through the surveillance post on the isolation barrier, but it is very difficult for people to investigate outside the isolation barrier.

In the past, when people went out from the air and broke away from the isolation layer established with new materials, they had to face too many unknown dangers. In the past few years, the military department has been unable to bring back more effective intelligence from the outside, and most of them are gone forever. Returning, communication with other cities can only rely on long-distance special signal waves without any means of transportation.

Finally, under the comprehensive advice of the 2nd City Crisis Analysis and Countermeasures Section and the 10th Science Research Section, the Congress of Brilliant City passed this huge plan to dig a deep passage from the ground, reach the outside world through the defensive barrier, and then build a External investigation of the base would take too long and require too much investment, which is something that Bright City cannot afford.

Finally, it was proposed by the 11th Prison Section that this plan could be completed by these prisoners who should have been sentenced to death long ago. Most of the prisoners at level 0 are mutants. They have tenacious vitality and strong physical strength, and they only need to provide food. In addition, human life span has now increased to 150 years.

This is a large number of laborers, and they are criminals without any rights. Criminals from lv0 to lv2 are basically sent to this underground work site to work in turn. If they want to eat, they have to exchange the excavated soil and rocks for food. Private fighting is not allowed. Once fighting, the prison guards can activate the collar to kill the criminals according to the situation.

There is a platform elevator on both sides that goes directly to the ground. There are light-killing weapons on the four walls. Once vital signs are detected, the light-killing weapons will be activated, so it is impossible for some criminals who want to escape with a fluke mentality.

Below, the pale-skinned prisoners are constantly transporting soil from the huge cave of 30 meters in front of them. According to the sensor on the prisoner's collar, it can be immediately calculated how many kilograms of soil and rocks have been excavated. At a window at the bottom for taking food, prisoners who have not reached the amount will not have food.

All this extremely cruel labor was considered too cruel by some citizens. However, in this long-destroyed world, criminals had no rights to speak of. Most of them became prisoners of level 0 to level 2. This was their only way to survive. If they could not bear it, they could apply for the death penalty. They only needed to agree and the section chief to sign, and the prisoner would be executed immediately.

Those who did not want to work would only starve to death. Gene quietly watched these staggering prisoners. In order for them to work for decades, the 10th Scientific Research Department would come once a month to check these prisoners. If it was found that the body was unable to bear the labor, the 11th Section Criminal Management Department would exile them to the barrier area without hesitation.

"Open the door, I'll just go and find it."

At this time, a glass cover in front of him opened, and Gene jumped directly from a height of more than 20 meters, landing in front of the food window with a bang. The uniform he was wearing was shaking slightly, and he walked slowly with his hat tilted.

The originally dejected prisoners suddenly became agitated.

"It's Gene, that devil Gene."

Accompanied by a loud shout, prisoners kept running out of the large tunnel. In this huge circular underground square, it was crowded with people in a short time. These prisoners glared at Gene angrily.

"Lord Gene, please have mercy on us, I want to see my wife and daughter."

"Lord Gene, I really can't stand it anymore, I don't want to die, I still want to see the sun outside."

"Lord Gene, please, as long as you don't let us do these jobs, we can do anything, even do human experiments for the 10th Scientific Research Department!"

Bursts of sobs were heard everywhere, some prisoners cried, and many begged, but there were some guys who glared at Gene.

"Asshole Gene, go to hell."

With a bang, a prisoner jumped out of the crowd, with murderous intent on his hideous and angry face, and punched Gene.

Just as the man from Section 11 on the wall behind him was about to activate the collar, Gene raised his hand to stop him and gently exhaled a puff of smoke.

With a bang, Gene grabbed the other person's fist, and the prisoners around him shouted angrily.

"It looks like you haven't been disciplined for a long time, don't activate the collar."

Gene suddenly pulled the fist of the prisoner in front of him, pressed his head with one hand, and pressed him to the ground with a bang.

The prisoners around him rushed to Gene like a tide, and their angry murderous intent was steaming.