by <unknown>
No, their pain was even greater than the farmers in the ancient times. At the very least, the farmers of the Ancient Sages Sector that Long Yangjun met could work when the sun rose and rest after the sunset. However, the modern "brainfarmers" had to work for at least fourteen hours every day. If they were given temporary tasks that had high workloads, it was not unusual for them to work twenty hours a day.
Such a high intensity of brainwork was certainly too much for their brains. However, the Immortal Cultivators had produced all kinds of "tonics" and "energy pills" for them. After they took the medications, their brain cells would be on fire, and they could work for three consecutive days without closing their eyes. As for the consequences, they were not severe at all, except that those hominoids would lose their longevity, have abnormally huge heads, or even die abruptly once in a while.
But despite all the unfavorable outcomes, the "brainfarmers" did not dare to slack at all, and they even made it a habit to work sixteen hours a day. Even if their Immortal Cultivator bosses did not demand them to do so, they would still volunteer to stay and overwork.
On one hand, it was because the living environment, as well as the medical and educational resources in the two-digit districts, were slightly better than the areas down below after all, and the daily cost to live in such districts and enjoy the more or less complete infrastructure and public services were astronomical. They could only make ends meet by exploiting their lives all the time.
On the other hand, their Immortal Cultivator bosses had set "deadlines" for the "brainfarmers". There was a due date for every major assignment. If they could not accomplish the tasks in time or too many errors were detected after they submitted their work, they would be executed immediately!
Resources and deadlines were carrots and sticks. When the measures were taken at the same time, those "brainfarmers" had been domesticated into things like livestock.
The three-digit areas from the 100th district to the 999th district, ranging from minus five hundred meters to minus three thousand meters, were teeming with component factories where assembly lines had been applied on a large scale. Most of the civil magical equipment and relatively fundamental military magical equipment were produced in those underground factories.
It was particularly so when it came to the magical equipment that was dumped from the central worlds of the Imperium to the peripheral worlds.
After all, for the lowly, civil magical equipment, the quality did not matter, and everything would be fine as long as the cost was cheap and the productivity was high.
To achieve the maximal profits, the workers sitting before the assembly lines in the magical equipment factories had received the most professional training and the harshest exploitation. They had almost been squeezed into bizarre-shaped components and embedded into the assembly lines precisely.
It was said that the most excellent assembly line workers could weld fifty thousand coils to different chips every day. Not only was their efficiency higher than the spiritual puppets, but their cost was also only one third of the spiritual puppets.
It was exactly because of the potentials that human beings could unleash that most of the jobs regarding the production of low-level magical equipment were still occupied by humans instead of being completely taken over by spiritual puppets. It was some sort of defense for mankind's dignity according to the Immortal Cultivators.
Naturally, the assembly line workers wouldn't feel very great to weld fifty thousand coils every day, but their working environments and intensity were still much better than the residents of the four-digit districts below them ranging between minus ten thousand meters and twenty thousand meters in every aspect.
The 1000th district to the 9999th district were the areas for energy exploitation and resource recycling. Hominoids at the bottom level resided in such areas. Some of them fought magma in the geothermal factories that were scorching and suffocating, some excavated minerals at the risks of collapses and explosions, and some looked forward to the garbage falling from the sky every day. The pieces of garbage from the upper worlds were all treasures in their eyes and could be put back to use again after dismantling, cleaning, and maintenance. The places equaled to gigantic magical equipment graveyards.
The living environment here was extremely harsh, and the intensity of labor was higher than anywhere else. The average longevity was the lowest, and the death rate caused by accidents was the highest. It was an out-and-out living hell.
Naturally, even hell had different levels. The only reason why the average longevity of the four-digit districts was the "lowest" was that those districts were still within the statistics of the authorities, and both the geothermal factories and the mines of rare metals were within the control of the Immortal Cultivators.
The five-digit districts further down, namely the "forgotten corners" such as the 10,084th district, were mostly responsible for providing synthetic food for the entire enormous underground world. They were essentially the real farmers and never counted in statistics at all!
"Every mortal suffers."
Long Yangjun sighed gloomily and forced a benevolent look on her face. "After seeing the misery below the capital of the Imperium, I finally realized that you were not lying at all. The hominoids of the Imperium of True Human Beings are truly living in anguishes and agony!"
Chapter 2360: Ugliness Below the Ground! |
Li Yao secretly felt more or less ashamed as he listened.
It was true that he was the one who came up with the idea of activating the strength of the ordinary people in the Imperium of True Human Beings so that the Immortal Cultivators would be mired in their wrath that was essentially a black hole.
However, after he snuck into the Imperium, after witnessing the miserable and desperate lives of the people known as "sinners" in the Martial Meritocrats Sector at the beginning, he was soon involved in the power struggle between the reformists and the four Kurfürst families following the lead of Queen Li Linghai, and he barely had any time to pay attention to the lives of the ordinary people of the Imperium.
In that regard, Long Yangjun, as a malicious "foreigner", had deeper observations and insights than him.
However, Li Yao had always kept an open mind. From so many opponents in the past, including Xiao Xuance, Bai Xinghe, Jin Tuyi, Lu Zui, and Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan… Li Yao had learned a lot of new ideas and melted the ideas with his own thoughts into the strength that pushed him forward.
Now that Long Yangjun did have a point, he would simply listen quietly!
Long Yangjun went on. "… From the space fortresses beyond the atmosphere to the metropolises of the Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet, to the dark towns below the ground on so many levels, the whole world of Immortal Cultivators is a gigantic cage and arena. What is ironic is that in most of the cases, it is the people inside who built the cage and the arena willingly.
"Inside the cage and the arena, everybody is the oppressed and the victim, but everybody is also an oppressor and an inflictor. It is exactly like what they say. In an avalanche, not a single snowflake is innocent.
"The 'senior hominoids' living in the one-digit districts are in the highest class of ordinary people. They seem to be gorgeous, wealthy, and eye-catching superstars, but they have to kneel and force smiles before the Immortal Cultivators, abandoning all their pride and dignity. And when they grow old and less attractive, they will immediately be thrown away like garbage. Is their outcome not pitiful?
"However, how condescending are the superstars who are both humble and wretched in front of the Immortal Cultivators when they are faced with smaller stars or the people working for them? If they do not regard themselves as humans but only pets, they will certainly not regard other people as humans either. They will only impose the humiliations that the Immortal Cultivators have imposed on them to the smaller stars and the people working for them. In such cases, are they any less horrible than the Immortal Cultivators who play with them b
latantly?
"On the other hand, when faced with the loyal supporters from the lower districts, they would immediately put on an immaculate mask, saying fancy words that they do not believe at all, to deceive the supporters through whatever means possible so that the supporters would willingly donate their life savings to make their idols look even more spectacular.
"Their idols never stop thanking the supporters from lower districts, as if they were born for the supporters from lower districts, and their supporters were as important to them as their parents.
"But I've seen their real attitudes in the backstage. They make fun of the bottom-level supporters, considering them to be idiots and swine. They laugh at the stupidity and humbleness of the supporters, who consider their yawns and farts to be the latest fashion and follow it. The Immortal Cultivators are their real patrons, and the dirty people from the lower districts do not even have the privilege to touch them.
"The situation in the two-digit districts where the brainworkers live is exactly the same as the first class.
"Those 'brainfarmers' had to run excessive calculations every day under the pursuit of the haunting 'deadlines'. Naturally, their lives are more than miserable. But few of them have ever considered if such a life is correct and if they should rise to resist. Instead, they simply shift their sufferings to the hominoids who are even lower than them, namely the servants who cater to their daily needs.
"You know that the 'brainfarmers' are dedicated to computations and almost melted into the crystal processors. Their limbs have significantly shrunk, and they are not very fond of outdoor activities. Therefore, a lot of servants live in the two-digit districts to look after those 'brainfarmers'.
"The 'brainfarmers' are in the seemingly trendy business. They have access to the latest crystal processors and the most up-to-date information. Their wages are dozens of times higher than the wages of the people below them. Dwelling in the illusion that they are the cornerstones of the Imperium, they can be quite nasty toward the servants. I'm sure you can imagine it.
"The simplest example is that every 'brainfarmer' often hires three to five servants, who will put clothes on them, deliver food into their mouth, and even wipe their a*s for them after they go to the toilet. Naturally, they are also never short of the bed slaves who satisfy their biological desires. They may argue that most of the servants are legally hired from the districts further down, but if you think about it more carefully, you will realize that it is still oppression for the teenagers, who barely have any education, to serve other people or even sell their bodies for their entire lives, isn't it?
"However, most of the 'brainfarmers' have already been used to it. They even believe that the mind laborers are destined to rule over the body laborers, thinking that they are 'mind laborers' themselves. Hehe. Do they really deserve it?
"Those people can be even meaner than the Immortal Cultivators. The Immortal Cultivators have easier ways to get resources and money. In many cases, when they are in a good mind, their pets and slaves can live a good life for a year and a half because of their generosity. But while the 'brainfarmers' consider themselves to be advanced, they have to count on the few wages for their livelihoods. After they pay the bills on every payday, how much money will they have left to give their servants?
"Therefore, they always come up with all kinds of bizarre reasons to nitpick the servants and cut their allowances. The best that the servants can expect is to keep themselves warm and full. As time goes by, it is only natural that the servants hold a deep grudge, and the contradictions between the two parties are more and more intense. Somebody even comes up with the theory that the servants are natural-born larcenists and must be monitored every second with a crystal camera hovering above each of their heads. It is safe to say that this is the most direct and general exploitation."
Listening attentively, Li Yao couldn't help but have a lot of mixed feelings. It was true that he who traveled far knew much. When they made examples where the Immortal Cultivators exploited ordinary people during the education against Immortal Cultivators in the Star Glory Federation, they could often only think of the slaves in the mines, farms, and army.
Who could've thought that there was such devastating exploitation and slavery in the seemingly unattractive service industry, and who could've thought that the exploitation and slavery were not from the Immortal Cultivators but "senior hominoids"?
Long Yangjun sneered, "Of course, don't presume that the servants, the assembly line workers living in the third class, and the miners living in the fourth class are any decent folks. Their minds are, in fact, the darkest of all, but they are too weak to vent their anger in reality and often unleash all of it on the Spiritual Nexus.
"In the beginning, they blatantly threw profanities at other people on the Spiritual Nexus to let out their pain caused by the failures. Gradually, such a way was not enough to fill their empty hearts, and they began to snoop on other people's pain. It appears that the more painful other people are, the happier they will be.
"With such a state of mind, a lot of bizarre videos where people mutilate themselves or even swallow cockroaches and rats alive popped up on the Spiritual Nexus. You may find it surprising, but the more painful, cruel, and mind-boggling the videos are, the more popular they will be among the bottom-level hominoids. Even the performances of the big stars are not as good as a clip where an ordinary person eats a basin of cockroaches.
"By the time when such dark, sensational stimulations were not enough to fill their empty minds, the catharsis reached the highest point—the slaughter stream.
"Who do you think most of the people among the audience of the slaughter stream are? The Immortal Cultivators? Wrong! If the Immortal Cultivators want to kill anyone, they can totally do it on their own. They're already tired of killing each other every day. Who's interested in watching a bunch of ordinary people fighting one another?
"Most of the viewers of the slaughter stream are exactly the miners, servants, and assembly line workers living in the third and the fourth classes. Those people aren't satisfied with only watching the slaughters. They often gather their money and ask the gamers in places like 'Land of Sins' to kill someone in designated ways!
"Whatever few wages they earn through hard work at great risks will be transferred to a certain 'killer' once the money arrives into their pockets, just so that the killer will kill someone they absolutely do not know in the cruelest ways somewhere far, far away. That is exactly what is happening in thousands of underground factories and mines right now when the workers want to pursue a moment of joy. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Human beings truly deserve to be the best carriers of extraterrestrial devils!"
Dense cold sweat leaked out of Li Yao's forehead. Recalling what he had seen in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, he couldn't help but sigh.
"Since they are passionate enough to be involved in the slaughter stream, it should come as no surprise that they slightly maintain and pack the garbage from the upper districts and sell it back to the upper districts pretending that the goods are original."
Long Yangjun said casually, "It seems that everybody is hopelessly evil, and only the farmers of the fifth class, such as the residents of the 10,084th district, are the innocent, good guys, doesn't it?
"That is not necessarily the case.
"How do you think they have bred the rock worms to make them so huge and fat when the environment is so harsh and the resources are so few? Have they added certain additives of unknown backgrounds, and are those additives harmful to human bodies?
"Hehe. Most of the rock worms are not served on their own dinner tables after all. Besides, the people of upper levels peg the compressed oxygen at such a high price. If they do not make the rock worms fatter and get more compressed oxygen back, how can they possibly live on? Don't you think so?"
Chapter 2361: Devil of Desire! |
Li Yao slapped his thigh and remarked in a loud voice, "Yes, you can't be more right. This is exactly what we discussed
when we were still in the Star Glory Federation. Suppressed by the Immortal Cultivators' idea of 'survival of the fittest', the whole civilization will only become hierarchical exploitations. Those in the Divinity Transformation Stage oppress those in the Nascent Soul Stage, those in the Nascent Soul Stage oppress those in the Core Formation Stage, those in the Core Formation Stage oppress those in the Building Foundation Stage, those in the Building Foundation Stage oppress those in the Refinement Stage, those in the Refinement Stage oppress the ordinary people, and then the ordinary oppress and hurt each other. Eventually, it will escalate into everyone against everyone!
"Such an Imperium of True Human Beings has wasted most of its strength on internal strife even though it boasts millions of Immortal Cultivators and starships and hundreds of prosperous worlds. It is only reasonable that the Imperium is no match for the Covenant Alliance. The Imperium might not have the power to destroy a 'barbaric and remote' country like the Star Glory Federation.
"This is exactly also why I have snuck to the center of the cosmos swearing to turn the Imperium of True Human Beings upside down!"
Long Yangjun smiled casually and shook her head. "If you think that I'm just talking about systems and ideologies and that the chaos here is only caused by the cruelty lying in the true path of immortality, you will be too shallow and shortsighted.
"In my opinion, this is not a problem unique to a country or a civilization but a terminal disease caused by the character that all intelligent lives share.
"While the Imperium of True Human Beings is so decayed, was the Great Qian Dynasty where I once lived any different? The Star Ocean Republic was founded by the Cultivators, but was it not corrupted in its last years?
"There's still the Great Dark Age of demons, which is too far away from today for us to know the well-being of the bottom-level people at that time. But the Blood Demon Sector, as a 'living fossil', can give us a clue. Inheriting the 'Four Pillars System' of the Great Dark Age, the Blood Demon Sector paralyzed the people with the groundless superstitions that they called 'obliteration, rebirth, immortality'. Had it not been for your arrival, wouldn't the demons at the bottom of the Blood Demon Sector still be mired in such lies?
