This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 349: The Undercurrents of Giant Stone City

Chapter 349: Chapter 349: The Undercurrents of Giant Stone City

"Good morning, dear viewers. I’m your beloved Mr. Hauser! Before the news break, please allow me to offer the highest tribute to our great city leader!"

"Today, Qingquan City remains calm and quiet. Out of fear of us, those primitives who tattoo pythons on their faces have started fleeing east! Such a pity—if they had come here, I’d have loved to interview these mindless fools... Heading south? What were they thinking!"

"Not just the Looter, but also our neighbors from the north, those scrambling in the Tide, fear our mighty military power. Lately, they’ve been fighting like thugs and are now licking their wounds in the sewers."

"What a pitiable bunch, tsk tsk. But recently, their heads finally cleared up, and they sent their city leader—the one from City of Dawn—to our city hall to negotiate."

"It seems they finally realized that on the Wasteland, survival means aligning with the strong!"

In some obscure bar, an old radio sat on the counter, its dusty speakers blaring with a thrilling voice.

"Voice of Giant Stone City" was always the favorite show among the citizens of Giant Stone City, since there were only a few signals available on the Wasteland.

The channel played pre-war classical music 24 hours a day, occasionally interrupting with Mr. Hauser’s news or "Riches Guide," satisfying the citizens’ need for entertainment and providing dreamers with fodder for their imaginations.

However—

Not everyone was pleased with that shrill, duck-like voice.

Especially those who were discontented with their lives.

"Why won’t this annoying pest shut his beak?"

After gulping down some beer that was even lighter than water, the man in the brown leather jacket muttered under his breath, his beard bristling with irritation at the corners of his lips.

His name was Spielberg.

In Giant Stone City, it was an insignificant name.

And Mr. Spielberg’s job was as insignificant as his name, just an ordinary worker at a canning factory.

As for why he was drinking here at this hour...

It was because he was about to lose his job.

In Giant Stone City, canned goods weren’t exactly hot commodities; the nobility wouldn’t eat them, and ordinary residents couldn’t afford them.

Only some large commercial teams and mercenary groups would buy cans to improve their meals and boost morale.

For those individual mercenaries, they preferred taking short-day jobs nearby, making do with dry rations for two or three days. Though they could afford more, they preferred to spend their money on alcohol and women.

Due to low profit margins and limited production scale, giants in the food processing industry, including Vijia Commerce, hardly cared for the canning business.

Only two small factories in all of Giant Stone City produced canned food, offering just two types: double-headed cow and Hyena meat.

However...

Recently, the shelves in Giant Stone City’s stores saw the sudden appearance of "instant noodles" and "sausage."

The former, as the name suggests, was a type of noodle deep-fried and sold in paper cups; just tear off the lid, pour hot water, and it’s ready in five minutes—or it could be eaten without water.

The latter, it wasn’t clear what kind of meat it was, but it had a starchy texture, and perhaps because of the salt, it was unexpectedly tasty?

Anyway, Spielberg had never seen such weird food before, and he didn’t have to think twice to know it must be from their neighbors next door.

Since the introduction of instant noodles and sausages to Giant Stone City, their canned goods were completely unsellable. When their boss finally realized the severity of the problem, the cannery was on the verge of closing.

The boss had given everyone leave, asking them to wait at home for further notice.

Spielberg knew very well that though it was officially a leave, it wasn’t much different from being fired.

The cannery’s closure was just a matter of time; as soon as the machinery could be sold for some money, that fat-brained guy would definitely sell it without hesitation.

Now, Spielberg was left with only two options.

Either become a mercenary or caravan guard, or try his luck in the "North Suburb."

The threat from the north had recently been alleviated, and the trade routes to the northern part of River Valley Province had been restored. All the big commercial teams and mercenary groups were recruiting; no experience needed, just being able to carry a gun was enough.

As for the "North Suburb," it seemed like there was always high demand for workers there, though it was said that they paid not with chips but their own "silver coins"?

But whichever option he considered, Spielberg found it hard to decide.

After all, even if he was poor, he had a shelter from the storm in Giant Stone City.

Yet leaving the Stone City meant entering a barbaric world where man eats man.

He had heard on the radio, outside Stone City there were no law-abiding people; those uncivilized barbarians would capture civilized men and throw them into boiling oil.

Just thinking about that made him too frightened to sleep all night.

That was terrifying!

...

The worry for the future of Giant Stone City wasn’t reserved only for small characters like Spielberg.

Since hearing that Stone City Hall would sign the "Friendly Cooperation Agreement" with the New Alliance, Wei Jia had been losing sleep night after night.

He didn’t care what rifles or cans were displayed on the shelves of Giant Stone City’s stores, but the existence of Didivei nutrition paste had already posed a severe threat to Vijia Commerce’s business.

The low prices had even broken his cost line.

Without exaggeration, he could shut down his factory, import nutrition paste from the "North Suburb", and sell it to the south, and he’d make more than he did manufacturing it himself!

This was simply too outrageous!

Were those country bumpkins running factories as a charity?

"The group at the city hall are nothing but a bunch of pigs! No... calling them pigs would be a compliment to them!"

In the opulent room,

Wei Jia, sitting at the long table, couldn’t help but burst out cursing.

This was the reception room of Vijia Commerce, and those seated here were all big business owners.

Though these were all people of status, they did not need to care about their image here.

Because everyone was frustrated with the results provided by the city hall.

"The funniest thing is... these swine even have the audacity to show off that so-called friendly agreement, thinking they’ve done something great," said the man in the high-collar shirt, his face showing clear anger.

His name was Jonah, and he ran the largest cotton mill in Giant Stone City; his cotton fabric and cotton clothes and shirts not only occupied more than 60% of Stone City’s market share but were also exported to Brocade River and Falling Leaves provinces.

Since the beginning of the year, those country bumpkins in the "North Suburb" had also begun producing cotton fabric and clothing.

Initially, he hadn’t taken them seriously, considering a factory or two was not worth worrying over.

However, it didn’t take long for him to realize just how ridiculously wrong he had been.

In just half a year, the clothing produced by the New Alliance first took over the bars of Stone City, then conquered the willing-to-spend mercenaries through these bars, and eventually took over the entire outer city.

They produced both durable gun bags, bulletproof vests, and backpacks, as well as less durable outerwear or clothes.

And those long socks that could be worn as trousers... he remembered they were called "black silk"?

Of course, they weren’t necessarily black; there were also white and other colors, even transparent ones.

Not limited to socks alone.

These indecent guys, how did they come up with these decadent items?

Jonah was very annoyed.

Especially annoying for him was that, although reason told him those items were the reason his wallet was thinning, he just couldn’t restrain his eyes and hands.

Another owner who ran an alcohol business said equally annoyed,

"And that ’Nuclear-Cola’... ever since that thing appeared, our distillery’s orders plummeted by 10%! It’s crazy! What’s so good about sugary water!"

As several big shots continued to speak, the conversation at the meeting table completely opened up.

Everyone began to complain indignantly.

"They’ve been plundering our trade for a whole half a year now, yet the city hall does nothing!"

"I really can’t understand why we’re even talking to them. We have artillery, we have aircraft, we have power armor, and thousands of mercenaries and tens of thousands in reserves. Why should we even negotiate?"

"Even if we don’t send out the Militia Group, just throwing some chips out there, we could easily crush those grasshoppers!"

Watching the boiling voices in front of the conference table, Wei Jia’s face was expressionless.

Originally, he had organized today’s meeting to discuss strategies together, but unexpectedly it turned into a grievance session.

Everyone was venting the frustration of the past six months, yet no one could come up with a concrete strategy.

However, he did not stop them.

Sometimes emotions too are a weapon.

After letting emotions brew for a moment, Wei Jia placed his hands on the table and slowly stood up from his chair.

Surveying everyone with a glance, he began to speak.

"I’ve always been unable to figure out how they managed to lower their costs so dramatically."

Hearing this, the people sitting at the conference table quieted down.

After a pause, Wei Jia continued,

"Especially since I’ve had it investigated, the New Alliance requires all factories to have workers work no more than 12 hours a day, with a minimum hourly wage of 1 Silver Coin. If someone works the full 12 hours, they must be paid at least 12 Silver Coins a day, which, when converted to chips, would need 6 coins! That’s almost three times what we pay our workers!"

"There’s a problem with that statement, ordinary people can’t just freely exchange Silver Coins for chips, they can only swap chips for Silver Coins,"

expressed a factory owner with some dissatisfaction.

It sounded as if he was being miserly.

To speak truthfully, he had already fed those people to their fill, and not only had he not put them in shackles, but he had even paid them wages.

Wasn’t that kind enough?

If electricity and maintenance costs weren’t so expensive, he would have replaced the workers on the assembly line with those capable and efficient androids long ago!

Another factory owner nodded and said,

"I’ve also heard that they have something called ’mandatory conversion’? The profits from exports are converted into the local currency, which are the silver coins. Only when needed can they be exchanged for foreign currency at the bank."

"That’s too much of a scam!"

"No wonder... a friend of mine who went there to open a factory complained to me that it was truly a scam, and that he hardly made any money. He warned me never to go there."

Everyone discussed it animatedly.

However, just then, Wei Jia interrupted them.

"...That being said, that money is real, isn’t it?"

Everyone fell silent.

Looking at the silent crowd, he continued,

"If those silver coins were just trash, I believe that even if they gave more, those workers wouldn’t accept them, and the factories would have definitely fled."

Hearing this, the factory owners sitting around fell silent, looking at Wei Jia somewhat confusedly, not understanding why he was defending the New Alliance.

Wasn’t this the time for everyone to curse that cunning Blue Ground Squirrel?

Saying all this nonsense, proving that they aren’t exploiting workers, proving that the silver coins aren’t trash—what, it means our management skills are lacking?

Who are they looking down on!

Seeing that the time was just about right, Wei Jia continued,

"I found out later what the real issue was."

"According to research by my salespeople, with the New Alliance, payroll expenses can be deducted from taxes. I’ve done the math, and ensuring work efficiency per unit of time, although wage costs rise, the actual expenditure turns out to be lower."

This effectively meant part of the fiscal revenue obtained from the factories was being indirectly subsidized to the workers through tax returns.

As the spending power of ordinary people increased, the New Alliance’s light industry absorbed business like a sponge soaked with water.

And those factories operated by the Blue Jackets were even more outrageous, using a completely different system.

Because of language barriers and cultural differences, he still hadn’t figured it out.

But that wasn’t the point.

The real point was, these people were playing dirty!

After a pause, Wei Jia’s face took on an angry expression, gradually raising his voice,

"Not just that, they also manipulate the exchange rate, setting the silver coin to chip rate at 2:1 forcefully. This isn’t competition at all; our consumer goods can’t even enter their market!"

"As you see, our factories aren’t outcompeted because we aren’t diligent or our production methods are outdated, but rather the opposite, we are too honest and our competitors are too cunning!"

"They use wicked means to snatch the chips from our hands, watching our factories go bankrupt, and then throw out loads of chips to loot the wealth we accumulated over two centuries!"

"From the very beginning, we weren’t competing in a fair arena but had fallen into their trap!"

After this speech, many faces revealed expressions of sudden realization, as if waking from a dream.

It couldn’t be blamed on them for not thinking of this, the key was that they had never encountered such a thing before.

Ideal City?

The goods there were indeed good, but too few reached the Southern River Province, one or two rare items weren’t really a threat, and the other party didn’t value their goods much.

Before the rise of the New Alliance, they dominated industrialization in the entire Southern River Province; places like Bet Street and Brown Farm, those survivor settlements, couldn’t even compare to competitors; at most, they were like young sprouts.

As for the southern farmers, they were merely targets for their factories to exploit.

But now, a catfish had quietly slipped into this clear pond.

They faintly felt something was amiss, feeling the comfortably warm water suddenly cool, feeling powerless.

A factory with no visible advantages, relying solely on second-hand equipment and those workers they had dismissed, produced a large amount of cheap and practical "alternative products," seizing the market that originally belonged to them.

Only after hearing Wei Jia’s words did they truly realize what was happening.

Good grief!

The other side, with these "little tricks," had been shearing their wool for a full half a year!

Now, the city hall was cleverly signing a so-called Friendly Cooperation Agreement, talking about expanding trade scale and strengthening civil exchanges, watching as they were nearly sold out without even realizing it.

Of course, that was before; now they had realized the problem.

"Can you tolerate this?!"

The people at the meeting table couldn’t sit still any longer.

Jonah, who had been silent since the beginning, stood up abruptly and angrily slammed his fist on the table.

"We must clarify this situation with Duron!",

"Either reduce the taxes in the industrial zone or impose taxes on the commodities of the New Alliance!"

"It’s not just about the taxes! It’s also about the exchange rates!"

Wei Jia seized the opportunity to continue.

"Besides taxes and exchange rates, we also need to expand the list of banned sales, specifying what they can buy and what they cannot buy! How they should purchase the allowed items!"

"If our city hall isn’t protecting our interests, then what use is it to us?"

"We should unite! Pressure those with minds full of garbage! If our chief doesn’t respond to our demands—"

He elongated his tone, glanced around at his allies with a resolute voice, and continued.

"We’ll give the employees a holiday!"

As his words fell, they resonated powerfully.

The voices supporting him surged like a torrent.

"Support!"

"Strong support!"

"Count me in!"

Seeing the indignantly filled people, Wei Jia had a confident smile on his face.

He couldn’t believe it.

This contract, he would sabotage!

...

Qingquan City, on the edge of the North Fourth Ring.

In the ruins-strewn city area, a group moved slowly along the cracked concrete surface.

Soldiers wearing exoskeletons scattered around, cautiously watching the shadows.

Now that it was summer, the lush vegetation and accumulated water among the ruins complicated the situation in the city area.

The "Wasteland OL" seasonal change system was as realistic as ever, though it seemed like a basic operation for various AAA titles.

"I’ve got a bad feeling about this...," murmured Fang Chang, scanning the surroundings with his rifle ready.

Old White quipped beside him.

"Since when did you join the Perception class?"

Fang Chang rolled his eyes.

"What does that have to do with the Perception class? You think it’s normal for nothing to happen on such an important mission?"

"You make a good point," Old White nodded thoughtfully, "But you know, without Night Ten, it feels like something’s missing."

It wasn’t just Night Ten who was absent.

Wild Wind and Quit Smoking were also gone; it suddenly seemed a lot less fun.

Thinking this, a strange expression appeared on Old White’s face.

If this weren’t a game, those three might never come back...

At that moment, a voice from the communication channel reached them, from the scouting team he had sent ahead.

"...500 meters ahead, encountered unidentified armed force, approximately twenty in number, armed with automatic rifles and other light weapons, with one heavy machine gun spotted."

Just then, Old White stopped abruptly, his expression turning fierce.

Noticing the change on Old White’s face, Fang Chang looked at him questioningly.

"Something up?"

Grasping his right fist, Old White smoothly chambered his rifle.

"Work’s here."

-

(Today, after hanging the last bag of water, I won’t have to go to the hospital tomorrow T.T)

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