Chapter 144: Toward a Better Life

Ashe froze for a moment, then changed the subject. "Tea cafes are one thing. I like looking at beautiful women, too, but why are there so many scantily clad men parading around in places called mud cafés? It's seriously damaging to my eyesight. If I weren't an escaped convict, I'd report them to the Heresy Court for ruining the city's appearance. This should be explicitly banned by law."

Freya warned him, "I advise you not to meddle. You may not like looking at them, but we do. If men are allowed to ogle pretty women, why shouldn't women enjoy looking at handsome men?"

Ashe's face clouded over. "Fine, I can live with that. Aside from being a bit overexposed, it's a traditional profession anyway, so I guess it's not completely incomprehensible. But when I wandered farther, I saw a construction site. The workers there..."

"What about them?" Freya asked.

"They'd turned more than half their bodies into machines. Legs were wheels, arms were multifunction toolboxes, and even their eyes had mechanical prosthetics. If I hadn't seen them drinking and chatting, I would've thought they were robots."

Freya waved him off. "Of course they're not robots. Fully automated robots are insanely expensive and require constant maintenance. Hiring mechanically enhanced workers is far cheaper. You haven't been in prison that long, have you? Mechanical workers have been common in Caimon City for over a decade. Why do you sound so surprised?"

"Are there a lot of these mechanical workers?"

"Not everywhere. Mostly on construction sites. They can swap out arms for attachments, and with some training, they can work as assemblers, repair technicians, installation specialists, basically any technical job."

Freya took a big bite of her Redflame Lala Fat. Mayonnaise smeared the corner of her mouth. "Ordinary people who can't become sorcerers often switch careers to mechanical work. Even office clerks do it. The only difference is the degree of mechanization."

Ashe was stunned. "Even non-technical jobs get mechanized?"

Freya poked her chest. "Of course. It's not just limited to limbs and spine. Replacing internal organs with mechanical implants also brings huge advantages. The heart can be swapped for a more powerful Spark Core, the lungs upgraded with a high-efficiency Internal Combustion Engine, and the stomach replaced with an Energy Pool for better digestion and absorption.

"Mechanical modification is cheap these days. A standard set of implants can be paid off in three to four years with a loan, as long as you work seriously. And the benefits are incredible. You'll get longer endurance and higher energy efficiency. When times are tough, you survive on just water. When times are good, you can push yourself further and experience stronger sensory pleasure.

"If mechanical implants didn't reduce a sorcerer's mana absorption efficiency in the Virtual World, many sorcerers would probably choose mechanical upgrades over far more expensive biological ones."

Freya shrugged. "For ordinary people, universal mechanical arms and an Energy Pool stomach are basically mandatory now. Without them, most companies won't hire you. Most tools are designed to interface with mechanical arms. Without one, you can barely use any equipment.

"For example, the chef at my university cafeteria has a mechanical arm that connects to his spatula. It can heat, cool, and dispense seasoning automatically. His steak is amazing. A mechanical stomach lets you eat an entire day's worth of food in the morning and digest it slowly. That extends working hours and saves on food costs. A meal like ours? It could replace thirty portions of feed for a mechanical worker."

Ashe couldn't wrap his head around it. "What about the Human or Racial Rights Association? Do they just ignore this?"

Freya frowned. "Why would they interfere? No one's forcing anyone to undergo mechanical modification. People choose it voluntarily. Human rights groups can't restrict freedom of choice, let alone stop people from pursuing a better life."

Ashe remained silent, stunned by the idea of voluntarily pursuing a better life through such drastic means. After Freya finished eating and wiped her mouth, he asked, "If mechanical workers save so much money, what do they spend their wages on?"

Freya counted on her fingers. "Mud cafes, tea cafes, casinos, candy shops, voting in streaming shows, clothes and accessories, biological upgrades, chip version updates, updates to the Knowledge Curtain, Rise of the Sorcerers, Virtual Fantasy XIV, Miracle World..."

After a day of browsing the Curtain, Ashe knew the last three were currently the most popular multiplayer games. The Curtain was the nation's shared information world, essentially the internet, named for its extreme anonymity. Except for the Heresy Court, which managed the chips, ordinary people couldn't track anyone else. Everyone existed invisibly, "behind the Curtain."

Because of this anonymity, people spoke with total abandon. In just one day, Ashe learned an impressive variety of slurs, including racial, gender-based, educational, and professional ones, among many others.

The concept of mothers didn't exist in the Blood Moon Kingdom, but the sheer mastery of profanity left Ashe in awe. For a fleeting moment, he even thought the speech restrictions in Shattered Lake Prison might have some merit. Perhaps all those people spewing verbal sewage really did need to be dragged in and reformed.

As for voting on ongoing shows, it was a special paid model unique to film and television in the Blood Moon Kingdom. In simple terms, after viewers watched the first half of a series, the production team would present several possible endings. Viewers could then vote with money to choose the direction they liked, and the studio would film the ending accordingly.

For example, the manga Ashe had read,

Guess It’s My Fault for Saying I Like Married Women

, might offer a dozen possible endings once adapted for television. Options could include the male lead and female lead living happily ever after, the male lead shamelessly staying with the first and second female leads, the first and second female leads ending up together, or even the male lead pairing with the second male lead. After the audience finished the first half of the show, they would get to decide the ending.

As for clothes and accessories, Ashe noticed that although Freya's apartment was small, she had three full wardrobes packed with elegant clothes and jewelry. At first, he assumed it was merely a feminine hobby. But once he stepped onto the streets, he realized almost everyone dressed with sophistication and refinement. Even the male clerk at a grocery store looked like a pampered heir from a wealthy family.

Moreover, aside from the middle-aged and elderly, most young people were strikingly attractive, regardless of gender. Even goblins had neat features and clear eyes. Some people even had starlight in their eyes. Their pupils sparkled as they moved. Clearly, most had undergone artistic refinement at the hands of medical practitioners. Ashe couldn't fault that. After all, his own face had been adjusted by Healer No.222.

The reason people purchased the Knowledge Curtain was equally straightforward. Updating chip versions cost money. Most people received a Miracle 1 chip at birth. It was slow, barely usable, and had limited storage. Most adults upgraded to Miracle 10 or higher. Newer chip versions offered stronger functions, better performance, and compatibility with higher-version applications, while older chips simply couldn't run the latest software.

The Knowledge Curtain was the display screen everyone currently used. Compared to the narrow light projection from a chip, it offered higher resolution, a larger display, better color, more storage, and overall stronger performance. While both served as information and entertainment terminals, the chip was essentially an implanted smartphone, whereas the Knowledge Curtain functioned more like a personal computer.

Ashe said, "So basically, after people make money, they spend it on porn, gambling, drugs, body modification, clothes, accessories, and virtual entertainment?"

"That's right," Freya replied.

Ashe opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but then closed it again. Only after finishing the last bite of his egg tart did he finally ask, "Are you the same?"

"Yes," Freya said, meeting his gaze, "I am. But I'm not interested in gambling or drugs. And since I plan to become a sorcerer, I can't undergo biological modifications for now."

"Then are you happy?"

Freya looked at him strangely. "Very happy."