Chapter 519.1: Advancement

Sometimes I really envied the residents of Ideal City... They were born with silver spoons in their mouths and had all the time in the world to do nothing, while it seemed like all my life had been spent doing one thing after another."

At dusk, in Highway Town Hotel.

Zhou Nan took a sip of the rich beer as he looked at the tourists from Ideal City and sighed with emotion.

He could tell at a glance where they were from.

They carried an aura that stood out, even more distinct than those in blue coats or the clones.

Sitting across from him, Sun Shiqi chuckled, "What's the big deal? If you're going to envy someone, you might as well envy people from 200 years ago. Back then, not only did they have time to laze around, they even had time to think of how to arrange our lives."

"Arrange our lives?"

"To put it another way, imagine the future."

"Hahaha."

Their laughter dispersed the lingering melancholy.

Sun Shiqi clinked his glass with his drinking buddy across the table.

Having made a small fortune from the steel trade, he was no longer a mere traveling merchant. He could be considered a factory owner under the New Alliance, with most of his assets invested in its industries.

If not for his past identity as a traveling merchant, one not fully trusted by the Frost Spear Tribe who were once nomads, someone might have agreed to his courtship already, and he might have tied his entire family to the New Alliance.

That said, although he believed in the New Alliance’s future, he had to make a conscious decision to do so.

Early on, he had always harbored a sense of original sin, worrying that the New Alliance's administrator might silence him for knowing that the silver coin was originally just a pile of in-game currency.

But eventually, he realized that his worry had been completely unnecessary.

That person didn’t care in the slightest. And thinking about it, so what if everyone else learned of it?

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Would people stop eating rice fertilized with manure just because they knew where the manure came from?

No one in River Valley Province doubted the value of silver coins anymore. Even scavengers active near the Great Rift Valley accepted them.

Especially lately, the bulk price of corn had officially dropped below the one silver coin mark, pushed down to 0.9 silver coins by the flood of autumn grain from the Sunset Province.

Just a year ago, the bulk price was 1.5 silver coins. Even the cheapest green wheat and horn potatoes had never been so cheap!

Now, residents of Dawn City not only ate corn steamed, boiled, and fried, but also had enough surplus to feed pigs and cows. The bar at Highway Town even added a new drink, corn liquor made by residents of the shelters.

However, the liquor was too strong and it burned the throat. Aside from trend-chasers and the shelter residents themselves, not many actually enjoyed it.

"Speaking of which, it’s almost festival time again."

"Isn’t that a good thing?"

"With festivals every other day, who’s left to do any work?" Zhou Nan said worriedly. "Your factory’s going on break too, right?"

Sun Shiqi smiled and replied, "No big deal. It’s not like we’re on holiday every day. One festival every few months is fine. I heard back in the Federation days there were over 100 holidays a year. The New Alliance has had, what, four or five so far? It’s not that bad."

Zhou Nan shook his head. "That’s not the same. The productivity and efficiency of the Federation Era were on a completely different level. Even if they didn’t work, it wasn’t a big deal."

"You’re not wrong. The New Alliance’s productivity isn’t particularly high, but it’s not weak either. A few festivals are manageable. We don’t have layers of bureaucracy and there are no nobles to feed. Even if everyone tightened their belts, no one’s hoarding the benefits. Everything produced still needs someone to use it, right? It’s not like we’re the Academy, hoarding things for Researchers."

He chuckled at his own comment.

"Besides, even if the New Alliance wanted to show academic favoritism, there aren’t enough scholar-types to favor. Better to let the people take a few extra holidays, make them happy, and let them spend their paychecks."

"Isn’t that what life’s about, being happy? People with frowns never accomplish much. And if they do, they scare everyone else around them."

"I still think it’s a bit extravagant to start out this way... Even if they mean well for the residents, I feel like they could’ve waited..." Zhou Nan mumbled.

Sun Shiqi shook his head. "The things you wait for never come."

"What about the future? Even if there are no nobles now, there’ll be some eventually. Isn’t Boulder Town the best example? The inner city’s original residents were all supporters of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee. Now, who even remembers that committee?"

Zhou Nan tried to make his point, and Boulder Town was the perfect example. Supposedly, a century and a half ago, it was home to a noble band of survivors. Had they not opened the gates of the Great Wall, the outer city would never have existed.

How was the New Alliance any different?

Mayor Luca likely couldn’t have children due to age. Charlie, rumored to be an old popsicle, came from a generation with progressive views. He probably wouldn’t want to bring kids into this wasteland either.

But others would eventually come.

Like Wrench, the commander of the First Corps, and Liu Ding, commander of the Second Corps. They were in their prime. They were competent and had fought their way out of real battlefields.

Their loyalty might never have been to the New Alliance itself, but to the administrator personally. It was hard to say how far their ideals would go... or how far their children would follow.

Sun Shiqi could tell what Zhou Nan wanted to say, but just grinned dismissively.

"We’ll talk about the future when it comes. Our Administrator isn’t even old yet."

That made Zhou Nan pause. He laughed.

"You’re something else... You’ve already accepted yourself as one of the New Alliance’s own."

No wonder the guy kept defending the New Alliance!

Sun Shiqi replied proudly, "Of course I have! If not for the New Alliance, I’d probably still be hauling grain for the slavers and runners in Red River Town, playing those red-ticket-blue-ticket futures scams with them. From the moment I bought my first warehouse here, I decided to become a citizen of the New Alliance."

It was a sentimental reflection.

At first, he had bought a warehouse in Dawn City just to stockpile grain for the fall. He had planned to buy a few trucks and control the trade route between the New Alliance and Red River Town, become the biggest mineral and grain trader in the wasteland.

But soon after, war broke out between the New Alliance and the Army. Refugees from the shelters went to the frontlines, and demand for smelting steel and copper surged overnight. A new business opportunity arose, and he opened a steel factory near the mines in Bluestone County.

Meanwhile, nothing had changed in his old hometown.

It was the same old place.

Recently, he’d heard Red River Town had changed its name to Red River Alliance. But after thinking about it, it was just a name change. It was basically the same damn thing wrapped up in a different ribbon.

Ever since the New Alliance made a killing on copper ore, he realized those arrogant slavers weren’t actually smart. They were just lucky pigs squatting on treasure. The sad thing was, even the treasure they were so proud of would soon become worthless.

With the new railway connecting Clearspring City to West Continent Municipality, the New Alliance could not only supply its own coal, copper, iron, and sulfur, but even begin exporting.

It had been a while since he last bought anything from that junk heap.