When Xia Li stepped out of Yagyu Chihaya's Benzoin Clinic,
night had just fallen.
Looking at the various illuminated signs along the streets, the neon lights of every color gave him the strange feeling that a whole age had passed.
Who would have imagined that only a few hours earlier, he had been fighting for his life in another world?
New Tokyo was chaotic too, but beneath that surface chaos lay a kind of ironclad order.
"Cough, cough..."
The air reeked.
Even the ash-filled air of Sunscorch Valley had actually been far cleaner than the air here, and Xia Li, only just recovered from grievous injury, found it hard to adapt.
【Historical weather records show that a level-two acid rain event occurred in New Tokyo this afternoon. It is recommended that you use spiritual filtration to avoid lung damage and poisoning.】
The Heaven Chip explained where the strange smell came from, and only then did Xia Li remember that this was land ravaged by nuclear contamination.
"Heaven Chip, comparatively speaking... could it be that the Corporate Alliance is actually the one that cares most about rules?"
What he had experienced recently in the Profound World had forced Xia Li to think more deeply about the rules around him.
The Corporate Alliance was "commerce."
The basic concept of commerce came from the rules of exchange, trading what one had for what one needed. That allowed some people without power or status to completely detach themselves from basic production and devote themselves wholly to other things.
Craft.
Thought.
Art.
Law.
And more.
But as human thought advanced, commerce grew ever more complex, evolving from simple mutual benefit into a battlefield of interests.
Cruel and absurd as it was, the progress of human civilization, viewed across history, had never been separable from war.
Commercial war was likewise one of the important forces that drove products to evolve and iterate.
【At present, compared with sects, clans, and even democratic governments, the privileged classes within the Corporate Alliance are the least likely to violate their own rules.】
【The Corporate Alliance's free-market laws stand above everything else and hold the sole authority of interpretation on many issues, reducing the weakening of responsibility as well as factional opposition and fragmentation.】
【In terms of class mobility, the Corporate Alliance's rules are also more transparent, and the total number of those who rise through them is greater than under the other two ideologies.】
The Heaven Chip answered Xia Li's question.
So even the Corporate Alliance had a better side to it.
At least there, those willing to stake their lives might truly win everything.
Sects cared about talent.
Clans cared about bloodline.
Democratic governments cared about self-awareness and loyalty.
Only the Corporate Alliance asked none of that.
The stage was simply there.
Bet everything you could on whether the chance to change your fate would descend.
"Why two ideologies instead of three?"
【The ideologies of sects and clans are similar. Their core principles do not differ, so they can be directly classified as one.】
"I see..."
Thinking over the differences between humanity's three major ideologies, Xia Li looked up toward New Tokyo's Upper District.
In the darkness of night,
the Upper District looked like a radiant tower of light.
It also looked like a cold technological world-tree.
The interesting thing was that the great pillars connecting the upper and lower districts were all plated with gold on the outside. Under the lights, they shone brilliantly.
As nuclear radiation receded, the Upper District, originally built to escape the pollution of the ground, had in truth already fulfilled its historical mission.
People could return to the earth now.
But those who had long dwelled in the heavens had come to mistake themselves for beings born above, forgetting that their ancestors too had once been born on the ground.
"What a magnificent golden tree."
Xia Li could not help admiring the extravagant brilliance of the Upper District.
At the same time, he felt an urge to set that golden tree ablaze.
He made his way to the great elevator. There, elite Corporate Alliance troops in full combat gear were stationed on guard.
This force was not the private army of any single corporation, but an organ of violence jointly funded by the Corporate Alliance itself.
Not a single one of the soldiers standing here as mere gatekeepers had an Armed Rating below C.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
In other words, these watchdogs of the gate could each go to the Profound World and beat local Golden Core cultivators.
"Stop outside the red line and open access to your identity information."
As soon as Xia Li came within a certain distance of the elevator, one of the armed personnel stepped up and aimed a gun directly at his head.
Xia Li did not bother contesting the matter and opened identity-access permission.
The soldier immediately connected and verified it.
"Identity confirmed. Please forgive my earlier discourtesy. I wish you a pleasant time, sir."
The same soldier who had been so overbearing moments earlier immediately stepped aside and even saluted Xia Li.
Anyone qualified to enter the Upper District was protected by Corporate Alliance law.
At the very least, people like these soldiers were not allowed to insult them.
"It's fine."
Xia Li nodded. In his current state, he looked hardly different from someone out of the slums. His clothes were clean and presentable, yes, but his right arm was still missing, and his right eye was still blind.
In times like these, if someone were not dirt poor, they could at least pick up a discarded prosthetic from a junkyard and patch it up for temporary use.
Escorted by the soldier, Xia Li entered the great elevator.
It was much larger than the one in Liguang City, with internal rooms partitioned inside it.
The room he entered was filled with a soothing fragrance. It had a sofa, classical symphonic music playing softly, and a red carpet on the floor.
There was even complimentary wine.
Sitting on the sofa, Xia Li uncorked a bottle with telekinesis and poured himself a glass. Meanwhile, the room itself began to rise slowly.
The lighting in the room shifted, and a beam of soft golden radiance fell over him.
It felt like ascension.
Like a worm struggling to survive on the ground ascending into a refined and noble "human."
No wonder so many in New Tokyo dreamed of visiting the Upper District.
This drunken luxury and glittering worldly splendor was false to the bone, but it still delivered an immense sensory thrill.
Xia Li raised his glass and walked over to the window to admire the Lower District below. His gesture of toasting changed into one of supporting the bowl of the glass in his palm, letting the stem hang down between his fingers.
"To me, and to all of you."
Xia Li smiled.
A very complicated smile.
After several dozen minutes,
the elevator reached the top.
As the doors slowly opened, service staff were already waiting outside.
"Good evening, sir. Your attire is not quite suitable. Please allow us to change it for you."
"Go ahead."
Xia Li did not care in the least what he wore.
Seeing that, the service staff immediately stepped forward.
"Please continue walking. Everything will be completed before you step fully out. What style do you prefer?"
"A gentleman from the Second Industrial Revolution."
"Please proceed."
Xia Li followed their guidance and took a step forward.
The instant his foot came down, crouching attendants cut away his old clothes while simultaneously weaving new ones on the spot.
True custom tailoring.
Even before the outfit was complete, the threads brushing across his skin felt indescribably soft.
Xia Li kept walking, and they kept pace with him, their movements perfectly synchronized with his own.
Within ten steps, the shirt and trousers were complete.
Black trousers.
White shirt.
Gray vest.
Red tie.
One of the attendants stepped up to drape a black fur-collared overcoat over his shoulders, while another placed a black wide-brimmed hat on his head. At some point, polished leather shoes had already appeared on his feet.
And finally...
Just before he stepped out through the doorway, a black-patterned cane appeared at his side, while a lit cigar was raised to his lips.
When he fully stepped out,
his style looked like that of a gentleman from the old century,
or a young mafia godfather.
The defects of one blind eye and one missing hand, under that outfit, instead lent him an air of mystery and ruthlessness.
"Please rate our service."
The attendants lined up on either side of the door and bowed to him.
"Not bad. Exactly the style I wanted. Full marks."
Xia Li snapped his fingers and had the Heaven Chip tip each attendant one hundred spirit stones directly.
He already understood the rules here.