Imitating Life

Nan Yue: "...I really want to send them to Blooming Media Company."

Zhu Xi Ning: "...True, they'd clear missions without any pain."

Gu Xiang Kai: "...It'd create a perpetual motion machine, a win-win."

The red-haired girl giggled, likely because their speechless expressions were too obvious.

"Don't be surprised, you three. Most people never take another step forward."

"The point difference between the color city states and the next level is too vast, so the majority of scavengers here become permanent residents."

"One eventually gets tired of the entertainment here. Resting day after day makes people lose their drive, and the scavengers who reach this level generally don't have to worry about survival."

"So, the color city states have a unique way of passing the time: finding a job."

"It makes people feel needed, like their existence has meaning."

Zhu Xi Ning couldn't help but interject, "Then... do they get paid?"

The red-haired girl smiled. "They do. Although it's not that important to the scavengers here, it's quite interesting."

The three understood. To put it simply, to kill time between missions, they were playing house, imitating the lives of normal people in the mission worlds.

It was true they were scavengers, born and dying to purify the world.

But even ordinary people wouldn't jump from one mission to the next without a break. Entering a mission meant a chance of death, and no one wanted to seek out their own end.

The higher one went, the longer the rest periods became. With enough points, they didn't have to run themselves ragged like the lower-level scavengers. So, what did they do?

Aside from purifying the world, they seemed to have... no reason to exist.

But humans always need something to prove they are alive.

So, they imitated the mission worlds by clocking into work and staying busy. It looked incredibly absurd, but in reality, it was a bit tragic.

"You three must not be used to it since you just arrived. If you stay in the color city states long enough and feel the need, you can come to me for employment counseling."

The red-haired girl had a great attitude. "A new re-training school just opened in the red city state, and they're short on teachers. If any of you want to experience being a teacher..."

Nan Yue: "No, absolutely not. I never want to be a teacher again in this life, thank you."

Zhu Xi Ning remembered Nan Yue saying she wanted to be a teacher before they entered the last mission. She didn't expect the reality check to come so quickly.

Zhu Xi Ning really wanted to laugh and was struggling to hold it in.

Gu Xiang Kai, however, was somewhat interested. "What is a re-training school?"

The red-haired girl blinked mischievously. "We all came from the Scavenger Training Academy, but once you actually enter a mission, you realize there are many things the teachers never mentioned. You have to accumulate experience through actual combat."

"A re-training school allows scavengers who have already left the academy to receive experience from high-level city state scavengers, increasing their survival rate."

Nan Yue's heart stirred upon hearing this. "Who came up with this idea?"

"Sharp Blade."

All three noticed that when the red-haired girl mentioned the organization "Sharp Blade," her eyes lit up with deep admiration.

"That is indeed a good idea. Are there requirements for the students' qualifications?"

The red-haired girl shook her head. "Fifty points per class."

Nan Yue understood. While it was said that any scavenger could attend, fifty points was several months' worth of living expenses for a lower-level scavenger. They definitely wouldn't be able to afford a single class.

"How many of these schools are there?"

The red-haired girl didn't mind Nan Yue's questions. In fact, the more Nan Yue asked, the happier she was, since she was paid per question.

She checked her Neural Interface. "They're currently in a trial phase. They only exist in the red city state and the violet city state."

Nan Yue pondered for a moment. "I'll pay you a hundred points. Please help me find information on the teachers employed there."

"No problem."

"A hundred points will guarantee updates for two months."

The red-haired girl certainly had a head for business, but her bargaining was within Nan Yue's acceptable range, so she didn't say much.

She settled the Cuckoo's fee and added the girl's private account. The girl's name was "Chi," followed by a small bird emoji.

"Scavengers willing to take these positions must have passed Sharp Blade's assessment. Their character and abilities should be fine."

"Having their information will make it easier to cooperate if we run into them in a mission later."

Nan Yue was thinking ahead. No one was safe in a mission, and cooperating with reliable people was the best way to maximize benefits.

The other two naturally had no objections. Following the information Chi provided, the three headed to the commercial district in the city center.

After walking for a while, the color city state felt larger than any city state they had lived in before, but it possessed a stable and peaceful order that the lower city states lacked.

The entire Green City State was covered in vegetation, like a giant greenhouse. Towering trees were planted near the high walls on the outskirts, separating the city from the pollution outside the transparent walls.

Inside were residential areas divided by zone.

Most of the Green City State consisted of neighborhoods—villa districts, high-rise districts, apartment districts. The living environment and surrounding infrastructure were very similar to what Nan Yue had seen in the Blooming Media Company mission.

Chi had said that because most people would stay in this city state forever, they wouldn't spend points on hotels. Most chose to rent or buy a house.

Nan Yue saw many scavengers coming out of large supermarkets, carrying fresh groceries as they hurried home to cook.

Although the slightly older neighborhoods didn't look as nice as the villa districts, they felt more lived-in. The sound of spatulas clashing against pans drifted from many windows, creating a warm atmosphere that Nan Yue and the others had never experienced.

Zhu Xi Ning also saw many men and women on the street walking arm-in-arm, either carrying groceries together or laughing and whispering.

Clearly, these scavengers had formed families, imitating a normal life as seen in the mission worlds.

Gu Xiang Kai squatted at a smoking area next to a trash can, puffing on a cigarette while watching a man on the street talk on the phone, coaxing his lover on the other end.

"That place was sold out of roast chicken. I'll go wait in line as soon as I get off work tomorrow, okay?"

Gu Xiang Kai, with a cigarette butt in his mouth looking like a street hoodlum, felt a deep sense of confusion.

"Am I still in a mission... This is so surreal..."

Zhu Xi Ning squatted beside him, looking weary and sharing his existential crisis.

Nan Yue smiled at the two jokers, but her thoughts kept drifting to the things outside the high walls.

Was it her imagination? She felt... that those things were very similar to what was inside her own body.

While others felt intense discomfort, she didn't feel much at all, and even felt a sense of familiarity.

Nan Yue was already familiar to the point of numbness with that heart-wrenching fear and unease, so she wondered... could the thing inside her body really be the pollution from outside?