Yue Shi walked the streets of Avenia, the snow leopard on his shoulder turning its head curiously.
Everything was clean and tidy. The streets were wide, and the pavement felt slightly elastic underfoot.
Nearby, a holographic screen played an advertisement recommending a certain brand of nutritional supplements.
There were many people on the street, yet it didn't feel crowded at all.
Everyone was dressed properly, mostly in simple shirts or light casual wear. The colors were bright, though the fabrics were ordinary.
They walked quickly with large, frequent strides, yet maintained an elegant and decent posture.
After walking for a while, Yue Shi stopped at a street corner.
There was an arcade there.
Behind the transparent glass walls, many gaming devices of various shapes could be seen.
Some looked like traditional arcade cabinets but with larger, clearer screens.
Others used holographic projections, where players stood in a circular area with various virtual images projected around them.
There were also several devices that looked like cockpits; sitting inside allowed one to experience flying or racing.
Yue Shi pushed the door open and entered.
There weren't many people inside, but every one of them was deeply immersed in their play.
A young man stood in the holographic projection area, waving his hands in the air to control a massive mechanical beast fighting another virtual monster.
After defeating the monster, he ran over to a nearby cockpit, his body leaning left and right along with the track on the screen, his expression filled with excitement and joy.
Yue Shi exchanged a handful of game coins, walked up to a relatively simple-looking arcade machine, and inserted a coin.
A game interface appeared on the screen. It seemed to be a shooting game where the player controlled a spaceship maneuvering through a dense swarm of enemy aircraft.
Yue Shi picked up the joystick.
Ten minutes later.
He put the joystick down.
On the screen, his score had exceeded the game's design limit, turning into a string of garbled code.
“Boring.”
A young man had approached at some point, staring wide-eyed at the garbled code on the screen and then at Yue Shi, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
Yue Shi ignored him and turned to leave.
Exiting the arcade and wandering through a few more streets, Yue Shi discovered something strange.
There were many shops on the street, but almost no restaurants.
In the three surrounding streets, he could only see two places that sold food.
One was an extremely luxurious restaurant. Through the glass windows, one could see snow-white tablecloths, waiters in crisp uniforms, and exquisite tableware on the tables.
The other was completely different; the shopfront was tiny, yet customers flowed in and out incessantly.
Yue Shi walked closer to take a look.
That little shop was a nutritional supplement store.
There were no dining tables inside, only a row of machines resembling vending machines.
Customers stood before the machines and tapped a device on their wrists against them, and the machines would dispense a tube of liquid in various colors.
Some drank it on the spot, while others stuffed the tubes into their bags and hurried away.
Yue Shi glanced at the prices for those liquids.
They were very cheap.
He glanced back at the entrance of the luxury restaurant, where a menu was posted in the window. The numbers on it were hundreds of times higher than the price of the supplements he had just seen.
“Natural food is expensive. Supplements are cheap, but they don't have much flavor,” a voice came from beside him.
Yue Shi turned and saw a young man standing there, clutching a tube of freshly bought supplement.
His clothes were bright and beautiful, but his face carried a look of exhaustion. His eyes were sunken, and a polite smile hung on his lips.
“Are you a tourist?” the man asked.
Yue Shi nodded.
“No wonder.” The man smiled. “Only tourists care about eating. We locals got used to it long ago.”
Synthetic nutritional supplements were cheap and contained all the nutrients the human body needed, but the taste was... hard to describe.
Delicious natural food was something only those above the petty bourgeoisie could afford to eat regularly. The workhorses couldn't afford it at all; their sense of taste was practically regressing, and they couldn't even smell the fragrance of food anymore.
“Being so close to the sea, you can't even get cheap seafood?” Yue Shi asked curiously.
The young man smiled and said as if it were common sense, “Marine resources belong to the government. Private illegal fishing or scavenging is prohibited.”
Having said that, he brought the tube of supplement to his lips, downed it in one go, nodded to Yue Shi, and hurried away.
Yue Shi watched his back disappear into the crowd.
His walking posture was very standard—back straight, strides even.
But Yue Shi could see that his shoulders drooped slightly, a posture only seen in people suffering from chronic fatigue.
Yue Shi looked around again.
The pedestrians dressed in bright, proper clothes gradually revealed another layer in Yue Shi's eyes.
They would rub their eyes and yawn while walking, only to immediately return to a decent appearance. When tired, they would stop briefly at a street corner to roll their stiff necks while no one was looking, as if terrified of being seen.
Someone else pulled a small spray bottle from their bag and misted their face; their originally dull skin instantly regained its luster.
Fatigue was entirely masked beneath the glamour.
Yue Shi clicked his tongue, feeling that the people living here were under quite a lot of pressure.
There was another strange phenomenon: he had walked for a long time and seen many people, but he hadn't seen a single person who looked "destitute."
There were no people in rags; everyone’s clothes were neat, and their faces were clean. In short, they were all decent.
It was as if some power had erased everything that wasn't decent enough.
Yue Shi stopped, looked up, and gazed at the buildings towering into the clouds.
Holographic screens flickered. At first glance, this was a prosperous, modern metropolis.
In reality, though...
Heh.
Yue Shi felt it—malice.
A massive, majestic malice that had almost solidified into substance.
Every building and every street was radiating an invisible malice, so thick and deep that even the entire land seemed to be screaming silently.
Yue Shi liked it very much.
The snow leopard pricked up its ears on his shoulder, its throat letting out a low purr.
Yue Shi gently patted its back.
“You feel it too?”
The snow leopard rubbed its head against his cheek.
The corners of Yue Shi's mouth curled up. This was a good place.
...
By evening, Yue Shi was standing by a plaza, watching the holographic screens play the news.
【Avenia's seventh-quarter economic growth has reached a new high, and the resident happiness index has remained on the rise for three consecutive years.】
【The latest household service robot from Deep Blue Route has officially hit the market, with first-day pre-orders exceeding one million.】
【The Inter-Island Cultural Exchange Festival is about to open, with delegations from thirty-seven islands expected to attend.】
【Jinlong Continent's top influencer Yin Runa has fallen from grace; all platform accounts have been cleared and banned, and she has been designated as a tainted artist.】
Yue Shi was watching intently when a voice suddenly sounded from beside him.
“Hello there, handsome.”
Yue Shi turned his head.
A man in a gaudy shirt stood before him, a warm smile plastered on his face. His hair was meticulously combed, and he held a stack of business cards in his hand.
“I'm a talent scout from Singing Star Media.”
“Young man, with your looks, you were practically born for the screen. I've been in this business for over a decade, and I've never seen anyone as perfect as you...”
He sized Yue Shi up, his eyes practically burning with fire.
“Your features, your build, your temperament, your expression—it's all perfect, too perfect!”
“If you're willing to sign with our company, I guarantee that within a year, you'll become the most popular idol in all of Avenia.”
He pulled out a business card and handed it over with both hands.
“We have the most professional team, the top resources, and the broadest platform.”
“You just need to stand in front of the camera; you don't even have to do anything, and you'll be famous and make a fortune!”
Yue Shi looked down at the business card.
It had the words Singing Star Media printed on it, along with a bunch of titles and contact information.
“Not interested.”
“And don't call me 'handsome.' It makes you sound like you're into suggestive gay baiting.”
Having said that, he turned and walked away.
“Wait, wait, wait!” The talent scout froze for a second before hurriedly chasing after him.
“Sir, don't be so quick to refuse.”
“Do you know how much the male lead of our last show made for a single series? Eight figures! You're ten times better looking than him; you'll definitely earn more.”
“If nothing else, you could be eye candy in a show or even enter the industry; making money would be as easy as breathing.”
Yue Shi didn't look back, continuing forward at a leisurely pace.
The talent scout chased him for a few steps before finally stopping.
He stood there, looking at the receding figure. The warmth on his face gradually faded, replaced by a sinister resentment and a trace of inexplicable... desire.
“A top-tier specimen. I really can't let him go.”
After a few seconds of silence, he pulled a small device from his pocket and pressed a button in the direction Yue Shi had disappeared.
On the device, a red dot flashed a few times and then turned green.
The talent scout tucked the device away, turned into the crowd, and soon vanished.
Rate on N.U.
