Ten thousand I am across the heavens

Anna's guess was correct. The Blue City Cluster did indeed intend to restructure the internet to some extent. Before this, Qi Sa had vividly demonstrated the extent of corruption and filth in this world's internet. During his days of game boosting, he was almost always brutally defeated every time he failed. Sometimes, it wasn't even at the hands of rich players; fellow ordinary players wouldn't let him off the hook either.

Although Zisa no longer needs to worry too much about loans thanks to his own efforts and the help of the cluster, the darkness of the online world is still evident through this incident.

It's not just the wealthy who are constantly projecting negative emotions onto ordinary people; ordinary people are also undermining and attacking each other. Open any video's comment section, and you'll see two sides arguing fiercely, mercilessly attacking each other with the most sarcastic language.

The Blue City community suffered greatly from this, to the point that for a long time afterward, they wouldn't even open the comment section or leave a comment, so as not to affect their own emotions or burden the community.

Today, the BlueCity cluster has come to a profound realization that in this world with its unique physiological conditions, emotions are a special kind of wealth that is difficult to measure using conventional methods. It is essential to allocate emotions as rationally as possible to maximize one's talents. For the collective, it is even more crucial to minimize the input of negative emotions.

So during that period, everyone tried their best to avoid behaviors that would bring them a lot of negative emotions. But even so, there were some situations that they had to face. They could only barely maintain their group and keep positive emotions as the dominant force.

Going forward, if we want to expand this cluster framework, a new order is imperative.

"The first way we thought of to solve the problem of people hurting each other on the Internet is real-name registration. If everyone goes online with their real names, they will be more careful about what they say. Some excessive words will be avoided because they are afraid that the other party will take them out offline."

However, this plan was quickly rejected. The internet is an important channel for ordinary people to vent their emotions. Blocking this window will not solve the problem. Doing so will only allow negative emotions to accumulate further, leading to more serious problems.

Ultimately, it all boils down to real-world problems. If things weren't so unsatisfactory in reality, why would so much negative emotion accumulate and be vented online? Instead of addressing the real-world issues, blocking online channels of expression is clearly putting the cart before the horse.

Lucy and the other young hackers listened to Brando's analysis and nodded thoughtfully. In fact, they had already noticed that the internet environment in the areas controlled by their gang had improved considerably. It was precisely because the living conditions of the residents in these neighborhoods had improved that their online speech had become more peaceful. However, the habit of being sarcastic or harsh in their speech had still been retained, so the online environment had not improved in an immediate way.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Lucy asked, puzzled.

Brando organized the information and said, "I hope you can set up a local area network to isolate a section of the Internet and build a wall. The wall doesn't need to be very strong; an ordinary person can climb over it with just a little thought."

We plan to try using artificial intelligence to monitor the comment sections of major social media platforms from within the firewall, while protecting privacy, and to determine the impact of users' speech on others.

Posts that contribute to the spread of positive emotions will earn you one unit of virtual currency, while spreading negative emotions will deduct from your currency. Emotional venting is not completely prohibited, but it's important to understand that harsh words have consequences. When your virtual currency balance reaches a negative number, you will be prohibited from posting within the Great Firewall for a period of time.

As for this virtual currency, it can be exchanged for vouchers within our industry in a certain amount.

Hmm...it would be best to control the trading of these virtual currencies, or even ban them altogether, to prevent capital from getting involved. Ideally, the acquisition of virtual currencies should only be related to individual speech.

"Why not allow trading? If trading isn't allowed, it'll be even harder to motivate people to acquire virtual currency, right? If it could be directly exchanged for fiat currency, I believe most people would be more willing to actively express positive emotions to others." Lucy already had some understanding of the eccentric cyberpunks' way of doing things, which is why she asked this question.

Brando sighed and said, "Don't you understand capital? Just like land annexation in the feudal era, money, as the means of production in the new era, will only concentrate in the hands of the richer people."

If this virtual currency could be purchased with real money, it would mean that wealthy people could buy large amounts of virtual currency and then hurl insults at others without restraint, while others, having sold their virtual currency, would have no choice but to swallow their anger and endure the abuse, even having to fawn over the offenders. If this were to happen, the internet would become countless times worse than it is now.

Lucy and the other children shuddered at the thought of that future; the internet there would be a hell for transvestites.

"Therefore, such virtual currencies must absolutely not be allowed to be traded privately. Only a responsible government is qualified to be the sole channel for converting such currencies into cash." Brando got a little carried away as he spoke.

Lucy rolled her eyes upon hearing this: "So, you think you're a responsible government? What happened to cyberpunk?"

"Ahem, let's talk about this in private. Anyway, you should understand what I mean. No matter how well you do in the underworld, you're just a rich man's henchman. The legend of Night City only cost 800,000 to hire him to fight for him. Being brave and violent has no future. If you really want to do great things, you have to be willing to be humble."

"In short, the task of setting up the local area network is entrusted to you. I have faith in your abilities." Brando was quite confident in the abilities of these young hackers. To be able to fight against artificial intelligence outside the Great Firewall with human bodies was already a very high level, although they hadn't yet reached their individual peaks. But setting up a local area network was still quite simple, and there was no need to block people from entering or leaving. If they really wanted to go outside the firewall and see the world, then let them go. Once they got through, they would have a better understanding of where they belonged, based on the comparisons they made.

After Lucy and the others reconnected to the internet, they got busy. They subcontracted the tasks to a large number of external companies. Money makes the world go round, and compatibility with major mainstream applications was a must, which meant a huge workload. Fortunately, outsourcing these things was not difficult and did not require much technical expertise.

This local area network can access most websites normally, but there is some filtering of website content and comment section content; overly negative content will be filtered out.

As for those who can't stand this filtering, feel trapped in an information cocoon, and consider themselves clear-headed, they can go and see the other side of the wall for themselves.

The several districts controlled by the Blue City cluster have largely broken free from Night City's control. However, due to a lack of awareness of the grassroots level, Night City's official response to the Blue City cluster has been extremely slow so far. Their expansion is inevitable, and even Blue City itself cannot completely curb this trend. Fortunately, this expansion is covert, simply bringing more areas into the industry chain.

In this process, companies like BlueCity are like cogs in a machine in society. Most of them are not in critical positions, but are simply making the most of their initiative in their respective industries.

As for Qisa, although he was just an ordinary student, after the loan was no longer so deadly, he also made new plans for his life. He did want to learn hacking skills, but in his opinion, the information technology of this era was actually somewhat similar to the financial industry of the previous era, which had developed too large and redundantly, to the point that it was even beginning to gradually compress the survival space of the real economy.

Therefore, in terms of elective subjects, he has begun to lean towards mechanical, electrical and automation directions.

Other BlueCities seem to share a common goal: some are investing in the logistics and transportation industry, some in the new energy industry, and others are learning and accumulating experience in infrastructure construction. Overall, they are preparing to decouple from the cyber-industrialized urban society.

Compared to the speed of time in the outside world of Beiyuan, time passes very quickly in the eldest son's spiritual world, and five years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The rapidly rising Kitahara Group in Night City has clashed with Arasaka and Military Technology multiple times. One legend after another has emerged in Night City. However, compared to these so-called legends, they are ultimately just pawns. The Blue Cities have gradually taken on the role of the players.

In several conflicts, Beiyuan Group was limited by its lack of cutting-edge technology, lack of top talent, and its own size, and ultimately lost. However, the industry itself crossed the ocean and came to the vast continent in the process.

The various groups and families under the Fengxiao Group all occupy excellent ports on islands or along the coast.

Even in this era, maritime transport remains the cheapest option, and port cities can easily and quickly absorb wealth from around the world, establishing magnificent global factories.

As the losers, the Beiyuan Group was meaninglessly driven out of Night City, with only a few insignificant low-level industries remaining. If it were a normal force, it would undoubtedly choose other port cities at this time and fight back with its already considerable strength.

But the Blue Cities, with hundreds of thousands of people, ventured deep into the mainland, choosing to settle in mountainous areas thousands of miles from the coast. The concentration effect of large cities had drained the inland population like water being pumped out. Although these areas still had some infrastructure, it was a remnant from decades ago. The population was also far less than before. No matter how you look at it, developing in these areas did not conform to any economic laws, and even theoretically, it was impossible to persuade hundreds of thousands of people to agree to settle inland.

Everyone is waiting to see the joke, to see the Beiyuan Group fall apart, and to see them devour this wave of highly educated people.

Indeed, the group of people under the Beiyuan Group who have survived within the Great Firewall for five years are considered by everyone to be of exceptionally high quality. These people have the motivation to learn, and their cultural level over those five years is now at a level that cannot be completely replaced by AI in this era. Furthermore, they possess purchasing power and the drive to change their living conditions, far surpassing the parasites in the slums who live a life of drug addiction and video games.

Logically speaking, such a high-quality population should have very high requirements for infrastructure, so if they went to inland mountainous areas, no one would follow them.

However, reality dealt them a harsh blow. Six hundred thousand people, with almost no resistance, followed the Blue City residents in a massive migration. Only a very small number chose to stay in Night City and other coastal cities.

It's not that these people are truly loyal, but rather that the local area network (LAN) moved along with them. After experiencing the network environment within the LAN and the living environment within the community, these people couldn't leave. The importance of emotional value has been greatly amplified in this era. The good community environment didn't initially generate much attraction, but as the contrast with the outside world became more and more obvious, more and more people began to realize the importance of this online haven.

So much so that it wasn't just them; even many people not under the Beiyuan Group voluntarily joined the migration. For them, moving deeper inland wouldn't significantly lower their living conditions. In this era, no matter how inland, having enough to eat and wear wouldn't be a major problem. In fact, the smaller the town, the lower the cost of living.

The absence of the glitz and glamour of big cities has ironically given them a wider space to live.

David joined the migration group with Blue City, while his single mother stayed in Night City, where she was cared for by the remaining members of the Northern Plains Group.

Two years ago, his mother was caught in a gang shootout and was shot and seriously injured. The ambulance arrived at the scene immediately, but ignored them because they found that his mother was not a member. If Zisa had not rushed to the scene and taken the two to the community hospital under the group, his mother might have died in that shootout.

David has now officially graduated from Arasaka Academy. Although he did not join the Arasaka Group and reach the top of the Arasaka Tower as his mother had hoped, he is already considered an elite in the Kitahara Group.

However, David was not an elite hacker, but rather an elite special operations force member.

David's hacking skills are mediocre, but he has a strong ability to accept prosthetics. He has already modified his arms, lungs, and spine with military-grade S.A.W.S ..., and has not shown any obvious rejection reaction. This makes him extremely powerful in small-scale infiltration operations, and can be considered to have embarked on an unexpected path.

[To be continued]

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