I'm trapped in a block

Chapter 1215 A Corner of the Era

Everything in this city was new and exciting for Mo Ling.

The things were novel, and the people were novel too.

Sometimes, Mo Ling would linger for a long time over the conversations of passersby, until those passersby cast disdainful glances at him, at which point he would pretend to be passing by and slink away.

"so fun."

He walked and stopped, sometimes pausing to watch the procession of riders, sometimes wandering into the alleys between buildings.

In almost every alley, you can see several young couples dressed up in their finest attire, leaning against the wall, their "flowers" sticking together. When Mo Ling gets closer, the two "flowers" separate and look at him together. Only then can Mo Ling see their faces clearly through the "petals".

They all seemed to be blaming Mo Ling for her sudden approach, their eyes filled with disdain, so Mo Ling could only quickly walk away.

The combinations of these "flowers" are quite diverse.

Male flowers paired with female flowers, male flowers paired with male flowers, female flowers paired with female flowers. Mo Ling even saw three flowers stuck together, like a swaying flower bush. When Mo Ling got closer, the flower bush would open up, revealing three joyful faces. One of the flowers would even reach out and gently beckon Mo Ling, as if inviting him to join the flower bush.

Faced with such a "warm" invitation, Mo Ling could only quicken his pace and flee, leaving the alleyway, but his curiosity drove him to turn into the next alley...

After looking at those flamboyant outfits for a while, Mo Ling actually felt that they had a special kind of beauty. They were colorful and distinctive, and apart from being somewhat impractical, they had no other drawbacks.

After Mo Ling realized that his "aesthetic sense" had become problematic, he no longer dared to enter those alleys. He only dared to pause briefly at the entrance of the alley and take a look from afar.

The city, encased in metal, was monotonous, but the bright decorations added a touch of vitality, making it less "morbid" than the young man in the yellow shirt had described.

Perhaps it is because people don't want to live such a monotonous life that they put so much effort into dressing up and trying every means to make themselves "vibrant".

The same goes for those mounts. The prosperity of culture is built on the abundance of material resources. Regardless of whether these cultures are good or bad, advanced or vulgar, they all show that people in this era live on a rich material foundation, which is why they have the leisure to explore diverse cultures.

As Mo Ling walked down the street, he made judgments about this era. Although he only caught a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg, even that glimpse gave him a significant shock.

While Mo Ling was strolling around, he also discovered something strange: there were no shops on the street. The building was completely covered by imitation Yuan Iron, and the bottom was also a high wall made of metal. Apart from the entrances and exits, the places that should have been shops were also sealed off by Yuan Iron. When people walked on the street, all they could see was the reflected metal light on both sides.

"If you open a shop in these places, wouldn't the customer traffic be quite high?"

After walking for so long, Mo Ling still hadn't seen a single shop. Puzzled, he turned on the electronic screen and typed his question into the search bar.

The moment the search results popped up, he understood why...

"The decline of brick-and-mortar businesses, the end of face-to-face transactions."

"Access to information and price transparency." "The rise of integrated commodity networks."

"The Anti-Monopoly Law on Online Commodity Price Ranking has officially come into effect."

In Mo Ling's time, there was a trend of decline in physical commerce, but some physical industries still firmly occupied the position of street shops because of their irreplaceability. Service industries such as catering and barbershops, which require "people" to be present to complete transactions, could not be replaced for the time being.

But as the abyss descended and technology flourished, these physical industries began to become precarious. A technology called "food printing" completely destroyed the last fig leaf of the catering industry. People only need to buy a food printer, and whatever they want to eat, they can buy a "print recipe" on the corresponding website, put the recipe into the printer, adjust the parameters, and make the food they want to eat.

The main task of the catering industry has changed from "how to make delicious food" to "how to develop popular printed recipes". Physical stores are no longer needed. The main battlefield has shifted to the Internet. Only by finding ways to make your recipe stand out among a huge number of recipes can you make money.

Service industries that require people to come to the site, such as hairdressing, have been replaced by various high-performance machines. There are hairdressing machines for haircuts, beauty machines for beauty treatments, and even housekeeping robots that integrate all functions. Everyone can take care of these things at home and adjust their own requirements, so of course they won't go out to find a physical store.

"At least the robot can understand human speech better than Tony the hairdresser."

"Robots understand better what 'don't cut it too short' means."

"The robot won't keep nagging me to sign up for a card."

"The robot won't secretly use high-end shampoo on me and then rip me off when it's time to pay."

The conflict between customers and hairdressers had been brewing for a long time. The customers, who dared not speak out, finally found a way to avoid the conflict. The housekeeping robot could download data from the world's most cutting-edge hairdressers, and its aesthetic sense was much better than that of Tony downstairs. The silent majority of customers then made their choice with their own money.

When physical businesses become completely dead, all shops become useless. Online platforms that integrate all product information rise up, and merchants start price wars driven by price ranking.

Companies with ample funds began to seize the market with low-priced goods. With increasing price transparency and people's growing ability to gather information, the most cost-effective products could gain more exposure through platform promotion, thereby converting into more orders.

After defeating other businesses, these businesses that have already captured the market will recoup their costs by raising prices and lowering quality, forcibly taking back the expenses originally spent on seizing the market.

Fortunately, these monopolistic practices were already outdated, and the government had long been aware of these companies' behavior. Just as they began to repatriate their funds, an anti-monopoly law was quickly introduced and implemented.

However, commercial activities cannot be completely curbed. Excessive intervention in the free market will only shrink the market economy. While implementing anti-monopoly laws, the government has also left a way for these monopolistic companies to survive, while allowing small businesses that were about to be eliminated to slowly recover. The integrated commodity network has also restored its previous vibrant and diverse ecosystem.

As long as there is demand, the supply side will never die. Even if the integrated commodity network platform is impacted, it can recover quickly, while the system becomes more complete and the structure more stable.

Things progress in a spiral. Although the e-commerce platform has been impacted time and again, from the customer's perspective, it means that "the platform rules are becoming more and more perfect," "there are fewer merchants growing wildly," "there are fewer spam ads," and "the algorithm understands my needs better."

Ultimately, the beneficiaries are the customers. Regardless of whether physical businesses or online marketplaces survive or perish, whether large corporations or small and micro-enterprises win or lose, or what policies the government introduces... they don't need to consider any of that. They only need to consider what they need.

(End of this chapter)