Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 472 Liusu District Renovation Plan

……

Sun Hang watched as vehicles bearing the emblem of the Tian Shu Tower sped past one after another in the opposite lane, then turned to look at the sidewalk further away. Soldiers wearing power armor and mechanical exoskeletons were advancing in formation. The long-neglected paving stones cracked under the heavy armor's weight, and the roadside was crowded with onlookers. Such a scene could probably only be seen in a long-peaceful city like Chunming City. If it were a border city like Tianfu City, the civilians would have already closed their doors and windows and stayed indoors, fearing that the aftershocks of the battle would reach them.

Sun Hang breathed a sigh of relief and rolled up the car window.

The Willow constellation in the zodiacal plane will likely become one of the most "lively" places in the entire city these next few days.

"Could you... not dissect me?" At this moment, Xue Yue, sitting in the back seat of the car, suddenly asked in a low voice, "I will be very obedient, and I can help with things... As long as it's something I can do, I will do it if you ask me to..."

"Who said I was going to dissect you?" Sun Hang glanced at her through the rearview mirror and saw that the girl was pale and her eyes were filled with tension. "Didn't I already promise you that I would give you a legal identity and let you live like a normal person?"

"Before...before, I didn't know what I was...something..." Xue Yue's voice became even softer, "That Lin Lun said I was his only...only successful research result...something like fruit seeds...I didn't quite understand, but I felt that I must be something very important..."

Xue Yue's words were somewhat disorganized and her voice was barely audible, but this did not prevent Sun Hang from understanding what she meant—in short, after learning her true identity, she subconsciously thought that Sun Hang would break his previous promise... After all, during her time in human society, she had seen quite a few people who were faithless and treacherous.

Lin Lun kept saying he was someone who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals, and in Xue Yue's opinion, Sun Hang seemed to have some striking similarities with Lin Lun... Perhaps that was precisely why the two, who were initially at loggerheads, were able to have a conversation together...

For someone who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, what does breaking their previous promises matter?

“Then you can rest assured.” After driving from the two-lane side road onto the four-lane city road, Sun Hang slightly increased the throttle, and the car’s speed immediately increased from 40 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour. Although the hovercar could be completely unmanned under the control of the mainframe, Sun Hang still preferred to operate the chassis himself. After all, if an attack like the one that happened at the construction site not long ago occurred again, he could at least react immediately, saving him the step of issuing instructions to the mainframe or taking over vehicle control.

“My previous promises still stand. I will not hand you over to the Tian Shu Tower or any other research institution. You can choose to follow me or stay in Chunming City... But before that, I need you to do something for me.”

“I choose to follow you,” Xue Yue said without hesitation.

“I haven’t told you what to do yet,” Sun Hang couldn’t help but ask. “Besides, if you follow me, you might come into contact with a lot of strange creatures in the future, which will be much more dangerous than the life you’ve been living before.”

Upon hearing the word "danger," Xue Yue immediately shrank back, but a resolute glint flashed in her eyes: "I still choose to follow you... At least you promised me you wouldn't dissect me?"

"Just because of that?" Sun Hang couldn't help but find it a little funny.

This girl seems a bit too gullible... If she were an ordinary person, human traffickers could probably lure her to some remote mountain village and sell her with just a lollipop.

"And...and I don't want to stay in Chunming City anymore..." Xue Yue stammered, "The thought of that person still being here terrifies me..."

"That person? You mean Lin Lun?"

Xue Yue nodded vigorously.

"Alright then... but the place you're going to with me next might be even more terrifying than Lin Lun."

"Even more...more terrifying?!"

Do you know the city of Baikal?

“I know… I saw the news before, it seems that the place has been destroyed by the monsters…” Xue Yue said, “but it’s far from Chunming City, so I didn’t pay much attention to it…”

The Xia State Federation did not impose a news blackout on the appearance of the Death Aurora and the destruction of Baikal City. However, from the perspective of ordinary people, they could only know that a border city of the Federation, whose main population consisted of immigrants from the Siberian Federation, had been devastated by the strange creature. As for more details, the news media would only selectively report on them and would not make public everything that happened in Baikal City.

In subsequent follow-up reports, in order to stabilize public sentiment, the focus will be placed on positive news while ignoring or downplaying negative news as much as possible.

“I need you to come with me to Baikal City,” Sun Hang said. “Or to be more precise, to the newly emerged Geng-type monster, ‘The Remains of Baikal.’”

A document with extremely high access privileges is stored in the mainframe. Including Sun Hang, no more than a dozen people in the entire Xia State Federation are qualified to access this document. The content of this document is also very simple. It records cases of sudden and bizarre changes that occurred in the forward camps due to the "accumulation of negative emotions" since the fall of Baikal City.

The first case in this document is that of Sergei Belov Andreyev, the former head of the field department of the Baikal Institute of Mysteries.

Following Sergei, there are more than a hundred other cases.

Moreover, this number is increasing every day...

The appearance of the Death Aurora and the remains of Baikal was undoubtedly a haunting nightmare for the survivors in the area surrounding Baikal City and the soldiers who participated in the follow-up operations... In that place, Xue Yue's abilities were incredibly useful.

Sun Hang originally planned to use Anna's abilities to deal with this problem, but after Anna said "Anna is angry" in the basement of Happiness Supermarket, her voice never rang in Sun Hang's ears again. No matter how Sun Hang called her, she completely ignored him.

Fortunately, if it's just about absorbing negative human emotions, Xue Yue is perfectly capable of doing the job... and she's even more obedient than Anna. Sun Hang glanced at the rearview mirror again, completely unaware that the girl he was being used as a "replacement" was tightly gripping her seatbelt, nervously observing the two light armored vehicles driving past on the opposite road.

"Holy crap, why are they even deploying armored vehicles?" Sun Hang also noticed the two armored vehicles with multiple rocket launchers mounted on their turrets and couldn't help but complain, "Is their mission to evacuate the original inhabitants of Liusu District or to demolish Liusu District?"

"Linlun's Well of Desire is of paramount importance to human civilization and cannot afford the slightest mishap." Faced with Sun Hang's complaint, the mainframe replied seriously, "I must consider any possible unforeseen circumstances... In addition to the 40% of the Tian Shu Tower's field personnel and directly subordinate armed forces stationed in Chunming City, a special operations team of 65 hunters is also on its way. The subsequent renovation plan for the Well of Desire has also been finalized, and four engineering regiments are ready. Once the Liusu District is cleared, they will enter the district with sufficient building materials to carry out a comprehensive renovation of the Well of Desire."

"Goodness, such a big fuss?"

"The value of the Well of Desire is immeasurable. If it weren't for your instructions, the best solution would be to immediately transplant the 'Tree' to the safest location in the Heavenly Pivot Tower and protect it closely," the mastermind said.

"...It seems that all this commotion was caused by just one sentence from me." Sun Hang suddenly felt like one of those foolish rulers in ancient times who would waste resources and cause hardship for the people just because of a single thought. "If I withdraw this order now, is it too late?"

“There’s enough time,” the mainframe said.

"Uh... never mind, let's just do it this way." Sun Hang suddenly realized that changing his mind frequently was a common tactic of a foolish ruler, and hurriedly changed his tune, "By the way, shouldn't we need to establish many specialized research groups for the follow-up research on the 'tree'?"

"Yes, I have already set up fourteen new research groups, with a total of 231 researchers involved. In addition, once some researchers complete their original research projects, they will be assigned to the research on 'trees'... As it stands, the research on 'trees' has been moved up to third priority in my task list."

"Could you please tell me what the second priority level is?"

"The second is about the other half of the Sphinx's brain, and the first is everything related to you," the mastermind replied.

“…I’m a little flattered.” Sun Hang pouted. “Getting back to the point, since we’re going to mobilize so many people to study that ‘tree,’ if we transplant the ‘tree’ to the Tian Shu Tower, then the internal space of the Tian Shu Tower will probably be quite limited, right? Why don’t we just turn the entire Liu Su constellation of the zodiacal layer into a large research institute dedicated to studying the ‘tree’? What do you think?”

"This is the transformation plan that is currently being implemented," the mastermind said. "A fortress-like laboratory will be built in the core area with a radius of 20 kilometers, centered on the original Liusu Fuxing Pollutant Treatment Company's plant area. The outer area will be transformed into a supporting research consumables production base, a living area for research institute staff, and a large-scale simulation test field. The entire research institute is expected to occupy more than 70% of the Liusu District."

“…That’s good.” Sun Hang nodded somewhat blankly. He had only mentioned it casually, but he didn’t expect the mainframe to actually transform the entire city into a research institute… Sun Hang suddenly thought of the training base in Tianfu City. Due to the disappearance of Eternal Night, the importance of this training base had also decreased significantly. However, considering that Tianfu City was located in the border region of the Federation, the trainees still had far more opportunities to receive training than those in the inland areas. Therefore, the entire plan was not directly canceled, but its content was severely reduced.

"Seventeen minutes ago, the Federal Parliament voted on the proposal, and the result was forty-five to fifteen," the mastermind added.

"It seems that quite a few lawmakers support this proposal."

"No, there were forty-five votes against and only fifteen votes in favor," the mastermind suddenly said. "Among them, 'financial strain' was the main reason given by most of the members who voted against, accounting for 86.7%."

"Ahem... So the proposal didn't pass?"

"It's passed. I've used my previous controller Pei Zongjun's decision-making power to force this proposal through," the mastermind said. "The councilors don't yet understand the importance of the 'Tree,' and I need enough time to explain it to them. But time waits for no one, and I must protect the 'Tree' as quickly as possible, so I have no choice but to use my decision-making power."

"There's such a thing as a single vote?" Sun Hang asked doubtfully. "Then what's the point of this Federal Parliament? Isn't it just a formality? In reality, everything is decided by you or Pei Zongjun?"

"The power to make a decision is a privilege granted to Mr. Pei Zongjun by the Federal Parliament, because in the entire human society, Mr. Pei Zongjun is the most authoritative person in the field of monster research—parlor members are just politicians, not researchers, and politics cannot allow human civilization to continue in the monster war. Of course, if Mr. Pei Zongjun abuses his power to make a decision, the Federal Parliament has the right to revoke this privilege. Therefore, every time this privilege is used, it must be done with utmost caution."

"Alright... Speaking of which, have you considered how to accommodate those refugees?"

"All residents of Liusu District without legal status, except those with clear criminal records, will be unconditionally granted legal citizenship in Chunming City. They will be relocated to resettlement areas in other districts and given a one-time living allowance," the mastermind said.

"So the slum problem is solved... well, actually it's not solved." Sun Hang sighed.

Even if the slums in Liusu District disappear, another new slum will appear in some other district... The resources that Chunming City possesses, even if only a tiny fraction of them are allocated, are enough to allow all the refugees in the entire Liusu District to live the lives of normal citizens... But it cannot permanently eliminate the slums.

This isn't a question of giving someone a fish or teaching them how to fish—as long as Chunming City stands there, a steady stream of people, carrying all sorts of ideals, dreams, or fantasies, will flock here from every corner of the Federation.

Just like those born in impoverished rural areas in the old society, in their imagination, even the bricks paving the streets of big cities were made of gold, and there was wealth and opportunity everywhere, where you could find a handful of money just by falling down... This unrealistic fantasy was passed down by word of mouth, creating the yearning of ordinary people for big cities from generation to generation...

But it is often only when they suffer setbacks and fall hard in big cities that they truly realize the gap between reality and fantasy.

Today, the people in the Willow Constellation area of ​​the zodiacal layer are lucky, but what awaits the next batch of people pouring into Chunming City is something Sun Hang has no idea about.

Not only them, but Sun Hang also doesn't know where humanity's future will lead.

The view ahead suddenly brightened, and the hovercar had driven out of the tunnel and arrived at the Tian Shi Yuan above the ground.

(End of this chapter)