Life Dungeon Game

"These penniless and foolish homeless people have become the greatest danger to our city. They are greedy and despicable, and they don't even know many letters of the alphabet. They hide in every corner of the city, threatening our lives and livelihoods, while our mayor buries his head under his desk, only his fat backside showing, and is powerless to do anything about it..."

The host in the studio continued telling jokes and narrating.

He Ao didn't laugh at these jokes. Instead, he looked at Danny beside him and asked, "How many homeless people are there in Kaya City right now?"

"There's no official count, but it could be hundreds of thousands, close to a million."

Danny answered slowly.

The entire city of Kaya has a population of only about 16 million.

What is the approximate average living space per person in Kaya City?

He Ao then asked.

“We don’t have city-wide data right now,” Danny shook his head. “The group has developed about 40% of the city’s residential and apartment buildings. If we were to make an approximate calculation, the average living space per person would be between 40 and 45 square meters.”

In Kaya, a studio apartment is about 35 square meters, but the actual size is likely lower because many couples or spouses are crammed into one studio apartment. A two-bedroom apartment that can accommodate three people is about 60 to 70 square meters.

With an average living space of 40 square meters per person, theoretically everyone should have a place to live, yet so many people are still homeless.

This means that a large number of houses are occupied by wealthier people or are simply left vacant.

What is the occupancy rate of the group's rental apartments?

He Ao thought for a moment and then asked again.

Rental apartments refer to apartment buildings specifically designed for rental. In the federal government, these apartment buildings are generally developed by large conglomerates and are mostly not for sale, but only for rental.

"There are roughly 5% to 7% vacancy rates,"

Danny answered softly, recalling the data almost instantly.

"This number is very appropriate"

That makes sense, because if we further lower the rent to attract tenants, the number of tenants will not increase significantly with the price reduction. Furthermore, the price reduction will increase our fixed cost ratio. To maintain profits, we will have to cut service and marketing costs, and cutting these soft costs will lead to a decrease in our number of tenants, ultimately reducing overall profits.

The old housekeeper paused for a moment, then said, "The current price, calculated by computer, is the maximum profit we can achieve in our current environment. Vacant houses cannot be discounted individually, as this would cause dissatisfaction among existing tenants, who might even move out and rent discounted houses to 'get a bargain.' In practice, the current method is the most profitable."

Maximum profit.

He Ao didn't delve deeper into the question, but instead immediately asked, "With those homeless people losing their jobs, the group can't hire any more workers now?"

“The market has been sluggish lately,” the old housekeeper nodded gently. “Our products are not selling, and other companies’ products are not selling either. Goods are piling up in the warehouse, so there is no need for production for the time being. Therefore, everyone is planning to lay off some employees.”

"After these employees lost their jobs, they still needed to repay consumer loans and housing loans. Unable to find new jobs, they had to declare bankruptcy, so the banks foreclosed on their homes, leaving them homeless?"

He pondered for a moment, then said softly.

"Yes."

Danny nodded slightly.

He fell into a brief silence.

Danny didn't say anything either, and the sunlight shone on their faces.

Kaya City belongs to the Nolanca Group. As the controlling shareholder of the Nolanca Group, Vian is, in a sense, the true king of this city.

What constitutes his throne is a vast interest group that, together with the Nolanca Group, forms the internal and external structure of the Nolanca Group.

"Danny, go and see how many people on the group's board of directors are willing to sell their shares,"

He Ao gazed at the huge advertising screen below and said slowly.

"Yes, Master Vian."

The old butler nodded slowly, preparing to leave the meeting room.

But He suddenly stopped him, “Replace all the administrators at the Nolanca Orphanage.”

"Ok."

The old butler stopped, nodded slowly, and then walked out of the conference room.

The entire empty conference room was now empty except for He Ao, who was staring at the huge advertising screen in the distance.

The screen itself doesn't actually have sound; it's just that the old housekeeper connected to the live stream using the computer in the conference room, and that's what's playing the sound.

The host had finished his joke and was looking at the camera.

"I believe everyone is just as curious as I am about why Kaya City has so many criminals, why the crime rate is so high, and why you can encounter seven or eight robbers just by going out to buy a pack of cigarettes. I'm sure you're all tired of the mayor's long-winded explanations,"

He paused, then continued, "So today we've invited a special 'guest,' a big bad guy who worships the god of chaos. He claims to be a wicked man, and today we'll look at the high crime rate in Kaya City from his perspective."

It must be said that while inviting the God of Chaos was a terrible move, the show was actually quite effective at attracting attention.

Very good.

He Ao raised his wristband and glanced at the program's comments. Many people thought the program was deliberately staged, hiring people to pretend to be followers of the God of Chaos to grab attention.

However, the show has achieved its goal of attracting viewers, and the number of people watching the live stream is still rising sharply.

The intriguing theme, coupled with the hefty advertising budget, made it irresistible for many to click on the live stream to see what was going on, even though they thought it was a staged performance.

He stared at the huge screen, curious about what kind of 'Creator of Chaos' the other party would bring out.

The screen flickered and the scene changed, but it wasn't in a studio; it was on an empty street.

White clouds floated in the sky.

A person holding a bunch of balloons is standing in the very center of the picture.

He handed a balloon to a little girl, then seemed to notice the camera and slowly walked towards it with the balloon in his hand.

The balloons stacked up obscured his face, making it impossible to see his features.

Just as the balloon was about to be thrust in front of the camera, he slowly removed it.

A giant, laughing, chubby baby mask instantly filled half the screen, emanating a terrifying sense of oppression.

The mask has an opening at the mouth area, through which one can vaguely see a man's closed mouth and half of his face.

The cheek near the mouth appears to have been cut up; two horrific scars start at the corner of the mouth and extend all the way to the ear.

The figure behind the mask seemed to realize that everyone was staring at the scars on his mouth. The two scars suddenly twitched, stretching apart like two earthworms wriggling.

Snow-white teeth and bright red gums were slowly revealed, and in the gaps between the gums, there were also strips of bright red flesh.

He gave a 'smile'.

The hoarse voice echoed throughout the space.

Good morning, my little darlings.

I'm having some writer's block; I'll try to post the next chapter before noon.

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Chapter 226 Randomly Selecting a Lucky Audience Member (Long Chapter, Please Subscribe)

The scene cuts back to the studio.

The host sat in a chair with a lit screen next to him.

The man wearing the mask who had just appeared was on the screen.

"I heard you're a follower of the God of Chaos?"

The host asked with great interest.

"Yes, chaos is the most beautiful thing in the world."

The masked man's smile was even more terrifying.

-

Outside the studio, a woman with short, chestnut-brown hair that was casually tousled and deep-set eyes covered with dark circles was staring intently at the screen in front of her, at the man wearing a chubby baby mask on the screen.

Finally, she abruptly raised her head, her disheveled hair whipping back, and shouted at the surrounding production crew.

"Stop, everyone stop! This isn't an actor we hired. Contact Jeter immediately to cut off the communication."

Jeter is the host's name.

The surrounding staff immediately began frantically cutting off the broadcast and trying to contact the host in the studio with their microphones, but received no response.

The host was still smiling and chatting with the masked man in the video.

Ding--

An additional audio interrupted, a deep voice coming from the speakers in their backstage control room.

"what happened?"

“Boss, the person chatting with Jet isn’t one of our actors,” the woman said immediately. “I’m a little worried…we need to stop this show right away.”

"Lina," the voice from the loudspeaker suddenly chuckled, sounding somewhat suppressed.

"Do you know how much money I spent preparing for this show? Do you know all the investors are watching us? Isn't this your plan? If that masked man really is a follower of the God of Chaos, wouldn't that be even better? Our audience is steadily increasing, and do you know what that is? Money! Hundreds of millions of federal dollars!"

The voice paused, then said, "Switch back immediately. If any of you don't want to work here anymore, you can pack your things and leave right now."

The chestnut-haired woman called Lina was stunned by these words, while the other staff members lowered their heads and reconnected the communication.

Lina immediately pushed open the door and rushed out.

-

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, He Ao saw that after the masked man appeared, the entire screen went black for a few seconds, displaying 'In trouble...', before immediately switching back.

Although it seemed like there was nothing wrong with it, He Ao frowned slightly.

Meanwhile, the host in the studio remained perfectly normal, chatting with the masked man through the screen.

Although he felt a little intimidated by the masked man's terrifying smile, he still forced himself to continue the conversation.

Finally, after some preamble, they got to the core issue, and he asked softly,

"As a follower of the God of Chaos, what do you think is the reason for the high crime rate in Kaya City?"

“Because…” The masked man grinned, seemingly genuinely happy, his voice hoarse with a suppressed and terrifying quality, “because you bunch of bastards blessed by the gods are here.”

His voice was long and grating, creaking and screeching.