Of course, the Survival Committee wanted to deal with the three remaining lairs.
But the greatest problem Dragon City faced were not the lairs, not the monsters, not the zombies, and not the out-of-control superhumans.
Their greatest problem was that they did not have money.
Lu Siya and Gao Ye were right.
Every city needed to suck out the life of the endless villages around it to gain an endless supply of money, resources, and people. That was the only way it could ensure its daily operations and metabolism.
And only a developed industry could provide enough jobs for nearly ten million youngsters who were waiting for food.
But the prerequisite for a developed industry was a consumer market that was ten times larger than the population itself. Without an external market, there was no way for them to develop their industry.
From the day Dragon City transmigrated, it turned into a deformed freak. Due to the stimulation from external threats endangering their lives, humans were forced to unite and work together, which was why Dragon City was able to last until this day.
With the discovery of a new resource—spirit energy—and the great development of biochemical technology, runic symbol technology, and life science, they entered a technological revolution. Because of this, Dragon City temporarily managed to achieve the miracle of all its citizens obeying the law despite having tens of millions of people and being alone in the whole world.
But on the other side of the miracle was the fact that Dragon City’s financial model was constantly on the verge of collapse.
The disassembling of seven lairs within a short twenty years and the building of a large number of normal but small residential areas was already the absolute limit.
They were in a constant state of war, and the Survival Committee had to draw out a large amount of compensation money to pay the disabled soldiers and the families of the soldiers who did not return home.
They also had to give an allowance for a lot of disabled citizens so they could satisfy their basic needs. The local government also had to deal with the problem of an increasing number of youngsters waiting for jobs so they could feed themselves.
The new northern area’s construction fees were also an astronomical figure.
And all of that had to be done while trying to ensure that tens of millions of people could at least eat synthetic luncheon meat made of earthworm meat. That alone was enough to give a headache to the Survival Committee.
If they disassembled the last three lairs, the Survival Committee would have to look for a lot of empty space in the already cramped Dragon City to build a new area full of public renting houses so that the lair citizens could move out of them. They would also have to be given jobs.
Throughout the whole changing process, the Survival Committee would also have to ensure the stability of order so that nothing major would go wrong. This was just too hard. It was even harder than the northern offense.
‘Instead of modifying the lairs, it would be better to expand outward and build new residential areas. Once we get more capital while accumulating money for the development of the new residential area, we’ll get back to solving the problem of the lairs’ was the basic thought process of the Survival Committee during the new stage of developing the city.
Of course, money was not the only problem.
Lairs had existed for nearly half a century. They had their own administration and a complicated interest group.
They also sheltered a lot of gray markets that did not exist beyond their borders. They were really popular in the narrow alleys, which were as complicated as mazes and had electrical wiring as messy as a spider web. Countless people relied on the most ancient job to survive and sold their bodies to live.
Extremely dangerous criminals were also hiding deep in the lairs. Even if the Survival Committee built luxurious mansions outside and invited them to stay there, they would not agree to it.
But the Survival Committee could not use brute strength to take down the lairs either.
After all, 90% of the people who stayed in the lairs were normal citizens.
The cramped and complicated environment in the lairs made it very easy for fires to break out and the buildings to collapse.
And superhuman criminals were skilled in creating a lot of collateral damage.
If the Supernatural Committee decided to take out numerous weapons to capture one out-of-control superhuman, they could not guarantee that the person would not be forced into a corner and decide to drag thousands of innocent citizens to the grave with him.
They were still at war with the monsters, though. Their main problem was trying to snatch living space from the monsters. The Survival Committee could not create chaos in Dragon City that would unsettle everything.
Besides, human society had never been just plain black and white.
There were always gray areas.
Right now, most of the gray market in Dragon City was concentrated in the three lairs, and because of it, it was easier to monitor and manage those markets.
If they destroyed the three lairs, the gray markets would spread through all parts of the city, and it would be the same as letting cancer cells spread through the whole body. Things would just become even more chaotic.
Meng Chao at eighteen years of age might have a hard time understanding why Dragon City, which was a city of heroes and the vanguard of human civilization in the Other World, would tolerate the existence of lairs, which accommodated evil people.
But the Meng Chao who came back from the apocalypse synthetized all information available to him and thought about it. Soon, he could understand why this problem was allowed to exist.
The Golden Tooth Lair Lu Siya mentioned was the largest of the three lairs left.
There were anywhere from hundreds of thousands to a million people living there. No one had ever bothered to make detailed calculations before, so true numbers were unknown.
The people there took up all sorts of the most ancient professions.
Naturally, they had monster colosseums as well.
Compared to the legal monster colosseums beyond the lairs, the monster colosseums in the lairs had two features that attracted people.
First, the illegal monster colosseums in the lairs usually conducted all sorts of insane modifications on the monsters, which made them incredibly violent, bloodthirsty, and terrifying. They would even inject all sorts of outlawed gene medicine so that the monsters would go berserk. It brought unmatched excitement to the spectators who watched them fight.
Second, there was gambling.
Legal monster colosseums allowed the spectators to gamble as well, but there was an upper limit to the amount of money they could bet. They also had to register their information. Even if they won, they had to pay a high winning tax to support the development of biochemical modification technology and the foundation for disabled soldiers and the families of the soldiers who died.
At the same time, they also forbade the existence of illegal loans. They did not allow the citizens to borrow money to place bets, either.
In other words, the legal sites allowed small bets to help people relax. It was just for fun.
But when it came to illegal monster colosseums, such rules did not exist.
With a single shout, they could borrow a hundred or two hundred thousand worth of cash at any moment. They could even get more than that if they really wanted to place their bets. Of course, the interest was also ridiculously high. Many people became addicted to it, and they were never able to turn back. Some of them even threw aside their normal jobs and lives to become one with the lairs.
“Jin Yongqiang is a regular in the underground monster colosseum in Golden Tooth Lair,” Lu Siya said. “The people there know that he’s part of the middle management in Heavenly Works Machines and that he’s a machine master at the peak of Earth Realm. He has a lot of chances to earn money, so they naturally are at ease when lending him money.
“He was still okay during the past two years. He was there just for fun, so he didn’t lose a lot of money. Last year, I think he even earned a lot of money as well.
“But something happened this year. Not only did he lose all his money, he even had to pawn off his apartment.
“Even so, he was already addicted to it. When he was free, he would go to Golden Tooth Lair. Perhaps he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get his apartment back with his regular salary, so he could only try his luck at the monster colosseum.
“But is this related to the case of murderous pets in Blessed Paradise?”
Meng Chao organized the clues and told Lu Siya his discoveries. “Of course. There are labs that do monster modification in the underground monster colosseums in Golden Tooth Colosseum, and the modifications they conduct are even more insane compared to those in the legal labs in Spirit Creation Creatures and Agricultural University. They don’t care about any rules. Besides, they have the technology and motive to create the mutated rabies virus.
“Perhaps this virus has always been around and was specifically created to make monsters go berserk. It can increase their aggressiveness and make the fights more exciting to attract the audience.
“Jin Yongqiang is a regular in the underground monster colosseum, so he would naturally know the ways there. Perhaps he had his own channels to get that mutated rabies virus.
“This means that as long as we find the monster colosseum that Jin Yongqiang often goes to, we’ll be able to find his friend there. They might be a pharmacist, monster controller, or vet for some monster fighting squad, which will give us our answer!”
“That’s right!” Lu Siya said excitedly. “Meng Chao, you’re seriously my lucky star. You seem to be able to turn impossible into something possible. In just one short day, you managed to find the answer from a bunch of messy clues. Let’s go to Golden Tooth Lair now!”
“Wait!” Meng Chao said hesitantly. “Are we going alone? Based on what I know, there are quite a number of gangs in Golden Tooth Lair. Many of the forces of power have been there for decades, since the time of the zombie crisis. Their history is longer than even the Survival Committee’s. If we go alone, what will happen if the situation goes out of control?”
Lu Siya was stunned for a moment. She quickly said, “Of course we’re not the only ones going. I’ll immediately hand all the clues to the abnormal beast research department so that the higher ups can send good soldiers to support us.”
“Well…” Meng Chao thought about it. “Wait, I think I saw Shen Yupeng.”
“What?” Lu Siya’s voice grew louder. “Where are you? How did you manage to see him?”
“I’m at the entrance of Spirit Creation Creatures,” Meng Chao explained. “The secret police are keeping an eye on the labs of Spirit Creation Creatures. When Gao Ye obtained the examination report, he immediately reported it to the secret police. Shen Yupeng might have come here to get an understanding of the situation.”
“Damn it. That guy’s instincts are even better than a dog’s. We can’t let him find this clue!” Lu Siya said anxiously. “Hurry up and leave. You can’t let Shen Yupeng see you! Meet me at the entrance of Golden Tooth Lair as soon as you can. We have to find the person who gave Jin Yongqiang the mutated rabies virus before Shen Yupeng and the secret police!”
Meng Chao blinked.
While standing at the entrance of Spirit Creations Creatures, he watched Shen Yupeng’s black sedan getting closer.
“‘Kay, coming,” he told Lu Siya on the phone.
On the surface, Golden Tooth Lair was a gray, concrete forest. The buildings were packed close to each other, and most of the entrances were blocked by construction waste and cars burnt to scraps.
The entrance was a seemingly normal market that sold all sorts of monster materials.
But the thick fragrance that seemed to have stagnated in the air and refused to leave betrayed that this place was different from normal residential areas.
The scent was Hundred Poison Banquet.
While many of the monsters’ organs contained poison, they were also incredibly delicious and tasted fresh. They tasted even better than the pufferfish on Earth.
There were often cases of citizens not being able to resist the temptation and cooking poisonous organs, which resulted in food poisoning.
As time passed, the Survival Committee passed a law that forbade the selling of poisonous monster organs for the purpose of eating them.
But the laws forbidding the selling of poisonous monster organs were just scraps of paper in Golden Tooth Lair, because this place was a lawless place that existed in the middle of the spectrum between a lawful world and a world of absolutely no laws.
Hundred Poison Banquet, which was formed by the fragrance of hundreds of poisonous monster organs, had long since become a specialty that everyone knew.
Quite a number of citizens would actually come to Golden Tooth Lair just to satisfy their food cravings.