Urban Sims

Chapter 269 District 0

"Oh my god! Garbage, it's all garbage, how much of this garbage is there?"

The scene in front of her made Lan Mengxin couldn't help exclaiming.

"Can't imagine it?"

A voice next to him said, "Actually, this piece of land with an area of ​​more than 30 square kilometers is full of such colorful and colorful garbage. Its average thickness exceeds 200 meters and its total mass exceeds 1000 billion tons. , this is the human beings living on this planet. After entering the industrial age, all the garbage produced in the past thousand years, including industrial waste, nuclear contaminated soil, domestic garbage... Almost all of them are piled here, and they are paid back at 2 The number of billion tons increased..."

"There is no grass in this area. The air here is unbreathable, the water is undrinkable, and the concentration of nuclear radiation is higher than any other area. This is the dirtiest, most poisonous, and worst place on the entire planet."

"There is no hope in this place."

"This is Area 0."

The aircraft is brightly illuminated. Through the glass cockpit, through the gray atmosphere with visibility of less than [-] meters and various particles suspended in the air, one can see the high and low buildings below, including old clothes, worn-out shoes, and waste. There are tens of millions of electrical appliances, broken copper and iron, various plastic products, car wrecks, old tires, etc., a sea of ​​garbage that can be called a "garbage museum"... Zhou Ming said with shock in his eyes.

"District 0?"

On this planet, there is also a mysterious zone 0?
Lan Mengxin was very surprised, she had never heard of this place.

"Yes, Sector 0."

Zhou Ming nodded: "It can be said that if there is no District 0, these garbage will be distributed everywhere on this planet. Even the paradise island, which is as beautiful as a paradise, will suffer from the garbage problem. No matter how beautiful The scenery, against the background of this garbage, will also be discounted."

"In addition, most of the planet's clean, beautiful, and pollution-free original ecological environment can only be maintained for a long time because of the existence of this area. Once this area is closed or loses its function, within half a year, all of the planet's The place will start to be occupied by all kinds of rubbish again..."

"It can be said that without the garbage can in Zone 0, the quality of life in any zone on this planet will drop by several levels."

"Here is the conscience of this planet."

The man's words made Lan Mengxin open his mouth, and couldn't help but said: "So much garbage is piled up together, can it all be disposed of? Besides, can't we build more garbage disposal stations in various places? Such a centralized treatment will pollute the environment." It's too serious and too inconvenient."

"No, these rubbish can only be dealt with centrally."

Zhou Ming shook his head and said: "In fact, with the degradability of this planet, it is becoming more and more powerless to deal with a lot of garbage produced by humans. It is difficult to degrade naturally, and can only be disposed of by the garbage producers themselves. Distributed treatment will not reduce costs. On the contrary, it will It causes secondary pollution, and it can only be cleaned up if it is concentrated.”

"And did you know? In order to collect these rubbish, before creating the money empire, the ruler has invested tens of millions of manpower to clean it up for 50 years, and then released two consecutive 'garbage cleanup projects' to remove All the rubbish is basically cleaned up."

"Don't underestimate the ability of human beings to produce garbage. On this planet, only Area 52 and the noble area of ​​Paradise Island are the main sources of garbage. With a population of more than 2 million, they produce 2 million tons of garbage every year, an average of one ton per person. What if there are 10 billion, 100 billion people on this planet who are producing garbage? How much garbage will be produced every year?
Then, with the processing capacity of the zero-returners in District 0, how many times must the number of people be expanded, so that the speed of garbage disposal can catch up with the speed of garbage production?Achieving a balance of payments? "

Zeroer?
Is it...

Hearing this term, Lan Mengxin was startled suddenly, and immediately thought of something, and asked Zhou Ming, "Could it be that the place where those who returned to zero were brought by those who cleared to zero is this zone 0?"

"Otherwise, why is this place called Area 0?"

Zhou Ming nodded and said: "The main force responsible for cleaning up the garbage in District 0 is those who return to zero. District 0 is the destination of the returnees, and the destination that they can never leave."

"My God!"

Lan Mengxin covered her mouth and exclaimed: "So those people were sent to this hell?!"

The fate of those who return to zero is really too tragic!

"No no no, you are wrong."

Zhou Ming raised an index finger, shook it and said: "It is true that the end of the zero-returners is miserable, but in fact, apart from the harsh living environment, other aspects of Area 0 are not particularly bad."

"On the contrary, Zone 0 is the zone with the least competitive pressure for survival and the highest average happiness index among all the zones on this planet."

The highest happiness index?
This word made Lan Mengxin wonder if she had an auditory hallucination, or was someone talking nonsense in a serious manner?

In this district, apart from pessimism and despair, how can there be any happiness at all?

No matter how optimistic the personality and how strong the mind is, living in this area for a week or two, I am afraid that they will think about ending themselves and getting out of the sea of ​​suffering sooner, right?

Also the highest happiness index?
Do not joke!They are already so miserable, you have to gloat over them.

"You do not believe?"

Seeing the unbelieving expression on Lan Mengxin's face, Zhou Ming smiled slightly, drove the aircraft, flew in a certain direction in the gray sky, and said, "I'll take you to the residential area of ​​the Zero Returners to observe Now, you can understand what I mean."

……

After half an hour.

The edge of the sea of ​​garbage below suddenly sank downwards, and under the steep slope with a height difference of more than [-] meters, an empty and flat land appeared in the field of vision.

This flat land covers an area of ​​thousands of square kilometers.

On the surface of the flat ground, there are criss-cross and extremely dense track indentations, as if they have been repeatedly run over by some kind of tracked vehicle.

In the thick gray fog, the ear-piercing sound of "Kala Kala~" came. A crawler vehicle emerged from the sea of ​​garbage, waving a huge bucket-shaped mechanical arm, with a huge bucket behind it, The bucket is full of all kinds of garbage... The garbage truck with a length of more than 15 meters transported hundreds of tons of garbage at a time.

The destination of the garbage truck is the huge garbage disposal factory dozens of kilometers away. There are 0 such factories in Zone 8, each covering an area of ​​more than ten square kilometers. The core device of the factory is the central area A nuclear fusion power station with a generating capacity of 1000 million KW, the huge power generated by the power station is enough to meet the energy needs of processing 2 million tons of various types of waste every year.

Soon, after the garbage collection truck entered the factory, hundreds of tons of garbage were poured into a huge funnel-shaped container. The "buzz~" shredder started, and the garbage in the funnel container was crushed by the high-speed rotating nano-diamond knife. , cut into garbage pieces of different sizes, the largest not exceeding the size of an adult's fist, and these garbage pieces are sent into the factory through a long transmission belt, and the garbage sorting process begins.

On the projection screen of the aircraft console, a picture inside the factory appeared.

Zhou Ming pointed to the workers who were standing on the assembly line, wearing protective clothing, sorting garbage and said: "This is called a factory worker. They don't need to do heavy physical labor. They only need to do a good job of sorting. They stand on the running water for 8 hours a day. You can get a salary of about 300 credits."

The screen changed, and he pointed to the garbage collection truck that was driving into the parking lot. After parking, the man who got out of the car said: "This is called a worker outside the factory. Just drive the collection truck outside the factory and put it away." Those rubbish can be transported to the factory, the technical content is not high, and you can earn 5000 credits for each trip."

"In addition, the price of goods in the factory is not high. A liter of water is 10 credits, and a compressed nutritious meal that is enough to eat is only 20 credits. The biggest expense is protective clothing. The repair cost is 300 to 1000. Buying a new one It costs about 1 yuan, and other expenses such as accommodation, electricity, medical care and other expenses are not very high, and the average day does not exceed 150 credit points."

"If the workers in this factory only need to maintain the most basic survival needs, they can work 15 days a month. They can work one day and rest one day."

"If he is an off-site worker, if there is no major failure in his collection vehicle, he can earn about 2000 credit points for each trip, and such a trip usually takes no more than two days."

"So, the survival pressure in District 0 is relatively small. People with hands and feet, as long as they are not lazy, will basically not starve to death."

"As for why the happiness index is high, you can see the family life of the zero-returned people in the factory living area, and you will know."

As soon as the lens turned, the projector played another scene.

The living area of ​​the factory, a family of five, pictures of daily life.

Because the projector can play external voices, the first thing Lan Mengxin heard was laughter.

The family is discussing a topic.

It is the topic of buying a refurbished learning machine for the youngest son.

This refurbished learning machine was manufactured 600 years ago, but under the superb repair skills of the repairman, after replacing two damaged parts, the learning machine can still be used.

In the sea of ​​garbage in District 0, in addition to learning machines, there are many household appliances, electronic products, antique TVs, computers and other items that can be used after repairing, as well as various books, antiques and toys.

But the most popular ones are actually the cassette radios, MP3 players, various game consoles, DVDs, movie discs and other items before the nuclear war... These items dug out of the garbage brought people in Zone 0 had endless fun.

Surrounding these interesting "garbage", people in Area 0 spent most of their free credits on these garbage.

Even, a group of "restorers" have emerged who specialize in collecting, sorting, researching, and repairing these garbage. These restorers have become the most popular in District 0 by virtue of their superb skills in repairing garbage and restoring the original functions of garbage. , the group of people with the highest income.

Thanks to the efforts of the "restorers", many cultural and artistic works such as music, movies, games, and novels before the nuclear war have been able to reappear in the world and enrich people's spiritual life.

In the end, the parents of this family decided to take out 1 credits to buy the refurbished learning machine, and told the youngest son that he could only learn the knowledge in it and not play the small games in it, otherwise he would stop learning. The phone was confiscated and he was not allowed to play.

"Long live Mom and Dad!" The little boy jumped up happily, and his brother and sister were also excited, discussing in whispers, and when the learning machine was bought, they would each play for 2 hours a day.

The happy scene of this family made Zhou Ming sigh: "Everyone takes it for granted that the returnees are the most desperate and hopeless group of people, but on the contrary, they are very lucky."

"There is too much garbage in District 0. There are as many as three or four million people. They don't have to worry about unemployment for thousands of years. The ruler doesn't want these people to be reduced on a large scale. In terms of salary, the driving is not low."

"And these so-called garbage, the garbage that people despise, are not the conscience, truth, goodness and beauty that those indifferent, selfish, greedy and hypocritical people once discarded?"

"But no one expected that these conscience, truth, kindness and beauty, those emotions and art, would be picked up by those who returned to zero in the garbage dump, repaired and collected at a high price like a treasure."

"What kind of irony and subversion is this?"

"Perhaps only when we have a glimpse of the whole world, will we understand who is really rich and who is really poor in this money empire."

boom!
Lan Mengxin's eyes widened, a huge roar sounded in her head, and the shock in her heart was hard to calm down for a long time.

　So far, the world view of the money empire is finally complete
　　
　
(End of this chapter)