life copy game

Chapter 552 The Cleaner of the City

"Is this the Zarot block?"

He Ao turned around, walked back to the hospital bed, took a sip of the nutrient solution.

"Yes."

Haixi smiled, as if to dispel her inexplicable restraint just now, she calmly sat back on the chair, and nodded slightly.

Zarot Block, a place that almost all Vitlanders know, but the vast majority of Vitlanders will not come to.

This place is located on the edge of the West District, and the reason why it has such a great reputation is because it exists on the Internet in the form of some kind of "weird talk".

Zarot, this is a word that came from the wilderness, and the specific meaning seems to be unclear, but in Wittland, the Zarot neighborhood is also known as the 'garbage city'.

And the people who live in this place also have another name, 'scavenger'.

The garbage produced by more than 1000 million people in the entire Wittland will be collected here. After processing, some of them will be transported out of the city to be buried, and some will be recycled and returned to the factory for production.

Like the sewers all over the city, the Zarot block is part of the city's 'decomposition factory'.

But the condition of the scavengers living in the Zarot block is not good. They ensure the cleanliness of the whole city, but they themselves have lived in a dirty and smelly environment for generations.

"This is my first time here."

He Ao looked at the scene outside the window, and some small buildings made of steel were densely arranged under the sky.

Most of these small buildings have only one skeleton, and at least one side should be a wall without any cover, and the internal scene is completely exposed to the outside.

And attached to these building skeletons are some simple mechanical devices.

One after another, small pulley machines continuously send the garbage that has been divided into huge pieces from the ground to different floors, and then the people standing on the floors wearing shabby clothes will use the small mechanical arms that look very simple. These rubbish are piled deep in the floor.

This seems to be part of some kind of garbage sorting and storage work. In this entire area, everyone is working in an orderly manner, orderly like a huge factory.

"how do you feel?"

Haixi was also looking at the scene outside the window, and suddenly asked softly.

She didn't introduce this place to He Ao in detail. Since He Ao can recognize the name Zarot Street, he probably has a certain understanding of this block.

In Wetland, very few people do not know the Zarot block.

Although most people understand it as weird talk.

"Feel,"

He Ao looked out of the window calmly, and his eyes fell on the simple mechanical arms that obviously had potential safety hazards, as well as the thin and shabby clothes of the operators, "They are working very hard, but they don't get a reasonable pay .”

It is a rare situation in the entire Federation that there is a block of people who deal with garbage like in the Zarot block of Wetland City.

Most cities, including Dawn and Kaya, have specialized cleaning companies that dispose of garbage and charge citizens for cleaning.

Thinking about it this way, He Ao suddenly realized that Witland also has a cleaning company that charges garbage cleaning fees, and the price is not cheap.

"It's a very novel angle. You are the first person to tell me such an evaluation,"

Hearing He Ao's words, Haixi was stunned for a moment, she stood up slowly, and walked to He Ao's side, "Is this the way you highly educated professors think about problems?"

"To be precise, it's the way I think about problems," He Ao shrugged, "Professors are different from each other, by the way."

He turned his head to look at Haixi, "I heard that none of the scavengers in Zarot Street have a social security number?"

Jess's knowledge of Zarot Street is limited to interesting popular science videos on the Internet, but these videos still mention some key information. For example, the scavengers in Zarot Street do not have the status of urban residents, nor do they have social security numbers. .

"Yes,"

Haixi nodded lightly, "The people in this neighborhood didn't live in the city long ago, they came from the wilderness,
"Wittland occupied the ancestral territory of the scavengers during a city expansion, and the core area is the block under our feet.

"The city government at the time allocated this block to those who lost their homes in the wilderness, but did not give these homeless people the status of urban residents."

The information that Haixi mentioned is basically inaccessible on the Internet.

"It seems that the mayor of Wetland at that time didn't want these wilderness wanderers to stay in the city," He Ao looked out the window, "so he wanted to use this method to force them to leave."

He Ao once played the role of a wanderer in the wilderness. He knew very well what he would face in a fortress city without a social security card number and a formal federal identity. He couldn't find a formal job, couldn't open a bank account, and couldn't rent a house normally.

Unable to support themselves, unable to survive and live in the city, these wilderness wanderers will naturally be driven back to the wilderness.

Haixi glanced at He Ao in surprise, she didn't expect He Ao to figure out the key to the problem so quickly, many people who were born in the city and naturally have federal legal status cannot understand what it means to lose their federal status.

Giving the living area to the wilderness wanderers who stayed in the Zarot block at that time, but not giving them an identity, is actually expelling these wilderness wanderers in disguise.

The mayor of Wetland at the time wanted fame, but he didn't want these wilderness wanderers to stay in the city, which would increase his management risks.

I want to save face.

"The mayor's ruse was half successful,"

Hai Xi walked to a white closet beside him, opened the closet, and a set of men's clothing hanging in the closet was revealed.

"Some wanderers in the wilderness couldn't stand the restricted life in the city, because they couldn't find a livelihood and returned to the wilderness, while the rest survived by disposing of urban garbage, and gradually formed the current "scavenging" By'."

Haixi took out the clothes from the closet and handed them to He Ao, "Your original clothes are torn and out of shape, I bought you a new set of clothes according to the approximate style of that suit, this is our deal free gift, no money.”

"sorry to bother you."

He Ao took the suit and glanced at it, and found that this suit was almost exactly the same as the one Jess wore before.

Jess's clothes are basically branded goods, but they are not completely rare custom-made clothes. It is still easy to find styles according to the brands.

But it is also a troublesome thing to determine the brand of the clothes from He Ao's pile of tattered clothes, then find the corresponding style, and then buy them.

"No trouble," Haixi spread her hands, "I asked my subordinates to do it, just a few words."

"It seems that I was moved in vain."

Howard smiled.

He gestured with the clothes, and the size was indeed his size. Haixi had customized a dress for him before, so he knew his size.

"By the way," Hai Xi took out a silver mechanical mask from the closet, "This is a small air-purifying mask, you were injured, the air outside may not be so good, you can wear the mask Come out again."

After finishing speaking, she turned and opened the door, "Your dagger is in the bedside cabinet, and I'll wait for you outside."

She knew very well that He Ao wanted to leave this room, and He Ao didn't open the door to leave immediately because she called out just now.

He Ao glanced at the clothes in his hand, shook his head and smiled.

Because of the promotion, his injury is almost healed now, so he wants to meet Thorne now.

As one of the important figures leading Jess' tragic fate, Thorne must know a lot of key clues about Jess and the mysterious man.

Last night, after finding out that the wave of mercenaries guarding Hai Xi in the shopping mall might be the mercenaries protecting Thorne and ambushing 'Jess', He Ao determined Thorne's location.

Among the mercenaries, the task weight of killing He Ao was higher than that of catching Hai Xi.

It is impossible for them to give up on Thorn and come out to do the mission. After all, if Thorn, who was unprotected, was caught by He Ao when they were besieging Haixi, then their previous efforts would be wasted.

Therefore, they will definitely take Thorn by their side, next to the large army, and prepare for He Ao's attack at any time.

Therefore, Thorne was in Haixi's shopping mall at that time, surrounded by a group of mercenaries, and mixed together to arrest Haixi.

After understanding these, He Ao also figured out the information gap between himself and these mercenaries at that time.

These mercenaries knew that there was a C-level strong man next to Haixi, but they didn't know that it was He Ao, but He Ao already knew that they were the ones protecting Thorne.

On this basis, He Ao can create an 'unexpected encounter', so that the mercenaries who were waiting for Hai Xi met the more important target 'Jess'.

But after He Ao appeared, Thorne lost his value, and because of the sudden encounter, those mercenaries didn't have time to arrange a backup to protect Thorne.

And the strength demonstrated by He Ao's annihilation of the first elite mercenary team the night before yesterday was enough to make this group of mercenaries fearful.

So there is a high probability that they will go out in full force, leaving only some small soldiers to protect Thorne, or even none of them, and all of them will come directly to hunt and kill He Ao.

Things were exactly as He Ao expected, the whole mercenary team came to hunt and kill He Ao, and Thorn had no one to protect him at all.

Of course, Thorne is not a fool. After realizing that he has no one to protect him, he will definitely run away decisively. He Ao, who is being entangled by mercenaries, has no time to kill his carbine.

So He Ao took advantage of the situation and entrusted Haixi to help him catch Thorne, and came to pick him up at the last moment.

Haixi has C-level strength and knows Thorne very well. There is no problem in catching Thorne who has no one to protect him.

And if at the last moment, the mysterious person sent additional C-level support, with Hai Xi's help, He Ao was also confident that he would be able to escape unscathed.

Although it was a thrilling experience last night, it was actually under He Ao's control.

The only thing that may be at risk is whether the Hai Xi I just met is trustworthy.

And through the entire process of the charity dinner, as well as Haixi's performance during the final life-and-death chase, He Ao believes that Haixi is relatively reliable and trustworthy.

After all, He Ao actually has the kindness to save her, and the two also have the enemy of the Huiermei Medical Foundation, and it is also in Hai Xi's interest to catch Thorne and deal with the traitor in the mall.

Although He Ao is not clear about some things about He Xi, He Ao is keenly aware that He Ao is quite resolute in fighting against the Huiermei Medical Foundation.

What she did at the dinner party was very risky, and as a qualified middleman, he shouldn't be involved in these things himself.

Haixi's actions proved that she had reasons to get involved.

And judging from the ambush in the underground parking lot, the Huiermei Medical Foundation has been trying to deal with her for a long time, which proves that there is a high probability that the two sides have deeper conflicts.

And this can be used as the basis for cooperation, the enemy of the enemy is a friend.

After He Ao tentatively stated his needs, Hai Xi readily agreed, which proved that He Ao's plan was also in her interest.

So He Ao finally chose to believe her.

A series of events last night also proved He Ao's judgment was correct.

Of course, if Haixi is unwilling to cooperate, or has other plans, He Ao also has other backup plans, but the effect is not as good as this one.

While thinking about it, He Ao quickly changed his clothes, put the pendant back into his clothes, and then found the alloy dagger in the bedside cabinet.

Hai Xi found a simple dagger sheath for him, which can hold the dagger, but it may be because of the urgent time, this dagger sheath does not fit very well, it is a little bigger.

He Ao pulled out the dagger from its sheath, and with a crisp sound, his eyes were projected onto the cold alloy blade of the dagger.

He stared at the slightly curved blade of the dagger, and quickly looked away.

This dagger was broken, and he had to find a way to get a new weapon that was handy.

He put the dagger back into the sheath, then put the sheathed dagger into the inner pocket of his coat, and opened the door.

At this moment, a wind with a stench came towards him.

He Ao twitched the tip of his nose, without changing his expression, walked out of the room and closed the door.

"Have you changed your clothes?"

With her back to the door, Hai Xi, who was standing in the corridor, turned around and looked at He Ao, then she paused, "Why didn't you wear that air-purifying mask?"

"It doesn't affect the taste."

Howard shook his head.

Although he doesn't rely on his sense of smell very much in battle, under certain circumstances, his sense of smell is also an important source of information.

"It's good that you get used to the taste."

Hai Xi nodded, she knew that He Ao must have her own reasons for not wearing a mask, then she walked forward along the corridor, "I'll take you to see Thorne."

"Um,"

He Ao glanced around.

He found that the location he was in was also a small building, but unlike the surrounding small buildings that were mainly used to store garbage, this small building had walls all around, and the walls were whitewashed, making it look more like a A place to live, not like a garbage factory.

At this moment, Haixi was leading him down the corridor.

Between these small buildings, there are also some 'air corridors' made of rusted steel.

These corridors connect the small buildings in series, so that people in the small buildings can walk between the small buildings without going downstairs.

It’s just that these aerial corridors don’t look safe. Only a few corridors have rain-shielding roofs, most of them only have some rusty railings, and some corridors don’t even have railings. The narrow corridors are like slender The bridge usually connects two small buildings.

Some children ran on it, stepping on the rusty steel plate, making a thumping sound.

"What is the source of income for the scavengers here?"

He Ao looked away from those small buildings and corridors, and asked casually while walking along the corridors.

"garbage disposal,"

Hai Xi took a look at the densely packed garbage, and said softly, "Many of the delivered garbage are recyclable, and the scavengers sort out these recyclable garbage, and then use some crude machines and methods to collect them. processed into industrial raw materials.

"For example, the recycled aluminum cans are remelted and cast into qualified aluminum ingots. People from the cleaning company will come to recycle these aluminum ingots, but their prices are very low, only one-third or even the price given by the factory. a quarter.

"In the past, I also tried to find factories to sell these aluminum ingots directly, but basically no factories were willing to directly purchase materials from waste pickers. In the end, these aluminum ingots had to be sold to cleaning companies."

"So the cleaning company can get two to three times the cost directly by changing hands of these aluminum ingots?"

He Ao glanced at the shabby clothes of the scavengers, "What about the useless garbage after disposal?"

"Most of the trash here has a place."

Hai Xi shook his head, "Only a very small part of the garbage can't be processed at all. The cleaning company will come to pull the garbage away and charge the waste pickers a cleaning fee."

Hearing this sentence, He Ao paused for a moment, "This cleaning company... makes a lot of money."

After all, Vitland's cleaning company has actually collected a cleaning fee from the citizens of Vitland.

And the cleaning fee is not low, at least not lower than the cleaning fee in Chenxi City.

However, the cleaning fee in Chenxi City includes the cost of the cleaning company's disposal of garbage.

The Witland cleaning company only needs to transport the garbage to the Zarot block.

Compared with the cleaning company in Chenxi City, Vitland's cleaning company saves the cost of maintaining the operation of garbage disposal machinery and the cost of building a garbage disposal plant.

They can even scrape off the raw materials processed by the scavengers.

The most outrageous thing is that there is a fee to transport garbage out of the city that the scavengers cannot handle.

In other cities, this part of the cost is already included in the cleaning fee paid by citizens.

For a moment, He Ao didn't know where to start complaining.

"The largest cleaning company in Witland is the Well-Mei Cleaning Company under the Well-Me Medical Consortium,"

Hai Xi, who was walking in front, took He Ao down the stairs on the outer wall of the small building, "They joined forces with other small cleaning companies in Wetland to form a monopoly alliance, and decided to clean up all the garbage in the entire city. They do it every year. Spending a lot of money lobbying council members to push council to pass bills in their favour."

Hearing this sentence, He Ao probably understood why the aluminum ingots made by scavengers could not be sold directly to factories. There was a huge interest group that cut off the connection between scavengers and the outside world.

He also vaguely understood the contradiction between Haixi and Huiermei Medical Foundation.

"Here we are,"

Haixi stopped in front of a somewhat wide warehouse door, stretched out his hand and pushed open the warehouse door, revealing the dark interior of the warehouse. In this chaotic darkness, the dim light in the depths of the warehouse could be vaguely seen, "The inside is opaque." , maybe a little dark."

"It's okay, it doesn't matter."

He Ao stared at the dark warehouse, the dark scene fell into his eyes, but it was as clear as if it was illuminated by light.

He easily saw Thorne sitting at the end of the warehouse.

Technically, this was the first time he and Thorne had met.

He took a deep breath, stepped up and walked into the warehouse.

(End of this chapter)