City of Time: Falling into the kill zone at the start

Chapter 85 The Standing One

Therefore, for the people of the City of Time—at least for the vast majority of people in District 18—rest is a fantasy that exists only in mythology.

If you stop working, you stop eating. You get a day off, but if you don't have enough time left (less than 2 days), the timer will reset to zero due to natural depletion.

In other words, they are silently and imperceptibly killed by the passage of time.

Those in property-owning professions are "burdened by their assets." Taking a day off can lead to operational and financial pressures, such as inventory backlog and heavy debt burdens.

In severe cases, they may be penalized by the City of Time, or even have their assets sold, leading to a decline in social class and profession.

That's right.

Most of the fixed assets in the City of Time have restrictions similar to "must maintain operation".

For example, the Rope Hotel can only close for a maximum of 5 days a year.

If it exceeds 5 days, the natural loss allowance for 1 year will be deducted;

For example, bakeries and sandwich shops—especially bakeries—face a penalty of 3 to 15 days for every day they close.

The logic behind this regulation is actually quite easy to understand.

—Shops such as rope hotels and bakeries are closely related to the lives of the city's residents.

With the Rope Hotel closed, workers have nowhere to stay.

With the bakery closed, people in the neighborhood can no longer buy dark bread.

And so on.

In order to ensure the basic survival of the city's residents, these fixed assets of the "shop" nature are, in principle, not allowed to close down—especially not for a long period of time.

This resulted in a situation where, apart from freelancers like scavengers and wealthy individuals like farmers and ranchers, no one in District 18 could rest as they pleased.

No one else can take a spontaneous city tour like Lu Chen did today.

...

In fact, even scavengers who work as "freelancers" are not completely free.

Freelancing is merely a theoretical concept of being unrestrained.

However, under the pressure of survival, even the most free profession requires one to force oneself to devote as much time as possible to the work.

—Scavengers need to queue to leave the city;

So after registering and queuing, the scavengers can only wait.

However, the vast majority of scavengers will not lie down and wait for their turn to leave the city.

In order to cope with the natural passage of time, a considerable number of scavengers choose to work as temporary workers in factories while waiting for their turn to leave the city.

Yu had told Lu Chen that after paying off her bank debts, for nearly a year, Yu would go to work as a temporary worker in a coal mine after registering and queuing to leave the city.

Because if this isn't done, the jade's "time" simply won't be able to withstand the natural passage of time and won't last until the next time it leaves the city.

Yu stopped working as a temporary worker once her remaining time balance reached the safe threshold of 60 days.

...

In other words, even freelancers like scavengers need to have a full wallet before they can afford to rest.

The word "survival" forces the vast majority of people in District 18 to desperately acquire "time" and seize every opportunity to do so.

To put it more bluntly, in the City of Time, the word "rest" is equally expensive.

Only those who are wealthy enough have the right to rest and relax.

The price the poor pay for resting and lying down is being ruthlessly and silently slaughtered by this cold, steel city.

Therefore, the first test Yu gave me was to do everything possible to save time and gain time as much as possible.

"Because self-discipline is the primary prerequisite for survival in the City of Time..."

At the bar, Lu Chen looked thoughtful, his cigarette butt unconsciously bringing it to his lips repeatedly as he pondered the situation.

Composing myself, I brought my thoughts back to the present moment, and looked up at the bartender with a faint smile.

"It's not easy for anyone."

"Apart from the wealthy people in the North City, the entire 18th District is not having an easy time."

The half-serious sigh elicited a wry smile and a nod from the bartender, but he didn't reply.

Lu Chen could tell that the bartender had a different opinion about his comment, "It's not easy for anyone."

The bartender clearly believed that even the hardest job of scavenging couldn't be harder than a manual labor job.

Lu Chen didn't want to explain further.

After all, the risks that scavengers face outside the city cannot be explained simply by talking.

"Is this tavern yours?"

"How much did it cost in total?"

The tone remained calm and relaxed, like casual conversation between friends, yet it prompted the bartender to wave his hands repeatedly.

A moment later, he raised his head with a look of longing and looked around the tavern.

"How could I possibly afford a tavern..."

...

"If it really is mine, then..."

……

As he murmured to himself, the bartender looked around the tavern and was momentarily lost in thought.

It took him a while to come to his senses, and he shook his head and smiled awkwardly.

My job number is 196.

Lu Chen remained calm and casually tossed the cigarette butt to the ground and stomped it out.

"The one who stands."

In the black market, Lu Chen had met the 196th Standing Man.

—In the black market, every shop belonging to the City of Time employs a Standing Guardian to look after the shop.

Or rather, they hired those who "stand firm" inside the shops.

...

The bartender nodded, hesitated for a moment, then forced a smile and extended his right hand.

"Number 18-196-2026".

Lu Chen smiled in response and also reached out to shake hands lightly with the bartender.

"Number 18-172-9334".

When it comes to lying, Lu Chen remains completely calm and collected.

I'll say it again;

All scavengers, including Yu, habitually cover their faces and hide their identities.

Lu Chen could guess the general reason, but he still couldn't be completely sure.

But Lu Chen knew that if Yu Du did this, there must be a reason for it.

"Number 9334..."

Upon hearing this, the bartender lowered his head thoughtfully and looked Lu Chen up and down.

Then he laughed and said, "A resurrected one?"

"Still an original being?"

A seemingly ordinary remark instantly piqued Lu Chen's curiosity.

After a moment's thought, not seeing anything wrong with doing so, he didn't answer but instead asked, "The original being?"

"Does this refer to the indigenous people born in the city?"

Although he didn't answer directly, the bartender immediately understood that the scavenger in front of him, numbered 9334, was a former rehabilitated person.

Realizing this, the bartender's previously calm expression was immediately replaced by intense curiosity.

In District 18, rehabilitated individuals are a rather rare and precious group.

The south gate is slightly better.

Occasionally, new survivors will "descend" from the point of recovery to the City of Time.

However, the shockingly low survival rate of the recovered individuals means that they are rarely seen in areas far from the South Gate.

On average, only a handful of out of every hundred recoveries survive.

Those few survivors are basically only able to eke out a living in the South Gate area, busy with their daily lives.

They didn't have the time to leave the South Gate, where they depended on for survival, and instead appeared near the West, North, and East Gates.

At least the bartender in front of Lu Chen, who is also the 2026th Standing One, has never seen a Resurrected One in the West Gate area.

Even former revivers have never seen it.

"When...did you recover?"

The bartender did not directly answer Lu Chen's question about the indigenous people, or rather, the "natives".

Similarly, it involves asking a question instead of answering.

Clearly, they were somewhat surprised that Lu Chen, who had "lived" for so long, did not understand the original group.