Chapter 389: Chapter 47: Transmigration? A Mega-conglomerate World?

In other words, the workshop supervisor.

This would free him from his long work hours, granting him an eight-hour workday like the one he had in his past life.

But there was definitely no such thing as a two-day weekend.

In this cruel world, it was a huge and tempting offer.

But it was a real offer, nonetheless.

Because, in Cheng Hua’s memory...

...his elementary school diploma was actually worth a great deal in this world!

Ever since the world’s environment collapsed and all power was seized by massive corporations...

...compulsory education had been abolished.

Ostensibly, the corporations’ slogan was "to curb public spending."

But in reality, it was a way for the wealthy class to strip the poor of their ability to think.

To the rich, the poor were worker bees toiling for them. They were expected to know nothing, think nothing, and be nothing more than cogs in the corporate machine.

Therefore, for an ordinary person, the cost of attending school, let alone finishing elementary school, was a tremendous burden, even if it was technically bearable.

However, in their effort to ensure their son could get a decent, respectable job, Cheng Hua’s parents had worked themselves to death, one after the other.

What a testament to the selfless love of parents everywhere.

Fortunately...

...Cheng Hua’s elementary school education was indeed useful. At the very least, he didn’t have to worry about food and shelter in this world.

Cheng Hua, who graduated from elementary school at twelve, had started working at a nutrient solvent company right away.

He had now been working there for a full eight years, making him twenty years old.

During those eight years, his parents had passed away one by one, but two years ago, Cheng Hua had managed to pay off the money he’d borrowed for his schooling with his own income.

Now, he just needed to hold on for another two years.

Once he took over as the workshop supervisor, Cheng Hua’s life would become relatively easier.

He had to admit, the corporations in this world hadn’t quite reached the absolute depths of heartlessness.

But they weren’t far from it.

After all, Commoners like Cheng Hua who had managed to finish elementary school were extremely rare in the periphery of the Giant Technology Company’s Eco-Urban Circle.

It was also thanks to the fact that Cheng Hua’s parents had held relatively stable jobs.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t just have died from overwork like his parents; he most likely would have ended up like the stray children who periodically starved to death on the streets, left unburied.

’This fucking world.’

’It’s like some kind of sick joke. How could a planet get this polluted?’

’Even a nuclear war couldn’t have been worse than this, right?’

At that moment, Cheng Hua slowly came to a stop.

It was late at night. Bathed in the dim glow of the streetlights, Cheng Hua saw people gathered in twos and threes, all as thin as skeletons.

Some were deformed, others hunched over; none of them looked healthy.

The moment Cheng Hua’s predecessor had collapsed and died, these figures had crawled or shambled toward him, their eyes gleaming with a greedy light.

But the instant Cheng Hua awoke and got to his feet, the greedy glint in their eyes vanished.

Each of them began muttering silent curses, looking as if their own parents had just died.

Reading their lips, Cheng Hua could tell they were cursing him for not having the decency to die for good.

’Dammit!’

Cheng Hua was furious.

If they didn’t look so much like zombies, he would have loved to run over and beat them up to vent some of the frustration from his transmigration.

But then, seeing their skeletal frames that looked like they’d collapse in a strong wind...

...and how they couldn’t even stand up straight, his heart softened and he gave up the idea.

They were miserable enough already; there was no need for him to add to it.

Unemployed Commoners were a perfectly normal sight in this world.

The homeless population was even larger.

These people didn’t wear protective masks outdoors and lacked sufficient purified food, so their lifespans were actually very short.

Most were lucky to live past thirty.

As for the problem of crime among the homeless?

At least in the periphery of the Eco-Urban Circle, very few dared to cause trouble.

After all, just now, Cheng Hua had seen a small patrol drone fly over the area, a gun mounted beneath its chassis.

Besides, Cheng Hua was an employee of a Giant Technology subsidiary, a low-level manager at that.

He even had a phone in his pocket.

If he made an emergency call, not a single one of the vagrants who had dared to approach him would have survived.

It was truly a ’surreal’ world.

Once Cheng Hua understood his situation, he stopped dawdling and started walking home, following the route from his memory.

As a company employee...

...Cheng Hua lived in a relatively safe residential area.

The conditions here were similar to the resettlement housing complexes on Blue Star.

The complex was full of eight-story, flat-roofed buildings with no elevators, only stairs.

Upon entering, he found the dilapidated main gate practically unguarded, and there were hardly any people downstairs.

The few who were around had just gotten off work, walking lifelessly toward their homes in twos and threes with dark circles under their eyes.

Chatting?

What a luxury.

They would rather use that time to get a little more sleep.

Besides, most people getting off work at midnight were already considered low-level management.

A regular employee’s standard shift was fourteen hours a day, plus four hours of "voluntary" overtime.

In short, under this high-intensity exploitation...

...most people in this world were extremely cold and selfish.

Human interaction was nearly nonexistent.

As for gangs and the like?

They didn’t exist near the urban circle!

The corporations would step in to crush any such destabilizing elements.

There were black markets, but they were small-scale and forbidden from having mechanized production lines.

Nevertheless, the black markets did exist.

After all, for the unemployed and homeless, the mushy food sold in the black market, like "cockroach paste," was still quite popular.

However, no employee with a job would ever eat that stuff.

After all, besides the nutrient solvents produced from pure materials supplied by the ecosystem, everything in this world was contaminated.

Eating black market products would fill your stomach, but it would also hasten your ascent to the heavens.

In conclusion, this world was a total mess.

With a sense of despair, Cheng Hua soon returned to his residence.

It consisted of two main rooms and a bathroom, and was reasonably clean.

He closed the door and bolted it.

Then, Cheng Hua plopped down onto the slightly worn-out sofa in the living room.

At this moment, his emotions finally began to settle.

But only just.

’A cheat?’

’A system?’

’True Game?’

’Brother Tongzi?’

"..."

Following the standard procedure for transmigrators, Cheng Hua called out every cheat trope he could think of.

The result? Jack shit.

’It’s over!’

’I’m really screwed this time!’

At the end of the day, Cheng Hua was just a high school graduate from Blue Star.

His knowledge was far broader, and his education was on a level others in this world’s Human Race could not compare to.

But no matter how you sliced it, he was still just a teenager.

Starting out on such a high-difficulty setting was genuinely starting to break his composure.

However, Cheng Hua had one last lifeline.

With no system and no help from the True Game, he would try meditation and breathing exercises!

He wasn’t sure if Magic Power existed in this world...

...but he had to try.

After all, on Blue Star, children over the age of ten would begin their preliminary contact and practice with breathing exercises and Meditation Methods.

So, Cheng Hua was already very familiar with the whole process.

’Bless me, True Game!’

’Bless me, Chief of the Dragon God!’

’Bless me, Human Union Headquarters! It has to work!’

Cheng Hua prayed anxiously before his Meditation, then sat down cross-legged.

And so, very quickly, Cheng Hua’s entire mind and body relaxed.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes!

...

Finally, at a certain moment, it felt just like his first aptitude awakening.

With his eyes closed in Meditation, Cheng Hua finally ’saw’ the Extraordinary Particles.

In the dark Space, he saw grayish particles with a glazed sheen.

These gray particles were very conspicuous and extremely active.

But unlike the multicolored Magic Particles of Blue Star, the Magic Particles of this world were all gray.

Just like the sky outside, they were an unnatural, dark gray.

Cheng Hua was thrilled to sense these Extraordinary Particles.

So thrilled, in fact, that he didn’t think twice before starting to guide the first gray particle into his body to awaken his aptitude.

He succeeded!

Yes!

It was a massive success, most likely thanks to his own powerful Spiritual aptitude.

And so, after just one night...

...he could feel a qualitative change in his body.

The qualitative change was one of Perfection; he knew this because the moment he opened his eyes again...

...he discovered that inside his residence...

...five uninvited guests had appeared at some unknown time.

These people were wearing the ’Guard’ uniforms of the Giant Technology Company.

Right now, they were staring at him intently, their gazes a mixture of envy and solemnity.