Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Noldrei had indeed been out of the loop for a while.

He didn't have a deep understanding of the situation outside Academy City, nor did he know much about the extent to which its internal technology had permeated the outside world.

But in reality, the outside world hadn't changed much.

Unlike the complete reconstruction of Academy City's interior with Anti-Entropy's engineering mechs, the development of biotechnology within the city had even led to the creation of special insects that could clear the air indoors.

But...

The outside world remained largely unchanged. Besides the skin color potions Noldrei had prepared a year ago and some "high-priced" drugs that had leaked out of Academy City, there hadn't been much of an impact.

It was exactly the same as when Noldrei had arrived in this city a year ago.

In comparison, if he remembered correctly, there was a place called Sapphire City that was developing quite well.

'Maybe I can take over that place too and arrange for locals to manage the new city.'

Noldrei pondered for a long time, thinking that the current world development was too slow. Even the living standards of the workers outside hadn't changed significantly.

The most ridiculous thing was that cheap drugs that were completely disregarded inside Academy City had become life-saving medicines outside, with their prices inflated by more than ten times.

After a brief observation of the situation in Tokyo, Far East, Noldrei concluded that the internal division of humanity was already quite large, to the point where even the locals of the Far East considered it natural.

Walking on the streets outside Academy City made Noldrei feel as if he had traveled back to last year.

In just one short year, Academy City had undergone a dramatic transformation simply by borrowing the technology of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.

Noldrei hadn't been very involved in the city's construction. In fact, he probably knew less about the city's structure than Kiana.

The congested city streets, even finding a fast-food restaurant required you to wait for a while.

The people coming and going were still wearing uncomfortable formal attire, as if they were trying to suffocate themselves in their suits this season. This rigid attitude towards life made Noldrei feel the danger of the current human situation.

What Noldrei didn't know was that the rise of Academy City had also driven the economy of the Far East. After being freed from the suppression of North America, industries such as medicine and machinery had erupted with a vitality not seen in a long time.

Just for this, Academy City, which was sucking the blood of the Far East's genetic information, could receive the gratitude of a large number of its people.

People are most peaceful and happy when they don't realize what they have lost.

"I didn't expect it to be like this outside. I just don't know what kind of impact these people will suffer after Academy City is opened."

Noldrei casually flipped through some books on the roadside, looking for traces of the lives of the people here.

Elysia, on the other hand, was observing the living conditions of the people here.

Unlike the Previous Era, where large numbers of people died, the Far East at this time was like a crowded beehive, with people scrambling to work in this small area.

If it weren't for Noldrei's strong insistence on the urban renewal of Nagazora City, which brought the average living space per person to over 100 square meters, the smallest living space in Nagazora City would have been the two-person student dormitories.

After excluding the students, the smallest living space was a small house of 73 square meters for a local resident.

"I really didn't expect that you, who seems to be exploiting humanity, are actually one of the people who treats humanity the best."

After comparing the living conditions inside and outside Academy City, Elysia was completely convinced that Noldrei truly represented the most advanced side of human civilization. In terms of quality of life alone, Nagazora City's quality of life had already shown an absolute leading position.

"No, it doesn't have much to do with me. With the emergence of Stigma organizations, they will have an absolute dimensional advantage over the organizational forms of the old humans. The Stigma Battlesuit has a more precise and pure ideological classification ability. With the binding of spirit and genetic information, humans can more easily identify traitors who have infiltrated the organization and bastards who have changed the organization's beliefs."

"In this regard, theoretically, even if the leader of the organization makes a mistake, the organization's own Stigma network will pick out the leader who made the mistake in a short time. The only problem is the self-contradiction of the Stigma Will that constitutes the organization."

"Just like an individual in a feudal society cannot be both filial to their parents and loyal to their monarch at the same time. There are bound to be internal contradictions in a person's thoughts. Therefore, the Stigma, which is the materialization of genetic information born from human will, will also have its internal contradictions. The organizational structure built on this Stigma will naturally carry its own internal contradictions."

"But even so, the organizational structure, which has been screened so purely, has completely surpassed the organizational model of the old humans. In Academy City, we can let go and clean up those bastards who have betrayed the will of the organization."

"In this case, contradictions will be brought directly to the table to be resolved. The selfish desires that hinder human development in reality will be exposed nakedly under the sun. And changing the living conditions of a mere city becomes a matter of course."

Noldrei didn't feel that he had any credit. He had only proposed the use of the Stigma, and it was the substance of the Stigma that brought new variability to humanity.

But even so, Academy City still had class stratification due to the internal contradictions of the relations of production.

"So, if you want to infiltrate the power of Academy City into the outside world, it will definitely cause a human civil war, right?" Elysia wasn't a fool. Of course, she knew what would happen next.

"Just like those researchers who study the Stigma in Academy City, they are naturally on the side of Academy City's interests. These people will not easily hand over the power to research the Stigma to the people below."

Noldrei himself ruled the entire Academy City by relying on the Kaslana Stigma. How could he not know what these people with Stigmas were thinking?

In the future, the key authority to open a company, build a club, or form a political party would be who could have the Stigma the earliest, who could replicate their own genetic information into a Stigma the earliest, and who would grasp the key power of the new world's humanity.

Hearing a cute girl's sharp commentary on the class structure within Academy City, Noldrei knew that Elysia truly understood its social structure.

But the only trouble was right here.

Noldrei looked at the tide of people in the Far East and asked, "Ely, how do you think we should expand to the outside world? You love humanity so much, you don't want them to suffer in the old society, do you?"

Elysia felt that there was something not quite right with the tone of these words. Had this guy been reading too many doujinshi recently?

Ely pretended to be troubled and said, "Oh my, what should we do? How about... I compensate you with Mobius?"