Chapter 1 Outset

Exiting the “changing room,” it wasn't a residential area, but another large area resembling a train station platform. The shape of this area and the pillars within were almost identical to the one they had passed through earlier, suggesting that these two areas were mirror images constructed on the upper and lower levels.

Having reached here, the surrounding air was already breathable for ordinary people like Hank. Passing through this place, and then through a winding passage, a wide-open space appeared ahead, and the three finally arrived at the interior of Shenyou Village.

To the two players, what they saw before them was indeed a spectacle. Orange-yellow light shone down from the air. Looking up, they could see layers of vegetation, like clouds, forming the sky here. Its height could be roughly estimated to be the distance from this underground location to the top of the canyon. The sunlight did not enter from the gaps in this vegetation cover, but was filtered and penetrated through these plants. This layer of vegetation was like Shenyou Village's unique ozone layer. Of course, what they were seeing at this moment was not a purely natural product. This layer of vegetation had been modified several times over the past few hundred years by the people living here. This protection was the lifeline of the village, and it had to be absolutely stable and safe.

Walking forward, they could see neatly arranged roads and monotonous low-rise buildings. There weren't many pedestrians on the street, and the clothes they wore were all uniform. The men's clothing was exactly the same as Hank's, and the women's clothing was not much different in style, only slightly brighter in color.

At this moment, Feng Bujue and Kuang Zong Jian Ying had already removed their helmets from their protective suits, leaving them in the changing room. They tightened the collars of their protective suits, turning them inward to ensure that the clothes they wore inside were not exposed. Even so, they were still quite conspicuous.

To give a more vivid example: it was like two fifth-graders arriving in a first-grade classroom. They wore different school uniforms and were taller... But after all, they were still wearing school uniforms and didn't dress like Conan to go to school. So, the villagers only looked at them with strange eyes, instead of screaming in panic or attacking them with hoes.

"The guy who designed this city has terrible taste. Even robots wouldn't live in a place like this," Kuang Zong Jian Ying commented.

"Heh... what did you think it would be like here?" Feng Bujue asked.

"When he said village, I thought it would be like 'The Shire'," Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "I didn't expect it to be like this... This place is simply a formatted slum." He sneered, "Real slums are better than this. At least the buildings and people there still have..." He couldn't think of a word to use for a moment.

Feng Bujue interjected, "Individuality."

"Right, individuality," Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "Look at these guys, living in the same houses, wearing the same clothes, using the same things... Seriously, aren't you afraid of getting lost?" He turned to ask Hank.

Hank replied, "Each road has a number, it's easy to find."

Kuang Zong Jian Ying shook his head and sighed, "Okay."

"At least they enjoy freedom in terms of hairstyle. The leader didn't arrange for them all to shave their heads, only allowing the cadres to keep their hair or something," Feng Bujue said.

"Phoenix Immortal Academy sends its congratulations..." Kuang Zong Jian Ying really understood and replied jokingly.

The three walked for a while and encountered two street patrol officers. The style and color of these two people's clothing were slightly different. They wore shoulder patches, their boots were long, and the weapons they were equipped with were a slingshot and a metal shield.

"Stop." One of them called out to them.

Feng Bujue and the others stopped and waited for the other party to come forward and ask questions. Kuang Zong Jian Ying could be said to be fearless. He just looked at the other party with an unyielding gaze, standing there silently, while Hank was feeling weak in his heart, too nervous to speak.

"Why did you come in wearing protective suits?" The patrol officer asked.

Feng Bujue replied, "Um... Officer, our clothes are broken."

"Broken?" The man suspiciously glanced at Feng Bujue, "The clothes are in the boxes in the changing room, how could they be damaged?"

"Reporting to the officer, they were accidentally caught by the metal door of the filter layer," Feng Bujue replied.

"Oh..." The man responded with doubt, and said a few seconds later, "Then go to the supply depot as soon as possible to get a new set."

"Understood, thank you for your concern, Officer!" Feng Bujue replied.

The two patrol officers looked at each other, shrugged, and then left.

Kuang Zong Jian Ying laughed, "Your attitude... you've watched too many domestic dramas, it's like a underground liaison meeting the Nationalist army on the street."

"It works, that's all that matters," Feng Bujue replied.

Hank looked suspicious and said, "That's strange... they actually believed it. How could clothes be caught by the metal door of the filter passage? We filter first and then change clothes. If anything, the protective suit should be caught."

"Yes, but how would they know?" Feng Bujue said, "They're not scavengers."

"Oh, right! Patrol officers should never have left the village," Hank suddenly realized.

"You thought of that too?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying interjected.

"In a social system with a clear class division that cannot be crossed, where everyone performs their duties and does not interfere with each other, apart from the upper-level figures, a certain group living at the bottom cannot understand the working details of another group," Feng Bujue said. "Scavengers can't know how many dishes and soups are served in the patrol officers' canteen, and patrol officers can't know the process for scavengers to use the changing room. So, I can just say any reason, and they can't immediately take out their phones to Google the specific process of scavengers returning to the village, can they?"

"Um... due to the sensitive words, please allow me to praise you with 'cunning'," Kuang Zong Jian Ying said. The adjective in his mind was actually "despicable."

"Okay, Hank, you see, there's nothing to worry about. We can handle it well," Feng Bujue turned to Hank and said, "Now, before you go to report to your superiors, first take us on a tour of your village."

"But according to the regulations... as soon as a scavenging team returns to the village, they must..." Hank's words were naturally interrupted by Feng Bujue.

"You've already brought two outsiders into the village, what regulations are you still worried about?" Feng Bujue said, "If you go to report now, we definitely can't go with you, because your superiors will see through that we are not members of the scavenging team. We don't have time to wait for you to report clearly to your superiors before taking action, and I'm not comfortable letting you act alone. If you betray us or reveal a flaw, then things that no one wants to see will happen... fighting.

"In addition, bringing 'outsiders' into the village is undoubtedly a capital crime. I think your rulers won't care if you were threatened, and they won't listen to your explanation... So, if you plan to sneak away from us and then notify the patrol officers, it will not only lead to the death of your fellow villagers, but you yourself will not escape death in the end."

Feng Bujue watched Hank's expression change, knowing that his persuasion had succeeded once again: "Your best choice is to follow what I said and not go to see your superiors first. Instead, take us to the village. After we've finished touring, we'll leave the village quietly, and then you can go to report. At that time, you'll only be considered late at most, with no serious consequences. No one will be injured, and no one will know we've been here."

"This is different from what we agreed on beforehand... you didn't say this before..." Hank replied in a panic, looking somewhat at a loss.

"Then what did you think would happen?" Feng Bujue smiled, "A plan has to keep up with changes."

Now that things have come to this, Hank is already on the pirate ship. As Feng Bujue said, everyone has weaknesses, and once they are caught, they will betray their principles.

At first, Hank just didn't want to be killed. Later, he didn't want to see his fellow villagers being killed. And now, these two threats are pressing on his shoulders at the same time. For him, the only solution is to cooperate with these two "outsiders" and hope that they can leave without being discovered.

Of course, he was thinking too simply and too naively. If he could think a little further, he should understand that even if Feng Bujue and Kuang Zong Jian Ying left quietly in the end, just as they came quietly, waving their sleeves without taking a life, things would still be exposed... They had already registered their names when they entered the village. Jia Wei and Qiao Yi were considered to be alive and had returned to the village. How could living people disappear out of thin air? Therefore, in a few days, Hank would still be arrested for questioning. If he didn't explain clearly, it would be a serious crime. If he explained clearly, he would die even more.

…………

In the deepest part of Shenyou Village, there is a place called the Temple.

Although this place is called the Temple, it actually has nothing to do with a temple. This "Temple" is the half of a spaceship that was rebuilt hundreds of years ago.

In the village, only the people of the Koben family have the right to freely enter and leave the Temple. That place is like their palace.

Over the years, the Koben family has claimed to be the spokesmen of the gods. They convey the will of "God." Of course, this "God" has nothing to do with Christianity. The will represented by the word "god" can be arbitrarily fabricated by the Koben family.

If they want to kill someone, they will say that the god wants him to die; if they want to kill a group of people, they will say that this group of people are heretics; if they want people to submit, they will issue orders in the name of God; if they want other people's property and wives and daughters, they can also fabricate corresponding reasons.

In short, the words of the Koben family are equivalent to divine will. Those who disobey are going against God and disregarding the lives and deaths of the entire village.

Of course, religious lies alone cannot maintain such a long rule. What the Koben family truly controls is "knowledge." The information left in the spaceship is monopolized by them. They only share it with a small group of useful people (the priests in the village). This way, when they are willing, they can display some "miracles" to make the ignorant people fear and believe.

This is also why the bottom-level people of Shenyou Village know almost nothing about biology, medicine, and astronomy.

Biology makes people question the creator, medicine makes people understand death, and astronomy will expose countless religious lies and shatter people's fantasies.

Knowledge changes fate, and technology changes life.

But the Koben family doesn't want to see any changes in this thing called fate. Any dictatorial individual or interest group doesn't want to see the inherent good situation before them being changed. Therefore, they must know how to "control."

As the saying goes, it is difficult to govern the people because they are too intelligent. Shenyou Village's policy of keeping the people ignorant can be said to be very clever. The Koben family did not completely prevent the villagers under their rule from accessing knowledge. They let the people learn some of it, such as farming, smelting metal, architecture, etc... At the same time, they instilled brainwashing religious propaganda to make them believe in the existence of gods and dare not do anything presumptuous.

Thus, there is such a unique and deformed civilization.

York Koben is the current "Son of God" of Shenyou Village. It can also be said that he is the village chief, mayor, chieftain, president, king...

His ancestors were greedy, treacherous, and farsighted. After seizing power, they occupied the spaceship and then planned this set of ruling methods, creating today's great situation for him.

From his brief exchange with Hank, Feng Bujue had roughly understood what the social system of Shenyou Village was all about. That's why he dared to say that this script was just a science fiction setting. What "Son of God"? That's an old trick from a thousand years ago. The dictators of the twentieth century were already too lazy to associate themselves with gods. At most, they would self-appoint themselves as generals without having fought a war, or doctors without having studied. People with a little culture and IQ wouldn't do things like recognizing themselves as the god's adopted son, biological son, or second son.

As Hank led the two uninvited guests deeper into the village, it was Koben's afternoon tea time.

Koben's life was very regular. He ate three full meals a day, slept twice, and in the afternoon, he had to drink some tea and eat some snacks to fill his hunger. He went to bed at nine o'clock in the evening, and basically changed girls to accompany him every night.

Some people may wonder, there are only a few thousand people in this village, how can he do this? Has he slept with all the women in the village?

In fact, it can be said that he has slept with all the women who are even slightly attractive. Why? This has to be said back to the thirteenth century, when European nobles exercised something called "droit du seigneur," also known as "prima nocta," which meant that the daughters of serfs had to be sent to the local nobles for "tasting" the day before their wedding. In Shenyou Village, this bad habit has made a comeback. It's just that it's not so blatant to say it. It's said that they are first sent to the Temple to receive the "baptism" of the Son of God. The days are long or short. Some he doesn't think are satisfactory, so he sends them out. Some he keeps for a few more days.

The Koben family has continued this behavior for many years, which has led to another problem, that is, their descendants are all over the village. Generally speaking, the head of the family will choose the most favored woman as his wife, so there is only one Son of God in name. His siblings are family members, and the second generation is demoted to priests.

But in reality, it is unclear how many people in this village are related to the Koben family.

Over the centuries, the meeting of close bloodlines is inevitable. Although there are exceptions, statistically speaking, the genes of the descendants are getting worse and worse, which is a common phenomenon. Reduced athletic ability, physical fitness, and intelligence, and a high incidence of congenital diseases... are all difficult to reverse situations. Unfortunately, the medicine in this village is poor, and there are only a few doctors in the Temple. The end result is that the villagers are short and very silly and naive; the population base hardly grows because the mortality rate from disease is too high.

The decline and demise of Shenyou Village will come sooner or later, it's just a matter of time.

However, there may still be a turning point, because today, a guy named Feng Bujue entered the village...