Chapter 720 - Reformed bandits (1/2)

The stronghold managed by the artificial intelligence had actually given Jiang Xu a sense of novelty.

An amazing stronghold like this had actually emerged in the era he was living in. As a witness to this, Jiang Xu wanted to explore this strange “world” more deeply. It did not matter if this was a positive or negative phenomenon.

After a full day of touring, all the people they came across were humble and did not take things that did not belong to them. Jiang Xu even saw some people not locking the door when they went out. He stood at the entrance of this house for three hours, but no one went inside to steal things.

Passersby would at most glance at the open door before continuing on their way.

A reporter muttered, “It looks like there is indeed something unique about the Alls governance of the stronghold. When I lost my bicycle in Luoyang City last month, no one in the Public Order Division even cared to take my case report.”

“So you wrote that article to annoy the Public Order Division?” Jiang Xu said calmly, “But I ended up rejecting the draft?” The reporter was a little embarrassed. “What I wrote was also the truth. The Public Order Division in Luoyang City doesn’t care about the small matters anymore and only deals with big cases. Just look at Stronghold 61. Those bicycles on the sidewalk aren’t even locked.”

As the saying went, one would be most attentive to whatever was closest to their hearts. Jiang Xu did not pay any attention to the bicycles on the sidewalk, but the reporter who had lost his bicycle purposely went to take a look. The bicycles parked on the sidewalk truly were not locked.

It seemed like Stronghold 61 had eliminated the lock industry.

That reporter did not have the same foresight as Jiang Xu. So he felt it would not be that bad if he could live in a stronghold as safe as this.

But Jiang Xu suddenly said, “Are you all starting to feel a little envious of life here? Everyone has food to eat and a job to do, and there’s not even a need to worry about fights breaking out and theft.”

“Yeah.” The reporter nodded. “It doesn’t feel that good being monitored like this, but if the AI doesn’t interfere with daily life, it’s not that difficult to accept it. Actually, you see, the other consortiums are also monitoring their residents’ lives. It’s just that they don’t do it so obviously. How could normal residents be truly free?”

Jiang Xu nodded. Indeed, he agreed with this point. This was why he did not have a clear aversion to the surveillance cameras after noticing that they were monitoring him. Actually, it was the same everywhere.

However, Jiang Xu said, “I suddenly recall a saying: ‘Ruling a state with benevolence is impossible, but displaying benevolence while ruling is possible.”[1]

Coincidentally, the current head of the Wang Consortium was named Wang Shengzhi,[2] which was near homophonic with the word in the saying

Jiang Xu continued, “Look, there aren’t even any beggars around in Stronghold 61. Everyone has their own matters to attend to. The Wang Consortium uses the AI to analyze statistics and assign jobs to everyone to ensure they have food to eat and money to make. But have you ever thought about it? If you’re unhappy with your job at Hope Media, you can still quit and take a short break. But over here, you can’t do that.”

“Surely not, right?” The reporter was a little doubtful about that. He walked away to look for a passerby. When he came back, he muttered, “It seems like that’s really the case. You have to do whatever the consortium arranges for you. There isn’t a choice.”

“So there’s no place for something like the arts to survive here. Nobody has the time to stop and think about what they need or what suits them.” Jiang Xu sighed and said, “Because the AI does not consider things that are ‘pointless.’ Its guiding principles have a very strong sense of purpose, but that’s not how humans are.” However, a refugee who happened to pass by overheard their conversation and said with a laugh, “It’s already good enough that we can fill our bellies these days. Can art put food on the table? In the past, when we were living outside the stronghold, we never thought about something like art either.”