The Creators: From Night City

Page 390

The brand-new elevator, much like James Williams' current life, ascends slowly and steadily.

15th floor, room 1517.

Ethan Williams and Sofia Williams, one big and one small, are fully geared up and eagerly awaiting their dad's return to lead them on this shopping trip.

Sofia is 8 years old this year, a time of innocence and carefree joy. She looks just like her mother and can be considered the most beautiful member of the family of three, receiving 90% of her father James's love.

As for Ethan, all I can say is that he has two eyes, one mouth, and two nostrils.

"Sophia, are you settling into your new school? Are your classmates bullying you?" James skillfully played the role of a mother, chatting with his beloved daughter.

“No, Dad, the teachers are all very nice. It’s much better than my previous school. There are no fights or disturbances, and no one is selling drugs.” Eight-year-old Sofia’s understanding was far more mature than her appearance suggested.

"Where should we go shopping this time, Dad? Hamdon Supermarket or Falls?"

Ethan asked with an air of maturity.

"No, I'll take you to a great place," James said, keeping everyone in suspense.

Of course, the main reason was that it was his first time visiting this place.

The "Hao You Quan" supermarket is located on the second basement floor of the Grand Empire Department Store.

As the first large supermarket under [Anti-Entropy], the name 'Haoyouquan' defeated strong competitors such as 'Jiajiale', 'Lehuigou', and 'Haozailai' by a narrow margin, becoming another indelible pain in the heart of the Grand Manager Gloria.

It's less of a supermarket and more of a large-scale resource exchange point for peripheral employees of [Anti-Entropy].

However, this resource exchange point is open to all residents of Night City at the same time.

The Grand Empire Department Store had only recently reopened after renovations, and due to the lingering influence of Taiping Prefecture, the city center and river valley districts...

Few residents of Watson District are willing to set foot here, let alone go shopping.

However, the shopping mall was still crowded with people.

These people are mainly employees of [Anti-Entropy], as well as some residents of Coronado Farm and Haywood who have a keen sense of smell. They have come here to seek profits because of the affordable prices.

In fact, the supermarkets here don't sell fancy products. The vegetables in the fruit and vegetable section are mainly leafy greens (spinach, lettuce), root vegetables (potatoes, carrots) and mushrooms.

The meat section mainly features various types of synthetic meat produced by the 'Hao Zai Lai' food processing plant.

However, the low prices still attract crowds of shoppers here.

It was rush hour, and the parking lot outside was already full of all kinds of vehicles, a stark contrast to the previous quiet scene.

James doesn't own a car. He used to have a Nautilus Mini from Rolls-Royce, but he sold it long ago when things got tough and got the money for euros, which became the food for his family of three.

He could only watch greedily as others drove past him with their families, while he walked along the roadside holding his daughter's hand.

As the saying goes, when people are well-fed and warm, they think of lustful desires.

He had barely managed to fill his stomach when he immediately developed a desire to buy a car.

But that's good; the desire for a better life is human nature.

But money is needed to realize this nature.

James is preparing to work even harder next month to earn more money, while the scalpers blocking his way have other plans.

"Friend, an employee of [Reverse Entropy]?"

A jobless man with a backwards baseball cap, puffy eyes, and a large gold chain around his neck blocked James's way.

Old Zhan unconsciously tightened his grip on his daughter's hand and asked warily, "Is something wrong?"

"Of course there's something going on. Who would just sit here eating sea breeze for no reason?"

Ignoring his obvious resistance, the other party leaned closer mysteriously and whispered, "Want to sell your quota of supplies? I'll offer a high price."

Despite having already learned about this from his coworkers and knowing that he could earn five or six hundred euros by simply reselling the supplies, James still refused their offer. He planned to use the allocated amount of supplies himself to prepare a sumptuous dinner on this special day.

All external employees of [Anti-Entropy] are allocated a fixed quota of resources each month, which allows them to purchase some rare resources from [Anti-Entropy]'s unique resource list.

Compared to credit points, the 'scale' of the material exchange limit is smaller, but the distribution range is larger.

Basically, as long as you are an employee of Anti-Entropy, even the most peripheral employees, you can receive a fixed amount of material exchange quota every month according to your position.

Even in these "reduced" redemption lists, there are still plenty of high-quality items that are expensive on the external market, such as organic meat, organic fruit, canned organic beans, jam, and natural butter, which are hard to find elsewhere.

Some shrewd businessmen started to take advantage of this situation. They would buy quotas from employees who had the right to exchange goods, and then purchase rare goods at half the market price, making a profit from the difference.

Although the [Anti-Entropy] employee code of conduct stipulates that material quotas are not allowed to be sold to outsiders in principle, the head manager Gloria has never interfered with this.

She rose from humble beginnings, is well aware of human suffering, and is willing to lend a helping hand wherever possible.

As for whether doing so will disrupt the existing organic product market order of [Reverse Entropy]?

Putting aside the fact that these supplies are just some low-end organic products and the quantity is not large, when has [Reverse Entropy] ever thought about making money?

I've never liked money, I'm not interested in money. (JPG)

Moreover, this measure was a deliberate act she made after discussing it with Jiang Bing.

This will not only enhance the sense of belonging among all employees, but also help to reduce some of the accumulated inventory and alleviate the overcapacity caused by the agricultural department's frantic land reclamation led by Duke Lawson.

Yes, there is overcapacity.

The United States has an incredibly suitable land for farming, with vast and fertile plains, including the Great Plains, suitable climate, abundant water resources, advanced agricultural technology and highly mechanized farm equipment brought back by Duke Lawson in 2077, increasingly improved agricultural infrastructure to absorb a large amount of idle labor, and preferential policies from Jiang Bing, the supreme leader of [Anti-Entropy]. Overcapacity is an inevitable situation.

This doesn't even include the hundreds of acres of unreasonable experimental fields that Duke Lawson cultivated in the Monster Hunter world, and there's the even more unreasonable 'Heimul'.

Yes, 'Heiml'.

As a newly created world that can be customized, generating an incredibly flat continent and ensuring favorable weather is a piece of cake for Heiml.

In fact, the 'Legion Energy Agriculture Experimental Base' is located on a 25 square kilometer square plain. The ley line energy from the Monster Hunter world and the chaotic magic node technology from the Wizarding World are flourishing here. The output of this super-large square farm, which is 500*500 kilometers long, accounts for 33% of the seasonal agricultural output of [Anti-Entropy].

Even so, Jiang Bing suppressed Gloria's repeated suggestions to temporarily control production capacity.

After all, if there's empty land there, and you have the ability to tidy it up, would you plant anything?

In any case, Jiang Bing believed from the bottom of his heart that it was necessary to grow something.

Even if these supplies could only be made into canned goods with huge amounts of preservatives due to overproduction and placed in the 'warehouse continent' specially generated by Heimul, Jiang Bing still insisted that this land must be cultivated!

We have to plant them! (Voice cracks)

Chapter 801 James's Daily Life 3

There must be a reason why the supermarket dares to use this name.

This super-large supermarket, covering an area of ​​over 6 square meters, has a complete range of sections including fresh food, food/beverages/grains and oils, daily necessities/home furnishings, home appliances/electronics, clothing/shoes/bags/textiles, maternity and baby products, health and beauty products, culture and sports/toys/stationery, home furniture, firearms and gun modification, vehicle equipment, prosthetics, and medicines.

You can buy most of the daily necessities you need in Night City from this supermarket, especially the three essential items: condoms, handguns, and immunosuppressants, which have dozens of shelves and hundreds of brands to choose from.

The Williams family looked around, almost overwhelmed by the choices, but finally came to their senses due to their poverty.

James first picked out some cost-effective functional protein bars in the food section, and then got a few pieces of the classic fast food meat that he often ate before.

This perfectly imitative beef burger patty, which originated from a 'whole food factory,' is so classic and popular in the market that it has been imitated by competitors and has evolved from a single product into a category of products.

The beef burger patties from 'Whole Food Factory' used to be meticulously crafted with 'grilling marks' and 'fat texture' to enhance realism. They also offered three recipes to choose from: '100% pure beef flavor,' 'fire-roasted soy protein,' and 'insect protein enhanced.' At a relatively affordable price, they were a staple for working-class families like his to indulge in 'feast meals.'

However, the appearance of the beef burger patty that 'Hao Zai Lai' makes now is much worse, and it doesn't have as many fancy recipes. All it has is excellent taste, a high proportion of meat protein, and a lower price.

To be honest, that's enough. The last selling point alone is enough to convince James to open his wallet for it.

After buying the meat, he led his children to the main food section and bought a small bag of synthetic starch hamburger buns produced by Regenerative Technology, as well as a small amount of finely milled grain flour released by [Reverse Entropy], as the main food ingredients for the next week.

The three then strolled over to the beverage section.

The products in this area are dazzling. The people of Night City need alcohol even more than the Russians, but most of the common alcoholic beverages on the shelves have hardly been touched. On the contrary, the 16 shelves of wheat juice from [Reverse Entropy] have been sold out.

This made James feel a little disappointed.

Fortunately, those weren't his goals today.

Pushing a shopping cart with only a thin layer of floorboards, James stopped his eldest son, who was trying to rush towards the prosthetics and arms sections. With a mix of nervousness and excitement, and following the information he had heard from his coworkers, the three of them turned into a corner of the supermarket.

This looks like an employee entrance, with two burly service personnel standing at the door, their faces practically screaming "Keep Out!"

But in reality, this is the entrance to the third underground level, and also the true entrance to the employee supermarket inside [Anti-Entropy].

"James Williams, employee number: 0036784, has made an appointment in advance."

Stared at by the two burly men who looked like gatekeepers, James's heart pounded, and he quickly gave out his identity information.

But in reality, he didn't need to verify it manually. From the moment he approached the passageway, the camera in the ceiling had already automatically completed the identity verification for him.

This is just a resource exchange point and doesn't involve the secrets of [Anti-Entropy], so security checks aren't very strict.

Basic facial verification and synchronous qualification authentication within the 'domain' on the intranet are all that's needed to complete the security authentication.

However, the level of strictness here is relative to other bases. If anyone really has malicious intentions, the 12 machine gun watchtowers hidden in the ceiling compartments, along with dozens of fully armed auxiliary troops on duty in shifts, will teach the intruders a lesson.

The guard didn't say anything, but nodded amicably and stepped aside to let the family of three in.

After walking down a gently sloping escalator, a supermarket, smaller than the one upstairs but with an even wider variety of goods, appeared before the three of them.

"What's that smell? It smells so good!"

Sophia, like Jerry drawn to the smell of cheese, couldn't help but stretch her neck towards the direction of the aroma, greedily twitching her small nostrils.

No father could remain calm in this situation.

So the three of them immediately headed towards the baking area.

Before even getting close to the dessert counter, the three of them felt as if they had stepped into a sweet, otherworldly realm built from sugar, butter, honey, natural grains, and yeast.

Hundreds of golden, crisp baguettes and European-style breads brought a basic yet grand aroma of grains. This aroma, which carries the most essential caramelized scent of wheat after being baked at high temperatures and has a mellow, nutty flavor, directly captivated three souls who had grown up amidst various synthetic foods and countless additives.

Then, the croissant's signature rich, slightly salty buttery aroma, the shortbread and egg tart crust's milky, biscuit-like scent, the gentle, mellow vanilla bean, the rich, slightly bitter chocolate, the cool, sweet cream, and the cheesecake's unique, slightly fermented, sour aroma all blended together to create an overwhelming olfactory feast that completely blocked the three of them's thoughts, leaving them stunned on the spot, their nostrils twitching wildly.

Humans are genetically predisposed to a craving for sweetness and the high calories in carbohydrates, and desserts perfectly satisfy all these desires.

Therefore, very few people can resist this craving from their genes, and Sofia, at only 8 years old, certainly couldn't.

Her saliva began to flow rapidly almost instantly, to the point that it involuntarily overflowed from her mouth.

The little girl practically pressed her face against the display case filled with desserts, letting the cold glass flatten her skin as she greedily gazed at the neatly arranged desserts, scrutinizing these dreamlike things she had never seen before.

Soft toast is piled up like a small mountain, milk rolls and honey rolls are arranged in rows, and various chiffon cakes, Swiss rolls, cream and fruit cakes and mousse cakes are like sweet fortresses.

Egg tarts and fruit tarts were piled up in the bamboo basket, almost overflowing. Sofia could recognize a few of the desserts such as cookies, cream puffs, peach shortbread, egg yolk pastries, and pork floss cakes, but she had never tasted such rich and delicious flavors.

Is this your first time bringing a child here?

As James carefully examined the price tags on each dessert, a deep and calm voice rang in his ears.

He turned his head at the sound and found a family of three standing beside him.

Chapter 802 James's Daily Life 4

The male owner was tall and had an Asian appearance. He was very young, wearing a well-fitting old-fashioned suit and leaning on an equally old-fashioned cane. He was looking at Sofia's image pasted on the shop window with a smile.

The hostess was a typical Night City person, with red hair, a tired face, and an air of competence.

Meanwhile, the two women's daughters were also standing in front of the shop window, choosing their favorite desserts.

"Sir, hello, please excuse us, this is indeed our first time here."

James glanced at them and knew that the family must be extremely wealthy and powerful, perhaps even high-ranking members of some department within [Anti-Entropy], and he apologized cautiously.

"What's so funny about this? It's normal for kids to be greedy when they're growing."

The male host who had spoken to her waved his hand, indicating to the shop assistant behind the counter to pick out a piece of seasonal fruit and whipped cream cake that Sophia had been eyeing. He then handed it to the little girl and casually ruffled her dark brown hair.

James glanced at the price of the cake: 30 euros a piece. Considering the rarity of the cake, it wasn't that expensive. But don't forget that buying anything here also consumes a 1:1 resource allocation quota, which makes the price seem precious. After all, James' resource allocation quota for this month, based on 15% of his monthly income, was only 496.91 euros, which could only buy less than 17 of these cakes.

Sofia, holding the cake, was quite tempted, but still looked up at her father.

“This is too precious, we…we can’t accept it.” James instinctively tried to refuse, but seeing the hopeful look on his daughter’s face, he changed his mind halfway through, “I’ll pay for it myself.”

"Eat up, little one."

The other party didn't say anything more, knocked on the counter, and settled the bill online, thus ending the formalities.

"Which department are you in, bro?" the other person asked James in a friendly manner.

"The Fourth Equipment Maintenance Team of 'Night City Construction Group'"

Before James could continue explaining his position, the woman opposite him suddenly spoke up, "The fourth group, mainly responsible for repairing the engineering equipment borrowed from the Ye family?"

James glanced at the other person in surprise and nodded in agreement.