Meng Chao fell into deep thought.
Right now, Dragon City had a population of tens of millions and a complete industrial chain. Its size far surpassed that of any prosperous city on Earth. Naturally, it was not something a starship could compare to.
Dragon City was so big that it could maintain the normal operation and continuation of human civilization.
But it was not like that when they had just transmigrated.
At that time, Dragon City was divided by fog, viruses, zombies, and monsters.
Many of the survivors could only curl up in the small lair and could not move beyond one building.
When they looked over, they saw either a scene of desolation, broken walls, burning flames, thick black smoke, or fog so thick that they could not even see their own fingers.
Many of the survivors' diaries said that at that time, they felt like they had been abandoned by the world. In fact, they suspected that it was not the entire Dragon City, but only their small region or even one building that had transmigrated to the Other World.
The lair civilization, which had a fully enclosed building as its unit, was indeed similar to the starship civilization that wandered alone in the vast universe.
In fact, compared to the starship civilization, the transmigrators faced an even worse situation.
At the very least, the starship civilization did not need to face viruses that could enter every pore and roaring zombies.
Spirit energy would also not invade their brains, causing them to go through spirit energy deviation and turn them into humanoid monsters.
"It's very difficult to maintain your status as a human while standing at the entrance to hell. Humans have always been animals, so it's only natural that they can instantly turn into inhumans, beasts, and monsters. It's all for the sake of survival, even if it's just for one more second."
Ye Xiaoxing sighed. "When Dragon City had just transmigrated, it was the darkest era. All morals, laws, and humanity were torn to shreds, and countless people turned into zombies. Under the threat of zombies, their minds were twisted, and they turned into demons in human skin.
"Women are willing to sell themselves seven times for a piece of hardtack. Men are willing to bleed seven buckets of blood for a barrel of gasoline. In countless dark corners, humans have traded their children for food before killing each other and eating each other.
"The nine great mega corporations who created the Survival Committee weren't pure and innocent when they were still in their infancy. They were at most slightly better than the evil gangs. They knew how to think about long-term development and set up order to protect their interests.
"If an Earthling who lived at the beginning of the twenty-first century saw the hellish scene ten years after Dragon City transmigrated, they would definitely shudder in fear. They would definitely not admit that Dragon Citizens were still members of Earth's civilization. In fact, they would definitely not admit that Dragon Citizens were still humans.
"Fortunately, we survived.
"We have rebuilt order, restored the dignity of law and morality, judged the many crimes of the dark ages, suppressed the evil demons who have committed heinous crimes, and repent for the mistakes we have made because we were forced to do so.
"Dragon City has returned to the embrace of Earth's civilization. We can finally hold our heads high and announce in a dignified manner that we are still Earthlings, and we are the expeditionary army of Earth's civilization!
"But Dragon City was able to survive not because we were born kind, and it's not because we have the morals and laws of Earth deeply carved into our genes. It's not because of bullsh * t like justice will win. It's because we have a large enough population.
"Even when Dragon City was at the brink of destruction, we had a population of more than ten million people and a lot of industries and technological facilities. Many of the old people who transmigrated from Earth were still alive and could help us maintain the lifestyle, laws, and morals on Earth. They could guide our civilization forward, and when we had no other choice, they could also tell us how to sacrifice ourselves in a dignified manner like Earthlings.
"Meng Chao, have you ever thought about what would happen to the transmigrators if we didn't have this scale and Dragon City shrank by one hundred times? Would they still be able to maintain their appearances as Earthlings after half a century of being invaded by viruses, zombies, monsters, and spirit energy?" Meng Chao asked.
Meng Chao started thinking about it.
He remembered Wu Wu.
She was a leopard girl who was raised by Ghost Leopards.
She had once forgotten her identity as a human and did not even know the human language. She was lucky enough to be found by Dragon City's search and rescue team, and after a few years, she was able to rejoin human civilization.
But the monsters still left a clear mark on her, and she might not be able to get rid of it for the rest of her life.
"Not everyone is as lucky as us," Ye Xiaoxing said.
"Before Dragon City transmigrated, it was a large cluster of cities. Aside from the core city area, there were a lot of satellite cities, unique towns, large factories, and research centers scattered around the perimeter.
"I heard that Earth was on the brink of war before we transmigrated.
"A lot of the technology centers, industrial cities, and military cities along the coast moved to Dragon City.
"Many of the satellite cities had even more outstanding biotechnology, supercomputer chip creation, and automated machine technology than the main city area. Some of the cities were even independent university cities. They had a lot of specialists, students, and researchers, and all of them had incredibly smart brains.
"Unfortunately, the dimensional ripples brought by the transmigration caused the space around Dragon City to distort. It was as if a wave had crushed a ship and flung dozens of sampans far away.
"Dragon City was separated from the satellite cities. Due to the fog, mountains, and monsters, we couldn't get any news about the satellite cities for decades. It's hard for us to imagine what happened to them.
"Based on the specialists' deductions, the satellite cities have populations ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. At most, they don't have more than a few hundred thousand people. It's very difficult for them to survive on their own under the invasion of the Other World.
"Even if they managed to survive, they would face a lack of water and electricity. They wouldn't have enough fighting strength to defend their homes, and they would face all sorts of attacks every few days in despair. The tragedies that happened in Dragon City in the past — famine, chaos, cannibalism, collapse of order, and loss of morals — will definitely happen in the satellite cities.
"The only difference is that we're big enough and have the ability to get through the most difficult and darkest times. We can also correct our mistakes and regain the glory of human civilization.
"But once the satellite cities that aren't big enough fall into darkness, it'll be very difficult for them to regain their humanity with their own strength."
When he heard this, Meng Chao was silent for a while before he said, "Didn't Dragon City's rescue team find a lot of satellite cities and save all the survivors? Even though they're more barbaric and fierce than the citizens in the main city area, it's not as if they can't be saved.
"I have a friend who's a student in Agricultural University's monster controller course. She's the Panther Lady who grew up in the wild. After a few years of learning, she has successfully regained her humanity."
"You're talking about Wu Wu, right?"
Ye Xiaoxing asked. "She's a special case. She's a lucky person the monster research center saved after they gathered a lot of manpower and resources and spent countless resources. Most of the humans who were raised by monsters don't have her talent or her conditions.
"As for the 'lost towns' you mentioned in the news, they're all relatively close to Dragon City. Their roads are relatively smooth, and Dragon City's fighting strength and resources can easily reach them. The degree of invasion from the Other World is rather low, so there's still room for them to be saved.
"In truth, the exploration team discovered far more satellite cities than the ones mentioned in the news.
"Many of the satellite cities transmigrated to places that are relatively far away from Dragon City. Along the way, they're shrouded in fog, and monsters run amok. It's not suitable for the Red Dragon Army to mobilize their forces on a large scale.
"Why didn't they publicize it? First, we're too far away, so we can't save all the citizens in the towns for the time being.
"Besides, after half a century of development, the satellite cities have changed beyond recognition. It's hard to tell whether the citizens are humans, monsters, or even half-human, half-beast monsters. It's also hard to tell whether their civilization is still human civilization.
"If we publicize the current situation of the satellite cities recklessly, we might have a huge impact on the order in Dragon City. In fact, Dragon Citizens' definition of human civilization will become chaotic. So …"
Meng Chao scratched his head.
He had even seen elves and dwarves in his previous life, so his definition of human was rather open.
"Is it really that serious?"
He thought about it and said, "In human history, we've gone through countless dark ages where people eat each other's children, but we've lived through all of them!"
"If it's as simple as eating children, it'd be great."
Ye Xiaoxing sighed. He knocked on the table for a long time before he finally made his decision. He dug out a safe from the messy pile of documents and brought out a file bag from the safe. He brought out a thick stack of documents from inside and handed it to Meng Chao.
Meng Chao cast it a glance.
The first document was a rather blurry photo.
He could vaguely see a dilapidated town with broken walls covered in thorns and vines. There was a huge tree growing out of a tall building.
The huge tree had branches that covered half of the town. Huge pouches hung down from its tentacle-like branches. They were as thin as cicada wings and covered in blood capillaries. They looked like some sort of huge cocoon, but they also looked like the amalgamation of fungi and fruits.
"What is this place?"
Meng Chao cast a puzzled look at Ye Xiaoxing.
"This is Dragon King Town," Ye Xiaoxing said.
"On Earth, this was one of the satellite cities affiliated to Dragon City. It was also a highly industrialized industrial town. There were two large machine manufacturing companies in the town and three branch campuses of science and technology universities. There were tens of thousands of young people in the prime of their lives, and they had a certain degree of machine manufacturing and armed defense capabilities.
"The problem is, the ratio of men to women in Dragon King Town is very imbalanced.
"Most of the workers and students in the science and technology schools and machine manufacturing companies in the town are men. Due to industrial pollution and other reasons, the female family members of the teaching staff and the management of the companies like to live in the main city area of Dragon City or the commercial towns nearby. When we transmigrated, the ratio of men to women in the town might be eight to two or even nine to one.
"It should be very easy for you to imagine why the young, strong male residents of the town, with such a sex ratio, would have conflicts when they were teleported over unprepared, and when they were enshrouded in the mist after decades of isolation and helplessness. What problems would they run into if they wanted to continue the civilization?"
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