"This city is quite interesting."
With the company of the chiefs, Rorschach and Feng strolled along the streets of Huike Town.
They looked at the goods in the shops, glanced at the messy streets, chatted with the strange pedestrians, and observed how chaotic the market was without any supervision … Rorschach immediately identified seven shops that were selling fake goods, and they were doing very well.
"Nike's hooks are now spoons, and Adidas is now Adidas. Anyway, the original Vila Nova Dônia is also a modified pirated product … Our magazine 'Absolute Truth' can also be changed to 'Absolute Truth'. Judging from the name, we are the fake ones."
Rorschach flipped through the pages of 'Absolute Truth'. He was surprised that the wastelanders could compile their own magazines to collect news. Did they collect information from their people who returned from other cities? Then he realized that the content of the magazine was very familiar.
"Pfft, isn't this the November issue of last year? It has become this year's March issue. Even the layout is unchanged. Even the front page picture of 'Absolute Truth' is still the same? And it's still the number one seller in the bookstore? "
Rorschach's expression changed. He was a little annoyed but also proud. After all, he was still the number one seller even though he was so far away. It was just that the name of the magazine was not his.
It was a complicated feeling. So this was how an author would feel when he saw his own pirated book in the bookstore.
"Cough, let's go to the shop next door. They seem to be selling magic armors and other magical devices."
Feng saw the magazine and flipped through it. The address of the publisher was Cape Town. His expression changed and he quickly changed the topic.
Along the way, his expression was even more complicated than Rorschach's.
For example, other than the name and the exact copy of 'Absolute Truth', more than 70% of the goods in the magazine were from Cape Town.
Actually, it was quite normal when he thought about it. With the industrial and manufacturing capabilities of the Wasteland's West Mo people, even if they were to produce pirated books, they wouldn't have a printing factory, a typesetter, or an excellent reviewer. Not to mention, they wouldn't have a channel to obtain new magazines.
The other goods were the same. They were basically imitations and replicas of Cape Town. To put it bluntly, they were bootleg goods. As the mayor of Cape Town, seeing his city so outstanding in terms of imitations, especially in front of the original owner, he was surprised that he could still stay.
There was a dazzling array of goods here, but most of them were still daily necessities and small home appliances. Such products were in high demand, but the craftsmanship was low. Cape Town could mass produce and imitate them, and a train could transport tens of thousands of them.
Rorschach's interest was piqued when he saw a third-generation Tiger Seal Warrior at the entrance of the magical device shop that Feng pointed at.
"It's a replica of the magic armor? Or was it the old equipment that he had brought from other places? The possibility of an imitation was not high, but the third-generation console's technical requirements were not high, and the craftsmanship had long been leaked everywhere. Perhaps they could really make a low-spec version … Eh? Something's not right. "
As he got closer, Rorschach did not know whether to laugh or cry.
When he knocked on it, there was a plastic sound. When he touched it, it felt like plastic. When he licked it … Rorschach did not know what plastic tasted like. It did not look clean, so he decided to forget about it.
"A one-to-one amusement park toy?
Cape Town? You guys even imitated this? "
Rorschach's pure gaze made Feng unable to stand it anymore.
Excluding these small interludes, the conversation along the way was quite pleasant. After all, both of them were already allies that could not be separated.
Actually, after the initial shock, Rorschach could understand everything. In fact, it was the current social structure and industrial chain of the entire Harlet Wasteland. In other words, it was the industrial chain that was tied together that forced the great chieftains to take the initiative to look for him.
The wasteland was the starting point of everything. It provided raw materials, population, and crops to support all the lives that lived on it.
The entire social structure could be roughly divided into three layers: wastelanders, Cape Town, and New Town.
The largest population was actually the West Moors who lived scattered across the wasteland. They were scattered across the wasteland, engaged in hunting, simple agriculture, and other self-supporting lifestyles.
But now, the situation had changed.
They needed new resources, new goods, and new lifestyles. The only things they could exchange were local minerals and prey, which happened to be the least valuable things in the entire wasteland.
After all, regardless of whether it was Cape Town or Vila Nova Dônia, there were established farms, livestock, and livestock industries. The standardized quality of meat and fur produced on a large scale, and the high quality of production far exceeded the wasteland hunting that could not guarantee a stable income.
Perhaps the fur and meat that a hunter brought back after ten days of hard work (most of which were lost or rotted on the way back) could not even be compared to the average daily output of a farm worker.
It was even more so for the mining industry. Mining by hand was basically asking for death. The wastelanders also lacked the ability to differentiate between "treasures." They could painstakingly blow up half a mountain to obtain shiny stones, but the results of the appraisal in New Town were worthless "glass."
The mining towns of the people of Eich and Horn City had to transport ores one by one. The people of the wastelands couldn't compare to them in terms of transportation and mining.
This could no longer be said to be exploiting the wastelanders' labor force, because their labor force had no value at all. A large amount of labor was seen as useless in this era.
Even so, they still yearned for a better life. This was the nature of intelligent life, and it was an uncontrollable instinct. Therefore, even on the freight train, Rorschach could see many wasteland tribesmen who brought "treasures" into the city. It was just that they worked hard, and they might not even be able to earn enough to return.
If you asked these people to buy the original goods from Vila Nova Dônia … it was basically impossible. Only the chiefs could afford to use the original goods, and the goods were not part of a set.
What if they could not afford the original goods? Buy the pirated goods.
Where there was demand, there would be a market. Cape Town's local industry had been utterly defeated by Vila Nova Dônia, but their factories were still operating and expanding. Naturally, it was because of this new sales market.
Rorschach noticed that the fake goods here were unusually cheap. The average price was less than one-fifth or even one-tenth of the original goods. The people of Cape Town took the samples of the Aishi People's goods and made them into low-quality goods to sell here in exchange for profits for the wastelanders.
Even these "cheap goods" could still empty the pockets of a wasteland family. Rorschach saw a woman hesitating in front of two toothbrushes for a long time. In the end, she changed all the furs and ores on her back.
Was this fair? Of course it was not, but this was reality. The strong preyed on the weak. You might think that the world was peaceful because you did not see it.
Any qualified leader would not think that this situation was acceptable.
So they tried to change it, and this Huike Town was already a great achievement.
"… Was it a traveling merchant before? Isn't that even worse? "
"Yes, the price is arbitrary. There are few types of goods and the quality is not good. You can't not buy it, but if you buy too little, he won't come again."
Hearing this, Rorschach nodded. He recalled the time when he had just arrived in Cape Town. That was the time when traveling merchants and caravans were the most prosperous.
But with the construction of the railway network, traveling merchants had completely declined.
"There are four more towns like this along the railway network. We can let the Horn Elephant Tribe set up shop here. At least there will be a fair trading platform."
The changes of the times often happened in inconspicuous places.
Before the Aishi People came, the people of Cape Town had already taken advantage of the wastelanders in terms of commerce. Now, Vila Nova Dônia was using the same method to deal with the people of Cape Town. The Cape Town people also increased their dumping of goods to the wastelanders.
However, this kind of trade did not mean much.
The total amount was not small. After all, the West Mo people in the wastelands were very large. But they were too spread out, and the consumption in the middle was also high. The West Mo people who did not have wealth could not contribute much to the sales.
"Let the people get rich first, and then everyone gets rich together?"
That was what Vila Nova Dônia did when they opened the city gates and brought in a large number of immigrants.
The immigrants of Vila Nova Dônia who had nothing used their labor in exchange for remuneration and to buy daily necessities. They had needs and needs, and this promoted the entire Vila Nova Dônia's industrial chain. In the end, it achieved a self-sustaining cycle.
At this time, Rorschach already knew why the other party was looking for him and what he should do.
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