Crime Prison Island-Chapter 1078 - 511: Standing in Circles and Learning to Meow Like a Cat
"I’m almost thirty, and I have no interest in having kids. My biggest wish is to find an AI spouse to live out the rest of my life."
Gao Xin glanced at him sideways, "You’re already a Radiation."
Zou Ming was taken aback and then realized, "Ah, right, I’m a Radiation! You transformed me, and now... I’m no longer human."
Gao Xin rolled his eyes; this guy’s brain works so slowly, already Tiger Level, and he’s just realizing he’s a Radiation.
"Why aren’t you human? It’s just evolution."
"And it’s not the kind of evolution that discards and sacrifices a generation; it’s Life Transition."
"The extinction of the glass people is an inevitable trend. Now, it’s just a choice between the path of genetic ascension or mechanical ascension, or perhaps..."
Gao Xin didn’t finish, but there was another path: the spiritual ascension path.
But that one is the hardest; only he has walked it. Once embarked, whether genetic or mechanical, they can be integrated and embraced.
Zou Ming was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked joyfully, "I became a Radiation, just now I seemed quite powerful—does that mean I can find a job now? I can work and earn money?"
"..." Gao Xin stared at him blankly.
The old guy said quietly, "You’re red-named; you can only go to Crime Prison Island."
Zou Ming stiffened all over, crying, "No, I was forced! I just want to find a job; I don’t want to go to Crime Prison Island!"
Gao Xin calmly told him, "There are plenty of jobs for you on Crime Prison Island..."
Zou Ming widened his eyes, "Is that true?"
Then he realized, "Wait a minute... what kind of hellish place is Crime Prison Island? It won’t make me do hard labor or kill people, right?"
"I don’t want to; I just want to do something simple, preferably a job without thresholds like standing in circles or imitating cats."
Gao Xin was bewildered, "Standing in circles? Imitating cats?"
Zou Ming said excitedly and longingly, "Yes, standing in circles is a brand new job provided by the son of the Governor of City of Paradise Bird for the masses of young people."
"One day, on a whim, he went to Thousand Bird Park, where we ordinary people often go, to play hoverboards with others. At first, people there were accommodating him, hoping he could offer us jobs."
"Later, he got annoyed by the questions and said whoever could beat him in a hoverboard contest would get a job... And then those hoverboard youths showed their true skills, crushing him with their techniques and beating him utterly."
"So, he drew small circles in every corner of the park, letting those youths stand inside."
"Stand for eight hours a day and earn a thousand credit points! That’s thirty thousand a month! Ten times the citizen’s guaranteed income!"
Gao Xin was shocked, "This is what they call a job?"
Zou Ming nodded frantically, "Of course it’s a job. You go to work every day and get paid; there’s a specific job position. If this isn’t a job, what is?"
"And there’s fierce competition for it! Because there’s no threshold, as long as you can stand."
"The only downside is you have to spend a lot of time working every day and can’t play anymore."
"I remember a few years later, the Governor’s son competed again with those youths in hoverboards, and he won handily, surpassing the group of top hoverboard youths with his skills."
Gao Xin looked strangely, "Is this what they call surpassing? Isn’t this working away people’s youth, making their legs waste away by standing?"
He could imagine the once youthful and vibrant teenagers in the park, abandoning their beloved hoverboards and trapping themselves in what they thought was a job circle, standing until numbness.
Zou Ming said blankly, "Then... so what? That’s the cost of work; they made money."
"Later, the job even added a reward system. The one who stood the straightest and longest each month got an additional twenty percent bonus."
"I wrote several resumes and waited in line for six months before being selected as an intern."
"Unfortunately, interns must compete with the old employees at the post, and only after standing longer than those in the circle for three consecutive months can they be officially hired, replacing those in the circle."
"Those old employees were so good at standing, they ended up standing over eighteen hours a day on average to avoid being replaced. I really couldn’t keep up and had to give up."
"I had no choice; I’m a glass person and couldn’t compete with those Cyborgs and Radiations. It’s just too hard for glass people to find work."
Gao Xin was dumbfounded, thinking how could things be played like this?
The old guy sneered, "What’s that called a reward system? Why don’t you mention that every month the person with the shortest standing time in the circle gets a twenty percent deduction."
"So the wages paid are the same, but people end up standing an average of eighteen hours from the initial eight."
"And how long have you not been paying attention? To avoid being replaced by newcomers, some people have already started to live entirely in the circle without going home, eating and drinking inside."
Gao Xin looked at him, "You pay a lot of attention to these things?"
The old guy sighed, "Because my job... is standing in circles."
"Well then..." Gao Xin looked at him, "You’re one of those hoverboard youths?"
The old guy shook his head, "No, I squeezed out the hoverboard youth’s job. I participated in the war and even fought against the rebels; my physical quality is unmatched."
"Come to think of it, I feel guilty about the hoverboard youth I replaced. He stood there diligently for years, saved some money, and most importantly, having a job allowed him to get a loan, through which he bought and rented two properties and got a mechanical maid, just starting to live well."
"As a result, I replaced him, and he couldn’t find another job, so he defaulted, and his house was repossessed."
"Later, I heard that to keep his mechanical spouse, he resorted to theft and ended up getting caught and having a finger chopped off."
