The towering wall had made Boulder City a paradise known far and wide. Compared to the distant Cloud Province and Utopia City, this place seemed almost within reach.
However.
That grandeur did not extend to everyone here.
On the road to Boulder City's main gate, the first thing that came into view was a vast slum.
Ramshackle hovels clung to the foot of the great wall like psoriasis. From afar, they looked like a foul ditch stretching endlessly into the distance.
Most people living here were sallow and emaciated, wrapped in clothes they had likely worn for who knew how long as they sat blankly outside their doors, or prepared to head out scavenging.
There was hardly any trash worth picking up nearby anymore. To get a decent haul, they could only go to higher floors or farther places.
Sewage and excrement everywhere had stained what should have been white snow all sorts of colors. Things would surely get worse once the snow melted. It was a miracle that no epidemic had broken out.
Having never seen so many NPCs in this game before, Fang Chang stared blankly at the scene before him and asked.
"How many people are there here?"
Xu Shun repeated his question, and Qian Lai answered in an unconcerned tone.
"Ten thousand, twenty thousand, maybe a hundred thousand. Anyway, there have never seemed to be fewer people here. Who would waste the effort counting something like that? It's completely meaningless."
A look of surprise appeared on Xu Shun's face.
Over ten thousand?!
That was way too exaggerated.
Yet Fang Chang, who was staring intently at the subtitles on his VM screen, was thinking about something entirely different.
"Over ten thousand people?!"
"...What do that many people eat?!"
It definitely was not farming.
This place did not