The Tower of All-Illuminating Sunlight

Afterglow District, Labor Block 27.

Li Wei had no idea where he had stolen a bottle of dye from. While Feng Zi pursed her lips in obvious reluctance, he dyed her conspicuous silver-white hair dark green.

"Low-grade dyes are full of sulfates, anilines, and heavy metals. Nearly 1.24 percent of residents contract illnesses from them every year."

"You sure remember all that useless data clearly."

"Because only real data doesn't lie."

Li Wei also smeared some ash on his face and messed up his hair. Compared to the old people on this block, he at least looked somewhat similar in temperament now.

Xin Cheng's memories had indeed been accurate. Li Wei had secretly looked in a mirror, and he could be certain that the handsome face reflected there—beautiful yet masculine, sharply defined yet gentle, utterly flawless—had absolutely been created by combining the strengths of 3.67 million men!

Even his body was absolutely perfect: muscular without clothes, slim in clothes. No wonder such an astonishing patented product had wealthy people fighting to buy it home.

If he were a woman, he would have been willing to spend money to buy a version of himself like this and secretly play with it at home.

But it was precisely because his appearance was so outstanding that he now had to go to great lengths to make himself look ordinary.

Sometimes, being handsome really was a sin.

According to Feng Zi, if they wanted to become laborers, they had to wait until work ended at night before they could find one of the foremen and ask to join.

As for the time they had to wait, Li Wei took Feng Zi to a secluded place and hid for the moment.

As the sky gradually darkened, piercing police sirens began to sound. Seven or eight blue cars bearing golden double-pistol police insignias charged into the neighborhood!

Four or five uniformed officers got out of each car. All of them were armed, and they conducted a thorough yet rough search of the entire street.

These cops were obviously looking for them.

As Li Wei led Feng Zi from hiding place to hiding place, Feng Zi sat in the little car and gripped his sleeve tightly. Her face was pale, and even her lips had gone white from fright, but her azure eyes were full of solemn determination.

"626, listen to me. If they still find us, don't worry about me. Run while you can! They won't dare do anything to me. At most, they'll keep me under house arrest, but they'll definitely kill you!"

Li Wei had naturally learned from "Dad" that this lame girl had an exalted identity. She was more like some rebellious young lady who had fallen out with her family.

He was different. Those people would harvest his kidneys if they said they would harvest his kidneys, and burn him alive if they said they would burn him alive!

"So what exactly are we trying to get back that has them making such a huge fuss?"

This lousy game had not even given him any background introduction after he entered. Li Wei had not even figured out what level of technology this world was at.

Clearly, an absurdly sci-fi artificial human like him already existed, yet the surrounding buildings and people's state of mind were like medieval European serfs—impoverished to the extreme and malnourished!

At his question, undisguised fury appeared in Feng Zi's eyes.

Her hand clenched into a fist as she pointed behind Li Wei.

"Do you see that tower?"

Li Wei turned around. In what should have been the center of the city stood a towering white spire.

The buildings there were obviously far more advanced, beautiful, and clean. There were even skyscrapers like those of modern society. Compared to the ramshackle shantytown they were currently in, it was practically a world in another dimension.

At the top of the white spire shone a streak of golden radiance. The light was like clear daylight itself; merely looking at it brought a sense of peace.

"The stone at the top of the tower was left behind by my father. It is the physical embodiment of the laws of optics. He left it here because he wanted everyone to use its nearly endless light energy to develop this underground city, lighten the laborers' burdens, and let everyone live better lives!"

Feng Zi tried hard to keep her voice calm, but Li Wei could still hear the emotional turmoil in her trembling voice.

"But those people treated that stone as nothing but a luxury that gave off light! They put it at the top of the tower, then told everyone that residents of every other underground city could not enjoy such sunlight—only the residents of Sun City could!"

At last, she could no longer hold it in. Gritting her teeth, she said,

"And so this tower became the pride of everyone in this city! Even laborers living in hardship and utter poverty, beggars whose families had been destroyed and who had been driven onto the streets, and prostitutes who were humble, lowly, and numb in spirit would all lift their proud chests whenever they looked at it!"

"Every day, they look at this afterglow of sunlight bestowed upon them and even feel deeply grateful to the lords of The Council! No one knows what they have truly lost!"

"And you, 626! Dad brought you here from Central because he wanted to advance the development of biology here, drive biotechnological innovation in this industrial underground city, and provide better medical resources for laborers disabled by work. Yet they kept you penned up, even wanting to use your body as a way to make money!"

Feng Zi took a deep breath, as if she had already restrained her emotions. She did not notice that what she was saying now seemed somewhat contradictory to what she had said before.

She raised her head and met Li Wei's gaze.

"After Father died of illness, I came from Central to take back the things they had defiled, and they put me under house arrest. It took so much effort for me to escape and find you, 626. I won't let them kill you! Absolutely not!"

Li Wei had quietly listened as Feng Zi spoke. At last, he had gained a rough understanding of some things.

But that information only made things feel more oppressive, like this city itself—a prison without even a window.

As for Feng Zi previously saying she did not know why he had been taken away as a child, only to change her story now and say it had been to bring benefits to the city, Li Wei did not ask.

He could tell that the girl before him had her own little schemes, but she simply could not lie. Other than matters related to his identity, everything else she said was probably true.

Just as the sky completely darkened, the whistle of a train suddenly sounded in the distance!

It was a train with seventy or eighty carriages, slowly decelerating before finally coming to a complete stop!

The doors of every carriage opened, and countless figures poured out!

Noisy voices, the salty stench of sweat, and a dark mass of people covered in oil stains and windblown dust filled the roads beneath the gradually lighting lamps, making the once lifeless neighborhood begin to reveal its true form!

From the shadows, Li Wei watched the scene with an indifferent expression.

This game the company had made seemed kind of interesting.