A Visit and the Past

The next day, Wu Pifu was still sitting leisurely atop the platform, reading. Yet his mere presence lifted the spirits of the people working in the port area. Everyone worked while shouting slogans.

The humans of this world lived rather miserable lives.

This world's oceans covered an enormous area, but most of them were forbidden to the living. The Misty Sea in particular was the kind of place where ten entered and none returned. Even the other habitable seas had no large continents, only scattered islands.

In this world, an island of more than fifteen thousand square kilometers was already considered a large island, even a main island—paradise that everyone longed for.

Back on Wu Pifu's twenty-first-century Earth, Hainan Island alone covered more than thirty thousand square kilometers. Australia, meanwhile, covered over seven million square kilometers. There was simply no comparison.

Land resources limited this world's productive development and likewise constrained the growth of civilization. Even with vast seas available for maritime expansion, civilization here was still almost completely capped. The powerful and wealthy could naturally enjoy land and seafood, but commoners mostly lived below the poverty line. Many had no choice but to take a shabby Level 1 ship out to sea, only to perish beneath the waves on their very first voyage.

In this world, having a stable job on land—even the lowliest manual labor—was already a good life envied by most. Xu Shilan naturally would not exploit the lower classes like this world's elites did, so the wages she offered were quite generous. Food and lodging were provided, the pay was decent, and those who performed well during construction would be given priority hiring for work at the new port, along with temporary accommodation in the employee housing area there.

Such terms were unheard of in this