Four Symbols City

System notification: At eight o'clock the morning after tomorrow, the second casual instance, Homecoming, would open.

Homecoming was a ten-million-player instance. One instance would be generated for every ten million players. Item inventories and skill bars were disabled. Upon entering the instance, each person would receive travel expenses ranging from 100 to 500 yuan. This currency could only be used within the Homecoming instance.

The Homecoming instance had a time limit of seven days. Completing the main quest allowed players to leave early.

The main quest was simple: find a way to get home within seven days.

This casual instance bore the tags AI Reality and Emotionless. The system explained that instances with the Reality tag excluded all supernatural elements. AI Reality meant the world was governed by AI, with its basic laws following those of reality. As for Emotionless, it could be understood that the NPCs in this world were robots. They lacked human emotions, making it difficult to get them to offer help directly.

You could not obtain money from NPCs through emotional means such as pleading, nor could you persuade them to make exceptions for you. Doing good deeds would not earn their gratitude, either.

Ding Shi sorted through the instance information as he ate his noodles.

First: bank cards had not been sealed, so players could exchange Ita Knives with other players for instance currency.

Second: this was a road-trip instance with a very high degree of freedom. Players could use all kinds of transportation that existed in reality.

Third: this was a world governed by laws. Or, it could be understood as an extremely orderly world.

Fourth: AI surveillance meant every camera was its eye.

In summary: don't do anything stupid in front of cameras.

After lunch, Ding Shi took a walk nearby. Images and sound appeared in the sky screen. The system had begun introducing Four Symbols City. Players who completed two casual instances could obtain a one-way ticket to Four Symbols City. Players who had not completed two casual instances would be directly transported to Four Symbols City.

What was the difference between the two? And what kind of place was Four Symbols City? The video answered these questions very clearly.

Those who traveled to Four Symbols City using a one-way ticket would receive one year of free residency in a sixty-square-meter apartment. Based on each person's traits, the system would arrange a job for them requiring thirty-five working hours per week. Those over sixty or under eighteen did not need to work and would receive a monthly subsidy.

Four Symbols City was very similar to reality, but due to land constraints, each apartment building in Four Symbols City rose over two hundred stories. There was a massive community in each of the east, south, west, and north, while the center was a commercial district. It could accommodate eight million residents. Whenever the population reached eight million, another Four Symbols City would be established, named Four Symbols City 00, Four Symbols City 01, and so on.

East Community was a villa community with expensive rent, though those with money could purchase homes directly. Southwest Community and South Community were high-rise communities, and those with tickets could draw a home from them. North Community was a dormitory community, also made up of high-rise buildings. The dormitories were twenty square meters, had only shared bathrooms, virtually no appliances, and very few elevators.

Those without one-way tickets who were forcibly sent to Four Symbols City could only live in North Community. The system would arrange jobs for them that required no more than fifty hours per week.

The most interesting part was the two rules of Four Symbols City. First: under normal circumstances, North Community residents had no right to enter the east, west, or south communities, while Southwest Community and South Community residents had no right to enter East Community. The living facilities of the four communities differed enormously. Though the reason was unknown, it was clear that Ita World deliberately divided people into social ranks.

Second: North Community residents had no political rights. They had neither the right to vote nor the right to stand for election, not even the right to voice an opinion.

Four Symbols City was temporarily governed by AI, with robots handling basic tasks. Humans would gradually replace the robots, and even replace the AI, becoming the actual administrators of Four Symbols City. At that point, whether to abolish the North Discrimination Rule would be up to the administrators themselves.

More details would naturally become known upon arriving in Four Symbols City.

After completing two casual instances, players would receive a one-way ticket. They had two choices. One was to use the one-way ticket and, as the video described, become residents of Southwest Community in Four Symbols City. The other was to tear up the one-way ticket and continue challenging instances.

The following instances would activate the death penalty. Once someone died, all assets and skills would be stripped away, and they would be forcibly assigned by the system to live in North Community.

As compensation, players would have an extremely low chance of obtaining a Golden One-Way Ticket in instances. Using a Golden One-Way Ticket outside an instance would permanently grant them a villa in East Community, a monthly city living subsidy, and the right to choose a city management job they liked. Most importantly, such players would be noble residents. They could legally have three spouses and possessed a degree of criminal immunity within Four Symbols City.

Ding Shi had Little Candy Angel replay the video three times. He had reason to suspect that Ita World was opening a casino.

After two instances, most players would face a major choice. Should they boldly go all in and continue their instance journey, or leave while they still could? The phrase "extremely low chance" of obtaining a Golden One-Way Ticket itself already meant that nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand gamblers would lose.

"Little Candy, is this your Human Observation Project?" Ding Shi asked Little Angel.

Little Candy tapped her fairy wand, and four words appeared: "No comment."

Ding Shi asked, "Is your purpose to select the people you need from among humanity?"

Little Candy said, "No comment."

Ding Shi asked again, "Or are you simply completing homework?" A kindergarten teacher assigned summer homework: observe ants. So the parents found an anthill, smoked it, flooded it, and lured the ants with food, all to understand their habits.

Little Candy said, "No comment."

Ding Shi finally lost his patience. "Do you have hemorrhoids?"

Little Candy waved her fairy wand, and a bolt of lightning struck the stone in front of Ding Shi. Ding Shi jumped in fright. Just as he was about to salvage his pride with words, he saw the stone turn to powder and scatter into the air on the sea breeze.

Subtitles appeared: Be polite, be respectful, thank you.

Ding Shi said, "But you have no manners. How am I supposed to respect you?"

Little Candy froze for a second, then asked, "I respect you very much, but I am not good at expressing it. The bottom line of my politeness is not insulting people."

Ding Shi said, "Nine out of ten people have hemorrhoids. Why do you think I was insulting you?"

Little Candy answered seriously, "I never said you were insulting me. Otherwise, the lightning would have struck you."

Ding Shi asked, "Would I die?"

Little Candy answered, "No."

Ding Shi spread his arms. "Come on, try it."

Little Candy answered bluntly, "Refused. I have standards."

Ding Shi believed that as long as it would not kill him, he should try it, so he could further understand Ita World. Even now, he had not figured out what exactly Little Candy was. An AI avatar? An alien employee? An intelligence collector? A decoration? A mascot? An alien pet? Labor?

Ding Shi looked at Little Candy and spat out two words. "Ugly bitch."

A bolt of lightning immediately struck Ding Shi. In that instant, Ding Shi understood why Ghost Third Lady had screamed like a demon when she was punished by the Heavenly Dao. That kind of pain could not be described with words or language. If he had to describe it, it was a stabbing pain from the marrow, impossible to grasp, scratch, or locate. He could not even tell where the pain was coming from.

A minute later, Ding Shi lay sprawled on the ground like a dead fish. He was fine, his clothes were fine, but his soul felt somewhat shattered.

"Behavior change." Little Candy tossed out those two words before going off to play.