Xiang Shan was a remarkable man.
In Youji's eyes, this man named Xiang Shan was the most remarkable person in the world. He knew many things that neither Youji, Mom, the mayor, nor Doctor Schultz knew. Yet at the same time, he would always believe strange and absurd claims for no apparent reason.
For example, he insisted that Youji call him "Master."
Apparently, that title contained a kind of "contract" between Vagrants.
For example, he genuinely believed that "we might be living inside an enormous illusion." More than that, he had specifically invented a ritual to test it.
And the core component of that device was, unbelievably, a greasy, filthy machine.
But Xiang Shan had looked utterly serious. After demonstrating it, he had Youji dismantle the machine and reassemble it. They repeated this five times. Only after confirming that Youji could still remember the machine's structure even without the chip's assistance did he stop.
The next morning, Xiang Shan finally took Youji back to town.
But at that moment, an unexpected visitor was waiting in Youji's little house.
It was the mayor.
"Mr. Mayor?" Xiang Shan was somewhat surprised. "What brings you here?"
"Yawg... no, I should call you 'Shan' now." The biological portion of the mayor's face formed a fairly natural smile. "I came to see how things were going over here."
His gaze kept drifting toward the prosthetic body Will had left behind.
Xiang Shan sent Youji away, then asked curiously, "How did you know...?"
"The doctor is my nephew. I heard you bought some parts from him, so I figured you were assembling a prosthetic body yourself." The mayor chuckled. "I was bound to be curious! How is your prosthetic body coming along?"
Xiang Shan shook his head. "It's too difficult. I've only made a start."
Seeing that Xiang Shan had not put his brain into that canine prosthetic body, the mayor could not help feeling a little disappointed.
He knew that these martial artists' prosthetic bodies all embodied their own design philosophies. Many of their components and structures were meant to fit together. Altering them at random was actually a very bad idea.
In his view, the best outcome would have been for Xiang Shan to hot-swap his brain into the canine prosthetic body.
But when he considered that Xiang Shan might be a "Vagrant," the mayor felt that perhaps it was not his place to interfere.
He shook his head and asked, "Are you having any difficulties with this?"
Was this... an offer of goodwill? Or was he simply here to do business?
After thinking for a moment, Xiang Shan cautiously said, "I don't have a suitable shell right now..."
The canine prosthetic body's shell naturally could not be used directly on Xiang Shan. Xiang Shan felt that he probably knew Bionic Fist as well, but Bionic Fist was not a combat style, and he was not used to using it.
Yet Xiang Shan truly needed a shell, one that could at least keep out dust. A shell could also help avoid other people's scrutiny. At the very least, Xiang Shan felt that with a shell, enemies would not be able to knock out his battery with their first move.
And besides... surviving Will Grand Dog had already been luck.
He really needed a skull cap that fit the break at his forehead.
No matter how sturdy a brain-machine barrier was, it could not match alloy armor. Fighting with his brain exposed was a little too thrilling.
The trouble was that Xiang Shan's skull seemed to be made from some relatively rare alloy. Restoring it to its original condition would be too difficult.
After considering it for a moment, the mayor said, "That won't be hard. There's a 3D furnace in town. If you can give me the specific specifications, I can make a simple one—of course, there aren't any particularly good materials among the leftovers from the Sublimation War, and we can't melt down battleship-grade materials."
Xiang Shan hesitated. "Then the cost..."
"Don't be so formal, Shan." The mayor patted Xiang Shan's wire-thin shoulder. "You did save all of us, after all. I can afford this much compensation."
Really?
Xiang Shan was skeptical. When he had gone to buy parts, he had sensed Doctor Schultz probing him. Doctor Schultz was the mayor's nephew. This town's interest group did not seem to regard him entirely as a "savior."
Was the mayor really that kind?
"I haven't asked you yet, Shan. Have you gotten used to living in Recycling Station Town? Ever since Youji dug you up..."
Xiang Shan raised a hand and cut him off. "Mayor, I'm still very grateful to this town. You were there when Youji woke me up. I know all of you saved me. I remember that. You count as one of my benefactors, too. So please, just tell me what you want to say. If there's anything I can do, I'll do my best."
The mayor stared at Xiang Shan, seemingly thinking about something. But Xiang Shan had no idea how to read someone's gaze through a camera lens. In the end, the mayor seemed to recall something and nodded. "I understand. Then I'll be direct. In at most half a month, the welfare officer will arrive..."
Xiang Shan was startled. "That good? There's even social welfare?"
"When has there ever not been social welfare? If taxes are collected, social welfare must be provided. That's only natural!" The mayor was startled as well. "How can you not even know that?"
Xiang Shan had never expected that this social structure, which looked as though it had regressed entirely to the feudal era, would actually possess the concept of "social welfare." He scratched his head. "Strange... How did I forget that... Is it important?"
The mayor shook his head like an old man worried about his younger relatives. "You've forgotten so many things. What are we going to do with you...?"
Xiang Shan asked, "What does a welfare officer do?"
"What else would they do? The tax officer collects the Gene Tax, then every half month, the lord tallies the taxes from each area. Right after that, the welfare officer announces the welfare benefits according to the tax revenue..."
Only through the mayor's explanation did Xiang Shan realize that so-called "welfare" was completely different from what he had imagined.
Here, "welfare," like "taxes," meant babies.
The difference was that these babies were not collected. They were population units released from the Human Gene Bank.
There was nothing particularly notable about the "quality" of these babies. The most important thing was that they could effectively prevent bloodlines in each settlement from becoming too uniform.
Normally, the amount of welfare was one hundred and twenty percent of the tax.
For every ten babies taken away, twelve would be returned.
Then those babies would be handed over to people willing to raise them.
However, guardians could not give the male babies their own surnames, nor could they change a female baby's "middle name."
Surnames marked Y chromosomes, while middle names marked mitochondria. It was precisely because of this need that "families" could exist.
The first Dyson Principle was, "All humans are obligated to preserve human genetic diversity." Refusing this obligation automatically meant losing Civilization Protection. A considerable portion of one's "name" served as a label for "genetic diversity." Extensions of the Dyson Principles prohibited people from arbitrarily changing their names.
But...
Xiang Shan was surprised. "Would anyone be willing to adopt children under such harsh conditions?"
Humans wanted to raise children because genes had bestowed upon living things the instinct to "continue the information of their genes." In some human cultures, "adopted children" could serve as the cultural continuation of their adoptive parents, inheriting honors such as the "family name"—at least, that was how Xiang Shan remembered it.
But now... they were neither one's own bloodline nor allowed to inherit one's name?
The mayor found this strange. "Why wouldn't they be willing? Family members helping one another is also a kind of welfare, isn't it?"
"Welfare... Oh... I think I understand."
Perhaps, to the "parents" of this era, raising children really was merely "welfare"? Parents of this era did not need to worry about "education," because during a child's first brain modification, "knowledge" would be implanted directly into the brain. And cyborgs truly were easier to raise than natural humans in every sense...
Yulia also seemed to watch Youji from outside the window only at night.
But after understanding that, Xiang Shan found this era even more unsettling. In his eyes, Yulia's love for Youji should have been the same kind of love that had existed in earlier eras, but...
The mayor found it strange. "Is that so odd? Shan, where did you come from before? Was that place very different from here?"
Xiang Shan shook his head, and his vocalizer simulated a bitter laugh. "I don't remember."
The mayor sighed. "In any case, the welfare officer will come to town in half a month. But this year, the tax officer did not collect the full tax payment... What happens next will depend on luck. Maybe nothing will happen, or perhaps... we'll temporarily lose our 'protection.'"
After being awake for so long, Xiang Shan had roughly figured out what this so-called "protection" was.
Using terminology from the old era, "Civilization Protection" included what had once been called "the right to life," "the right to health," "property rights," and other "personal and personality rights," as well as "economic, cultural, and social rights."
Xiang Shan still did not know what exactly ruled the world now, but presumably the many other political rights did not exist for ordinary people. Therefore, it could not be said that "Civilization Protection" was equivalent to "complete human rights."
For those who lost Civilization Protection, none of their rights were protected.
Anyone could treat people who had lost Civilization Protection in any manner they wished.
And if those who had lost protection continued to harm those who possessed it, they would become "rioters," and the lord would then be obligated to eliminate those rioters.
However, the Dyson Principles had never stipulated the extent to which someone must go before they had to be eliminated. In that regard, the lord possessed enormous discretionary power.
Xiang Shan had once felt that these so-called "Dyson Principles" might be some idiotic construct created by taking the idea of "govern less to govern better" to its most extreme conclusion.
"If the lord is in a good mood, a rioter might get away with anything. But they might also be killed by the lord the instant they lose protection?"