Liam's Observations

The martial law that had lasted for over a week previously really had frightened Liam quite a bit, and by those last two days, he had felt somewhat dazed in his state of mind.

Fortunately, the outcome was good; the aristocratic forces were swept away entirely, and the damned bastards had their crimes sorted out and were sentenced to death.

The gang leader who had led the registrars to him back then for his registration was also sentenced to death by the Carter District Court.

At the time, he had also watched the public trial as a spectator, and that densely packed expanse of victims left a deep impression on him.

Especially upon hearing the judge say that these were merely the surviving victims, and that there was a massive number of victims who had already died or gone missing, it shocked him deeply.

Because in his view, the gang leader was actually quite decent; apart from occasionally visiting his business with excessively rough actions, he usually hadn't done anything to him.

He had thought at most that the man would be sentenced to long-term hard labor for similar charges, but he hadn't expected that there would be so many victims, and the charges even included cannibalism, murder, abuse, and so on.

Aside from being on a much smaller scale, the man was no different from the nobles.

The discrepancy in information between this and his own perception naturally stemmed from his psyker power.

Although he did not know he was a psyker, nor what psyker power was, and a theta-level psyker was not strong either, sitting just at the level where he could steadily cast a psychic spell after training.

Yet his psyker power just happened to make the other party concentrate their attention, experience physical and mental delight, and become friendlier toward him, which "complemented" his profession.

Therefore, everyone who had frequented his business had not displayed any aggression, and a simple psychic spell used merely on instinct had made everyone exceptionally friendly toward him.

Even with the passage of time, this effect kept intensifying, and all of this made the Underhive in Liam's eyes completely different from how others saw it.

In his view, although the Underhive environment was harsh, food was scarce, and life was hard, everyone was quite good and life was passable; he had even self-taught quite a bit of knowledge, hoping to get ahead by relying on it.

This was also the reason why he had taken in quite a few children; compared to other places in the Underhive, the living environment over at his place was always somewhat better.

Of course, nowadays the children had been sent by him to an orphanage set up by the Astral Claws, where the living environment was even better and there were basic educational opportunities.

Furthermore, once the martial law was lifted and work resumed, because he knew how to read and do math, he was promoted as the deputy manager of the Carter District Engineering Team, abandoning his old profession from then on and greeting a new life.

That the new job had better treatment was secondary; mainly, he didn't want the children to ask him what he did for a living when they grew up, leaving him to stammer in response.

And should the children be mocked and unable to hold their heads high because of his previous gigs, that would grieve him even more.

Hence, he decided to do his current job well, so that when the children asked about it in the future, he could proudly say that he was building a new homeland back then.

Besides, the salary of the new job was not low either; if he worked hard for a period of time, he would be able to save up some vitamin pills and buy some gifts and toys for the children.

He heard that the God-Emperor's angels had recently even authorized some toy model factories in the Mid-hive to produce some small sculptures of the angels, and the prices were quite cheap. He would buy a few for each of the children when the time came, and they would definitely be happy.

Hugging expectations for the future, Liam full of enthusiasm began his visits across Carter District.

As one of the areas early recruited and retrofitted by the Astral Claws, Carter District had a new water circulation purification system, air circulation purification system, and a plasma reactor capable of serving the entire region.

However, because most local areas lacked energy transmission pipelines, the reactor was primarily used to power high-energy-consumption devices like the water and air systems.

Even so, for the residents of Carter District, this was already a world-shaking change.

Running the purification system for a period of time greatly reduced the degree of water and air pollution in Carter District; although it was still harmful to the human body, it had improved from dying at 30 to dying at 60, achieving a qualitative leap in the quality of life!

Consequently, the engineering team's visits were met with a warm welcome, especially when the residents heard that the team was going to build roads, lighting, networks, a rain and sewage separation system, and further improve the living environment of the Underhive, their attitude became even more enthusiastic.

Regarding the engineering team's various questions, they reached the point of telling everything they knew without reservation. Although due to limited education levels and accent differences, most people's expressions were vague and unclear.

Yet the engineering team was specially equipped with personal terminals, loaded with a weak artificial intelligence and a language and speech database.

The personal terminals could parse recorded spoken language and analyze unrecorded spoken language; as long as the residents were willing to speak, they could even achieve the level of simultaneous interpretation.

With personal terminals serving as an aid, the biggest spoken-language problem in communication was resolved.

As for the issues of low education and limited vocabulary, they were also harmless. The visiting team was merely there to collect basic information, such as how many people were nearby and where people lived; communication could proceed normally even with insufficient vocabulary.

This was to verify previous census data and prepare for subsequent engineering planning.

Otherwise, if the plan were made and then while building they discovered a population cluster blocking the road ahead, that would be laughable.

Yet even such a simple task left Liam deeply shocked.

Beneath Carter District lay a massive underground channel network hundreds of meters deep; this was a drainage pipe for garbage and sewage, yet it was filled with people living inside.

Hot, humid, germ-filled air, lethal sewage... Compared to this place, Liam felt that the abandoned pipe where he used to live was like heaven.

What surprised him even more was that this place was actually shown in the database as "approximately 3.44 million people registered," meaning that registrars had already penetrated this region which he found hard to endure, and had conducted a census of the population within it.

He recalled when he first saw the registrars; because of their neat attire and unusual demeanor, he had even thought they were big figures from the Mid-hive or even the Upper Hive.

As a result, that bunch of registrars could actually penetrate this kind of place, causing him to involuntarily feel a sense of respect.

Those registrars were truly solid people!

After the second screening task concluded, on Liam's way home, he discovered a somewhat bustling small market.

Had Carter District's economic development level reached this extent already?

Harboring a bit of curiosity, Liam walked into the small market, intending to check out the specific situation.

After strolling around twice, he found that the mainstream method here was still barter, and compressed starch blocks could be considered the universal currency.

Most people were selling all sorts of handicraft items, or things they had picked up from somewhere that looked quite intimidating.

Curiously, he grabbed a passerby and handed him a piece of compressed starch: "Buddy, when did this place get set up? How come I've never seen it before?"