Liam's Experiences

The week-long martial law had truly frightened Liam badly. By the last two days, he had even felt somewhat dazed.

Fortunately, the outcome was good. The noble forces had been swept away, and all those damned bastards had their crimes laid bare and were sentenced to death.

The gang boss who had led the registrars to find and register him back then was also sentenced to death by the Carter District Court.

He had attended the Public Trial as a spectator, and the vast crowd of victims present had left a deep impression on him.

Especially when he heard the judge say that these were only the surviving victims, and that many more had already died or gone missing, he was deeply shocked.

Because in his eyes, the gang boss had seemed rather nice. Aside from being overly rough whenever he visited Liam for business, he had never done anything to him.

Liam had thought the man would receive, at most, a lengthy term of hard labor on similar charges. He had never expected there to be so many victims, or for the charges to include cannibalism, murder, abuse, and more.

Other than being much smaller in scale, he had been no different from the nobles.

Naturally, this discrepancy in information came from Liam's Psyker Power.

He did not know that he was a Psyker, nor did he know what Psyker Power was. A Theta-level Psyker was not particularly powerful, only at the level where, after training, he could barely cast Psychic Spells reliably.

But Liam's Psyker Power happened to make others more focused, enhance their physical and mental pleasure, and make them friendlier toward him. It complemented his profession perfectly.

As a result, none of those who patronized him showed any aggression. The simple Psychic Spell he used instinctively made everyone exceptionally friendly toward him.

Moreover, as the number of encounters increased, the effect continued to strengthen. All of this made the Underhive in Liam's eyes entirely different from that seen by everyone else.

In his view, although the Underhive's environment was harsh, food was scarce, and life was difficult, everyone was quite nice and life was still manageable. He had even taught himself quite a bit, hoping to rise in life through knowledge.

That was also why he had taken in so many children. Compared to other places in the Underhive, the living conditions at his place had always been better.

Of course, he had now sent the children to an Orphanage established by the Astral Claws. The living conditions there were even better, and they also had access to basic education.

After martial law was lifted and work resumed, he was promoted to assistant manager of the Carter District Engineering Team because he could read and do arithmetic. From then on, he abandoned his old profession and welcomed a new life.

The improved benefits of his new job were secondary. More importantly, he did not want to stammer awkwardly when the children grew up and asked what he used to do.

And if the children were ever mocked and unable to hold their heads high because of his former work, that would hurt him even more.

So he decided to do his current job well. When the children asked in the future, he could proudly tell them that he had once helped build the New Homeland.

Besides, his new job paid fairly well. If he worked hard for a while, he could save up some Vitamin Pills and buy the children some gifts and toys.

He had heard that the God-Emperor's angels had recently authorized several toy model factories in the Mid-hive to produce small figurines of the angels. They were quite cheap, and if he bought a few for each child, they would surely be happy.

Filled with expectations for the future, Liam eagerly began visiting Carter District.

As one of the areas first recruited and transformed by the Astral Claws, Carter District now had a new Water Circulation Purification System, Air Circulation Purification System, and a Plasma Reactor capable of supplying the entire district.

However, because most parts of the district lacked energy transmission pipelines, the reactor was mainly used to power high-energy-consuming facilities such as the water and air systems.

Even so, it was already a world-shaking change for Carter District's residents.

After operating for some time, the purification systems had greatly reduced water and air pollution in Carter District. Though they were still harmful to the human body, life expectancy had risen from dying within thirty years to dying within sixty years. Quality of life had improved by leaps and bounds!

As a result, the Engineering Team's visits were warmly welcomed. Especially after residents heard that the Engineering Team would build roads, lighting, networks, Rain and Sewage Separation Systems, and more to further improve life in the Underhive, their attitudes became even more enthusiastic.

They answered every question from the Engineering Team as best they could. Though due to limited education and differences in accent, most people spoke rather unclearly.

But the Engineering Team was specially equipped with Personal Terminals, which contained Weak Artificial Intelligence and a Language and Speech Database.

The Personal Terminals could parse recorded speech and analyze unrecorded speech. As long as residents were willing to talk, they could even provide near-simultaneous translation.

With Personal Terminals assisting them, the greatest problem in communication—spoken language—was resolved.

As for poor education and limited vocabulary, those were not much of an issue. The visiting teams only needed to gather basic information, such as how many people lived nearby and where people were residing. Even a limited vocabulary was enough for normal communication.

This was meant to verify the previous census data and prepare for later engineering plans.

Otherwise, they might finish the plans only to discover halfway through construction that a populated area was blocking the road ahead. That would be ridiculous.

Yet even such a simple task deeply shocked Liam.

Beneath Carter District lay a vast network of underground passages extending hundreds of meters deep. They were conduits for garbage and sewage, yet they were packed with people.

The hot, damp air was full of pathogens, and the sewage was lethal... Compared to this place, Liam felt that the abandoned pipe he had once lived in was practically paradise.

What amazed him even more was that the database listed this place as "approximately 3.44 million registered." In other words, registrars had already entered this area, which even he could barely endure, and surveyed its population.

He recalled the first time he had seen a registrar. Because of the person's neat clothing and unusual bearing, he had thought the person was an important figure from the Mid-hive or even the Upper Hive.

Yet those registrars had actually ventured into a place like this. He could not help but feel deep respect for them.

Those registrars were truly down-to-earth people!

After the second survey mission ended, Liam discovered a somewhat bustling little market on his way home.

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

With a bit of curiosity, Liam entered the little market to see what was going on.

After wandering around twice, he found that bartering was still the main method of trade here. Compressed Starch Blocks could be considered a universal currency.

Most people were selling various handicrafts, or things they had picked up from who knew where that looked rather intimidating.

Curiously, he stopped a passerby and handed him a Compressed Starch Block. "Brother, when did this place get set up? How come I never saw it before?"