Leonid

New York was as peaceful as ever today.

Steam rose from the street drains, snow was piled high along the roadsides, and the polluted air made passersby sneeze repeatedly.

Manhattan's skyscrapers were still constantly going up, and cars continued to flow through the streets. The only difference from wartime was that there were far more smiles on people's faces.

Even pacifists and anti-war activists were happy to enjoy the dividends of war and a better life.

In Queens, some distance from Manhattan, there was a perfectly ordinary community high school. Today was its last day of classes.

Christmas was coming, and winter break was about to begin. Not only were the students completely unable to focus on studying, even the teachers felt the same way.

The final half-day of classes was practically all self-study. Winter break in the United States generally lasted four weeks, beginning one or two weeks before Christmas.

This year was different from previous years. In many parts of New York, a new kind of building called a supermarket had appeared. The yellow W logo on them showed that they all belonged to Wilson Enterprises.

Those buildings had yet to open and were still covered with curtains. Outside them, however, stood rows of billboards displaying all kinds of merchandise and frighteningly low prices.

It was said that on a Friday one week before Christmas, these special stores would officially open and sell those goods at incredibly low prices.

Everything was discounted, from everyday necessities to the affordable luxury accessories people normally hesitated to buy.

In normal history, Black Friday fell on the fourth Friday of November, after Thanksgiving. But Earth-40K had no such concept. Supermarkets had been Su Ming's idea, and to save himself trouble, he simply scheduled the big sale for the last Friday before Christmas.