"Seven votes in favor, two votes against, and one abstention!!"
In the command center, the Hou Family's commander announced the final results.
"Now, a resolution has been passed to shut down the West China Region!"
"Is this really necessary?" The two men who had voted against it were clearly still unwilling to give up. " The West China Region holds years of experimental data from Central China, including the largest project, 'Jade Dynasty Xian.' Do you know the consequences if it's shut down?"
"We might regress to an extremely low level, not to mention maintaining our current position, we might even become the bottom of the five major regions."
"No matter how great the losses, we have to shut it down!" Wu Qian interrupted the other person, "The intelligent top-level alarm can't be wrong. That thing slaughtered all the high-ranking officials as soon as it came out. Unless you want to lead the surrender, can you guarantee what the consequences will be once that thing leaves the West China Region?"
" Wu Qian is right." Another obese man agreed, "What Central China has no shortage of skilled engineers is technology. Lost data can be analyzed and repaired, and lost technology can be recovered over time. But if order collapses, it's all over. The things that emerge from there clearly don't intend to follow order, and no matter how great the benefits, we cannot compromise!"
"But what about the Jade Dynasty World?" another person said unwillingly, "That's the virtual world with the highest capacity in Central China right now. The server is tied to West China. Once it's shut down, the losses to Central China will be incalculable, and it will be very difficult for us to find a better replacement world."
"No matter how difficult things get, we can start over!" The Hou Family member also said coldly, "As long as order is maintained, everything can start over. It doesn't matter if we fall behind temporarily. It's not like we in Central China haven't fallen behind before, but we still caught up, didn't we?"
The two men glared angrily upon hearing this. Unlike the Hou Family and other aristocratic families, these two were mid-level officials who had risen to the rank of major general, and their perspectives were clearly different.
Central China's current leading position is the result of countless people's blood and sweat, hundreds of thousands of years of struggle, and the suffering of generations of people. Now that we have finally achieved this, you're telling me to start all over again?
It's made as simple as eating and drinking.
Moreover, the West China Region has a population of hundreds of millions and boasts the best engineering team in Central China. If it were to shut down, how long would it take to train so many outstanding engineers again?
These people only care about the order they preach, but isn't that order just power?
The situation controlled by their aristocratic families is called order; anything outside their control is not order.
"Alright, that's enough!" The Hou Family made the decision. "Sign immediately and initiate the shutdown process for West China!"
Once again, a decision that determines the life and death of hundreds of millions of people was made, through the decisions of a minority, with the rules set forth.
Such a large-scale operation could not possibly be kept secret. The moment the entire West China was shut down, online forums exploded!
A post about West China being shut down was repeatedly deleted in the virtual forum. Even though the authorities immediately tried to block the spread of the news, they still couldn't stop the public outcry.
This matter is being discussed in countless encrypted forums!
West China has been shut down!
"Is this for real? Am I dreaming? What happened? Is it the end of the world?"
"Who knows what kind of trouble the higher-ups have gotten into? Just like the nuclear leak in Northwest China, we knew nothing back then, only to find out later that the higher-ups were taking risks to collect more energy, which caused this mess. Now, such a large area West China is being shut down, it's probably much more serious than last time!"
"What could it be? How could this be? I can't even imagine it. I even wonder if I'm dreaming?"
"Oh my god, thank goodness I'm on vacation today, in the East District!"
Public opinion fermented rapidly. The news spread like wildfire through countless unknown channels, almost like a virus, and its impact grew wider and wider. First, it affected the Data City itself, and the other four districts suspended operations and fell into panic. Then, in a very short time, it spread to the areas outside the city.
The outer district is where the largest population gathers. After reaching adulthood, the younger generation, regardless of whether they pass their studies or not, spend most of their time outside the city, their data being input into a machine of a certain model, becoming cogs in a massive energy engineering project.
Mining, refining, nuclear power operation, maintenance—these are all the jobs that workers used to do, and now that they've become so-called digital beings, they're still doing them.
Today, this world, which is usually bustling with endless activity, has come to a standstill. Most people have received news of the closure of West China, stopped what they were doing, and either stared blankly at the news or frantically asked those around them if it was true or not.
Discussions rose and fell, and the peaceful, repetitive daily routine was finally broken on this day.
"Has the West China Region really been shut down?"
At a mining site, several old-model mining robots sat in a circle, discussing this matter.
No one came to see Engineer Cui today. Even the planner in charge of their department reportedly rushed back to the Data City immediately; apparently, his family lives in the West China Region.
When this matter was mentioned, the young workers fell silent.
West China Region is a desirable area for many ordinary people in Central China. It is a dream place for young engineers. Once they have a residence permit there, they will never have to do this boring and tedious work outside again. They can enjoy the resources of the Data City forever, instead of working hard all year and only being able to enjoy a couple of days in the Data City.
In retrospect, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. At least, they didn't disappear so suddenly and completely like the people in West China Village.
"Are the people up there crazy?"
"Something terrible has probably happened; this is very serious," said the old miner in charge of the mining area. "I'm almost a hundred years old, and I've never heard of Data City shutting down."
Could it be due to insufficient energy?
"Are you kidding me?" The old miner scoffed. "The energy output of Central China is twice that of North America Region. Not enough for the higher-ups? They have enough energy to take a bath. It's just that we can't enjoy it."
What could be the reason?
"How would I know? But I'm afraid..." The old miner's voice suddenly froze, as if something had stuck in it.
Those around them looked at each other with suspicion. Why only say half of what you meant? Why keep them in suspense at this point?
But what no one could see was that something unimaginable was happening inside that old miner's machinery.
Inside the machine, the guy affectionately called Old Yu stared blankly at what was in front of him. In fact, he didn't look old at all; he looked about the same age as a seventeen-year-old. This was the common age for everyone who hadn't been to the virtual zone—young and energetic.
He's called Old Yu because he's been working in this mining area for seventy years and is a well-known veteran miner in the surrounding area.
He had lived on this land for seventy years and had seen some strange things, but he had never seen anything like what he was seeing before.
He never imagined that someone could sneak into his machine without him noticing.
Who are you?
Did you encounter a hacker?
Old Yu's heart skipped a beat. He had heard some bad rumors about hackers, but what he didn't understand was, what was there to criticize about him, a miner operating an old-fashioned robot?
And what's going on with these two people's appearances?
An old man and a young man, both dressed in what appears to be ancient costumes, right?
"Where am I?" Wang Ye looked around curiously, feeling quite fascinated.
"We've actually reached the outskirts of the city." Heavenly Secrets stood up, looked around, and laughed, "Pretty lucky."
Old Yu stared blankly at the two men, a feeling creeping onto him that he was in deep trouble today.