Chapter 538: 538

Chapter 538: They’re the Monsters!

“It took me a lot of time to understand this secret.” Bai Shan smiled coldly. “The development of Spirit Snake Venom Blade, the packaging, and part of the production process is indeed done in Sky Pillar Corporation’s weapons development center, but when it comes to the parts that are related to injecting highly-polluted, radioactive, and corrosive substances into the weapons, Sky Pillar Corporation send the work out to other people, since it’s hard to use automated machines to do the work and the substances used are very harmful to the workers.

“Naturally, Sky Pillar Corporation would not deliver these highly dangerous parts to Leprosy Village’s illegal workshops directly.

“What they usually do is choose a forgery located outside. It has to have perfect facilities and a relatively good working environment.

“Then, this forgery will send a deal to the gangs in the lair. Those deals will then end up in the illegal workshops of Leprosy Village.

“Because of it, through multiple subcontractors, Sky Pillar Corporation is not responsible for the illegal workshops in Leprosy Village, even if they’re the ones to take the deals in the end.

“Even if the workers in our workshops die after being exposed to acid, poison, and highly radioactive crystal powder every day, it has nothing to do with them.

“Even if they have the responsibility to monitor things, the only thing they monitor is the first subcontractor.

“And in the process of subcontracting the deals, even if there are really illegal procedures, the ones who are responsible for them are the gangs, so Sky Pillar Corporation remains clean.”

This was something Meng Chao had never heard or thought of before, but based on Wild Wolf and Zhang Tie’s expressions, it wasn’t anything new to them.

“This isn’t just Sky Pillar Corporation. All the nine great mega corporations are doing this,” Bai Shan said. “Leprosy Village suffers from overexposure to radioactive substances and pollution and uses people’s lives to create deadliest weapons. These weapons are then delivered outside by the gangs and brought to the nine great mega corporations through the subcontractors.

“Then, their brands are stuck on the weapons and packaged beautifully. Once that’s finished, they ask peerless elites or super newbies like you, Meng Chao, to help them promote the weapons.

“This allows them to squeeze out an astonishing amount of profit, and 90% of that profit ends up in the hands of the mega corporations. As for the pitiful bugs who gave up their health and lives to create them, we at most get only 1%.

“After I discovered this secret that is not exactly a secret, I looked at the promotions made by the nine great mega corporations, and I found them really ironic and disgusting.

“It’s especially the case for Sky Pillar Corporation.

“It claims to be the largest mining company in Dragon City and the first to help humans understand the value of crystals and use them. It’s the supporting pillar of Dragon City.

“The creator of the corporation is also one of the creators of the Survival Committee. He’s a peerless elite who stands at the same ranks as Battle God Lei Zongchao. He’s a hero admired by countless people and the guardian god of the entire civilization!

“Recently, Sky Pillar Corporation also invested a lot of money to promote their ‘model superhuman’—Lu Siya.

“I’ve watched a lot of her promotional videos.

“Sometimes, she acts heroically in the wild to kill monsters. Sometimes, she does voluntary work in the city and serves the citizens. Sometimes, she focuses on reading the documents about the Survival Committee to understand the spirit of superhumans being the weapons of human civilization and how she should make her blood flow for the weak.

“These promotional videos occasionally show up on our internet terminals in the form of pop-ups. After a while, a number of children in Leprosy Village began to treat Lu Siya as a real hero and think that Sky Pillar Corporation is the savior and guardian god of our civilization.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Meng Chao, you contributed to this as well. After all, you worked together with Lu Siya to destroy quite a number of the monsters’ schemes!

“In all honesty, the promotional videos are shot pretty well. The promotional slogans are very bewitching as well.

“Unfortunately, every time I see Lu Siya’s face shining with a just and determined light while she heroically says something like superhumans are the weapons of human civilization and the blood of the strong should flow for the weak, I can’t help but think about whether she knows that an important factor behind how her corporation could become rich, why she could get so many valuable resources, and why she could become this so-called ‘model superhuman’ is the blood, sweat, and tears of the villagers and their shining bones!”

Meng Chao was silent for a while. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know that life in the lair is like this.”

“Even if you didn’t, Lu Siya definitely knew,” Bai Shan said. “But even if Lu Siya didn’t know, her father, grandfather, Sky Pillar Corporation’s creator, and heir definitely knows. Why have they never thought about changing the lair or changing the living environment of Leprosy Village and the villagers’ lives?”

“Golden Tooth Lair is a tumor buried deep in Dragon City. Trust me, the Survival Committee has been thinking about solving the problem of the lairs, but the Monster War is raging like a bushfire now, and our resources…”

Meng Chao instinctively wanted to defend the government, but halfway into his second sentence, he could no longer continue.

And just as he expected, Bai Shan smirked coldly again. “At the end of the day, the people ruling over the weak have the resources to live lavish lives, cultivate, colonize the land, set up new cities, and help their corporations expand. But when it comes to changing the lairs, they lack resources?

“It would be one thing if they didn’t know what was happening in the lair. But if they know and choose to ignore it, then it’s another matter. If they know, choose to ignore it, and even use the brutal environment in the lair to gain profit, then it’s a whole other matter entirely, and it is the worst.

“Now that I’ve said so much, I can finally voice the second question that has been plaguing me for more than ten years.

“I’ve always wanted to ask the old village chief this question, but before I could ask him, he died.

“Meng Chao, both you and the old village chief tell me that the monsters are the source of all our pain and suffering, and as long as we win the Monster War, all our problems will be solved.

“But I clearly remember that when Leprosy Village was built, we didn’t face any threat from monsters!

“We were at the later stage of the zombie crisis at that time. The monsters were only vague shadows lurking deep in the fog. Occasionally, some of them would wander into Dragon City, but since they were alone and isolated, they weren’t much of a threat.

“Logically, if the ‘source of all our pain and suffering’ was not around, Dragon City should have been as peaceful as paradise, right?

“But why is it that at that time, Dragon City was a lawless, bloody jungle, and it didn’t even have the most basic order, law, and morals? Our fathers and grandfathers didn’t die after they were infected by the zombie virus, and they didn’t go completely mad either. But those pitiful souls were looked down upon, humiliated, hurt, and chased away. They had to go to places with the worst living environments in Dragon City and set up Leprosy Village!

“If Leprosy Village is the source of our tragedies, then shouldn’t it have been monsters that chased us here? Aren’t those who have been sucking out our lives and oppressing us monsters?”

Bai Shan was hysterical.

Her third eye turned from a perfect, flawless pearl into a burning, bloody diamond.

“I’m sorry, Meng Chao, perhaps it’s perfectly logical to you that humans and monsters are mortal enemies, but I just can’t find any reason in me to hate monsters.” Bai Shan regained her strange calmness and spoke faintly. “Over the last few decades, Leprosy Village was attacked by monsters and some people were killed.

“But the number of people who died under the fangs and claws of monsters is much smaller compared to the number of people who were oppressed by the mega corporations andslowly tortured to death by their bad working environment and living conditions.

“And the second cause of death is far more painful and despairing than being swallowed whole by a monster.

“It was like that for my mother. Iy my eyes, monsters have to pay 10% responsibility for what happened to her, while Sky Pillar Corporation has to take up the remaining 90%.

“To me… No, I should say that to many of the villagers, those creatures lurking in Monster Mountain Range are no different from the creatures sitting in the mega corporations. They’re all monsters. If I had to find a difference, then one of them is hiding under human skin, while the other doesn’t bother with hiding its real, hideous face. That’s all.

“So, tell me, is it really that unbelievable for me to join the monsters’ side?”

“Bai Shan, all the villagers in Leprosy Village are like you. They don’t like the outside world, especially the mega corporations,” Wild Wolf said grimly. “We set up Wild Wolves because we swore that we would use our own hands to seize back what is rightfully ours!

“But no matter how much we hate and despise the mega corporations, it doesn’t mean that we should work with monsters.

“Even if the monsters in Monster Mountain Range and the owners of the mega corporations are ‘monsters’, just as you said, if we’re unwilling to be slaves to one of them, then we shouldn’t be willing to join the other side either.

“If we really want to fight, we should fight against the two monsters at the same time!”

“You make it sound so simple, Wild Wolf. When it comes to bold words, it’s always easy to voice them, isn’t it?” Bai Shan retorted coldly. “In the past, I really loved listening to your bold words and watching you filled with passion and hope. I believed that we could rely on our own strength to create a brand new beautiful Leprosy Village.

“But the more I came into contact with the outside world and the better I understood just how huge and terrifying the mega corporations are, the more obvious it became that our grand plans were just fancy dreams.

“After generations of genetic filtration and elimination, Leprosy Village has quite a number of mutated people whose fighting strength is quite strong. We even gained supernatural powers through another method.

“After gathering these people together, the current Wild Wolves look pretty strong and can fight against the second-class gangs in the lair.

“I don’t doubt that with your ability and with Leprosy Village’s continuously evolving fighting strength, before long, Wild Wolves would surpass Golden Tooth and become the strongest gang in the lair.

“But what will happen then? Do you think that after you become the strongest gang in the lair, you will be able to break the order of the nine great mega corporations ruling over Dragon City?”