If we assume that the class above soldiers and civilians is the 'nobles', then those who want to kill him are similar to the woman mentioned earlier?
How did that nobleman know that 'Jiang' harbored rebellious intentions? Judging from the tone of that soldier, these people wouldn't even come down, let alone care about the lives of the workers and civilians.
With questions in mind, Ren Yifei carried a wooden bucket into the public bathhouse.
These bathrooms resemble modern public bathrooms, with cubicles containing showers powered by hot water pipes, as well as large bathtubs.
He went to the innermost cubicle.
The hot water washed away the mud on his face and dissolved the plant adhesive on his forehead. He touched it for a while, then used his fingernail to pry open one end of the adhesive, allowing more water to come into contact with it.
The broken corner fell off, and the mud on the face was washed away, revealing Jiang's soft, pale face.
He touched the glued area with his finger and felt no discomfort, so it seems that the adhesive did not cause much damage to his skin.
He rinsed for a long time. The bathroom gradually filled up with people, and he heard the sounds of others showering behind him. Someone even wondered, "Why does it smell like the stench of a lowly person?"
Ren Yifei calmly applied the soap.
As the filth on his body was gradually washed away, the natural plant scent of soap filled his body, and no one outside asked why he smelled bad anymore. He dried himself off and dried his hair until it was half dry.
There was a palm-sized, thick leaf in the dirty clothes. Ren Yifei tore it open slightly, and a translucent, sticky substance oozed out. He glued the broken corner back on, and it was fixed in place a few minutes later.
After changing his clothes, he took out a piece of paper made of wood pulp that 'Jiang' couldn't touch from the wooden tub, moistened it with water, and carefully applied it to his face.
"Are you done yet?" Someone came up behind me.
Ren Yifei paused, his hand on the piece of paper on his face: "Alright."
He slowly turned around, and the paper that was stuck to his face, soaked with water, transformed into a familiar face in the instant the light and shadow shifted, with a horn on his forehead.
To exit the bathroom, you have to pass through a hall where children are playing and running around, while others chat and laugh amongst themselves.
They didn't take the previous incident with the two girls to heart.
Or perhaps they've just gotten used to it.
These men and women, with their wild, animalistic features, swaggered around at the very bottom of society, yet they were just as subservient before the 'nobles.' One wrong move, and they'd be thrown straight into the lowest rung.
Are those people with hearing impairments or scars on their foreheads from the lower classes all from this background?
"Gu Cheng, come with me to deliver the energy blocks later." A soldier walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, you seem to have gotten shorter?"
Ren Yifei coughed, feeling a tightness in his chest, after being patted: "Cough cough, have you grown taller?"
"I've grown taller? Never mind that. Put the clothes away and come with me to deliver the energy blocks. It's our turn today."
Jiang was tall and thin, only slightly shorter than Gu Cheng, but the difference was not obvious. Since his face and voice matched, the soldier had no suspicions and even urged him to put the dirty clothes back quickly.
"Send it to the laundry room later, the lowly one will wash it."
Ren Yifei kept a straight face and didn't say anything. The paper on his face was almost dry, and it wouldn't look good if it tore open if he moved too much.
Back in his room, Ren Yifei quickly treated the 'paper film' with plant juice to make it adhere better.
That's the problem with illusion plays; if a medium is used, it can only be paper-based.
After cleaning his face, he got off the bus, where the man pushing a small cart was already impatiently waiting.
They left the second-level nest, and after taking only a few steps, the man turned back and asked Ren Yifei, "Why do I feel like you're acting strange today... strange..." His eyes gradually became vacant.
"I am your friend Gu Cheng, understand?" Ren Yifei's eyes were bloodshot.
"Understood," he replied blankly.
On the first floor, there is a special place for collecting cubes, where two workers work. As soon as they see the two of them coming, they respectfully stand up and open the door.
Of course, the workers in this position have better living conditions than others. Their clothes are made of finer materials, their skin is better, and they have a faint air of arrogance on their faces.
This arrogance wasn't directed at them, the 'high class'.
The two men responsible for collecting the black cubes took out a box full of black cubes and placed it on their wooden cart.
"My lord, this is today's harvest."
The workers were cautious, while the soldiers beside them held their chins high and coldly replied, "Hmm."
Ren Yifei finally saw what the legendary cube looked like. It was a black cube the size of a fingernail, without any gaps, just a cube.
He picked one up; it wasn't metal, but it was much heavier than gold.
Ren Yifei was very curious about how to use this thing, but the soldier who came with him didn't know either. They were just errand runners and not much better than the workers.
The only certainty is that they have to obtain most of their food and supplies through this black cube. These supplies are then distributed layer by layer, and by the time they reach the bottom layer, there's practically nothing left.
The laborers have to work hard in the wild searching for the Black Cube, only to receive a meager reward. Those in power, however, only need to solve it to gain vast rewards.
Technology, knowledge, and resources are all monopolized, coupled with deeply ingrained ideologies... resulting in the current state of complete division.
This instance world feels like an extreme variant of feudalism, tycoons, or academic cliques, rather than something that naturally evolved into what it is today.
It feels very out of place, but it's different from the 'isolated island' genre.
Ren Yifei's imagination ran wild, and he had already thought about transmigrating into books, movies, and even The Truman Show.bookshelf
Looking down at the black cube in my hand, I realized it was quite heavy; such a small thing weighed about three or four kilograms.
Ren Yifei looked up and saw a number of workers who had made a harvest standing in a queue.
The worker who brought the goods smiled ingratiatingly: "Look, I brought two pieces, can I exchange them for some medicine?"
"Okay, okay, two pieces, right? What's your employee number?"
He quickly gave his employee number, a six-digit number.
Is it that string of numbers on the wooden sign? Ren Yifei guessed.
The person receiving the goods quickly flipped through their notebook and wrote down: "Go to the back to get your medicine, next person."
There wasn't much to see at the place where the Black Cube was collected, so Ren Yifei and his companion pushed the cart away. The box was heavy, and the wheels seemed to be made of wood, so they pushed it slowly.
Along the way, the soldiers and civilians next door were once again amplified by the illusion, and they told Ren Yifei everything they knew. Meanwhile, the paper on Ren Yifei's face had completely dried and stuck to his skin, so he remained silent to avoid his face actually cracking open.
They walked through the second floor, climbed the slope to the third floor, but the third floor was not their destination; it was the delivery room and nursery.
The fourth floor was their destination.
To get to the fourth floor, one had to walk through a short corridor. Ren Yifei saw rooms on both sides, filled with heavily pregnant women. Judging from their difficulty moving around, they seemed to be about to give birth.
He saw that some of the women in labor were laborers, and some were soldiers with animal ears, but there were no nobles with wings on their backs.
Some of the women in labor had men standing outside their doors, presumably their husbands, feeding them food. Most of these men were laborers; they were all emaciated, as were the pregnant women.
They were malnourished; the pink luncheon meat was barely enough to keep them alive.
Walk through this winding corridor and head towards the center to see the spiral staircase. At the top of the staircase are two tall and strong soldiers. After verifying your identity, you can proceed to the fourth floor.
As he was about to walk towards the center, he heard a child crying from the other side of the corridor.
After verifying the metal tag, they carried the cart up the stone steps to the fourth floor.
Upon reaching this floor, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. The soldier and civilian who had been chatting and laughing all the way ahead lowered their heads and remained silent and silent.
Two rows of fully armed soldiers and civilians stood at the entrance. The leader raised his eyelids, glanced at them, and waved his hand, indicating that they could go in.
The soldier pushing the cart knew the way well, and he carefully pushed the cart toward the center.
At the center is a cylindrical room, large and tall, still very bright despite the absence of luminous plants and minerals for lighting—that's electric lighting, one of the hallmarks of modern civilization.
The people moving around inside were all soldiers and civilians. They stood in front of rows of machines, and light spots appeared in mid-air.
"These are today's energy stones." The delivery soldier respectfully unloaded the box, and without even stepping through the door, pushed the cart away.
Ren Yifei remained completely still throughout, simply following the soldier and doing whatever he did.
With his head down, Ren Yifei pursed his lips, struggling to suppress the shock in his heart.
A glowing screen, virtual input, 3D imaging...
This material civilization is still stuck in a semi-primitive society, yet it already has something resembling a computer?!
He only glanced at it briefly, but the screen and the input method were unmistakably those of a computer. And a far more advanced one, surpassing the civilization Ren Yifei had arrived in.
The workers are still relying on inefficient and crude manual labor to earn the necessities of survival, and their living standards are even worse than those of the serfs before liberation, while the upper class is already using computers.
"Where do the nobles live?" Ren Yifei asked his 'companion' who was under the control of the illusion. He thought the 'nobles' were the power holders and beneficiaries of the entire system. However, the Black Cube and the resources generated afterward were all under the control of the soldiers and civilians.
This is quite subtle.
He was reminded of Japan's shogunate era, where the shogun was the real master and the emperor was just a symbol.
"On the fifth and sixth floors," his companion replied blankly.
Don't they work?
"Nobles certainly don't need that. They eat, drink, and be merry every day, enjoying the best of everything," his companion said matter-of-factly. From his attitude, Ren Yifei roughly knew that this was what everyone thought.
Nobles don't have to work; they just eat, drink, and have fun. Hmm, that sounds wonderful.
On the way back, Ren Yifei dispelled the illusion on the person, whose brain would automatically fill in the gaps.
They returned to the second floor, and Ren Yifei returned to the house in 'Gucheng'.
Now he had time for a 'thorough cleaning'. In the bedroom, Ren Yifei found several books that 'Jiang' longed for , but they were not cherished; instead, they were casually tossed on the floor to prop up the corners of the table.bookshelf
The book contains a myth.
Their gods chose them from among the animals, designating them as God's chosen people, and provided them with warm dwellings, health, and abundant food.
The direct descendants of the gods were designated as nobles, who were responsible for communicating with the gods, blessing their tribe, and ensuring the continuation of the race.
The remaining people were divided into soldiers and laborers according to their physical condition. Both soldiers and laborers existed to serve the nobility.
Ren Yifei was unsure whether this myth was passed down by the nobility to establish their superior status or was adapted from certain 'facts'.
Myths can be broadly divided into three types.
One type represents the demands of ordinary people. What they see but cannot understand, what they yearn for but cannot achieve, they are willing to weave into myths and legends, such as Hou Yi shooting down the suns and Chang'e flying to the moon.
Another type is mixed with real history, in order to praise the existence of a certain person or event, such as Yu the Great controlling the floods and Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs.
Finally, there is the last type, which is spread by rulers to secure their own position. They may create new myths or add their own interpretations to existing ones.
The caste system and mythology in India are particularly well integrated.
He didn't know which specific situation this myth referred to, or whether it involved all three.
After finishing reading a mythological book, they started distributing the food.
Ren Yifei put on a new paper mask for disguise and transformed himself to come downstairs.
The food was no longer some unknown luncheon meat, but rather clearly defined coarse bread, fried pork chops, and boiled vegetable soup. The soldiers and civilians began to enjoy their dinner, and after finishing, they left their plates aside and cleaned up together.
Worried that Jiang's stomach wouldn't be able to digest all the food, Ren Yifei only ate a little bit of bread torn into small pieces and meat patties, drank a little soup, and threw the rest away.
The quality of dinner was average, but the portions were generous. Some people couldn't finish it and threw it away, and no one said anything.
The common people are still focused on quantity; the 'quantity' issue has been resolved here, but the 'quality' is still insufficient. The upper-class nobles, on the other hand, will inevitably go a step further, achieving both quality and quantity.
He didn't sleep until 11 o'clock, his mind filled with one thing: how to enter the world of higher-level NPCs and find out what was going on.
What exactly are those advanced civilization products?
Are nobles the highest class?
What is the Black Cube, where did it come from, and what is it used for?
He had too many questions waiting to be answered.
All these anomalies await a complete and clear truth. Not just for his own curiosity, but also for 'Jiang's' resentment at having his future decided from birth.
He must know the truth about this world.
At 11:00 AM, the message was updated on time: [First Night: Male Ants.]
Author's Note: Male Ant: Guess who I am?