Chapter 121: Stand Up! You Too! 3
Labor is more sacred than religion!
Stand up! You too!
Rise, you slaves who have bowed to oppression.
Rise, you ordinary workers of all nations.
These words were phrases that spread like a trend among the Lower Realms.
This world was not inherently a place where socialism or communism thrived.
After all, this was a reality where mages and superhumans abounded, where absolute monarchies based on power and the divine right of kings—said to have been granted by the heavens—were real.
Equality for all?
If someone dared to utter such nonsense and mislead the populace, they would be deemed treasonous and have a bona fide knight dispatched by the kingdom, clad in an aura, to crush the entire gathering.
At least in this world, equality for all was absolutely unattainable.
An elf, who had accumulated centuries of knowledge, being granted the same rights and dignity as an ignorant goblin?
Who would tolerate such a thing?
It was a world born inherently unequal, with the powerful shouldering greater responsibilities and duties.
Of course, after calamities that threatened humanity and the world erupted, the old monarchies and class systems collapsed entirely, giving rise to a new societal system known as Ark.
In ordinary residential zones or the mid and upper layers, people could claim to uphold equality in rights and duties, but the story was different for the Lower Realm inhabitants.
Being unlawful intruders of Ark and unauthorized residents, discrimination against them was a given.
Treating them the same as those in the mid and upper layers would actually be reverse discrimination and could be seen as preferential treatment.
The mid and upper layer inhabitants were rightful Ark residents or had made significant contributions during Ark's initial construction, earning their human and civil rights to live there.
As such, the Lower Realm people inherently harbored extreme inferiority and jealousy toward those in the upper layers.
Without proper management or support, the lives of the lower-layer people naturally became impoverished, their basic quality of life unguaranteed.
They devolved into paupers and criminals, draining the lifeblood of others.
In this dark and sunless Lower Realm, someone appeared with the artificial sun's new light, to manage them.
Third-Class Overseer Alice.
Or rather, she had now become Governor-General Alice of the Lower Realm.
Her official title was "Governor-General Alice of the Lower Realm, authorized by the Ark Central Administration"—a rather grandiose designation.
Despite the impressive title, Alice had no particularly extraordinary authority as a governor-general.
Governor-General of the Lower Realm?
So what?
Alice lacked the power to conscript food, request rationing of necessities, or summon personnel and resources like an administrator.
Her authority remained limited to that of a Third-Class Overseer—a significant authority in itself—but attaching the "Governor-General" title brought no substantial changes.
The position of governor-general for the Lower Realm had never existed.
Granting the title to Alice was merely a token gesture by the central administration in recognition of her hunting the True Ancestor and establishing the artificial sun for the Lower Realm.
Even so, it was enough to usher in a new wave for the Lower Realm.
In a place neglected by everyone, a governor-general had arrived.
Though she was just a figurehead without real power, her presence alone began to create new order in the abandoned Lower Realm.
A Third-Class Overseer from the upper layer controlling the Lower Realm as they pleased was fundamentally different from "Governor-General Alice" managing the Lower Realm, at least from the perspective of the residents and outside observers.
Moreover, Alice was no ordinary Third-Class Overseer.
As a bio-android entity with the auxiliary personality Theresa, Alice could interface with all manner of machinery, the internet, and engineering equipment.
Even before earning the governor-general title, she had the ability to conscript and mobilize all personnel and equipment in the Lower Realm at her discretion.
The entirety of Ark's levels was constructed from a chaotic network of machinery, metal, discarded facilities, and autonomous AIs, forming an enormous ant nest.
The towering spectacle of smog-shrouded skyscrapers and ash-gray glass structures, with prison-like residential complexes seamlessly fused together, was not built by hand.
These were creations of advanced machinery, metalwork, discarded AI, and architectural technology, all of which Alice could access.
The first thing Alice undertook was the maintenance of the levels.
"Ahem—Governor-General Alice of the Lower Realm commands you. Your building is at risk of collapse and will undergo reconstruction. Please evacuate immediately."
"This is tyranny!!!"
Naturally, the residents of the Lower Realm, hearing they were to be evicted for new construction, strongly opposed the notion.
But in the Lower Realm, those who owned their buildings were often unsavory individuals.
Many had taken their properties by force, killing the original owners in robberies, while wealthy criminal organizations occupied several buildings as their hideouts.
As a result, the impoverished had to shiver in the cold of a sunless world, scraping by in back alleys under cardboard boxes.
Alice found such scenes utterly intolerable.
She decided to evict all current residents from existing buildings.
Eighty to ninety percent of them were criminals or otherwise shady individuals, so resistance was naturally intense.
Alice, however, had the power to suppress all opposition.
Even if not Alice herself, her entourage of Marlang and fifty mechanical dolls, armed with magic-infused steel shells, could persuade dissenters to fall in line.
The established lower-layer factions initially felt little sense of crisis about their sudden loss of buildings.
An official from the upper layers?
They seemed eager to try something, but it wouldn't last more than a few months.
The buildings of the Lower Realm were a hybrid of mazes, trash heaps, and ant nests—a nightmarish labyrinth.
How will this be reconstructed?
How will this be distributed?
For an ordinary person, attempting reconstruction or property distribution in a situation with no clear solution would naturally lead to giving up.
The general idea among gangs and criminal organizations seemed to be to feign cooperation with the governor-general, then quietly slip back into their old ways.
In fact, among the Overseers temporarily dispatched to the Lower Realm who had seen this hell on earth, there were occasionally those who declared, "I'll somehow reform this place!" and challenged it boldly.
Of course, they could not even begin to grasp where to solve the myriad complex problems of the entangled Lower Realm, and most ended up giving up and returning to the upper layers before even completing a single quarter.
Alice, however, was different.
She possessed mechanical engineering skills advanced enough to independently create an artificial sun for the Caracas levels and had the ability to freely connect to the internet and reactivate discarded machines and AIs.
Once criminal organizations were driven out by Alice, the transformation of the streets had already begun.
Alice forcibly connected to and reactivated the mechanical AI and components of the Lower Realm's infrastructure.
As a result, every piece of machinery and scrap metal making up the levels became components obedient to her commands.
The chaotic buildings that once occupied the area began dismantling themselves in under five minutes.
The reconstruction for new residential environments was completed within ten minutes.
Buildings that had been illegal drug factories, defying safety regulations for decades, were swiftly rebuilt into residential complexes perfectly compliant with Ark Central’s designated construction laws.
While the lack of furniture was a drawback, for the impoverished who had been living without roofs, Alice had instantly constructed homes.
Alice's work did not end there.
The Lower Realm was overflowing with machines, AIs, and drones.
Most were discarded and unmanaged, but under the command of Theresa, Alice's auxiliary personality, they were reborn and reassembled.
Enormous mechanical tendrils embedded themselves throughout the levels.
They installed water systems, extended new electrical pipelines, and replaced illegal structures with new residential complexes.
The Lower Realm, once called the cesspool of the world, began establishing order, resembling the Kowloon residential district of the mid-layer.
This transformation took less than half a day.
Seeing this, the residents of the Lower Realm, who had looked down on and mistrusted Governor-General Alice, began to open their eyes.
Perhaps… really?
They had thought Governor-General Alice was just some weirdo, but could she truly be trying to change this place?
Ordinarily, it is natural for people to doubt, demand proof, and still find it hard to trust even after verification.
However, when she waved her hands and the mechanical tendrils worked their magic, a new home was completed before their eyes.
The chaotic levels were transformed into orderly residential zones and bustling streets.
A miracle was happening right in front of them.
Machines moved as if alive, countless drones flew through the air, surveying and adjusting the streets, creating a functioning human society anew.
Seeing it with their own eyes, belief was no longer a question.
"Alice! Governor-General! Long live!"
"Long live! Long live!"
"No, seriously, how can you trust some pig from the upper layers..."
"Shut up! Whether she's from the upper layers or not, she gave me a new house, so who cares where she's from!"
"The governor-general drove out the thugs who were brandishing knives and gave us new homes!"
"Losing faith means death, as they say…!"
Thus, the adjacent levels of the Silion Residential Zone were entirely overhauled and reconstructed within three days.
The reestablishment and reconstruction of the artificial sun in the Caracas levels were completed within a week.
In just two weeks after Alice’s appointment as Governor-General, over a million impoverished residents across five levels gained new homes, while the existing criminal organizations were expelled.
Naturally, some began to resist.
Those who had benefited from the old lower-layer chaos.
Criminal organizations.
Drug cartels.
Gangs.
Thugs.
Robbers.
The Hush Gang, staying close to Alice, quickly realized, "Ah, we need to grovel before her."
However, those who had previously ruled the Lower Realm with violence were not so cooperative.
They attempted to attack or assassinate Alice while she was vulnerable, connected to the level AI and machinery for reconstruction.
But no criminal organization could harm a Third-Class Overseer who had single-handedly defeated a True Ancestor.
Her fifty mechanical dolls never idly watched such sinister elements.
Although Alice found them adorable, these dolls were actually ultimate weapons crafted by Ernest Rail, a Mega Corp engineer, with the intent of rebellion against Ark.
With their anti-mana barriers nullifying all supernatural abilities and awakened beings, and their magic-infused steel shells that could turn anything into a beehive, no criminal organization in this place could withstand them.
Thus, the rebellious criminal organizations were either forced to cooperate with Alice or underwent a mandatory transformation into “former” criminal groups.
Those who became cooperative and well-behaved joined forces with the Hush Gang to act as law enforcers in maintaining order in the Lower Realm.
However, Alice had no intention of spoon-feeding the impoverished residents of the Lower Realm.
All Alice provided was minimal security and housing.
Even with the roads and buildings of the Lower Realm, once akin to a garbage dump, repaired, she could not single-handedly improve the quality of life for each individual resident.
Building the shell was not enough.
The Lower Realm required resources and economic revitalization, just like any other place.
Ultimately, the responsibility for driving this change fell upon the residents and impoverished individuals of the Lower Realm.
Here, Alice declared a slogan as Governor-General.
"Labor is sacred!"
"Since the dawn of humanity, nothing has been more sacred and noble than labor, not even religion!"
"Those who work shall be provided for!"
"Those who take without working shall become reconstruction materials!"
"Now, those who work have the right to happiness, and I will help ensure they are happy. Workers of all nations, unite!"
"I shall bestow upon you the red badge!"
This was where Alice began using slogans and ideologies commonly associated with socialism or communism, concepts she had learned from her previous knowledge.
Of course, it wasn’t Alice alone spreading this.
The cooperative Hush Gang and the forcibly "reformed criminal organizations" began setting an example by spreading the principles and sanctity of labor among the lower-layer residents.
Theresa, connected to the internet and establishing "propaganda towers" everywhere, quickly disseminated daily labor regulations, schedules, and ideologies to the lower-layer residents.
At first, the residents were puzzled, wondering what nonsense this was.
But within half a day, many became proud laborers wearing bold red sashes, preaching the "sanctity of labor."
The Lower Realm was indeed a place that required the labor of all its residents and impoverished individuals—not just Alice.
Alice merely provided the basic structures and foundation; if the residents wanted to live like humans, they had to claim it themselves through work.
Moreover, as Alice redesigned and restarted the food factories and supply facilities, the residents' attire and nutritional conditions improved, and a swift emergence of laborer corps wearing red sashes began to take shape.
Theresa’s mechanical tendrils and propaganda towers managed the workers, issued labor slogans, and broadcast chants of "Safety is good, good!" throughout every level, making the proliferation of red sashes a natural progression.
The slogan "Those who do not work shall not eat" became commonplace in the Lower Realms.
Those who refused to work and resorted to crime were struck down by the picks and hammers of the laborers before Alice or her dolls even needed to intervene.
Drug addicts were forcibly treated via "drain" procedures administered by Alice’s mechanical tendrils and were sentenced to labor reform.
The entire lower-layer population transformed into laborers.
Alice had achieved what no one else could by using machinery.
Of course, actual socialism and Alice’s lower-layer standard management regulations were worlds apart.
They weren’t even similar—just rhetoric promoting labor as a virtue.
However, this rhetoric unexpectedly resonated with the lower-layer residents, who shared a history of discrimination and suffering.
Specifically, the lower-layer residents, filled with jealousy and inferiority toward the upper layers, began redirecting their resentment and resistance away from Governor-General Alice and toward the "upper layers."
"We can live well, too."
"We are people, too!"
"We are workers, too!"
"We can work, too!"
"To those arrogant brats in the upper layers who look down on us—see what we can do when we stand together as comrades!"
"We are the workers of all nations!"
"We are comrades and workers adorned with red armbands!"
"To the steadfast unity of free workers."
"Though poor and lowly, we have forever joined hands."
"May the liberty of the people and the will of the workers, eternal and unyielding, endure forever!"
"Hail to our Lower Realms."
"The land of the lowest and humblest."
"Our workers' unwavering stronghold and friendship!"
"From the red flag to the people’s flag, from labor to labor, it shall guide us!"
Somehow, Theresa, having picked up these strange slogans and songs from somewhere, had turned them into anthems for the lower-layer workers, making them sing them like a national hymn.
Meanwhile, Alice was merely reconstructing the levels, only to find an entire red-sashed laborer corps fully formed, leaving her utterly bewildered.
Still, if people work, that's a good thing, right?
In any case, thus…
"Labor Party Leader Sabrina pledges allegiance to Her Excellency, Governor-General Alice!"
"……?"
And Alice, seeing Sabrina with red sashes wrapped around her horns and an intense expression, thought to herself:
What the hell.
How did it come to this???