Xia Li waited in the hall for over ten minutes before a second receptionist finally appeared.

  Also a beautiful woman dolled up glamorously, but with deliberately sculpted features—unnaturally exquisite.

  Xia Li could tell at a glance it was a tech-face. In this era, there was no shortage of handsome men and beautiful women—after all, cosmetic work had become simple enough for roadside clinics to do casually.

  "Good evening, sir. I apologize for what happened earlier. Please continue with registration."

  The second receptionist didn't dare act up. Hearing this, Xia Li stepped forward to fill out his information.

  The Monster Hunter Association wasn't a conventional collective organization, but a loose network of contact points for freelance hunters. Every city had one—their main purpose was assisting city defense forces in clearing monsters.

  Essentially a measure by major powers to officially mobilize civilian combat strength.

  After filling in his data, the receptionist casually glanced at it. When she saw Xia Li's name and place of origin, she was quite surprised.

  "Mr. Xia, you're actually from the Democratic Government?"

  "So? Is that a problem?"

  Xia Li glared at her, clearly ready to hostile-acquire her at the slightest disagreement.

  "That's not what I meant. I'm just personally a bit confused."

  "What don't you understand?"

  "We rarely encounter people from the Democratic Government here. Relatively speaking, that environment is like heaven. Though you can't earn big money, the welfare is good, and population commodification is prohibited."

  The receptionist sighed as she said this.

  "The person you killed earlier—her dream was to earn enough immigration tax and obtain Democratic Government citizenship to emigrate."

  The receptionist found the world quite strange. Someone hoping to reach the Democratic Government had been killed by someone coming from there.

  And he seemed quite suited to the cruel rules here.

  "I have nothing to say about that."

  Xia Li's expression remained unchanged, but he took the opportunity to look up corporate population laws. He found that corporations were truly despicable!

  People born in Corporate Union territory were generally called corporate citizens.

  Corporate citizens received growth benefits until age sixteen—a considerable amount of spirit stones monthly. But the cost was being unable to leave Corporate Union territory without permission.

  To leave, you had to return all growth benefits received after turning sixteen.

  Theoretically, you could just not use them.

  But the corporate environment didn't allow that!

  If you didn't use them, plenty of people would beat you up and take your spirit stones to use themselves.

  Growing up in this environment made people's craving for spirit stones far more intense than citizens of other powers.

  "Mr. Xia, your registration is complete. Also, regarding the Democratic Government, I have some questions I'd like to ask you..."

  "Look it up on the public network yourself."

  Xia Li left those words and turned to leave. The four major powers each had different values—he didn't want to debate these things with her.

  No matter how despicable Corporate Union's nature, strength determined everything. Corporate Union was currently Earth's undisputed strongest power.

  Then came sects and families.

  The Democratic Government was relatively weaker—after all, the cost of striving to provide peace was citizens lacking ferocity, desiring comfort.

  And protecting those citizens required relying on a minority with high awareness and high moral standards. How many such people remained in today's world?

  That said, the funny part was also here.

  Though the Democratic Government lacked mid- and low-tier combat power, its high-tier combat power slightly exceeded the other three major powers, creating a delicate balance.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  This proved that the will to protect and noble morality were indeed useful—also aligning with the Heavenly Dao Computer's AI logic, which gave such people special treatment.

  Fortunately, when the Heavenly Dao Computer's AI was born, humanity hadn't yet split. People had written morality into the Heavenly Dao Computer's core logic, maintaining human order.

  Cang would not betray humanity.

  But what if humanity betrayed Cang? If someday people decided morality was an obstacle to progress and wanted to kill Cang, Cang probably wouldn't have any power to resist.

  After all, AI was AI.

  If humans wanted it dead, it couldn't refuse to die.

  Building towers of morality at dawn, only to see them as obstacles and want to tear them down at dusk...

  Humanity had done this more than once throughout history.

  Leaving the Monster Hunter Association.

  Light rain mixed with cool evening breeze was quite refreshing. Xia Li walked along increasingly dim streets, moving further from civilization.

  What he needed to do next was hunt monsters and demons!

  Raise his reputation in the Monster Hunter Association, raise his value in Corporate Union—like a product vigorously promoting itself.

  As the dim lights grew increasingly sparse until he entered areas with no lights at all, streets became dilapidated. Many skyscrapers were just frameworks now, their exteriors mostly fallen away.

  The atmosphere turned grim, the air carrying a faint scent of blood.

  [Friendly reminder: You have entered the Tax-Free Zone.]

  [Please stay safe. Corporate Union assumes no safety supervision responsibility for any crisis encountered in the Tax-Free Zone.]

  Xia Li activated night vision and surveyed the street before him. He stood at the center of a crossroads—somewhere familiar from memory.

  He'd seen it in movies, in games. This place was famous five hundred years ago—once the world's busiest intersection.

  Now it had become abandoned territory, a Tax-Free Zone with no safety guarantees, the final refuge of the bankrupt.

  Those bankrupts had also become this place's demons, ruthlessly plundering resources.

  "They're here?"

  Xia Li sensed movement. Heaven Chip had reminded him upon entering the Tax-Free Zone, and he'd already extended his divine thought to sense his surroundings.

  There was something inside the surrounding buildings!

  Suddenly...

  A gunshot rang out in the silent night sky!

  The bullet struck his G-stance shield, then burst into a pool of black sludge.

  A physical bullet, apparently made of demon materials.

  More terrifying was the strange odor emanating from the black sludge after the bullet burst.

  Xia Li deactivated his shield. The sludge fell to the ground...

  But something in the darkness had awakened. Unknown beasts made rustling sounds as they approached.

  It seemed whoever attacked him planned to use monsters to kill him first. That bullet was probably just bait.

  Soon...

  A swarm of massive rats—nearly half a person's height and capable of standing upright—rushed out from around the corner.

  [Target identified: Monster-class Gold-Gnawing Rats]

  [Individual threat level: F]

  [Current swarm threat level: E+]

  After Heaven Chip completed the analysis, Xia Li relaxed slightly. Good thing the threat level wasn't high—after all, someone was still lurking to attack him.

  If something truly difficult had come, he might have had to flee back to the safe zone tonight.

  It seemed the areas near the safe zone were mainly monsters, with demons being cleared promptly.