At a rough glance, this metropolis built around mountains is very clearly divided into three levels. If compared with the history of the earth that Zhen Cheng is familiar with, each level is very strange.
The bottom floor occupies most of the mountain area. In terms of architectural style, all the houses in this area are single-story houses built with black stone and plaster in a medieval pastoral style.
It's very dilapidated, and there's even a straw roof on the roof.
On Earth, it would be difficult to find a city with a population of tens of millions where more than half of the houses are square meters. This is a huge waste of land utilization.
But this is the case with the city in front of Zhen Cheng. If it is reasonable, it is because in the entire bottom area, industry and agriculture are completely integrated with residential buildings.
The planning and design that separates industrial areas from residential areas to prevent noise and waste gas drainage from affecting residential areas does not exist here at all.
Hence the unique scenery like this, where medieval pastoral fields and modern factories line up side by side.
With just one look, Miss Thirteen, who was born in a powerful class, could tell that there must be two factors that led to the current situation.
First, a large number of people living in the lower-class areas have no human rights at all. Second, this metropolis does not implement a market economic system, at least in most areas.
Otherwise, even if the people living in the lower-level areas are very poor, it is absolutely impossible to have such a situation where thousands of similar architectural styles are gathered together.
The facts are similar to what Zhen Cheng imagined. In a unified universe where extraordinary beings are as numerous as dogs and gods roam everywhere, the idea that water can carry and capsize a boat simply cannot exist like on earth.
The living standards of mortals born in the land of God may not be as good as those in the underlying universe.
How you live has nothing to do with the development level of technology and magic. It only depends on what kind of system the god of the place where you were born has implemented.
After all, faith is a kind of power, which has either a vital or a small beneficial influence on the high-ranking gods who dominate the unified universe.
This difference is mainly related to the different paths of sublimation taken by the god-lords, but no matter which path of sublimation the god-lords of the Kingdom of God choose, there are very few god-lords who care about the feelings of the mortals under their rule despite the separation between humans and gods.
What's worse is that in the unified universe, you don't even have the freedom to choose your own beliefs. On Earth, if you are dissatisfied with a country, you can still choose to immigrate. If you really can't survive, there are ways to seek political asylum or even smuggling.
But the ladder that unifies the universe and connects all parts of the world is completely in the hands of the ruler. It is impossible to defeat it. As for walking on your own without using this thing, I am afraid that your eighteenth generation great-grandson may not be able to see the next kingdom of God or colony. And the place you arrive may not necessarily have a better environment than the place where you were born.
It can be said that there are basically few pure lands in the unified universe that can escape the oppression of mortals by gods. The difference is nothing more than the type of suffering.
Gods who pay more attention to their believers often formulate strict rules and regulations to force the people of the Kingdom of God to believe in his system of gods. This is a kind of pain that completely loses freedom and cannot resist the absolute order.
God-lords who are relatively indifferent to the power of faith often completely ignore the demands of the people of the Kingdom of God, allowing the land outside the Divine Court to freely develop into a chaotic land of jungle law. This is a kind of pain that is completely lost and cannot control the destiny.
Looking at the chaotic urban structure in front of him where workers and peasants are mixed, Zhen Cheng feels that the current city of the Kingdom of God should belong to the latter.
And in this absolutely insurmountable contrast of power, the only bargaining chip that mortals can use to threaten negotiations with the God Lord is mass suicide.
Under such circumstances, trying to fight for rights and interests other than life and survival through peaceful negotiations or armed struggle is just a joke.
I have to say that such an environment is quite disappointing in most cases.
Of course, Zi Feiyu and Zhen Cheng also don't know whether the natives of the Kingdom of God would feel that the underlying universe, where humans rule humans and are relatively free and equal, is a better place.
Perhaps in their view, civilization has had a countdown system for its demise since its birth. If it does not fly out of the star system for billions of years, it can only sit and wait for the precarious days of destruction. Maybe it will be worse?
Different from this weird combination of industry and agriculture, primitive and modern, the middle-level urban area of the entire mountain embodies another "abnormal" feeling.
It is the fusion of technology and magic, the balance of innovation and conservatism.
In mid-rise urban areas, hundreds of meters high buildings with dozens of floors can be seen everywhere. They have different shapes and are full of aesthetics of different styles and genres, but they all maintain a unified red and black color tone.
It seems that under the long-lasting clouds, there is no need to consider the issue of lighting. Although the entire middle-level city area is far from being comparable to the lower area, it has formed a tower built of steel, concrete, magic crystal and obsidian.
civilized forest.
Such a towering and compact urban structure that never sees the light of day does not make people feel depressed, but instead presents a scene of prosperity and wealth.
That's because the colorful light dims the entire underlying universe covered by dark clouds.
It was the shuttle of mechanical aircraft, the experiments carried out in the towering mage tower, the display and competition of exquisite works of art, and the promotion of beautiful stars.
There was even a floating screen the size of a football field showing film works that Zhen Cheng could vaguely see even at the foot of the mountain.
If the environment at the lower level allowed Zhen Cheng to judge the political and economic structure of the Kingdom of God at a glance, then the environment at the middle level allowed Zhen Cheng to make certain assumptions about the character of the Lord of God here.
This is a kingdom ruled by a rather secular god who does whatever he wants.
Drunk and dreaming of death, extravagant and lustful.
To be honest, from the perspective of a bystander, Zhen Cheng still has a good impression of such a god due to his experience of fighting against his family since childhood.
If one day Zhen Cheng sets foot on immortality, she, who was once a mortal, may not be able to completely ignore the demands of mortal life like the God Lord here.
After all, she was raised as a ruler since she was a child, so she couldn't be so incompetent that she would be called a coward.
But social class aside, this kind of civilization that does not seek conquest and hegemony but focuses on culture, art and entertainment really makes her happy.
At this time, Zhen Cheng could never have imagined that from today on, observing and studying various social forms would also become part of her compulsory coursework.
Department of Archeology, Imperial Strategy, Detective Reasoning, Shooting and Fighting, Assassination and Stealth, Divine Magic, Business and Finance, Astronomy and Geography, Cooking, Driving Maintenance, Pet Breeding, Physics and Mathematics, Music Programming...
Except for ruins exploration and excavation techniques and history courses, which are absolutely not learned in school, you have to learn a little bit of everything else.