How Am I Still Alive?
Chapter 1978: 1972: The Beginning

Chapter 1978: Chapter 1972: The Beginning

Many speculations, but there will be responses.

When Lu Ping’an was filled with doubts and hesitations about the future, certain places were erupting with waves of arguments.

“How dare he?! This is secession, this is lawlessness, this is dictatorship!” Criticism and denouncement were unavoidable.

In this day and age, information spreads rapidly, especially with the actions of various Proper God Churches.

Within Wanjing, there is actually a specialized religious management department, an independent, powerful intelligence organization separate from the intelligence agencies… Considering the actual strength of the Proper God Churches, this is an organization filled with high-level extraordinary individuals.

And due to its high sensitivity, it is also the focus of infiltration by many Proper God Churches into the official domain, in a sense, it is also a source of official intelligence leaks… Perhaps, it has essentially become a bridge for both parties to play their games and test each other.

Generally speaking, even if a Proper God Church intervenes in a region, they just play on a piece of land themselves, and it’s all done beneath the “water surface”.

Lu’s approach directly altering an administrative, legal framework, and even military and local security, fundamentally changes the operational structure of a region… To put it inappropriately, the upper echelon really doesn’t fear your corruption and dereliction of duty down below, as there’s treatment for that, but once you start opposing the existing order, they would consider if you’re planning to raise a rebel flag.

“I don’t see a problem… He hasn’t even hidden his goal; he just wants to change the status quo. Besides, do you really think there’s anything left that can’t be changed now? Too many of our old mechanisms are already outdated.”

However, the skepticism towards Lu Ping’an did not become mainstream in Wanjing.

“What era is this, still saying that the ancestral laws can’t be changed? The times have changed, we need to keep pace!”

“What was it like before? It was the era of the Secret Keeper. A dozen extraordinary individuals in a city could maintain the safety of the whole city, so even if the greatest hidden danger, an Exotic Realm, erupted, they just needed to leverage personal connections to borrow a few strongmen from neighboring cities… The biggest crisis they faced was a three-to-five-member Evil Gods crisis, and now? An entire world has come through, and you’re still discussing the old system?”

“I trust him, his resume and Divine Position already confirm his sufficient stability. If a reformer is necessary, I believe he is more suitable than anyone else.”

“Old systems? What old systems do we have? Our extraordinary new era began just five or six decades ago. What was the original special police extraordinary squad configuration good for? Shooting a tokusatsu series on a street? With the current formalization and legionization of criminal organizations, in a time when any malicious organization backing could be a True God, do we still need to adhere to the old era’s ‘secrecy’?”

The “Wanjing rebuke” Lu Ping’an awaited never came, which equated to receiving “Wanjing’s tacit approval”.

For reforms, Lu Ping’an was not the only one in need, in fact, he wasn’t even among the first batch.

However, he seemed to be the only one capable of implementing local reforms and even willing to spend his own money to invest in his hometown.

Many in Wanjing indeed kept an eye on him, not hoping for his failure, but rather many desiring that he truly accomplish something… At the moment post-war, indeed it’s the best timing for reform.

However, Wanjing’s finances and combat capabilities could not support such changes, nor could they withstand the losses of a failed reform.

“Let him do it.”

“Let him be at ease… conduct some public opinion control, find some entertainment news, celebrities’ affairs, mistresses’ scandals, or something, don’t let too many people pay attention to his side.”

“Express our expectations indirectly, how about some tax reduction policies?! Or, prioritize some industrial layouts.”

Certain things are not suitable to say directly, at least not before Lu Ping’an completely messes it up, his actions match the “expectation of the times”.

Someone must stir the muddy waters, someone must be the fool kicking the hornet’s nest.

“…He’s messing around, we should report to Wanjing.”

“The Foreign Domain’s tax-free, inspection-free directly governed city, isn’t this letting outsiders compete for jobs with us? It’s already hard enough…”

What shocked both Lu Ping’an and even Wanjing was that the main opponents turned out to be the local residents, who ought to be the biggest beneficiaries, especially ordinary people expected to receive benefits in security protection, education resource inclination, and salary raises.

Were they incited? But the intelligence personnel got a negation, at least those self-media persons expressing opinions online voiced the public’s anxieties.

Life is always fraught with troubles, especially when you are attempting to change something.

Sometimes, what’s stopping you isn’t interests but simply the inertia of life… As long as things used to work, why do you jump out?

Regarding new things, most people actually are instinctively skeptical or even doubtful, some would even actively find “evidence” to prove there’s a problem with you.

If you can’t prove that the reform you’re doing is problematic, they would dig up or even fabricate dirt to prove there’s something wrong with you as a person.

More ironically, after some years, if they really become rational and look back, they would realize they got a bit out of hand back then… but still won’t feel there was anything wrong with what they did at that time.

Just beginning, Lu Ping’an already felt immense resistance, even unable to tell clearly where it stemmed from.

As if everyone was resisting change… So Lu Ping’an decided to “dictate”.

“No need to respond, when everything is formed and new things have already changed your life, yet it seems like there’s nothing to complain about…”

Lu Ping’an understood, very much understood; he respected public opinion, comprehended the power of the trend, yet wasn’t concerned about temporary opinions.

“Before they truly become obstructive tides, act.”

Since it is his own special district, and since the upper echelon has given tacit approval and even trust, Lu Ping’an took action directly.

If he didn’t move it would be nothing; once he moved, it was going all-in.

First, he bought a large number of fake reviewers.

Yes, fake reviewers… In this newly emerging internet era, Lu Ping’an didn’t pay much attention to traditional media but set his sights on the rising “independent writer influencers” and “self-media”.

They received the notifications issued by Lu Ping’an and started showering praise.

“The current extraordinary training system is too outdated… our system caters to the employment demand of the 1990s, but it can only cultivate screws from the 1970s, isn’t this equal to making our children unemployed upon graduation?”

“Outstanding graduates from Ancient City University can reach 2-tier upon graduation… Inform the public, what’s a 2-tier really worth on a true plane battlefield? Disliked as cannon fodder for being too slow and fragile, hated as a porter for moving too little.”

“We need reform, we need to reform according to the demands of the times.”

“Panda Mr. (Xue En) is back from the front-line battlefield, he saw the current situation, so he decided to change, we need to offer more choices to our children…”

No time and effort were spent arguing “whether to reform or not”, instead, it directly immersed in the biggest common focus between mortals and the extraordinary — the next generation’s employment!

The first to be reformed is the education industry, which has lagged behind the times for decades in “extraordinary training”.

Be it Lu Ping’an or Xue En or Xia Qin, they all emerged from this era’s training system, they know better than anyone how outdated it is and its root cause for the city’s extraordinary power weakness.

“Who among us doesn’t know it’s outdated, but is it something easily reformed?”

But Lu Ping’an said, it’s really doable.

However, those who couldn’t sit still first were their former principals, those leaders from the Extraordinary University of the Ancient city dashed over in a swarm.