How Am I Still Alive?
Chapter 1987 - 1981: The Big Pie

Chapter 1987: Chapter 1981: The Big Pie

"... This year, the Ancient City’s GDP is expected to increase by 40% year over year and 17% compared to the previous quarter. We have made significant developments in industries such as equipment manufacturing and healthcare, and the newly emerging extraordinary service industry is also developing rapidly, even becoming a new name card for our city..."

"However, we are still facing many problems. The current priority is the evident shortage of medical and educational resources due to the surge of immigrants. Meanwhile, the proportion of students choosing specialized fields is continuously increasing, and our related service industry is unable to keep up..."

"In my personal opinion, the most important thing now is to regulate housing prices. In the past two months, prices have doubled, and even so, supply is still not meeting demand. Many people post online, saying that halfway through a home viewing, the original owner demands a price increase..."

At the government meeting of the Ancient City, Xue En, the "Secretary General," was speaking eloquently.

He had essentially begun his daily routine work... Under the mechanism of the Eastern Country, presiding over official work meetings was actually the mode of official action.

Many matters need to be finalized in meetings because of this collective responsibility system. If problems arise, it counts as official... Decisions can be made privately, but if forcefully implemented and problems occur, it’s entirely your own responsibility. Even if successful, one could be criticized for not following proper organizational procedures.

Under this mechanism, the "office" of each level of authority is the actual administrative body. They draft plans, set up meetings, ensure everything moves forward steadily, and archive and distribute responsibilities.

"We can’t allow this to continue. In just this month, more than 100,000 residents have migrated internally within the Eastern Country, and they will continue to occupy new public resources. If we can’t provide them, it will lead to severe chaos and issues..."

However, according to procedure, the meeting should be chaired by the deputy mayor, with each department discussing matters, and the mayor making the final decision... The fact that the meeting was chaired by Xue En itself demonstrated the subtle situation within the special zone’s official circles.

A large number of personnel had already moved into the administrative departments of the Ancient City, effectively forming a new backbone layer, with many high-quality hands under Xue En’s control.

The "Reform Implementation Team," centered around Xue En, was the driving force behind the recent series of actions... This practice of forming various groups and temporarily seconding personnel from departments for special tasks, then either disbanding or becoming a regular organization after completion, was also a common working method in the Eastern Country.

The advantage is that personnel can be seconded from leisure positions, maximizing manpower... Well, the biggest advantage is that if it fails, the temporary team disbands, and individuals take the blame without dragging everyone down.

Most members of Xue En’s team were his "maiden family" brought along... Not all were people of Lu Ping’an; several were old stagers from the Special Service Team and the Bureau of Anomaly Management.

As Xue En himself said, he was the most suitable person. Coming from the Special Service Team, he was also part of the Ancient City University’s legitimate line, able to gain support from his senior brothers.

The addition of these professionals, who had been cultivating influence in the Ancient City for many years, enabled Xue En to quickly get a firm grasp of the situation.

Now, wearing wire-rimmed glasses, explaining his proposals and plans, he had none of his television-pseudo-adorable demeanor and instead looked like a practiced and calm bureaucrat.

The meeting had been going for a quarter of an hour, mostly with him discussing recent difficulties and issues, some of which were indeed quite significant... Like the frantically rising housing prices, the public’s emotions were overly complicated, with some feeling they’ve profited and others starting to bitterly complain.

Seemingly it was just rising housing prices, but it involved everyone’s hassle. Rent prices soared, making the cost of renting higher, and, more critically, store rents also increased... even daily consumer prices began to rise noticeably.

This domino effect is unbearable for anyone, especially as the "bullish trend" and "housing speculation" frenzy had emerged locally.

In fact, policies including purchase restrictions and population movement restrictions were also because a massive influx of people could lead to unsolvable severe social problems.

This meeting, discussing much, was essentially to solve this issue. In a situation where the market cannot self-adjust, the Eastern Country would intervene with administrative means.

"Purchase restriction order? Rental subsidies? Restricting rent increases? Or more boldly, perhaps some kind of annual low-cost housing?"

Even if they didn’t listen, the attendees could guess the next developments.

There’s nothing new under the sun, and administrative means favor the old over the new... too many big messes started with a "I have a new idea" from someone in charge.

Those seemingly cliched methods may not always be effective, but they often do not lead to deadly consequences.

But this time, they were in for disappointment.

"... Therefore, we propose this suggestion, to directly build a new city, aiming to expand the entire Ancient City by about 30% in the first phase. Once completed, it will significantly alleviate our growing population pressure."

The moment Xue En spoke, it wasn’t just the extreme factions finding him too radical; most of the attendees were staring at him as if he were an alien.

Opening up a new city? In this explosively developed Eastern Country?!

"The demolition cost, most accurately, is the money to buy mountains (from landlords) and land. We have a quite generous sponsor who can accept either operational rights (collect fees themselves) in exchange for investment or direct project construction in exchange for investment."

Alright, this deliberate slip of the tongue was completely unpretentious.

Lu Ping’an’s faction directly invested in the city construction, and the greatest risk could also be borne individually.

"They would also clear up the contaminated areas in the outer city..."

In this world, developing urban areas often faced issues of numerous "haunted houses" and "Exotic Realm nodes" that existed.

Some required military region garrisoning and needed development to be done around them.

"We’ll dispatch top combat power, even Deities to intervene, turning some high-threat Secret Realms into stable ones."

With Deity-level power, the Rebirth Commerce could also expel energy, neutralizing some polluted environments.

With money, manpower, overwhelming combat power, and even Deity support, Xue En displayed the backing of a mighty force.

"The price is the development rights for some real estate projects, after all, we can’t make too much of a loss..."

The opportunity for everyone to get rich together seemed impossible to refuse, but such change was bound to bring about upheavals. Just managing the duties of the new area alone was daunting.

"Don’t you think the Ancient City, as a municipality and special zone, is too small? Even as the homeland of the God of Life, is it too mundane?"

"The future Ancient City will be a super metropolitan area with a population of over fifty million, and gentlemen, your vision must not be so short-sighted..."