Life Game In Other World
Chapter 224: Good Morning, Cuties. (Please subscribe, bookmark, and vote for the monthly ticket.)

Chapter 224: Chapter 224: Good Morning, Cuties. (Please subscribe, bookmark, and vote for the monthly ticket.)

"As everyone knows, the public security in Kaye City isn’t very good,"

the host read from the script in his hand,

"Our dear Mayor Jeno solemnly swore to reduce the crime rate of Kaye City when he was elected, but what’s the result now?

The other day when I went out, I walked three kilometers and encountered five homeless people who wanted to rob me. I took out a hundred federal coin bill and let them divide it themselves. Guess what happened? They tore the hundred into five parts and each person took a piece and left."

Canned laughter came from the studio.

This joke contained two backgrounds.

First, the homeless in Kaye City generally only rob twenty federal coins; twenty federal coins aren’t of a high denomination, they’re the most widely circulated, and among the paper money in circulation, they have the most holders, making them easier to rob. Robbers don’t take much with twenty federal coins, and those who are robbed are more inclined to pay the money to avoid disaster and are less likely to report to the police.

Second, the cultural level of the homeless who rob generally isn’t high. The host is using this exaggerated joke about ’physically dividing money’ to mock their ’stupidity’.

However, in the highly developed electronic payment systems of the Federation, there are few people who still use cash. Electronic currency is easily traceable, so now homeless people generally rob relatively valuable but not too expensive clothing or jewelry.

"These homeless people, penniless and foolish, have become the biggest danger in our city. They are greedy and despicable and barely recognize a few capital letters. They hide in every corner of the city, threatening our lives and livelihoods, while our Mayor, stick his head under the desk, leaving only his fat buttocks exposed, doing nothing about it..."

The studio host continued to joke while narrating.

He Ao did not laugh upon hearing these jokes, but instead looked at Danny beside him, "How many homeless are there in Kaye City now?"

"It hasn’t been tallied, probably several hundred thousand, close to a million."

Danny replied slowly.

The total population of Kaye City was only about sixteen million.

"What’s the average housing area per person in Kaye City now?"

He Ao immediately asked.

"There are no current city-wide data," Danny shook his head, "The Group has developed about 40% of the residential and apartment occupancy in the city. Extrapolating from this, and doing rough calculations, the average housing area per person is probably between 40 to 45 square meters."

Single apartments in Kaye City are roughly around 35 square meters, but the actual data is likely lower because many couples or married partners cram into a single apartment, while a two-bedroom apartment suitable for three people is about 60 to 70 square meters in size.

An average of 40 square meters in housing area per person theoretically means everyone could have a place to live, yet there are still so many people homeless.

This means that a considerable amount of housing is occupied by the wealthier individuals or lying vacant.

"What’s the occupancy rate for the Group’s rental apartments?"

He Ao thought for a moment and continued to ask.

Rental apartments refer to apartment buildings specifically for rent. In the Federation, these buildings are usually developed by large consortia and most of the time they are not for sale, but only for rent.

"There’s about 5% to 7% vacancy,"

Danny answered softly, and regarding these figures, he nearly had them at the tip of his tongue,

"This number is reasonable because if we further reduce the rent to attract tenants, the number of tenants that increase with the price reduction won’t be much, and lowering the price will cause our fixed cost ratio to rise. To maintain profit, we would have to cut service and marketing costs. But reducing these soft costs would lead to a drop in the number of tenants, ultimately reducing overall profits."

The old butler paused, "Currently, this price, calculated by the computer, is the price that can yield the maximum profit in our present situation. Vacant properties cannot be independently discounted as it would cause dissatisfaction among the existing tenants, who might even vacate and re-rent a discounted apartment ’to save money’. In practice, the current approach maximizes benefits."

Maximum profit.

He Ao didn’t delve further into this issue but instead quickly asked, "What about those homeless who have lost their jobs? The Group can’t employ more workers now?"

"The market has been sluggish recently," the old butler nodded slightly, "Our products are not being sold, and neither are other companies’. Goods are piling up in warehouses, eliminating the need for production, so everyone is planning to lay off a portion of their workforce."

"After these employees are unemployed, they still need to repay consumption loans and housing loans. They can’t find new jobs and are forced to declare bankruptcy, and then the banks repossess their homes, turning them into homeless?"

He Ao pondered for a moment and whispered.

"Yes."

Danny nodded gently.

He Ao fell into a brief silence.

Danny, too, remained silent as sunlight sprinkled on both their cheeks.

Kaye City belonged to Nolanka Group. As the controlling shareholder of Nolanka Group, Vian was, in a sense, the true King of the city.

And what constituted his throne was the extensive network of interest groups within and beyond Nolanka Group.

"Danny, go see how many members of the group’s board are willing to sell their shares,"

He Ao said quietly as he watched the huge advertising screen below.

"Understood, Master Vian."

The elderly butler nodded slowly, ready to leave the office.

But He Ao suddenly stopped him, "Change the management staff of the Nolanka Orphanage."

"Understood."

The old butler paused in his steps, nodded slowly again, and then stepped out of the office.

The vast office was left with only the solitary figure of He Ao, staring at the massive advertising screen in the distance.

The screen itself was actually silent; it was just that the butler had connected the office computer to the live broadcast, playing the sound through it.

At this moment, the host had finished his jokes; he looked into the camera,

"I believe everyone is as curious as I am as to why Kaye City has so many criminals, why the crime rate is so high, why you can encounter seven or eight robbers just going out to buy a pack of cigarettes. I’m sure everyone is tired of listening to the Mayor’s grandiose speeches,"

He paused for a moment and continued, "So today we have invited a ’special guest,’ a big bad guy who believes in the God of Chaos. He claims he’s up to no good. Today, from his perspective, we’ll look at the issue of the high crime rate in Kaye City."

It must be said, inviting a follower of the God of Chaos was a terrible move, but from the standpoint of drawing attention, the program was doing quite well.

He Ao raised his bracelet to glance at the comments on the program; many people believed the program was deliberately showing off, having someone pretend to be a believer of the God of Chaos to catch a viewing spectacle.

Regardless, the program had achieved its goal of attracting traffic; the number of people watching the broadcast was still soaring.

The theme’s sensationalism, coupled with the large amount of money spent on advertising slots, made many who believed it to be a staged performance unable to resist clicking on the broadcast to see for themselves.

He Ao watched the enormous screen, equally curious about what kind of ’believer of the God of Chaos’ would be brought in.

The screen flickered a moment, changing scenes, but it wasn’t in the studio—it was on a deserted street.

Snow-white clouds floated in the sky.

A person holding a bunch of balloons stood right in the center of the frame.

He handed a balloon to a little girl, then seemed to notice the camera, approaching it slowly with the balloons in hand.

The piled-up balloons obscured his cheeks, making it impossible to see his face clearly.

By the time the balloons were almost pressing against the camera, he slowly moved them aside.

A giant laughing baby mask consumed half the screen in an instant, sending a chilling oppressiveness from the image.

There was an opening in the mouth area of the mask, and beneath this opening, one could vaguely see a man’s tightly closed mouth and a small part of his cheek.

It seemed as though the cheek near the mouth had been slashed, with two horrifying scars extending from the corners of the mouth to the base of his ears.

The shadow behind the mask seemed to realize that everyone was staring at the scars on his mouth; those two scars suddenly twitched, pulling apart like two wriggling worms.

Pearly white teeth and a crimson gum line were slowly revealed, and within the gaps of the gums, there were strips of fresh, red flesh.

He revealed a ’smile.’

A hoarse voice echoed throughout the space,

"Good morning, little darlings."