Chapter 173: The Enforcer

In Zhou Liming’s imagination, even though the Grand Rear had complete local governments and police systems, it was still a place with high crime rates, garbage all over the streets, and terrible living environments. The slightly better places could barely keep the streets clean, but the crime rate remained very high.

If the cities in the Grand Rear were like this, then the cities where human survivors gathered in the Fierce Beast Occupied Area were even worse. Dirty, messy, and full of greater sin—that was the city in Zhou Liming’s imagination. It could even be called a depraved city. The people trapped here, with their pessimistic emotions and desperate lives without hope, were the best catalysts for the city’s depravity.

However, when Zhou Liming entered Xiyang City, everything he saw was very different from what he had imagined.

First of all, it was not as dirty as he had imagined. The roads were wide and clean, with no garbage in sight; apart from some fallen leaves, there was nothing there. There were no cars on the streets. The shortage of fuel was a problem that had to be faced not only here but also in the Grand Rear. There were not many pedestrians on the streets, unlike the cities in the rear where the streets were full of refugees.

Secondly, there was the crime phenomenon, which was the most headache-inducing. At least on the streets Zhou Liming walked, even in dark alleys, there was absolutely no crime happening.

The only thing that was the same as the refugees in the Grand Rear was probably the emotions of the people here. Like the people in the Grand Rear, despair and pessimism were the best descriptions of the people here.

Zhou Liming could hardly believe it. Was this really a city that existed in the Fierce Beast Occupied Area?

Walking on the street, although there was despair and pessimism in people’s eyes, their faces were very calm. The stability of the city did not make them panic; instead, they walked on the streets as if they were taking a stroll. This point was actually the same as in the Grand Rear, perhaps because there were Super Warriors protecting the city from destruction by Fierce Beasts.

Since it was in the Fierce Beast Occupied Area, materials were extremely scarce. The shops on the streets were all closed, and even the bustling city center was empty.

What attracted Zhou Liming’s attention were the Super Warriors standing coldly on the streets in black clothes. They stood on the streets, watching every pedestrian and carrying out public security work. Whenever pedestrians passed in front of these Super Warriors, they always showed respect and fear.

There was no need to guess; these should be the city’s Enforcers. Their duties were different from Shao Weiguo’s Guardians. Enforcers were responsible for internal affairs, maintaining public order and city stability; while Guardians were responsible for external affairs, resisting all incoming Fierce Beasts and protecting the crops outside.

As a second-tier city, Xiyang City had a resident population of over 500,000 and a floating population of over a million, making it a city with nearly two million people. For a first-tier city, this number was nothing, just the population of one district. But a city of nearly two million people was still considered to have some scale.

A city capable of housing nearly two million people now only housed a few hundred thousand, so it seemed empty, and people did not have to worry about housing.

This was something the Grand Rear could not compare with. Just thinking about Xiang City A, which had a population of over twenty million, made the city, originally only capable of holding six or seven million people, instantly incredibly crowded. The people living inside were like sardines, constantly being squeezed into a can. Under these circumstances, no matter how perfect the management system was, there was no way to handle a population several times beyond its capacity.

It could be said that Zhou Liming knew nothing about Xiyang City, including all its systems.

It was only around eight ten now. Perhaps because of the trouble he had caused a few days ago, the Super Warriors who had been beaten until they howled only appeared now. They shot up into the sky one by one, formed a patrol team in the air, and began patrolling the surroundings of the entire city.

Seeing that these Super Warriors all had bruised faces and swollen noses that hadn’t faded yet, Zhou Liming wanted to laugh.

Because the terrain outside Xiyang City was open and large areas of rice were planted, ensuring the normal supply of food to the city, the city provided a guarantee of three meals a day. As long as you lived here, you could receive a minimum guaranteed meal every day. Breakfast was porridge; if you were lucky, you could eat green vegetables; if you were unlucky, you could only drink plain porridge. Lunch and dinner were white rice.

This minimum guaranteed meal was aimed at the idlers in the city who had nothing to do.

In Zhou Liming’s view, out of hundreds of thousands of people, only one-third had something to do every day. The remaining two-thirds all became idlers. They had nothing to do and wandered the streets all day, or stayed honestly in their residences, only appearing when free meals were distributed. This was a great waste of human resources.

Unlike the minimum guaranteed meal, people who had jobs had much richer meals, occasionally eating some meat, and their living conditions were also better.

Zhou Liming was undoubtedly an extremely ordinary member of this city. Mixed in the crowd, no one knew his true identity, so he could boldly move forward with the flow of people. After just walking around the street for a while, he saw several people appearing in front, chasing and fighting each other.

Zhou Liming hadn’t figured out what was going on yet, but he had already discovered that not far away, a Super Warrior Enforcer in black rushed over with a sudden movement, sprinting here in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Liming also became interested. He also wanted to know how these Enforcers enforced the law. The public security in this city was indeed too good, so good that Zhou Liming couldn’t find any fault with it. Incidents like this street fighting happened hundreds of times a day back in Xiang City A. Sometimes when Zhou Liming saw them, he couldn’t even be bothered to intervene.

He only saw this Enforcer rushing over. The people who had just wanted to watch immediately showed horrified expressions on their faces and avoided these people who were fighting in a group as if they were avoiding a plague god.

Zhou Liming even saw a look of pity in the eyes of these people.

The few hot-headed people seemed to have seen this Enforcer rushing over at this moment too. They were instantly scared out of their wits, their faces turning pale. They immediately tried to drill into the crowd. Now they regretted why they had brought their personal grievances to the street to solve. Their overheated brains, apart from regret, were now thinking about how to escape the Enforcer’s clutches.

However, how could an Enforcer, who was a Super Warrior, be comparable to these ordinary people? In just a few moves, he had already caught up…

With a “bang,” he saw a fleeing teenager get hit on the back by the Enforcer. The Enforcer’s hand, which had transformed into a claw, struck through the teenager’s back without any hindrance, piercing through to his chest. The teenager’s internal organs were smashed. He screamed “Ah” and died on the spot, falling to the ground, with blood immediately covering the street.

But this Enforcer did not stop. He suddenly swept his leg, hitting another young man’s neck. Amidst a twisting sound, the neck broke, the head tilted sideways, and blood flowed from seven holes. The force of the sweep caused the young man, now a corpse, to fly more than ten meters away, over the crowd, and “bang” onto the iron shutter door of a shop, then roll onto the ground, motionless.

The Enforcer, having killed two people in a row, was like killing two ants. He made another jump, caught up with the other few people, and his sharp claws cruelly killed them on the spot.

None of the people who had just caused trouble escaped; they were all executed on the street, which was full of their blood. The Enforcer who had done all this had no expression on his face. Instead, he said loudly: “These people caused trouble on the street. They have been executed according to the interim criminal law. I hope everyone will not test the law.”

The Enforcer acted as if nothing had happened and returned to his post, leaving these corpses exposed on the street.

The people around were filled with fear in their eyes, but many people showed indifferent looks. After all, they were used to this kind of thing. Some people were even filled with excitement, as if the glaring blood and corpses on the street were the source of their excitement.

Zhou Liming, who witnessed the whole process, could not believe everything he saw. He blinked hard a few times, but the corpses on the street remained. The strong smell of blood came through the air into his nose, making Zhou Liming shudder. He had never thought that the enforcement here would be so strict, exceeding his imagination.

It was just a small street fight, yet they didn’t ask about right or wrong at all. As long as they were involved in the fight, regardless of right or wrong, they were all directly executed on the spot.

Now Zhou Liming finally knew why there was no chaos seen in the Grand Rear here, and no crimes as he had imagined. In a city with such strict enforcement that it was suffocating, almost any illegal act would be executed on the spot. Under these circumstances, who else would think their neck was harder than an Enforcer’s fist? Those who dared to cause trouble on the street were definitely asking for their own lives.

Zhou Liming finally knew why people had respect and fear in their eyes when they looked at the Enforcers.

Respect was because their existence made the city free of sin; fear was naturally because of their coldness and ruthlessness. There was no room for negotiation. Once discovered by them, one would be killed on the spot, without even a chance to repent or appeal. It was cruel to the extreme.

Zhou Liming stood blankly on the street. This scene was too much for him to bear. Although there was a side of using severe laws in chaotic times, this was perhaps too harsh.

About ten minutes later, several cars appeared on the street. A few people wearing protective suits jumped down. They skillfully carried the corpses onto the truck container. Then they pulled a hose from a sprinkler truck. After turning on the valve, they continuously washed the blood on the street with water. They had a clear division of labor; some sprayed water, while others kept scrubbing with brushes.

In just a moment, apart from a wet patch, nothing remained on the entire street.

The departing cars, the Enforcer still standing straight with a cold face, and the pedestrians on the street with normal expressions… all of this made Zhou Liming feel as if he were in a dream.