Super Gene Hunting Ground

Ge Mu and his companions had visited Death Castle before and were somewhat familiar with the place.

They followed the crowd through the castle gates, where the original Death Street was undergoing renovations, with many shops being built on either side.

The people who used to charge protection fees on the street had long disappeared.

Following the crowd, Ge Mu and his companions entered the castle and arrived at the marketplace.

The marketplace was bustling with people, much more than in the past.

Ge Mu and his companions found a shop that purchased demon beast loot,

"Boss, I have Black Bear Demon Beast pelts here, do you take them?"

"Sure, we take them, let me see. If the quality is good, I’ll offer a high price."

Ge Mu took out a twenty-meter-long Black Bear pelt from his Space Ring and laid it out in front of the shop.

The boss examined it, touched it a few times, and gave a thumbs-up,

"Hmm, this Black Bear pelt is nice, top-grade stuff, I’ll give you 10 Crystal Disks for it."

"Only 10 Crystal Disks? Can’t you give a bit more?"

"Brother, this price is already higher than usual; it used to be only 8 Crystal Disks. You must know this is the going rate."

The boss wasn’t lying; he had raised his buying price because he saw a business opportunity.

According to the latest policy from the City of Hope, the number of people moving in would surely increase significantly, which means more people needing pelts for blankets and coats, causing the price to rise.

The boss was now preemptively stockpiling, knowing he could earn a substantial profit once winter arrived.

On this hunting trip, Ge Mu had hunted a total of eighteen Black Bear Demon Beasts and had skinned them all.

Several of Ge Mu’s clansmen were quite happy, as this price was 2 to 3 Crystal Disks higher than what Titan City offered.

Luckily, they took this trip and earned dozens more Crystal Disks.

"Alright, I’ll sell them all to you. I have eighteen pelts here."

Ge Mu took out all eighteen pelts and handed them to the boss.

The boss did a quick quality check and, satisfied, paid Ge Mu and instructed the shop assistant to take the pelts to the backyard for processing.

"Boss, a question—I heard about your Death Castle,"

"Brother, we’ve changed our name to the City of Hope. City of Hope, remember that!"

The boss impolitely interrupted Ge Mu.

"Ah, City of Hope, I heard your City of Hope has a new policy: new residents are exempt from protection fees for a year, and those doing business here have permanent exemption. Is that true?"

The boss glanced at Ge Mu and smiled,

"You folks are from out of town, right? Yes, our City Lord indeed announced such a policy. Look, many of the merchants in the market now are from other places."

Ge Mu cleared his throat and asked,

"Boss, your City Lord wouldn’t suddenly change this policy, would he?"

The boss seemed unwilling to hear such speculation; he felt that Ge Mu was just jinxing things at a time when he, the boss, was about to enjoy the benefits.

"What are you talking about? Our City Lord is very trustworthy, and he’s considerate and cares for the people. We absolutely believe what he says."

Ge Mu nodded repeatedly with a smile,

"I was just asking casually. Just asking, thank you, boss."

As Ge Mu was about to leave, the boss called out to him,

"Next time you hunt demon beasts, you can bring the meat here to sell. It can fetch 2 or 3 Crystal Disks at least. Now that the city’s population is growing, there’s a rising demand for food,

many who used to hunt have teamed up to sell goods outside, so the supply has actually decreased."

In the Central Continent, demon beasts were everywhere, and many were large beasts. A single large demon beast could weigh several thousand pounds, some even tens of tons. Killing one could supply food for dozens for days.

Therefore, on the Central Continent, demon beast meat wasn’t particularly valuable; many hunters simply discarded it.

Hearing this, Ge Mu was pleasantly surprised, realizing that selling the meat from the eighteen demon beasts they hunted today would net them an additional fifty Crystal Disks or more, making it all the more worthwhile.

"Thank you for the tip, boss."

"Also, up ahead, there’s an apothecary, a blacksmith shop, and a Genetic Potion store where you can directly exchange your Demon Beasts Crystal Cores and some other demon beast accessories. It’s a convenient one-stop service."

"Great, thanks for the tip, boss."

Ge Mu and his clan walked through the street, selling their hunted Demon Beasts Crystal Cores and some special demon beast trinkets, fetching good prices higher than those in Titan City by several Crystal Disks.

Ge Mu and his companions left the City of Hope with excitement along the way.

"Let’s move here tomorrow. This place is great; a one-year city protection fee exemption, and afterward only 50 Crystal Disks. It saves a lot of expenses."

...

Recently, people have been relocating to the City of Hope one after another.

The City of Hope originally had a large vacant area within its walls, able to accommodate about a hundred thousand residents.

Yang Xiao gathered everyone to hold a city planning meeting.

"The city’s planning needs to be adjusted. I believe the population will surpass one million, maybe even two million in the future."

"One million?"

Le Ting’s eyes widened, looking at Yang Xiao in disbelief.

Yang Xiao smiled,

"What’s one million? Two million, even five million are possible. We need to have an advanced city planning mindset now, otherwise, if too many people come and the city becomes chaotic, it will greatly reduce everyone’s sense of happiness and well-being."

Yang Xiao spoke as he laid out a three-dimensional city map in front of everyone.

"Take a look, this is our current map of the City of Hope. From the map, the entire city appears chaotic and unplanned. Now, while the new population is still small, we should plan the city in advance,

First, there’s a large vacant area in the old city which can be planned as a new residential district. We can unify the construction of houses here, and then rent them to the new residents."

"Why not just sell to them directly?"

Chen Peng asked.

Yang Xiao smiled,

"These new residents just arrived and don’t have much money. Letting them rent houses first can reduce their relocation costs. Once they decide to settle here, they’ll naturally think about buying houses,

and by then, as the population grows, more people will buy houses, and the price and rent of the houses will naturally rise. We’ll sell to them then and make more money than we would now."

Chen Peng and the others listened and nodded in admiration.

Truthfully, in the Central Continent, none of the people have this concept of real estate development yet.

The reason Yang Xiao invited everyone over for free, besides flourishing the city and strengthening its power, is that in the future, selling and renting houses could earn a huge income, far surpassing the small amount of money offered for free today.

Yang Xiao pointed at the map,

"Besides developing this open space within the city, this large area on the west side of the city, all the way to the foot of this mountain, is the future expansion space for our City of Hope. I need to plan this well, developing it as a city for five million people,

and there’s an order that needs to be issued: inside and outside the city, private building of houses is not allowed. All land belongs to the City Lord."

Elder Qi and others listened, smiled, and said,

"City Lord, if in the future we can truly develop to a population of five million, we could rival the number one city on the Central Continent."

Everyone, though disbelieving inside, didn’t want to contradict Yang Xiao, after all, he is the City Lord.

Everyone followed along with a few words of praise.

Yang Xiao understood everyone’s thoughts but didn’t care at all, continuing,

"The current City of Hope is too backward, too closed off. As city construction, we first need to address a few fundamental infrastructures: water supply, electricity, and road traffic. These three tasks must be put on the agenda immediately."

Other cities outside the Central Continent are highly developed, with perfect infrastructure like electricity, water supply, and road traffic.

But the Central Continent is the Abandoned Continent, the Sinister Continent, and compared to other places on the Dwarf Star, it’s still in a very backward stage, much like the gap between cities and mountainous rural areas on Earth.

Le Ting excitedly shouted,

"City Lord, if we can build electricity and water supply, it would be great for us. Our city level will immediately be raised a notch. It would no longer be just a primitive fortress but a step towards a modern city.

But how do we establish power stations and water supply?"

Yang Xiao smiled and said,

"Other cities on the Dwarf Star have power stations, why can’t we establish a power station here? Go outside and invite people over to set up a power station,

also, five to six kilometers away from us, there’s a river. We can direct the river water into the city.

We can establish a water company and an electricity company, bringing water and electricity to every household. This way, we can also charge some water and electricity fees every month, right?"

"..."

Everyone looked at Yang Xiao in a dazed manner, wondering why they hadn’t thought of such a simple solution.

In fact, it wasn’t that they hadn’t thought of it, but in the previous environment, no one was willing to invest in these things.

When everyone felt unsure about their future, who would invest in these long-term undertakings and city infrastructure?

"Elder Qi, how much money did the previous City Lord leave?"

Elder Qi heard this and laughed,

"Da E and previous city lords operated for decades, even hundreds of years, and dug a huge underground treasury in the City Lord Mansion, with the stored Crystal Disks estimated to be in the billions."

"Ah? That much!"

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock at this revelation.

Yang Xiao slapped the table and exclaimed,

"Great, with this money, it’s enough for us to do something big."

...

The planning and construction of the new city began to proceed vigorously.

Yang Xiao sent people outside the Central Continent to bring in a professional electricity construction company to build a nuclear power plant in the city.

The nuclear power plants on the Dwarf Star were entirely different from the nuclear power plants in Yang Xiao’s memories of Earth. They were not only highly safe, with no radiation and no pollution, but also took up very little space,

designed for the power demand of five million people in Yang Xiao’s long-term plan, occupying only 2,000 square meters and about 20 meters high.

After three months of construction, the nuclear power plant successfully connected to the grid and started generating electricity.

When every household started using electricity, the whole city was in a state of excitement.

And the water supply construction was even simpler, it took just one month to bring the clear river water as a domestic water supply into every home.

City of Hope’s residents now held Yang Xiao in unparalleled reverence; in their eyes, Yang Xiao was entirely different from other city lords. The young, handsome, and sunny Lord Yang was practically the Savior in their hearts,

and Yang Xiao had even become the dream lover of many young girls in the city, with some even commissioning Elder Qi and others to propose marriage, but Yang Xiao had politely declined them all.

In three months, electricity was connected, water was supplied, new residential areas were expanded, and commercial avenues were rebuilt.

Dozens of commercial teams in the city began to specialize in transporting goods from outside the Central Continent, making the City’s products more and more abundant, many of which could not be found in other cities within the Central Continent.

The establishment of the power station increased the number of household appliances available, which people needed.

The reputation of the City of Hope also began to spread to surrounding cities, and during these three months, approximately 50,000 people migrated from nearby cities.

Now, with electricity, water supply, cheaper and more abundant everyday items,

a good living environment, low costs, and guaranteed safety and dignity, more and more people wished to move, and it started to grow explosively.

Titan City, being quite close to the City of Hope, was impacted the most.

City Lord Black Wood listened to the report from his subordinates and slapped the table,

"Wow, in just one month, 30,000 people have moved to Death Castle?

They dare to poach people from me; are they tired of living? Watch me not destroy them!"