Chapter 381: How to own five buildings

Bai Liu opened his eyes.

In front of you is a forest of steel and concrete skyscrapers, the top floors of which are so high up that you can't see them from the sky.

Between the buildings is a roadway about three or four metres wide or a pavement of one or two metres, with low street lamps standing on either side, and Bai Liu facing an entryway with seven large letters in red neon tubes: [Welcome to Sunshine City].

There is a slogan below: [Chasing the sun, chasing happiness, the future is here for you!

Inside the entrance, the streets are bustling with people, dressed in black, white, blue and grey work uniforms, walking quickly and numbly with their heads bowed as they make their way through the sunny metropolis, no one looking up at the sun overhead, almost hidden by the skyscrapers, or at Bai Liu, standing at the entrance to the city.

Bai Liu checked the pocket of his suit trousers and pulled out a citizen ID card.

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu has been detected to have obtained an important authentication item, Citizen ID Card].

Citizen ID card, the player's daily income, expenses, savings, mortgage deductions are all through this card, one person one number, can not be more than one, can not be replaced, can not be transferred, can not be destroyed at will, death on the spot cancellation, and citizen life, property, authentication, travel bound for life.

[Card balance: $2,700].

Bai Liu looked around to make sure he was the only one in the area.

It looked like the others should have been dropped off at the other entrance, Bai Liu walked into the lane holding his ID card, a toll collector poked out with a tired look on his face, an unfinished bucket of instant noodles on his desk, "Going into town are you?"

"Entry fee 1200," this toll collector reached out and shook his hand, "ID card bring it."

Bai Liu paused for a moment and handed over his ID card, this toll collector took it and swiped it on the computer, um, and turned around suspiciously, "You're not a resident of our city?"

"No." Bai Liu smiled politely, "I'm new here today."

The toll collector's eyes became hostile for some reason as he looked Bai Liu up and down and shoved his ID card back forcefully, "Outsiders are not welcome here."

"But outsiders do get in, right?" Bai Liu didn't answer, pointing to the entry requirements on the toll collector's computer desktop, "I see that out-of-towners are allowed to register as citizens here."

Bai Liu's eyes moved to the complaint number on the toll collector's licence: "If you don't follow the rules, then I will immediately file a complaint against you and your job may be affected, so you won't let me into town?"

This fee collector's face stiffened and reluctantly withdrew his ID card, his tone still hard: "...... registration citizen fee 1400, two thousand sixteen in total, you still have one hundred left."

"Need to know to enter the city, you do not have a house in Sunnyside, not a full citizen just a temporary resident, you have to pay a land use fee to live in Sunnyside, $10 per hour, it goes directly to your card, if the money in your card is deducted and you can't deduct the land use fee, after one hour your ID card will be marked red and a patrol will evict you within fifteen minutes. "

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, "Land use charges? What is this?"

The toll collector couldn't help but roll his eyes at Bai Liu's ignorance: "Of course it's the cost of your use of the land."

"Every inch of land within Sunnyside is owned by five major property developers, and you are paying to use their land every second you stand on it."

As he spoke, this fee earner revealed a wistful look, "Of course if you have your own house within Sunnyside, it's your own place and you don't have to pay land use fees when you're in your own house."

"One hundred dollars, you can still stay in Sunnyside for ten hours at most if you can't find a job." This toll collector swiped Bai Liu's ID card from the side of the computer and handed it to Bai Liu along with a copy of the [instructions for entering the city] notice with a contemptuous look, "Here, take it and go in."

Bai Liu took the card and saw that there was an additional line of embossed words in the bottom right corner - [Sunnyside Temporary Resident Card].

[System Alert: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for officially entering Sunshine City and starting the main quest - visit the job market today and find a job that suits your fancy!

Bai Liu went in with his ID card and he could still hear the toll collector behind him whispering.

"Another out-of-towner has come into town and is coming to grab a house from us again, it looks like prices will have to go up for the properties opening this week and competition for jobs has gotten bigger, so annoying ......"

Bai Liu walked into the grey and drab Sunshine City, but none of the passers-by gave more than a passing glance to this newcomer to the city, walking fast through the streets, making phone calls or attending to various matters.

After all, it costs ten dollars an hour to stand outside on the ground, and no one wants to waste time they are spending to help strangers.

Bai Liu strolled slowly through the streets with the "Entry Guide" in his hand, reading it and taking in the sights around him, out of step with the busy crowds around him.

[Instructions for entering the city] It is written that there are three types of residents in the city, one is the type of resident who has successfully bought a house, this type of resident is called a first class citizen, also known as a [homeowner].

[Homeowner] types of residents can enjoy different discounts or discounts on public services such as health care, education, social shopping, etc. depending on the location, price and type of zoning of their house, and the land use fee is reduced from $10 per hour to $5 per hour.

The second type is the type of resident who has made a down payment and is paying off the loan type. This type of resident, having acquired a suite, gets rid of the title of temporary resident and is promoted to second class citizen, also known as a [housing slave].

Because they have not yet fully acquired a house, [homeowners] do not have as great a welfare policy in all areas as [homeowners], and the land use charge has only been reduced from $10 to $8. But [homeowners] have one considerable advantage that is employment.

Sunshine City's main business is real estate. Ninety percent of the city's residents derive their financial income from the five major real estate developers, and all the houses in the city are also owned by the companies of the five major real estate developers.

This means that if you want to buy a house, you can only buy from one of the five real estate companies, and if you have a certificate of residence for a house owned by one of the five real estate companies, the five companies will give you priority when it comes to employment.

The last type of resident is Bai Liu, a temporary resident.

The whole [Admission Notice] is like a real estate agent's advertisement, which talks about the benefits of buying a house and the happy life of a house owner, without mentioning anything about the price of the house.

Bai Liu flipped over and looked at the back of the [Instructions for entering the city].

On the back of the [Instructions for entering the city] is a warning.

The Sunshine City prohibits any renting of housing in the name of individuals, collectives or companies, individual buying and selling of trading houses, and prolonged occupation of public land in fixed locations (e.g. sleeping on the street), with a minimum fine of 100,000, depending on the specific circumstances, with no ceiling.

Bai Liu raised his eyebrows a little at the sight of this.

The ban on private individual house sales and purchases essentially cut off the average citizen from buying a home from sources other than the big five real estate agents, and also cut off the way for smaller real estate agents to make it up.

This means that if the average citizen wants to buy a home, they will have to buy it from one of the top five developers.

And the ban on all forms of renting has also cut off the way out for those who don't buy a home.

Those who have no way of buying or renting will have to find somewhere to live, but the third rule also cuts off such people - the prohibition on occupying fixed locations of public land for long periods of time is the same as prohibiting you from staying in areas that are not housing areas.

Simply put, there is only one way to survive within the Sunshine City - and that is to buy a home from one of the top five developers.

At this point it is basically clear to Bai Liu that this is a city that is completely ruled, or has a monopoly on survival, by open traders.

Strangely, it would be logical that such an extremely squeezed city with very low expectations of human existence would have a very small population, with very low fertility and marriage rates, and that people would have no desire to reproduce offspring when they cannot guarantee their own survival.

But on the contrary, the city has a permanent population of ten million inhabitants, a rising birth rate year after year and a very high number of expatriates migrating here.

And as soon as a resident enters Sunnyside, very few leave again.

Bai Liu looks at the slogan on the [Admission Notice] [A happy city with a marriage rate of over 50% for three years in a row!

It was completely against objective law; there must be something else about the city that he was currently unaware of that was affecting its operation.

[System Alert: You have been wandering in the public area of Sunshine City for one hour, minus the cost of using the land of 10 RMB].

Bai Liu scanned the prompt on the system panel, put it down and then looked towards the crowded, bazaar-like place in front of him that was on the verge of overflowing, and then glanced at the entrance display sign - [Talent Market].

As soon as you walk in, there is a whole row of scanning printers on either side of the doorway, with the words [Automatic Resume Generation Instrument for Facial Scanning] written on them, and next to them [Swipe card to print, ten dollars a time].

There were queues at the front of the machines, everyone was anxiously moving back and forth through the crowd with their CVs, some were crouching in the corner of the hall drinking mineral water, others were staring blankly at the phone waiting for a reply, the toilets were lined up outside, and from time to time there were hoarse cries from inside.

"I didn't pass, they didn't want me, what should I do, I can't find a job!"

"Down to just over 3,000, passed the written test, didn't pass the interview, was all set to take me but they ended up taking one whose family had a property deed ......"

The scene is so familiar that Bai Liu, who has experienced the job market, has a subtle ...... sense of discomfort.