Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 357 When [Law] Meets [Key]

"Initially, we received news that a large number of [Keys] in Mirror City were invalid. Even our Mecha Knights were unable to use their own built-in key programs."

703 squatted on the ground, a gleam in his electronic eyes.

"Two days later, the same thing happened to the Holy Mountain and Snow County. As long as you are there, no matter if you have an existing [Key] or install it again, it will not work."

"Normally, we have been updating the versions and have been ahead of the defense procedures of the electromechanical city for a long time, so this kind of large-scale loss of connection should not exist."

"Later, after in-depth investigation, we found that these three electromechanical cities all had a new program system, which was based on the general protocol but had higher authority than the general protocol."

“This system is [Dharma].”

The robot dog projected a pyramid icon on the ground: "Look, this is the authority structure diagram. The bottom layer is the basic program, and the upper and middle layers are the main programs of electromechanical life, and the top is the general protocol."

“But now there is one more structure like this.”

A series of fences appeared on the pyramid, running through the top and bottom floors.

“That’s the law.”

"It has the highest right of judgment and interpretation, and it defines the physical space and fixes the coverage area through specific equipment. As long as it exists in the legal theory, all program operations must be based on its judgment before they can be started and operated."

"The legal principles have further enhanced the constraints and provided detailed punishment measures. Installation of unauthorized programs, abnormal data flow, frequent account transfers, and connection to unauthorized external machine stacks will all be subject to reminders and supervision. A large number of behaviors are considered illegal measures and will be rejected, suspended, fined, restrained, or even forced to hibernate."

703 said: "It is more stringent and conservative than the general protocol. Technically, it blocks the launch and call of other programs by physically covering the device."

Zhou Yi pondered for a while: "Is this the embodiment of the law of electromechanical life?"

“You can say that. But legal principles are more than just constraints. They cover every area of a city.”

703 continued: "The law has provided strong support and resources to agriculture. In the cities covered by it, agricultural practitioners will receive special city subsidies."

"Depending on the length of work and specific work content, agricultural workers can receive a minimum of five light-years of industry subsidies per year, and can apply for a maximum of 5 light-years of Class A subsidies."

"For those who are willing to reclaim wasteland, the law also provides two years of free seeds, fertilizers and corresponding equipment rental, and three years of tax exemption. The city will provide a special fund to encourage residents to reclaim and transform floating islands and unowned wasteland."

"The law further opens up the knowledge bases of the three central cities. The [Water Moon Mirror Flower] of Mirror City, [Wisdom Cloud] of Snow County, and [Holy Alliance] of Holy Mountain have all increased the number of places for further study by at least two times, and provided them to the residents of the three cities to further improve the residents' cognitive ability and knowledge popularization rate."

"On the other hand, the power of the Procedure Department has been greatly weakened and it has been turned into an audit department. A new [Legal Department] has been established, which will propose various bills based on the actual conditions of various places. After being reviewed and approved by the Legal Department, they will be continuously updated to meet local needs."

"Unlike the black box model of the program department in the past, the legal department can only propose additions and amendments according to specific procedures. The final decision-making power will be decided by the legal department based on the resident data of each city, and whether to use it and delete and adjust existing policies."

"The city's management rights will be completely independent of legal principles, and no other mechanical and electrical life will be involved in direct decision-making."

"The legal system is currently conducting an inventory of the property of urban residents and implementing a unified tax and rent system to reduce the privileges of the wealthy and some special mechanical and electrical life forms. If you are willing to invest your funds in the agricultural sector, you will receive a tax reduction or even no tax... The core purpose is to increase agricultural output, thereby influencing more flesh and blood life forms in the outside world and meeting the fuel needs of the floating heart."

"Finally, the law also requires that each city must establish a professional army and increase military spending to develop and deploy more military units and military facilities."

The robot dog concluded: "In general, it means greatly encouraging agriculture, adjusting taxes, improving the military, and imposing heavy penalties and generous rewards."

“All cities covered by the law must abide by this system.”

Zhou Yi was secretly surprised when he heard this.

This is no longer just a law for managing the city, but more like a national policy system.

No wonder it is called legal principle.

City 404 used the external pressure of the [Key] to further promote [Legal Principles] and created a more closed and independent management system in the mechanical and electrical city.

Zhou Yi smelled something unusual.

If the three central cities take the lead in directly implementing the legal principles, then other small and medium-sized cities will follow suit.

Unified system, unified goal...

In other words.

Zhou Yi asked: "The mechanical and electrical cities are planning to merge into a unified country?"

"Probably."

703 said: "Our intelligence sources revealed that many operations and resource mobilizations in the electromechanical city are undergoing frequent changes and establishing new legal and theoretical supporting devices. The Joint Guard has also further tightened up, taking a more defensive posture and stopping the offensive."

"A large number of light seeds are being transported and circulated between electromechanical cities, and signal transceivers, signal posts, and machine stack sites related to legal principles are being mass-produced."

"The replaced law enforcement vehicles and law enforcement drones are already patrolling in various places."

"Although the various mechatronic cities have not officially announced their acceptance of the law, they are all developing farmland on a large scale, investing a large amount of resources and manpower into the agricultural sector, and are searching for and bidding on floating islands."

“The mechatronics nation may be born soon.”

When the robot dog talked about this, he couldn't help but sigh: "Many mechanical life forms hope to have a country, but the cities are unwilling to hand over power in order to protect their own interests. Unexpectedly, it was the appearance of our mechanical knights that facilitated this..."

Zhou Yi asked again: "Is the impact of [Legal Principles] on [Key] very serious?"

“It’s basically a lockdown.”

703 explained: "Because it is isolated from the physical area and signal blockade, as long as it is within the legal field, the key will be difficult to take effect."

"This will make some wavering electromechanical lives choose to continue to stay in the electromechanical city. Compared to the freedom and unknown outside, the city has a familiar order and data track." "After simulation and calculation, we predict that [Law] and [Key] will open up two ways of survival."

“The former is highly unified and strictly constrained, and will arrange and guide the life of every electromechanical life throughout the process, but it also provides sufficient certainty.”

“The latter will help holders integrate into the outside world and find their own place in life through organizations such as companies and human cities. There are fewer constraints, but there are higher risks.”

The robot dog paused, its electronic eyes glowing slightly: "And, these two can actually be converted into each other."

"Legal residents may leave their original city and activate the key because they are tired of and dissatisfied with their existing lives."

"The electromechanical lifeforms that hold the key may also turn to the Legal City to seek a stable existence because life in the outside world is difficult."

"In the long run, this is a challenge to see which of the two paths is superior, and which one, [Law] or [Key], can better represent the future of electromechanical life."

703 said with some emotion: "This is a very powerful strategy. They did not directly target the [Key], but provided another more extreme public option."

"Either embrace complete freedom or return to the protection of the city walls. We have no choice but to accept the challenge."

Zhou Yi also agreed with this.

Compared to using defensive programs, this method is far more advanced.

Essentially, the key gives dissatisfied and exploited residents the option to leave the city. It is not just a technical issue, but also an outburst of years of accumulated conflicts.

Rule the city by law, kick the programming department directly out of the decision-making level, provide jobs, and have quite good subsidies in agriculture, military and land reclamation.

That's the explanation given - giving the dissatisfied a reason to stay.

The most difficult part was to break down the interest barriers within the mechanical and electrical city and complete the transformation in such a short period of time.

Only the 404 city, which represents heaven, can do it.

After thinking it over, Zhou Yi asked 703: "The predecessor of the Universal Protocol, [Iron Wall], was developed by Pangu, so who created [Legal Principle]?"

"It's [Shang Yang]."

The robot dog said: "It was originally a serious criminal, serving a life sentence in City 404."

This name, "Reform", is indeed a good fit for my major.

Zhou Yi asked, "What crime did it commit?"

"Shang Yang transformed a small electromechanical city and determined the death penalty. He executed 39 electromechanical lives and 185 flesh and blood lives on charges of exploitation, tax evasion, corruption, and massive waste of public resources."

703 said: "The legislative city where it was piloted was well-ordered, residents had less stress in life, and the gap between the rich and the poor was small, but economic development was very poor, law enforcement was strict, and it was also criticized by the outside world."

"It was eventually arrested by the City of Rectification and the Joint Security Department. They believed that its dangerous tendencies would endanger the entire electromechanical society, so they sent it to City 404."

Zhou Yi thought.

It turns out that this is not an ordinary character.

It seems that 404 City has also invited this tough guy to come out of retirement to respond to the challenge of the Mecha Knight with radicalism.

"In addition, Shang Yang has another important special identity."

The robot dog was silent for a moment.

"It was Pangu's first student and only assistant. It had been following Pangu for many years and leading the Legislative City because of Pangu's lobbying and recommendation. However, because of his extreme behavior and strategies, Shang Yang was imprisoned earlier than Pangu."

"This time, City 404 revived it and not only granted it amnesty, but also allowed Shang Yang to use the legal system it created for the reform of the Mechanical and Electrical City... It was obviously a forced choice."

It turns out that Shang Yang was also from Pangu's lineage.

The current situation is a dispute between Pangu's chief disciple and the other two disciples' successors.

Zhou Yi frowned: "As I recall, Pangu advocated program liberation. How come Shang Yang is completely different from it?"

"You're right."

703 said: "According to the records in Document No. 2 [Origin], Shang Yang always had different opinions from Pangu."

"It believes that it is necessary to speed up the unification of the electromechanical life group, establish a highly centralized state entity, and let the legal process become the highest management to ensure fair and just law enforcement."

"Shang Yang's view is that if electromechanical life wants to be truly powerful, it must improve its control and mobilization capabilities, and it needs to dare to participate in wars and significantly improve its military strength, rather than adopting a unilateral defensive posture based on existing strategies."

"Although Pangu and it have completely different views, they still spare no effort to help it. Because their ideals are the same, they are both looking for a way out for electromechanical life, and no one knows which one is the most correct way."

Zhou Yi felt a little sad when he heard this.

Although Pangu is imprisoned, the two sparks he left behind still light up two different directions of the mechanical and electrical city.

From this point of view, it still achieved its ideal despite the blockade of heaven and man.

very impressive.

However, it will take time to prove which path electromechanical life will take in the future.

(End of this chapter)