After clearing the game, I became the villain BOSS

After the combat meeting, Su Mo drove the Black Ark alone and returned to Crescent City overnight.

Thinking back to the first time I entered Crescent City, I saw the wonders of a high-tech city everywhere I looked. Although upon closer inspection I could sense the depression buried beneath the city's glamour, it was still very prosperous overall.

But now, all that remains here is the depression caused by the war.

The victory in the Battle of Iron Sun really gave a shot in the arm to those who wanted to rebel against the world government and giant corporations, and they were all encouraged.

But encouragement cannot feed you.

Under the previous war policy of the World Government, the social operating structure was severely damaged.

The factories that were supposed to produce synthetic food had their civilian equipment replaced and were now producing military guns and bullets.

The strategic reserves were severely depleted, and the grain reserves that were originally enough to feed the entire city's residents for a year were taken away by the military early on and shipped to the front line.

Even the most basic resource - human resources - has been exploited beyond recognition.

A large number of healthy young and middle-aged people were forcibly recruited into the mobilized army, and the population structure of the entire Crescent City has become unbalanced.

All these factors combined to add fuel to Crescent City’s predicament.

Even if the city was indeed under control of the mutiny initiated by Styenkov, it would probably take more than a day or two to restore normal operations.

Su Mo was flying the hovercraft at a low altitude near the ground. Looking around, he saw rubble and gravel everywhere on the streets, all traces of the previous fierce battle between the security forces and the Shangting Guards.

The once bustling commercial street is now reduced to ruins destroyed by artillery fire. The walls of many buildings are riddled with bullet holes, and some have completely collapsed, leaving only a few broken steel bars exposed.

The vegetation and trees on both sides of the road were withered and broken, leaving only bare trunks and a few dead branches trembling in the cold wind. Occasionally, a few dead leaves were picked up by the wind and flew away in a circle.

A huge city like Crescent City should be a city that never sleeps, with bright lights and partying every night. But now the streets are deserted, with no roar of vehicles or noise of crowds, only refugees everywhere.

In the corner of the alley, there was a mother carrying her dying child on her back. Her face was covered with dried tears and dust, and she was rummaging through the trash can for leftovers.

But she was destined to be disappointed.

In today's environment, food is more precious than diamonds.

The only people who can still have enough food and clothing are probably the wealthy people who have underground storage rooms.

Ordinary people could only eat the relief food rationed by the city council every day, which was not enough to fill their stomachs. Everyone was eager to suck off the bread crumbs that fell on their clothes.

Leftovers? Almost non-existent.

Even if there really is, in a trash can like this one that has been turned over by many people, the leftovers would have been picked up by others long ago.

In the end, the mother only found an old coat from the trash can, which was full of holes like a rag.

She shook it out and wrapped it tightly around the child, trying to give him some warmth, but the cold wind of late winter still penetrated mercilessly through the holes.

The child's face was as pale as paper, and he was shivering with cold. There was no light in his eyes that should be seen at his age. He just stared at the night sky numbly.

A small square, which used to be a leisure place for residents in the surrounding area to take a walk after dinner, is now severely damaged.

The statues in the square have collapsed, broken stones are scattered all over the ground, and the fountain pool is filled with sewage and garbage.

A dozen refugees sat around a makeshift bonfire, burning various picked up garbage to keep warm. The firelight highlighted the fatigue on their faces, and their eyes reflected the dancing flames, but they seemed to see no hope.

An old man who had been out came back and took out a few bags of dry bread from his pocket. They were relief food that had just been distributed by the city council.

Several men and women wanted to run over to take it, but the old man covered the bread with his hand, shook his head, pointed at the younger children, and signaled that the children should eat first.

The men and women drew back, swallowing, and the children trotted over to catch the bread and devour it greedily.

There was a child who was obviously skinny, but he didn't come to get food on his own initiative. He sat in the corner with his head down. He might have autism or other intellectual disabilities.

He was holding a stone he had picked up, carving circles on the ground, and then drawing straight lines radiating outward around the circles.

It is a sun that illuminates the darkness.

The destruction brought by the war is everywhere, and every corner of Crescent City is filled with pain, but in those ruins, you can still see people of all kinds surviving tenaciously, waiting for the dawn that will come at an unknown time.

Sumer took a hovercraft across the city and first went to the municipal building in the municipal center.

In the past, the municipal center area belonged to the city council office area, and outsiders were not allowed to enter unless they had an official appointment.

But after Stychenkov came to power, he opened the city to the outside world and vacated all non-essential office facilities to accommodate refugees.

Things like large conference rooms that are used less than twice a year and oversized office buildings built for image projects are empty anyway, so it would be better to let people live in them.

Although it is impossible to accommodate everyone, we will try to accommodate as many people as possible.

Moreover, Schenkov has his own way of controlling human nature. He knows very well that what is worrying is not the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of wealth.

If we accommodate whoever arrives first, some people will inevitably be dissatisfied and chaos will arise.

Therefore, he only accommodates vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, infants, and the disabled. This not only maximizes the use of the facilities but also reduces countless gossips.

When Schenkov learned of Sumer's arrival, he quickly came out to greet him. The two brothers, who had formed a deep friendship in the past years, shook hands vigorously and bumped shoulders with each other.

Schenkov said excitedly: "The Battle of Tieyang was won well, it was fought beautifully!"

Su Mo smiled and shook his head: "It has nothing to do with me. The main reason is that Lang Xi's people are very strong and they fought the whole game without collapsing. Then Dongzi killed Aso Ichiro in seconds, so we won so quickly."

Sichenkov laughed: "After all these years, what surprises me the most is Dongdong. She was a street thug back then, but now she has become the pillar of our family."

"A subordinate of mine told me a few days ago that he captured Dongdong a few years ago, confiscated her prosthetic arm, and was spit on by her. I don't know if this is true or if the guy is just bragging, haha."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two got back to the topic.

Su Mo asked: "What's the situation in New Moon City?"

Schenkov: "The seizure of power was quite smooth. The prosthetics that your engineers will create in the future based on the "Human Documents" are truly amazing. Their quality is in no way inferior to the authentic products of the Iron Blood Federation."

"The same is true for the blood code mixture and the blood-activating factor. The progress of the carrier's cultivation is frighteningly fast."

"After the Anti-Violence Section 4 wiped out the Upper Court Guards, the city was completely under our control, but..."

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh: "The situation is not as optimistic as imagined. There are more than 30 million people in Crescent City, which means more than 30 million mouths to feed."

"The strategic material reserves have already reached the bottom. It will take time for various military production lines to be converted to civilian use, and urban reconstruction will not be a matter of one or two days."

"And the more times like this, the more unpredictable people's hearts are. Even though everyone was united in the execution of Charles, once the passion died down, all kinds of petty thefts, arson, murder and looting emerged. In short, it was a mess."

Su Mo smiled, with some deep meaning in his eyes, and said: "People are all the same, with good sides and bad sides."

"Governing a city is so difficult, what will it be like to govern the world? Sometimes it's really hard to imagine."

Sichenkov joked: "Hey, don't be like Zhao Yiming and open champagne at halftime. We haven't won yet."

Su Mo burst out laughing after hearing this.

Schenkov continued to ask: "What are your plans for the future? What do you need me to do?"

Su Mo shook his head: "Don't worry about the war, just leave it to me. Just take care of Xinyue City, resume production as soon as possible, organize the reconstruction of the city, and don't let anything big happen here again."

Schenkov: "No problem, I'll do it."

After finishing the meeting with Schenkov, Sumer set out to return to the Edge Building.

Most of the marginal mercenaries have gone to Tieyang, but there are still enough people left in the building, and they are all trustworthy elite members.

On the one hand, decapitation tactics must be guarded against.

Although Crescent City is far from the front line and the Edge Building has a complete defense system, there is no guarantee that the enemy will send a small secret force to attack here.

If this happens, someone needs to protect the safety of the companions in the rear, and even if they cannot defeat them, they must cover their transfer and evacuation as soon as possible.

On the other hand, to put it bluntly, the main thing to guard against is the "people around you" in Crescent City.

When Sumer returned to the Edge Building, there were already a lot of people gathered outside, estimated to be several hundred in number, all of whom were refugees displaced from the city.

The mercenary guards were blocking the door with weapons in hand, while KK was talking to them anxiously.

"It's really not possible. Those are for our own internal use and we can't separate them."

"Please, give us something to eat, we are really hungry!"

"I understand how you feel, but we have our own people to take care of."

"You have so many supplies, it won't hurt if you share some with us!"

“It really can’t be done.”

"Please! Just do it as a good deed!"

Just when KK was surrounded by the crowd, Su Mo appeared.

"Brother!" KK was overjoyed and relieved to see Su Mo return safely.

Su Mo walked up the stairs, glanced at the refugees below, and asked KK: "What's going on?"

KK lowered his voice and said helplessly: "We have supplies in our building all year round, and these people want us to share some with them."

A woman holding a child begged, "Captain Su, we know you are a good person, please give us some food!"

Su Mo shook his head: "Sorry, I can't give it to you."

The woman asked anxiously, "Why? You obviously have so many things."

Su Mo: "If I give you supplies, when the news spreads, a lot of people will come to ask me for them. So what do you think, should I give them to you or not?"

"Here, even if I distributed all the supplies in the building, I wouldn't be able to give them to everyone."

"If I don't, they'll accuse me of favoritism and harbor hatred towards me for no reason. I don't want to be a good person and still be scolded."

The refugees were quick-witted. Someone took the lead and shouted, "We are doing this secretly. We will never tell anyone! If anyone tells anyone, the whole family will be killed! Don't you agree?"

Regardless of whether they swore a real oath or just pretended to do so, the refugees responded one after another and promised not to tell anyone about the incident.

Su Mo smiled helplessly: "It still doesn't work. Just like KK said, we stockpiled these supplies ourselves. We have our own people to take care of. We can't provide more help to others now."

"But we are really hungry!" The woman took the child out and said, "Look at my son, he is so hungry that there is no flesh on his face. Please help us."

Su Mo still shook his head: "The various aid points set up by the city council will distribute relief food. Each person can receive a fixed amount every day. Although it is true that they cannot eat enough, at least they will not starve to death."

"I'm sorry to say this - please be patient for now, don't ask for too much, just survive for now."

After saying that, Sumer did not respond to the refugees anymore. He took KK into the building and left the mercenary guarding the door there.

Seeing Su Mo leave like this, the woman became anxious and said without thinking: "Why are you so selfish!"

Su Mo stopped where he was.

The originally noisy scene suddenly fell silent, leaving only a few whispers.

Someone quietly tugged at the woman's clothes and whispered, "Captain Su is helping us fight. How can you say that about him?"

The people around also echoed.

"Yeah, you're not right to say that."

"Giving is a favor, not giving is a duty, how can it be called selfish."

"You should apologize right away."

Are these words coming from the heart?

Or is he just worried about angering Sumer?

It’s unknown.

The woman realized her mistake and lowered her head to apologize to Su Mo: "I'm sorry, Captain Su, I was too anxious just now and spoke without thinking."

Su Mo turned around and looked at everyone.

Many scenarios have been imagined.

The worst case scenario would definitely be that Su Mo would get angry and say how hard he had been fighting in the front, and how he had to be scolded by them when he came back, and he would scold them.

In this situation, there's nothing to say and just disperse. Being scolded is no big deal, but if the other person gets angry and quits fighting, they will be the ones who will suffer.

It is also possible that the woman's words were very successful in inspiring Su Mo to change his mind and be willing to distribute supplies to everyone. This would naturally be the best.

However, Su Mo's reaction at this time was a little unexpected.

He was not angry, nor did he agree. He just smiled bitterly at everyone and said, "To be honest, there are indeed sufficient supplies in the Edge Building. If we secretly take them out and share them, there won't be any serious consequences."

"The main reason why I didn't give it is that I want to maintain the quality of life of my companions. Even in such turbulent times, I still want them to have a decent life and not live in embarrassment."

"The lady is right, it was selfish of me to do this."

"But humans are selfish. No matter what happens, they always think of themselves and the people around them first. That's why there are so many injustices and sufferings in this world."

At this point, Su Mo's smile became complicated, and he said faintly: "I am not a god, I am just an ordinary person."