Chương 3517: Chapter 2648: Mayfly Heaven and Earth (Thirteen)
October in Mexico was still scorching, and the first thing Shiller did when he got off the plane was to quickly put on the souvenir visor hat that Clark had bought for him. It took him half a day to get used to the terrible UV rays and the overly bright everything. Now he knew why Arrogant would rather remote control from afar than come here; this place was meant for Superman's happy hometown, even Batman would be sun-dried into a bat here.
As soon as he stepped out of Mexico City's airport gates, a heat wave hit him head-on, and the rippling of the air was clearly visible within sight.
The first stop on Shiller's agenda was the Great Aztec Pyramid, the most well-preserved relic of the Aztec civilization in the world and also the largest pyramid. It was once thought to be a relic left by aliens.
Martin followed behind Shiller, seemingly very nostalgic for the climate of his hometown, wearing flip-flops, holding a palm-leaf fan, and donning a sombrero that was a size larger than Shiller's hat, matched with a T-shirt printed with cartoon characters.
As Shiller walked out the door, he noticed that the vast majority were dressed just like Martin: short sleeves paired with long shorts, flip-flops, and sun visors.
Shiller was also in short sleeves, but he wore sun protection arm sleeves, long pants, and sports shoes. What was more, the fancy souvenir hat on his head made it obvious at a glance that he was a tourist who could be taken advantage of.
Sure enough, the black car drivers at the door came up enthusiastically, babbling in heavily accented Spanish which Shiller couldn't understand at all.
At this moment, Martin stepped forward and shouted a few words at the drivers. Shiller could make out some numbers—it seemed they were haggling over the price.
Then a tall, dark, and muscular driver stepped forward and began speaking with Martin. Shiller could tell their accents were similar; it seemed both were from the south. After a short while, Martin waved to Shiller and said, "Let's go, we'll head to the hotel first."
Shiller said nothing, picked up his luggage, and headed for the car. Throughout the ride, Martin was chatting with his fellow countryman, and the driver occasionally looked back at Shiller.
The car had air conditioning, but since it had been parked in the sun for too long, all the parts were hot to the touch, making it a bit stuffy inside. The driver turned on the radio and tuned it to a music channel, from which a cheerful Spanish tune played.
The construction of Mexico City has retained a lot of its original flavor, undergoing virtually no modernization. Many Baroque buildings and traditional Mexican houses could be seen, and the city was clean, tidy, and grand—a far cry from the many homeless seen in New York.
Martin was clearly proud. He said, "All ancient nations in this world have their pride. We pursue a stable way of life and maintain connections with the community and family, supporting and helping each other."
"We consider it a disgrace to our society to have the destitute among us. Government and community managers try their best to help the homeless, but they are not bankrupt. Instead, most of them have congenital diseases. There are special shelters and relief homes to aid them."
Shiller nodded. He knew that many people hold stereotypes about Mexico, thinking that everyone lives in slums, in abject poverty and chaos.
In fact, if one thinks carefully, Mexico rarely makes international news for unrest or economic collapse, with most references to it being about the US-Mexico border, and little is known about the lives of its population of over a hundred million people.
The truth is that Mexico's situation has been quite stable, and the lives of its people have been uneventful. After all, nearly two million square kilometers of land supports only a hundred million people. With the incredibly vast area of arable land, everyone could farm enough land to avoid going hungry and still have plenty left over.
The majority of the population is involved in agricultural production, growing corn, beans, and coffee. A smaller portion is engaged in handicrafts, making pottery, lacquerware, carving wood, and weaving gold and silver.
This industrial structure indeed makes it difficult to experience economic booms or busts. Politically, as America's backyard, America obviously wouldn't allow peace here. The problem is that during the Mexican-American War, they went too hard and united the Mexicans completely.
Like any country with a long and colonial history, it's a tale of lost land due to war. But this nation hasn't had the advantages of time, location, or people, and thus was thoroughly defeated.
Mexico is akin to a China that lost the war against the Japanese, having been plundered of countless quality lands and continuing to suffer oppression and infiltration by the United States, which transfers many of its criminal enterprises here.
Mexicans share a rich ancient civilization and, like most descendants of the Indians, place high importance on land and lineage and naturally cannot tolerate such humiliation.
Statistics show that the country with the least favorable view of America is not Japan, which had atomic bombs dropped on it, but Mexico; it's not just a lack of favor but naked hatred.
In Mexico, the vast majority are revanchists like Galado, blaming all their problems on America. But without the power to support it, most of this resentment remains as mere conversation.
With the advent of the Age of Space Exploration, America's powerful became even stronger, further dominating almost the entire Americas, leaving Mexico without any power to resist. People could only watch powerlessly as more and more companies with English words popped up and an increasing number of English-speaking people arrived here.
The driver obviously saw Shiller as one of them, eyeing him with the locals' characteristic wariness, yet doing it cautiously, aware that the scholars and technical workers who had recently come here were not to be trifled with.
They quickly arrived at the hotel, and Shiller got out of the car. Next to the hotel, he saw a brand-new building. Martin said, "This is the latest logistics center, mainly focused on corn processing, product packaging, and export business. It was built just two months ago, and the driver's family works here."
Shiller nodded and entered the hotel. As soon as he started up the stairs, he saw a group of unexpected people—the Mutant Brotherhood.
Magneto, unusually, wasn't dressed in his usual black and wasn't wearing his helmet. His silver hair was neatly combed back, and he wore a crisp suit with glasses, making him look like a highly respected scholar.
A strange blonde woman followed behind him, and Shiller realized it was Mystique. Odd, wasn't she supposed to be the Queen of the Shi'ar Empire? What brought her back here?
The few behind them were familiar figures, the typical lineup of the Mutant Brotherhood, except Polaris wasn't there, neither were the Scarlet Witch or Jarvis. What were they doing in Mexico?
By this time, Magneto had seen Shiller and also seemed a bit surprised, but he quickly composed himself and walked over to shake hands with Shiller.
After completing the hotel registration, Shiller didn't head to his room right away but followed Magneto and the others out of the hotel. Mystique took out the car keys to drive, while Magneto and Shiller found the nearest coffee shop to sit down.
"What's happening, Erik? What brings you to Mexico? How are things in the Andromeda Galaxy?"
"That's exactly why I'm here," Magneto replied concisely. "The Andromeda Galaxy is facing a food crisis."
Through Magneto's introduction, Shiller came to understand what had been happening in the Andromeda Galaxy recently.
After completing the initial phase of development, the Andromeda Galaxy began its first stage of immigration, but not all mutants were sent there, primarily those selected for their special utility in construction and production.
There weren't many such individuals, and the majority were concentrated in China. Over decades of nation-building, China had gathered countless talent for construction. They tightened their belts to offer very attractive terms to lure these mutants with special abilities in production and construction.
Even in the last century, when mutants were severely persecuted, China had become the final Utopia for mutants. Many mutants came seeking refuge there without any compensation, willing to work for free just to be safe.
At the time, European and American countries thought that these mutants would certainly cause great turmoil in Chinese society, so they were happy to see this happening, even actively driving these mutants to China, hoping that they would cause trouble here and distract China's attention.
Unfortunately for them, their wishes were in vain. No matter how troublesome the mutants were before, once they arrived in China, there were no more problems. Consequently, Europe and America started to propagate that China was exterminating mutants.
Because they simply couldn't understand how these troublemakers on their own turf could go to another country and become good citizens—surely, China must have killed them all.
In other words, European and American countries regarded these individuals as complete pests, and the only way to deal with them was to exterminate them.
However, as time entered the 21st century, they gradually realized something was amiss—why was this giant growing so quickly?
With the development of internet technology, they finally got a glimpse of the wonders. The super projects, which seemed impossible to complete, were invariably involving mutants.
Those who were regarded as terrorists capable of blowing up mountains constructed tunnels leading deep into those very mountains, and those considered superweapons that could destroy cities became Gods of the World ensuring bountiful harvests.
In China, the management of mutants had reached a virtuous cycle. The more powerful one's abilities, the more they could participate in large-scale projects. The more projects that were deemed feasible, the more jobs available for mutants, drawing them and their families to China.
The more mutants there were, the easier it was for ordinary people to understand what mutants were all about, thus reducing misunderstandings and discrimination. The more super-projects completed, the greater the impact on ordinary people's lives, the higher their goodwill towards this special group, the greater the social acceptance for mutants, and the easier it was to attract even more powerful mutants.
After decades of this positive cycle, any mutant with abilities that could be beneficial for construction had been welcomed by China, and now there were very few such talents scattered elsewhere.
When tallying the list for the first batch of relocations, Magneto and Professor X realized the problem—they had very few people capable of participating in the foundational construction. Some old friends they could contact also expressed that they were doing well in China and saw no need to go so far away.
Therefore, Magneto had to settle for a secondary plan, to make up for the lack of quality with quantity, or even if you didn't have the corresponding mutant abilities, it didn't matter. As long as you were willing to work on infrastructure development here, we would be willing to accept you.
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