Chapter 519 Model Employees and Model Cities   magic The announcement informed everyone that anyone interested would be employed under a temporary contract with Hephaestus Heavy Industries that came with some truly hefty perks. For twelve months, they would be employed with a salary of a thousand END per month, a per-diem meal allowance of a hundred and fifty END per month, free on-site housing, and each employee would receive a credit for a free future visit to a medical pod, should they ever require one.

Not only that, they would be given priority access to advanced courses and certification as electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, welders, and so on, should they choose to take that path. And with the first full month being essentially a paid vacation while they waited for the cities’ foundations to be laid, it was an excellent proposition. So they would be paid 12,000 END for the entire job, all while gaining an essential, marketable skill to prevent them from being unemployed in the future.

Once the realization sank in, billions of people rushed to the website to sign up for job placements with the construction crews. They knew that not everyone would be hired in the first round, but with a construction round beginning every month as the foundation crew moved from city site to city site, everyone would eventually get their turn. After all, with fifty thousand fortress cities slated for construction to house the seven billion imperial citizens, there was plenty of work to go around.

Along with the hiring of construction crews, more people would be hired, or kept on, as maintenance engineers responsible for cleaning, inspection, and minor repairs of the new cities. There was no experience requirement for either position, either, just that whoever signed up must be willing to work, and work hard, to complete the tasks in the time given and up to the standard required.

In the meantime, a model city had been “constructed” in the public simulation that they could go and tour, should they choose to do so. All of the cities would be built along the same general design; the only things that would differ were the individualized condos that people would be buying, or the detached houses for the more affluent. Leading from the first ring road to the government tower was a pristine walking boulevard separated by a long reflecting pool in the middle, which was made of black basalt rock polished to a mirror finish before being filled with clear water to twenty inches deep in order to promote reflectivity. Trees and decorative topiary bushes lined the sides of the boulevard, blocking the view of other maintenance structures and focusing visitors’ gaze on the government tower itself, which was a marvel of engineering that was narrow at the bottom, then gradually flared out and tapered to a point at the top, like a spear point thrusting from the ground.

Mirroring the rest of the city’s white and chrome design, it almost seemed to defy the laws of physics, especially compared to more “normal” skyscrapers that were angular and as broad at the base as they were at the roof, if not moreso. The only other difference, beyond the design itself, was that it was a windowless edifice meant to project the prestige of the empire and protect the secrets held within.

Naturally, it wasn’t open for public viewing.

The residential buildings began at the second ring road, across the street from the park district. Those on the second ring road itself were nearly as tall as the government building, perhaps losing out in height by a hundred feet or so. That trend continued as the buildings grew further from the city center, preserving an unobstructed view for people living in the top levels of each building, until the 40th ring road, which was populated by detached houses and compounds for the ultra-rich, which was a departure from previous city planning. In the current city structures, the closer one was to the city center, the more valuable their homes would be. But in the fortress cities, it was the opposite.

When the curious wanderers finally entered each towering skyscraper, they discovered that they were self-contained worlds unto themselves. The first floor was filled with luxuries and entertainment venues, essentially a large and varied shopping mall, with restaurants, movie theaters, and showrooms for entertainers and the like. Going up a level to the second floor, it was populated by necessities, like grocery stores, clinics, police stations, and so on.

The third floor and above were residential floors, and each person that entered a residence saw the floor plan and interior decorations that they had chosen when they were designing their dream living spaces.

It was a tour that was only made possible by being in the public simulation, and it was a resounding success. Everyone who toured the model city came out of the tour with a great anticipation for their new home.