Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 227 Entering Night City (Fifth Update)

The engines of the heavy transport trucks roared as they rolled over the last stretch of bumpy road where the bad soil met the city.

Chen Yu sat inside the reinforced carriage, the scarlet optical lens steadily scanning the gradually changing scenery outside the window.

Ignis stood silently beside him like the most loyal steel watchtower, her massive body maintaining absolute stability within the confined space, the tip of the electric arc spear lowered, and the energy core in a state of dormant readiness.

The vehicle entered the checkpoint, which was originally part of Arasaka but is now guarded by military technology soldiers.

The checkpoint's operational efficiency has significantly improved.

The soldiers, dressed in standardized uniforms, moved with efficiency, and the scanning equipment operated efficiently, quickly identifying and diverting vehicles and personnel entering and exiting the area.

Gone were the usual exploitation, harassment, or long waits. The whole process was like a precise assembly line, with vehicles only stopping for less than thirty seconds before being allowed to pass under the green light.

"Identification successful. Welcome back to Night City, Sage." The checkpoint leader's respectful yet slightly nervous voice came through the communication channel.

Chen Yu did not respond; his attention was already focused on the wide main road leading to the city's core area behind the checkpoint.

The changes are obvious.

The potholes and damage that were once ubiquitous on the road surface have been initially repaired. Although it is far from being brand new and smooth, it at least ensures that vehicles can pass smoothly.

All traffic lights have resumed operation, switching colors regularly.

What is most striking is the traffic flow itself—vehicles, whether private, company, or public transport, strictly follow signal instructions and lane markings.

The chaotic scenes of reckless driving, cutting in line, and even illegal transactions in the middle of the road that were once commonplace are nowhere to be seen.

A near-rigid order has replaced the once commonplace disorder.

“The management system has been fully integrated into the city’s transportation network.” Ignis’s voice rang out in the carriage. She had connected to the city’s management network and was explaining the situation to Chen Yu: “Based on the core instruction ‘efficiency first,’ the system has optimized traffic light timings, cleared illegal roadblocks, and forced all registered vehicles to connect to the traffic management protocol.”

Violations will result in the vehicle system being remotely locked, the driver's credit score being reduced, and potential mandatory labor penalties.

Chen Yu nodded slightly.

The improvement in efficiency is obvious.

Although the speed of vehicles is less "free" due to strict adherence to the rules, the overall traffic volume has actually increased due to the elimination of chaos.

In the management logic of AI, wasting time is an intolerable inefficiency.

The transport vehicle continued towards the city center.

The number of pedestrians on the sidewalks on both sides of the street was less than at the peak of the record, but everyone walking had a clear purpose and walked quickly, with very few aimless wandering or gathering.

Their faces were mostly expressionless, a state between numbness and tension, but at least they no longer had to be constantly on guard against gun barrels or sharp blades that might emerge from the shadows, as they had in the past.

The improvement in public security is another significant indicator.

Every few blocks, you can see patrol squads composed of military-tech soldiers, Contau security personnel, or, more notably, five-man squads of the Imperial Guard. The very presence of these patrols is the most powerful declaration of the new order.

They walked silently down the street, their pale golden resonant shields shimmering under the neon lights, their heavy footsteps like a metronome pounding on the heart of the city.

Wherever they passed, even the air seemed to freeze, and any potential criminal thoughts vanished under the absolute deterrence of their force.

“The rate of urban violence has decreased by 94.7 percent since the takeover,” Ignis said, quoting the data. “The remaining criminal activity is mostly small property disputes or deeply hidden systemic corruption, which the management system is continuously cleaning up in conjunction with patrol units and surveillance networks.”

The cleanliness of the streets has also improved by several levels.

Most of the garbage, broken glass, and dried stains that used to accumulate in the corners have been cleaned up.

Some autonomous cleaning robots are slowly moving along the edge of the sidewalk, performing routine maintenance.

However, Chen Yu's gaze caught traces of the remaining order.

On some walls, large patches of slightly different colors can still be seen; these are the "scars" left after graffiti was forcibly removed by high-pressure water guns or chemical solvents.

Deep in some alleyways, one can still vaguely see the remains of burnt remains, the last traces left by the rebels or the cleared-out gang strongholds.

These traces silently tell of the inevitable growing pains and violence that occurred during the transition between the old and new orders.

The most eye-catching feature is the graffiti on the exterior walls of the buildings on both sides of the street.

Unlike the "visual pollution" of the past, which covered every inch of blank space and was filled with chaos, anger, pornography, or gang symbols, the amount of graffiti now has decreased significantly, and the style has changed markedly.

Many walls were left clean, or simply blank spaces where graffiti deemed "meaningless," "vulgar," or "provocative" had been removed.

Most of the designs that have been preserved are those with relatively complete compositions, harmonious color schemes, a certain artistic appeal, or clear positive themes.

A pop-art painting depicting Night City’s iconic holographic advertising tower was preserved; on another wall, an abstract pattern of silhouettes dancing against a neon background was also spared.

One entire wall was even painted with a stylized pattern representing the sprouting of "hope," with simple yet powerful lines.

“The management system has a built-in image recognition and evaluation algorithm based on a database of 50,000 classic artworks and mainstream aesthetics,” Ignis explained. She had also noticed Chen Yu’s focus on graffiti, “and scanned and classified the visual information of all public areas in the city.”

Graffiti deemed 'vandalism', 'discomfort', or 'potentially inflammatory' has been removed.

Patterns assessed as having 'artistic value', 'conforming to public aesthetics', or 'neutral and harmless' will be retained.

The criteria for removal and retention are determined by the core logic of the management.

A barely perceptible hint of approval flowed through Chen Yu's processor.

Takashi Arasaka, an old-fashioned figure from fifty years ago, inevitably influenced the evaluation criteria with his aesthetic preferences. As a result, the preserved graffiti style is indeed somewhat out of place with the original vibrant, rebellious, and even somewhat rough atmosphere of the streets in 2077, and has an added sense of calculated "orderliness" and "elegance".

But this was precisely part of what Chen Yu intentionally did.

(End of this chapter)