A month passed steadily under Night City's new order.
This city, once known for chaos and violence, had indeed become much "quieter."
This quiet was not a deathly silence, but rather a slightly oppressive sense of order born from powerful restraint.
Under the absolute rational planning of the administrator AI, the city's underlying operational methods underwent fundamental changes.
For the first time, countless low-level citizens, who had previously struggled on the brink of death, found their lives had definite security.
They were compulsorily registered for labor capacity, then assigned various jobs: cleaning streets, maintaining infrastructure, engaging in production in newly planned factories or agricultural zones, and even being conscripted en masse to participate in a remarkable new project: restarting the large-scale construction of Pacifica.
The administrator determined that Pacifica, an area long stagnant due to the Unification War, filled with unfinished buildings and dangerous ruins, was the optimal solution under current conditions to improve the city's overall functionality and accommodation efficiency.
Giant engineering machinery, under the AI's dispatch, began clearing sites, demolishing abandoned buildings that were originally planned as luxury hotels and high-end shopping malls but now remained only empty shells.
These expensive building materials were sorted and recycled for the construction of new functional city buildings and service facilities that met the administrator's standards, as well as neatly planned but dense standardized residential areas.
Most of these jobs were dull and arduous, far from ideal professions, but they were "official," meaning that after each day's labor, a day's standard pay and corresponding "contribution points" would be deposited into their personal accounts on time.
These rewards were sufficient to obtain basic food and centralized accommodation uniformly provided by the city.
The food consisted of efficiently synthesized nutrient paste and compressed rations, with a single flavor, but ensured satiety and basic nutrition.
Accommodation was in collective dormitories, crowded but clean, with basic security and hygiene facilities.
For those who once lived day-to-day, always on the verge of dying in some dark corner, no longer having to worry about where their next meal would come from or where they would sleep tonight, no longer fearing being hit by stray bullets from sudden gang wars on the street, or being kidnapped and sold for organs on the black market—this was a world-changing improvement.
The basic foundation of survival was stable; although much of their past "freedom" was lost, the probability of survival greatly increased.
This immediate effect caused the low-level citizens' attitude towards the administrator AI's governance to gradually shift from initial fear and confusion to a numb acceptance, and even a hint of secret gratitude.
The obvious improvement in quality of life was more convincing than any empty slogan.
Consequently, street crime rates significantly decreased, and open acts of resistance became sporadic and were quickly suppressed.
The city's overall operational efficiency, after eliminating a large amount of internal friction, showed a continuous upward trend.
This increase in efficiency also affected the corporate level.
Under the powerful computational coordination of the administrator, raw material allocation, production processes, and logistics transport were optimized, reducing unnecessary waste and delays.
However, what truly touched the corporate nerve was the "new work system" enforced by the AI.
The core of this system was strict eight-hour workdays, mandatory rest periods, and performance evaluations based on actual output.
It completely abolished the cruel exploitation model prevalent in major corporations, especially under the Arasaka legacy system, which forced employees to work continuously for dozens of hours until collapse or even death, relying on stimulants, neuro-regulators, and cyberware overload.
Initially, all companies strongly resisted this, believing it would severely harm their profits.
Efficiency? In their view, squeezing out the last drop of value from employees was efficiency.
The administrator did not engage in futile debate. It directly sent a request for assistance to Sekhmet via the data link.
Subsequently, several five-person Guard Corps squads "visited" the headquarters and main factories of the most vocal companies.
There were no fierce conflicts, no lengthy negotiations.
These silent steel giants simply walked into boardrooms or production manager offices, planted their arc spears on the ground, and then Sekhmet, or a Heavy Guardsman she designated, read out the administrator's final decision in a synthesized, emotionless voice: "Accept the new work system, or undergo structural adjustments at the physical level."
Facing the lingering scent of gunpowder from the annihilated Arasaka fleet on the Guard Corps, and the despair-inducing energy fluctuations emanating from their pale gold resonant shields, the security forces of any company and the courage of board members quickly disintegrated.
So-called corporate dignity and profit maximization proved vulnerable in the face of the absolute military threat of death.
Compromise became the only option.
However, after being forced to implement it for a period, some astute corporate managers were surprised to find that, after eliminating errors, accidents, and the high cost of employee turnover caused by overwork and mental breakdowns, this somewhat "humanized" system not only did not decrease overall production efficiency but actually saw a slight increase due to stable employee conditions and improved work focus.
Employee dissatisfaction decreased, sick leave rates dropped, and production quality became more stable. Some calculating boards began to privately discuss whether to extend this model to other branches and factories outside Night City.
After all, continuously functioning, well-maintained "parts" were, in the long run, more beneficial than "parts" that burned out quickly.
Osiris maintained an observer's stance throughout all these social experiments and data changes occurring within Night City.
His processing core received summary reports regularly uploaded by the administrator: employment rates, productivity, crime rates, resource consumption, fluctuations in public physiological and psychological indicators—all became valuable samples in his database.
He deliberately avoided direct intervention to ensure the "purity" of the data, observing the natural evolutionary trajectory of this model, based on absolute rationality and a contribution system, within a highly complex and previously chaotic human society.
But he also clearly recognized that the foundation for this system's smooth operation was not the "correctness" or "rationality" of its inherent logic, but rather the unparalleled military deterrence of the Guard Corps. It was Sekhmet and her warriors who ensured that every command from the administrator was executed without compromise.
The ultimate guarantee for policy implementation was always overwhelming force, not any form of reason. This was fully demonstrated in the process of forcing those habitually resistant and opportunistic corporations to accept the new work system.
While Night City internally maintained its nascent, fragile order with an almost coercive posture, outside Night City, the situation in the broader region was rapidly deteriorating. NUSA's "Unification War" had fully restarted and quickly entered a white-hot phase.
Without Arasaka, the long-standing external intervener and balancer of power, and deprived of crucial military and economic support, the armed forces of various free states were steadily retreating under the combined assault of the regrouped NUSA regular army and its de facto controller, Militech.
The front lines were constantly shifting, and news of failures arrived one after another, highlighting a stark reality: after losing powerful external aid, these loose alliances simply could not contend with a determined, unifying quasi-state entity possessing a complete military-industrial complex.