ARM Backup/Surge Concerto/Genomirai Wiki/Lifestyle of the Empire's Citizens

Translation of this article.

The people have some special characteristics when it comes to their attitude toward their belongings and the supplies within their homes.

Food Culture

In comparison to how substandard the buildings and electronics might be, the richness of the food culture is quite high.
No matter how poor a household might be, it is extremely rare for someone to die from starvation (leaving aside what they might have for food.)
The entirety of the plants, meat and fish that are produced on the Empire have all undergone genetic manipulation.
As this has become something extremely natural for the people, their culture ended up with the idea that eating meat and vegetables that haven't undergone genetic manipulation is hazardous to health.
(Which actually speaking, is similar to how pigs have parasites and birds carry viruses. Such problems have been since solved in Ra Ciela long ago.)

And the most characteristic reason why the food culture here is so rich is because the [kitchen gardens] are a very widespread custom on the Empire.
So in other words, no matter how overcrowded the city center might be, or if a person is living on their own and unable to work, they will always still have a kitchen garden in their home.
From a sensitive viewpoint, the kitchen gardens are on the same level as eating rice or bread for us on Earth, so those homes that don't have a kitchen garden are considered as [having become far too corrupted and depraved].
Also, each Colony publishes annually their [Food Self-sufficiency] as part of the statistical reports given by the Empire, though this [self-sufficiency] naturally refers to [each person's individual home].
Depending on the Colony, this percentage might go down to 50% on the worst cases and up to 90% on the best ones. In these cases, there would be rarely any need for people to go shopping for groceries.
Furthermore, there is an indicator titled [Food Sales Rate] that goes from 30 to 70% depending on the area (which has much more scattering depending on each home).
What this means is that it is a pretty common practice for the people to go and buy foods harvested from the kitchen gardens over at the stores and communal markets.
For example, a normal family living downtown would get up early in the morning, gather the crops from their kitchen garden, put them into their shopping basket and go out to the city.
First they would go to sell the food to their preferred store (each household has their own sellers) and they would then use the money gained from this to buy the food they can't produce at their own home.
So generally speaking, they would sell off greens and buy seafood and meat.
And even though their culture is one that still uses money, given there are some transactions in which money isn't used (actually serving more as an intermediary), the minimum lifestyle the people enjoy will be maintained even if the money suffered a sudden loss in value.

Now then, while we have talked about the kitchen gardens quite a bit, it must be said that they aren't like the ones we have on Earth.
They are basically indoor crops, as the radiation outdoors is far too strong and the Gamma Bursts that frequently strike the land would cause the plants to wither away instantly.
Therefore, the houses in the Empire have a dedicated room for this purpose: the garden would be on the highest floor if it were a stand-alone house, while in condominiums they would have a specific room with windows called the Food Room.
(Which would be designated by an apartment number such as [2LDFK (with F meaning Food Room)].)
Still, the Food Room needs to be an independent room, so living within it is not possible due to the fact that anyone who does so will die from asphyxia while sleeping (this is due to the methods used to accelerate the plants' metabolism as much as possible, which in turn tremendously raises the carbon dioxide levels on the air.) Almost all the seeds that are used on the kitchen gardens can conduct photosynthesis in the degree they need to grow with just a bit of sunlight, which means their metabolism accelerates while still growing healthily.
Generally they only need water and nutrients (fortified water) to grow, so raising these plants feels somewhat similar to making use of a washing machine once per week, which is just how it feels for the people in Ra Ciela.
As for the people that have gotten a bit more into this topic, they grow plants that require a bit more of technique.
For example, sweet and delicious pumpkins that need high radiation doses to grow, or frost-covered vegetables that will wither away in any temperatures higher than zero.
And furthermore, it's not rare for people to be raising animals that will be used as food later on. While everything so far we described people that raised plants as a hobby, each region also has one [livestock producer], which is always a very popular person.
(Because meat is generally produced at enormous factories, which makes their flavor so plain that it ends up being unsatisfying to the people.)
Since there are so many varieties of plants raised for use as food, it's possible to find anything from normal greens to grains, fermented pan, sauce fruits (fruits similar to coconuts that are filled with demisauce) and the like.
And in recent years, there was a large boom in the development of root crops that were as juicy and with similar textures to those found on meat. While they are quite oily, their fat is completely vegetal in origin, which makes them very healthy foods.

And while everyone might tend to think from this that the citizens of the Empire generally eat at home, they actually tend to eat out frequently.
Among other things, this is because people also like liquor for their celebrations.
And since it's so bothersome, people don't really want to deal with the dirtiest part of cooking when it comes to eating food, which is why naturally chicken eateries and seafood restaurants are very popular.
It's also natural to go out and drink with the neighbors and friends, and it's pretty common to see community barbecues organized by a neighborhood association.
So when an area is about to be invigorated or revitalized, it's natural for the people to discuss which plants will be planted on it and which part of the land they will be assigned.

Community (Regional Life)

Communities are very active.
It is even said that their instinct was of such a level that it allowed them to create the harsh environment this planet currently has.
While each person's individual house is a restricted area, there are still many cases in which the citizens tend to show their homes to unfamiliar people.
This is precisely due to how frequent [the disasters no one can do anything about] like the Gamma Bursts are on this planet.
It is also due to this reason that the communities are so active in having neighbors help each other.
To give a practical example, if a family head lost his or her job they wouldn't panic or anything,
as their neighbors would share their food with that family and help by serving as mediators to find the head a new job.
This is also said to be a good environment for educating children. So even in situations like both parents having errands that need to be done, the neighbors would step in to help them, since this is the kind of positive mentality their culture encourages.

The Teachings of the Genometrics Synchronization Mediation Institute

Principle

<The Original Sin of Imperfectness>
[Humans are borne bearing the original sin. Thus they possess imperfect bodies]

According to the religious outlook of this world, all the humans are born as [sinners].
And due to their sins, humans lost all chains except two from the twelve they were supposed to have, which resulted on the deprivation of their godly state.
So when science came into being, they still went on to try and find substantiation for these beliefs.

This was because they came to the conclusion that the Ra Cielans weren't capable of fully adapting to the environment in this planet.
Under normal circumstances, the life that evolved on a planet would regard its environment as normal and thus would treat it as the more appropriate dwelling place for themselves.
In other words, since Ra Ciela frequently received large radiation doses from its red giant sun, the people ended having the idea that they needed to deal with it by changing to red using a scale that went from green to said color,
and that they would be able to continue their lives as normal despite the radiation doses being as high as they were.
However, this turned out to not be the case.
Since the humans were deprived from these DNA chains by God, they were fated to atone for their sins in this hell called [Ra Ciela].

And among the things that were taken from them there was their other halves: the Genoms.
The Synchronization with the Genoms also has a very religious meaning, which makes it into quite a significant event for the people.
The act of searching a Genom compatible with oneself is also conflated in religious terms as [searching for oneself].
Therefore, the journey of searching for a Genom is also the most important part of life even under religious connotations, to the point where even companies and school acknowledge the event in such a way.
(To the point there are even leaves of absence due to Genom-related reasons.)
And the higher the number of genetic chains in the DNA and the greater the Synchronization degree, the more a person get closer to becoming a [Perfect Being].

Nowadays, the person that is the closest to becoming a Perfect Being is no other than the Empress.
This is because the Empress doesn't just hold political power, as for Ra Ciela's religion she also possesses a position akin to that of the Pope.

By the way, it should go without saying that the one who originally spread these teachings was no other than the Genom King [Cosal].
It is thought among the Genoms that having spread these teachings among the current humanity that invaded their planet was a way of speaking cynically against them.

The Viewpoint the Chimon Have in Regards to the Cielnotrons

The Chimon doesn't approve the Cielnotrons.
This is because the Cielnotrons are tools used for increasing the DNA chain number through artificial powers, which makes them [artifacts that overturn the growth process God established for us].

On the other hand, the Cielnotron developers, the Tenmon claim that [They haven't overturned the natural providence ever since they started existing upon this world].
That while Cielnotrons may be artificially created, but since they still bring the same effect of allowing people get closer to the goal of becoming [Perfect Beings] the Genoms allow, it only serves as proof that God also accepts them.

The Chimon stated that [Cielnotrons are the Devil's trap! At this rate, this world will end up falling to an even lower level (even lower than that of hell) than it is now!]
They said that while there are beings that contradict God's plans, the artificial Genoms are no more than a strategy of the Devil to mask itself as God.
The factions that rejected them said that the journey to find a Genom had lost its significance in the current times and thus the people's mental level had fallen in comparison to past years, as well as also raising other many issues.
God had put together a program that consisted of journeying to find a Genom in order to temper one's own mind and soul, and interacting with the Genom also served to nurture one's own love.

Even nowadays these two factions continue fighting, and it is unlikely that their conflict will ever have an end.