Close Combat

"Seriously, I have been in North America for almost a year. I only applied to change my home base back to Wanghai a few months ago." An engineer in a safety helmet said as he welded the laser anti-aircraft weapon to the steel bracket. While he wiped the sweat from his forehead, he grinned and looked at his comrade next to him, "After staying for so long, this is the first time I have seen a North American who claims to be an American."

"Then what do they usually call themselves?" Another engineer wiped his sweat with a towel, took a swig of the mineral water, then joked along, "Aboriginals of the West Coast? Or California Freaks?"

"Neither. Cowboys in California, mercenaries in Nevada, gamblers in Alaska, NATO people...usually the former ones are more common, the latter ones less so. Except for the folks in Chinatown who will stick together based on their ancestry, those whites and blacks like to use state names to draw boundaries from other people."