I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

Page 36

Therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative has been progressing exceptionally smoothly recently. Needless to say, Russia has been seeking help from China in many ways. Having tasted the benefits of the mysterious power from the East, Russia has even recently considered repairing and strengthening the Far East Railway. If it weren't for the need to save face as a major power, any ordinary small country would be happy to kneel down and lick China's shoes right now.

This change has naturally caught the attention of the Chinese leadership. So recently, under the guise of "international cooperation, joint exercises, and crisis countermeasures," they invited military observers from various countries to their mountain city to watch insect killing on-site, and incidentally, to promote their weapons.

The big dog owner naturally wouldn't hesitate to take the lead.

"Take your money and get off my boat/car/tank/plane!!"

The internationalization of the RMB has achieved remarkable results with great efficiency, and the favorable winds of the new era are truly comforting.

Just as Earth was thriving, Qin Shan returned to World Three with Banmian. After randomly selecting a new lucky person to steal their spaceship and granting Xiaozhai the highest level of internal access, he drove it straight to the Resistance Moon's base.

This mechanically ascended communist organization is fighting against the Free Earth government across the galaxy, so wherever there are people, you can find members of the Resistance Moon, though contacting them requires a little bit of technology.

After setting up a device, Qin Shan and his group entered a waiting state.

Are you sure this will help us find the other people?

When Qin Shan asked, Ban Mian shook his head directly: "I'm not sure. Although my password has high access, I've been out of contact for over ten years, so it's very likely that it's invalid. Even if other comrades receive it, they might be too cautious to respond."

"Then we can only leave it to fate."

Qin Shan doesn't necessarily need to find the Moon of Resistance. There are also many technologies in the various colonies on Free Earth that can be "voluntarily" donated. In this civilization without high-level superhumans, ninth-level superhumans play a game of grabbing and running away, and they have almost no power to resist. Moreover, as long as he grabs things in the border areas of the Free Earth government, the Free Earth government probably won't react much. He can just treat it as a routine free purchase. Anyway, it's not some advanced equipment. At most, the scale of this free purchase is a bit larger.

In short, Free Earth is just an enlarged version of the United States. It has all the problems that the United States doesn't have, and it amplifies all the problems that the United States already has, with the main theme being a dog-eat-dog exploitative freedom.

Just as everyone was preparing for a protracted battle, the communication equipment responded.

Section 77: Greed needs no reason.

(It's May Day already, time flies! (v)r)

Good news, the device has responded.

The bad news is, "We've already evacuated."

During the period when Banmian was forced to become the elite of Free Earth, Free Earth and Resistance Moon engaged in a fierce battle to exchange their capitals; in short, the two sides swapped capitals. All tactics were switched, it seems both sides had ruthless individuals.

The result was that, around a central point, the two fundamental points were directly swapped, at the cost of losses on both sides reaching an astonishing 70% or more.

What does this mean?

It's equivalent to a complete replacement of the front-line main force, half of the second-line reserves, and then the militia level to take over. However, in this brutal exchange ratio, the Resistance Moon managed to hold on by uploading consciousness and using technology similar to the Fourth Calamity, giving the Free Earth government a sound beating and winning the war of exchanging homes overall.

The current capital of the Resistance Moon is Earth, while the capital of Free Earth is the KPC99 system, 10,000 light-years away. The previous capital of the Resistance Moon was called Reach.

How's the battle going over there? (*-一-)

"So we're going to Earth now?" Qin Shan looked at Ban Mian.

The latter nodded, then took out a star map and began planning the route.

"If we conquer all the interstellar wormholes in this area, we should be able to reach Earth in at most half a month."

"In that case, let's set off."

"Depart? There are no ships going to Earth here."

"It's alright." Qin Shan smiled like a kind father: "We can randomly find a street lamp pendant to finance this."

Half an hour later, all the problems were solved, and the "people's entrepreneur" who "voluntarily" provided funding for the revolution was thoughtfully hung on the tallest street lamp in the area by Qin Shan.

This is a private room, how elegant!

"Your ability to launch a single-unit raid on an orbital station is truly enviable."

Banmian was telling the truth. Although both the Resistance Moon and Free Earth have their own interstellar travel technologies, they have reached a bottleneck in their own development. Although the Resistance Moon has achieved a very thorough mechanical ascension, Free Earth is also attempting mechanical ascension and has already come into contact with blood crystals and has its own extraordinary system.

However, their development speed cannot be described as rapid as a day, it is at least as slow as a tortoise crawl. Many studies start smoothly, but as they go, oh no, they hit a dead end. Isn't that surprising? Isn't that unexpected? Isn't that exciting?

All the initial investment went down the drain; it's infuriating!

The Resistance Moon's regime, which concentrates its resources to accomplish major tasks, can ignore these losses and continue to forge ahead on the path of exploration. However, the Free Earth, which prioritizes profit in everything it does, has already executed many people because of this.

Those who cause losses to capitalists have no value; this is the value system of Free Earth, where profit comes first.

Or, to put it another way, capital is paramount, and those who cannot bring added value should disappear.

Oh, before they die, they'll squeeze every last drop of value out of your body, making sure nothing is wasted.

"This is just a very simple little thing for our civilization."

Qin Shan shrugged, his nonchalant expression shocking the class even more.

It seems that such physical abilities are quite normal in their (Qin Shan's) civilization, and that individuals among them are very likely to possess formidable combat power capable of confronting warships. This means that each of them is a walking super weapon. If such a civilization were to launch a surprise attack, it would be absolutely impossible to defend against!

It must be said that, misled by Qin Shan, Ban's understanding of Chinese civilization has been completely distorted.

How could he possibly imagine that the Divine Continent civilization Qin Shan had fabricated was not even on the same world dimension as the real Divine Continent civilization? Strictly speaking, the population under Qin Shan's command didn't even exceed ten people. What kind of miniature empire of superhumans was this?

With the spaceship and permits in hand, all that remained was to reach Earth, which required passing through some neutral teleportation nodes, or interstellar wormholes.

Wait, why would there be neutral parties in a conflict between civilizations of this magnitude?

Can you guess why Switzerland remained neutral during World War II? And why Franco of Spain wasn't killed?

Even opposing sides will negotiate and cooperate at times. This is not surprising. As long as the other side is not a race like the Zerg that does not communicate at all, there will inevitably be negotiations in the process of confrontation. Even if the negotiations are worthless, they still have value. Many things in politics are often not calculated in terms of economic value. The Free Earth government does not pursue profits in this regard. Of course, the necessary efforts should still be made. Which diplomat does not want to win benefits for his country or make some benefits for himself at the negotiating table?

As for how to do it, just look at Biden's youngest son.

Fifteen days was no big deal for Qin Shan. As long as he left a coordinate, he could return at any time. Moreover, there were three rest periods during this time, which meant passing through three teleportation nodes. Each teleportation node was an autonomous neutral zone, most of which were located within a star system, while a few were surrounded by man-made structures.

According to research by scientists in World Three, these places were once star systems. However, over time, these star systems either moved away or, as they aged, entered a period of decline and became unstable, eventually becoming completely different from what they were before.

Teleportation nodes are not some advanced alien technology; they are simply naturally formed spacetime warp tunnels. Theoretically, if you are lucky enough, you could use these teleportation nodes to reach the ends of the universe.

Because the teleportation nodes are randomly distributed, and the current human technology in World Three is not yet capable of spatial teleportation, areas with many teleportation nodes generally become prosperous population centers, while areas with few become peripheral areas.

Looking at the star charts of the Resistance Moon and Free Earth, you can see that although the two sides are hostile, they basically live in areas with many teleportation nodes, forming a unique teleportation node economic zone. Centered on this zone, the closer the star system is to this zone, the more prosperous it is. Conversely, like countries on Earth located outside the Eurasian industrial belt, they don't even have the qualifications to support industrial development and can only obtain some agricultural and pastoral products or natural resources.

Australia and New Zealand nodded with tears in their eyes.

Compared to two clearly distinct civilizations, aren't these neutral regions relatively more free?

Haha, you're overthinking it.

There are no small countries in the world that are absolutely independent of large countries, and naturally there are no places that are independent and autonomous without the strength to do so. You may think that these places have national sovereignty, but in reality, they all have their own inclinations. The survival strategies of small countries are also vividly displayed in them, which can be summarized as: I am more likely to lean towards whoever I am closer to.

How does South Korea explain this?

Hey, they have a special product: the US military stationed in South Korea, right? Japan.

Japan says yes (~―――)~.

The most important characteristic of interstellar travel is that you have to be fully prepared. This preparation includes a self-sustaining ecosystem inside the spaceship and a fully industrialized food production environment.

As we all know, food is also matter, so as long as you can assemble matter reasonably, you can get everything you want. And highly specialized industrial equipment can reduce a lot of redundant design.

For example, the equipment in front of Qin Shan can produce various foods, but you definitely don't want to know its raw materials. After all, resource recycling is also an important part of interstellar travel. If you want to eat meat, in addition to the various ingredients in the storage warehouse, there are also various raw materials produced in the biological factory, which are cultured using cells.

Qin Shan borrowed this one... It can be combined to create the best result. There is absolutely no problem with the taste. It looks like a 100% natural steak. In fact, from the perspective of health and taste, this kind of artificial product is better. Lexington has already tried it and the taste is perfect, even more delicious.

The biological technology on Free Earth has reached a very high level; this assembly surpasses natural biological culture dishes (the entire device is a super-large piece of equipment covering an area of ​​more than ten square meters).

It was the source of meat for wealthy families in the area.

The production of pasta is similar to the technology used, but in terms of taste and nutrition, some special preparation is required. As long as you provide a sample, there is nothing this equipment cannot produce.

Of course, the delicacies served to the powerful and wealthy must be prepared by chefs themselves, and these chefs must be from families with a long tradition of cooking, so that the food has soul and can reflect their status and position.

In this environment, the most expensive thing is the labor cost, while energy and material costs are the least important. The ridiculously low prices that are not typical of traditional industrial mass production are a benefit of the explosive growth in productivity. It is still very difficult to starve.

However, if you want to move up the social ladder in the rigid class system of Free Earth and enjoy more independence and freedom, you can only dream about it. Here, the only guarantee is that you won't starve to death, and that ordinary people must bear obligations and responsibilities. Power and benefits are of course shared by the powerful and wealthy. If a peasant still wants this and that, it's obviously because he's too full. He'll calm down after being exiled to a remote planet and starving for a few days.

"Even if we are technologically advanced enough to live a life free from want, humanity still greedily wants to possess more. The true nature of the Free Earth is truly outrageous."

Qin Shan now understands the extent to which the Free Earth government is willing to go for resources, or rather, how possessing more resources makes them feel that their legacy is safer.

Now that you've reached the interstellar age, why are you still so concerned about inheritance, family, and bloodlines? What kind of capitalist feudalism is this? You're simply letting down the productivity of your interstellar age. You've reached this level of achievement, so why don't you think about how to bring prosperity to the whole world instead of resorting to robbery? You're definitely out of your mind.

“We chose to resist because we couldn’t stand the outrageous behavior of the Free Earth government.” Banmian looked at the stars outside the spaceship window and sighed, “They already have so much, yet they still want to maintain that corrupt exploitation and oppression of the past. It’s incomprehensible, truly incomprehensible.”

“I think this is another way of showing human nature, I mean the dark side.”

"=('o`*))Sigh, well, there are just some people in this world who can't stand seeing others do well, but I just can't understand that kind of behavior."

"That's normal. If you can understand that, then you're one of them."

Just then, the spacecraft received clearance to enter the port.

"We're planning to go out for a walk, what about you?" Qin Shan asked.

"Let's go together, there's nothing else to do anyway."

Section 78: This is the world ruled by capital

(Update delivered (~―▽―)~)

What would interstellar civilizations look like?

Many science fiction works have provided answers, but the reality may be slightly different from what people think. In the field of civilization development, the superstructure really does have a counter-effect on the economic base.

In a capitalist world where money dictates everything, the wealthy can truly do whatever they want. In such an environment, the thoughts and actions of every individual are severely influenced by private ownership. The state will also declare at appropriate times that everyone is only responsible for themselves and that the state has no obligation to protect you.

This has led to a polarization where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

Technological advancements and increased control over the lower classes have exacerbated this polarization to an extreme degree, to the point that the upper classes can treat the lower classes as less than human, and those without ID cards can be expelled from the human race.

It sounds outrageous, but what if a powerful person, after undergoing physical modifications, could easily defeat a thousand men?

Banmian's body modification incorporates some Free Earth technology, while the Resistance Moon technology is a mechanical ascension of the entire individual, which can of course include flesh and blood. How much to retain is up to you. However, a considerable portion of Banmian's current flesh and blood is forcibly added after the Free Earth modification.

The purpose of doing this is very simple: to control the users.

Every super soldier on Free Earth has undergone this physical modification, and then needs to use stabilizers regularly to stabilize the operation of various systems in their body. It's like forcibly creating scarcity. Without the regularly injected stabilizers, you're doomed, just like the Three Corpse Brain God Pill. The only difference is that the modified person does indeed possess great power.

However, the most powerful and wealthy individuals certainly possess absolute freedom, using the most advanced technology to modify themselves without any backdoors or hidden dangers. Although their extraordinary strength is insignificant to Qin Shan, they are already superhuman to ordinary people. With even more advanced weapons at their disposal, they can truly crush ordinary people like ants.

Doesn't that sound incredibly hopeless?

Even in such a desperate world, there are still forces of resistance. Just because you can't fight them doesn't mean you can't resist in other ways. Unless the upper echelons have no need for the lower echelons at all, no matter what technology they use, this control will eventually have loopholes. As soon as the loopholes appear, there will inevitably be rebels who will draw their swords against them.

Despite the technological gap between the two sides, which meant that such resistance was tantamount to suicide in most cases, the rebels were prepared to die rather than be treated like slaves.

So, one form of punishment on Free Earth is lobotomy, which transforms the person into a slave-like machine to work until they die. -p

The work efficiency of these machine slaves is actually not as high as that of real intelligent robots. Rather than being profitable, they are more like a form of torture. Another form of torture is brain exile, in which the convicted person is beheaded, and their head is placed in a transparent box containing a large amount of nutrient solution and sedatives. Then it is randomly thrown into outer space, where they are left to experience a maddening deathly silence in lucid darkness until their life is annihilated.

It must be said that humans from any world have a particular talent for tormenting their fellow human beings.

The area where Qin Shan and the others were located was the Upper City of the neutral zone during the teleportation phase. As it was the Upper City, it naturally had a warm and harmonious atmosphere. Everyone was dressed appropriately and was gentle and refined, exuding the politeness that an interstellar civilization should have.

But this is only the surface of the planet; in reality, the planet's surface is covered with a complex of man-made structures that are over 10,000 meters high.

Yes, the ocean, cities, hills, and plains you see here are all man-made. The real natural geological structures are in the world 10,000 meters below. This is the planet's dome world, and below the dome is the true pristine world.

However, this structure is obviously airtight, so the darkness of the underground world is unimaginable. The plants and animals there have even been replaced by various bacteria. Humans who have lived underground for a long time are probably two different species from those in the urban area.

According to the information Xiaozhai collected, this planet is actually a huge mine. In the past, a large number of insectoids lived there. Considering that the insectoids could be purified into blood crystals after being killed, the value of this planet can be understood. Blood crystals were produced as an export commodity.

Both major powers in World Three are conducting research on blood crystals and the extraordinary, so blood crystals are in high demand.

The actual function of this planet is to be a cage for breeding insect swarms. The insect swarms' tenacious vitality allows them to survive in the closed underground environment, and they become nourishment for the humans in the lower city. The lower city delivers blood crystals to the upper city by breeding and slaughtering these dangerous insects, while the upper city provides other industrial products to stabilize the lower city.

To put it bluntly, it's just another form of price scissors. If those powerful and wealthy people in the upper districts don't take a big cut of this monopolistic business, Qin Shan will believe that the Soviet Union was actually called Jiangsu.

"Are those insects common around here?" Qin Shan asked Banmian beside him.

"They are very common. Basically, you can find them in any star system. Some of the larger groups even have individuals with interstellar travel capabilities and biological fleets. We have encountered many similar swarms. They are very dangerous, but they rarely attack proactively. Instead, Free Earth often harasses their settlements."

"The Moon of Resistance isn't interested in the Blood Crystals of the Swarm?"

"Of course we are interested, but wherever there are these insects, there will definitely be large areas of blood crystals. We only need to collect them appropriately, not exceeding the insect race's regeneration ability. In fact, they are quite docile and will not attack us at all. On the contrary, the way Free Earth drains the pond to catch all the fish often leads to insect swarm riots. Therefore, our researchers believe that the insect swarm is not as brutal as it appears on the surface, but is actually a very docile race."

"docile?"

“I know that their appearance has nothing to do with being docile, but even herbivores that you kill indiscriminately can be killed unexpectedly. Let alone the insectoids with their own independent civilization. Just because they are docile does not mean that you can take whatever you want from them.”

"So the Resistance Moon and the Zerg can be considered to have some kind of cooperative relationship, right?"

"Pretty much. We often drop large amounts of biomass onto the planets where the Zerg live, and then the Zerg swarms, after reaching a tacit understanding, place a certain amount of blood crystals in fixed locations for us to mine. Although there is no direct language or cultural exchange, our two races have actually established a tacit understanding of harmonious coexistence."

Qin Shan nodded; Banmian's words gave him another perspective on the insect swarm.

This race seems to have a very harmonious survival strategy; when cooperation is possible, mutual benefit and win-win is the key.