Resurrection Empire-Chapter 877 - 337: The Stench of Decay (3)

After all, the social structure of Source Star has not completely shattered, and he doesn't have the strength to contend with the Association's army, so he must somewhat abide by the Association's rules.

The citizen system's restrictions and constraints on citizens are omnipresent. With each level up, it's as if playing an upgrade RPG game, immediately gaining higher parameters in "Strength," "Agility," "Intelligence," "Physical Strength," etc.

For example, when Ren Zhong was trading stocks, he had been sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission multiple times for making too much money in the stock market, with the solution being to upgrade.

A similar situation has occurred over the past few months.

When Ren Zhong wanted to privatize the Eleven Towns under his ownership, he hit the wall of the Fifth Level Citizen.

Fifth Level Citizens can have a huge amount of wealth, but there are restrictions on fixed assets and the number of employees under them.

To privatize a town collection, one must reach Level Six Citizen.

Subsequently, Ren Zhong used the taxes paid by various major industries under his ownership to generate a lot of Citizen Credit Points for himself, begged for many from partner enterprises, and supplemented with some donations to promote himself to Level Six, then steadily and orderly pushed forward the privatization of fixed assets in the Eleven Towns. Now it's almost complete.

Now, due to the disappearance of the "Net," the implementation of the autonomy decree, and the full contraction of citizens above the Fifth Level, Ren Zhong believes it is time to consider privatizing Liao Yuan County, Chongyi County, and West Lake County.

By then, he would achieve the "encircling the city from the countryside" of Yangsheng City, and it would be uncertain who is serving whom.

Therefore, Ren Zhong indeed needs the Seventh Level Citizen status.

Speaking of which, Ren Zhong is also curious about how other Fifth or Sixth Level Citizens who have accumulated a lot of wealth will complete this final step of advancement in the context of the entire financial system's evaporation.

Donating money? Obviously unrealistic, as everyone is out of money now.

Donating materials, technology, manpower, and other resources is probably the only choice.

Continuing this line of reasoning, Ren Zhong suddenly grinned unconsciously.

He thought of someone.

The very person who, despite having the Seventh Level Citizen status, fell into slavery and was then released for free by him—Wang Jinsou's sister, the legitimate heir of the Chongyi Wang family, Wang Jingcai.

Perhaps Wang Jingcai was the poorest Seventh Level Citizen in the entire Source Star, destined never to rise again.

But now the situation has changed. It's possible that someone will need her Seventh Level status, allowing her to gain the momentum to make a comeback. Ren Zhong preemptively wished her to be driven by hatred.

About more than seven hours passed. In the end, the driver from the Ma family of Deep Communication Group managed to dock the spacecraft into the shipyard of Shendu City just before midnight.

More than ten staff members wearing low automation engineering mecha boarded this massive spacecraft to lift down the sleep pods carrying other passengers who were already asleep. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

When one of the staff reached Ren Zhong's VIP cabin, he opened the door as per standard procedure and was taken aback. Unlike the others who fell asleep at ten o'clock at night on the dot, Ren Zhong was wide awake, looking down at a tablet computer.

This person cautiously asked, "Mr. Ren, you haven't slept?"

Ren Zhong stood up and stretched lazily, "Suddenly getting such a big job, I feel uncertain. I have to prepare beforehand. Even though the wristwatch is useless now, fortunately, I downloaded a lot of programming textbooks to my tablet, which are still accessible. Let's go. Shall we head directly to Minister Ma? Is he asleep?"

"Uh, Minister Ma is already asleep. He thought he wouldn't see you until tomorrow morning."

Ren Zhong waved his hand, "No matter. There's always someone on duty, right?"

"Yes, there is."

Fifteen minutes later, Ren Zhong appeared at the base of Deep Communication Group's headquarters building.

It was during this short fifteen-minute journey that he witnessed the drastic changes in Shendu City.

Compared to the unchanged state of Starfire Town, Shendu City has undergone a total upheaval.

The ground is littered with crashed flying devices.

Many originally sleekly designed buildings were riddled with gaping holes.

Some areas are still engulfed in billowing smoke.

Many employees of the Mengdu Group in white attire are frantically running around with some engineering machinery to rescue people.

Among all the cities on Source Star, Shendu City relied on the "Net" more than any other city.

Every inch of this city's land massively employed the "Net's" computing power.

This was once an immortal city of eternal order.

People living here could even enjoy life by lying in bed without moving a muscle from birth until death, with their bodies maintained by microelectronic assisted training equipment, avoiding obesity.

Because of this massive dependency, Shendu City suffered the greatest damage, now resembling a post-war ruin.

Waiting for him under the headquarters building was no longer a virtual secretary but an actual staff member, the deputy group leader of the algorithm project team, and Ma Xiaocheng's assistant, a thirty-something Ma family woman.

The woman noticed Ren Zhong's gaze still lingering on the blazing fires scattered throughout Shendu City and made a barely noticeable smile, saying, "Please pardon us, Mr. Ren. But this place will return to normal in a week."

Ren Zhong raised an eyebrow, "You mean, the repair of the 'Net' will take more than a week?"

Woman: "Mr. Ren, you know full well. Isn't this precisely why we've invited you here?"

Ren Zhong grinned, "Indeed."

As she led Ren Zhong into the building, the Ma woman muttered to herself, "I actually once suggested to the Minister that we shouldn't disturb you, Mr. Ren. Even though you have some insight, you're still an outsider, aren't you?"

Ren Zhong's lips curved into a smile, "Perhaps."

With the "Net" watching everything, Deep Communication Group's operating mechanism appeared flawless; it was purely ability-based, with high efficiency.

But with the "Net" gone, the problems forcibly suppressed within the decaying social structure immediately surfaced.

Ren Zhong caught the scent of decay.

Isn't this just workplace politics that create internal friction?

What a joke.

Ren Zhong almost wanted to laugh out loud.

If Deep Communication Group is like this, what about other giants?

Probably not much difference.

This is undoubtedly a good thing!