Chapter 131: Lofty and Untouchable
The [Ota Company], which had remained largely inactive since awakening, certainly knew how to make an entrance. When it finally appeared, it made quite a splash.
Every area assigned to the [Company] experienced [Ota]’s devastating bombardment.
The carnivorous flowers growing in the Red Jungle region, the mutated crocodiles occupying large swaths of abandoned buildings from the Old Era, the giant earthworms that could continuously split off new individuals and had crawled all over the entire East Mountain…
These mutants, some of which had been entrenched in the Broken River Desert for several years, and others that had occupied certain places for more than a decade, even several decades, were eliminated one after another.
The sheer force of it all practically screamed across Broken River:
“No threats are permitted within Ota territory.”
For the Moon Silk people living in this remote region, it was the first time they truly realized what the [Company] represented.
It seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of manpower.
Many people in Broken River firmly believed that the soldiers dressed in pure-black uniforms, their entire bodies completely covered, were either robots or androids.
After all, quite a few people had encountered [Ota] dealing with mutated creatures near their settlements.
If those soldiers weren’t robots or brainwashed androids, how could they possibly be so utterly fearless of death?
Cheng Qisheng was watching the Blue Sea army fight.
The commander issued orders.
“Open fire!”
“First squad, move in!”
“Second squad, follow them! Third squad, left flank! Fourth squad, secure the airspace!”
The great Creator God of Blue Sea could sense the soldiers’ surging excitement and battle fervor beneath their helmets.
But they held it in. They didn’t cheer.
“We need to continuously deepen the outsiders’ impression of [Ota]. To the people outside, soldiers wearing helmets and tactical gloves, their entire bodies wrapped in the specially selected black, light-reflective combat uniforms, and whose faces are never revealed, are essentially the same as people without personalities or humanity.”
“In short, we need the Moon Silk people to believe that the soldiers dispatched by the [Company] obey orders absolutely, and operate with absolute systemization and standardization.”
As for whether others speculate that they’re robots, androids, or soldiers who have all been brainwashed… any of those guesses will do. There’s no need to fear them guessing; the only thing to fear is them not guessing.
This was the recommendation put forward by the chief architect of the strategic deception framework:
“Once they believe that the [Company] possesses a large number of soldiers who will never hesitate, never surrender, and will only act according to orders, our actual combat strength will be overestimated without limit.”
Even for the [Company], being able to support so many soldiers who obey orders with such absolute obedience would require considerable wealth.
And so, the Blue Sea soldiers who had been charging around and fighting with all their might were ordered to keep their mouths shut.
After all, when had anyone ever seen some ultra-high-status [Company] soldiers shouting “Woohoo!” while fighting?
Still, the Blue Sea soldiers who were strong enough to qualify for frontline duty were actually quite happy about it.
Because the new combat uniforms were so damn cool!!!
As the saying went, clothes make the man, just as a fine saddle makes the horse. In order to emphasize the soldiers’ collective identity and intimidating presence, as well as establish the [Company] as an elite, high-end organization, Blue Sea had put a great deal of effort into their appearance.
First of all, the combat uniforms were covered entirely in concealed seams—fine, intricate, and orderly. The way each line shifted and moved with the wearer’s movements had been meticulously calculated.
Combined with the specially designed black-and-white helmets with an unmistakably high-tech aesthetic and the slash- and puncture-resistant scale-armored gloves, the moment the soldiers put everything on, the result hit every single one of Blue Sea’s aesthetic sweet spots.
The Moon Silk people believed that the fully enclosed, streamlined black-and-white helmets, with blue data streams flickering across their visors, must contain functions for communications, battlefield mapping, friend-or-foe identification, data processing, enhanced vision, and more.
But in reality, the helmet had only one function:
Looking cool. Looking really, really cool.
The person who actually possessed and consolidated all those functions was Cheng Anjing, the [Mind Domain] ability user.
It was the perfect embodiment of the saying:
“The rich rely on technology; the poor rely on mutation.”
Viewed individually, these soldiers resembled black panthers disappearing into the wasteland.
But when they gathered together, the sheer oppressive force they radiated seemed capable of shooting straight into the heavens.
To be honest, Cheng Qisheng had watched this entire outfit being designed with her own eyes. She could also sense the excitement and exhilaration radiating from the Old Eighths inside, along with the sheer delight with which they admired themselves.
Otherwise, just looking at their appearance, they really did look like the humanoid warriors from some sci-fi movie—modified super-soldiers who seemed as though they could turn both hands into sickles at any moment.
And with the Moon Silk weapons of all different shapes and designs in their hands, the resemblance became even stronger.
The mirrors inside Blue Sea Safe City, which had originally sold only modestly, suddenly experienced a small sales boom during this period.
The reason was that batch after batch of these selected “soldiers” had developed a habit of changing into their uniforms before heading out, then standing in front of the mirror and admiring themselves for ages.
As long as it was necessary to maintain their “cool” image, they were perfectly willing to stay silent!
Wearing awesome-looking clothes and getting to beat the crap out of powerful mutated creatures—how could there possibly be anything more blissful than that?!
While watching the battles, Cheng Qisheng could see that although the black-and-white helmets made it impossible to see the faces underneath, the Old Eighths were still extremely dedicated to maintaining their personas.
Every single one of them wore an expressionless face, their eyes cold and indifferent, as though they had completely immersed themselves in the art of being a cool guy or cool girl.
Cheng Qisheng: “……”
This was way too much fun.
If they weren’t in the middle of a battle, she really wanted to use her psychic power to pat every single Old Eighth’s head, rubbing and squishing them to her heart’s content.
Over the past few days, she had also followed the perspectives of believers who had gone out to exterminate mutated creatures, giving her a clear view of the situation on Moon Silk.
And honestly, things were pretty bad.
Back on Velvet Star, there had been food and resources, but you had to get past the zombies before you could obtain them.
During the Dazzling Star period, the snow beasts themselves could serve as food.
As for Green Billow Star, there was even less to say. That was where Cheng Qisheng had gotten rich in the first place.
—Although she quickly became poor again.
On Moon Silk, there were resources, and there were even nuclear crystals.
But the complete lack of food was really leaving everyone at a loss.
Most mutated beasts had been contaminated and were therefore inedible. Although the contamination levels in the soil had dropped considerably, it was still difficult to grow crops.
Take the current situation, for example. The Blue Sea army had just taken down a mutated hyena more than ten meters tall.
But its flesh was poisonous and completely inedible.
What was even more ridiculous was that despite its vicious appearance and formidable strength—it had even injured more than a dozen soldiers and was sent back to Blue Sea with considerable reluctance—the crystal extracted from its brain was only Tier 2.
The sparkling Tier-2 nuclear crystal proved that the mutated hyena’s terrifying power had not come from evolution, but from radiation-induced mutation.
Fortunately, Blue Sea now had edible nutrient solution. Otherwise, just these nearly six months of planned operations would have been enough to force Blue Sea to open its emergency food reserves.
After watching the Old Eighths fight their way through one battle after another, Cheng Qisheng finally understood why the Moon Silk people generally possessed such formidable combat strength.
Other mutated beasts were one thing, but even the ants here were the size of a palm, and they would actively attack humans in swarms.
They were even poisonous.
In an environment like this, anyone capable of surviving would have to receive an epic-level power-up.
For the people of Blue Sea, the most difficult enemies to deal with were the mutants that carried radiation within their own bodies.
These aberrations could originate from either humans or animals. But regardless of what species they had been before their mutation, afterward they all ended up looking essentially the same: their entire bodies covered in blisters, resembling a gigantic mass of rotting flesh.
The aberrations had no intelligence and could not feel pain. They weren’t particularly difficult to fight, but the problem was that wherever they went, they left behind radioactive contamination.
The people of Blue Sea simply couldn’t get close to them.
After discovering these aberrations, Blue Sea cautiously conducted some tests.
Even while wearing protective suits, once someone came within one kilometer of an aberration, the radiation could still penetrate through.
But then again, it made sense. Even Moon Silk, back when its technology had been highly advanced, had been unable to manufacture materials capable of resisting this kind of radiation. Their only option had been to freeze themselves and hide inside shelters, waiting for the radiation to dissipate naturally.
Blue Sea’s technology was inferior to that of Moon Silk, so naturally, it was even less capable of producing such materials.
Yet the aberrations that were so troublesome for the people of Blue Sea were actually one of the easier types of wasteland creatures for the Moon Silk people to deal with.
Because New Humans weren’t afraid of the radiation emitted by aberrations.
Why weren’t they afraid?
Because everyone who couldn’t withstand the radiation had already died.
Those who survived were the ones who had endured it, carrying down their resistance from one generation to the next.
Many surviving New Humans even had malformed parts on their own bodies. They simply hadn’t completely degenerated into aberrations, and their minds remained clear.
The more she observed, the more certain Cheng Qisheng became that the [Company] wasn’t actually as omnipotent as it appeared.
Many of the mutated plants that the [Company] purchased could only survive in areas with residual radiation—places where only New Humans could enter.
Large quantities of mineral deposits likewise contained radiation when excavated deep underground, meaning only New Human workers could dig them out.
To the [Company], an aberration radiating radiation was a threat the moment anyone approached it.
But to the New Humans, they could grab something as simple as a scrap of an Old Era tin can and charge straight at the aberration, hacking away at it again and again until it was dead.
Without these New Humans continuously supplying the [Company] with vast quantities of raw materials, the [Company] might not have been completely helpless on the wasteland, but it certainly could never have grown into the colossal organization it was today.
The New Humans were clearly the ones who obtained everything in the first place.
Yet in the end, their labor was exploited layer upon layer, in exchange for the comfortable lives enjoyed by the [Company].
But even if these New Humans understood what was happening, what could they do about it?
They needed to trade with the [Company] for food and seeds just to keep themselves alive today.
As for tomorrow?
Someone who might starve to death today has no reason to care about tomorrow.
At this moment, the lives of the New Humans living in Broken River underwent earth-shaking changes after [Ota] awakened.
Once [Ota] had eliminated all the mutated creatures it deemed to pose a major threat, it immediately announced the rules governing [Ota] territory.
Everyone living in this region, whether New Human or Old Human, whether they had already awakened from their shelters or were still frozen and unconscious, was henceforth classified as an asset of [Ota].
The bad news: No matter what the people living in this region had owned before, from this point onward, according to [Ota], none of it belonged to them anymore.
Every grain of soil, every scrap of cloth, even garbage from a hundred years ago and the air freely drifting through the region—all of it was an asset belonging to [Ota].
The good news: Because they themselves were also assets of [Ota], they received the treatment afforded to assets. They no longer had to pay an air tax or a land-use tax, while their other burdensome taxes were drastically reduced. They were also provided with protection.
The [Company] issued regulation after regulation.
The New Humans actually couldn’t understand most of them.
But that didn’t matter. They only needed to understand one thing:
From now on, they wouldn’t have to pay those crushing taxes that could literally drive them to death.
The news allowed countless New Humans struggling on the very edge of survival to finally breathe a huge sigh of relief.
…
In Deer River Town, Rui En happily ran all the way to a ramshackle hut at the very edge of the town.
“Uncle Tagu! Uncle Tagu! I have good news for you!!”
Old Man Tagu was the oldest member of Deer River Town.
No one knew exactly how old he was, and no one could remember when he had first come to the town. People said he was a very strange old man. There was even a rumor going around town that many of the missing children had been eaten by Old Man Tagu.
Otherwise, how could an old man who could barely even walk have possibly survived for so many years?
But Rui En knew they were wrong.
Old Man Tagu was a good person.
When she was little, she had wanted to lessen the burden on her parents, so she secretly left home to look for some earthworms to boil into soup. Instead, she ran into a swarm of mutated ants and nearly ended up being devoured.
Old Man Tagu had driven the swarm away with a weapon that could spew fire, saving the young Rui En.
From then on, she loved going to Old Man Tagu’s place to play.
Old Man Tagu really was a strange old man, but after Rui En came often enough, he would sometimes smile at her and tell her stories—stories of all kinds, from the Old Era as well as the New Era. It was almost as if he had an entire collection of stories hidden inside him.
Little by little, Rui En also learned how Old Man Tagu had managed to survive.
Although the old man wasn’t fond of talking, he was incredibly capable. He knew all sorts of things from the Old Era, and he could even make weapons himself.
But Moon Silk had no tradition of “respecting the elderly.” Old Man Tagu’s advanced age meant that he had to pay more taxes.
This was known as the “elderly tax.” The reasoning was that because elderly people had physical limitations and consumed more resources, they were required to pay more in taxes as well.
Rui En had once wondered about it. Uncle Tagu could clearly manufacture weapons. If he revealed that he possessed such an ability, perhaps he could even work for the Lord.
But when she made that suggestion, Old Man Tagu had only shaken his head gloomily and said something Rui En didn’t understand:
“Rui En, you’re still young. You don’t understand. Right now, I’m a person. But if I become an [employee], I won’t even be able to control my own life or death.”
Other than Rui En, Old Man Tagu rarely interacted with anyone else in Deer River Town, so he wasn’t particularly well informed either.
Rui En had run all the way here specifically to tell him the good news that their taxes could now be cut in half.
When she arrived, Old Man Tagu was boiling up a pot of insect soup. Seeing Rui En come in, he shifted over to make room, tacitly acknowledging that the young girl could have a bowl of soup as well.
Rui En leaned over, beaming with delight.
“Uncle Tagu! I’ve got the most incredible news!”
Old Man Tagu picked up his bowl. “What good news? Did you finally find a five-colored mushroom?”
“No! It’s even better news than that!”
Rui En said cheerfully, “Every single one of us is now an asset of the [Company]!”
—Clatter!
The bowl fell from Old Man Tagu’s hands and hit the ground.
“What?!”
For the first time, the old man who had always seemed so indifferent to everything wore an expression of utter rage and despair.
“What do you mean? We became assets of the Company?”
Rui En didn’t understand why he was reacting this way. She shrank her neck and spoke in a small voice:
“Because the land we’re living on was given to the [Company] by the Lord, so that means we belong to the [Company] too.”
“Uncle Tagu, don’t be angry. Being an asset is pretty good, isn’t it? Our taxes have been cut in half this year! Mom and Dad don’t have to risk their lives anymore just to scrape together enough money for my adult tax!”
Old Man Tagu’s lips trembled.
“No. You don’t understand. You don’t know. This isn’t a benefit. This is the abyss itself!”
He had lived for far, far too long. The New Humans didn’t understand what being an asset meant, but he did.
His mother, an Old Human who had been among those abandoned, had once taught him what an asset was.
An asset meant that they were no longer human beings.
They were property belonging to the Company.
The [Company] could assign them any task it pleased. Even if it was a mission that meant certain death, the assets were still obligated to go.
They would be categorized, downgraded, and transferred. And if the [Company] decided that an asset could no longer generate profit and had become a liability, it could even be “disposed of.”
The organs, bone marrow, blood, and even the memories and souls of these “assets” could all become resources at the [Company]’s disposal.
“Escape! We have to escape!”
Old Man Tagu muttered frantically as he began gathering up everything inside the shack.
Seeing Rui En still standing there stupidly, he immediately said:
“Rui En, you have to escape too! You can’t stay here. The Company will strip you down to the last thing you have. Even if you die, they’ll find a use for your bones!”
“Didn’t they already order the town chief to gather people and deal with the mutated creatures, so that we could bring back more resources? That’s what the [Company] is like! Listen to me, Rui En. We’d be better off enduring the taxes than becoming assets of the [Company]. Whatever you do, don’t become one.”
Rui En was completely lost by what he was saying, but she understood the words “gather people.”
“No, Uncle Tagu! the [Company] didn’t tell us to deal with the mutated creatures. They actually sent their own army and killed a whole bunch of those really powerful mutated beasts! Because we’re assets, we’re supposed to be protected!”
“Oh, right, right! Uncle Tagu! the [Company] also put out a new exchange rate list. Five-colored mushrooms have gone up in price!! Because we’re assets of the [Company], keeping us healthy means the Company’s assets increase in value, so they’re buying them from us for twice as much as before!!”
Old Man Tagu froze.
What did she mean, the [Company] had sent its own people to deal with the mutated beasts?
What did she mean, the [Company] had voluntarily raised its purchasing prices?
It sounded as absurd as the town chief suddenly going insane and deciding to perform a striptease on the big tree beside Deer River Town.
Half an hour later—
Old Man Tagu stood in front of the proclamation board, reading the various regulations issued by the Company.
He could read, so he could clearly understand what was written there.
One regulation after another was listed in meticulous detail.
Every character printed across the top of the pure-white sheet seemed to proclaim the arrogance of the [Company].
And yet the contents were completely different from what he had imagined.
[To prevent the unplanned death of high-value assets, which could consequently affect the overall output efficiency of the cluster, [Ota] will reduce taxes by 50%.]
—A tax cut.
[Any asset possessing special skills or capable of making a greater contribution to the [Company] may complete an internal rank promotion. Taxes will continue to decrease according to the level of promotion.]
—A pay raise.
[Any registered asset is prohibited from physically harming other assets within the same cluster. Otherwise, such behavior will be deemed intentional damage to [Company] assets.]
—A ban on b*llying and ab*se.
[Comprehensive cluster-wide order-maintenance protocols have now been implemented. No criminal activity of any kind will be permitted within the Third Asset Cluster.]
—The law.
Old Man Tagu was completely stunned.
His eyes remained fixed on the two lines at the very bottom.
[The Company is absolutely correct.]
[The Company is the law.]
It seemed… it really was the same as the [Company] he had heard about.
Cold. Ruthless. Lofty and untouchable.
Everything was subordinate to the [Company’s] interests.
But life after becoming an asset… was it really supposed to be like this?
Old Man Tagu was plunged into deep confusion.
‘Mom, you didn’t teach me this… did you?’
A tsundere company lol