“Work for you?” Jiang Lin hesitated as he gave Jiang Chen a perplexed look. “Work in your factory?”
“No.” Jiang Chen held up a finger and shook it, staring straight into Jiang Lin’s eyes. “Come to my survival camp. I’ll invest in your space project, but you’ll have to follow my requirements.”
Jiang Lin looked suspiciously at Jiang Chen.
“A survival camp? I haven’t left Sixth Street that often, but it’s not like I don’t have a clue about the outside world. Who says your camp isn’t a gathering of bandits? What if I become a slave going in?”
Jiang Chen smiled and walked up to Jiang Lin to pat his shoulder.
“Slave? Do you know how much it costs to buy a slave from the ghetto?”
Jiang Lin gulped. “Before the slave trade was halted, including the microchip which costs nineteen crystals, the price for a slave was as high as fifty crystals.”
“Then do you think I need to spend sixty-eight crystals to buy someone who has never done hard labor?” Jiang Chen smiled. “I don’t plan on negotiating with you. You only have two options.
“Sell your dream as scraps, and go work at the factory to pay off the remaining crystals. Or sell your dream to me, and I’ll provide you with resources and directions. All you need to do is install a chip on your neck.”
Listening to Jiang Chen speak, Jiang Lin’s inner turmoil could be seen in his eyes, but in the end, he sighed in compromise. Before Jiang Chen’s pleased gaze, he opened his mouth to say, “I choose two.”
…
Since Jiang Lin had already nodded in agreement, the rest was fairly simple. Jiang Chen arranged for him to pack everything and then sent him to the clinic for injection. On the tenth, when they were to conduct the trade with the Zhao Corporation, Zhao Chenwu would send the people and the goods together.
As for the store’s new purpose? Jiang Chen had yet to think of a solution, but he went ahead and hired construction workers to seal the open roof. Since winter was coming, a tent that only shielded from rain did not seem reliable at all.
Overall, the criteria of having a 200-square-meter fixed asset were met for him to join Sixth Street Bank.
The next morning, Jiang Chen took Jiang Lin to the hospital.
After paying a hospital fee of nineteen crystals, Jiang Chen watched as the doctor reached the end of the hallway while he met up with the five people who were just exiting the rehabilitation room.
Due to the chip’s installation into the neural network, interference from the electric parts was inevitable. Therefore, after the injection, they were required to spend a few hours in rehabilitation—which they had just clearly finished—before being released from the hospital.
Chu Nan saw Jiang Chen from afar and greeted him. Zhou Guoping had the same simpering smile, and Zhao Gang held his wife in silence. Zhou Xiaoxia’s vision seemed to lag, as though she’d been injected with a tranquilizer?
“How are you feeling?”
“Not bad.” Chu Nan shrugged. “Try your EP.”
A doctor in a white coat walked over and gave a nail-sized memory card to Jiang Chen before beating a hasty retreat to the surgery room.
Holding the memory card in hand, Jiang Chen inserted it into the EP on his wrist. He noticed that while it was loading, Chu Nan’s eyes stayed on the loading bar.
“Missing your freedom?” Jiang Chen joked.
Chu Nan smiled, then glanced away.
“What’s freedom? From the moment I was born, I fought for one power, and now I changed to another one.”
The bar finished loading.
Seeing the words <Slavery chip online> hovering on the screen, Jiang Chen grabbed the memory card and crushed it.
“Freedom is a good thing. Within certain boundaries, I’ll grant you enough of it.” Jiang Chen smiled at Chu Nan as he pressed buttons on the EP.
Jiang Chen’s face surfaced on the screen in a clear image; he was connected to Chu Nan’s vision.
Chu Nan rubbed his temple. “Is this a neural injection? Sixth Street’s slavery chip is quite intriguing.”
“Liuding Town doesn’t have this?” Jiang Chen asked casually as he selected the option to end the connection.
“No, we have more opportunity to fight long-distance with few chances to battle on foot. We call it the ‘dictator chip’. It emphases communication and remote sensors, but it doesn’t seem to be as stable as this one. It’s controlled by the central processor on the ship and will grant control to someone’s EP only under special permission.” Chu Nan moved his limbs and gradually accustomed himself to the feeling.
“What about you guys?” Jiang Chen asked as he surveyed the remaining four people.
Zhou Guoping, with his shiny, bald head, continued his attempts to flatter. “Hehe, very good! I pledge allegiance to the boss.”
Zhao Gang’s wife was a bit frightened and hid behind Zhao Gang’s back. As he comforted her, he said solemnly, “Not bad.”
Zhou Xiaoxia, as usual, had the same blank expression.
Some conversations were not meant for a public hearing. After confirming the chips’ functionality, Jiang Chen took all five of them to the Fake Legs Specialty Store.
Once they all arrived, Jiang Chen closed the door behind him.
Seeing that the boss had something to say, Zhou Guoping’s eyes rolled cleverly before he moved a chair for Jiang Chen to sit on from behind the counter. Chu Nan glanced at him and turned away disdainfully. Their conflict started over a month ago, but now that they worked under the same boss, there was no longer any opportunity to seek revenge.
Zhao Gang held his wife’s hand and stood off to the side in silence.
“I’ve arranged a few things, so listen up and follow.” Jiang Chen sat on the chair without caring for appearance.
“Zhao Gang, take your wife back to the base and join the civil army while waiting for further orders.”
“I understand.”
“Chu Nan, since you’re familiar with the helicopter, go purchase whatever’s necessary for repairs. Then take her back.” Jiang Chen pointed at Zhou Xiaoxia, who had yet to regain consciousness.
“No problem, but I don’t have a single crystal on me.” Chu Nan opened his palms helplessly.
Under Chu Nan’s shocked gaze, Jiang Chen grabbed two hundred crystals from his pocket and threw it at him before clapping his hands.
“Okay, get moving.”
The four immediately left, leaving Zhou Guoping at a loss.
Seeing Jiang Chen stay silent, Zhou Guoping stayed true to his servile character and proactively asked with a simpering smile, “Boss? What about me?”
“I heard that during your time working for the Huizhong Mercenaries, you were stationed in Sixth Street. You must be pretty familiar with the area?” Jiang Chen leaned back, fingers crossed, and smiled decisively at Zhou Guoping.
“Hehe, of course. Boss, what would you like to know?” Zhou Guoping patted his chest confidently.
“Do you know any slave merchants?”
Zhou Guoping immediately nodded and said attentively, “Yes, yes! There is a slave merchant from Su City in Sixth Street. There are also clones from the 071 survival base, but because of production problems, they must be ordered beforehand. The good thing is that they are all original—”
“What are you thinking about? Whether it’s original or not,” Jiang Chen jokingly cursed, “I’m not planning on doing that.”
“Hehe, boss, if you want, you can have some fun in New Ray Hotel. Once you train the newly produced clones a little, they’re exactly like sex dolls….” Zhou Guoping smiled lewdly.
“Okay, I’m talking to you about a serious matter,” Jiang Chen interrupted with a frown.
“Yes, yes!”
“Contact the slave merchant. The base still needs two hundred people. How much should the price be?”
Zhou Guoping thought for a moment. “If they’re ordinary slaves, ten crystals each would be enough. If you’re looking at fallout shelter 071’s product, then probably twenty crystals. Considering the market at Sixth Street, the population price could double.”
“That’s fine. Go ahead and contact them. Transportation is difficult during the winter, so put the order in first and ship them here next year. Try to lower the price as much as you can. It’s time to test your ability.”
Zhou Guoping laughed and smacked his chest with confidence. “Don’t worry, Boss! You can count on me.”
Once the population business was taken care of, it was now time to discuss the store’s purpose.
“What do you think we should open this store for?” Jiang Chen asked as he scanned the decoration in the store.
Zhou Guoping’s eyes rolled a bit, and he scratched his head. “That’s up to what the boss wants. If it’s to make money, then a food store would definitely be the best choice.”
Jiang Chen thought for a bit before shaking his head. “Not a food store. Zhao Chenwu has already taken care of Sixth Street’s food business.”
Fishbone Base needed an alliance, and therefore it was necessary to give up part of the profit. From now on, Zhao Chenwu was a genuine partner; maintaining the relationship would bring more profit than opening a food store.
It was especially pointless to use this store to make money. Fishbone Base had nothing attractive to Sixth Street beside food.
Other than crystals, Jiang Chen needed more intelligence.
From the information on the bank, he realized the importance of gathering intelligence. If Zhao Chenwu didn’t leak the information to him, the opportunity to make more than one hundred thousand crystals would have slipped through his fingers. Since he did not have any agents here, he had to rely on Zhao Chenwu for all events at this location. It was unwise to entrust his eyes to someone else.
As Fishbone grew, he needed to consider more factors.
“I need you to gather intelligence for me here. Record any information you think valuable. You worked for the Huizhong Mercenaries before, so you should be familiar with this type of work.”
Zhou Guoping smiled self-assuredly, responding immediately with, “Of course, Boss. I’m great at this sort of thing. When I used to work for the Huizhong Mercenaries, I spent all day in bars and official purchasing centers, recording all of the fat prey and sending the information back. We could open our own bar. There’s nothing better in this world than alcohol to make a person spill the truth.”
“Bar?” Jiang Chen paused and looked at him with an odd expression. “There are bars in the Sixth Street?”
There were no crops to produce the alcohol, so how could there be a bar?
“Hehe, it is processed methanol. Just a small quantity is fine.”
[Industral alcohol is drinkable?!]
[What the fu*k, the alcoholics in the apocalypse go pretty far.]
But speaking of this, he forgot that selling alcohol was an excellent way to make money—perhaps even more popular than food.
“I’ll leave the bar to you. Get someone to renovate this place, and send me a message when it’s done. Don’t worry about the alcohol, I’ll take care of it.”
If the alcoholics smelled the scent of beer, wine, and Baijiu, would they barrel down the door of the bar? The more he thought about it, the brighter his smile became.
Although alcohol was scarce in the apocalypse because of the lack of crops, that was nothing in the modern world! Any store had an abundance of it.
Seeing his boss’s delighted mood, Zhou Guoping was also secretly happy. His future depended on Jiang Chen; if Jiang Chen was satisfied, then he would be better off.
“Yes, boss!” Zhou Guoping responded and bowed with a flourish.