Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
“How many days has it been?” On the roof of the Dark Red Chamber of Commerce building, Cao Guangkai in a suit gazed in Wanghai’s direction without many words.
“The sixth day,” The guard beside him said respectfully.
[The sixth day already?]
Dawn colored the thin fog into a golden glow. Even in Su City ten kilometers away, he could still smell the fragrance known as order and freedom. It had been clear in that direction, without any smoke, for the sixth day.
Moments later, Cao Guangkai slowly said.
“That man, when did he leave?”
The man he referred to was Lin Chaoen.
The man who referred to himself as the apostle of Supreme civilization.
The guard hesitated for a moment and answered with an uncertain voice, “Around two months.”
Cao Guangkai nodded.
“He shouldn’t be back then.”
Based on their agreement, if he didn’t come back in two months, that meant their agreement was over.
“Even God could not stop their rise to power?” Cao Guangkai looked to the direction of the Fishbone and raised his eyebrows.
Not long ago, the Dark Red’s division in Hang City brought information that the Merchant Alliance formed a partnership with the NAC in the areas of banking, merchant guild, and mercenary guild. Although NAC soldiers didn’t step into Hang City, NAC already exported its influence into Hang.
The core of a merchant is currency. What’s a better way to control merchants than controlling the currency?
Cao Gunagkai lowered his head.
He needed to reconsider the future of Dark Red seriously.
…
The Sixth Street looked prosperous.
The crystal detector common among the streets of the Sixth Street suddenly disappeared without a trace and was replaced by EP transfer or bill payment. The Sixth Street also injected enough currency into the market in the form of a loan, and the council also signed on the proposal to reduce the tax on credit transactions to promote the use of “credit” in trades.
At first, people were skeptical about the currency. But with the passage of time, the exchange between credit and crystal began to appreciate. The initial 1:2 rose to what was 1:4 now. If it was not for NAC’s strict control on credit circulating in the market, people were desperate to smash their slowly depreciating crystals onto the counter of the bank.
Because of NAC’s control of credit circulation, it resulted in the strong purchasing power of the credit. Continually printing currency would only turn the currency into useless papers. Right now, on the black market, the exchange rate between crystals to credit climbed to an astounding 1:6.
On the other side, the establishment of the merchant guild provided merchant transaction access to Suhang Province and to even further places with information security. It also brought orders to the Sixth Street factories from beyond Wanghai’s territory.
The mercenary guild established a division in Hang City and gave the hunters that lost Wanghai as a “hunting ground” a new profession. They either became mercenaries or guards of merchant fleets in expanding the trade route from Hang City.
Jiang Chen was walking along the street in the Inner Circle with the company of Chu Nan and the NAC soldiers, touring the ever-changing city.
“There are a total of 174 mutant nests destroyed, and that accounts for 89% of the progress in capturing the west city center. The remaining 21 nests, because of higher risk ratings, no mercenary organization is willing to take on the mission alone.”
“Then leave it to the NAC soldiers,” Jiang Chen was quite intrigued by the prosperous city as he said nonchalantly.
“On the other hand, the slave owners from Su City expressed their dissatisfaction with us. Because of the depreciation of crystals, it shrunk their assets by four times.”
Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.
“And their opinion is?”
“They want to trade for credit with us at a ratio of 1:2.” Chu Nan chuckled.
“Reject them. Make him speak with the factories in the Sixth Street,” Jiang Chen scoffed and said out of annoyance.
Only Sixth Street factories needed crystals now. Although in principle the bank would provide channels for the factories to purchase crystals with credit, the Sixth Street official promoted purchasing crystals from private owners. And the fact was credit could purchase more crystals at the same price.
“They won’t accept the exchange ratio of 1:6. Their ambassador should be raging at the council and Zhao Chenwu. Do you need to see them?”
“No. Our people will conduct a military exercise in the no man zone between Wanghai and Su City, the “Fireball-1″ will be part of the exercise. Give them a ticket to the VIP seats,” Jiang Chen said.
Chu Nan smiled and replied courteously.
“I understand.”
After they watch the lavish fireworks, anyone who was still discontent would reevaluate their abilities.
The street was filled with the delicious smell of food. The entire food street was full of different selections. Even though it was just food being sold, this place was the place that made the most money in the Inner Circle other than the casino. Other than typical restaurants, Jiang Chen saw a noodle shop operated by robots and a BBQ shop operated by outsiders. With the steady increase of NAC’s food supply, the selection of food at the Sixth Street had much more varieties.
It was a scene that never could be seen a year ago.
Soilless farming of pre-war crops, cloning technology to grow non-mutated livestock, even the wealthy could only eat the original luxury goods a few times a year back then. Today, even the ordinary citizens of the Sixth Street, as long as they worked hard, could come into the Inner Circle for a lavish experience.
At the end of the street was a colorful street.
But from the arousing signs and intimate colors, it didn’t look like a place of decency.
In the Sixth Street, brothels and casinos could operate legally. Even a council member in the Sixth Street, under the direction of Jiang Chen, ran the largest “entertainment complex” in the Inner Circle. Since most of the survivors that lived here were all once violent bandits that lived on the edge, to these people, only exciting things could give them the feeling of being alive.
Of course, forced sex trade was strictly prohibited. The Sixth Street didn’t prohibit slave trades, but any slave can enter into the jurisdiction of the Sixth Street, the slave trade was not taxed nor protected by the soldiers.
In the other hand, anyone who stepped into the Sixth Street by default was considered free. Their personal freedom was protected under the constitution.
“Do you want to go take a look inside? I will keep this a secret.” Chu Nan jokingly smiled and looked at Jiang Chen.
“I will pass.” Jiang Chen looked away at the girl who was winking at him.
He couldn’t even feed the girls back at home, and he didn’t have too much interest in these ordinary girls.
When the group passed by the red light district, they ended the day’s travel plan ahead of schedule. Jiang Chen planned to head to the council building and audit the council work for this quarter, and announce the recruitment and military plan for the next quarter.
In the end, Jiang Chen met with eight local merchants he invited to discuss partnership opportunities.
After taking a turn, the roadblock on the main street drew Jiang Chen’s attention. A few construction vehicles passed through the smooth concrete road and used drillers to leave equally spaced holes in the road. The construction workers in the back surrounded the holes to insert black cylindrical poles.
“What is that?” Jiang Chen looked at the blocked road.
“They are paving maglev track, a Hang merchant invested in the project. In exchange, we provided them with two years of exclusive sales rights to maglev vehicles as well as four years of tax-free sales.” Chu Nan explained, “Once the maglev track is complete, maglev cars could pass through.”
The maglev track buried under the road had low resistance against explosions, so most of the tracks were demagnetized during the war. Now that the Sixth Street returned to stability with the economy skyrocketing and average personal income steadily rising, the cunning merchants obviously began searching for opportunities.
[Maglev vehicles?]
[Finally, a feeling of the future.]
With the construction vehicles moving forward, a genuine smile emerged on Jiang Chen’s face.
The seed of civilization has been planted.
He was delighted to see that it has sprouted.