Chapter 72.1
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At 7:30 in the evening, Qiao Zhiya went online on time. After being transferred to the contestant’s waiting room, he took out his electronic book and made final confirmation and modifications to the finalized mecha design.
After finishing the last touch-ups, as he was about to appreciate his design as a whole, a familiar hand stretched out and took away the electronic book from him. At the same time, a familiar voice sounded above his head, “Is this the mecha you designed?”
Qiao Zhiya was stunned, and quickly looked up. Seeing Chu Rong standing in front of him, his eyes lit up. He happily walked around his crafting table and rushed over to him, asking, “Why are you online? Aren’t you on your way back?”
Chu Rong moved the electronic book and hugged him, then replied, “The ship is landing, so I came up to take a look. I have to wait until I get home to continue watching the game.”
‘Ah, it turned out to be like that… he took the time to come up specially for me.’
Hearing this, Qiao Zhiya’s smile got brighter. “You’re still on the way, no need to rush online…”
Chu Rong didn’t answer, only smiled back at him. Hesuddenly lowered his head and kissed him, then looked at the electronic book in her hand, and repeated his previous question, “Is this the mecha you designed?”
Qiao Zhiya’s attention snapped back to this question. He glanced at his drawing, a black-and-gold mecha, and sheepishly nodded. “Well, this is the final design. Do you… do you like it?”
It was a very domineering and powerful-looking mecha. It was big, but not bulky. It was taller than traditional mechas, too. There were no unnecessary add-ons or accessories on the mecha. And in fact, it seemed that the mecha was very likely to be designed after a human’s body proportion, full of sleek lines and hidden power.
The mecha was like a human warrior clad in a black-and-gold armor, watching its prey, ready to strike at any time.
The current development of mecha design was not like this. Nowadays, the appearance design has slowly begun to develop in a more high-tech and cool direction, especially that of the Xiang family. Their current design philosophy is that if they can’t come up with a new fresh trick to enhance its “coolness” factor, then the mecha is not special.
Under the leadership of the Xiang family, the current mecha design trend has become more and more “fancy”, and almost all the new generation of mecha manufacturers have been led astray by this design philosophy – form over function.
Although some “fancy” mechas do become more powerful when used properly, Chu Rong doesn’t like them – he even hates them on principle.
He vastly preferred neat and clean design, which reflected on his subordinates’ mechas – all of them used ordinary-looking gray mechas. No matter how many tricks a mecha had, as long as its basic attack power iwa guaranteed, the strength of the mecha warrior was the key to determining the victory of the battler. Sometimes, an overly complex design could be detrimental.
Distraction was the most taboo thing in battle. With so many tricks available, people would inevitably feel that their concentration was split. Now even the driving system has been developing in the direction of simplicity and refinement. The Xiang family has lost their minds and neglected to do research on the driving system. They insist on fighting with the mecha shape, and they were still complacent about it.
The mecha on this design drawing was black, tall, neat, and clean in appearance, all elements he liked. It was obvious that this was a customized mecha. Judging from the body proportions of this mecha, it’s clear it was 100% tailored for him, and him only.
“I like it,” he answered simply. How could he not like it? Of course he likes such a carefully prepared gift.
Chu Rong suddenly remembered what Qiao Zhiya had said before, about getting engaged and giving him a gift after the competition. His heart moved, and in his mind, this design became even more satisfying. He even showed some blind confidence and pride.
“The mecha you made must be the best.”
He boasted in a domineering and affirmative tone. Hearing this made Qiao Zhiya blush even deeper, so he hurriedly explained, “Actually, this is just a semi-finished product. I haven’t finished the most critical part yet. I still need to study it thoroughly.”
Chu Rong patted the youth’s head, and casually replied, “Is it the engine? Take your time, I believe you.”
Qiao Zhiya was stunned. He tilted his head to accommodate the patting. No words were exchanged between them during this time.
For Qiao Zhiya, the key to the success of mecha production was not the engine. He was confident that he would fully master the engine production method by the time the competition progresses to the engine part. Even if he couldn’t make an advanced-level one, he should be able to make an intermediate-level one.
What he was unsure about was the sensor system of the manually-piloted mecha.
For this competition, he planned to only make a prototype of this mecha. When assembling it, he would first install the conventional spiritual power driving system to mislead those who were paying attention to the competition. He planned to secretly study the true manually-piloted sensor system. When the research results are available, he would give the results to Master Ren, and then actually build this mecha in reality.
The two chatted thoughtfully for a while. When the game was about to start, Chu Rong put down his electronic book, kissed Qiao Zhiya’s forehead again, and then operated something on the communicator before going offline directly.
Qiao Zhiya was a little confused about his last operation. After sitting back on the crafting table, he casually raised his eyes and looked up, his eyes widening reflexively.
What he saw was the countdown, and also the betting odds of his game. For the first time, he saw that more people betted on him getting promoted. In other words, there were actually more people who betted on him to win instead of the opposite!
Qiao Zhiya, who already knew what these odds meant, was struck silence. Then he was dumbfounded after seeing a familiar ID that suddenly appeared next to the odds – specifically to the sky-high price bets that followed the ID name.
One could participate in the Star Network Mecha Manufacturing Competition with their real name or anonymously. If they chose to be anonymous, no matter how much they bet, the system would not show it to others.
On the contrary, if they chose to use their real identity, then if they became the one with the highest bet, their ID would be displayed simultaneously beside the odds, followed by their amount.
There was no such information behind the odds of the previous game, only a few asterisks were displayed. That was because the relatively large bets at that time were all anonymous. For relatively small bets, there were too many IDs betting the same amount, so it wouldn’t be displayed for the sake of fairness for all.
And this time, no one could compete with the amount that bet. Because, except for the Four Great Families and some invisible tycoons from other planets, it was estimated that no one in the entire Federation could come with such a high amount of money at once.
Outside the waiting room, the melon-eaters who noticed that Chu Rong was online then got offline in record time had no time to wail and express their emotions. They were shocked by this sky-high price bet from , and then almost instantly, the amount representing the odds for the “eliminated” changed. It was crazy – so many zeros! If Qiao Zhiya was to be eliminated, those who betted on this would make huge profits!
There were many people who held this idea. After being shocked by Qiao Zhiya’s previous game, the people who were ready to bet on his promotion began to hesitate. After some thoughts, most people betted on his elimination with the mentality of giving it a try. Only a small number of people followed Chu Rong and insisted on betting on his promotion.
The odds started to get crazy again. After a while, the odds for Qiao Zhiya getting eliminated got stable, and it was competing with the other. It was obvious that someone – or a huge amount of people – had betted on Qiao Zhiya losing.
At the corner of the square, Chu Yan smacked his lips and followed his Erge to bet on Qiao Zhiya’s promotion without any hint of hesitation.
Yuan Xiu had just finished counting the row of zeros after Chu Rong’s ID. He was silent, and then took out his pocket money. Then he looked at Chu Yan and asked, “Your Erge has just emptied out his coffers, right?”
“Bah, bah, bah, you’re the one who emptied his coffers.” Chu Yan waved his hand to drive away this unlucky statement. He gave him a stink eye, and said, “You underestimate the amount of my Erge’s savings. These are just small amounts of money. Remember, didn’t I tell you about the Xiang family’s price for buying the secondary-mutated red tin ores? They had to cough up around 10-20 billions. All of those money went directly to Erge’s and Qiao Zhiya’s pockets.”
“Also, that President was so paranoid. Half of the time, the military’s request for funding was rejected. Our Chu family’s army depends entirely on Erge, and Dage doesn’t have that much money.”
Yuan Xiu suddenly remembered about the funding issue – after all, his Yuan family’s army is attached to the Chu family. That is to say, every year, whenever he heard about the massive amount of funding the army received, his heart trembled.
With a whisper, Yuan Xiu asked, “How did your Erge earn all this money? I didn’t see what kind of business your family was doing… did you rob someone or something?”
“Who do you think we can rob?”
Chu Yan couldn’t stand his ignorance. While rolling his eyes, he hooked his hands over Yuan Xiu’s shoulder. He opened his super-secret ledger with his special encryption, then explained, “Who said my family doesn’t do business? My family just doesn’t do the business that everyone expects. On the surface, the Ning family is a pharmaceutical industry giant, while the Xiang family is in the mecha-manufacturing industry. You would think that they make a lot of money relying on those, but you would be wrong.”
“While they’re not poor by any means, the money they made from those businesses pales in comparison from the real source of money. You see, all Four Great Families made money from collecting taxes from our respective planets. You can count them yourself, aren’t the planets where our army is stationed the most full of rich people? And we stationed those armies to protect them. My Erge also has a side business, under his industry, he held many patents on various civilian and military items in the energy section, and even some star network-related ones.”
“For example, right now on the Internet, half of the famous mecha warriors on the online rankings were secretly trained by my Erge. How many viewers would watch their battle? How much commission could they get? How many hidden benefits does it contain? Xiao Xiuzi1Xiao = small, Xiu = Yuan Xiu’s name; -zi = endearment suffix for calling children., you are still too young.”
Yuan Xiu was dumbfounded, especially about the tax matters.
Everyone knew that in the Federation, the Chu family’s army was the absolute strongest, the most disciplined, and the best in welfare. Most of them are stationed on border planets and several important trade transit planets, and they do have a firm grip on the Federation’s transportation network.
–This does not include some other relatively wealthy A-class or B-class planets. If all the taxes paid by these planets are included every year, it will be enough to support the entire Federation, let alone the army.
But the problem is how did these taxes get into the Chu family’s pockets!
Seeing his doubts, Chu Yan patted him again and said seriously, “Don’t think too much. When you’re older, I know your father will tell you about this. Hey, actually, why don’t you ask him to teach you early? You’re the sole heir of the Yuan family, after all. You should learn about your family’s management.”
“I’ll simplify it this way: In terms of taxes, everyone will take some proportionally, otherwise how can we protect those planets? The soldiers still need to be fed! As for the amount, it just depends on whether you take more or get less. Do you think that the Ning family has always been neutral and only has pharmaceutical companies? Their family tradition seems to be good, so they ask for the least amount of taxes? No, no, no. On the contrary, the Ning family gets the most and issues the harshest taxes. In recent years, the Federation’s medical field has become worse, with substandard drugs overflowing the market and basic medicine in decline. If the Ning family solely rely on their pharma, how can they still thrive, then?”
It was as if a door to a new world had been opened before his eyes. Yuan Xiu looked at him in confusion, speechless.
“Learn more. The cake of the Federation has long been eaten by the Four Great Families. Military strength and interests were the fundamental reasons why other emerging families cannot compare to these four. Even the President must also pretend to be subservient in front of the Four Great Families. Anyway, the game is about to start. Let’s go.”
With that, Chu Yan swiftly ended the topic. He let Yuan Xiu digest that infodump by himself.
He didn’t say this in the past because the situation in the Federation was still very stable, so Yuan Xiu could slowly mature with time. But that’s not the case now. The situation was getting worse, it’s only not visible on the surface. It would reach a breaking point sooner than later.
The youth of his generation needed to grow up fast to keep up. Living in ignorance is the same as suicide.
T/L: i hope y’all like this kind of worldbuilding. No, I also did not expect the author would get detailed on the whole taxes thing TT _ TT
That whole spiel is relevant for the plot tho
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
At 7:30 in the evening, Qiao Zhiya went online on time. After being transferred to the contestant’s waiting room, he took out his electronic book and made final confirmation and modifications to the finalized mecha design.
After finishing the last touch-ups, as he was about to appreciate his design as a whole, a familiar hand stretched out and took away the electronic book from him. At the same time, a familiar voice sounded above his head, “Is this the mecha you designed?”
Qiao Zhiya was stunned, and quickly looked up. Seeing Chu Rong standing in front of him, his eyes lit up. He happily walked around his crafting table and rushed over to him, asking, “Why are you online? Aren’t you on your way back?”
Chu Rong moved the electronic book and hugged him, then replied, “The ship is landing, so I came up to take a look. I have to wait until I get home to continue watching the game.”
‘Ah, it turned out to be like that… he took the time to come up specially for me.’
Hearing this, Qiao Zhiya’s smile got brighter. “You’re still on the way, no need to rush online…”
Chu Rong didn’t answer, only smiled back at him. Hesuddenly lowered his head and kissed him, then looked at the electronic book in her hand, and repeated his previous question, “Is this the mecha you designed?”
Qiao Zhiya’s attention snapped back to this question. He glanced at his drawing, a black-and-gold mecha, and sheepishly nodded. “Well, this is the final design. Do you… do you like it?”
It was a very domineering and powerful-looking mecha. It was big, but not bulky. It was taller than traditional mechas, too. There were no unnecessary add-ons or accessories on the mecha. And in fact, it seemed that the mecha was very likely to be designed after a human’s body proportion, full of sleek lines and hidden power.
The mecha was like a human warrior clad in a black-and-gold armor, watching its prey, ready to strike at any time.
The current development of mecha design was not like this. Nowadays, the appearance design has slowly begun to develop in a more high-tech and cool direction, especially that of the Xiang family. Their current design philosophy is that if they can’t come up with a new fresh trick to enhance its “coolness” factor, then the mecha is not special.
Under the leadership of the Xiang family, the current mecha design trend has become more and more “fancy”, and almost all the new generation of mecha manufacturers have been led astray by this design philosophy – form over function.
Although some “fancy” mechas do become more powerful when used properly, Chu Rong doesn’t like them – he even hates them on principle.
He vastly preferred neat and clean design, which reflected on his subordinates’ mechas – all of them used ordinary-looking gray mechas. No matter how many tricks a mecha had, as long as its basic attack power iwa guaranteed, the strength of the mecha warrior was the key to determining the victory of the battler. Sometimes, an overly complex design could be detrimental.
Distraction was the most taboo thing in battle. With so many tricks available, people would inevitably feel that their concentration was split. Now even the driving system has been developing in the direction of simplicity and refinement. The Xiang family has lost their minds and neglected to do research on the driving system. They insist on fighting with the mecha shape, and they were still complacent about it.
The mecha on this design drawing was black, tall, neat, and clean in appearance, all elements he liked. It was obvious that this was a customized mecha. Judging from the body proportions of this mecha, it’s clear it was 100% tailored for him, and him only.
“I like it,” he answered simply. How could he not like it? Of course he likes such a carefully prepared gift.
Chu Rong suddenly remembered what Qiao Zhiya had said before, about getting engaged and giving him a gift after the competition. His heart moved, and in his mind, this design became even more satisfying. He even showed some blind confidence and pride.
“The mecha you made must be the best.”
He boasted in a domineering and affirmative tone. Hearing this made Qiao Zhiya blush even deeper, so he hurriedly explained, “Actually, this is just a semi-finished product. I haven’t finished the most critical part yet. I still need to study it thoroughly.”
Chu Rong patted the youth’s head, and casually replied, “Is it the engine? Take your time, I believe you.”
Qiao Zhiya was stunned. He tilted his head to accommodate the patting. No words were exchanged between them during this time.
For Qiao Zhiya, the key to the success of mecha production was not the engine. He was confident that he would fully master the engine production method by the time the competition progresses to the engine part. Even if he couldn’t make an advanced-level one, he should be able to make an intermediate-level one.
What he was unsure about was the sensor system of the manually-piloted mecha.
For this competition, he planned to only make a prototype of this mecha. When assembling it, he would first install the conventional spiritual power driving system to mislead those who were paying attention to the competition. He planned to secretly study the true manually-piloted sensor system. When the research results are available, he would give the results to Master Ren, and then actually build this mecha in reality.
The two chatted thoughtfully for a while. When the game was about to start, Chu Rong put down his electronic book, kissed Qiao Zhiya’s forehead again, and then operated something on the communicator before going offline directly.
Qiao Zhiya was a little confused about his last operation. After sitting back on the crafting table, he casually raised his eyes and looked up, his eyes widening reflexively.
What he saw was the countdown, and also the betting odds of his game. For the first time, he saw that more people betted on him getting promoted. In other words, there were actually more people who betted on him to win instead of the opposite!
Qiao Zhiya, who already knew what these odds meant, was struck silence. Then he was dumbfounded after seeing a familiar ID that suddenly appeared next to the odds – specifically to the sky-high price bets that followed the ID name.
One could participate in the Star Network Mecha Manufacturing Competition with their real name or anonymously. If they chose to be anonymous, no matter how much they bet, the system would not show it to others.
On the contrary, if they chose to use their real identity, then if they became the one with the highest bet, their ID would be displayed simultaneously beside the odds, followed by their amount.
There was no such information behind the odds of the previous game, only a few asterisks were displayed. That was because the relatively large bets at that time were all anonymous. For relatively small bets, there were too many IDs betting the same amount, so it wouldn’t be displayed for the sake of fairness for all.
And this time, no one could compete with the amount that bet. Because, except for the Four Great Families and some invisible tycoons from other planets, it was estimated that no one in the entire Federation could come with such a high amount of money at once.
Outside the waiting room, the melon-eaters who noticed that Chu Rong was online then got offline in record time had no time to wail and express their emotions. They were shocked by this sky-high price bet from , and then almost instantly, the amount representing the odds for the “eliminated” changed. It was crazy – so many zeros! If Qiao Zhiya was to be eliminated, those who betted on this would make huge profits!
There were many people who held this idea. After being shocked by Qiao Zhiya’s previous game, the people who were ready to bet on his promotion began to hesitate. After some thoughts, most people betted on his elimination with the mentality of giving it a try. Only a small number of people followed Chu Rong and insisted on betting on his promotion.
The odds started to get crazy again. After a while, the odds for Qiao Zhiya getting eliminated got stable, and it was competing with the other. It was obvious that someone – or a huge amount of people – had betted on Qiao Zhiya losing.
At the corner of the square, Chu Yan smacked his lips and followed his Erge to bet on Qiao Zhiya’s promotion without any hint of hesitation.
Yuan Xiu had just finished counting the row of zeros after Chu Rong’s ID. He was silent, and then took out his pocket money. Then he looked at Chu Yan and asked, “Your Erge has just emptied out his coffers, right?”
“Bah, bah, bah, you’re the one who emptied his coffers.” Chu Yan waved his hand to drive away this unlucky statement. He gave him a stink eye, and said, “You underestimate the amount of my Erge’s savings. These are just small amounts of money. Remember, didn’t I tell you about the Xiang family’s price for buying the secondary-mutated red tin ores? They had to cough up around 10-20 billions. All of those money went directly to Erge’s and Qiao Zhiya’s pockets.”
“Also, that President was so paranoid. Half of the time, the military’s request for funding was rejected. Our Chu family’s army depends entirely on Erge, and Dage doesn’t have that much money.”
Yuan Xiu suddenly remembered about the funding issue – after all, his Yuan family’s army is attached to the Chu family. That is to say, every year, whenever he heard about the massive amount of funding the army received, his heart trembled.
With a whisper, Yuan Xiu asked, “How did your Erge earn all this money? I didn’t see what kind of business your family was doing… did you rob someone or something?”
“Who do you think we can rob?”
Chu Yan couldn’t stand his ignorance. While rolling his eyes, he hooked his hands over Yuan Xiu’s shoulder. He opened his super-secret ledger with his special encryption, then explained, “Who said my family doesn’t do business? My family just doesn’t do the business that everyone expects. On the surface, the Ning family is a pharmaceutical industry giant, while the Xiang family is in the mecha-manufacturing industry. You would think that they make a lot of money relying on those, but you would be wrong.”
“While they’re not poor by any means, the money they made from those businesses pales in comparison from the real source of money. You see, all Four Great Families made money from collecting taxes from our respective planets. You can count them yourself, aren’t the planets where our army is stationed the most full of rich people? And we stationed those armies to protect them. My Erge also has a side business, under his industry, he held many patents on various civilian and military items in the energy section, and even some star network-related ones.”
“For example, right now on the Internet, half of the famous mecha warriors on the online rankings were secretly trained by my Erge. How many viewers would watch their battle? How much commission could they get? How many hidden benefits does it contain? Xiao Xiuzi1Xiao = small, Xiu = Yuan Xiu’s name; -zi = endearment suffix for calling children., you are still too young.”
Yuan Xiu was dumbfounded, especially about the tax matters.
Everyone knew that in the Federation, the Chu family’s army was the absolute strongest, the most disciplined, and the best in welfare. Most of them are stationed on border planets and several important trade transit planets, and they do have a firm grip on the Federation’s transportation network.
–This does not include some other relatively wealthy A-class or B-class planets. If all the taxes paid by these planets are included every year, it will be enough to support the entire Federation, let alone the army.
But the problem is how did these taxes get into the Chu family’s pockets!
Seeing his doubts, Chu Yan patted him again and said seriously, “Don’t think too much. When you’re older, I know your father will tell you about this. Hey, actually, why don’t you ask him to teach you early? You’re the sole heir of the Yuan family, after all. You should learn about your family’s management.”
“I’ll simplify it this way: In terms of taxes, everyone will take some proportionally, otherwise how can we protect those planets? The soldiers still need to be fed! As for the amount, it just depends on whether you take more or get less. Do you think that the Ning family has always been neutral and only has pharmaceutical companies? Their family tradition seems to be good, so they ask for the least amount of taxes? No, no, no. On the contrary, the Ning family gets the most and issues the harshest taxes. In recent years, the Federation’s medical field has become worse, with substandard drugs overflowing the market and basic medicine in decline. If the Ning family solely rely on their pharma, how can they still thrive, then?”
It was as if a door to a new world had been opened before his eyes. Yuan Xiu looked at him in confusion, speechless.
“Learn more. The cake of the Federation has long been eaten by the Four Great Families. Military strength and interests were the fundamental reasons why other emerging families cannot compare to these four. Even the President must also pretend to be subservient in front of the Four Great Families. Anyway, the game is about to start. Let’s go.”
With that, Chu Yan swiftly ended the topic. He let Yuan Xiu digest that infodump by himself.
He didn’t say this in the past because the situation in the Federation was still very stable, so Yuan Xiu could slowly mature with time. But that’s not the case now. The situation was getting worse, it’s only not visible on the surface. It would reach a breaking point sooner than later.
The youth of his generation needed to grow up fast to keep up. Living in ignorance is the same as suicide.
T/L: i hope y’all like this kind of worldbuilding. No, I also did not expect the author would get detailed on the whole taxes thing TT _ TT
That whole spiel is relevant for the plot tho
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
At 7:30 in the evening, Qiao Zhiya went online on time. After being transferred to the contestant's waiting room, he took out his electronic book and made final confirmation and modifications to the finalized mecha design.After finishing the last touch-ups, as he was about to appreciate his design as a whole, a familiar hand stretched out and took away the electronic book from him. At the same time, a familiar voice sounded above his head, Is this the mecha you designed?Qiao Zhiya was stunned, and quickly looked up. Seeing Chu Rong standing in front of him, his eyes lit up. He happily walked around his crafting table and rushed over to him, asking, Why are you online? Aren't you on your way back?Chu Rong moved the electronic book and hugged him, then replied, The ship is landing, so I came up to take a look. I have to wait until I get home to continue watching the game.Ah, it turned out to be like that he took the time to come up specially for me.'Hearing this, Qiao Zhiya's smile got brighter. You're still on the way, no need to rush onlineChu Rong didn't answer, only smiled back at him. Hesuddenly lowered his head and kissed him, then looked at the electronic book in her hand, and repeated his previous question, Is this the mecha you designed?Qiao Zhiya's attention snapped back to this question. He glanced at his drawing, a black-and-gold mecha, and sheepishly nodded. Well, this is the final design. Do you do you like it?It was a very domineering and powerful-looking mecha. It was big, but not bulky. It was taller than traditional mechas, too. There were no unnecessary add-ons or accessories on the mecha. And in fact, it seemed that the mecha was very likely to be designed after a human's body proportion, full of sleek lines and hidden power.The mecha was like a human warrior clad in a black-and-gold armor, watching its prey, ready to strike at any time.The current development of mecha design was not like this. Nowadays, the appearance design has slowly begun to develop in a more high-tech and cool direction, especially that of the Xiang family. Their current design philosophy is that if they can't come up with a new fresh trick to enhance its coolness factor, then the mecha is not special.Under the leadership of the Xiang family, the current mecha design trend has become more and more fancy, and almost all the new generation of mecha manufacturers have been led astray by this design philosophy form over function.Although some fancy mechas do become more powerful when used properly, Chu Rong doesn't like them he even hates them on principle.He vastly preferred neat and clean design, which reflected on his subordinates' mechas all of them used ordinary-looking gray mechas. No matter how many tricks a mecha had, as long as its basic attack power iwa guaranteed, the strength of the mecha warrior was the key to determining the victory of the battler. Sometimes, an overly complex design could be detrimental.Distraction was the most taboo thing in battle. With so many tricks available, people would inevitably feel that their concentration was split. Now even the driving system has been developing in the direction of simplicity and refinement. The Xiang family has lost their minds and neglected to do research on the driving system. They insist on fighting with the mecha shape, and they were still complacent about it.The mecha on this design drawing was black, tall, neat, and clean in appearance, all elements he liked. It was obvious that this was a customized mecha. Judging from the body proportions of this mecha, it's clear it was 100% tailored for him, and him only.I like it, he answered simply. How could he not like it? Of course he likes such a carefully prepared gift.Chu Rong suddenly remembered what Qiao Zhiya had said before, about getting engaged and giving him a gift after the competition. His heart moved, and in his mind, this design became even more satisfying. He even showed some blind confidence and pride.The mecha you made must be the best.He boasted in a domineering and affirmative tone. Hearing this made Qiao Zhiya blush even deeper, so he hurriedly explained, Actually, this is just a semi-finished product. I haven't finished the most critical part yet. I still need to study it thoroughly.Chu Rong patted the youth's head, and casually replied, Is it the engine? Take your time, I believe you.Qiao Zhiya was stunned. He tilted his head to accommodate the patting. No words were exchanged between them during this time.For Qiao Zhiya, the key to the success of mecha production was not the engine. He was confident that he would fully master the engine production method by the time the competition progresses to the engine part. Even if he couldn't make an advanced-level one, he should be able to make an intermediate-level one.What he was unsure about was the sensor system of the manually-piloted mecha.For this competition, he planned to only make a prototype of this mecha. When assembling it, he would first install the conventional spiritual power driving system to mislead those who were paying attention to the competition. He planned to secretly study the true manually-piloted sensor system. When the research results are available, he would give the results to Master Ren, and then actually build this mecha in reality.The two chatted thoughtfully for a while. When the game was about to start, Chu Rong put down his electronic book, kissed Qiao Zhiya's forehead again, and then operated something on the communicator before going offline directly.Qiao Zhiya was a little confused about his last operation. After sitting back on the crafting table, he casually raised his eyes and looked up, his eyes widening reflexively.What he saw was the countdown, and also the betting odds of his game. For the first time, he saw that more people betted on him getting promoted. In other words, there were actually more people who betted on him to win instead of the opposite!Qiao Zhiya, who already knew what these odds meant, was struck silence. Then he was dumbfounded after seeing a familiar ID that suddenly appeared next to the odds specifically to the sky-high price bets that followed the ID name.One could participate in the Star Network Mecha Manufacturing Competition with their real name or anonymously. If they chose to be anonymous, no matter how much they bet, the system would not show it to others.On the contrary, if they chose to use their real identity, then if they became the one with the highest bet, their ID would be displayed simultaneously beside the odds, followed by their amount.There was no such information behind the odds of the previous game, only a few asterisks were displayed. That was because the relatively large bets at that time were all anonymous. For relatively small bets, there were too many IDs betting the same amount, so it wouldn't be displayed for the sake of fairness for all.And this time, no one could compete with the amount that bet. Because, except for the Four Great Families and some invisible tycoons from other planets, it was estimated that no one in the entire Federation could come with such a high amount of money at once.Outside the waiting room, the melon-eaters who noticed that Chu Rong was online then got offline in record time had no time to wail and express their emotions. They were shocked by this sky-high price bet from , and then almost instantly, the amount representing the odds for the eliminated changed. It was crazy so many zeros! If Qiao Zhiya was to be eliminated, those who betted on this would make huge profits!There were many people who held this idea. After being shocked by Qiao Zhiya's previous game, the people who were ready to bet on his promotion began to hesitate. After some thoughts, most people betted on his elimination with the mentality of giving it a try. Only a small number of people followed Chu Rong and insisted on betting on his promotion.The odds started to get crazy again. After a while, the odds for Qiao Zhiya getting eliminated got stable, and it was competing with the other. It was obvious that someone or a huge amount of people had betted on Qiao Zhiya losing.At the corner of the square, Chu Yan smacked his lips and followed his Erge to bet on Qiao Zhiya's promotion without any hint of hesitation.Yuan Xiu had just finished counting the row of zeros after Chu Rong's ID. He was silent, and then took out his pocket money. Then he looked at Chu Yan and asked, Your Erge has just emptied out his coffers, right?Bah, bah, bah, you're the one who emptied his coffers. Chu Yan waved his hand to drive away this unlucky statement. He gave him a stink eye, and said, You underestimate the amount of my Erge's savings. These are just small amounts of money. Remember, didn't I tell you about the Xiang family's price for buying the secondary-mutated red tin ores? They had to cough up around 10-20 billions. All of those money went directly to Erge's and Qiao Zhiya's pockets.Also, that President was so paranoid. Half of the time, the military's request for funding was rejected. Our Chu family's army depends entirely on Erge, and Dage doesn't have that much money.Yuan Xiu suddenly remembered about the funding issue after all, his Yuan family's army is attached to the Chu family. That is to say, every year, whenever he heard about the massive amount of funding the army received, his heart trembled.With a whisper, Yuan Xiu asked, How did your Erge earn all this money? I didn't see what kind of business your family was doing did you rob someone or something?Who do you think we can rob?Chu Yan couldn't stand his ignorance. While rolling his eyes, he hooked his hands over Yuan Xiu's shoulder. He opened his super-secret ledger with his special encryption, then explained, Who said my family doesn't do business? My family just doesn't do the business that everyone expects. On the surface, the Ning family is a pharmaceutical industry giant, while the Xiang family is in the mecha-manufacturing industry. You would think that they make a lot of money relying on those, but you would be wrong.While they're not poor by any means, the money they made from those businesses pales in comparison from the real source of money. You see, all Four Great Families made money from collecting taxes from our respective planets. You can count them yourself, aren't the planets where our army is stationed the most full of rich people? And we stationed those armies to protect them. My Erge also has a side business, under his industry, he held many patents on various civilian and military items in the energy section, and even some star network-related ones.For example, right now on the Internet, half of the famous mecha warriors on the online rankings were secretly trained by my Erge. How many viewers would watch their battle? How much commission could they get? How many hidden benefits does it contain? Xiao Xiuzi1Xiao = small, Xiu = Yuan Xiu's name; -zi = endearment suffix for calling children., you are still too young. Yuan Xiu was dumbfounded, especially about the tax matters.Everyone knew that in the Federation, the Chu family's army was the absolute strongest, the most disciplined, and the best in welfare. Most of them are stationed on border planets and several important trade transit planets, and they do have a firm grip on the Federation's transportation network.This does not include some other relatively wealthy A-class or B-class planets. If all the taxes paid by these planets are included every year, it will be enough to support the entire Federation, let alone the army.But the problem is how did these taxes get into the Chu family's pockets!Seeing his doubts, Chu Yan patted him again and said seriously, Don't think too much. When you're older, I know your father will tell you about this. Hey, actually, why don't you ask him to teach you early? You're the sole heir of the Yuan family, after all. You should learn about your family's management.I'll simplify it this way: In terms of taxes, everyone will take some proportionally, otherwise how can we protect those planets? The soldiers still need to be fed! As for the amount, it just depends on whether you take more or get less. Do you think that the Ning family has always been neutral and only has pharmaceutical companies? Their family tradition seems to be good, so they ask for the least amount of taxes? No, no, no. On the contrary, the Ning family gets the most and issues the harshest taxes. In recent years, the Federation's medical field has become worse, with substandard drugs overflowing the market and basic medicine in decline. If the Ning family solely rely on their pharma, how can they still thrive, then?It was as if a door to a new world had been opened before his eyes. Yuan Xiu looked at him in confusion, speechless.Learn more. The cake of the Federation has long been eaten by the Four Great Families. Military strength and interests were the fundamental reasons why other emerging families cannot compare to these four. Even the President must also pretend to be subservient in front of the Four Great Families. Anyway, the game is about to start. Let's go.With that, Chu Yan swiftly ended the topic. He let Yuan Xiu digest that infodump by himself.He didn't say this in the past because the situation in the Federation was still very stable, so Yuan Xiu could slowly mature with time. But that's not the case now. The situation was getting worse, it's only not visible on the surface. It would reach a breaking point sooner than later.The youth of his generation needed to grow up fast to keep up. Living in ignorance is the same as suicide.T/L: i hope y'all like this kind of worldbuilding. No, I also did not expect the author would get detailed on the whole taxes thing TT _ TTThat whole spiel is relevant for the plot tho If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I'll release an additional chapter ^^
