Street restaurant.

The buzz and cacophony of sound fills the restaurant, where many customers who have finished work in the evening gather here to order an affordable and delicious dinner, followed by a little cold wine to soothe the nerves and fatigue with the cool stimulation.

In the corner, the two sat quietly, one was gobbling up food, and the other rarely moved his chopsticks, just watching each other eat.

The black-shirted young man munched on the roasted slices of hot meat, then poured down a large gulp of cold beer, and when the table was in a mess, he put down his chopsticks, rubbed his stomach, and leaned back on the chair.

"It's full." He let out a satisfied voice and looked relaxed.

To this, Valker nodded slightly, and then got up to check out.

Picking up their tattered coats, Greed and Valk walked out of the restaurant and aimlessly down the street.

The two didn't say anything along the way, and they were silent for a long time before Grad couldn't help but speak.

"Don't you ask me why I'm being hunted down by the people of the 'Three Hands Workshop' tonight?"

"I want to ask, but I don't want to ask." Valker shook his head.

"If you don't want to say, I asked, and you will find all kinds of reasons to prevaricate." The two grew up together, and he was well aware of Grede's way of doing things.

"Oh, you've become smart and calm." Grede said with a slight sarcasm, and then his tone became a little serious.

He looked at the brightly lit shops across the street, paused, and then spoke.

"I took an order and went to spy on the trade secrets of the 'Three Hands Workshop'."

"You." Valk also stopped, his brow furrowed.

"It's a mission that will die for." For this kind of snooping, it has always been a taboo for various companies, and in the process of defense and protection, they will not hesitate to directly kill the intruder, even if they will lose a lot of money later.

"I know." Grad leaned against the guardrail by the bridge, watching the hovertrucks passing below.

"But you only get one chance." With that, he leaned against the guardrail and closed his eyes and looked up.

"You won't understand how important this is to me." The tone of his voice was complicated.

"I don't understand, but I know there are serious consequences." Valk replied.

"Once your identity is revealed, not only will the other company's company not let you go, but because of the file problem, the result may not be imprisonment, but direct execution, and even because of you, many people in the orphanage will be implicated and in danger."

"An orphanage? What do those people have to do with me, I'm all orphans, do I still care? Grede scoffed, his expression slightly distorted.

"You know what, Valker, I've always been jealous of you, crazy with jealousy, hehe." He covered his eyes, as if he was holding back some emotion, and said hysterically.

"I know that Pastor Boeth told me to be careful of you and not to associate with you."

"Heh, that old guy is really poisonous, I shouldn't have let him live if I knew it."

"You can't hurt Pastor Bois, he saved us, raised us, and educated us."

"Uh, yes, yes, he did that, but I still hate him." Grad's voice was cold.

"He's always proud that he's helped a lot of people, and he's happy to enjoy that respect......

The North Kowloon District is an extremely poor place, where there is a lack of industry, lack of resources, cold weather, and only a few mineral cities are distributed.

In the Black Strontium City where the two of them are located, a rare lapis lazuli mine was discovered more than 20 years ago, unlike ordinary lapis lazuli, the lapis lazuli in this mine is generated from some special magic tide, and has some extraordinary characteristics, so a large fist can be sold for nearly 100,000 federal coins.

This has attracted countless people to come here to steal and dig up rare ores while the official has not yet sealed them or the loopholes in the defenses.

As a result, the local economy has grown rapidly, albeit at the cost of chaotic law and order, with gangs and grey sector offices fighting each other and gunfights almost every day in the mining area.

However, this chaos finally ended, and the giant company 'Gray Dust Crystal' bought the entire mining area, and then the security forces directly under the 'Gray Dust Crystal' cleaned up the entire mining area.

Di belongs to the armed forces of giant enterprises, which are not comparable to ordinary gangsters, they not only have many self-discipline defense units, but also formed mecha teams, elite troops mobilized from various star field branches, and so on.

One might say whether the mega-corporations have overstepped federal laws, or exceeded control, by keeping such strong armies, but if you know the history well, you will know the ridiculousness of the question.

It was not the rule of the Federation that gave birth to the Giant Corporations, but the Giant Corporations compromised and joined forces with each other to form the Rose Federation.

In those barren times, these giant corporations with technological singularities, each of which was a small nation, had its own fleets, ships, governing bodies, etc., shuttling between abandoned or barren planets, peddling their own unique products, with few rivals.

It's just that there is a limit to this kind of development, the upper limit of the market ultimately determines the upper limit of the enterprise, no matter how good the product you produce, but in the end only 100 people can buy it, then you can only earn the money of these 100 people at most.

Why after many technological revolutions, only the largest countries can give birth to the strongest and most cutting-edge technology companies, because only the largest countries can have the largest market, generate enough profits, and support the higher and higher costs of scientific and technological research and development.

A barren and scattered planet cannot provide a large enough market unless a stable and vast country is established, which is something that corporations will not do.

As a profit-making organization, or the embodiment of capital, he instinctively pursues profits and profits, because only in this way can this organizational structure be continued.

To build a state, you have to be responsible for all kinds of complex things, whether it is building order, pacifying people, providing education, building infrastructure, etc., which requires a lot of investment and is also a very high-risk thing.

From managing a company to managing a country, it's not just about population growth, there are countless problems waiting behind, but what is the return, it only wants to sell 1 yuan of sugar, and now you say you want it to invest 1,000 yuan for full pre-construction.

This is clearly a loss-making transaction, so the company will not do it.

Or some people will say that the company can also sell other things, but things will not be so simple, giant enterprises produce what they are good at, the cost may be only 10,000, but the profit can reach 1 million, close to a hundred times the return.

If you make other products, not only to develop trial and error from scratch, etc., but also to add a competitor in the field every time you add a field, and the final profit is also limited, far less than the good products that the enterprise has mastered, and in order to create these, you have to pay a lot of labor costs, resulting in more and more bloated enterprises, and the internal friction is becoming more and more powerful, and finally what you may be good at slowly loses its ability to innovate, and is finally defeated by new industry challengers.

Knowing that the market is limited, but these giant companies don't have a good solution, they can only keep it like this, and this situation is not until the 'Golden Flame Rose' is born, and there is a turnaround and opportunity.

Because of these historical reasons, although the Rose Federation is extremely powerful, this strength refers not only to the strength of the federal government, but also to the strength of the giant corporations that build the federation, they have their own armaments, and even have fleets belonging to the corporations, etc.

It's just that in the era when the second generation of color-level singer 'Cobalt Blue Tears' bloomed, she made the federal government actively expand the army during the special period of the civil war, and constantly suppressed and reduced the privileges of giant corporations in the federation, and then in the harsh internal cleanup of 'Cobalt Blue Star Tears', many councillors who accepted bribes from giant corporations were imprisoned and executed, which eventually greatly weakened the political power of giant corporations in the federation, and finally passed a new bill, giant corporations no longer have fleets, and can only maintain a certain amount of ground protection armed forces.

————

The topic returned to the former Black Strontium City, because of the excavation of lazurite, countless people came here, and because order and stability were restored, many speculative people left, leaving only a mess, among which there were many abandoned orphans, Valk, Grede, is one of such people.

They lived a very difficult life as a child, until an aspiring pastor came to the North 9th District to establish an orphanage and church to adopt the children.

"Pastor Boeth doesn't treat everyone equally, he clearly prefers obedient and well-behaved children, and unfortunately I'm not that kind of person." Grad spoke self-deprecatingly.

"Although he adopted me, he never had a good impression of me, just like a dog, he fed me something casually and finished eating."

"And for you, he is very patient, not only teaching you all kinds of knowledge, but also running for you, and finally you can get the legal resident file in the Federation."

"Therefore, thou, who has received the favor of heaven, shall also persuade me that you should live a life as humble as a dog?" Greed asked Valker again.

"Even so, you shouldn't ......," Valk tried to persuade, but in the end he didn't continue, because he knew that this was the way to go.

Grad had no legal standing to leave the barren and cramped slums of the North 9th District, where he had little choice but to work at the bottom of the hardest jobs.

The world is not fair, and it is true for many people.

"I began to break free from Pastor Boith's leash and went to the complex and gray realm in search of opportunities, and although I almost died on a winter night, I also managed to get a sum of money, made a rudimentary identity file disguise, and left the North Nine District." Grad stood in the night breeze and said slowly.

"Pastor Boeth must have a grudge against me, because I promised him and threatened him, and if he made a big mistake in the end, he, the former adopter, would also face some trouble."

"Pastor Bois is not as unbearable as you think, he just said that he regrets not caring much about you at that time." Valk spoke.

"Hehe, that's in front of you, and he will show his tender side because you fulfill his desire to be a respectable and loving father figure."

"The more you succeed and the more people around you praise him, the more he is immersed in this image."

"You think he's noble, but he's just using us kids to satisfy his self-esteem and hollowness of heart."

"I have investigated the past of Pastor Bois, who grew up in the affluent South 2nd District, but there he was just an unknown loser, pursuing a girl who fell in love with someone else, inherited a family business that was corrupted due to poor management, and still achieved nothing in his thirties, and finally came to the North 9th District in frustration."

"Even if his motives weren't so flawless, I still respect Pastor Boith, at least because of him, we survived." Valker shook his head.

"That's you! Not me! Glade's eyes were fierce.

"I still can't forget the discriminatory look in his eyes, the disgust and contempt that looked down, as if he were looking at garbage."

"I want to take revenge on him, I must take revenge on him, I must achieve something, and then go back, slap him hard, make him lose face, kneel in front of everyone, and confess his hypocritical and disgusting performances for so many years."

"You shouldn't spend your mind in these places, if you get a serious job and live in peace......," Valker admonished again.

"I said, that's you, not me. You haven't experienced that kind of contempt and insult, and you don't understand how tormenting and uncomfortable that feeling of humility and begging is. ”

After a heated conversation, both sides fell silent, looking at the endless traffic under the high bridge, in fact, they also understood that each other was no longer the children they used to be, and they could not convince each other in this situation.

"I'm leaving." Gredra lifted his coat, draped it over his shoulders, and walked to the side of the bridge.

"I will remember tonight's kindness, and if I have the opportunity in the future, I will repay you."

"Pray, Valker, and pray that I'll live to repay your kindness, hehe." Greid let out a laugh that seemed to have a deep self-deprecation in it.

Soon after, the black-shirted young man disappeared at the end of the street, leaving Valker still looking at the bustling night scene across the bridge.

On countless huge screens, all kinds of colors and figures swayed, and every signboard was filled with the smell of money, so prosperous, but so distorted, that people could only sigh silently.

The wheels of history are crushing everything in the past, countless simple things are given new meanings, and people are facing more and more choices to imitate and be confused while gaining more and more knowledge and theories.

Being alive was an extremely lucky thing in ancient times, but in this era, if you can only live, it may also be a kind of pain.

Dignity, freedom, those things that were previously undiscovered and numb and unknown, have now slowly seeped into everyone's heart.

They are advanced and will give people good feelings, but once they cannot be satisfied, they will make people more miserable, and they can no longer go back to that idyllic era, nor can they be like ostriches, buried in the sand and no longer see the world.

can only be coerced by the trend of the times, constantly involved in fierce competition, to obtain this increasingly expensive respect and decency.

(End of chapter)