Evolution - Chapter 115
Chapter 115
On Wendeli, no one cared about your previous identity, nor did they have any interest in conducting entry security checks.
They simply designated landing spots. All ships docked at the spaceport, where they were charged exorbitant fees for parking and storage. Ships making a temporary stopover had to leave within seven days. For those intending to do business, the spaceport had a dedicated channel—buy whatever, sell whatever, just get everything done and get the hell out within seven days.
Those not making a temporary stopover had to pack all their belongings and clear out of the spaceport within twelve hours. The exit channel had machines that automatically implanted chips; it was like getting a vaccine—you just stuck out your arm for a quick injection.
If you were still alive after six months, you could come back to claim your ship and fly away. Once the six-month limit passed, your property would belong to the garrison.
Ji Changqing’s group wasn’t too slow. In less than four hours, the vast crowd of nearly ten thousand people was already lining up to get their chips implanted.
The first problem they encountered in this lawless place was poverty.
Among them were over six thousand people who had nothing. The “goods” that had once represented accounts receivable had transformed from commodities into consumers. Their book value instantly dropped to zero. Not only could they not be cashed in, but they also needed to be fed, continuously draining the group’s already limited resources.
Ming Zixing and Jixin, who had just finished dividing up the manpower, fell silent after reviewing the Wendeli survival guide.
At this moment, they no longer saw Ji Changqing as a partner who understood win-win cooperation, but as a cunning and treacherous swindler who, through a transfer of debt, had dragged their two formerly wealthy families down to her level of impoverishment.
Every bit of their earlier smugness had transformed into slaps that left their faces swollen and stinging.
Faced with the prices on the anarchic planet of Wendeli, they felt utterly destitute.
The military offered vehicle rentals—hovercars, small planetary craft, and so on. But the rental prices were far from cheap. Even the largest-capacity hovercar, if calculated for ten thousand people, would instantly empty all their pockets.
According to the constantly updated planetary development map, the closest uncultivated area large enough to accommodate ten thousand people was a two-hour hovercar ride from the spaceport. On foot, the journey would take at least five or six days.
The members of the star pirate and mercenary groups, who were supposedly experts in wilderness survival, were suddenly at a loss.
Sure, they had spent nearly two months on a barren planet, but they’d had their ships back then. Aside from the people on the cargo ship who were driven off daily to struggle for survival, everyone else had lived a life not much different from their usual routine.
Now, forced to leave their ships, they had to worry about the basic necessities of life.
The three leaders were forced to sit down together again to discuss their future survival.
They had assumed that in a place of chaos and disorder, the most important things were manpower and weapons. Perhaps that was true, but it was far from enough.
Ming Zixing and Jixin were inclined toward plunder.
“We only have to stay for half a year anyway. We have the numbers and the power, so we can just take whatever we want!”
Ji Changqing stared blankly at the planetary map. “A lot of people think the same way you do.”
Otherwise, why would this paradise for fugitives, this place to wash one’s slate clean and get a new identity, which saw a conservative estimate of 100,000 arrivals daily—amounting to at least twenty million people over six months—only be developed in an area with a radius of less than seven hundred kilometers from the spaceport?
She even had a deep suspicion: was the development and construction of Wendeli entirely dependent on people like them—foreigners who arrived with a large retinue, hoping to carve out a place for themselves in the Empire?
That would explain why so many people didn't engage in production and only thought about robbing others.
Until there was nothing left to rob.
Besides its lack of defenses, Wendeli was also known as a notorious den of extravagance.
The garrison’s purpose, aside from transporting people who had completed their six-month stay to other Imperial planets, was primarily to ensure the security of this den of extravagance and prevent troublemakers.
The wealthy patrons who came to spend money naturally had a wonderful impression of Wendeli. It was the poor souls trying to eke out a living who had the chance to face its unfriendly side directly.
Ji Changqing carefully read through the survival guide and compared the prices of goods. She discovered that only building materials and various crop seeds were sold at normal market rates. Everything else was astronomically expensive, at least a dozen times the normal price outside.
The Empire, or rather, the Wendeli garrison, was clearly encouraging everyone to take up farming!
Ji Changqing pondered for a moment. With tens of thousands of mouths to feed, she could only bite the bullet and offer some sincere advice. “Based on our current assets, farming might be the only path available to us.”
Of course, there were job opportunities. But in this distorted system, jobs were few and far between, likely available only to the most attractive people around. And even with a job, one could probably only barely support oneself.
Unless one took up certain… special professions, using one’s looks and body to empty the pockets of wealthy patrons.
Or perhaps one’s fighting skills? How could a den of extravagance not have activities like underground fighting? You could risk your life to entertain the patrons, and if you won, you could live quite comfortably.
“Farming?” Ming Zixing and Jixin’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“The alternative,” Ji Changqing said calmly, “is to become pimps and force our people into prostitution to raise military funds.”
Ming Zixing and Jixin were speechless. After a long pause, they stammered, “That… seems plausible?”
In their view, since they wouldn’t have to get their own hands dirty, staying in the city and living comfortably was the obvious choice. Why would they be so foolish as to go out into the wilderness to clear land and become farmers?
“If that’s the case, why did we obediently come here in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been better to ignore the directive and just wander through space?” Ji Changqing hit them with a soul-searching question.
Ming Zixing and Jixin looked embarrassed.
Wasn’t it because they were yearning for a better life in the future?
Besides, they never expected reality to be so cruel—that in this famous den of extravagance, they would have to resort to farming just to survive.
“We could also sell people and weapons,” Ji Changqing added placidly. “If all you care about is immediate gratification.”
They could cash in their “goods” here, but that was clearly a foolish, live-for-the-moment approach.
Thoughts were one thing, actions another. In the end, the three leaders reluctantly held their noses and decided to clear land and farm, to grind their life skill proficiency levels.
Poverty had humbled them.
Having decided to take the farming route, they agreed to begin a forced march to their chosen location immediately.
The two battleships each had twenty sets of mecha, which were naturally faster than hovercars. Forty people were selected—twenty to pilot the mecha and twenty technicians to be carried along to survey the terrain. They were sent ahead to find a suitable place for land development, one that could accommodate ten thousand people.
Since the main group would be walking for several days, as long as they headed in the same general direction, there would be plenty of time to change locations if the currently designated spot proved unsuitable.
Theoretically, a group of ten thousand, with nearly half of them armed, should not have been a target anyone would dare to provoke.
But things were different here. There were always those willing to take a gamble. Starting from the very first night, they were constantly ambushed by multiple small teams working together.
In every battle, the enemy would leave behind over a hundred bodies, but their side would also suffer losses—not just from the ambushes, but also from people being abducted in the chaos.
Ji Changqing thought to herself that this place was crawling with bandits and highwaymen. Even the intimidating presence of mecha couldn't deter these desperate and crazed individuals.
Moreover, the dense formation of their own people meant the mecha couldn't operate freely. They were used more for reconnaissance, warning, and deterrence. They absolutely did not dare to open fire; one press of a button would surely kill more of their own people than the enemy.
Things only quieted down on the fourth day.
Presumably, the closer they got to the fringes, the poorer the inhabitants were. Lacking proper weapons, suicidal attacks were pointless.
On the morning of the seventh day, as they neared their chosen location, they placed an order on the planetary intranet for a large quantity of building materials and crop seeds, and even a few pieces of agricultural machinery.
By the time their group arrived, they found the delivery had already been made. Along with the goods came an invitation to the semi-monthly auction.
Ji Changqing was particularly surprised. Did their large order give the people in the city the wrong impression? To think that someone as poor as them would have the funds to attend an auction.
Ming Zixing and the others, however, glanced at the list of some of the auction items. “Hey, should we go broaden our horizons? They’re auctioning off non-human intelligent species this time.”
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