Chapter 23

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Chapter 23: Envy Leads to Lorentz Transformation

For Governor Matro, life became peaceful after the mysterious disappearance of the resistance army. No more worries about imperial factories being bombed or hiring mercenaries to prevent beheadings. Tax collection in cities and towns, as well as receiving offerings from plantation owners, went smoothly. The only annoyance was adventurers in remote areas complaining about bandit attacks and estates being raided.

Local bureaucrats spread rumors about a certain employee and tax official disappearing in a village, and the imperial army squad sent to investigate met a tragic end. However, the governor dismissed these reports as baseless rumors from uncivilized areas, likely due to attacks by wild animals or cannibals.

The idea of the resistance army recruiting from farms on the outskirts was laughed off by the governor. How could they challenge the empire’s armored forces with pitchforks and no access to machinery or metal?

The villages, intentionally kept in an underdeveloped state by the empire, could not provide weapons, clothing, or food. Even if they had soldiers, malnourished farmers could not resist a single imperial soldier, let alone a whole unit.

However, the Empire’s expected supply ships are decreasing day by day. It is said that not only are there pirates in the nearby star sector, but two other star sectors in the Nico province have seemingly formed a new type of rebellion. Even though their weapons are poor, they can hold their own against the Empire’s army. Governor Matro finds it hard to imagine why these seemingly noble Empire people, along with the lowly Nico people and other slaves, would rebel against the Empire’s rule together — this must be the work of the Nyannis people.

In this universe, if there is something harmful to the Empire but the mastermind cannot be found, it must be a conspiracy of the Nyannis people. This has become a consensus throughout the Empire. Apart from the navy, the other forces of these soft-bodied beings have always been weak. They rely on incitement to weaken the Empire’s ground forces. They either instigate remote provinces to seek independence or create enemies for the Empire.

(America: I seem to have heard of this practice before. Hmm, who could it be? Thinking. England: No, it’s not me, I didn’t do it. You’re mistaken, this isn’t my teaching.)

Compared to the minor issues in remote areas, the trade routes being affected result in the inability to timely export profits collected from colonies and receive stable supplies from the Empire. This is what gives the Governor a headache. Fortunately, perhaps due to the efforts of the Empire’s navy, or maybe the pirates are satiated and digesting their spoils, normal traffic routes have been restored in recent days.

(Because the fleet intercepting them is either celebrating on the ground or on the way to Nyannis for "diplomacy", they currently have no time to deal with them.)

Tata Town.

Compared to a few months ago, the town that looked like a medieval slum has completely transformed. With the help of tools provided by Earthlings, the resistance army has gathered a large number of laborers to build several huge underground mushroom pits. They use sawdust and some household waste to produce "meat-flavored mushrooms" and "meat zhi," two crops that taste like mushrooms but have a meaty aroma, easy to fill one’s stomach like meat.

Many villages that had originally relocated to avoid the Empire’s tax officials and thieves have gradually returned. Led by the resistance army’s logistics personnel, they have re-cultivated long-abandoned lands for planting sugar beets and a crop provided by Earthlings. Some of these crops are used to make sugar, and then mixed with starch, added with vitamins, meat-flavored mushrooms, and a small amount of animal meat to produce emergency military rations. Some are exported to those Earthlings in exchange for useful steel tools, seeds, daily essentials. Gradually, Tata Town not only restored its past appearance but also developed towards a medium-sized trading city-state.

(Cat-style emergency military ration recipe: 250g white sugar, 150g brown sugar, 80g starch, 220g animal-like protein blocks, 15g animal fat, 1g Chinese five-spice powder, 0.2mg Polygonum cuspidatum extract, 5 blocks per package, each block weighs 320g, providing all nutritional needs for one day and serving as a stimulant and slow-release excitant for emergencies. Taste… even cats who aren’t picky eaters find it difficult to consume, thus preventing them from dismantling and eating it unnecessarily.)

"Teacher, I’ve finished meow~" The young cat, Loli, happily wiggled her ears. "Hmm, teacher, teacher, what are we going to learn next?"

"…" The instructor who was acting as the teacher took the homework book and immediately had two black lines on his face. "Oh my, this is a real exam question, we’ll need professors to teach from now on…"

Meanwhile, the older resistance army soldiers in the study group had a look of despair. The science and math homework they were doing felt like a summoning book of a cult to them. Just one glance made them feel like their intelligence was evaporating rapidly.

Natural scientists and mathematicians, clumsy engineers and apprentices – these were the conclusions drawn by the professors after interacting with these young cat people.

While doing written assignments, the cat people had advantages of high intellectual growth and advanced abstract thinking, especially in theoretical studies. This left the graduate students working outside with the boss feeling very beaten down, even to the point of doubting if their intelligence could match a young Loli’s – jealousy led to polynomial factoring!

However, when connecting problems to real life, the cat people’s overly sensitive intuition could lead to serious problems. In human perception, the scale of self-perception is relatively fixed. But for cat people, it’s variable. They could measure the same branch with a ruler and get seven or eight different measurements…

When they focused, objects in front of them would rapidly enlarge and time seemed to slow down. Without precise experimental and timing equipment, even a simple hands-on experiment might not be done well by them. To humans, a centimeter is a centimeter. But to them, a centimeter might not always be a centimeter. When focusing, it might feel like three centimeters, and when dispersed, it would quickly shrink disproportionately – as if they had a built-in automatic image enlarger in their minds without a zoom function.

Thanks to this special way of perception, their thinking pattern was relatively more flexible and they could understand concepts like "relative" and "uncertainty" in physics and mathematics. They had great talent in theoretical physics and mathematics. Recently, Kulo, who had a decent foundation while accompanying the scientific expedition team, even passed the physics research group’s exam, making several professors consider allowing an extra student to audit their class.

So, these young cat girls and boys got a strange nickname, "Schrodinger’s cats". Similarly, a Japanese proverb circulating among the mechanical and engineering groups was "so busy even a cat’s paw is used." This meant they were using every bit of the cat people’s labor in a desperate state of busyness. These cat people who couldn’t be given standardized tasks had created three times the workload for the mechanical repair team in the past few months.

Boom! With a loud, explosive sound, the heavy fishing net was pulled up by the crane. The sea fish, who had never encountered this extinct fishing method (cats usually use fish spears and fishing rods, and can only operate in shallow waters), were squeezed tightly in the polymer fishing net. The strong fishy smell attracted the attention of the cat sailors on the deck, and they eagerly shouted, "Fish time!" The sailors who had been waiting rushed over.

Rare fish species are placed in special seawater tanks for preservation. Some fish listed on the export order are stored separately in the cargo hold for freezing. These are products for Earthlings. Most of the seafood on Nico Star is edible for Nico people, but there are few types that are delicious for humans, and they are not in large quantities.

Therefore, when these alien seafood are brought back to Earth by transport ships, they are treated as top luxury goods. A national company called the "Nico Seafood Trading Company" was established to use these luxury goods to raise funds from the wealthy class and then channel them into social welfare programs, a kind of robbing the rich to help the poor. This principle was detailed in pipes thousands of years ago, yet there are still individuals with almost zero economic knowledge who do not understand. Envy causes brain cells to separate.

(Brain cells separating, a cell activity where the brain cells dehydrate and shrink due to jealousy… In other words, jealousy makes the brain dehydrated and shrink…)

Without wealthy people spending money, how can those in the service and luxury industries make a living? Without income, there is no consumption. Without consumption, the next layer of workers cannot sell their products. If products cannot be sold, everyone will suffer. Therefore, it is important to encourage wealthy individuals to spend generously, so that wealth can flow back into society. If you do not have the financial means to participate, then do not criticize excessive profits. Without excessive profits, how can we help the poor?

The remaining fish that cannot be preserved for long will be distributed upon reaching shore. The once sparsely populated fishing village now resembles a communist city. Unsold fish are distributed per person. Those who work as sailors or in various production projects can receive fish for free by using work points.

The fish that can be preserved for a longer time are sold at reduced prices to the empire’s merchants. Although these prices may seem like exploitation to the cat people, to the Chinese resistance army, who have been educated by China, it is akin to a gentle expression of "darling, it’s time to take your medicine." They observe how the cat people give away large quantities of seafood at extremely low prices. Even if the prices are low, the final sum will be a significant amount of money.

"This year, we exported approximately… 28,000 tons of salted fish and 540,000 tons of refined sea salt (salt drying fields made of cement, fearless! Modern industrial salt production, deadly!)." This accounts for 10% and 14% of the total production of these two products in the empire.

"Um, big sister, what exactly are you trying to say with this?"

"In other words, as a result of the chain reaction, at least one third of the fishermen in the empire will go bankrupt, and more than half of the traditional salt-making businesses will close down. This is just the beginning," Cui said with a sly smile.

At first, she didn’t understand why she had to endure the exploitation by the empire. But after attending an economics class, she suddenly realized some kind of talent within her. She came up with cunning ideas, one after another. Recently, she often gathered with economists who arrived on the third batch of transport ships. They discussed the economic structure based on paper, pens, and distribution maps of the empire’s industries, emitting a sinister vibe from time to time.

The same action, when carried out by an industrialized country towards a weaker agricultural country, is called exploitation. For example, the empire’s pricing system and opening of ports. But if a weaker, emerging industrial country engages in such actions against a powerful modern industrial nation… that’s inviting trouble, seeking a dead end.

It’s like the empire’s merchants believed that setting the acquisition price would force the Nico fishermen to live in misery but still endure exploitation. However, after receiving training from a country on Earth known for outlasting opponents, now it’s the empire’s fishermen who are in dire straits—imported aquatic products with freight costs are cheaper than their production costs. What to do? Lower the prices? But then the fuel costs for the fishing boats might not be affordable. If not lowering prices, who would buy their products? Nico’s imported aquatic products, free of pollution and strange tastes, are more popular!

However, the Nico fishermen are thriving after receiving a batch of modern fishing boats weighing 200-300 tons. Especially without industrial pollution and untouched fish from the distant seas, they are living comfortably. Lower the net, wait for half an hour, haul in the catch, clean, sort, go home, sell, get paid—all seamlessly. The main time cost is now in transportation. Fortunately, after the "Suqin-class Replenishment Ship" found some reefs on the sea and undertook some natural wonders, this problem was solved.

Fishermen can travel back and forth between multiple fishing grounds, store the aquatic products in offshore cold storage facilities, then have an automated production line sort, process, and manufacture delicious canned fish as military rations or goods for themselves. Some of the products exported to the empire are made into a large quantity of dried fish, fish fillets. Only the part exported to China undergoes simple processing, low-temperature rapid freezing, and is transported back by spacecraft to be sold as a top luxury product.

Then, the agents of the revolutionaries in the empire, the… will come to purchase and transform the goods into military provisions for the empire’s revolutionary army, raising funds for them. It’s impressive how the empire’s nobles and merchants provide such strong support to overthrow themselves—a unique spirit indeed.