Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The sudden attack by the three thieves took Lu Yunqi completely by surprise.

His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, wondering if those two bodyguards had his back, when both stepped forward at the same time, whipped out their Brownings, and with three quick bangs, the three crooks dropped like sacks of potatoes.

Before Lu Yunqi could even wrap his head around what just happened, the two bodyguards had already returned to his side.

It took him a second to get his bearings. He turned to his bodyguards, shot them a thumbs-up, and said, "Why didn't you guys tell me you were packing heat? Then what the hell was I so worried about? Haha, boys, let's get down to business!"

The two bodyguards grinned, looking a little embarrassed. One of them stepped forward and said, "Boss, our weapons only work within the system base's radiation zone. Step one foot outside the Wanping Wasteland, and they're useless."

Lu Yunqi rubbed his chin. "Ah, so that's the deal, huh?"

The other bodyguard asked, "Boss, you're not gonna hold it against us for offing those three, right? Their loyalty scores were under fifty percent—one was even down at forty—and every one of them had blood on their hands. We make the call on whether to take someone out based on the situation. They had bad karma, so they fit the bill for being put down."

The first bodyguard nodded in agreement: "Yes, Boss. We follow the bodyguard system's rules—we're absolutely not allowed to just kill people for no reason."

Lu Yunqi nodded in response: "I get it. Those two traffickers were scum of the earth—they had it coming. Don't beat yourselves up over it. I know it's part of the job."

Lu Yunqi then added, "So, you're saying if someone's loyalty is under fifty percent, that means they've got blood on their hands?"

The bodyguard shook his head: "Not exactly, but generally, anyone under fifty percent is a real piece of work. One of them was at twenty percent, two at forty percent, and their loyalty bars were dark red—meaning they had violence in their nature. So the system usually warns against hanging out with anyone below sixty percent loyalty. Sixty percent and up is considered decent—at least they won't stab you in the back or pull any major shady crap."

But being a little greedy or sneaky is just human nature—only folks above ninety percent loyalty are totally above that kind of stuff.

Lu Yunqi thought, hell yeah—from now on, he'd run that mini-program on everyone he met.

After that, Lu Yunqi didn't run into any more refugees, so he headed back to base with his two bodyguards.

The second he walked into the base, he saw all the refugees gawking at the place like they'd seen a ghost. Someone muttered, "This... is this heaven or something?"

"Nah, can't be! Heaven's up in the clouds, right?"

"But look at these fields, these houses—we don't have anything like this back home."

"Yeah! We all lived in mud huts. I've never seen houses made entirely of wood before."

"And they're built so nicely. Everything's so clean here, unlike our village—that place was full of cow patties and chicken crap."

Lu Yunqi walked over, and the people immediately dropped to their knees and kowtowed again. He tsked and said, "You don't have to kneel. We don't do that whole thing here. You need to understand that all people are born equal—everyone here is on the same level. Men and women are equal too—none of that 'boys are better than girls' crap. Understand?"

They didn't really get it, but they stood up anyway.

Lu Yunqi knew these people were stuck in the old ways, and jumping straight from that into a civilized society would be a huge leap. So he came up with a plan and told the crowd: "Since you're all here now, you've gotta follow my rules, period. First off, any husband-wife relationships are on hold. You'll go through a year of intensive education. After that year, if you still wanna stay married, I won't stand in your way. If either one of you doesn't wanna stay married anymore, I'll let you split up. Young kids and daughters go with their moms by default; boys over three go with their dads."

A woman holding a three-year-old boy was about to say something when the man next to her yanked her back: "Shut it. Whatever the big shot says goes. Don't make waves."

The woman shut her mouth, looking uneasy, and muttered with a hint of worry: "Baobao's still little. You sure you can take care of him?"

The man said, "As long as there's food, we'll live. Worst case, we die. What's the big deal?"

Just then, Du Ze walked up and addressed the crowd: "Alright, everyone, the boss is done talking. I'll now sort out your living arrangements. Men and women stay in separate areas. Each cabin has three beds, so three people per cabin. Just follow the arrangements. Things are a bit rough for now, so don't go complaining."

The people thought to themselves—if this counted as rough, then what kind of life had they been living before?

But no one dared to speak, afraid of angering the benefactor. There was still a lingering unease in their hearts; all the refugees' eyes reflected the anxiety of not knowing whether they'd live to see tomorrow.

Du Ze received the roster from the bodyguards, divided the cabins into two zones, and arranged the dozens of refugees into dormitories by gender.

As soon as the arrangements were complete, a notification sounded from the system: "Congratulations, Host, on successfully recruiting seventy-five residents. Prosperity increased by 7,500. The system has successfully upgraded to Level 2. System management mode has been unlocked—you may now fully delegate system management to a professional manager."

Following that, numerous achievements were unlocked, but Lu Yunqi ignored them and directly told the system: "Confirm delegation."

And so, the system's management authority was entrusted to Du Ze. A tree diagram appeared on the system interface—at the top was Lu Yunqi himself, below him was General Manager Du Ze, and beneath that were empty blue boxes waiting to be filled.

Immediately after, he watched Du Ze fill one of the empty boxes with an Agriculture Department Head: Li Na.

Security Department Head: Zhang Qiang.

Then he spent a large number of points to hire over a dozen NPCs, instructing them to continue building cabins, and hired a first-level elementary school teacher to teach the residents literacy.

Lu Yunqi glanced at this and thought—indeed, a professional manager is a professional manager. He even hired a schoolteacher. With a year of education, their awareness should improve significantly, right?

With Du Ze in charge, he felt at ease. Just as he was about to leave, Du Ze walked toward him again: "Boss, you still need to grant me one more permission."

Lu Yunqi asked, "Huh? Didn't I delegate everything? Why do you still need something?"

Du Ze replied, "It's like this, Boss. I only have management authority, but expansion authority and key function permissions still need to be activated by you personally. Since we now have residents in the system, we need to activate the currency exchange function. Otherwise, they won't be able to eat. Also, I've just activated the farming function, but it'll take time for the livestock and poultry to grow. However, hunting is available, so tomorrow I plan to have the bodyguards take the villagers out to hunt. But before that, they need to eat. In addition to the rice you brought, the vegetables we've recycled into the system can serve as their provisions."

Now Lu Yunqi finally understood—so the vegetables he'd recycled earlier were meant for the residents?

He asked Du Ze, "So... how do I activate this permission?"

Du Ze said, "This is exactly why I came to find you, Boss. Let's discuss how to allocate things reasonably. Our points come from vegetable recycling, but selling vegetables to the residents must be priced higher than the recycling rate, so you can also make a small profit."

Lu Yunqi was shocked: "What? I can make money too?"

Du Ze nodded: "Yes. The system master can increase points through taxes on residents' purchases. The points earned can be used for base expansion."

Lu Yunqi said excitedly, "That's great! So tell me, how should we do this?"

Du Ze thought for a moment and said, "We can establish a resident currency. One point can be exchanged for a certain amount of resident currency, and a certain amount of resident currency can buy a certain amount of food. Completing tasks or farming can earn resident currency as rewards. We can set up a supermarket in the base where people can pay by card."

Lu Yunqi let out an "uh" and asked, "But our current civilization isn't advanced enough to support all that!"

Du Ze chuckled lightly: "Then we'll have to do it manually. We'll assign point exchange officers—people go to them to exchange for food, and the officers also keep records of points and resident currency."

Lu Yunqi understood his meaning and nodded: "Alright, alright. Then you arrange the NPCs!"

Du Ze nodded and added, "So what should we call our currency?"

Lu Yunqi smiled knowingly: "Let's call it Renminbi!"

What a perfect opportunity to borrow from his old world. Although it would be difficult, he truly wanted to build a utopia in this world—a utopia like the one back home.

Du Ze responded, "Alright, Renminbi it is. That's all for now, Boss. You can go rest."

Lu Yunqi hummed in acknowledgment, thinking—since heaven had given him such a massive advantage, he might as well make the most of it. Whether he'd succeed or not, he'd give it a try!

He took one last look at the busy residents, gave each of them an advance of one hundred points, and then returned to his room.

Once back, he felt a bit uneasy. What happened yesterday wasn't really Murong Jie's fault.

If he didn't want to do it, Lu Yunqi couldn't force him. A man still needed to be coaxed, even if coaxing didn't help.

He thought it over, opened the system shop, and exchanged for a very exquisite sleeve crossbow.

After tucking the crossbow away, he went to see Murong Jie. From a distance, he saw him sitting in the pavilion cross-legged in meditation—no doubt about to practice his Nine-Death Survival Skill again. Truly diligent.

As Lu Yunqi approached, Murong Jie opened his eyes. Lu Yunqi leaned in with a fawning expression and asked softly, "Hey, you're done? Did you eat well today? I've been busy all day and didn't have time to check on you—did you miss me?"

Murong Jie glanced at him, his expression was as if he were looking at a complete fool.

Lu Yunqi was in a surprisingly good mood today. He said cheerfully, "Oh, don't be mad—yesterday was on me. I swear, I won't push you again. As a peace offering, I brought you a gift."

With that, he handed the sleeve crossbow to Murong Jie and said, "See, this thing is small and exquisite—you can hide it in your sleeve. If anyone ever bullies you, just quietly press this button..."

A whoosh rang out, and a small, highly lethal bolt buried itself deep into the pavilion pillar.

This was the first time that Murong Jie, who perpetually wore a gloomy expression, showed genuine interest. He abruptly stood and walked over to the bolt, frowning as he said, "Such a small bolt, yet it has this much destructive power?"

Lu Yunqi eagerly showed it off like a prized possession. "Right, right! Do you want it?"