CHAPTER 86: PLAN FOR EASTDAM STATE

"I just want to ask if I can recruit a friend. It’s fine if I can’t." Nash knew his limits; if he asked for anything more, Leslie might walk away in a huff.

"Just that?" Leslie breathed a sigh of relief, finally hearing a normal request.

"As long as your friend is a four-star warrior, he can join unconditionally. If he’s a three-star, he’ll need to pass a brief assessment."

"I see. Thanks."

In a week or so, William should be able to join him at Black Willow Shelter.

With a tank like him by his side, Nash would have a better guarantee of safety.

After drafting a contract outlining all their agreements, Nash and Leslie, on behalf of the Verdant Group, signed and authenticated it with the Nova Government.

Although it was only legally binding and didn’t have extraordinary powers, breaking the contract would lead him to be prosecuted by the Nova Government.

With the deal done, Nash returned to reality.

---

Opening the Virtual Dark Pod, Nash leisurely stepped out.

"Huh, not a bad harvest this time."

Earning nearly 10,000 merits and an invitation from the Verdant Group, Nash considered it a very productive day.

After tidying up and freshening himself, he headed to his office to finish today’s administrative work.

Seeing that the pile of documents had doubled, he couldn’t help but frown.

Remembering that he had attended the assembly the other day, it was no wonder the work had stacked up.

Fortunately, the [Autonomous Module System] could handle most of it.

"Time to work."

Letting his body move automatically, Nash entered his runic space.

Putting aside the optimization work for the [Sensing Module System], Nash turned his attention to the [Autonomous Module System]’s runic program—Basic Governance.

After hearing Trish’s speech about the various reforms happening in the Astral State, Nash felt inspired to do his part.

After all, even if he had transmigrated into the future, Earth was still his home.

He didn’t want to see it remain mediocre. He, too, wanted to spark a series of reforms.

First on his list: Eastdam State.

"Now... what should I do?"

Eastdam State didn’t seem to have any clear specialty.

Besides its massive stretch of land, equal to three million square kilometers, and a population of over 600 million, it lacked natural mineral resources.

It didn’t even have solid terrain for building proper ship landing and takeoff zones.

Otherwise, Eastdam could’ve already become one of the major states.

Wracking his brain, Nash finally thought of something: food.

With so much land and manpower, how could he not consider agriculture?

Ever since the Arleanian Civilization had suppressed Earth, it had relied heavily on imported rations.

Now that the Arleanians were gone, this weakness had become painfully obvious.

Besides those defective nutrient solutions, which were so bad that even adults vomited from drinking them, the people on Earth had little to no choice.

In response to the world’s needs, transforming Eastdam State into Earth’s food hub seemed like a perfect solution.

Of course, Nash wasn’t doing it for selfish reasons. Absolutely not.

But as he thought about fresh produce, grains, meat, fish, and fruit...

He began to fantasize about what he wanted to eat.

"Huh~ It’s decided. I’ll turn Eastdam State into the Food Capital of Earth!"

With hundreds of thousands of void crystals in hand, he refused to believe he couldn’t turn Eastdam State into the paradise of his dreams.

Turning to the basic governance skills within the Autonomous Module System, Nash began to work.

All he had to do was input his general ideas, refine them a bit, and let the [Autonomous Module System] work its magic.

In no time, even without his direct involvement, Eastdam State would slowly start transforming according to his plan.

---

Forty-five minutes ahead of schedule, the [Autonomous Module System] pinged that it had completed its work.

Exiting the runic space, Nash looked at the pile of files the runic module couldn’t process.

"So many?"

Usually, there were only one or two documents that the basic governance skill couldn’t handle.

But now, dozens of leftover files stared back at him.

"What is this..."

Flipping through them, Nash couldn’t help but frown.

"It seems Abner has started to retaliate."

Walking against the interests of the Earth Horizon Alliance, it was no wonder Abner had started to retaliate.

According to the reports, various accusations against him were spreading across the news and the internet.

Eastdam State also started showing signs of economic turmoil and began facing multiple sanctions.

Transportation fees to the state had skyrocketed, doubling or even tripling the usual rate.

The four major states also increased their tariffs and taxes on Eastdam state.

If this continued, the top families and business corporations would have no choice but to leave Eastdam state and relocate elsewhere.

Even the middle class would be forced to migrate to better environments.

Perhaps the only ones unaffected were the poor, those who couldn’t even afford a full meal.

After all, if they had nothing, what could they lose? Their life? In this oppressive world, maybe it would even be a relief.

"Tsk. Whatever. Those who want to leave can leave." Nash didn’t care.

What did those people have to do with him?

As long as he could manage Eastdam State well and feed the poor, nothing else mattered.

It wasn’t like he was profiting from Eastdam State as its chancellor.

At most, he could earn Arls, which couldn’t even be used because Earth didn’t have Autonomy and couldn’t trade with other planets and civilizations.

All in all, it could be said that he was at a loss, wasting hours of his precious time.

Still, even if Abner’s retaliation didn’t damage him directly, it was disgusting.

Especially the public accusations targeting him and the Crimson Phoenix Squad on the news and online platforms.

It wasn’t that Nash cared about the negative press; he just hated being in the spotlight.

"Troublesome..." he muttered. He wanted to remove all the news about him from public platforms, but hacking Earth’s network would take too much time.

Unwilling to waste any more effort, Nash decided to hire someone for the job.

The problem? He didn’t know any hacker skilled or brave enough to go against the Earth Horizon Alliance.

No matter how much Nash offered, they either lacked the ability or the courage to take on the job.

"How about the virtual realm..." he mused.

There had to be professionals in the virtual world who could handle this sort of task easily.

After all, he only needed the information about him to be banned from a planet’s local network.

Finishing the rest of the files, Nash returned to the Virtual Dark Pod and dove back into the virtual world.