CHAPTER 496: CHAPTER 189: FULFILLING PROMISES IN A TIMELINE BEYOND MY SIGHT

In life, one cannot evaluate everything with a utilitarian mindset, otherwise a person becomes a machine.

The root of capitalism’s sins lies in valuing everything in the world in cold, hard currency.

One’s birth, life, dignity, destiny...

When all these have a clear price tag, the world becomes distorted into the image Ren Zhong sees now.

He cannot change the world for the moment; he can only change one city, one town.

At the same time, he must resist the world’s assimilation of him.

So even if he knows that by avoiding battle this time, he might see more "scenery" by taking one more step forward, he still chooses to pause here.

Not for anything else, but because making up for regrets is equivalent to seeing new scenery.

From the morning of the 83rd to the 89th day, Ren Zhong wasn’t in Starfire Town; he went to Chromium Carbon Town.

Since he has the persona of a profit-seeking merchant, it doesn’t make sense to focus only on the peripheral parts of his business map—Starfire Town—while ignoring the real golden goose, Chromium Carbon Town.

Fortunately, although Yang Bingzhong was a failed conspirator, he was still a decent resource recovery company boss.

The production line and management model Yang had pre-planned inside the submarine were of very high standards.

After taking over the entire industry, Ren Zhong only clarified the personnel structure and left six Fourth Level professionals in Chromium Carbon Town, then handed all matters to the vice president, acting like a passive player in a managed game. Yet the company’s operations were stable and efficient.

With the rapid reconstruction of the professional Scavenger Team system in Chromium Carbon Town, in the last half month, Chromium Carbon Town was generating an average net profit of nearly 800,000 for Ren Zhong every day.

If Ren Zhong didn’t sabotage his own efforts, followed the progress of his career according to his exaggerated claims, he could raise the daily net profit of Chromium Carbon Resources to 2 million within a few months. With the addition of the newly acquired Sunrise Town from the merger of Starfire Town’s mining area, he could secure a net profit of 3 million a day from both towns.

He would need only two years to completely repay the 4 billion loan from Alson Bank’s Liao Yuan branch, and live a life superior to 80% of Source Star citizens.

But Ren Zhong was not interested in this; he only desired to grow stronger now.

Regrettably, the 200 million armor he has now is already the pinnacle of equipment he can manage.

Even if he wanted to enhance further irrespective of cost, there was no way.

He could only start from the perspective of some basic materials.

But manufacturing exoskeleton equipment, especially advanced equipment, is like a 21st-century Earth nation developing fifth-generation fighters.

From the concept to blueprints to the finished product, it’s an elaborate system engineering, not just a simple assembly of parts.

One wrong move, and everything falls apart.

Although Ren Zhong had already initially grasped the ability to design armor and could independently design a functioning set, it was limited to using ready-made modules and common mature ideas on the market. He couldn’t adjust the equipment based on materials.

That was another field entirely.

So he could only watch all the money sit idly in his pocket, unable to spend it due to his own limitations.

Sometimes, Ren Zhong would also wonder if it was because he wasn’t rich enough.

If he had a few tens of billions in cash, like those top-level elites among high-class citizens Ma Xiaoling spoke of, he could set up a private research institute around his personal needs. Wouldn’t that be great?

Forget it, let’s save such good things for later.

Ren Zhong spent six days training in the luxury VIP area of the Zhan Sha County training ground with Ma Xiaoling, who was on annual leave.

On the evening of the 89th day, he returned to Starfire Town together with Ma Xiaoling.

At this moment, the density of the Hunter patrols outside the small town increased significantly. Standing at the town gate, one could see the Hunters in the sky circling like eagles.

Additionally, on a distant mountaintop, a white disc-shaped fortress from the Mengdu Group was half-hovering.

The twenty thousand potential "volunteers" warranted such attention from the Mengdu Group.

Outside the small town, several buses with transparent windows were parked.

A banner stretched in front of the buses.

The banner read, "Starfire Town Volunteer Recruitment Fair."

A group of attractive girls dressed in white uniform coats sat beneath the banner.

The smile on the girls’ faces was sweet and extremely pleasing to look at.

A registration desk was set up in front of each girl.

Beside the row of registration desks was a notice board.

The notice board listed the conditions of the current volunteer recruitment clearly and concisely.

It mentioned the "one-to-one" policy and clearly specified the "work" location, "work" content, contract duration, and various benefits and treatments for the volunteers being recruited this time.