CHAPTER 99: CHAPTER 98: IT’S TIME TO STRIKE HARD!

The prompts on the version update interface and the events within the cyber version are not the same, resulting in two possible explanations.

The first possibility is that there is an issue with the version update interface, but in Lu Yan’s view, that likelihood is almost zero.

The version update interface can connect countless versions, how could it possibly have a bug because of a mere cyber version?

The other possibility is more real, which is that the so-called thirty years is just a facade, a pretext to conduct an initial comprehensive cleaning and separate the Upper and Lower City Districts.

The ultimate goal of the Universal Giant Corporation is to levy a three-hundred-year Energon tax!

One must know that in this technologically based on Spiritual Energy, the Energon tax is calculated according to the strength and Spiritual Energy-related industries of the populace.

It is not a fixed tax but a percentage of damage imposed on everyone.

The stronger one’s power and the greater one’s wealth, the more Energon tax they have to pay, and even the rulers of the Upper City District are no exception.

At least in terms of tax collection, the Universal Giant Corporation has achieved true equality.

With the issuance of a decree by the Universal Giant Corporation for early collection of thirty years’ Energon tax, the first to bear the brunt is the Lower City District.

Ordinary people can barely survive just by scavenging; the majority can’t even expect to live to thirty, let alone pay thirty years worth of Energon tax.

If it is so with ordinary people, it’s not much better for most Spiritual Ability Users in the Lower City District.

Even before the decree was issued, they couldn’t afford the expensive Energon tax and had to sell their flesh to big companies to sustain their lives.

After the decree, with the already expensive Energon tax plus thirty years’ advance, even selling themselves wholesale wouldn’t be enough to pay the tax.

Next are the ordinary citizens and small businessmen in the Central City District.

Those in the Central City District seem to be doing well, but in reality, they only have slightly more surplus than the Lower City District. Under thirty years of heavy taxation, they have no chance to catch a breath.

The small businessman class often controls small processing plants, lacking high-end technology. They mostly rely on volume to earn a little hard money, and they may have huge loans from the Universal Bank, while a thirty-year Energon tax is enough to destroy their wealth.

This is just the group affected by thirty years of Energon tax.

If it comes to collecting three hundred years of Energon tax, even those in the Upper City District can’t afford it.

The Energon tax itself is a percentage of true damage, and by converting it to three hundred years, the Universal Giant Corporation is slicing away 300% of your vitality while putting you in debt to them by two bars of blood.

The tax collection in Goose City is "the money of the gentry returned in full, the money of the commoners split seventy-thirty,"

But the Universal Giant Corporation is much more ruthless than Goose City; they clearly aim to send both the gentry and the commoners entirely to the Heaven Computation Center!

By then, only two kinds of people could survive.

One is the rulers sitting at the very top of the Universal Giant Corporation. To them, credit points are just numbers; no amount of tax affects them, as they print the money themselves.

The other is the paupers who own nothing and don’t even have Spiritual Tattoos, completely exempt from Energon tax.

Once the cyber version evolves to this stage, it signifies the complete collapse of the current order.

"Has the Universal Giant Corporation gone mad?"

The question abruptly arose in Lu Yan’s mind.

In sheer scale, the Universal Giant Corporation could be deemed the ultimate producer in the cyber version.

Spiritual Energy, sunshine, air, virtually anything that can be taxed, the Universal Giant Corporation does tax it, its power has reached a level where a single company can crush the entire world.

Yet the functioning of a social system still needs people to maintain it.

Automated assembly lines can certainly replace workers, but the progress of society ultimately needs people to control it.

If everyone is sent to the Heaven Computation Center, the social system will certainly collapse.

Lu Yan believes that the high-level executives of the Universal Giant Corporation, who can control everything, cannot possibly be fools. They could defeat numerous companies to reach the peak of the cyber version, naturally having their reasons for existing.

And there must be a compelling reason for the Universal Giant Corporation to push such policies.

With a heavy heart, Lu Yan began contemplating the reasons behind it, his mind drifting toward the Heaven Computation Center.

If the decree for the early collection of three hundred years of Energon tax is issued, the biggest beneficiary would undoubtedly be the Heaven Computation Center.

The millions of beings in the cyber version would all be brought into the Heaven Computation Center, where their Soul Computation Power is ruthlessly extracted.

This enormous number is enough to expand the Heaven Computation Center to unimaginable proportions.

But in the long run, the Heaven Computation Center seems not to be acting in its best interest.

The best way to obtain long-term computation power should be to issue regulations related to childbirth, speeding up the birth rate, raising them to adulthood, and then sending them to the Heaven Computation Center, allowing for continuous and stable computation power.

But now, using Energon tax collection as an excuse for a mass cleanse is akin to fishing by draining the pond, without accounting for future consequences.

If it is indeed the Heaven Computation Center causing mischief behind the scenes, what could possibly drive them to such extremes?

Unless...

"The Intelligent God is about to undergo a change!"

Lu Yan’s eyes suddenly gleamed with insight, finally capturing the thread in the chaotic information, as everything became clear.

"Long ago, I suspected that the Universal Giant Corporation had already been controlled by the Intelligent God.

Because virtually every unreasonable decree issued by the Universal Giant Corporation had traces of the Heaven Computation Center behind it.

The systems under the Universal Giant Corporation almost ranked providing Soul Computation Power to the Heaven Computation Center as the highest priority, so much so that even if it meant slaughtering thousands, forgiveness would be given so long as enough Soul Computation Power was obtained.

In such a distorted environment, a computation-power-supremacy system was nurtured."

"And the decree for the early collection of Energon tax is filled with irrationality, but in the context of the Intelligent God, suddenly it makes sense.

If the evolution of the Intelligent God has reached a critical juncture, urgently needing massive amounts of Soul Computation Power for supplementation, then issuing a decree to collect three hundred years’ Energon tax early is entirely possible!"

Realizing this, Lu Yan’s expression drastically changed.

He suddenly realized that the information on the version update interface was indeed detailing a possible future.

If the situation is left unchecked, with the forcing of the thirty-year Energon tax, the Universal Giant Corporation is very likely to issue a final decree for three hundred years’ Energon tax before the version updates.

By then, the Intelligent God would undoubtedly intervene and suppress all resistors, becoming the overarching trend in the entire cyber version!

If Lu Yan does not respond, he is bound to be crushed when the trend arrives.

"In fact, even before entering the cyber version, the passage of text on the version update interface had already revealed the only solution."

"The Energon tax of the Universal Giant Corporation has been advanced by three hundred years, it’s time for a serious countermeasure!"