Chapter 428: The Value of a Person
"Your mission is to reach our contact point within the United States and then hand the jade over to the contact person."
Ignoring Qinglong's barely suppressed rage, the voice from within the jade continued.
"But don't they enforce a racial segregation policy over there? Two Eastern faces like ours won't be able to survive, will they?" Forcibly suppressing his anger, Qinglong interrupted Fuleisitan.
Both he and Qiuzi were of Yamato descent. Qinglong had originally lived in the United States, and ten years prior, during the North-South Civil War, he had taken advantage of the chaos to plunder extensively before fleeing alone to the Latin Alliance.
Qiuzi, on the other hand, hailed from the upper echelons of Yamato society. For safety, her father had taken their entire family and fled the Yamato mainland, which was surrounded by sea on all sides, spending a fortune to emigrate to the Yamato settlement area in the Latin Alliance. It was under these circumstances that the two had met.
As a wanted B-class criminal still known in the United States, Qinglong, who had committed multiple acts of robbery and murder back then, was clearly unwilling to return to that country.
"This is Shenying Wanbian, capable of distorting others' perceptions across all senses..."
Fuleisitan continued speaking as if he hadn't been interrupted, providing the two with items that had been prepared in advance.
...
Half an hour prior, just as it was about to swat away Qinglong, who was venturing into the Secret Realm to search for treasure, the Destiny System suddenly issued a mission, instructing it to follow the given orders.
"What kind of obstacles forced him to resort to such a circuitous method to gather intelligence on the United States?" Although Fuleisitan had played along and seen the charade through, many questions still lingered in its mind.
"Or perhaps, he isn't as powerful as he seems?"
Seeds of doubt began to sprout in its heart, but of course, it showed no outward signs, continuing its forest pest-clearing work with its usual demeanor.
"Do you have doubts?" A few seconds later, a line of text abruptly appeared, making Fuleisitan's heart leap. If it had sweat glands, it would have been breaking out in a cold sweat from every head.
"He can know what I'm thinking?"
"Unknown."
...
In that moment, Fuleisitan realized that the Destiny System's response of "Unknown" carried perhaps even greater destructive power than a simple "Known."
"Please don't tease me, esteemed one." After a hint of panic crept into its heart, its speech once again began to mix with strange lines.
...
"What are they up to?"
Bai Mo did not reply to Fuleisitan, merely staring blankly at the mist before him.
The Crimson World's Disciples, Gaiya, and the most mysterious Creator—these three, under his relentless pressure, had already relinquished all land outside the United States.
Through the continuously expanding Destiny System, Bai Mo could directly or indirectly observe the conditions on more than half of the planet's surface.
He utilized his power to create a large number of avatars, the same kind he had used more than a year ago when he had undergone his mortal transformation, slowly expanding outwards, gradually attempting to seize control of everything.
Only the region of the United States, the last stronghold occupied by Gaiya and the other two, remained impenetrable. His vision there was still a blur, which was why he had used Fuleisitan's name to casually place a few 'eyes'.
At least for the next decade, he had no intention of completely tearing up the peace treaty.
Their concession also clearly indicated their willingness to abandon all territories outside the United States.
According to Bai Mo's plan, too many problems needed solving to fully integrate humanity into one entity within the Land of White.
...
Land of White, Tianfeng City.
"Don't come closer! If you do, I'll jump!" A young man, his eyes bloodshot, sat on the edge of a tall building, swinging his legs, turning his head to shout incessantly at the Internal Supervisor behind him.
He was a returned overseas Chinese who had come back with his parents about half a month ago. His parents, believing that "falling leaves return to their roots," had insisted, despite their son's objections, that the entire family apply to become citizens of the Land of White, thus settling back in their hometown after many years abroad.
Accustomed to a free and unrestrained life abroad, the young man found himself tormented beyond endurance by these invisible rules upon his return. In a fit of impulse, he thought of suicide.
After the Destiny System became an omnipresent network monitoring everyone, all criminal acts lost their fertile ground, and the profession of policing consequently faded from the historical stage.
In their place emerged the Internal Supervisors, jokingly referred to by the populace as "peacekeepers."
The primary duty of Internal Supervisors was to resolve numerous non-criminal disputes, such as neighborhood conflicts.
For these minor matters, Bai Mo did not allocate the power of his consciousness network; instead, he simply handed them over to the large number of people who had lost their jobs due to societal transformation.
Under a completely planned economy, an astronomical number of people became unemployed. Some middle-aged individuals, who were past a certain age and whose learning abilities lagged far behind the younger generation, found life in the new era particularly difficult.
It wasn't a struggle of material conditions, but one of mental hardship.
While their semi-rationed material life was indeed carefree, looking at the textbooks in their hands and the learning tasks to be completed each day, only despair remained in their eyes.
After realizing that this group truly couldn't be uplifted, the Internal Supervisors came into being as the times demanded. They were responsible for using their rich social experience to handle ambiguous and difficult-to-categorize troublesome matters.
"Young man, have you calculated your value to see if it has reached the minimum threshold for suicide?" Unlike previous counseling methods, the Internal Supervisors employed a different approach.
"Calculate what value? Don't pretend to educate me while coming closer!"
"You really should properly learn how to use the Destiny System," a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties or fifties said with a stern face.
"Learn what nonsense? This damned thing completely treats people like slaves! Every second here I feel like I'm suffocating! You people wouldn't understand; even the air in the free world is sweet and fresh! Is a dream you're forced to realize even a dream?!"
The young man rattled off a long string of words in one breath, brimming with dissatisfaction.
"Open your personal development skill tree. At the very bottom, there's a 'Value Estimation' option. Click on it and see what you're worth, and whether you've reached the minimum threshold for suicide."
"Introduction: The personal valuation model, which accounts for your development path, calculates the sum of an individual's future potential value, discounted to the present. Note: This data is an estimation only, and does not account for actual disturbances; it is for reference only."
Curiously, he clicked open the "Personal Value Estimation" section and read it carefully. Anyone, upon hearing there was a section that evaluated their worth, would instinctively want to take a look.
The surrounding Internal Supervisors also seemed unafraid that the young man would suddenly jump, sitting patiently by the side, waiting.
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