Chapter 151 Broken Winged Bird

Streetside restaurant.

The restaurant was filled with bustle and noise. Many guests who got off work at night gathered here, ordered affordable and delicious dinners, and then got some low-alcohol iced wine to soothe their nerves and fatigue with the cool stimulation.

In the corner, two people sat quietly, one was eating voraciously, and the other rarely moved his chopsticks, just watching the other eat.

The young man in black shirt chewed the roasted hot meat slices with big mouthfuls, and then drank a big mouthful of cool beer. When the table was a mess, he put down his chopsticks, rubbed his stomach, and leaned back in the chair.

"I'm full." He made a satisfied sound, with a relaxed expression.

In response, Valk nodded slightly, then stood up to pay the bill.

Grabbing the tattered coat, Grid and Valk walked out of the restaurant and walked aimlessly along the street.

The two didn't say much along the way. After a long silence, Grid couldn't help but speak.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I was chased by the people of the Three-Hand Workshop tonight?"

"I want to ask, but I don't want to ask." Valk shook his head.

"If you don't want to say it, you will find all kinds of excuses even if I ask." The two grew up together, and he knew Grid's behavior very well.

"Hehe, you have become smarter and calmer." Grid said with a hint of sarcasm, and then his tone became a little more serious.

He looked at the brightly lit shops across the street, paused for a while, and then spoke.

"I took an order to spy on the business secrets of the Three-Hand Workshop."

"You." Valk also stopped at this time, frowning.

"This is a mission that will get you killed." This kind of spying has always been a taboo for all companies. In the process of defense and protection, they will not hesitate to kill the intruders directly, even if they will lose a lot of money later.

"I know." Grid leaned against the guardrail beside the bridge, looking at the hovercrafts passing by below.

"But there is only one chance." After saying that, he leaned against the guardrail, closed his eyes and looked up.

"You don't understand how important this is to me." His tone was very complicated.

"I don't understand, but I know it will bring serious consequences." Valk replied.

"Once your identity is exposed, not only will the other company not let you go, but because of the file problem, the result may not be imprisonment, but direct execution. Even because of you, many people in the orphanage will be implicated and face danger."

"Orphanage? What do those people have to do with me? I'm an orphan, why would I care?" Grid sneered, his expression a little distorted.

"You know, Valk, I've always been jealous of you, jealous to the point of madness, hehe." He covered his eyes, as if he was suppressing some emotion, and spoke hysterically.

"I know. Pastor Boyce mentioned to me that he wanted me to be careful of you and not to associate with you."

"Oh, that old guy has a sharp eye. I should not have let him live."

"You can't hurt Pastor Boyce. He saved us, raised us, and educated us."

"Uh, yes, that's right, he did all these, but I still hate him." Grid's voice was cold.

"He is always proud, proud of helping many people, and enjoys this respect with peace of mind..."

North District 9 is an extremely poor place. There is a lack of industry and resources here. The weather is cold, and only a few mineral cities are distributed.

The Black Strontium City where the two are located discovered a rare lapis lazuli mine more than 20 years ago. Unlike ordinary lapis lazuli, the lapis lazuli in this mine is produced by a special magic tide and has some extraordinary characteristics, so a fist-sized piece can be sold for nearly 100,000 federal coins.

This attracted countless people to come here, taking advantage of the official blockade or the loopholes in defense protection to steal and dig rare ores.

As a result, the local economy developed rapidly, although the cost was a chaotic public security situation, with gangs and gray-field firms fighting each other, and gunfights in the mining area almost every day.

However, this chaos finally ended, and the giant enterprise "Gray Dust Crystal" bought the entire mining area, and then the security forces directly under "Gray Dust Crystal" cleaned up the entire mining area.

The armed forces belonging to giant enterprises are not comparable to ordinary gangs. They not only have many self-disciplined defense units, but also have organized mecha teams, elite troops mobilized from various star field branches, and so on.

Some people may say that the giant enterprises have exceeded the laws of the Federation or are beyond control by maintaining such powerful armed forces, but if you are familiar with history, you will know the ridiculousness of this question.

It was not under the rule of the Federation that giant enterprises were born, but giant enterprises compromised and joined forces with each other to build the Rose Federation.

In that barren era, each of these giant companies with technological singularities was a small country. They had their own fleets, spacecraft, management agencies, etc., traveling between abandoned or barren planets, selling their own unique products, and had few rivals.

However, such development has its limits after all. The upper limit of the market ultimately determines the upper limit of the enterprise. No matter how good the product you produce is, only 100 people can buy it in the end, and you can only make money from these 100 people at most.

Why after many technological revolutions, only the largest countries can breed the strongest and most cutting-edge technology companies, because only the largest countries have the largest markets, can generate enough profits, and can support the increasing costs of scientific and technological research and development.

Barren and scattered planets cannot provide a large enough market unless a country with stable order and vast territory is established, but companies will not do such things.

As a profit-making organization, or the embodiment of capital, he instinctively pursues profit, because only in this way can this organizational structure continue.

Establishing a country means taking care of all kinds of complicated matters, whether it is building order, pacifying the people, providing education, building infrastructure, etc., which requires huge investment and is also a very risky thing.

From managing a company to managing a country, it is not just as simple as increasing the population, there are countless problems waiting behind, but what is the return? It only wants to sell a candy worth 1 yuan, but now you ask it to invest 1,000 yuan for comprehensive preliminary construction.

This is obviously a loss-making business, so the company will not do this.

Or someone will say that the company can also sell other things, but things are not that simple. The giant companies may only cost 10,000 to produce what they are good at, but the profit can reach 1 million, which is close to a hundred times return.

If you make other products, not only do you have to develop and test from scratch, but every time you add a field, you have to add a competitor in that field, and the final profit is also limited, far less than the products that the company is good at. In order to create these, you have to pay a lot of manpower costs, which makes the company more and more bloated and the internal consumption is getting more and more serious. In the end, the things that they are good at may slowly lose their innovation ability and finally be defeated by new industry challengers.

Knowing that the market is limited, these giant companies do not have a good solution, so they can only do so. This situation did not turn around until the "Golden Flame Rose" came out.

Because of these historical reasons, although the Rose Federation is extremely powerful, this kind of power refers not only to the power of the federal government, but also to the power of the giant companies that build the federation. They have their own weapons and even fleets belonging to the companies.

However, during the time when the second generation of color-level diva 'Cobalt Blue Tears' blossomed, she made the federal government actively expand its military during the special period of the civil war, and constantly suppressed and reduced the privileges of giant companies in the federation. Later, during the harsh internal cleanup of 'Cobalt Blue Star Tears', many congressmen who accepted bribes from giant companies were imprisoned and executed. These eventually greatly weakened the political power of giant companies in the federation, and finally passed a new bill. Giant companies no longer have fleets and can only maintain a certain ground defense force.

————

The topic returned to the former Black Strontium City. Because of the excavation of lapis lazuli, countless people came here. Because of the restoration of order and stability, many speculators left, leaving only a mess. Among them, there were many abandoned orphans. Valk and Grid were one of such people.

They lived an extremely difficult life when they were young, until an idealistic pastor came to the North Nine District, established an orphanage and a church, and adopted these children.

"Pastor Boyce does not treat everyone equally. He obviously prefers obedient and well-behaved children. Unfortunately, I am not that kind of person." Grid said self-deprecatingly.

"Although he adopted me, he never liked me. He fed me casually like a dog and finished eating."

"But he was very patient with you. He not only taught you all kinds of knowledge, but also worked hard for you, and finally let you obtain a legal resident file in the Federation." "

So, you, who have been blessed by God, also want to persuade me to live a humble life like a dog?" Grid asked Valk again.

"Even so, you shouldn't..." Valk wanted to persuade, but in the end he didn't continue, because he also knew that this was actually an unsolvable path.

Grid didn't have a legal identity that could stand up to scrutiny, and couldn't leave the barren and narrow slums in the North Ninth District. There, apart from some extremely hard and low-level jobs, he didn't have many other choices.

The world is unfair, and this is true for many people.

"I began to break free from Pastor Boyce's dog chain and went to the complex and gloomy fields to look for opportunities. Although I almost died on a winter night, I also got some money, made a simple identity file disguise, and then left the North Ninth District." Grid stood in the night wind and spoke slowly.

"Reverend Boyce must be very resentful towards me because I broke my promise to him and posed a threat to him. If I make a big mistake in the end, he, his former adopter, will also be in trouble."

"Reverend Boyce is not as bad as you think. He just said that he regretted not caring more about you at that time." Valk said.

"Hehe, that's when he shows his tender side in front of you, because you satisfy his desire to be a respected and loving father."

"He gets psychological satisfaction. The more successful you are, the more people around him praise him, and the more he immerses himself in this image."

"You think he is very noble, but in fact he just uses us kids to satisfy his once-lost self-esteem and spiritual emptiness."

"I have investigated Pastor Boyce's past. He grew up in the wealthy South 2nd District, but there, he was just an unknown loser. The girl he pursued fell in love with someone else, and the family business he inherited was ruined due to poor management. He still had nothing to show for it in his thirties, and finally came to North 9th District out of frustration."

"Even if his motives are not so flawless, I still respect Pastor Boyce. At least we survived because of him." Valk shook his head.

"That's you! Not me!" Grid's eyes were ferocious.

"I still can't forget his look of discrimination, the look of disgust and contempt, as if he was looking at garbage."

"I want to take revenge on him, I must take revenge on him, I must achieve something, then go back and slap him hard, make him lose face, kneel in front of everyone, and confess his hypocritical and disgusting performance for so many years."

"You shouldn't spend your mind on these things, if you find a decent job and live a stable life..." Valk advised again.

"I said, that's you, not me. You haven't experienced that kind of contempt and insult, and you don't understand how tormenting and uncomfortable it is to be humble and beg for mercy."

After a heated conversation, both sides fell into silence, looking at the world of endless traffic under the high bridge. In fact, they also understood that neither of them was the child they used to be, and they couldn't convince each other in this situation.

"I'm leaving." Greed pulled up his coat, put it on his shoulders, and walked to the side of the bridge.

"I will remember your kindness tonight. If I have the chance in the future, I will repay you."

"Pray, Valk, pray that I will live to repay you, haha." Grid laughed, which seemed to contain deep self-mockery.

Not long after, the young man in black disappeared at the end of the street, leaving Valk still looking at the prosperous night scene across the high bridge.

On countless huge screens, various colors and figures swayed, and every sign was filled with the breath of money. It was so prosperous, but so distorted that people could only sigh silently.

The wheel of history crushed everything in the past, and countless simple things were re-endowed with new meanings. While people were gaining more and more knowledge and theories, they were also facing more and more choices and confusion.

Being alive was an extremely lucky thing in ancient times, but in this era, if you can only live, it may also be a kind of pain.

Dignity, freedom, those things that were previously undiscovered and numb have now slowly penetrated into everyone's heart.

They are advanced and can bring people a good feeling, but once they cannot satisfy people, they will become more miserable. We can no longer go back to the pastoral era, nor can we bury ourselves in the sand like ostriches and no longer look at the world.

We can only be swept up in the trend of the times and constantly involved in fierce competition to obtain this increasingly expensive respect and dignity.

(End of this chapter)