Chapter 354: Life Under the New Policies (2)

Wuerkan didn't know why the Nobility lords suddenly all had an epiphany.

The problems that were incomprehensible before suddenly made sense now.

He only, after the officials' careful explanations, finally understood that he might be able to go a long time without paying taxes in the future.

And even if he pays taxes, it will be based on his actual income, at a certain percentage.

This is far more sophisticated than the Empire's previous one-size-fits-all fixed quotas, beyond any imagination!

Of course, this wasn't something even Terra, even with Makado seated there, could have imagined before.

Rather, even if they had thought of it before, they couldn't achieve it.

After all, trying to tally the actual output of the Empire's millions of civilians across countless worlds, a sea of data, using only the Internal Affairs Department that was previously stacked on parchment, is nothing but a pipe dream!

Xisi can accomplish what Terra could not only because of the 'selfless dedication' of the Administrative Demon and Jianqi Great Demon, and because he himself also serves as the High Lord of the Internal Affairs Department, forcibly applying Hundredfold enhancement.

The Empire alone possesses the ability to handle such terrifying administration.

Otherwise, 'taxation based on personal income' would forever remain an empty slogan.

However, for Wuerkan, who is at the very bottom of the Empire and among the most numerous civilians, he could never have imagined any of this.

He simply, with a bewilderment that he could not yet feel how these new policies affected him, followed the crowd back to his home, preparing to continue another day, the same as countless previous ones.

Later, whether it was because the factory had been toiling for too long, or because he truly felt too foolish, when one day the factory owner informed the crowd that they had been granted a half‑day holiday, Wuerkan and the other workers were suddenly jolted awake.

Their lives really seemed to have changed.

"Indeed, it's different!"

Outside the factory gates, Wuerkan stood silently in place, with the unchanged Nest City dome overhead for decades.

The main avenue ahead was still filled with cargo trucks, the passage for personnel still cramped and crowded, as if at any moment the scene of workers being squeezed onto the road and run over could reappear.

Even now, on the road surface, one can still see remnants of human tissue.

It's not that the Corpse Guild despises corpses; rather, the factory's production cannot pause for a moment, nor can external transport be interrupted, so halting the transport line to move a single corpse is considered an extreme waste of efficiency by the Empire.

After all, a few deaths are a minor matter; ten or even a hundred more can be fetched at any time.

But if the transport line stops, the tithe can't be paid, and the Tax Department will truly wipe the entire surface clean.

But…

"It's really different now!"

Wuerkan silently whispered that sentence again in his heart.

Then he lifted the starch that would feed his whole family for a week, and glanced at the guardrail installed between the personnel and truck lanes.

If it weren't for the unexpected half‑day holiday today, Wuerkan wouldn't have known that Nest City had actually added guardrails to prevent workers from being squeezed onto the road and run over!

Then, looking at the guardrail, for the first time Wuerkan was not exhausted after work, hunched and stumbling back to his small home, but for the first time leaned on the rail, lifted his head, and walked toward home.

At the same time, the crowd around him was no longer the previously lifeless mass; they all held their heads high, gazing with unfamiliar eyes at the environment they knew best.

"So there are so many God Emperor Portraits in the neighborhood where I live?"

"So going home doesn't require any turns; just go straight on one road?"

"So the light above isn't constant, but simulates day and night?"

"So when I look closely, there are so many…"

Wuerkan seemed like a child who had just arrived in this world, eyes wide with curiosity, surveying the scene before him.

Unconsciously, his steps grew faster, not because his spirit was rising.

But the crowd around him, almost everyone, was also walking faster!

Because they were eager to bring the week's worth of food they held back to their families as soon as possible.

Along with that, a fact that, with the half‑day holiday in effect, everyone finally came to believe.

The fact that if they worked diligently, a day's earnings converted solely into starch would be enough for a family of three to gorge themselves for a week!

Wuerkan and the others, of course, didn't know that to deliver the full amount of starch, Xisi, stationed at the Internal Affairs Department, was no less than the Divine Emperor seated at the Net Way.

Even less did they know that, to ensure smooth and timely logistics, the Seven Gods were forced to personally intervene in the Sea of Souls, guaranteeing navigation.

They only knew to hurry home and tell their families that they might finally be escaping hunger!

In fact, many Alien Form forces always have one direct question about the Empire.

That is, how does the Empire achieve its exaggerated production capacity while per‑capita rations remain low?

Because even without speculation, just picking any world—even a regular Nest City world not dedicated to agriculture—

its food output alone would satisfy civilians' food needs.

This puzzles the Alien Forms, especially Ti Jun, as to why this food and output cannot be delivered to the civilians.

Of course, the reason is simple: besides the previously low internal affairs efficiency, the Empire didn't even know how much resources a world required.

Another crucial reason is that the Empire, despite its massive production capacity, lacks the ability to fully mobilize it.

After all, knowing what you have, what your realm needs, and how to precisely deliver the required goods to the designated locations.

But that's akin to being surrounded by every monster of the galaxy, while you and your good brother are left only with engineer shovels—ultimate despair!

So the Empire doesn't lack resources to feed its people; it lacks the ability to deliver them correctly.

And now, with internal reforms and the Seven Gods forced by the Dead Spirits cult high pressure to maintain the shipping lanes, the once seemingly endless despair has finally improved.

The ultimate concrete result is that workers like Wuerkan, unknown sub‑Nest workers in an unnamed world, can receive their full wages even after work.

However, as the crowd sped up, Wuerkan's movements gradually slowed.

At the same time, other workers who thought more also slowed down.

And these workers' gazes, after even a brief ten‑something minutes of liberation, immediately turned toward things beyond mere survival.

Many looked toward the tavern, and many also looked at the statues of the Divine Emperor and the First Saint, while Wuerkan stopped, stared at the endless starch his family could not finish, remained silent for a moment, then looked toward the market he had never dared to look at before.

After a moment, Wuerkan turned, lifted the starch, and walked over.

"Excuse me, please give me two portions of protein, and also…"

One pot of wine, one bag of sugar, one piece of new cloth.