Chapter 29

Being rich means being capricious. Du Qian chose to subscribe to the monthly service. There were still less than ten days until the end of the month when his salary would be paid. Once he received his salary, he would naturally have to pay back his phone. For ten days, spending a month's worth of money was something Du Qian wouldn't have done yesterday.

Now, looking at the box under the bed, he really didn't care.

The low-level mistake he made earlier made Du Qian much more sober. He had been too impulsive before, his thoughts racing at the speed of light on a dirt road, it was no wonder he crashed.

The gifts he needed to send couldn't be counted as money. The spirit horns in the storage box were to be used, so they couldn't be counted as money either. The only things that could truly be converted into money were these storage boxes.

Three hundred and fifty boxes, with a retail price of twenty yuan each. But buying and selling are two different things. When you want to buy, even a cent less and they won't sell. When you want to sell, after becoming sober, Du Qian didn't think anyone would really be kind enough to buy them back at twenty yuan.

"Ten yuan? Or fifteen?" Du Qian muttered softly. Actually, he had a scale in his heart. The possibility of fifteen was low, and the possibility of less than ten was not high.

Alright, let's calculate at the lowest. There might be a surprise. Plan for the worst, aim for the best, and life will be more fun.

Three thousand five hundred yuan, that's not a small amount, right?

But why does it still hurt so much? When he was calculating before, it seemed like everything was in the tens of thousands. In the blink of an eye, it's down to just three thousand five?

The monthly subscription was quickly activated. Speaking of the internet, it's actually just that. The differential machine is mainly used for calculations. The three major countries don't invest much money or effort in this area. If it weren't for the strong demand from the symbol masters, the progress of this thing might be even slower.

After all, this is a world where survival is the primary goal. First, you have to survive, then you can consider other things. Whether it's a country or an individual, you have to make the necessary preparations to survive.

Therefore, the country focuses on the military, and individuals strive for martial power. No matter how well the differential machine calculates, what's the use? Entertainment? That's too far from everyone's reality.

With the differential machine, the internet was born. It can even be understood as an accidental byproduct of differential machine research. It's not bad, it has practical value, but it's just valuable.

To connect to the internet, you naturally need a terminal. The best terminal for using the internet is the differential machine, but the price of the differential machine is enough to make over eighty percent of the empire's people hesitate. Among the remaining twenty percent, at least half can't even use the differential machine.

This has led to a very low普及率 of the differential machine. This situation is not only true in the empire, but also in Zhenhai and Butian.

The main users of the differential machine are the symbol masters, followed by information centers, and the government and military.

Due to the limited number of differential machines, the internet is even more of a chicken rib. To make money from the development of the internet, mobile phone internet and terminal internet were born.

Terminals are available, but the number of users is still not high. After all, a monthly fee of ten yuan is enough to scare off most of the empire's citizens. It doesn't seem like much, but you have to understand the income level of the empire's citizens. The average income is thirty yuan, and asking someone to spend a third of their salary on a not very useful internet service, who would be that foolish?

There isn't much useful content on the internet. Most of it is technical posts that Du Qian can't understand at all. The best thing to pass the time is the empire's information center library.

This is a vast library that is hard to imagine, with billions of books. These books can be traced back to 37,000 years ago, as well as the cultures of thousands of ethnic groups, tribes, and city-states before the rise of the three countries.

The empire's network library is tiered. Citizens of different levels can access different areas. Over ninety percent of the books are free, less than eight percent are charged for reading, and the remaining books can only be read if you have the corresponding level, even if you have the money, you can't read them.

Swiping his identity card on the reader on the back of the phone, he waited for dozens of seconds and finally entered the library, which displayed a welcome message.

The empire's network, like those of the other two countries, is purely text-based, with only a small number of images. If you want to view images, you need to be patient; it takes several minutes to a dozen minutes.

The reason for this is simple: to compress storage data. The network only works within each city. Want to connect the entire country? Dream on.

Welcome to the Zhou Shan Empire, the national network library.

Permission information: Du Qian, a fourth-level citizen of the empire, is allowed to enter the fourth level of the library, where books below the fourth level are free. You are allowed to enter the paid fourth area, and you must pay according to the book's price to read.

"Got in... What the hell is going on?"

Du Qian jumped up from the bed. A fourth-level citizen? Must be a mistake.

As an imperial system, the Zhou Shan Empire has clear hierarchies. Almost everything is ranked according to your status and position. Age and gender are not important.

Like the ruling class of the empire, centered around the emperor, with three dukes, nine ministers, and twelve army commanders. The cities are arranged in a 9-5 pattern, forming five capitals and nine cities.

Official positions and cities are ranked in this way, let alone ordinary people. The imperial system of the Zhou Shan Empire has evolved over countless changes, and is very different from the ancient, ignorant imperial systems mentioned in books. There is no absolute authority, no word is law. Mutual checks and balances are the key.

One person having supreme power would only lead to the collapse of a vast empire in a few hundred years. To ensure long-term stability, history tells us that only mutual checks, mutual promotion, and mutual competition can lead to continuous progress.

Such a system can quickly correct any issues, leading the empire back on the right path.

Citizens are divided into nine levels, each with different rights and obligations. To be at the top, you must pay the corresponding effort and cost.

Every newborn citizen, except for the royal family, is a young citizen, the future of the empire, and only needs to enjoy the benefits of the empire. After the age of eight, they can obtain a blue child identity card.

At the age of eighteen, the blue card is replaced with a formal green card, and the citizen is upgraded to a first-level citizen. Unless you are a member of the royal family, even if you are the child of a duke or minister, you are still a first-level citizen.

The citizens of the Zhou Shan Empire are divided into nine levels, with the emperor above the ninth level. The emperor owns the world, and is not ranked.

Alright, that's what the constitution says. Du Qian has always thought it was just boasting. What world? The step is too big, it's ridiculous. The strength of Zhenhai and Butian is no less than that of Zhou Shan. How can you boast like that?

To upgrade from a first-level citizen to a second-level citizen is relatively easy. There are many paths, the simplest being joining the military or becoming a civil servant. Joining the military is self-explanatory, becoming a civil servant means working in the city hall.

The origin of this term is simple. The empire is centered around cities, and cities are centered around the city hall. Becoming a civil servant means joining the city hall.

Besides joining the military or becoming a civil servant, there are also donations, chivalry, and contributions, a vast system. This system is quantified, and the citizen's points are calculated in numerical form.

When your citizen points reach a certain limit, your citizen level automatically upgrades. Citizens of different levels enjoy different benefits from the empire, which encourages citizens to strive and work hard.

If you want to explain this in detail, it would take several books. Even if someone explained it to you face-to-face, it would take a week to finish.

In school, they naturally learned the basics, but Du Qian didn't remember much. Most of it had nothing to do with them, the war orphans. Joining the military or becoming a civil servant to directly upgrade to a second-level citizen is the most common opportunity. Next is working for the empire to accumulate points, an opportunity available to everyone.

Simply put, working for ten years upgrades you to a second-level citizen, working for thirty years upgrades you to a third-level citizen, and working for sixty years upgrades you to a fourth-level citizen. After that, there's no need to remember. Working for 120 years to upgrade to a fifth-level citizen, is that even possible?

The average life expectancy in the empire is eighty years, which is actually much lower than the medical average of 100 years. This is unavoidable. Even though it's not a war era, the number of soldiers dying on the border each year is still not small, and they are mostly young men in their twenties, which naturally drags down the average life expectancy.

Who the hell can live and work for 120 years? Unless you are a martial cultivator at the War Master level or above, would such a person care about the citizen points accumulated from work?

To encourage people, military points are doubled, and civil servant points are 1.5 times. If nothing goes wrong, Du Qian, as a patrol officer, has a good chance of becoming a fourth-level citizen by retirement.

But he is only eighteen years old, and has only worked for a few days. How could he suddenly become a fourth-level citizen?

Citizens are divided into nine levels, with a significant difference at the third level. Below the fourth level, the differences are not significant. At the fourth level, the benefits enjoyed increase significantly.

Du Qian quickly logged into the citizen information network. In this data station, you can check the citizen information. You can look up the basic information of all people below your level, as well as your detailed information.

A few minutes later, he found his information. He didn't need to read the content at the beginning, just glanced at it and scrolled to the bottom.

Second-level citizen Du Qian, a patrol officer at the Precious Division of Pingchuan City, Zhou Shan Empire, made outstanding contributions during the May 20th assassination incident at the Fisherman and Pearl Pier in 63520, and was specially promoted to a fourth-level citizen.

Following this was a string of astronomical citizen points.

"Old Yi is really nice." Du Qian slapped his thigh and shouted. Fortunately, this was his own room. If Sima Yi heard it, he might have slapped him to death. "Old Yi" is not something you can call him.

In the entire Zhou Shan Empire, there are probably not fifty people who dare to call him "Old Yi."

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