Chapter 336 Professionalization
At New Hope Space Station, next to the busiest commercial plaza in the port area, under the leadership of Qun Qing, the players rented a new branch building here.
This building is located in the side wall structure of the space station's ring area, sturdy enough, and its internal space is only more, not less, than the previous Apollo Building. It has an independent shuttle docking pier on the side facing outer space.
As per the Executive Officer's instructions, with this building as its base, Cangyuan's wholly-owned subsidiary, "Red Scale Security," officially opened for business, beginning to provide the highest quality security services to New Hope.
Players could finally accept escort missions here and earn extra money.
By then, Cangyuan already owned three subsidiaries.
They were "Emerald Life Science," located on Emerald Star and registered on Li Star, a joint venture, with Sasha as the boss.
"White Colt Scientific Expedition," registered on New Hope, a joint venture, with Yu Xiao as the boss.
"Red Scale Security," registered on New Hope, wholly-owned, with combat-oriented guild high-ranking members taking turns as the boss.
In the newly rented branch building, the underground section was used for weapon and equipment storage; above ground, the first-floor lobby was for accepting security commissions, while the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors were places for player mercenaries to chat, form teams, and brag.
The higher the floor, the stronger the mercenaries inside.
The sixth floor and above were for offices, recreation, and training facilities, and also equipped with numerous guest rooms.
These guest rooms were provided not only to players for their teleportation points, hibernation pods, and private armories but also to Star Alliance merchants who lacked a sense of security.
This was the safest place in the entire space station, and it offered Cangyuan's unique cuisine.
On its first day of establishment, Red Scale Security successfully signed over thirty deals.
A total of over two hundred mid-to-high-level Soldiers and pilot players, acting as bodyguards, departed with merchant fleets to embark on adventures in the broader Star Union Space, while also gathering intelligence from distant places for the Executive Officer.
Most of the time, their clones would lie in hibernation pods on the merchant ships.
When an employer needed to activate them, they only needed to call the hibernation pod, and the hired player's consciousness would be transmitted over within 30 seconds, waking up to work.
Lu Yuan specially authorized players to prioritize escort missions; as long as it wasn't a major war affecting the company's survival, other matters could be put aside to prioritize the safety of merchant employers, in order to quickly improve Red Scale Security's reputation.
Of course, if it was just the Executive Officer providing convenience in the game, those overworked players who were in meetings, running sales, or entertaining clients wouldn't be able to go online immediately upon receiving a summons.
This rapid response mechanism was only possible with support from the real world.
The country began paying internal test players above level 15! The basic subsidy was as high as 15,000 per month, provided they had graduated from school, would not affect normal academic studies, and did not have a formal job.
If their level was high enough, or if they completed important missions in the game, there were even bonuses.
Level 15 was also the level at which players could accept commissions at Red Scale Security.
As for the reason...
No reason, don't ask, just say they like to give money.
Such a high subsidy, coupled with many people's existing streaming income, was essentially encouraging players to quit their jobs and play full-time at home.
It was a sociological marvel!
Naturally, as soon as this policy was announced, it immediately caused a huge stir among the cloud player community.
Damn it!!
In their view, internal test players were already lucky enough, and now, they were even getting paid!?
Two happy things overlapping, it's truly unfair!
Where is the fairness?
Where is the conscience?!
Where are the internal test slots?
Of course, these were just jokes.
After all, the internal test player selection mechanism remained open and transparent, and maintained consistently high standards; being selected was much harder than an ordinary job application.
However, some NGOs on the internet, which usually didn't pay attention to games, mistakenly believed that this move had completely aroused public anger and issued statements, strongly condemning this policy for widening the wealth gap, undermining employment equality, and inducing minors to neglect their studies and indulge in a game that was both explicit and violent, while also having a noticeably low political correctness content.
Moreover, men loved playing this space sci-fi game more than women, and their chances of being selected were already higher. Now they were even getting paid, wasn't that even more unequal?!
Huh?
How dare you?
However, to the surprise of these organizations...
In the past, they would accuse Chinese people of eating too much meat, causing global warming due to widespread flatulence, even when there was no issue at all. But this time, merely speaking ill of a game at their masters' request, there was no room for maneuver.
All social media accounts disappeared overnight.
Overseas servers suffered continuous, unrecoverable, and unblockable attacks, completely paralyzed.
And in turn, they were mercilessly mocked by cloud players.
Inducing minors to neglect their studies?
Please, have you watched even a single live stream?
To play in "Star Sea," one either needed astonishing tactical or piloting talent, or to be exceptionally skilled in strategy and psychological fortitude, or to be a specialized talent in certain scarce industries.
If none of the above applied, and one wanted to enter the game as an Engineer or Scholar based on academics, undergraduate knowledge would definitely not be enough.
Parents were also completely unaffected, as, after all, a job with a starting salary of 15,000 was not that easy to find these days.
Driven by the policy, "Star Sea" was rapidly moving towards professionalization.
As an indirect promoter of the policy, Lu Yuan was naturally happy to see this change.
With Red Scale Security's service quality guaranteed, another promise made to Anya earlier was finally fulfilled.
Currently, the 5 warships wounded in the battle of Ruins Star had all been repaired, transferred from Ruins Star to New Hope, and together with 4 newly produced frigates from Li Star, formed a considerable armed force.
The newly launched warships adopted new reactors and new electromagnetic cannons derived from Imperial technology. At the same time, the outermost layer of the composite armor used a new type of heat-resistant ceramic derived from the Radiant Dragon's throat structure. Their overall combat power was 4 times higher than the first-generation frigates, and their ability to defend against nuclear missiles was a full 20 times higher.
Although this fleet did not have large ships above the Star Alliance destroyer class, its actual combat strength was already close to surpassing New Hope's own local defense fleet.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the port ring, the relocation of original residents was mostly complete, and the highly anticipated "Cangyuan City" had also held its groundbreaking ceremony and was currently under fervent construction.
The two master architects, Coffee Cat and Hammer Girl, were invited from Li Star, determined to build this place into a commercial marvel no less impressive than the Devil Mountain Shopping Center.
Encouraged by Cangyuan's full entry into New Hope and its assumption of responsibility as a major power, more and more merchant fleets flocked to Li Star, bringing large quantities of goods, and then bringing back agricultural production units, livestock cultivation pods, and a large number of engineering machinery to New Hope, selling them to various companies that desperately craved these high-end goods.
Currently, the proportion of oil in Cangyuan's export goods, like its market price, was steadily and rapidly declining.
Cangyuan's foreign exchange structure and export economy had both emerged from their most vulnerable early stages, beginning to integrate the entire Star Alliance economy into its own system.
At the same time, the merchant fleets also brought back from their hometowns imitation "Fierce Poison" MK3 power armor, as well as a large quantity of other light and heavy weapons.
Some of these items were sold to open up Cangyuan's arms market, while others were provided to Red Scale Security.
In response, Paradise Island Space Station, the owner of the intellectual property rights for the "Fierce Poison" MK3 power armor, officially lodged a protest.
But Cangyuan ignored it.
Who cares about you?
It just happened to look similar; talking about intellectual property rights in an apocalyptic era must be insane.
Moreover, for Paradise Island, this thing must have been excavated through archaeology, so there's no need to pretend to be wronged.
In short, the integration process between Li Star and New Hope was very smooth.
The only fly in the ointment was that the corporate prestige hadn't moved much.
The reason was also very simple.
Previously, the expeditionary fleet was "devoured" by a great enemy and completely "annihilated."
In the eyes of outsiders, this was a serious setback, causing prestige to be offset.
"Hmph—.."
Qun Qing walked out of the branch building, on her way to "Purgatory" to play with Anya, and looked at the "landscape" that had recently appeared in the commercial plaza.
It was a monument spontaneously erected by the New Hope populace for the expeditionary fleet.
Citizens gathered before the monument, lit candles, and wrote eulogies on small blackboards.
"You were once pioneers of human spaceflight, and you still are, and always will be!"
"Humanity's exploration of the universe will not stop here. Go, Cangyuan!"
"In the vast universe, there are now five more brilliant stars, never to fall."
As a high-ranking member of the branch, Qun Qing walked over with mixed feelings.
On one hand, she was very moved.
On the other hand, not only could she not tell the crying girls the truth, but she also had to put on a sad expression, dutifully bend down to light a candle, and offer her respects.
"Rest in peace, heroes of Cangyuan!"
This was too much of a test of acting skills!
And there are no flowers, my friends, Qun Qing thought, opening a flower shop on this New Hope should also make a lot of money.
The news of the expeditionary force's defeat also made many people feel that Cangyuan might not be as strong as they imagined.
Prime Minister Nadi of Galan therefore decided to seize this rare opportunity to return to the long-absent Star Alliance stage.
At this moment, the large screen on the outer wall of the commercial plaza building was playing an interview with him by a Galan national reporter.
"Ah yes, in the past few weeks, in our engagements with the Free Trade Alliance, we have sunk five warships from Cangyuan! The enemy had no power to retaliate, and we could have sunk more, but based on humanitarian principles, we decided to make an exception and show mercy this time."
He appeared on the television program, wearing his most iconic vest and white trousers, and spoke righteously to the special interview reporter.
"Oh ↑ ↓ That's truly wonderful!!!~~~""
The Galan reporter drew out his unique, irritating trailing tone, as excited as if he had been injected with a stimulant.
"But our friends in the Star Alliance might still have questions about this. Why didn't we announce these impressive victories immediately?"
"Haha, because there was no need!"
Nadi said with a laugh.
"Beating up the Free Trade Alliance is something that has happened before and will continue to happen in the future. It's no big deal; victory is commonplace for Galan.
"In fact, this week, we will continue to strike at the Free Trade Alliance for harming Galan's commercial interests, severely punishing those thieving dirty rats!"
Nadi extended his index finger, pointing at the audience outside the screen, expressing his "dominance" through this impolite body language.
"We will show the entire Star Alliance, we will prove to the entire universe, that those trash warships of Cangyuan are nothing to be afraid of!
"Galan has acquired special-grade warships from Paradise Island that can counter them. These are the most expensive and advanced warships on the arms market, meticulously crafted by the smartest, most excellent shipbuilding masters of Paradise Island, whose race is the same as Galan's Class 1 citizens, with design blueprints hand-drawn, truly a unique masterpiece!
"Moreover, they are entirely staffed by elite Sailors from Paradise Island in important positions, with Galan Sailors only providing assistance, so complete victory is assured!"
"Haha! This is very obvious!"
The Galan reporter looked at the Prime Minister with adoring eyes, ignoring the implicit denigration of his own citizens in the previous statement. Then, he looked at the camera and winked.
How about it?
Are you scared now?
"So, what is your evaluation of the Cangyuan light weapons that have recently appeared in the arms market?"
"Trash! They might have a high-tech appearance like Paradise Island products, but their power is extremely low, and they break with one use!"
Nadi made a gesture of "ugly rejection."
"I hereby declare to the entire Star Alliance society, to all highly intelligent individuals with normal independent thinking abilities, that not a single category, not a single item of Cangyuan's arms, is more advanced or superior than Paradise Island's!"
Qun Qing wanted to laugh as she watched.
If Prime Minister Nadi's "loyalty" to the Executive Officer ranked second, then perhaps only the former Executive Officer Omar could contend for first place.
Why did Galan always build momentum before every major military operation?
Why?
Why on earth?!
At such a time, shouldn't they aim for a surprise attack?
Shouldn't secret weapons be hidden?
Although Cangyuan already knew that those special-grade ships had gravity wave sonar.
I can't believe it—
Now, the merchant fleet on its way back from its fourth procurement trip had ample time to prepare in advance.
The escort warships lent to them by Cangyuan all had hibernation pods, so they could send the message immediately.
The Jialan should also know that all Cangyuan warships have superluminal communication capabilities. Could it be that they deliberately refuse to admit it? Self-deception?
The mindset of abstract players can never be fathomed by normal people.
Forget it, continue to short galan coin!
That's the real business.