Above The Sky
Chapter 745 - 745 11 The Weight of Exoskeleton Armor and Inheritance 7800_5

745: Chapter 11: The Weight of Exoskeleton Armor and Inheritance (7800)_5 745: Chapter 11: The Weight of Exoskeleton Armor and Inheritance (7800)_5 Moreover, there certainly are people like Celine who hoard goods to create scarcity.

Sublimators perhaps wouldn’t bother with such trivial matters, for in their eyes, the Domain Residents are already their property; there’s simply no need for them to resort to such methods to squeeze out wealth—but ordinary people do exploit other ordinary people.

It’s not to say that, with Sublimators, the wealthy stop exploiting the common folk, or vice versa.

But compared to Sublimators, whose existence feels a bit distant from the lives of most ordinary people, exploitation among peers might weigh even heavier.

These are two different issues.

However, Terra has its advantages, which Ian found quite comforting.

—Can’t deal with other Sublimators?

Can’t deal with you?

In Terra, lynching someone on a lamppost is all too easy.

Merchant guilds and similar business organizations must rely on Sublimators, and even if they become wealthy enough to become Sublimators themselves, their status automatically shifts from merchant to Sublimator; their way of thinking changes as well, and the attraction of their past accumulated wealth loses its allure, overshadowed by the larger transformation brought about by becoming a Sublimator.

Furthermore, the tech tree is simply too skewed.

Industrialization, assembly lines, and specialized industrialization have been in place from the very beginning, controlled and regulated by national organizations composed of top-tier Sublimators, preventing the accumulation of private capital.

Therefore, from the start, Terra had no chance of sprouting any seeds of capitalism.

“Not sure if it’s good or bad.

Oh well, Otherworld shouldn’t follow common sense anyway.

Since there’s artificial intelligence and assorted pre-era technologies…

perhaps it was destined to develop in leaps from the get-go.”

This was the conclusion Ian had reached—gradual progress in Terra was simply a joke.

And this time, opening the granaries to distribute food had undoubtedly been a massive success.

As for the generosity of Ian, the residents of Leyan City hailed, ‘Long live Lord!’

Yes.

The people of the Terra Continent, due to modifications from a previous era, generally had decent intelligence and lacked inborn intellectual disabilities.

They could see that their new Lord, after vigorously reorganizing the city’s management, had begun to garner popular support.

Whether he truly had extensive resources or was just pretending to be richer than he was…

they didn’t care.

The important thing was to secure supplies first; they were truly scared of hunger.

To speak immorally, Ian was actually quite grateful for people like Celine.

After the reforms of the Black King, The Empire had a large granary in the Central Plains, making it extremely difficult to starve people to death deliberately.

To win hearts with such a simple method as food, one must indeed thank those merchants blinded by their interests.

Otherwise, Ian really couldn’t think of any way to appeal to the well-fed Domain Residents of Leyan Territory and make them subconsciously acknowledge his legitimate rule.

But now, everything was going smoothly.

A good start is half the battle.

“Scott.”

Thinking of this, Ian said, “Next, lead the team; we’re going to round up people in the workshop district.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

Scott responded without any hesitation, then without a word, just looked at Ian steadily, with a hint of anticipation, waiting for instructions.

“Scott.”

Ian turned his head, somewhat exasperated, “At times like this, don’t be so obedient—you should be asking me ‘why are we rounding up people?’…

Oh, indeed, that’s not very nice.

But at the very least, you ought to ask ‘who are we going after?’ right?”

“Yes, my Lord,” Scott said.

“Who are we going to round up?”

Ian continued smoothly, “We’re rounding up the workers from the workshops and blacksmith shops.

They’ve stopped working for a long time, and now it’s time to gather them all to get back to work.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

This time Scott had learned his lesson, “But what work will they be doing?”

Ian nodded in satisfaction, “Of course, they’ll be making some cutting-edge equipment that you all can use.

What we need to do next is to stabilize Leyan City, prepare for the enemy’s retaliation, and plan for the real development afterward, so we must strengthen our side’s power as much as possible before the retaliation hits.”

“Oh.” This time, Scott truly didn’t understand, “Prepare for retaliation?

Haven’t the Rebel Highlanders’ forces around Leyan Territory been mostly wiped out?”

“We’ve killed so many.

Do you think there won’t be any retaliation?” Ian shook his head slightly, “Supported by Fiery Flame Land, the Rebel Highlanders now barely constitute an entity; they will surely react.”

“Just wait.

At the earliest two weeks, at the latest a month, the bulk of the Rebel Highlanders…

will be coming over!”