I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

Page 110

"Why haven't I heard of anything like this before?"

"Nonsense, given the sexual openness of the Western world, being stuffed into a puff pastry is nothing."

"Damn it, I can't stand it anymore, let's do it!"

"Okay, prepare to rescue them."

The players from the local Xinhua World were ultimately too morally upright and stepped in to help the family. Although there were already many white worms at the scene because those National Guard soldiers were all quick-draw guns, at least it prevented these guys from destroying the evidence later.

The players were simply trying to help someone, but the three National Guard soldiers they captured gave them an even bigger surprise.

The process wasn't complicated. The players planned to abandon them in the wilderness because killing them wouldn't make the news sensational enough. After all, the parties involved were dead, and the US government could easily use the excuse that "the dead are more useful than the living" to wipe the slate clean. So, after a proper lesson, they would release them.

But that didn't stop the players from scaring them, like threatening to bury them alive. The three of them immediately knelt down and begged for mercy, revealing everything they could and couldn't say in order to save their lives. In the end, the players were all in awe.

Turns out the Americans are playing a much bigger game than we realize!

Section 22: A Dark Yet Bright Era

(A long chapter of 5,000 words, Happy National Day, comrades!)

The famous human gourmet Hannibal Lecter once said: "The most important thing in life is timing."

Fun fact, though not exactly a little-known fact: The people on Loli Island really do eat people (R18G sex scenes come to life, it's true).

In reality, cannibalism isn't just about satisfying one's appetite; it involves a massive industry chain, the most common of which is the live human trade—selling oneself. However, the person needs to undergo some processing to fetch the best price. Can you guess where the world's largest underground human trafficking market is?

First of all, it's not northern Myanmar, which has only been rampant for a few years. The real big bosses in the restricted areas are all in war-torn regions. Before the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the Middle East was the largest underground black market for human organs, even surpassing India. After that came the Americas, including both North and South America. In 1994, or rather before 2000, the Middle East and the Americas were the major players in this field.

Compared to the human organ trade in the 2020s, there are still many technologies that have not been solved. After all, medical equipment at that time could be integrated into a truck, allowing people to get their organs transplanted and go. However, human organ transplantation in World Eight is still a very difficult surgery because the drugs for treating rejection are still very expensive.

Therefore, matching transplanted organs has become very important, which has also created a huge chain of interests.

It's normal. For things like kidneys, sharing one is barely possible, and even a portion of the liver can be regenerated after sharing. But if it's the heart, there's no chance. It's truly a life-for-life exchange.

But in the capitalist world, as long as you have demand, there will definitely be a market, and if you also have enough money, then the market will be bigger than you can imagine.

In fact, the United States had already started doing that on its own planet Earth. But players didn't expect that the United States had started doing this a long time ago. Or to put it more bluntly, when human organs could be transplanted and when aging could be alleviated in various ways, countless capitalists in the United States began to flock to the desire for immortality.

Even if it's impossible to achieve these things with current technology, they will still pursue them relentlessly. You still have to have dreams. What if they actually come true? Anyway, I'm not short of money now. All my money can be used to serve a goal.

Ordinary people only need to donate their lives, but capitalists have many more considerations.

The Texas National Guard, stationed along the border, deals with all sorts of illegal immigrants and naturally learns a lot of shady dealings. They may not be directly involved in these matters, but they certainly receive some benefits. For example, when they catch certain illegal immigrants, they send them to a fixed agency that is officially licensed. This way, if something goes wrong, the agency can simply run away beforehand, and the National Guard soldiers who send the people there are merely the unfortunate victims of deception.

Capitalism is shockingly dark in its exploitation of human nature.

If you think that's the end of it, it just means you're still too young.

Even just the act of disassembling and selling a person involves a great deal of exchange of interests, such as blood plasma, bones, and human body art.

Ordinary people think that selling a person pieced together is the limit, but they can go further and process it.

This supply chain even extends to the field of handicrafts. You wouldn't believe it, but you can even find human skin furniture specially supplied by the Nazis, guaranteed to be extremely comfortable to use (supposedly).

The players are incredibly proactive. Although they only heard some unverifiable clues from three National Guard soldiers, the player community has a vast range of activities. Many players have already infiltrated the US government, becoming intermediaries for government interests, and others are gang leaders. After the players gathered information on the forums, a huge and dark underground trade network was revealed to everyone (in the native world).

Of course, objectively speaking, Earth in the local world once had such a network, but now, under the attack of the Human Innovation Alliance, it has basically entered a state of endangerment. Once discovered, it is a death sentence. In addition, many advanced technologies have begun to become popular on the market. Artificial organs have developed to the point that they can be precisely cloned, so there is no need to worry about rejection. It is even possible to customize the organs one wants. Even without relying on complex life-extending surgery, just by relying on organ transplants, an ordinary person can easily live to the limit of brain aging, which is about two hundred years old.

In this situation, the underground organ trade naturally becomes a means of consumption, because even ordinary families can afford a complete organ transplant, or even simply replace the brain with a new body.

If we add gene repair drugs, it wouldn't be impossible to borrow another five hundred years from heaven.

This is why humans born after 2020 in the native world, upon reaching adulthood, know little about organ transplant technology. Since they can have an entire body replaced, why bother deciding which organ to transplant? Is it because the new body isn't good enough?

But because I'd never seen it before, the shock to my worldview was all the more profound after I learned about it.

The post-2020 generation of the 21st century has begun to condemn the scum of World Number Eight on various websites.

"Is this something a human being could do?!"

"The Chinese language is profound and extensive, but right now, I'm at a loss for words."

"It's not that you're at a loss for words, but rather that the offensive power of the Chinese language is far too weak compared to these beasts."

"This is the worst smear ever leveled against this beast."

"It's time to uphold justice and punish those devils!"

Western countries in their home world are trembling with fear because the people who caused this mess are Westerners from another world, and similar things have happened in their own world. What if they are exposed for their past mistakes? The Western world is now completely wiped out, and has become a weakling that can be manipulated at will.

Qin Shan naturally let the players do whatever they wanted, but assigned them a task: to let the people of World Eight see the true face of the Western world. They could use whatever methods they wanted, but they couldn't involve Xinhua or harm innocent people.

It is impossible to completely avoid harming the innocent, but we must strive to avoid it.

With clear instructions, the players immediately began to expose the ugliness of the Western world.

Especially for players from the former Ukrainian and now Soviet Union's Ukraine province, there is a deep-seated hatred and resentment, giving them ample motivation to cause trouble for the Western world. Their surging resentment can make those around them feel physically uncomfortable.

After internal discussions, the players split into four groups: one went to Europe, one to the United States, one to South America to look for opportunities, and one to the Middle East to find fault with Israel.

There's no need to specifically target Israel. Is that a minor flaw? It's a cataclysmic vulnerability. If this country had done anything even remotely human, it wouldn't be completely devoid of humanity. No wonder the Bible is considered anti-Semitic. Anyone familiar with Western mythology will understand how hard God tried to kill as many Jews as possible.

It's a tough truth, but when you think about how it was the Jews who betrayed God, well, it's not surprising.

Fun fact: Historically, it was also a Jewish merchant who reported Jesus to the Romans.

This makes Bengbu even more desirable.

The reason why Israel collapsed so quickly after fully entering the information age is because more and more people have seen through the true nature of Israel and understood why Hitler was so committed to making soap.

Nationalist narratives combined with religious fanaticism—this is the dark crusade of the new era.

A bar in New York City, USA

On the surface, this is a bar, but in reality, it is an internal communication channel for gamers. From the waiters to the owner, everyone here is a professional gamer (the kind who stays online for long periods of time, soaking in nutrient solution in a game pod). "I'm here."

"Why are you so late?"

"That's not right, shouldn't you have said you shouldn't have come?"

"You're my thirty-seventh guest today. Do you think I still have the energy to make jokes?"

"Alright, anyway, we players have authentication signals, and this is the evidence our team has collected."

"You also came in a truck?"

"No, we came here with a shipping container."

"Damn it, if it weren't for the fact that this construct has scanning and data entry capabilities, as well as auxiliary AI, processing this data would be exhausting. Those street lamp ornaments are really inhuman in human skin."

"Yes, I've seen too much hell on earth lately, and now I'm a bit numb to it."

"Skeleton furniture, human skin factories, and flesh and blood pastry shops—I used to only hear about them in novels, but now they've all become reality."

"Stop talking. I've been investigating this stuff lately, and just hearing about it makes me nauseous. I haven't eaten meat in two months."

"You've only been here for two months, I bet you'll never want to touch meat again in your life. This should definitely be considered a work-related injury!"

The handover was completed amidst the two players' mutual complaints. Next came the work of the publicity team, who needed to make the matter a household name quickly, but that wasn't enough.

"There are still too many people in this world who have nowhere else to turn. When survival becomes a problem, exchanging one's body for money is not an unacceptable choice. At least it can allow oneself and one's family to survive."

Qin Shan was talking to the old man about the current world situation and the domestic situation.

Large-scale poverty alleviation work is underway, but some things cannot be improved simply by having policies. If you look through history textbooks, you will find that after the reform and opening up in the 1990s, many contradictions began to erupt. Qin Shan's arrival directly ignited these contradictions. The reason why the domestic situation was stable was because he made sure that the workers had the protection they deserved during this process, and through players as a medium, he reorganized various industries in the country, ensuring that everyone, at the critical juncture of historical change, would not starve to death, let alone become rich, and would not have to carry their wives to sell themselves.

With social conflicts greatly alleviated, cracking down on prostitution and organized crime naturally became much easier, because those criminal gangs simply had no room to survive. If they weren't desperate to live, who would want to join the underworld? Why would they choose a path that leads to death or disability if their lives weren't exciting enough?

In this process, a large number of corrupt officials died or were imprisoned, and their entire families were also wiped out.

Especially in the southwest and southeast, the reason why the Liberation War had to be fast left behind many historical problems. Ten years of cleanup failed to clear them up, and instead, these people found opportunities to exploit the loopholes. This time, Qinshan carried out precise removal of these problems. With the efforts of all parties, the afforestation in the northwest was carried out on a massive scale, because the labor force there exceeded ten million people, working more than 12 hours a day. In short, Qinshan's attitude towards these people is that they can work themselves to death. Even if those in high positions fall and land safely, they will not be willing to become ordinary people. At least they have no loyalty to the government authorities. Since that's the case, let them prove their loyalty with labor.

You don't need to put in any effort. As long as you have a body that can still move, nothing else matters.

Those who supervise these people are also players. If you're so capable, try bribing them. You might be surprised (meaning they take the money but do nothing, and they'll even report the bribe-givers for investigation).

In general, apart from those ethnic groups whose living conditions are so harsh that they simply cannot survive, most people in China are now able to live above the poverty line. With the abolition of agricultural tax and tax system reform, the central government is now very wealthy, and local governments follow its lead. This is because all officials know that in the current environment, it is only a matter of a word from above to get rid of them, and a suitable replacement can be arranged immediately.

If you don't do it, plenty of others will. But if you dare not do it, we'll take you down!

But this event happened in less than two years. Even if all those damned people are dead, development and construction still need time to settle. Even if the players work day and night, they can't make the domestic infrastructure reach the level of the 21st century overnight. This is at least a five-year plan.

Therefore, on the surface, the gap between urban and rural areas is still significant, at most not as large as it was in the same period in history, but it still exists. And an objective reality is that job opportunities and living conditions in cities are indeed much better than in rural areas. However, rural areas are the foundation of all industries. If a country's rural areas were to completely decline, look at Cambodia back then. Guess why they produced a ruthless figure like Pol Pot? One important reason was the side effects of urbanization.

There was also the "Down to the Countryside Movement" back then, which, to put it bluntly, meant that the cities couldn't support so many people, so city dwellers had to go to the countryside to beg for food.

To put it more bluntly, back then, rural people considered city dwellers to be beggars.

When spring came, the city dwellers went back home, and the country folk who had supported so many city people through their hardship became beggars. It was truly a real-life version of The Farmer and the Snake.

That's why people are so quick to be generous with other people's money. As long as I don't have to pay for it, or it seems like I haven't paid for it, then it's an acceptable policy, or it's none of my business. But if I actually have to pay for it, then I have to think about it.

Qin Shan merely added a buffer to the implementation of many policies, but in reality, he also knew that there was only one optimal solution for many things. Industrialization requires sacrifices and contributions, either from our own people or from others. Look at the history of the Central Plains during times of turmoil; the people there suffered the most.

Fun fact: During the turmoil in the Central Plains, the nomadic and barbarian tribes of the North and South had little historical record.

Where do you think all those people went?

That's why I say Mr. Yuan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize the most. Just imagine what would happen if 1.4 billion of us went hungry. Look at the structure of the Chinese character for "food" (饭). If there's nothing to eat, then all that's left is rebellion. Our madness at that time won't be much gentler than that of the Tyranids, because our ancestors knew long ago that the human brain is inedible.

The best wisdom from our ancestors (bushi).

“I know what you mean. As long as poverty exists, there will be people who go astray in their pursuit of wealth, even selling their bodies, just like you shared, exchanging a kidney for a mobile phone.”

The old man is now considered the successor to the new era's teachers. Whether he likes it or not, this title will be firmly placed on his head. Putting aside everything else, those officials who lost themselves in the spring breeze and were then eliminated by Qin Shan in the name of the old man will definitely firmly believe that the old man's rise to power was a massive sting operation.

Since that's the case, the old man has come to terms with it. Anyway, he has no way back. Besides, people who came through the revolutionary era all have some passion and perseverance. It wasn't easy following the instructor in the past, so he started to turn right. But now, there's someone who can definitely lead him to victory, so what is there to hesitate about? It would be good to leave a name in history.

In any case, the elderly man's reputation among the people is now comparable to that of teachers, which is the result of his concern for the masses.

Although there was an element of coercion in this concern, others were unaware of it. Even Comrade Hua believed that the old man was following the path of the teacher. In the past, he had endured humiliation and hardship, but now he was going to erupt completely, cleansing the world of its filth in one fell swoop. Moreover, the teacher had left behind a large amount of hidden wealth while he was alive. He now sincerely believed that the old man was the best successor to the teacher.

It's a bit like a hellish joke, but the actions are good and the results are good, so the details are no longer important.

"Poverty alleviation is a long-term endeavor, after all, not all proletarians are advanced members of the proletariat."

Qin Shan had seen firsthand those who threw tantrums and acted recklessly during poverty alleviation work. They only knew how to take advantage of others and didn't care about their own efforts to escape poverty. Instead, they turned poverty alleviation targets into leverage to coerce poverty alleviation officials.

In the past, this kind of thing was indeed difficult to handle. After all, if poverty alleviation cadres were given too much power, corruption at the grassroots level was likely to occur, and local warlords would inevitably emerge. However, if poverty alleviation is to be carried out smoothly, some of the scumbag proletarians are simply not capable of helping the Jin Dynasty. Therefore, the simplest method is to make poverty alleviation work transparent.

How cadres conduct their work on a daily basis can be shared with people across the country through live broadcasts. At the same time, players can go deep into the grassroots to play a supervisory role, achieving genuine poverty alleviation by addressing both internal and external factors.

For those utterly rotten individuals, respect their personal choices, set aside any desire to help others, and as long as they haven't broken the law, leave them alone and simply remove them from the poverty alleviation list. But if they do break the law, well, then the iron fist of the law will punish them. Prison is a good place to educate people; if you're lucky, you might even gain enlightenment.

Only when everyone truly becomes wealthy can those shady, underhanded methods be completely rendered ineffective.

Section 23: Eliminating the Weaklings

"Look, this is our latest rice cultivation technology, the vertical farm. By using specially formulated nutrient solution and high-quality seeds, we can achieve a yield of 100 kilograms of rice per cubic meter."

In a sealed laboratory, the player, playing a researcher, is introducing the latest three-dimensional agriculture to a group of agricultural experts from the Republic, led by Yuan Longping. This agriculture relies on controlled nuclear fusion to obtain cheap energy, which is then used for closed indoor cultivation to produce high-quality, low-priced, and highly nutritious grains.

"One hundred kilograms per cubic meter!"

With a mixture of shock and delight, Mr. Yuan stroked the glass dome before him. Inside were rice plants growing, tall and robust, laden with ears of grain, leaving almost no space unused. It's important to understand that this yield was calculated in cubic meters, not per acre. In other words, the biggest advantage of vertical farming lies in the three-dimensional utilization of the entire planting space. One acre is 666 square meters. Even if partitioning is necessary, only 300 square meters can be used for immediate agricultural construction, with the rest crammed with equipment (which doesn't actually require that much space). Yet, one acre still yields 30000 kilograms, equivalent to 30 tons per acre!

Even considering the area occupied by the equipment, the space utilization rate of vertical farms in the world reaches over 90%, with a yield of over 60 tons per acre. Some special crops can even reach the level of hundreds of tons, making it a true super farm.

"Great! No one will starve to death anymore! No one will starve to death anymore!"

Yuan Longping and other agricultural experts were moved to tears, and then their fighting spirit was ignited even higher.

Now that the problem of food and clothing has been solved, the next step is to eat well and solve the problem of crop cultivation in harsh areas.

The goal of the Chinese nation is: to cultivate the entire universe and provide food and clothing for everyone!

Agricultural experts have very simple ideas, but Xinhua's enemies have never been gentle. Behind Xinhua's popularization of vertical farming is Qinshan's upcoming global agricultural layout, known as the "Four Major Grain Merchants Annihilation Plan".

Allowing food to fall into the hands of uncivilized nations is a dangerous and irresponsible act. The food wars in the Western world have created too many tragedies. It is time for Xinhua to step in and help the development of human civilization at this critical moment.

But cheap food alone won't do. Do you really think the Western world is seizing markets solely through economic means?

They only abide by the law when the cost of using economic means is very low. To put it bluntly, the premise for the Western world to abide by the law is that I am sure I can win. If not, then let's overturn the table! Where are our aircraft carriers?

You can't expect a country that wins in business competition by eliminating its rivals to have any credibility in the business world.

In the Western world, reputation is about being able to fetch a good price when needed; everyone is like Sima Yi.

But they didn't have Sima Yi's abilities. No matter how badly the Jin Dynasty performed, Sima Yi sacrificed himself to secure a unified dynasty for his descendants. He didn't seek fame in history, but rather to be infamous for eternity, adhering to the principle of "I only care about having possessed it, not about its lasting existence."

Therefore, it seems that the upper-class elites of the Western world only verbally express trust in God, actually treating Him as a mere ornament. The protagonist of House of Cards represents this type of person. So, as soon as Xinhua begins to compete with the four major grain traders for influence worldwide, they will certainly retaliate by any means necessary, including waging war. They may lack the ability and courage to do anything in Xinhua, but it's hard to say what will happen outside of Xinhua. Xinhua's international investments in its home world often encounter various obstacles and sabotage. Small countries are powerless against the provocations and wars of large countries, unless there is another large country nearby that is willing to protect them.

This is the inevitable dilemma faced by small countries surrounding large countries: they either become the fence of the large country or its outpost.