Resurrection Empire

Chapter 764 288: The Troubles of Growing Up, The Cost of Kindness

On Source Star, a lot can be accomplished in a single day.

After arriving outside the walls of Zhaoshan Town, Ren Zhong dispatched a First Level War Artist he had recently groomed to operate a large siege machine he had prepared in advance, attempting a probing breach of the city walls.

However, this machine was promptly destroyed by the sudden appearance of several large-caliber heavy artillery atop the walls, obliterating its automated weapon defense system into scrap within moments.

According to the rules of corporate warfare, this machine, clearly belonging to Ren Zhong, was his asset, and thus did not activate the autonomous defensive firepower installed by the town's government to repel Ruined Beasts.

The previous intelligence from the scouts indicated that the walls were not equipped with these heavy artillery.

Yesterday, as soon as corporate warfare commenced, all nomads and non-local citizens had their official wrist watches confiscated by Zhaoshan Resources, prohibiting them from contacting the outside.

The scouts lost their efficacy.

Yet, this artillery array suddenly emerged.

Undoubtedly, within this very day, Zhaoshan Town's resource recovery company had privately hired external garrison forces.

The next second, hundreds of mobile turrets abruptly appeared on top of the city walls.

One after another, the scavengers whom he spared yesterday appeared within the protective cockpits of the turrets.

As the turrets spun with mechanical clicks, the muzzles of hundreds of black cannons aligned towards Ren Zhong.

It was at this moment that Ren Zhong received a notification from Tanggu Group.

Tanggu Group had changed the rules of corporate warfare.

The prior rules contained an unreasonable clause, which was that harming the lives of sovereign citizens was prohibited.

As for restricted citizens who had signed slavery contracts, when they were involuntarily drawn into war and forced to charge and fight, they were treated as nomads and lost legal protection.

Moreover, citizens who accepted employment contracts to join the battle would also automatically lose legal protection.

Restricted citizens and employed citizens were collectively known as non-sovereign citizens.

In previous corporate wars, this rule was sufficient.

Because no sovereign citizen would abandon their peaceful life to meddle in war indiscriminately.

Top-level Seventh Level elite professional citizens with the power to ensure survival amid an army would not lower themselves by accepting employment from a town-level resource recovery company; others couldn't afford them either.

In a standoff between two armies, even a Seventh Level heavy defense type mecha warrior, if not careful, could potentially be taken down in an instant under concentrated fire.

The uncertainties in war are numerous, and risks and rewards often do not match up.

Thus, even if their own interests were at stake, the owners of resource recovery companies facing imminent defeat would never personally enter the fray, only offering scant rewards from their pockets, urging nomads and employed non-sovereign citizens to fight desperately.

The final outcome was usually decided by the nomads and non-sovereign citizens.

Whichever side suffered personnel losses to the point of losing combat capability, making it impossible for the company to maintain Ruined Beast resource extraction due to a shortage of manpower, or if all Ruined Beast resource areas were firmly controlled by the opponent, naturally led to that faction's defeat.

This rule could effectively prevent some berserk combatants from threatening the safety of citizens' lives when the defeated side was breached.

Entrepreneurs on both the advantageous and disadvantageous sides greatly supported this rule.

Even if money was lost, as long as life continued, life was far more valuable than money.

The lives of sovereign citizens were exceedingly precious.

But this time, Ren Zhong, a Fifth Level sovereign citizen who just slaughtered a Level Six Ruined Beast, boldly entered the scene, completely disrupting the balance of power on the battlefield.

If this rule were not changed, Ren Zhong could single-handedly suppress the towns entirely.

He could not be killed, yet he was absurdly strong, making the battle unwinnable from the start.

Thus, within this very day, the owners of resource recovery companies from the other nine towns in Yangsheng City united to file a petition, demanding rule optimization.

They argued that if a sovereign citizen personally took to the battlefield, then other forces must be granted the right to kill them.

Unless the citizen only stayed at the base for remote command, they should naturally not be attacked.

With the monitoring precision of the "net," it was very easy to accurately determine if they were in a combat state.

According to Tanggu Group's intentions, they certainly did not want to agree.

Their real aim was to support Ren Zhong, allowing him to excel, and further implement his new management strategy without angering the "net," to completely change the operational efficiency of town-level resource recovery companies on Source Star, thus achieving the goal of exhausting the Ruined Beast resources on Source Star before the Great Migration.