Deep Space Wandering Fleet

Soon, with the establishment of The Kyushu Star Trading Market, one transport ship after another began ferrying people to the vicinity of Kyushu, among whom a portion were planetary construction personnel, and another portion were entrepreneurs for the new market.

"We're here! We're here!"

Most of these entrepreneurs were young, full of vitality, and brimming with expectations for the future. They hoped to reap satisfying rewards above this brand new planet.

"The Kyushu" was the second War Star handed over by the Half-sphere Civilization to the New Human Civilization, which was currently in the process of constructing the Planet Curvature Engine.

It was estimated that in another year or two, it would have a preliminary propulsion system and begin its official journey. The New Human Civilization possessed complete control over this War Star, including land rights, political authority, and military ownership.

However, as the leading civilization of the Galaxy Progressive Federation, the New Human Civilization, while holding more power, also bore greater responsibilities. Therefore, after discussions, it was decided to open up the entire large market on this new planet.

In the plans of the people, the Mountain and Sea Battle Star would remain the main base for humans, housing the majority of the civilization's population.

The Kyushu Planet Fortress would be the main hub for activities of civilizations within the Alliance, including but not limited to exchanges in science, culture, and military—all to take place on the second Planet Fortress.

From now on, if any new civilizations were to join this new federation, they could also operate on Kyushu Planet; even for some of the weaker civilizations, humans would open living rights. Of course, the so-called trading market also had its own set of rules, everything required a fee, including residence.

Naturally, there were many advantages to this division: Mountain and Sea is Mountain and Sea, Kyushu is Kyushu, each with its functions. Even if Kyushu were to experience any contingency in the future, as long as it did not involve Mountain and Sea, the entire New Human Civilization would not be significantly affected.

To prevent the emergence of secessionist forces, the working population on Kyushu was fluid; no one would settle there long-term.

The group dispatched to Kyushu was approximately ten million strong, with another over 800,000 unemployed individuals. These unemployed folks were hoping to find their own opportunities on this new planet and discover new directions for development.

"Buzz!"

As the transport ship landed, passengers bounced out of the spaceship's gate one by one, adopting the peculiar way of walking in the low-gravity environment. Following the robot's instructions, they boarded track trains one by one.

All humans active on this planet were already allocated to basic housing and individual life-sustaining power units. Kyushu had no atmosphere, and without the distribution of housing, individual survival was impossible.

Although the market currently operated a free competition mechanism, it wasn't cruel to the point of life-and-death struggles; the New Human Government would still provide a degree of assistance to its citizens.

The allocated housing was also quite small, less than 20 square meters per person, with the first year's deposit waived. If one wished for a larger housing area, they would have to earn money and then rent or buy it. The size of the housing could even exceed the purchase limits on Mountain and Sea; one could have a thousand square meters to themselves if they were wealthy enough. Of course, the higher the square footage, the higher the property taxes and other fiscal obligations would be.

"This is indeed an interesting social experiment, it's hard to predict how it will develop in the coming years," Zhang Yuan mused as he watched the bustling scene. He too had come to this planet to participate in a series of Technology Exchanges.

What he needed to discuss with the Half-sphere people was about some knowledge on memory infusion to see if there were any improvements to be made; and also the research on the Genetic virus left by the Green Star Civilization. The residual technology of a Level 5 Civilization was bound to be of immense value.

Essentially, these two areas were the focal points of the research.

Dr. Li, who was accompanying him, said, "Hmm… the Genetic virus left by the Green Star Civilization is quite interesting, its gene sequence is very peculiar, using a large amount of artificial base pairs. To us, this represents a novel biotechnological method, offering a promising direction for nanobiotechnology."

Nature's DNA has only four kinds of bases: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine), and G (guanine), while RNA contains an additional base, U. However, the viruses of the Green Star Civilization use artificial bases in addition to these four natural bases, to code for non-standard amino acids, significantly increasing the difficulty of decoding by several orders of magnitude.

As for food, clothing, living, and research expenses, naturally, they're reimbursed by both governments.

Zhang Yuan said with a smile, "Take it slow with this kind of research; there's no use in rushing."

Dr. Li looked at the bustling crowd in the corridor, took a deep breath, and said, "In the future, this place will flourish and become a major city dominated by a market economy. Though the population of The Kyushu is not large, over the next few decades, the GDP from various engineering and scientific research projects might account for 10-15% of the entire civilization."

"However, in terms of legal construction, digitization, and transparency should also keep pace. Otherwise, these cooperative commercial areas will become dens of capitalism, hiding all sorts of chaos, wouldn't that be a historical regression?"

Zhang Yuan looked back at him, smiled, and said, "Little Li, we have never truly eradicated capitalism. Even in the 'Mountain and Sea' new human society, until becoming a Level 5 Civilization, it's impossible to get rid of capitalism."

"Really impossible to eliminate?"

"Yes, currently we have merely nationalized most production capital, but private capital is indispensable. Without it, it would be like a machine without oil... Oh, by the way, have you read Mr. Mao's biography?"

Dr. Li was startled, "Of course, I have."

Zhang Yuan accessed his phone and found a collection of four e-books on Mao, Zhou, and Deng, and Chang Kaishen, priced at 40 yuan.

"Is Chang Kaishen really worthy to be listed among them?" Dr. Li scoffed, "Who put together this collection? Don't they consider historical significance?"

Zhang Yuan then flipped to another page that had a collection of personal biographies of Mao, Zhou, and Deng alone, with the total price being 50 yuan.

Zhang Yuan asked, "Now, you feel Old Jiang doesn't deserve to be ranked alongside the others, but which one would you choose to buy?"

Dr. Li hesitated, the collection of four e-books was only 40 yuan, while the three would cost 50 yuan.

He would definitely choose the set of four.

He understood what Zhang Yuan was saying.

Capitalism had long since penetrated deep into people's hearts, completely changing the thinking of the entire human civilization, and reverence for great people was easily replaced by a mere 10 yuan. For a saving of just ten yuan, people would feel it doesn't really matter if great figures are not ranked equally after all.

Even as humans entered the interstellar era, such thinking wouldn't change; respect is respect, business is business. In the foreseeable future, humans will always be such creatures.

Zhang Yuan sighed, "Capitalism has torn away the tender veil of sentimentality, reducing various relationships to pure amounts of money. Since it fits human nature, it's very difficult to eliminate."

Humans cannot deny the value of capitalism; it has defeated feudalism and religion, and in a cruel yet efficient way, it drives human society forward, at least to a certain extent.

Arranging such a market economy system is also a measure out of necessity; an alliance formed by two civilizations cannot plan as whimsically as a single civilization might. If humans arbitrarily dictate to Half-sphere Civilization what they should do, what kind of technology they should research, what kind of resources they should produce, would the Half-sphere people comply unconditionally? Obviously not, that would only lead to conflict.

Meanwhile, humans themselves could not possibly entrust their fate and wealth to others, letting the other party provide all the raw materials. What if, under some circumstances, they suddenly choke off supply?