Deep Space Wandering Fleet

The two racked their brains over work and how to make money, but they couldn't come up with any good ideas. Suddenly, Han Bin cocked his ear, hearing a burst of enthusiastic applause. They hurried over to join the excitement and saw a store ahead bustling with activity.

They observed the Half-sphere people coming and going, frantically buying sets and sets of mahjong!

Clapping "click-clack" could be heard everywhere.

Ten thousand sets of the limited edition "The Kyushu Red Official High-quality Mahjong," each priced at 9999, were snapped up by the large crowd of Half-sphere people within half an hour!

It was truly baffling that the profits from the Half-sphere Civilization's steel sales were all spent on these low-tech mahjong sets!

Everyone knew what a "limited edition" was: just a gimmick, yet the others really fell for it.

In the face of this scene, they were dumbfounded, almost drooling.

"They have too much money, right?"

"No shit, selling steel has made them rich. They've also sold a War Star. Now our demand far exceeds theirs." "This proves that the money of the Half-sphere people is indeed easy to earn!"

"We can't get involved in things like this, but what should we do?"

Wang Lirong opened his phone, which displayed a list of alumni cooperation information. He tilted his head and looked for a while, "Ma Zhuangzhuang and the others have already found a project to collaborate on... making micro-movies, are they that impressive? They want to find Half-sphere people to make movies? They're recruiting some actors!"

"Should we become actors?"

"Us? We can only be extras..." Han Bin wasn't too confident about his looks and acting skills.

Wang Lirong continued, "Zhang Zhiyi and the rest have also found jobs, being teachers? Teaching the Half-sphere people to recognize Chinese characters? Hmm... that actually seems pretty good? This job has a large gap to fill; as long as you pass a teacher qualification exam, you can become a teacher!"

"The job is not bad, but I don't have the patience to teach students... And it's not that easy to pass the teacher qualification exam..."

The small commodities city opened and they're currently offering a fifty percent discount on stall rents. The G3 area will be developed into a large shopping mall!"

"Start a business? But what to sell? Don't you need capital to do business?"

The two discussed passionately, unable to make up their minds.

Although online shopping was highly developed in the new Human Civilization, it had a clear distinction from physical stores. Walking into stores and shopping remained an entertainment method that would never be out of date.

Wang Lirong thought if he could do some small business, it wouldn't be bad to act as a middleman between the two civilizations. However, seeing that even the cheapest stall cost fifty thousand yuan, he had to extinguish this idea for the moment.

No money, does having no money mean you can only work for others?

Or... take a loan?

The risk is so great!

As a new Human interstellar citizen, he instinctively disliked lending relationships; borrowing is the premise of financial risk. In the planned economy of Mountain and Sea, lending was rare, so economic crises were never an issue. But in this new trading market, borrowing was very common, and people with high credit could easily get funds.

"Alas, this should be the last resort."

Just then, as Han Bin was standing by, busy with his phone, he spotted a piece of news and blurted out, "…Forget it, forget it, the internet cafe is open for business now. The prices have dropped from a few days ago, and now there are no time limits for addiction like there used to be! Plus, there's a new game introduced from the Half-sphere Civilization, Glory of the Dominator! Buddy, wanna go play? Glory of the Dominator, we'll fight our way in and out three times, let the Half-sphere people see our skills!"

"Play my ass, we're not employees of state-owned enterprises. We don't have jobs, we've got to figure out how to live!" Wang Lirong rolled his eyes, feeling a sense of crisis indeed. The thought that their peers had all found jobs while they were still discussing games filled him with an inexplicable frustration and restlessness.

Wang Lirong, seeing Han Bin eager to try, retorted, "How much money do you even have left in your card? Are you really so poor that you can't afford food, or are you going to run back home with your tail between your legs and ask for handouts from relatives?"

"It's not that I want to say it… I really can't afford to lose that much face."

Han Bin hesitated, his weathered face twitched several times, and after a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Scared of what? Are we really unable to find jobs? Even working in a restaurant, we can survive! Becoming a teacher is also an option, it's not like we can't live on! Today, my treat. It's the first day we've hit this place up; we can't just start thinking about not being able to survive."

Han Bin's forte was cooking; in university, some kitchen equipment was free to use, making him quite the rare culinary genius.

However, this skill could help him find a job, but it couldn't make him rich because the Half-sphere people who gave crazy applause didn't eat, and if they didn't eat, he couldn't make money from the Aliens. Without earning from the Aliens, he could only compete directly within their own civilization.

As for competition within their own civilization, that was definitely exceptionally fierce, with a myriad of experts... They had to admit, they didn't have what it took.

After hearing Han Bin's words, Wang Lirong sighed. He realized he did appear a bit downcast, dampening the spirits, "Ah, forget it, it's my bad. I got all hot-headed and ran over here. We played too wild in our university days, didn't save much money either. Put together, we've only got three thousand yuan, which will last, at most, two months. Thank goodness we don't have to pay rent, or it would be even harder to survive."

"… We should try to save as much as we can. Let's skip the internet cafe for now and find a job as soon as possible. Once we get a job, we'll go to the internet cafe to celebrate. My treat!"

Looking at the other's disheartened expression, Han Bin didn't feel much like going to the internet cafe to play games either. He sighed and said, "How about trying to work for the Half-sphere people? There are quite a few job openings on their side, and the wages are pretty high."

Wang Lirong pondered for a moment, "Working for the Half-sphere people, that really does feel a bit humiliating…"

"What if they offer a lot?"

"A lot, you say? Well, of course, then we'd work for them," Wang Lirong said with a grin, "As long as they don't make me a spy."

"As if you could spy, you think you have that skill? Do you think you are some sort of top talent?"

"Am I not a top talent? Look at these muscles, I could beat them all at basketball."

The two of them chatted idly and boasted while wandering randomly through the commercial district. In their entire lives, they had never seen so many Aliens—a group of Aliens crazy about playing mahjong, gaming, and collecting human electronic trash.

Those specialty stores were making a killing!

But making a killing was something others did, it had nothing to do with them. Many entertainment activities had been monopolized by the government: mahjong, poker, various video games, novels, movies, and cultural dramas were all managed by professionals.

Of course, Han Bin and Wang Lirong could also, as private citizens, try to negotiate these trades with the Half-sphere people, but would the Half-sphere Civilization give them the time of day?

Maybe feasible, maybe not...

What were they to do?

They weren't really complaining; state enterprises had monopolized all the lucrative jobs. The profits from these monopolies were meant to give back to the New Human society aboard the Mountain and Sea or provide basic welfare, so the fundamental tasks of state enterprises were different from those of private groups like them.

"Starting a business really is a difficult task!"