Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 835 Change, Declaration of War, and the True Spirit

"Zen will never perish! Zen will never perish!"

A figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the street, stumbling around in confusion, then wailing in agony, "Lord Setsuna, why—"

Then, immediately following behind, security officers jumped out, emptying their magazines in a second. Rubber bullets crackled and popped, sending the enemy staggering. The two officers advanced one after the other, one holding a riot shield and the other hiding behind.

"Warning! You have been 'dehumanized'! I will be carrying out containment procedures in accordance with the law!"

Upon approaching, he pressed the other person down at lightning speed and handcuffed them with electric handcuffs. Then he called for the shuttle to come and immediately took them into the containment facility.

Richard glanced at the construction site not far away, shook his head, and buried himself in his work again. He had seen similar scenes many times during this period, and was no longer surprised. Rather than watching the spectacle, he preferred to make money as quickly as possible.

After all, the New Order Federation has issued a ton of projects for defense works, air-raid shelters, and other similar facilities, and construction is needed everywhere – they're practically overwhelmed with work. More importantly, they're incredibly generous with their payments, rarely delaying payment!

Of course, being generous with money and not delaying payments are not the most crucial factors.

During the four major corporate wars in history, the company was generous, paying 5,000 credits for the same work instead of the usual 1,000. However, prices were skyrocketing! Economic crises came one after another! Even the prices of roadside vending machines had to change in real time, and inflation reached tens or hundreds of millions of times later!
This has led to everyone needing to get a "photosynthetic" prosthetic body and find a place to lie down so they won't starve to death.

But now, the war has been going on for quite some time, and surprisingly, the prices of food and drink haven't changed much.
Especially for merchants who are planning to follow the past example and hoard goods to raise prices and make a big profit, if they show any signs of doing so in the morning, they will be found by armed men and arrested by the afternoon.

Richard reflected on what he had seen and heard over the past few days and then made a decisive decision: he would go and purchase another batch of supplies after get off work today. His extensive experience living in the corporate alliance told him that if you reached the point of relying on the government, you could basically be considered doomed.

In this life.

Just then, a figure came running up from not far away. Richard subconsciously looked up and was surprised: "You changed it so quickly? You finished it this afternoon after saying this morning?"

He recognized the man who had run over; they were coworkers, people who made a living on construction sites. However, the man's appearance had changed considerably compared to before.

His heavy-duty prosthetic body, which was always rumbling and emitting black smoke, was replaced with a prosthetic arm that was much smaller.

If the original heavy engineering prosthetic body was like brute forcefully splicing an excavator and a person together, then this one, although it looks like a model specifically designed for civil engineering scenarios, at least maintains the basic shape of an "arm"—which reduces the mental pressure on people by a great deal!
A significant portion of the cyberpsychotic patients admitted to the corporate alliance each year are people like them, who have been implanted with prosthetics that clearly contradict their self-perception as "humans." This leads to a high incidence of a range of cyberpsychotic disorders, including phantom limb pain and mental breakdown.

Just can't help it.

If we don't do this, no one will hire us. Others are bold, daring, and willing to take risks, while you are timid and afraid of death. Given the significant difference in work efficiency, why would I hire you?

On the other hand, hiring these workers with their own heavy-duty engineering prosthetics is clearly much more cost-effective than spending money to purchase engineering equipment. So over time, all construction companies have come to add a sentence to their job postings: "Applicants with implanted heavy-duty engineering prosthetics will be given priority."

However, all of this has recently undergone a dramatic change.

People who have had heavy-duty prosthetic implants are no longer entitled to priority work.

Instead, they will be persuaded to switch back to less expensive prosthetics—if they agree, they will receive a low-interest loan while going to a designated prosthetic clinic to replace their prosthetics.

Those who insisted on not hiring were shocked to find that the construction site seemed to have changed overnight, and no one dared to hire them anymore. It was blatant discrimination.

My coworker was one of those who had received heavy-duty prosthetic implants in the past. He was persuaded to get them replaced in the morning and rushed back to the construction site in the afternoon.
"I feel much calmer now, my head isn't buzzing like before. Oh well, never mind! You know what I saw on my way here!" The other person exclaimed excitedly, "Holy crap! Armored vehicles everywhere! One after another! And robots swarming everywhere too!" "I asked around, and they said there's going to be a war!"

Why are you so excited if it's not war?
Richard was speechless: "When have we ever not been at war? Tell me."

"It's different, it's different!" he exclaimed urgently. "Before, it was the corporate alliance attacking us! Now we're attacking the corporate alliance!"

"What?" Richard was taken aback.

"Oh dear, can't you understand? We, the New Order Federation, have officially declared war on the Enterprise Alliance!"

Richard was surprised and instinctively said, "Is that so? Wait, then what are you so excited about?!"

"When war breaks out, what's the fastest thing to acquire?" Before Richard could reply, the other person said with exasperation, "Houses, of course!"

He raised his arms high, his face full of excitement.

"A golden age for civil engineering has arrived!"

······
As the national machinery known as the "New Order Federation" operates at high speed, one of its highest executive committee members is pondering the situation.

Think about something.

Song Shi sat cross-legged, surrounded by crimson flames, yet the flames did not appear overwhelming. They appeared and disappeared intermittently, like aimless fish drifting with the current.

The true spirit is both "annihilated" and "present in the world".

This is proof of Song Shi's past achievements, a crystallization unique to "Song Shi," forged through two lifetimes. From this point forward, looking back a million years, and forward ten million years, there will never be a second "annihilation" or a second "present world."

"Simulated World".

Song Shi closed his eyes and whispered.

The battle with Zenryu Setsuna, where the opponent single-handedly created three thousand worlds and gathered the dazzling spiritual energy of countless thoughts, was truly unforgettable. Facing the final blow, he instantly traveled through countless worlds, witnessing all the bizarre and wonderful things in a single day—Song Shi felt he had gained something from this experience.

The true spirit in the "present world" can make some progress.

The past of a psychic transforms into their true spirit, but thoughts vanish in an instant, and every moment of the present becomes a moment of the past. The true spirit is not immutable, permanently fixed from the moment of its birth.

It will advance as the psionicists advance.

While the progress in the "present world" could be described as joyful, Song Shi's mind was currently focused on something else.

—The True Spirit, the Third Stage.

(End of this chapter)