Life Dungeon Game

"In addition, they also hide the interest in the smaller installment payments by offering installment plans."

"For example, I once learned that the Huiermei Medical Foundation has a 'dental surgery service' priced at 10000 federal dollars. Even with the medical insurance discount, it still costs 2800 federal dollars, which is not an expense that can be easily paid."

"At this point, the Huierme Medical Foundation will recommend that patients use their credit cards for installment payments: 2800 federal dollars, 156 federal dollars per month, for 24 installments. It seems like the amount paid each month is very low."

"However, over two years, the patient had to pay more than 3700 federal dollars to the Huiermei Medical Foundation, and had to pay an extra 1300 federal dollars in interest, with a total interest rate as high as 46%."

"Moreover, because it is an installment payment, a portion of the principal must be repaid each month, so the actual annual interest rate is probably higher. Through these means, the conglomerate obtains far more than the cost of the products they provide, and then uses these profits to repeat the same sales or financial games."

"The actual annual interest rate should be around 29.6%,"

Christos calmly looked at DeSanker, "If what you say is true, the conglomerate's products should sell very well, and profits should be soaring. But in reality, for the past ten years, apart from the top super-conglomerates..."

Outside of the conglomerate, the profits and revenues of major federal conglomerates are declining, numerous factories are closing, and a large number of employees are being laid off. The conglomerates' development seems to be in a poor state. What do you think are the reasons for this?

“Because they are too greedy,”

DeSanker sighed. "In Plant's industrial area, factory workers only earn about 300 federal dollars a week, but they have to spend more than 110 federal dollars to pay rent for shared apartments owned by the consortium, and pay nearly 200 federal dollars in credit card debt or other consumer loans."

"Then they can only use the credit limit restored from repaying their credit cards to buy new daily necessities, products that they produce but dare not consume."

"They earn meager wages to buy products that generate huge profits for conglomerates, and then they have to bear the high interest rates on the loans from these conglomerates. Under such circumstances, no one has any surplus wealth to spend, and things on the market simply can't be sold."

"No matter how high the profit margin of the conglomerate's products is, if they can't be sold, the revenue will naturally not increase, and without revenue, there will be no profit."

"A good analysis,"

Christos gazed at DeSanker's face, and a gentle smile finally appeared on his usually expressionless face. "Could you tell me your thoughts on the current situation in Wetterland?"

Then he pointed to the cylindrical device in the corner, "There's a projector there. If you need to project data or presentations, you can connect it directly to the wristband."

Seeing Christos's smile, DeSanchez nervously clenched his fist. He knew he had gained initial approval. He slowly stood up, activated his bracelet, and connected to the projector.

"Waitland has many prominent problems right now, the most obvious of which is the issue of the scavengers in the West End. These special groups are actually a microcosm of the vast majority of ordinary people in Waitland, only they are more extreme and more representative..."

······

Moonlight bathed the swaying branches of the trees. He Ao sat on the roof of the SUV, a blade of grass between his teeth, gazing up at the vast starry sky.

From a nearby combat transport plane, the faint sound of DeSanchez talking loudly could be heard.

The wind rustled through the leaves.

"Mr. Jess, do you need a blanket?"

A wilderness hunter driving an off-road vehicle leaned out and handed over a blanket.

"Need not,"

He Ao shook his head, glanced at the Wilderness Hunter, then at the light behind the transport plane's curtain, and smiled. "You should get some sleep. They'll probably be talking for a long time tonight. Get plenty of rest so you can go back tomorrow."

"But······"

The wilderness hunter hesitated. This was a dangerous wilderness, and who knew what terrifying monsters lurked in the pitch-black night? Sleeping in the wild without a campsite was too dangerous.

"fine."

He Ao shook his head. "Nothing will happen tonight."

"Ok."

The Revenant Hunter hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to trust Heo, and took the blanket back into the car.

These off-road vehicles are designed for wilderness use. The driver's and passenger's seats can be reclined almost flat, and they also have footrests, allowing them to be used as a makeshift bed, making it convenient for the driver to reach a safe location.

I can rest.

As the sound of the seats reclining came from inside the SUV, He Ao's gaze swept around.

Pairs of deep, dark eyes emerged from the pitch-black night, watching him.

He took the grass root out of his mouth, gripped the axe handle on his back, and jumped off the vehicle.

The pitch-black night was covered with splattered blood, and the white bone axe was stained with mottled crimson.

An invisible fear spread from the man's feet, like an eternal tyrant in the night, sitting on a towering throne.

After the last Shadow Wolf's head separated from its body, the eyes that looked like small lanterns in the night flickered with fear before quickly disappearing into the vast darkness.

He Ao returned to the SUV, plucked a new grass root, peeled off the outer shell, put it in his mouth, and then climbed onto the roof.

This grass is called sweet grass. It is a very common plant in the wilderness. It is non-toxic, with tuberous roots and stems. After peeling off the outer skin, the inner core is white and sweet, with a high sugar content.

This grass is one of the main sources of sweetness for wilderness wanderers and can also be used as an emergency source of sugar.

The surrounding beasts had all retreated, and the soft whimpers of wild animals that could be heard on the night breeze had also disappeared.

The Fear Hunter talent sequence is actually more suited to the wilderness than the city. The more you kill, the more the aura of panic builds up, making it far more effective against beasts than against humans.

Humans, after all, possess reason and can barely resist panic. The beasts fled immediately as soon as panic set in.

Using this skill will reduce a lot of trouble when traveling in the wilderness.

He Ao patted the grass and mud off his body, squeezed the juice out of a leaf, and wiped the bloodstains off his clothes.

Inside the transport plane, DeSanchez continued his loud and engaging conversation.

He raised his bracelet and opened the information about the Trison Group's 'Phoenix' voting system that Viana and Eve had sent him before they left the city.

The Phoenix System is the flagship product of the Trison Corporation, touted as being developed specifically for federal elections and the most comprehensive and secure voting system in the Federation, which is virtually impossible to crack.

While the actual situation wasn't quite that severe, it was still very close.

Eve's analysis indicates that the Phoenix System has the highest data access privileges of the Terison Group. To forcibly break into this system from the outside, one would have to confront the Terison Group, the largest communications group in the Federation, with its supercomputer array.

This is almost impossible.

The combined computing power of all the supercomputer arrays of the top ten federal conglomerates, excluding the Terison Group, does not equal that of the Terison Group alone.

Although the Trison Group cannot use all of its computing power to defend against the Phoenix System, even if it only allocates some of it, it would still form a fortress as high as a wall.

Therefore, the Trison Group's claim that the Phoenix system could never be breached is not a lie.

He Ao carefully read the information about the Phoenix System.

As a voting system for midterm and federal presidential elections, the Phoenix system is not used very often. As the Trison Group claims, it is a system specifically developed for federal elections.

Vianna found many academic papers on the Phoenix system on academic networks, proving that the system is indeed very rigorous.

It is excellent, but its development and maintenance costs are extremely high. In order to maintain the system's advanced nature, it also needs to be upgraded every once in a while, which further increases the cost.

To balance these development and maintenance costs, the federal central government and the major cities using the system also paid Trison Group substantial usage fees.

However, according to the Trison Corporation's own claims, these usage fees are not enough to cover the development and maintenance costs of the Phoenix System. Nevertheless, the Trison Corporation is willing to operate the system at a loss for the sake of the Federation's justice and fairness.

He Ao initially didn't believe this explanation, but Eve found estimates of the various costs and operating costs for the development and upgrade of the Phoenix System.

In conclusion, the Phoenix System is indeed not profitable, but it is not losing money either. The revenue the system receives from the Federation and major cities is just enough to cover the costs.

Of course, for conglomerates, not making money means losing money.

He read through all the information Eve and Vianna had sent him, and from this information, the Phoenix System was indeed a completely reliable system.

He turned off the bracelet and looked up at the starry sky again.

The Huierme Medical Foundation is not a conglomerate known for its expertise in computer technology, and the mysterious person, apart from the hacker, has no other computer-related abilities.

This is a blind spot in their knowledge.

It's also unlikely that the Trison Group would use the Phoenix system to cheat for the Wyrm Health Foundation, as the two foundations have competing projects. Moreover, cheating would be too costly for the Trison Group; it wouldn't be worth it for the Wyrm Health Foundation or for a single senator.

Therefore, the data obtained by the Phoenix system should be reliable.

It is impossible to cheat in voting.

It seems like everything is fine now?

He gazed at the stars and the moon in the sky as if he were watching a complex game of chess.

Where will the player place their pieces?

-

As the sun rose in the east, DeSanker emerged from the fighter transport plane, looking refreshed.

After talking all night, he didn't seem tired at all. He was full of energy, like he had been injected with chicken blood. However, he was still holding a bottle of water and kept gulping it down.

Christos sent him out.

"Done?"

He Ao stood at the door of the transport plane, looking at him.

“We had a very good conversation,” Christos said, stepping out from behind DeSanker. “DeSanker has a lot of ideas and has opened up new perspectives for me. He would be a good senator.”

This means that things have been settled, and Christos has come to agree with DeSanchez.

DeSanker glanced at Christos, finally recovering from the tense and exciting emotions. He tried to calm himself down and turned to Heo, saying, "Mr. Christos has said many things that I had never thought of before, which has given me a sense of enlightenment."

"It's good that it's done."

He Ao nodded with a smile.

The three of them walked together toward the SUV.

DeSanchez walked in front, with Heo and Christos following behind.

"I heard you've run into a lot of trouble."

He Ao glanced at the rising sun in the sky and said softly.

"Is your organization still keeping an eye on me?"

Chris

Tos smiled and glanced at the rising sun. "The situation is a bit more complicated than I imagined. I originally thought many things would be easy, but in reality, each one is more troublesome than the last. Becoming mayor is not the end, but just the beginning."

He lowered his head and looked at He Ao. "So what about you guys?"

"It's business as usual."

He Ao said calmly.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to do,” Christos chuckled. “I have a feeling you’ll be dealing with a lot of evil gods.”

“In a sense,” Heo shrugged, “there are many divine friends who would be happy to help.”

The two stopped in front of the SUV. Christos stared at the person in front of him, as if he saw the young man with a naive appearance in the coffee shop, and the photo on the tombstone in Rock City.