Make money by hiding in the interstellar battlefield!

According to Shaw's memory, today was payday. Rick's Food Factory paid wages weekly—in this precarious world, no one could be sure they'd survive until next week.

The morning mist was damp as Jiansheng rushed to the central intersection of Building 40. Every day at eight o'clock, handcarts would stop here to go into the city, and only those working on the inner ring road were allowed to board them.

Before long, thirty trucks resembling old-fashioned Liberation brand trucks rumbled in, heading separately towards the agricultural area of ​​the Fourth Ring Road and the industrial area of ​​the Fifth Ring Road. As for the political and military area of ​​the Third Ring Road and the manor area of ​​the Second Ring Road, Xiao had lived for fifteen years and had never even touched them; and the most core area, the Holy Land of the First Ring Road, was a mystery that existed only in rumors.

"Everyone, take out your work IDs and board the bus in order within three minutes. No whispering allowed!" The convoy leader roared fiercely, his voice so loud it even dispersed some of the thin mist.

Jian Sheng quickly boarded the car heading to the Fifth Block of the Fourth Ring Road. As soon as he settled in, he couldn't help but look around. The people on the car were all frighteningly tall. The average adult male was over 1.9 meters tall, with curly hair, deep-set eyes, and high but not exaggerated noses. They looked like mixed-race people with ancestry from several countries.

The truck started quickly and smoothly, clearly an electric vehicle. Jian Sheng figured it made sense; the Seventh Ring Road's reach was limited, and its industrial and energy systems were incomplete, making electric vehicles the optimal choice. The truck was completely silent—a rule everyone tacitly agreed upon.

The truck drove for ten minutes and arrived at the Fifth Ring Road wall. Jian Sheng looked up, his heart skipped a beat—the thirty-meter-high reinforced concrete wall was five meters thicker than the twenty-meter-high, fifteen-meter-wide stone wall of the Sixth Ring Road in his memory. The pure steel gates were tightly closed, and the soldiers standing on the wall wore exoskeletons that gleamed coldly. The metallic reflection hurt his eyes; this was the chasm of class. Inside the Fifth Ring Road was the industrial zone, where only military families and skilled workers could settle, relying on the iron mines and rivers in the valleys, and depending on hydroelectric power stations and steel mills for their livelihood.

Less than ten minutes further on, the fourth ring city wall came into view. The 15-meter-high reinforced concrete wall was topped with a dense array of anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft soldiers patrolled back and forth. Passing through the city gate, vast expanses of lush green rice paddies and vegetable fields stretched out before us. The climate of Mother Nest Star was remarkably similar to that of coastal Guangdong on Earth, with an oxygen content as high as 25%, and the hot and humid environment allowing for several harvests a year.

The truck stopped every three minutes, and after three stops, Jian Sheng got off. Ahead was a farm with wooden houses, where hundreds of people were lined up waiting to start work. As soon as he stood still, a gasp of surprise came from the crowd—it was Ken, Xiao's friend.

Last night, when Xiao was being beaten up, this kid was so scared that he didn't dare to utter a sound until Xiao stopped breathing.

Jian Sheng, however, acted as if nothing had happened, and even raised his chin at him. In his eyes, Ken was just a fifteen-year-old boy, and it was only natural for him to be terrified.

Soon, a dozen or so middle-aged men emerged from the farm gate. They were the foremen, and also the regular employees who were entitled to live in the Fourth Ring Road area. They walked with their backs straight, and their every word and action exuded a sense of superiority.

Jiansheng was led away by a foreman named Sherlock and assigned to greenhouse area number 47 to grow indoor vegetables—Xiao was known in the factory for his meticulousness and diligence, which was why he got a relatively easy job. Inside the sunroom, lettuce, bok choy, spinach, and chives huddled together, a lush green that looked pleasing to the eye, but Jiansheng had no time to appreciate it. His mind was filled with that deadly number: 100 million kilocalories of energy.

The brain was sounding alarms intermittently, with less than ten hours remaining before brain death.

After working six hours, the only perk we finally got was the work meal. Everyone lined up with their metal basins to get their food, one meat and one vegetable dish. The meat was from local common star beasts; as for intelligent beast meat, anyone who touched it would die—it was highly poisonous. The staple food was high-yield potatoes; rice was ten times the price of potatoes, so forget about it.

Jiansheng stared at the food in the iron basin, estimating that it contained at most a few thousand calories. Better than nothing, he thought; maybe it would replenish his energy and make his brain function. He wolfed down the food, but after finishing, his mind remained completely blank.

"Relying on food alone definitely won't work. What exactly does 100 million calories mean?"

He looked worried and slowly approached, his head bowed, not daring to look him in the eye: "Xiao, about yesterday... I'm sorry, I was really scared."

"It's nothing, anyone would be scared." Jian Sheng waved his hand and got straight to the point, "I need your help with something."

"Tell me! I'll help if I can!" Ken suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with guilt.

"Lend me your salary for this week." Jian Sheng's tone was completely unwavering; in the face of life and death, pride was worthless. Besides, this was also a litmus test, a chance to determine whether Ken was truly worth getting to know.

Ken clenched the blue crystal coin in his pocket, his knuckles turning white. After hesitating for two seconds, he nodded: "Okay!"

Without another word, the two returned to their posts. Jian Sheng tended to a greenhouse of vegetables, but a decision had already been made in his heart: once he got through today, he would never live Xiao's life again. This job, with its predictable end, could only lead to tragedy.

Xiao's weekly salary is only 50 Blue Crystals. The credit anchor for Blue Crystals is Blue Crystal, which is the crystallization of the Star Beast's core, a unique energy source of the Mother Nest Star, and the energy core of all human mechs. One Blue Crystal can be exchanged for one gram of Blue Crystal. A meal costs 2 Blue Crystals. Xiao works seven days a week, twelve hours a day. After deducting meal expenses, he can barely support himself.

After another six hours of hard work, it was finally payday.

"Number 1, 50 coins! Miners can earn 40 a day, you should be content!" the foreman shouted, the payroll in his hand clattering. Here, two consecutive days of absence is considered automatic resignation, and three days of absence in a month also means packing your bags and leaving.

The foremen called out names and distributed wages one by one. When they got to number 47, they paused and said, "Number 47, Xiao, weekly wage 50 coins, highest productive employee this week, bonus 20, total 70!"

Jian Sheng was stunned for a moment, and a feeling of sympathy for Xiao suddenly welled up in his heart.

After receiving his wages, Ken immediately came over and stuffed five ten-yuan blue crystal coins into his hand, and secretly slipped something into his pocket. Jian Sheng felt it; it was a warm roasted potato. "I hid it secretly; you can eat it on the way," Ken said softly, with a hint of embarrassment.

On the way back, the two huddled together in the back of the freight truck. On paydays, they would usually pool their money for a nice meal, but on other days they only dared to eat one work meal, giving all the money they saved to their families. Ken had a younger brother and sister, and their father, like Shaw's father, had died in the war. Fortunately, Ken's mother truly loved her three children.

Jian Sheng clutched the blue crystal coins in his pocket, his brain alarming with increasing urgency. With only ten hours left before brain death, he racked his brains for a solution, his gaze inadvertently sweeping across the Fifth Ring Road city wall outside the car window. On the wall, the figure of an exoskeleton mecha soldier flashed by.

and many more!

He suddenly recalled fragments of Xiao's memory—last year, a miner had secretly touched the wreckage of a decommissioned mech, was struck by an electromagnetic pulse, and woke up to find himself three times stronger. The exoskeleton mechs were powered by blue crystals and required connection to the brain's central nervous system to be controlled. If he could connect to the mech, he might be able to replenish its energy!

This thought was like a ray of light, cleaving through the darkness of despair.

As soon as the truck arrived in District Six, Jiansheng immediately borrowed a bicycle from a neighbor and rushed towards District Seven. The Sixth Ring Road gates closed at ten o'clock, and he had to get out before they closed, venturing alone into that chaotic area.

Security was surprisingly lax; after all, there wasn't much to check about people leaving the city. Soon, Jian Sheng rushed into the black market of the Third District of the Seventh Ring Road—the liveliest place in Seventh Ring City at night, completely unregulated yet governed by unwritten rules. A melting pot of all sorts, yet orderly.

He first went to the currency exchange, paid a 1% handling fee, and exchanged all the blue crystal coins in his pocket for a 100-gram blue crystal the size of a fingernail. This thing was extremely dense and heavy, and he carefully put it in his mouth and held it there.

On the black market stalls, oil lamps made from the grease of star beasts were lit. The black market, the size of four football fields, was dotted with lights, like a fallen sea of ​​stars, dazzling yet tinged with an indescribable darkness.

Meat stalls made up the majority of the black market, selling ordinary star beasts hunted by the expansion team from the northern forest. The carcasses of high-level intelligent beasts had long been sold to the Seven Rings City Research Institute at high prices, several times the price of ordinary star beasts.

Jian Sheng hurried past the meat stall, but stopped in front of a stall selling live animals.

"Hey young man, look at this meerkat! This little guy is a master at keeping watch and alerting the enemy!" the stall owner called out enthusiastically.

At the stall, a litter of tiny black cubs, no bigger than the palm of a hand, huddled in their mother's arms, nursing. Only one small, pure white cub was squeezed into a corner, whimpering weakly. It had a pointed snout, a long nose, large, bright eyes, and a pair of barely visible bat wings on its abdomen, suggesting it could fly briefly.

"This one is albino; ​​the mother doesn't nurse it," the stall owner explained quickly, noticing his gaze lingering on the white cub. "Cheap sale, only 300 blue crystals! The black ones cost 500!"

Jiansheng stroked the weak little white beast; its cool fur brushed against his fingertips like a tiny snowflake. He didn't speak, gently placed it back in its den, and turned to leave. The stall owner's face instantly darkened. Watching his retreating figure, he pursed his lips, inwardly grumbling, "Can't afford it, yet he touches it like that."

The black market stalls were dazzling, offering everything from weapons and ores to neurotoxins. Jian Sheng had no time to look around; after searching for half an hour, he finally found his target – the secondhand armor section.

The mechs on Mother Nest are classified into five levels: D, C, B, A, and S. Unfortunately, their industrial and mining systems are incomplete, allowing them to only mass-produce level D exoskeleton mechs and level C full-body mechs. As for the level S fluid metal mechs, only 12 remain on the entire planet, remnants of interstellar colony ships, making them impossible to manufacture domestically. Level B and A mechs exist only in theoretical blueprints; even the parts cannot be manufactured.

Jiansheng chose the smallest stall, where only one exoskeleton was displayed, rusty and looking like it was close to being scrapped.

The stall owner was a two-meter-tall giant with a fierce face. Looking at Jiansheng, who was only 1.7 meters tall, he said impatiently, "Kid, get lost. Don't delay my business, or I'll beat you up!"

Jian Sheng took a deep breath and steadied himself: "Boss, I'll give you 15 blue crystal coins so I can test drive this mech."

The giant sized him up as if he were a madman: "The exoskeleton needs to be connected to the central nervous system! With your small frame, if your crystal core sensitivity and electromagnetic tolerance aren't high enough, you'll be dead! 15 blue crystal coins aren't even enough to collect your corpse!"

"If I die, I still have 500 grams of blue crystal on me, and it's all yours." Jian Sheng's voice was steady, and there was not a trace of hesitation in his eyes.

These blue crystals were the life-saving money that Xiao's mother had hidden under the bed, which he secretly took before he left.

The giant's eyes darted around, staring at him suspiciously: "Let me see it!"

Jian Sheng spat out the blue crystal from his mouth and handed it over: "I'll provide the energy for the mecha myself. As for the remaining blue crystals, they'll fall out naturally if I die."

The giant weighed the heavy blue crystal in his hand, frowned in disgust, but nodded nonetheless: "Don't try anything funny! If you dare to cheat me, I'll feed you to six-legged dogs even after I'm dead!"

Jian Sheng immediately took out 15 blue crystal coins and handed them over, his eyes fixed on the blue crystal in his hand.

The operating principle of the exoskeleton mecha is very simple: the energy core is in the star beast body fluid tank in the chest. When blue crystal is placed in it, the bio-inspired electromagnetic system can be activated to drive it; the height of the mecha can also be adjusted by adjusting the spinal interval.

After a few minutes of adjustments, the giant gestured for him to stand on the mech and tossed him a piece of cork: "Bite down on it, but don't bite off your tongue."

Jian Sheng bit down on the cork, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the mecha's footplate.

The next second, excruciating pain struck.

Ten thin electromagnetic needles, as fine as hair, were suddenly pierced into eight acupoints in the brainstem and spine. The needles softened abruptly the moment they touched the nerves to avoid fatal damage, but the excruciating pain from the electric current still caused Jian Sheng's body to convulse.

"Damn it!" He bit down hard on the cork, his mouth full of blood, veins bulging on his forehead, his vision turning blood red, and his brain swelling as if it were about to explode.

The giant stood to the side with his arms crossed, coldly watching him convulse, cursing under his breath: "If you can't hold on, just say so, don't fucking die here..."

Before he could finish speaking, Jian Sheng suddenly shuddered and collapsed, falling into a deep coma.

Just then, a cold, mechanical voice exploded in his mind:

The brain has successfully restarted, with 3 kcal of energy remaining, enough to support brain operation for 144 hours.

Jian Sheng's consciousness gradually returned, and he struggled to ask in his mind: Who are you? Why can you prevent me from brain death?

The mechanical voice sounded again, devoid of any emotion:

I am you, and we are the fireproof subsystem of the Human Mother Nest Goddess System. In your terms, we are system patches, preventing the mainframe from going out of control and dominating the human colonization plan.

"A patch?" Jian Sheng was stunned. "I'm human, not some AI!"

You have complete control over the system and the absolute right to define it.

"Okay, I like hearing that." Jian Sheng breathed a sigh of relief and immediately pressed on, "Why do you need so much energy? Why do you keep bringing up brain death all the time?"

Upon detecting the death of the host organism, a repair command is automatically triggered. Saving the host consumes 50 kilocalories of reserve energy; modifying the host's body, raising the blue crystal sensitivity and electromagnetic tolerance to the minimum standard of Grade D, consumes 50 kilocalories of energy.

Jian Sheng's heart skipped a beat: "You can modify my physique? Besides that, what other abilities do you have?"

The host's current energy is insufficient, and only probability statistics abilities can be used. Each use lasts ten seconds and consumes 1 calories. Other abilities will be unlocked once energy reserves reach a certain level.

"How much energy is needed to upgrade one's physique?"

A cold, mechanical voice listed a series of clear data:

Crystal energy sensitivity upgrade consumption & crystal core quality requirements

- D-C: 1 million kilocalories, requires a soldier-level intelligent beast crystal core.

- C-B: 10 billion kilocalories, requires a high-level intelligent beast crystal core.

- B-A: 100 billion kilocalories, requires a King-level Intelligence Beast Crystal Core

- A-S: 1000 billion kilocalories, requires a Queen-level intelligent beast crystal core.

- S-SS: 1 trillion kilocalories, requires a god-level intelligent beast crystal core.

- SSS: Requirements unknown

Electromagnetic tolerance upgrade rules: It increases in tandem with the improvement of brain fusion. When the brain fusion reaches 100%, the electromagnetic tolerance will automatically increase to SSS+. Current brain fusion: 1%!

As Jian Sheng was pondering the meaning of this data, a sharp pain suddenly shot through him, pulling him back to reality.

"You brat! Are you dead or not? If you're not, get lost!" The giant slapped him across the face with terrifying force, his face full of disgust.

Jian Sheng slowly opened his eyes, his head spinning and his mind reeling. He felt a warm, wet sensation in his groin and gave a wry smile—thankfully, it was just urinary incontinence; compared to those who were electrocuted and ended up defecating and urinating, it was much better.

Seeing that he was awake, the giant's face darkened even more. He cursed and pulled the blue crystal from the mecha's energy tank. The once lustrous crystal had turned grayish and crumbled into powder at the slightest touch.

"What the hell! How could my mech turn crystals to dust? Is it broken?" He scratched his head, his eyes darting between the mech, Jian Sheng, and the dust on the ground, his face contorted with pain. "Get lost! Get lost! I've had the worst luck imaginable! I earned 15 yuan from you, and now my mech is completely ruined!"

Jian Sheng ignored his curses, braced his weak legs, pushed through the crowd, and walked out of the black market without looking back. The whispers and pointing fingers behind him faded into the distance, but the cold, mechanical voice still echoed in his mind.

It seems he has truly found a way out.