Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The governor looked at Madame Palermo.

"You spearheaded the food safe-haven program. But don't swallow too much. Lawson isn't the local auditor; he can't be fooled."

Madame Palermo's smile faded.

"I know my limits."

“You don’t know,” Valerian said, “which is why I’ll have Iago keep an eye on you.”

Madame Palermo paused, then smiled.

"The Governor is still so considerate."

"Being considerate will save you from losing a few nephews."

This sentence brought a moment of silence to the table.

Madame Palermo finally bowed her head.

"clear."

Ilancia's eyes flickered slightly.

This governor is indeed capable.

He can keep people in check and he can also see the risks clearly.

If Lawson were just an ordinary imperial general, he would indeed be dragged into a quagmire when facing such local forces.

Valerian looked at Raven one last time.

"You are responsible for preparing a proactive cooperation proposal. Water rights, energy, and military affairs at the Starport can be included as bargaining chips, but do not submit them until I give the order."

Raven bowed.

"Yes."

Valerian stood up.

Everyone stood up.

He walked to the imperial statue by the wall and placed his hand on the governor's badge on his chest.

"Gentlemen, Lawson is very strong."

"What we need to do is make him understand that Damocles is not a warning star."

"To rule a galaxy, you need our approval."

……

Lawson and Ilancia left at some point.

Ilancia wanted to ask him what to do, but Lawson didn't answer. Instead, he led her around the various parts of the galaxy.

The first location is the seventy-sixth floor below the spire.

This place, separated from the Governor's Banquet Hall by only a few thousand meters of vertical height, feels like another world.

Lawson stood with Ilancia beside an old elevator shaft.

The elevator shaft was sealed off by an iron fence, behind which a group of civilians waited to start work. Men, women, and teenagers were all dressed in gray work clothes, with a gear emblem of the same mining family sewn onto their chests.

They are cleaning workers in the Pinnacle area.

Every day, they would enter the upper levels to scrub the noble corridors, clean the sewage pipes in the banquet halls, move kitchen scraps, and dispose of the pet carcasses and vomit of the upper-class people.

There is a weighing machine in front of the elevator shaft.

Everyone has to be weighed before entering.

Weigh yourself again after you come out.

If you gain weight, you will be searched.

Because leftover food, medicine residue, flower petals, wax, rags, and even half a bitten fruit were all considered aristocratic assets.

An elderly woman stepped out of the line.

Her right leg was fitted with a cheap mechanical brace, and oil was leaking from the joint. The servant searching her pulled a piece of white bread from her sleeve.

The bread was only two fingers wide.

The old woman immediately knelt down, her forehead hitting the metal floor.

The law enforcement officer checked her employee number.

My first theft.

According to the rules, three days' worth of rations will be deducted, and the offender will be whipped ten times before being transferred to the sewage layer in the next cycle.

Her granddaughter was crying in the line, but the person next to her covered her mouth tightly.

If the sound of weeping reached the upper echelons, it would disturb the nobles' morning prayers.

Ilancia looked at the piece of bread.

Last night, only a third of a plate of beast livers in the governor's hall was eaten; the rest was poured into a silver bucket and given to the kitchen servants to be used as pet food.

The second place is Zhongchao Lead Mist Hospital.

The Imperial Double-Headed Eagle hangs here, along with the Hearst family's medical license insignia.

The lobby was filled with patients.

They came to apply for a "continued work permit".

Industrial fumes, mine slag radiation, substandard nutritional supplements, and chronic water shortages make many ordinary people look like they are sixty years old even at forty. Pulmonary fibrosis, metallic spots on the skin, retinal burns, and brittle bones are all categorized as common damage here.

A female factory worker sits on a bench with her left arm folded around her waist.

She was missing three fingers on her hand.

The wound was sealed with black glue, and the edges of the glue were already inflamed.

The medical apprentice looked at her name tag and examined the wound before drawing a conclusion.

They can still work.

It is recommended to move to a lower precision sorting line.

The female worker asked if there were any painkillers.

The apprentice pointed to the payment window.

One painkiller cost her the equivalent of seventeen days' wages.

She remained silent for a moment, then took the permit and left.

As she reached the door, she pressed the permit to her chest, as if holding a lifeline.

At the next examination table, a twelve-year-old boy was diagnosed with "deteriorating vision, making him unsuitable for ammunition marking lines".

His mother thought it was bad news and turned pale.

The medical apprentice flipped through the form and added a sentence.

You can transfer to the chimney scraping team.

The mother immediately breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the boy's shoulders, and bowed to the apprentice.

The boy stared at his eyes, which were red from the burning medicine, unsure whether to feel relieved or to cry.

The third location is the Lower Nest Debt Service Area.

There are no real streets here, only layers of iron bridges and hanging cages.

Indebted families live in the hanging cages.

The debt has many sources.

The father died in the mine, and the family is demanding compensation for the wear and tear on the tools.

When a child is born, a registration tax must be paid.

After treatment for a work-related injury, medical advance payments must be made.

Residents whose houses were destroyed by fire also had to pay for fire extinguishers.

Debts can be inherited.

Interest will also be inherited.

In Ilancia, an electronic debt monument was seen.

The scrolling text displays family names, outstanding debts, working hours converted to cash, and repayment period.

Some families have to repay the debt over three hundred years.

They certainly won't live for three hundred years.

But their children can.

A juvenile delinquent was chained to the edge of a hanging cage with a yellow tag around his neck.

The yellow sign reads: One instance of truancy.

His job was to skin animals for the nobility's leather factories.

The reason he skipped work was that his sister had a fever, and he stole a cup of cooling water.

The punishment was to be publicly suspended for six hours.

Below the cage, several children looked up at him.

No one dared to offer water.

They have learned the rules.

If compassion is not strong enough, it will only become a new debt.

The fourth is the Damocles III agricultural world.

From its orbit, the planet appears very green.

The noble report referred to it as the "Heart of Abundance".

Lawson and Ilancia landed on the edge of a nutrient-rich wheat field.