Chapter 839: Chapter 247: Material Shortages

Bai Quan explained to Chen Ming the reason why he couldn’t just mess with the colony haphazardly.

"Because normally, an industrial colony of considerable size, as long as it’s not a non-habitable planet and not an extremely dangerous type of heavy industry, will have at least hundreds of thousands of people working there."

"Even if these two colonies have declined to this day, there are still always tens of thousands of people. You also saw the report just now, many automated facilities have stopped, and it’s all up to people to complete the work inside."

"The two colonies combined are estimated to have about twenty thousand people. You can make it large if you want, but you can’t drive out all twenty thousand people to fend for themselves."

"You’ve taken over the colony, so you must provide jobs for the people on this colony."

"Those people may not need your jobs, but you must be prepared."

"Even if half of them are Zuo Jing, the other half absolutely cannot be casually abandoned."

Chen Ming frowned as he listened to Bai Quan’s explanation and couldn’t help but say, "Isn’t this a bit excessive?"

"It is indeed excessive, but it’s at least an industrial colony."

"If the original people here could just be swept out the door, someone would have already managed it long ago, and it would not be your turn, right?"

"It’s precisely because the costs are too high and the troubles deeply rooted that no one has come to manage this place for a long time, even our Fourteenth Legion doesn’t want to look at this place."

Chen Ming gazed at the photos of the colony recorded on the terminal and said with a bit of disgust, "This... is a bit disgusting. Does this mean that even taking over the colony might result in a loss for me?"

"Lou Wei has conflicts with us and would never give you a good colony, and it would be strange if he let you have it smoothly."

"But it’s not a pure loss. These two colonies, no matter what, are certified colonies and can become colonies under your name later." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Once you solve the livelihood issues of these people, then you can do whatever you want after that."

"Moreover, the local government will also provide subsidies for such a colony."

"Livelihood issues are the government’s problem. If a colony of two hundred thousand people collapses, the local government will have a headache a hundred times more than you."

"If you take over the colony from Lou Wei, government officials will soon come to you to discuss these matters."

"They may not want to help you make the colony good, after all, Zuo Jing has been deeply rooted for so many years, but they will certainly maintain the colony with you."

"Though no one expects to refurbish the mess, as long as this trash can stays in place and can hold trash, that’s all that matters."

"You have to find a way to handle these problems."

"Once handled well, all the profits from the two industrial colonies after taxes will be all yours, isn’t this a faster way to make money compared to other methods? I remember you always saying you lacked money."

That’s the rationale, but Chen Ming still felt something was off: "Managing people is much more troublesome than managing Dusk."

"It’s up to you."

Bai Quan patted Chen Ming’s shoulder, seeming very confident in him.

The conditions were indeed very troublesome, but Chen Ming could indeed overcome them.

Moreover, such harsh conditions seem to provide him with some convenience in getting things done.

Actually, if he really got a well-functioning colony, he would have to consider how to reform a colony that might have over a million people.

Chen Ming barely found a reasonable excuse to comfort himself and said to Bai Quan again, "I have a few questions."

"Go ahead."

"Can I use Dusk? I need Dusk to build a patrol team responsible for security, and also some of the industrial facilities in the future need Dusk to control."

"No problem." Bai Quan immediately said, "You can apply, I’ll submit everything for you, it’ll definitely pass, just remember not to publicize that Dusk is managing. Though the Dusk core has been used in many places for years, we are indeed still fighting with Dusk, some things are inconvenient to say."

"Alright."

Chen Ming nodded in agreement and spoke again: "Another question, can I deal with the people of Zuo Jing?"

"As long as you have solid evidence, you can act first and report later, you can deal with them, if there’s some lack of clear evidence... as long as it’s not too excessive, I can help you solve it."

Bai Quan even gave Chen Ming a quota for accidental deaths.

It seems Zuo Jing is indeed very hard to deal with.

"The last question, I need to use Spiritual Energy on a large scale, this will definitely be exposed to everyone in the colony’s eyes. Will it be a problem?"

"This is fine."

Bai Quan assured Chen Ming: "Just use it, these two colonies have long been under communication signal control, the government has always been monitoring the communications of these two colonies, any signal will be examined."

"Although some people still have ways to bypass restrictions to contact the outside, but these rumors are unlikely to be believed by many, at most they turn into information akin to urban legends."

"The Empire doesn’t plan to completely expose the existence of Psychics to the public just yet."

Chen Ming finally understood where the rumors related to Psychics he heard from his colleagues while working at the Sinda Corporation came from.

It must be that Psychics used Spiritual Energy on a large scale, then most people were silenced, and only some vague information got out.