The Net

Milton's youngest son was actually quite close to Acne. At fourteen or fifteen, boys' friendships were still fairly pure.

His family had a little spare money, while the other boy was not only wealthy but also came from a powerful family. He was slightly worse off, but that did not affect their friendship.

So he answered in a low voice, "What do you mean, disaster is about to strike? If you explain it clearly, I'll give you this bike."

He really liked the bike. It was the most valuable memento he had ever received, and it was also a gift for his fifteenth birthday.

But he had grown up. If he could do something for his family, then even paying a heavy price would be worth it.

Acne shook his head and spoke with a thick tongue, "I'm just taking it for a couple of laps. Who wants your lousy bike? My family has plenty of good vehicles!"

After a pause, he lowered his voice. "They're going to requisition land soon. This whole area of yours... well, I can't say too much."

"Land requisition?" Milton's youngest son went pale at once, and much of his drunken haze vanished.

On other Imperial planets, one rarely heard the words "land requisition"—there was too much unused land.

Still, requisitioning land did objectively happen due to construction needs, but as long as sufficient resources were exchanged, it was not a problem.

At the end of the day, habitable land was not a scarce resource. It was cheap and did not have much potential for appreciation.

But on Homestead Star, land requisition was a very bad thing, because the government's controls were especially strict.

First of all, the land exchange might not be equal, because the authorities had been tightening land management all along.

They