The Collapsing Empire

Meng Chao gave a soft snort. "Aren't today's Super Enterprises and Peerless Experts 'free' enough?"

"To supporters of the Sun Never Sets Theory, it is nowhere near enough."

Shao Zhengyang said impassively, "Although everyone knows that the Nine Super Enterprises are forces that can cover the sky with one hand in Dragon City, that the Survival Committee was established by them and is merely a puppet carrying out their will, and that even a substantial portion of the Crimson Dragon Army's military budget is controlled by the Super Enterprises.

"However, as Dragon City stabilizes and develops, the tens of millions of citizens place ever-increasing trust and support in the Survival Committee. Even a puppet may awaken a will of its own—just like the 'Mother Entity,' the puppet of the 'ancients.'

"Though the Nine Super Enterprises now monopolize most critical fields and vital sectors, more and more small and medium-sized enterprises and emerging forces continue to spring up like carp crossing a river and bamboo shoots after rain, engaging the major corporations in bayonet-to-bayonet competition.

"Although Super Enterprises possess private armed forces, those forces must ultimately obey the unified command of the Survival Committee. They cannot yet be considered fully independent 'paramilitary organizations.'

"And although Peerless Experts nominally own enterprises, they are constrained by all kinds of laws and audit regulations. They cannot freely divert corporate assets solely for their own cultivation. After slaying Doomsday Beasts in the wilderness or discovering Crystal Veins, they must also hand over a significant portion of monster materials and raw crystal ore as 'hunting taxes,' 'resource taxes,' and 'income taxes.'

"Theoretically, even the founders of the Nine Super Enterprises cannot casually claim the resources of a single blade of grass in the Mist Hidden Forbidden Zone.

"All resources belong to Dragon City. Every blade of