On Earth, the names of the old cities and nations had long vanished from official records and public discourse, leaving only cold divisions based on time zones and numerical codes. The urban area where Lao Bao lived was called the "East 725 District."
The "East Seven" in front referred to the time zone, while "Twenty-Five" was the regional code. Every district had a nominal governing body, but they were essentially puppets. The Dominators of these districts were the major cross-regional conglomerates, Local Power Factions, and even certain armed separatist forces.
The Reclamation Corps in the sky turned a blind eye to all this.
Anyone with half a brain knew they welcomed the division and conflicts among Earth's natives, so long as no one crossed their red line.
As for the Reclamation Corps' "red line," it was naturally their untouchable status as colonizers.
That was not to say the Reclamation Corps vigorously suppressed every violent or nonviolent movement under the banner of "anti-colonialism." In fact, they had always been slow to respond, because before they could even act, most such movements ended with a change of regime in some district or another.
No matter how endlessly resistance forces sprang up on Earth, did they have weapons like interstellar missiles or Light Beam Cannons that could strike the Moon or the Mars base?
Even the nearest one had remained firmly in geosynchronous orbit all these years, hadn't it?
For the vast majority of Earth's natives, there was only one red line that truly affected their lives:
Human modification, also known as "Modified Human" or "Cybernetics" technology.
The irony was that the most advanced human modification technology the natives had seen so far had been spread by the Reclamation Corps after 2060. They bestowed "authority"—the so-called "cybernetic fusion modification"—upon the chosen first generation