Service

Li Qi observed for fifteen years.

Over those fifteen years, there had been four "Number Fours."

That was right. Number One had held on for six years, which already counted as a long time.

The remaining Number Two, Number Three, and Number Four had only lasted nine years combined.

"There's no need for a Number Five. I understand enough by now." Li Qi nodded slightly. He had thoroughly grasped the basic operating rules of this place.

Of course, that was only at the very bottom level: Rank Eight and Rank Nine. As for those below the ranks, they generally remained inside their grotto-heavens.

If they came out, they probably would not survive even a day.

After all, those Rank Eights living miserably outside also wanted to slaughter a little extra profit.

Yet even within the grotto-heavens, they certainly did not have it easy.

They lived amid bitter, despairing labor.

The entire civilization, the entire world—everyone had to work as if their lives depended on it.

Ordinary people had to mine raw materials. They became miners or farmers; all productive capacity had to submit to allocation. The mined ore was processed and refined, then the essences of countless ordinary ores were forged into Rank Nine raw materials.

That required massive machinery, along with millions of workers laboring day and night.

Yet that still was not enough. They mined district after district, but ore alone was insufficient. It also needed other things, such as special herbs whose juices could grant new properties to the ores.

Thus, vast stretches of fertile fields began growing the necessary medicinal herbs.

Every factory had to serve Rank Nine.

The land did. The mines did. All natural resources, apart from those absolutely necessary to keep people alive, had to serve the components of Rank Nine.

Cities had