The Protagonist Is About to Draw an SSR General Card. / Abundance-Also Known as Abundance Can Do Anything.

Huang Cao would never do something as shameless as docking wages. As he had said, there was really no need to fuss over such a small amount of money.

However, he still made his suggestion: Theresia would take the larger share of the wages for these dispatched workers, while the people sent out would take the smaller share.

The ratio would be roughly four to six. Huang Cao considered that an extremely generous split. After all, these Sarkaz people had come with a mission.

Someone always had to make sacrifices... But Theresia objected to this distribution.

"National development is important, but these employees are just as important. I can't build Kazdel's development on the suffering of the Sarkaz people."

"Kazdel only needs twenty percent of the dispatched employees' wages."

"I'm afraid that won't be enough for your country to accumulate its first development fund in a short period."

Huang Cao spoke after careful consideration, though he couldn't help regarding her with a little more respect.

This pink-haired one really did like talking about ideals. She preferred using the most idealistic methods to solve many problems.

The story portrayed her as the Philosopher King, and she never used all sorts of deceptive rhetoric to trick people into joining her.

Putting aside some of her infuriating actions in the original plot, she really was a kind woman who always thought of others.

After all, when trouble came, she truly stepped up, and when she treated you well, it was genuine—not hypocrisy.

Except that sometimes, she was a little too fond of women...

Theresia held the phone and said cautiously, "May I ask, Speaker, what are the wages and benefits for the Sarkaz people in Victoria? What are their living conditions like?"

Huang Cao said over the phone, "There's no need to worry about food. As for the living environment... at most, it can shelter them from the wind and rain. I can provide quilts and beds."

"As for wages, my plan is to calculate them by working hours. Eight hours a day. I'll assign them tasks each day. There will be no base salary, only more work for more pay."

"Of course, since you're Miss Lamian's good friend, I'm willing to offer some fairly substantial benefits. The probation period will be one month. During that time, their wages will be about sixty percent of the official rate. Once the month is over, we'll look at their take-home pay and discuss whether to continue working together."

"As long as they follow production safety regulations and don't leave their posts without permission, I won't object."

Although Huang Cao had no intention of docking wages, given the productivity and technological level of this era, providing every worker with a fully equipped residence would still be asking too much of him.

In this era, having a small shed that could keep out the wind and rain was already pretty good. What more could they ask for?

Even when Eden's castle had yet to be built, Huang Cao and Warfarin had slept hanging from trees.

Theresia nodded in agreement. To secure this investment, she had thrown caution to the wind.

As for wages and the like, there would be no guaranteed minimum. They would simply be paid more for doing more.

One had to trust the Sarkaz people's racial talents. While they could improve work efficiency and output, they could also bring Theresia more financial income.

At that moment, she looked nothing like a Demon King. Instead, she resembled a down-and-out girl.

This transaction could hardly be considered Huang Cao helping her. At most, it was mutually beneficial.

But that didn't mean Theresia had abandoned her ideals for the future. She had merely made some practical compromises for the sake of those ideals. Most likely, that was all they were—compromises.

There was progress, but not much. It could be called a change, but not a major one.

Setting aside the land of Kazdel...

Huang Cao still hoped Kazdel could reach an ending other than the roguelike one, of course, so long as it didn't interfere with him.

When the siblings eventually fought their civil war, at most it would slightly reduce the difficulty of conquering Kazdel for him.

If he possessed absolute power by then, he might even be able to steamroll straight through.

No one could say what the future held. Once Kazdel was unified, Huang Cao could naturally give the Sarkaz people a better life.

By then, after all, he would possess far more resources than Theresia.

81

The protagonist was about to draw a Super General Card.

Once the call ended, Huang Cao looked at the letters piled on his desk and figured he should be able to finish dealing with them in three days.

After handling these miscellaneous matters, he could head to the border of Victoria and try to completely open the passage between Eden and Victoria.

However, one letter on the desk was a joint petition from the members of parliament.

They weren't impeaching him. They were seeking the Speaker's protection.

Since the hundred soldiers who had received the Blessing of Abundance from him had performed brilliantly in Victoria's "pacification" campaign, the members of parliament had submitted applications one after another, asking to take one soldier home.

Their combat power was simply too ferocious. In a direct fight, a single Abundance Warrior could completely scrap a Steam Knight.

You couldn't kill them, and once one latched onto you, you were subjected to a barrage of vine entanglements.

There was no such thing as a Steam Knight with absolutely no gaps. Once vines wormed their way inside, it was only a matter of time before that turtle shell was pried open.

Of course, the prerequisite was that they weren't too far apart. If the Steam Knight kited them from an extreme distance, things became difficult.

It wasn't that they would be kited to death. The main problem was that, from so far away, the enemy could fire a shell and blast them to pieces.

No matter how short their recovery time was, they still needed a while to recover. That was enough time for someone faster on their feet to run a fair distance away.

They could eventually exhaust the enemy's shells and other long-range weapons, but that would take quite a while—unless they had ranged weapons of their own.

To be honest, although the drivers of Steam Knights had exceptional physical abilities, they were still a step below super-powerful races like the Sarkaz and Wyverns.

If one of his Abundance Warriors faced a well-trained Wyvern warrior, the opponent might be able to hold out for a few dozen seconds after entering an explosive state.

Mechanical constructs were completely countered by his Abundance.

That made Abundance Warriors exceptionally suitable for security work, so Huang Cao naturally agreed to the parliamentarians' request.

It wasn't that Huang Cao didn't want to grant more blessings. The main issue was that his own exploration of Abundance was still at an elementary stage. If he accidentally gave too much, he might end up putting on a live performance of blooming on the spot.

Huang Cao could control his own power, but that didn't mean the people blessed by him could control theirs.

Someone might suddenly lose their mind and shout about destroying the entire world. There was nothing Huang Cao could do about such a weirdo.

It wasn't as if he could strip away their thoughts and create a collective consciousness, right?

But manipulating minds was an extremely complicated matter. Huang Cao had no intention of controlling people's thoughts. Otherwise, he would have to split off a brain to handle every single matter himself, which would be unbearably troublesome.

"Next is dealing with the immigration issue."

Huang Cao used the great hand known as the nation to bring all the Talarian people in Victoria under his territory.

Victoria's policies toward the remnants of the former regime were terrible anyway, so he might as well handle it himself.

Come to my territory and grow potatoes!

"For the three months beginning today, all Talarian people who enter the Speaker's territory will receive a ten-year tax exemption."

"Furthermore, all Talarian people will receive employment opportunities and will not need to pay any deposits."

"The average hourly wages are as follows..."

"Regarding this, the Speaker's Office solemnly guarantees to all Talarian people: there will absolutely be no discrimination."

Of course there would be no discrimination. Aside from the Talarian people, everyone in his territory was Sarkaz.

The treatment and experiences of these two races on this land could only be called evenly matched. Neither had any right to mock the other, and both could freely make jokes from hell.

Huang Cao also kept things fair. The average wages for both sides were more or less the same according to the type and intensity of the work.

No matter how miserable the Talarian people had become, most of them had received a proper education before their country fell. In the original plot, they had even staged operas.

Culturally speaking, they could at least not be considered graduates of fetal education—and at this point, they hadn't completely fallen into ruin yet.

Suffering unfair treatment and discrimination was one thing. At least the Talarian people could survive in this country without casually starving to death in the streets.

The dukes' attitude toward these remnants of the former regime was also exceptionally ambiguous. They didn't want to wipe them out completely, but they didn't want them living too well either.

To use an analogy, it was like looking at a bag of relatively valuable garbage.

Conveniently, Huang Cao took the entire bag of "garbage" away in one go.

Thanks to the extraordinary efficiency of the parliamentarians under him, once this decree was issued, the news spread throughout Victoria like lightning, taking less than seven days.

Almost all the Talarian people received the call and began traveling to the border of Victoria with their families in tow.

It wasn't that Huang Cao had earned their trust long ago. Rather, in Victoria, where discrimination against Talarian people had grown increasingly severe, they had nowhere else to go.

Misfortune awaited them wherever they went. On top of that, the Speaker's story had already spread throughout Victoria thanks to the parliamentarians fanning the flames.

Stories about using schemes and methods to triumph over the old nobility had even been compiled into a novel by people with ulterior motives.

Although, in Huang Cao's eyes, the story was utterly ridiculous...

Under this practically frenzied propaganda campaign, the Talarian people began fantasizing about a hero who would come to save them.

What was more, Huang Cao was a foreigner as Speaker, not a native Victoria noble. He had even cleared out the old nobles who had dealt the harshest blows to them.

This undoubtedly enhanced Huang Cao's lofty image in the hearts of the Talarian people.

In short, the decree was implemented extremely smoothly. Within only two days, tens of thousands of Talarian people had arrived in his territory.

Huang Cao had already prepared food for them, and with the parliamentarians' help, he arranged for them to travel to various locations and begin reclaiming the wilderness.

Surely no one actually thought the territory had already been properly managed, right?

Without anyone working, the territory was at most a stretch of wasteland. Fields and land were completely different things.

With so many people, he needed to appoint someone to manage them.

Thus, one month later, facing more than a hundred thousand Talarian people, Huang Cao began looking for someone to help manage them.

This didn't take much time.

One morning, while inspecting the territory, he spotted a white-haired Feline who was still writing and drawing while reclaiming the land.

"What's your name?"

Huang Cao asked curiously.

"Reporting to you, sir, I don't have a name."

"Then what's your surname?"

"My surname is Wellesley. I arrived here half a month ago. May I ask what you require, honored sir?"

"Do you have a son named Arthur?"

"I'm very sorry, but my son isn't named Arthur."

"I only wanted to learn a little more about you people. Work hard. You won't be shorted on your wages."

Huang Cao shook his head and walked away, thinking that this was probably just someone with the same surname.

The white-haired Feline scratched his head, but silently committed the name Arthur to memory. Many years later, he would give that name to his grandson.

That grandson would go on to bear an exceptionally resounding title: the Iron Duke.

But he wouldn't be Victoria's Iron Duke. He would be Huang Cao's Iron Duke alone.

82

Abundance, also known as Abundance Is Omnipotent.

"The Immortals in the story seem rather scarce. I've spent so long in Kazdel and have only met a few familiar faces."

That was a little boring. As expected, familiar faces were more fun.

He had met quite a few of the operators' ancestors.

But it still lacked something.

Sigh, it was a little hard to endure. The happiness of a Long-lived species was really this plain and unpretentious.

According to Xishi's calculations, there were still at least one hundred and twenty years before the main story of the future began.

Perhaps he could take action and change some established facts, forcibly using Abundance's great hand to reverse things that were supposed to happen.

But wouldn't that be a little petty?

After thinking it over, Huang Cao decided that continuing to play the war-criminal-raising game would be more interesting.

"So it's time to build a train with Abundance characteristics."

There were trains on this land, but the total mileage was extremely low, not even surpassing that of the small countries from his previous life.

Even when Siergrag eventually built railways, that small country's total rail mileage would still exceed Kazdel's.