201 Plane Passage

In March on the Pandora Plane, one of Wei Keng's individuals, posted to keep watch at the lighthouse, gazed out at the sea with Meat Cat in his arms.

The look of eager anticipation on Wei Keng's face was just like that of some CEO who had gone to the mountains to experience hardship, only to spend half a year squatting by a kiln entrance, waiting for a car to arrive.

Wei Keng thought this was his "sincere heart, returning to the hope of an innocent child." He had no idea that his behavior had nearly made his little-toothed Observer bite her lips crooked!—Bai Linglu in her Space Bubble: "Pathetic. Pathetic. Hmph, what a waste of my good judgment."

There were still no ships on the sea. Wei Keng shooed the cat off the windowsill and onto the roof, then began recording today's Work Log and opened the system.

The information the system had made available at the end of the current mission was the first time Wei Keng had learned that the memories of his individual selves had been preserved after their deaths. If he had found that out immediately after his first self-death, he would undoubtedly have been overjoyed. But now he felt rather indifferent. After these three years, the self who had survived could understand what those who had died had been thinking. And he no longer felt guilty about what he had done while alive over the past two years.

He could face the future without a burden on his mind.

Wei Keng asked, "When I return, will all my thoughts and memories merge again?"

The system replied, "Yes. During the process of merging, some of your memories may not fit together well, and you may lose some of them. But they will all be recorded in the system, and your consciousness will become one hundred percent unified during the merger."

Wei Keng thought carefully about this incompatibility between memories. He examined every part of his consciousness and confirmed that he didn't seem to feel much self-repulsion. None of his selves objected to merging again. There might be a few small issues that could make him hesitate, but Wei Keng's various selves all acknowledged that there was no factual answer yet, so the matter could be considered unknown for now.

Wei Keng took a deep breath, spread his arms toward the distant sun, and stretched. "There shouldn't be any problems. Oh, Observer, thank you. It's been a pleasure working with you."

A few seconds later, the Observer behind the system responded, "Would you like to save this point in time?"

From Wei Keng's perspective, a Time-Space Icon appeared. It showed several Timeline Expansion Models, with the point in time after Wei Keng's departure—where all the timelines originated—highlighted.

Wei Keng asked, "Save it?"

The system replied, "You can set a marker for your next transmigration."

"I'm not coming back. Absolutely not."

"This plane is still rated as high-risk, but you have already dealt with most of the threats here. If you save it, then when you return to this plane in the future, it can still count toward your number of High-Risk Plane explorations. Your potential will soon surpass Civilian Rank. As a 'Knight' or 'High Minister,' you'll need a certain number of high-risk plane missions on your record."

Wei Keng thought about it, paused, then said, "Um, after the war is over, can I transfer to civilian service?"

At this point, Bai Linglu sat up in her Space Bubble. She felt she had figured out where this was going and began typing rapidly.

"Except in cases of severe disability, Transmigrators must obey the job system. As for you, according to the latest consciousness assessment, you are in excellent health. Oh, I hope you stay healthy forever."

Then, as if that threat wasn't convincing enough, the system brought up the Transmigrator Deserter Penalty Notice: anyone who failed to follow transmigration mission orders would lose their Medical Insurance and Social Security. Modern Medical Insurance included Regeneration Surgery. Since memories could be lost when the brain regenerated, Social Security also included Social Re-education. And, well, Wei Keng's two-hundred-yuan-a-month Otaku Room wasn't something he was entitled to by default.

Wei Keng looked conflicted. After hesitating for a moment, he continued searching: "Once a Transmigrator's rank goes up, is going to a high-risk plane mandatory?"

The Wandu Search Engine quickly provided an answer: Active Time-Space Shuttlers must obey organizational regulations and may not violate military orders issued by the Supreme Time-Space Planning Department for any reason.

[Wei Keng didn't know that the Supreme Time-Space Planning Department generally didn't issue compulsory military orders. Only during special periods or in special regions, after failing to educate certain Transmigrators, would it resort to coercive measures. So far, Wei Keng had been nothing but a model law-abiding citizen. The higher-ups at the Time-Space Administration Bureau weren't going to force him into anything just because he was thinking about slacking off. Besides, Bai Linglu was just a low-level clerk. She didn't have the authority to issue Wei Keng a compulsory order.]

But Wei Keng really was intimidated. He felt he ought to build up some experience in high-risk planes, so that if he ever got into trouble, he could say something like, "I've earned my merits for xx. I've shed blood for the Exploration Team. I want to see xx."

Two standard time intervals passed.

Bai Linglu got the result she wanted. After securing Wei Keng's permission to take over certain tasks, she immediately drafted a Right of Appeal and sent it back through the Gravity Well.

Under the legal system governing time-space transmigration, when a Transmigrator and their supervisor in a high-risk plane's Exploration Team jointly declared their insistence on certain basic rights, then even if the plane they explored was appropriated, certain fundamental principles had to be protected during the process.

Bai Linglu, Lawyer Bai, was no bumpkin like Wei Keng. She knew how to use the law to her advantage.

She was now reserving an Explanatory Clause so that when Wei Keng returned to the Pandora Plane, he could exercise rights no less extensive than those of other "highest-level" Exploration Teams.

Meanwhile, the High Ministers at the other end of the Gravity Well, who were preparing to receive the Pandora Plane, saw the system initiate supplementary regulations. They smiled wryly and had no choice but to make concessions.

As for the lawsuit, the High Ministers at the Time-Space Administration Bureau could still pursue it.

Many of Wei Keng's tacit approvals weren't all that clear; some were rather vague. And Lawyer Bai hadn't explained whether Wei Keng could receive compensation in other planes if he agreed to fully transfer the Pandora Plane.

But there was no need! They were all on the same side.

Bai Linglu was the child of a relative of one of their own Observers. She had a strong personality, and the higher-ups had just forced her to surrender the rights to use an entire plane. That was a bit unfair. It was reasonable to preserve her basic rights in that plane; there was no need to go too far.

As for Wei Keng, he was the only surviving child of former teammates of the High Ministers in the Transmigrator corps. He was very honest, but too honest. He just wanted to lie low. If they let him choose freely according to his nature, he might finish his three mandatory missions at Civilian Rank in this campaign and then head back to the Main World to sleep. So they had to put a little pressure on him.

And so, everyone was happy with the outcome.

On another plane,

Hainan, Lingao Port.

Luo Hongxing watched shipment after shipment of weapons, equipment, and industrial facilities being loaded onto the freighter Yuanhua 834.

As a new employee in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, he had secured a major deal for Northern Industries: a Bullet Production Line, a set of ten-million-ton Steel Smelting Equipment that had already been phased out domestically, a Seawater Purification Device, and Chemical Catalysts and raw materials, all to support Central Asia Persia.

President Nixon was seventy-five that year. He had already served more than four terms, matching the historical Roosevelt, and seemed likely to keep running for office.

The Black and White Television was broadcasting extensive coverage of the friendship across the ocean. Well, it was certainly friendly. Luo Hongxing folded the newspaper in his hand. The date was eighteen years before the Second Millennium, and banners hung around the port proclaiming "Accelerate the Construction of xx," "Development Is the xxx," and other such slogans.

This was another Timeline, a Historical Line that diverged somewhat from the Main World at the same point in history.

The Northern Red Bear was very levelheaded. Once it realized it couldn't compete for Central Asia, it gave up on wasting resources there. So there was no playing whack-a-mole in the mountains of the Empire's Graveyard. Instead, it focused on the front line against East Prussia. This strategic retreat seemed to ease the pressure on the Free World, but it also forced the Free World to shoulder all the world's Bad Assets.

Commercial Private Rules were a transitional stage in the development of Human Civilization. During this stage, one had to guard against being made obsolete by the further development of history, while also constantly protecting the system of Commercial Private Rules from being drained by the influence of Feudal Backward Regions.

The former was easy enough to guard against at present. After all, the Red Theory had yet to take hold in the Core Civilization Area.

Apart from the East, many regions had a great deal of catching up to do. Even if they had suddenly leaped into the modern industrial era, they still had shortcomings in production management and lagged in Science and Education.

The latter, however, was much harder to guard against, because the disease lay within the organs.

It was like an oath that couldn't withstand the corruption of sweet-talking artillery shells. Financial transactions, in the end, couldn't resist the lure of feudal privilege either.

After establishing direct business ties with military strongmen and feudal families around the globe, the Financial tycoons of the Capital World inevitably formed circles that bypassed market rules. This erosion ultimately dulled the global governance of Commercial Private Rules, making it impossible to maintain a unified market!

Feudal governance was deeply flawed! Whether in the Southern Peninsula, Latin America, or Western Asia, the evidence was clear: none had undergone a thorough reconstruction of their Civilization System. Their ruling groups had little governing ability and invested very little in Culture and Education or infrastructure for the lower classes. The result was excessively high labor, transportation, and production costs.

The Northern Bear's strategic retreat in this plane was almost a stroke of genius. After Europe and the New Continent had barely completed their first round of Electronic Industry upgrades, all their traditional markets fell into crisis.

In the Main World's parallel history,

after the Axis Powers were defeated, global Commercial Private Rules dealt with the crisis by continually shifting industries to regions with cheaper labor, then anchoring assets by absorbing those regions' markets. First came Western Europe, then the Japanese Archipelago, then the Four Little Dragons of East Asia, and finally the Third Wave on the Eastern Continent. There was an obvious cyclical pattern: once the investment boom ended, a Financial Bubble came along to harvest the gains. Japan and South Korea, then the Four Little Dragons, were no exceptions.

By the time it was the Eastern Continent's turn in the third wave, that region's financial markets were closed. International Commercial Private Rules continued investing in local infrastructure, pouring money into what the global financial rating agencies called "Excess Capacity." Despite criticism from southern "economists," they still had to protect the Public Employment Rate.

Once International Commercial Private Rules entered, the money couldn't get back out—or, rather, when it did, it flowed outward through the Eastern Continent's Silver Storage System as investment. International Capital could no longer move on to cheaper places like Southeast Asia and Southern Asia.

When that game of Drumming and Passing Flowers could no longer keep going, all they could do was constantly play little tricks and try to create chaos, while endlessly dressing up white elephants. They tried to forcibly shift Creditworthiness from Eastern Asia to Southern Asia and the Indochina Peninsula.

But on this Timeline, the first round of Industrial Transfer never happened!

When the Marshall Plan began, the Northern Bear concentrated its forces. It deployed a Heavy Armored Cluster in the west and kept conducting nuclear tests. In the east, it had four Minsk Aircraft Carrier Battle Groups.

After General Mike Five Stars returned home with a pipe between his teeth, the Sailor Shirts blockaded the sea lanes around the Northeast Asian Archipelago twice. This military blockade directly sanctioned Japan's economy until it resembled that of the "Northern Peninsula of the Main World."

When humans landed on the moon, the Red Navy clashed directly with Great Britain in the vast ocean. A Typhoon nuclear submarine immediately sank a British Frigate, then nuclear tests made a show of force. After that, the Ireland Free Front blew up the London Trading Center.

What was Capital? Capital was credit: credit that could be exchanged immediately for raw materials in all kinds of markets. But that credit had to be repaid.

Without a return, Commercial Private Rules wouldn't invest. When Europe and Japan, the finest regions from the Main World Cold War, couldn't support the Lighthouse Empire's Industrial Transfer or expand markets to fill the financial crisis, the credit of Commercial Private Rules collapsed ahead of schedule.

That was where the strategic difference between the Main World and this world's Northern Bear lay!

The Main World's Bear had wanted to compete with the Bald Eagle for World Hegemony. It tried to turn a bicycle into a motorbike by controlling Energy Production Sites. As a result, it poured massive aid and military resources into the middle of the World Island, but the rise of Jewish Restoration struck a blow against the region's reformers and let the royal families cling to life. Its reckless advance in the Afghanistan Region also ended in a total loss.

The Bear in this Plane Line, on the other hand, clearly understood that its National Strength was insufficient to compete with the Bald Eagle everywhere in the world.

It couldn't open its own mines, so it harassed the Bald Eagle's Mining Farmers in its two overseas "mines"—the North Atlantic and the North Pacific, near the Great Island Nation. Its fleets constantly sailed through the area, raising logistics costs and ensuring that the subordinate states in the second tier couldn't enjoy a so-called "middle-class" lifestyle or make the "wealth and advancement" of the Free World look convincing.

Oh, the Bald Eagle had another mine, but exploiting it might ultimately leave it following in the footsteps of John Bull and Gallus Gallus a few decades earlier. But the Cold War between the world's two major camps had dragged on until both sides were at their limits. Was there only one country in the world with the governing capacity and potential to create a vast market?

After a clash along the North Asian Border, the Bald Eagle's beleaguered Strategic Confrontation policymakers seized an opportunity.

Politically, almost overnight, they abandoned a series of proxies along the Western Pacific Island Chain and made major concessions.

The decision-makers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue received a promise that the Central Union would not build a nuclear submarine base on the eastern shore of Nambo Island. They also signed a Naval Agreement that forbade the development of Large Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups. The Fleet Seven, which had been stationed along the edge of the Asian Continent, withdrew to focus entirely on containing the Red Navy. The Great Unification Mission was complete.

The gains for the American Empire were substantial as well.

Seventy years earlier, it had finally acquired new markets through Technology Transfer and eased the enormous pressures within its own Internal Faction.

This called for a look at the Main World Timeline. International Capital needed to maneuver from place to place to stay alive. Even when it filled "debts" by moving Capital into low-labor-cost regions, there was a shortage of "Industrial Technology" worldwide during the Third Industrial Revolution, because the Rhine and Nipponese markets had already been enough to keep Lighthouse Finance alive, while other countries could breathe and develop their industries.

But in this plane's Historical Line, ever since the Nuclear Missile Crisis, these regions with little strategic depth had always been within range of aircraft and warships. They were High-Risk Areas. What the world lacked now was markets—and markets were usually in the hands of Sovereign States with the capacity to govern and defend themselves.

This plane had finally caught its breath because it had chosen the right strategy.

Compared with the absurd situation in the Main Plane after the Second Millennium, where "only high-tech companies like Apple can make huge profits in the East, while other Interest Groups are so furious they can only scream that C stole xx,"

the East Asia Continent in this plane imported no cars from brands like Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz. Its high-precision machinery and power-generation equipment came from American companies that had been driven out by domestic competition. Even the television, washing machine, and home appliance industries in East Asia—industries that had been financed by Japanese Kabushiki Kaisha in the Main World—were entirely supported by American Capital, which had secured the Agency Rights.

Of course, this world still had its problems.

Toot—

The ship's horn sounded out across the sea breeze. Luo Hongxing pulled a counterfeit Z Trademark windproof lighter from his pocket, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and blew out a puff of smoke.

He opened the system and gave his final report: "I'm in Doomsday Time and Space now. We're about to set sail. Time to pick someone up~"