Three thousand concubines in the harem?

After teasing the foreign beauty, Zhang Yuan felt...

Not bad!

As for that "Animal Protection Association," it was purely nonsense, just an excuse to make a quick getaway.

Zhang Yuan gnawed on a grilled octopus skewer, secretly sighing to himself, "Sigh, I won't be able to eat this soon; it's such a pity..."

Synthesizing meat from cells in petri dishes to replace natural meat had long been technically achieved. Moreover, after long-term research, synthetic meat was cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and healthier than natural meat, making it popular among the people of the Third World.

However, synthetic meat always had a soft texture, tasting a bit like a meat patty; it lacked the elasticity of muscle and the chewiness of cartilage, so the mouthfeel wasn't that great.

While eating, Zhang Yuan began to ponder the content of his conversation with Professor Wang Zhong.

The two had chatted for quite a while, covering not just academic issues, but also information regarding the Earth Era, including the work system, economic system, and so on.

For an undergraduate student like him, whose grades were decent but lacked any special achievements, he would be classified as a Level 2 or Level 3 worker, with a basic monthly salary of only 1,100 New Credits.

If he could publish a few decent papers and prove his academic value, he could take on more high-end work, raising his salary to 1,300...

Competition was just that cruel.

"If I follow a good mentor and produce good experimental results, I can also get a raise."

"If I can complete some high-quality patents and bring a certain amount of revenue to the Deep Space Foundation back on Earth, I can get another raise..."

"Is this the new economic system they came up with? Hmm, it feels a bit strange, but it sounds quite effective."

Ideals can motivate one for a moment, but not for a lifetime. The Earth Era was an independent small society, and naturally, it needed a complete set of economic systems to stimulate the work enthusiasm of the internal staff.

The "money" here was not the Federal Credits used on Earth, but the currency within the spaceship, called "New Credits."

As long as one didn't make any major mistakes in their work, it would be issued as a quota every waking month, essentially a type of bond issued by the government.

New Credits could be used to purchase food, clothing, entertainment, and various other services on the ship, and could also be traded between individuals.

Of course, because material output was relatively limited, salaries couldn't be very high—three or four thousand was the ceiling—so the wealth gap between everyone wouldn't be very large...

In addition to this economic policy, there was a second policy: the conversion policy between Federal Credits and New Credits.

The Deep Space Foundation, which provided follow-up "light path" support, might be short on funds. To raise these funds as quickly as possible, the Deep Space Foundation called on astronauts to donate, whether it be personal property or intellectual property.

Property donation was not a mandatory measure; it was just within one's personal capacity.

Property on Earth could be converted to a certain extent into "New Credits" used on the ship.

This conversion plan was still under study, and everyone would be notified in due time.

"Sigh... although this approach is a bit strange, everyone should be able to understand it. Helping the foundation is helping ourselves."

The 500,000 people on the ship all carried a hint of idealism. To go to an unknown planet to pioneer a human colony required suffering, hard work, and potentially even the sacrifice of one's life. All the difficulties had been stated in advance, and everyone was mentally prepared.

Did they really expect to enjoy better comforts than on Earth?

If they wanted comfort, they should have stayed on Earth.

Anyway, Zhang Yuan had already donated all his family's property, so he felt at ease.

But there was one more thing he cared about: the work level on the ship. A higher work level meant having more ship permissions, a more important position, and a higher salary.

People always need to find goals for themselves; Zhang Yuan didn't want to become an expendable, marginal figure on the ship.

However, work levels couldn't be obtained through donations; they could only be calculated fairly and justly through a complete set of "influence factor algorithms" after achieving results through one's own strength.

The highest-level position was "Captain," and there were only a few candidates for that, making it difficult to replace.

Zhang Yuan deeply understood how incredibly difficult it was to have the ship travel to a planet 20 light-years away.

Even if Earth civilization had prepared as much as possible, the entire journey would still be filled with hardships.

A captain not only needed to coordinate planning, allocate resources, and cultivate the next generation of successors, but also had to bear immense psychological pressure. The saying that "even a pig could be a captain" was basically the thinking of a pig.

Besides the captain, the middle-level cadres on the ship included heads of various departments, university experts and professors, project auditors, community committee members, and so on.

The lowest-level staff were, of course, the ship maintenance workers and production floor workers like them. These workers were carried in saturation; to put it bluntly, it wasn't that they weren't important, but that their numbers were so vast that even if half of them died, it wouldn't have a major impact on the ship's operation...

Thinking of this, Zhang Yuan basically made his future plans.

His undergraduate grades were decent, but among the elite, they were only average, so it would be best to write a few good papers to improve his social status.

"In this new society, knowledge is king, and the social atmosphere is great."

"As long as I have good papers, it will be easier to find a mentor; secondly, it can also prove my ability and gain a higher social status."

But what should he write about...

What kind of papers were there to write?

He racked his brains and thought hard, but for the time being, he didn't have any particularly good ideas.

If he just churned out low-quality papers, there wouldn't be much benefit, and he would be scolded by Professor Wang Zhong, which wasn't what he wanted.

Thinking like this for over ten minutes, Zhang Yuan finally ran to his temporary dormitory building, panting heavily.

The dormitory light was on, and there was a roommate inside, an astronaut who had arrived early just like him.

"Knock, knock, knock," he tapped on the door.

"Please, come in!"

Zhang Yuan was startled the moment he stepped through the doorway.

The floor was covered in a chaotic mess of mechanical creations—red, white, yellow, and all sorts of bizarrely shaped robots.

Some were still zooming around recklessly, crashing into the wall with a "thwack" just like toy racing cars.

"Watch your step, don't trip on them."

A plain-looking young man was crouched in the corner, his face smeared with a bit of grease.

Zhang Yuan quickly dodged. The toy car slammed into a table leg again, shedding a few parts.

He carefully navigated around the robots, placed the seafood noodles on the table, and asked curiously, "Buddy, are you building robots?"

"No, I'm in the middle of selecting..."

"These are all my favorite creations. I'm struggling to decide which ones get to go to space with me!"

The young man said with a distressed expression.

At the same time, he looked a bit smug, his eyes constantly observing Zhang Yuan's reaction.

Zhang Yuan smiled and nodded in complete understanding: "Three thousand beauties in the harem, but you can only take one on the road—that's painful, isn't it?"

Each person had a personal allowance of 20 kilograms for belongings; anything more was not permitted.

These machines were all made of metal, and any two of them combined would easily exceed 20 kilograms.

"You're telling me! I've been agonizing over this for hours!" the man across from him said, looking troubled.

Zhang Yuan had no intention of commenting on this behavior.

Everyone had their own hobbies, and this wasn't really a big deal. A guy who could build his own robots was definitely someone impressive.