Humanity's Greed

That night.

Ye Yun, Hook, and Leos all rested at Clara's home.

Clara's place was fairly decent—a two-story small house.

Ye Yun cooked a few stir-fry dishes, ate with the two little ones that evening, and then went to sleep.

Svarog, meanwhile, was still busy.

It issued a task to the Wanderers in the Robot Settlement: collect Stellar Jade.

These people could use Stellar Jade to exchange for supplies from it.

The Wanderers didn't believe it at first—after all, Stellar Jade was nothing but a pretty trinket, useless for anything else. How could it possibly be traded for precious food?

That was until someone successfully exchanged it for supplies.

In the tent area of the settlement, a Wanderer walked over from Svarog's side, carrying a heavy sack of rice on his back.

"No way? It really can be exchanged for supplies?"

In an instant, every Wanderer in the entire settlement lost their composure.

Heavens! This Stellar Jade could actually be traded for supplies at Big Boss Svarog's place!

All the Wanderers in the settlement swarmed out into the wild like a hive of bees, rushing to find Stellar Jade.

Everyone scrambled and fought, terrified that if they were even a step late, they'd miss their chance to trade for supplies.

"Don't grab that! I found it first!"

"What do you mean, yours? Once it's in my hand, it's mine!"

"Hey! You looking for a fight?"

"Come on! You think I'm scared of you?"

The Wanderers quickly erupted into massive chaos.

It proved that under absolute profit, people couldn't control their own actions.

Gradually, this disorder escalated from shouting matches and trash talk into bloody brawls.

Some had even started to suffer casualties.

Stellar Jade had been enshrined as hope by the Wanderers in the Robot Settlement.

If anyone wanted to snuff out my hope of survival, then you wouldn't live either!

When Svarog learned of this, it immediately dispatched mechs to maintain order.

Anyone caught fighting was violently suppressed.

Only then did the Wanderers calm down.

This uproar caused a huge commotion, waking Hook, Clara, and Ye Yun from their deep sleep. They were now sitting in the living room eating instant noodles.

Ye Yun slurped a mouthful of noodles and glanced at Svarog, who was standing outside the house.

"Svarog, what's up with you? I've been watching you space out."

Svarog looked at Ye Yun.

"Nothing. I just can't understand why these people would fight over a single Stellar Jade. It's something they could get just by diligently searching for supplies."

"I'm wondering if I had never issued the order to exchange Stellar Jade for supplies in the first place, they wouldn't have rioted."

Ye Yun took a sip of the noodle soup.

"You did nothing wrong. The method was wrong."

"If I were you, I'd choose the Work-for-Relief approach."

"That way, you can both manage these people efficiently and build some basic infrastructure."

"For example, housing. Look at those people in your settlement—they're all living in tents."

Hearing this, the computer in Svarog's brain whirred at full speed.

"I understand."

Ye Yun nodded in satisfaction.

"Exactly. There's no rush to exchange supplies. You could even have the mechs gather the supplies themselves."

"When you want to do an exchange, just have Clara contact me. You know what a phone is, right?"

Svarog nodded.

"It's in my database."

Ye Yun tossed the empty instant noodle cup into the Trash Can and patted Svarog.

"I'm going to rest now. You keep working."

With that, Ye Yun took Hook and Clara back to sleep.

Svarog pondered for a moment, then chose to adopt the method Ye Yun had suggested.

This method was indeed perfectly suited for the Robot Settlement—not only could it efficiently manage these Wanderers, but it could also improve the surrounding facilities and equipment.

And so.

Svarog directly issued an order, removing the material exchange point and replacing it with a reward distribution point.

When the Wanderers in the Robot Settlement who hadn't yet exchanged their materials heard this news, they instantly felt like the sky had fallen.

"What! Stellar Jade can't be exchanged for supplies anymore?"

"No way, you guys move that fast? Usually you all look half-dead, but when it comes to grabbing supplies, you're suddenly full of energy?"

"Damn it! One of you must have pissed off Big Boss Svarog! Why else would they suddenly stop letting us exchange? Look over there, there's still so much stuff!"

Everyone turned to look at the material stockpile not far away, which was packed full of supplies.

Someone still thought about asking if they could exchange and ran over to block a Traffic Light Automaton.

"There's still supplies here, so why won't you let us exchange?"

The Traffic Light Automaton stopped and looked at the person blocking its path.

"New orders: exchange of materials halted, replaced with Work-for-Relief. If you want supplies in the future, gather here tomorrow to receive work assignments. Once the work is done, you'll receive your supplies."

With that, the Traffic Light Automaton trotted off on its short legs to continue moving materials.

Seeing that there really was no way to exchange for supplies, the Wanderers could only hang their heads and return to their tents to rest.

Inside Boulder Town.

Natasha was examining March 7th, Dan Heng, Stelle, and Bronya.

Soon, Natasha reached a conclusion: the four had only been knocked out by a sleeping agent and would be fine after some rest.

So, Natasha arranged for the four to rest in a room.

Closing the door, Natasha looked at Sampo, who was waiting nearby.

"Spill it. Who are these people?"

Sampo yawned.

"They're just folks from our Underworld. I found them in a pile of ore. Old Sampo here is a kind-hearted man—how could I stand by and watch them die?"

Natasha said nothing, just stared quietly at Sampo with an expression that said, "Keep acting, I'm watching."

Seeing this, Sampo had no choice but to honestly reveal the four's identities.

Upon learning who they were, Natasha's brow furrowed tightly.

Especially Bronya's identity—Supreme Guardian Heir!

If this wasn't handled properly, the Underworld could face total disaster.

Stelle, March 7th, and Dan Heng weren't particularly troublesome, even if they were wanted criminals from the Upper District.

But the Silvermane Guards wouldn't bother coming here to arrest them.

There were plenty of wanted criminals in the Underworld, all under the watch of The Moles.

"I understand. You can go back now. I'll take care of these people."

Sampo bowed and hunched his back.

"Thanks for the trouble, Big Sister. Old Sampo will take his leave now."

After Sampo left, Natasha called over a few nurses.

"Take good care of these people. Not a single mishap."

The nurses acknowledged, and Natasha returned to her office.

Unlike this morning, there was now a large sack in the corner.

Natasha approached and opened it; it was filled with Stellar Jade.

She picked one up, examined it, and opened her logbook.

[Current Stellar Jade Count: 1365]

These were all the Stellar Jade The Moles had managed to gather so far.

After giving the order today, every member of The Moles had gone out searching, turning every territory under their control upside down.

Just then, Seele pushed the door open and walked in, holding a small pouch in her hand.

"Natasha, I'm back. This is the Stellar Jade I found in Rivets Town."