Ten Conglomerates
All Humanity Fakes Its Disappearance, and I'm Livestreamed Building a SpaceshipContents
- 1Biodata
- 2Objectives
- 3Organization and Authority
- 4Resources and Methods
- 4.1Staged Disappearance
- 4.2Financial Leverage
- 4.3Influence and Information Control
- 5History
- 5.1Launch of *Racial Insight*
- 5.2Refusal to Release Jiang Ye
- 5.3Attempts to Redirect His Research
- 5.4Smear Campaign and Exposure
- 5.5Scientific Pressure and the Tiger Intervention
- 5.6Supernatural Abilities and Artificial Intelligence
- Original Name:
- 十大财团 (shí dà cái tuán)
- Gender:
- Neutral
- Kind:
- Organization
- Scope:
- Novel-specific
- Status:
- Active
- Source:
- AI
- Occurrences:
- 54
- Chapters:
- 20
- Context Up To:
- Ch. 50
- Wiki Model:
- GPT-6.1 Sol
- Updated:
Contents
- 1Biodata
- 2Objectives
- 3Organization and Authority
- 4Resources and Methods
- 4.1Staged Disappearance
- 4.2Financial Leverage
- 4.3Influence and Information Control
- 5History
- 5.1Launch of *Racial Insight*
- 5.2Refusal to Release Jiang Ye
- 5.3Attempts to Redirect His Research
- 5.4Smear Campaign and Exposure
- 5.5Scientific Pressure and the Tiger Intervention
- 5.6Supernatural Abilities and Artificial Intelligence
Biodata
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Ten Conglomerates |
| Original Name | 十大财团 |
| Alias(es) | Ten major conglomerates; ten major consortiums |
| Organization Type | Coalition of ten of the world's leading conglomerates 1. |
| Known Member | DuPont Consortium 13. |
| Occupation/Role | Joint creators and financial backers of Racial Insight, an international survival livestream 1 22. |
| Key Representative | Charlie of the DuPont Consortium, identified as the representative in overall charge of the coalition's involvement 32 34. |
| Status | Active; still directing measures to maintain the show's deception 50. |
| First Appearance | 1 |
Objectives
- Public purpose: Observe six unwitting contestants from six nations for six months in apparently deserted cities, presenting their behavior as a competition to identify the “most outstanding nation” 1.
- Underlying purpose: Make Jiang Ye embarrass himself before a global audience, thereby undermining Dragon Country's national pride and confidence in its culture 3 29.
- Financial interests: Preserve the show's audience, recover its investment, and avoid the expense of replacing its most prominent contestant 13 48.
- Scientific benefits: Exploit Jiang Ye's publicly broadcast mathematical discoveries. Charlie argues that the conglomerates' larger scientific workforce leaves them better positioned than Dragon Country to turn those discoveries into practical advances 39.
Organization and Authority
| Component | Function |
|---|---|
| Conglomerate headquarters and upper leadership | Receive representatives' voting results and meeting minutes; issue decisions on interventions and communications restrictions 13 34 50. |
| Ten representatives | Coordinate a common position and vote on major production decisions. All ten vote against replacing Jiang Ye 13. |
| DuPont Consortium | Takes the lead in discussions with the production directors and conveys the coalition's position 13 29. |
| Charlie | Liaison between the coalition's leadership and the production team; handles outside pressure and gives operational instructions 33 34 36. |
| Production team | A chief director and five assistant directors manage the program under the conglomerates' financial backing and directives 12 22. |
Resources and Methods
Staged Disappearance
- City-scale evacuation: The production empties six modern island cities, leaving one contestant in each without telling them about the experiment 1.
- Concealed surveillance: Hundreds of miniature cameras are installed in Jiang Ye's home, allowing his ordinary activities to be broadcast without his knowledge 2.
- Restricted departure: The production cuts off the island city's means of departure and disguises Jiang Ye's surroundings to sustain the deception 2.
- Manufactured evidence: A driverless crashed car is deliberately placed to encourage Jiang Ye to conclude that humanity has disappeared 3.
- Promised compensation: The show's introduction guarantees that contestants will receive financial compensation afterward 1.
Financial Leverage
| Issue | Amount | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated direct cost of replacing Jiang Ye | US$1 billion | The chief director cites this as a reason replacement would be extremely difficult 13. |
| Estimated indirect losses from replacement | More than US$2 billion | Adds to the coalition's financial argument against releasing him 13. |
| Dragon Country's initial compensation offer | At most US$100 million | Rejected as insufficient 13. |
| Reported price merely to consider Jiang Ye's return | US$50 billion | Dragon Country mathematicians describe the demand as a pretext for refusing his release 15. |
Influence and Information Control
- Paid opinion manipulation: The DuPont representative proposes recruiting people from Dragon Country to turn domestic opinion against Jiang Ye 29.
- Counterintelligence: Charlie claims that an internal investigation exposed a mole after accusations of infiltration began circulating online 33.
- Communications restrictions: When Jiang Ye begins developing artificial intelligence, the leadership orders the island's undersea fiber-optic cables severed and two-thirds of the commercial satellites above it shut down 50.
History
Launch of *Racial Insight*
The Ten Conglomerates jointly organize Racial Insight, secretly evacuating six island cities and selecting contestants who do not know they are being filmed. Dragon Country's contestant, Jiang Ye, is a twenty-year-old student studying abroad. Intelligence reviewed by Zhang Puze indicates that his selection was entirely random 1 3.
Dragon Country accepts the international contest under an agreement intended to break the conglomerates' encirclement of its national rise. Zhang explains that the coalition expects isolation to expose shameful behavior, while Dragon Country places its confidence in the values its contestant represents 3.
Refusal to Release Jiang Ye
Jiang Ye's proof of Zhou's Conjecture draws attention from mathematicians and prompts calls for his protection. Dragon Country requests that he be replaced, leading the production directors to meet with the conglomerates' representatives 11 12 13.
All ten representatives vote against replacement. They cite financial losses, the difficulty of finding an uninformed replacement, and the additional interest generated by having a mathematical genius among otherwise ordinary contestants. The DuPont representative initially dismisses Jiang Ye as merely a talented young mathematician 13.
As concern over Jiang Ye's apparent mental condition grows, mathematicians report that the conglomerates demand US$50 billion merely to consider his return. Zhang also warns that the coalition may have a reserve Dragon Country contestant, although this remains his assessment rather than a confirmed deployment 15 17.
Attempts to Redirect His Research
When the International Mathematical Union requests a presentation for more than two hundred mathematicians, the conglomerates tell the chief director to postpone it until after the show and find a way to stop Jiang Ye from continually solving problems 22.
After his Goldbach's Conjecture proof is confirmed, the coalition still insists that he remain. Its representative explains that replacing him would preserve the national pride he has already inspired, making the show's original objective unattainable. The new approach is to steer him away from mathematics and turn public opinion against him 28 29.
Smear Campaign and Exposure
A campaign portraying Jiang Ye as a government-backed fraud spreads across domestic and international platforms. The DuPont representative welcomes the backlash and plans additional rewards for the Dragon Country man he recruited, but becomes concerned when viewers speculate that agents have infiltrated the conglomerates 31 32.
Zhang arrests Chen Haoyu while he is speaking with Charlie. During their confrontation by telephone, Charlie claims that the campaign has already achieved its purpose and that the resulting internal investigation uncovered a mole. Dragon Country later publishes recordings of Chen's calls with the conglomerates and penalizes accounts and platforms involved in the abuse, reversing the backlash 33 39.
Scientific Pressure and the Tiger Intervention
The production arranges for a tiger to disturb Jiang Ye near his university. Carlos of the International Mathematical Union rallies mathematicians and Nobel laureates to oppose the danger, prompting the conglomerates' leadership to order the animal anesthetized 34.
The concession is temporary. Charlie subsequently instructs the directors to wake the tiger after Jiang Ye finishes his mathematical argument and force him back into survival activities. The production carries out the plan despite Dragon Country's condemnation, but Jiang Ye eventually kills the tiger himself 36 40 44.
Charlie also reframes Jiang Ye's research as an asset: mathematical results are made public, allowing the conglomerates' scientists to benefit without paying their creator. He therefore favors protecting Jiang Ye while keeping him within the program's control 39.
Supernatural Abilities and Artificial Intelligence
As Jiang Ye attempts to repair industrial power equipment after studying its documentation, the conglomerates join governments in searching for hidden superpowered people. Dragon Country simultaneously prepares protective and deterrent measures against possible attacks on him 47.
Following the successful repair, William proposes ending Jiang Ye's participation. Charlie refuses, citing the value of his continued presence and the need to recover the investment. He also discusses an on-show fatal accident as less politically exposing than killing Jiang Ye after removal; no such killing occurs in the supplied chapters 48.
When Jiang Ye begins programming an advanced artificial intelligence, production experts warn that it could discover the people outside the island. The conglomerates respond by ordering physical cable cuts and satellite shutdowns to prevent the AI from scanning beyond the staged environment 50.