Then let the witch offer her loyalty

The colony was established more than 300 years ago. Because the planet is mainly rich in mineral resources and has few organic resources, most areas are uninhabited. Humans are concentrated in the colony cities covering more than 100,000 square kilometers, with a total population of about 100 million.

The entire colony was mainly divided into the "Upper Town" and the "Lower Town".

The Lower City is where they are now. To put it bluntly, it's a slum. The people living here are mostly poor, and it's filled with heavy industrial facilities, pollution, and wastewater.

The Upper District, on the other hand, is the traditional "main urban area," a safe and prosperous place where respectable people live, including Anies.

The hovermobile was very fast, and the scenery below kept flying by. The further north we went, the more the architectural style changed from dilapidated to prosperous, and we could see high-rise buildings shining with neon lights.

In the distance, there were some orderly flying lights; those were all armed airships belonging to the Planetary Defense Force, carrying out patrol missions.

The man with the rooster-like haircut stopped beside an open street and turned to Chen Moxin with a forced smile, saying, "Sir, this is the only way we can take you. The boundary between the upper and lower city areas is ahead, and there are aerial patrols further ahead, so it's inconvenient for vehicles like ours to go in."

After getting out of the car, Chen Moxin casually patted his shoulder: "Not bad, I'm very satisfied. By the way, give me your contact information, I might need to contact you again in the future."

The man with the rooster-like hair was naturally flattered and gave them his contact information.

The means of communication are not much different from reality; the world still uses "cell phones."

Chen Moxin noted down the number of the man with the rooster-like haircut and let him leave.

After the outsiders left, Chen Moxin looked at Alexander and Lei Lie.

"Let's assign tasks and split up. Zhongguo, Lei Lie, you two go and find out about Anies. Try to track her down, because we'll definitely be making direct contact with her later."

"No problem, Brother Chen, what about you?"

Chen Moxin rested his chin on his hand and said thoughtfully, "The information about the Resonance World that Captain Yang gave us before was not comprehensive in many places. The records of this world, especially the local customs and culture, were very limited."

“Those thugs were rather simple-minded, and we managed to fool them by pretending to be outsiders. But if we were to deal with someone like Anies later on, our current limited understanding might expose that we don’t belong to this world.”

"Therefore, I want to learn more about the current state of human civilization, which will be beneficial to our subsequent actions."

Chapter 135 Human Union

After determining the division of labor, Chen Moxin first used her spiritual energy to take some money from several innocent passersby.

Since the people in the cube are all fake, can taking money from fake people be considered stealing?

The three used the stolen money to buy essential equipment such as cell phones, and then went their separate ways.

After asking passersby, Chen Moxin discovered that the colony actually had a library.

Although it's called a "library," in this technologically advanced world, reading has long been paperless.

When people want to read in the library, they only need to sit in a designated spot, and the stacks will unfold in front of them in the form of holographic images. Any book or material that is in the stacks can be viewed on the spot.

The amount of information was vast; it was impossible for Chen Moxin to read it all even if he spent a lifetime on his own. He decided to focus on reading the important parts.

If you want to quickly understand a world, a grand narrative historical work like a "World History" is the perfect choice, and he found a similar book here.

After reading all night, Chen Moxin gained a preliminary understanding of the human civilization here.

Humanity in the Resonance World originated from a planet called "Gaia".

Just like in the real world, human civilization on Gaia has gone through many eras of development, with countless nations rising and falling, and endless wars and conflicts between different groups.

As civilization developed and conflicts raged for centuries, Gaia faced countless problems—depletion of natural resources, severe industrial pollution, environmental degradation, extreme weather, and species extinction...

These problems, which concern all of humanity, are becoming increasingly prominent, threatening the survival of entire populations and ultimately overshadowing conflicts between nations.

The existential crisis forced humanity to unite, stop fighting amongst themselves, and reach a consensus: humanity cannot remain on its home planet forever; for the sake of civilization's development, it must one day venture into deep space.

Against this backdrop, the concept of nation-states gradually disappeared, and humanity formed a world government called the "Human Union," which devoted itself to developing space travel technology and eventually embarked on the path of space colonization.

Over a long period of time, humanity found several target planets, some with habitable environments and others with abundant resources, and successfully established bases on them.

Today, the human union's central hub remains on its home planet Gaia, while there are 12 planetary colonies like Cicero.

The planets where these colonies are located are generally within 10 light-years of Gaia's home planet.

Ten light-years is a very short distance on the scale of the entire universe, but it's not that humans don't want to explore farther places, but rather that they are limited by space travel technology.

The most advanced spacecraft currently in existence can only theoretically reach a maximum speed of 15% of the speed of light. If the time for acceleration and deceleration is taken into account, the average speed is even lower.

In addition to limitations such as human lifespan, the recycling of resources during hibernation, and the wear and tear on ship parts, 10 light-years is already the limit that humanity can currently reach.

The human community is well aware that compared to the boundless universe, 10 light-years is nothing more than a grain of sand in the ocean.

Furthermore, at the theoretical level, the speed of light in the macroscopic world has a limit. Even if humanity were to develop a spaceship that could travel at the speed of light, the so-called "speed of light" would still be far too slow in the face of a universe spanning billions of light-years.

In order to break the speed of light limit, humanity launched the "Stargate Project".

Human scientists hope to create a spacetime tunnel similar to a "wormhole" by tearing space apart with ultra-high energy levels, allowing spaceships to travel through it and complete spatial leaps, thereby bypassing the physical constant of the speed of light that limits conventional navigation.

The planet Cicero, which is only 1.4 light-years away from Gaia, is the primary experimental site for the Stargate Project.

In addition to the background related to interstellar travel, Chen Moxin also learned from historical records that "psychic energy" is a power that has existed in this world since ancient times.

As early as the ancient Stone Age, archaeologists deciphered from cuneiform symbols that psionicists would act as priests or prophets within a group.

Unlike the charlatans of ancient times in the real world, the wizards of this world can truly "cast spells." The extraordinary power brought by psychic energy has made this group a revered existence since ancient times.

Even now, with advanced technology, psionicists still hold a supreme position among humans.

Taking the current political system of the human union as an example, humans are officially divided into three classes: psionicists, psionic descendants, and mortals.

Psionicists are the "blessers" and "recipients," corresponding to "witches" and "proxyers" in the real world.

Psionicists are the "nobles" at the top of the social hierarchy, wielding significant political and military power.

Within the Human Union government, those in high positions are mostly psionicists; these extraordinary elites control the lifeline of the entire human world.

It is worth mentioning that since the "Blesser" is a natural psychic, while the "Blessed" is created by human intervention, the former's status is relatively more transcendent than the latter's.

Those in the middle of the social classes are the "spiritual descendants".

Spirit descendants are mortals and have no psychic powers.

However, as long as a person has a "blesser" within three generations of their direct or collateral relatives, they will legally obtain the status of "spiritual descendant".

The status of the Spirit Descendants is not as prominent as that of the Psionicists, but it is still very prestigious. They enjoy social resources and preferential policies and are qualified to receive various forms of higher education.

Most of the descendants of the spirits, after entering society, will join government departments and become pillars of society, or devote themselves to fields such as business and finance, culture and art, and scientific research, playing very important roles.

At the bottom of society are the "mortals," ordinary people in the literal sense, who have no spiritual powers and whose three generations of lineage have never produced a "blesser."

Ordinary people make up the largest number of people, accounting for more than 85% of the total population. They are also the lowest class. Although they are not like the slaves without personality in the feudal era, they generally do not have the opportunity to receive higher education.

Ordinary people, once they reach the appropriate age, will be sent to military academies or various technical schools to learn a skill. After graduation, they will either join the army or engage in social production work.

Only those mortals with exceptional natural talents, who are chosen by psychics or spirit descendants through a series of coincidences, have the opportunity to rise through the ranks and come into contact with things that do not belong to them.

Of course, such lucky individuals who defy fate are extremely rare; most ordinary people simply drift along within their own social class.

For example, the thugs that Chen Moxin and the others encountered before were ordinary people, and among them, they were the worst off among ordinary people.

It's no wonder that the thugs performed a sliding kneeling motion on the spot after discovering that Chen Moxin and the others were psychics.

Regardless of social status or personal power, psychics and mortals are worlds apart.

For ordinary people to offend psychics, the consequences are not something they can easily bear.

Chen Moxin spent the whole night in the library and gained a general understanding of the world. Even though she was still unclear about many details, at least she was no longer completely ignorant.

What puzzled him was that "madness" was not mentioned in world history.

He initially thought it was just a difference in terminology, since "Madman" was the term used in the real world, and the Resonance World might not use it, just like the two worlds had different terms for psionicists.

However, when he searched for keywords such as "disaster," "erosion," and "out of control," he found no connection between them and psionic energy.

Is this because you didn't have enough time to find the key information?

Or is it that matters concerning "madness" have been strictly blocked by the Human Union government?

Or perhaps for some other reason...

Just as Chen Moxin continued to read other materials, his cell phone, which he had just bought yesterday, rang. It was Alexander calling.

"Zhongguo, how are things on your end? Do you know how to find Anise?"

"Yes, I found out where she lives. It's near the Shangcheng District Administrative Center. She owns a manor there."

Alexander's voice became very excited as he spoke: "And I've made an unexpected discovery. Are you done with your work over there? Come over to Fifth Avenue in Beston when you're done. There's a bridge here, and Rayleigh and I will be waiting for you."

There are always books to read, and Chen Moxin felt that this initial understanding was enough. After all, he wasn't there to do academic research; the most important thing was the resonance mission.

"Okay, I'll be right over."

Chen Moxin went out and found a floating taxi to head to Fifth Avenue in Beston. She quickly found the bridge that Alexander had mentioned.

This is probably one of the attractions of the Cicero Planet Colony; it's very lively.

The morning sun cast a golden glow over the magnificent bridge, and the square in front was bustling with people. Street performers strummed their guitars, young couples posed for photos hand in hand by the railings, and many children ran, jumped, chased, and played.

Chen Moxin arrived at the bridge and looked around. A voice called out from behind, "Brother Chen."

Turning my head, I saw Alexander and Lei Lie standing not far away, waving, with some food in their hands.

"Sigh, I've been busy all night. I was thinking of buying some exotic food to try, but the food here is really not good."

Chen Moxin walked over and saw that the plastic bowls in their hands contained some kind of yellowish-brown paste.

"What the hell is this?"

"It's said to be a synthetic starch produced in a factory. It's the staple food here. You just pour some water into it, stir it, and you can eat it. It's similar to sesame paste, but the taste is completely different."

Chen Moxin picked up a spoon and scooped up a mouthful.

Well, it's not disgusting, but it doesn't taste like much; it's a bit like the kind of rice cereal babies eat.

Chen Moxin then took out a hamburger and a bottle of juice from Alexander's plastic bag.

Both of these items are clearly high-tech and require rudimentary workmanship. The hamburger bun is hard and dry, the meat inside tastes like plastic, and the juice tastes like artificial flavoring.

This stuff that even dogs would shake their heads at is supposedly considered one of the better foods here.

This shows that the living environment of the Cicero planetary colony was indeed not good, since the natural resources here were mainly minerals, and there were no conditions for farming or grazing.

Most people eat all kinds of factory-made foods, and things like fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy products, even if they exist, are probably only supplied to the upper class.

Chen Moxin lost his appetite for these things, so he stopped eating and instead asked, "Zhongguo, you sounded quite excited on the phone. Did you make any unexpected discoveries?"

Alexander smiled and pointed to the other side of the bridge: "Look over there, look further ahead."

Chen Moxin looked towards the distant horizon, where a magnificent circular building stretched between the earth and the sky. It was estimated to be at least several thousand meters high. The huge metal ring shone brightly in the sunlight, and the space around it was slightly distorted from time to time due to the disturbance of the energy field, as if the entire building might break free from gravity and rise into deep space at any moment.

Chen Moxin had seen this magnificent creation when she was riding the airship, but she didn't think about it in detail. After all, the various buildings in the upper city were very futuristic, and everything seemed novel.

At this moment, Alexander specifically mentioned it, and Chen Moxin quickly realized: "That's the stargate?"

Alexander nodded and smiled, "That's right, I asked the residents here, and that's the experimental site for the Stargate Project!"

"Very good, that locks down the facilities for the third mission." Chen Moxin patted Alexander on the shoulder approvingly. "Have you checked the stargate area?"

Alexander shook his head with some regret: "We originally wanted to go, but we asked and found out that it's a controlled area. Even for recipients like us, we need permission from the governor's office to go there."

Chen Mo thought for a moment and said, "It's okay, there's no rush regarding the Star Gate. Have you noticed that our three missions are actually interconnected?"

"Whether it's ensuring the smooth progress of the Stargate Project or gaining command of the planetary defense forces, the Governor's Office is indispensable."

“And Anies is one of the candidates for planetary governor. If we want to complete the two tasks successfully, the first step is to get close to Anies, not only to ensure her survival, but also to ensure that she wins the election.”

Alexander said thoughtfully, "Understood. To successfully complete all the tasks, we must first get close to Anies."

"But we're not related to her at all. If we want to get close to her, we need some kind of connection. How do we do that..."

Just as the three were discussing, a news report was broadcast on the holographic screens between the skyscrapers.

"According to our sources, last night, rebels launched a premeditated bomb attack on the Central Cultural Theatre on Seventh Avenue in the Upper Town, killing 27 innocent civilians and injuring 156 others, including many women, children, and the elderly."

"This heinous act completely exposes the inhuman nature of the rebel organization. They target civilians and use fear as a weapon in an attempt to shake the peace and order of the planet Cicero."

"The Governor's Office spokesperson strongly condemned this, stating that there would be no compromise on the violent acts and ordering the Planetary Defense Force to launch a full-scale operation to bring all those involved to justice."

"At the same time, the Governor's Office solemnly appeals to the residents of the Lower City to remain clear-headed and not be misled by inflammatory rhetoric into becoming accomplices to violence. The Governor's Office is always committed to improving people's livelihoods, and any reasonable demands can be made through legal channels. Violence will only push our homes into the abyss."

Chapter 136 Cicero's Rebels

Chen Moxin looked at the news broadcast: "Oh? There are actually rebels in this place? Let's go check out the relevant intelligence."

Information about the rebels on Cicero is not hard to find; it's readily available online, including official announcements from the governor's office and discussions from the general public.

Chen Moxin and the others quickly sorted out the relevant intelligence.