Stellaris from the Automata Era

"Actually, our citizens stranded in your area should be able to provide high-quality labor. If they suddenly withdraw, it might cause a lot of infrastructure to collapse. How about putting this on hold for now?"

These words almost made Yan Luo, who was watching remotely, applaud.

This is clearly telling him that we don't want these people anyway. Do you want to treat them as slaves?

Yan Luo suddenly felt that he was not facing a civilization in the interstellar era, but a dream back to the 19th century, where the great powers were gradually encroaching on and dividing Daqing.

He still had some impression of how Lan Fang died.

If he were placed on the opposite side, his blood pressure might have been much higher by now, but since he is the beneficiary now, he can only be happy.

"Then there's the exchange of rights of way, active information links, and so on. We'll have a detailed list, take a look at it."

After discussing the two big issues, the rest are actually some small things.

For Slime, these are not some difficult conditions to accept after carefully reading some additional benefits.

The slime, which temporarily had a mushroom head, nodded repeatedly to indicate that it was feasible.

Finally, after both parties confirmed that everything was correct, they signed their names on a paper-like document. (Note)

ps: Note: Slime has its own electronic information technology. However, considering the national level, electronic contracts that can be saved are always the least secure type.

Perhaps paper documents are indeed primitive and inefficient, but the cost of forgery and tampering is also the highest.

Chapter 272: Slime life has gotten better?

Even if a ceasefire was achieved between the Earth and the slime, and diplomatic relations were established.

However, the aftermath of the war cannot be eliminated at this point, first of all, there is the mud that was divided up from large tracts of territory.

After confirming that many of its own galaxies had been crossed out and changed color from the star map, the overall social happiness of the slime instantly dropped by 30 percentage points.

In the capital area of ​​their main star, many people have begun to hold marches and demonstrations, demanding that the government rebuild its military and retake the lost territory so as not to discourage the patriotic hearts of the people.

Of course, anyone with a sharp eye could easily notice that these patriots were well-trained and uniformed, and they were probably either private soldiers or former mercenaries.

The cost of this ceasefire was indeed quite high, according to incomplete statistics from afterwards.

Nearly 30 percent of the subordinate companies were affected. The main business of these companies was to take over the star systems that many powerful groups were unwilling to develop.

From this we can see what the specific components of a patriot are.

But this is easy to understand. There are many examples on Earth that can be used as reference.

So there is no need to say too much about these.

In any case, when dealing with these rebellious elements, Slime finally chose an exchange of interests rather than a more forceful suppression.

Even though the country's territory has shrunk significantly, it still has many habitable planets due to its muddy background.

In fact, their development has always been a difficult point. If a large number of subordinate companies willing to do the dirty work are dealt with at once, I am afraid that these parts will have to be done by the upper levels of the pyramid themselves.

Not to mention that these subordinates are all dependent on their superiors. In essence, part of their income has to be contributed as dividends.

When thinking about these things, many decision makers actually felt a dull pain in their hearts. Less profit means a big loss, and their happiness level dropped again.

Having said that, after a collision with the earth, it is not all negative debuffs.

"Are we actually still short of labor?"

After taking away 40 billion people from the Earth, in order to appease the remaining 30%, the slime had to redistribute the planetary development plan.

With a loss of 40 billion, they will need to supplement it with another 40 billion in revenue for development. Even a huge surplus population like the Slime will eventually run out.

In other words, their social system no longer has a situation where they can support idle people.

This cannot but be said to be a good thing.

In fact, the population structure problem is actually a vicious circle. For the slime, it is not that they do not need development, but that the jobs required for development cannot keep up with the population growth.

In particular, the working efficiency of the slime species can catch up with that of the machines, which also leads to their production capacity being in serious oversupply.

At the same time as there is a surplus, their domestic demand cannot keep up and they cannot consume some of the accumulated materials.

This is also the case for many populous countries in the world. They choose the more inefficient manual assembly line production, perhaps due to technology and funding.

But if those who have no shortage of technology and funds still choose to pile up manpower, they must be worried about the various negative effects brought about by the unemployed population.

Moreover, the negative impact of unemployment may be permanent, as vested interests and the current situation have made it impossible for anyone to reshape the industrial structure. (Note)

After that there will be slums, granting of subsidies, printing of money, and then we will face a collapse. For the specific operations, please go to the next door Eagle Sauce for detailed information.

In any case, it is often difficult to reverse the situation without some major events.

For slimes, population depletion is a major event that reconstructs them.

Maybe they will encounter other problems later, but the temporary difficulties have been overcome.

Another good thing that can be said is probably the trade with the Earth.

The production of ooze cannot be said to be entirely useless.

Although humanoids may not have any use for their items, but...it seems that the Earth still has 40 billion new people under its command.

When it comes to consumer goods, nothing is more appropriate than distributing them in their original form.

Wait? Why would Earth give consumer goods to its slave slimes?

Anyway, these Bolang slimes don’t want to know for the time being. It is enough for them to know that the Earth can clear out some of their inventory.

They can even foresee that as the number of their compatriots gradually increases, more supplies will be needed on Earth.

When thinking of this, if the current surplus population had not been cleared out, Slime would have wanted to ask if the Earth needed more slaves.

As for the currency used by both parties in the transaction...it is of course the energy coin.

As a solid form of energy, it may really have some magical functions.

In fact, for an interstellar civilization, the real difficulty is not production, but the maintenance cost of production.

While maintaining income and expenditure, most civilizations will retain and accumulate a batch of production tools that will not be turned on. Once a shortage of materials occurs, the stored energy will be used for emergency activation.

Improve and obtain a large amount of materials in a short period of time.

Of course, this approach is quite unbalanced and wastes energy, but it is sufficient for emergency use.

This is also the real reason why energy coins are regarded as hard currency.

For some corrupted beings that can create void products, energy coins are like life force, after all, machines still need electricity.

In short, this transaction does not cause much loss for either the Earth or the Slime. On the one hand, the Earth's power generation model is a bit outrageous, and on the other hand, there are too many things accumulated in the Slime, resulting in price differences.

So it is actually a truly win-win situation for both parties, and everyone feels that they have made a profit.

As for whether anyone will suffer losses later, we will have to wait and see how things develop later.

As for the Earth, I will not describe how to deal with the current situation.

After completing a series of major events such as transactions and negotiations with the slime, Yan Luo's focus has been on the box sent by Mushroom.

"So what is this?"

ps: Note: I feel that Victoria is a good game. Taking my shallow understanding of the rapid development of the Qing Dynasty as an example, the first industrial fulcrum I set up for the Qing Dynasty is iron ore. As a building material, the main force of consumption in the early stage is the construction department.

Then I used this as a fulcrum and started to build and build non-stop. When I became the number one power, I realized that I could no longer stop building.

Otherwise, iron will soon become cheap because no one uses it, and when it becomes cheap, layoffs will begin, followed by tool steelmaking and food factories that cannot afford it because more and more poor people cannot afford it.

Therefore, once there is a problem with the industrial structure, it will collapse immediately.

Chapter 273: The First Magic Element

"A...special information storage device, probably..."

The strange box obtained from the mushrooms was naturally received by the scientists for research.

Although its overall shape looks very similar to the rectangular block used to seal 11b, its actual volume is only the size of a palm.

After conducting some initial tests on it, Rui, who was the most knowledgeable in magic research, responded to Yan Luo in confusion.

"A forged alloy imbued with magic essence, with a pattern outlined in tiny angelic characters. At first glance, it certainly looks like our craft. Honestly, if it weren't for this, I'd almost mistake it for our creation."

Rui turned the box over with his hands, and then, under Yan Luo's gaze, pointed at the pattern on it.

Carved in the ancient pattern is a round head with wings. Don’t ask Yan Luo how he recognized it, the round head and facial shape are too iconic.

"We don't depict round head patterns. It's a matter of principle, and if you look deeper, it's more like YoRHa's black box technology."

The technology of humanoids and mechanical life forms is borrowed from each other, one copies technology and the other copies magic.

Therefore, everyone knows each other's technical styles very well.

"More importantly... sir, the angelic language used here seems to be a variant... If you don't understand it, you can think of it as the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese characters."

Are there any variants of Angelic Writing? This is a big question.

You know, humanoid magic technology itself is based on the construction of angelic writing.

Some people may not quite understand what this means. If it can produce mutations and still be effective, it means that the magic essence can be leaked and cracked.

From a technological perspective, the Earth's natural engineering has been shattered.

Of course, it is also possible that the situation is a bit too serious. From a linguistic point of view, angelic writing has already moved beyond the hieroglyphic stage.

This also means that if there is no library specifically used for preservation and comparison, then even after the demise of the Earth's civilization, it will be difficult to unearth such relics.

Professional archaeologists should not even think of deciphering any meaning from the surface.

But if there are variants, then the angelic text can be imitated and expanded to a certain extent.

As for whether this imitated and expanded text can maintain its magical function, it depends on luck.

"Putting aside the fact that it's a variant, you said it's also an information storage device?"

"Yes, in my opinion it should also be an alternative black box. In fact, the storage of key information is its real function."

Maybe many people regard YoRHa's black box self-detonation as the final killing move. The explosion that can flatten a certain area is indeed quite powerful.

However, in fact, these may be the result of the humanoid's own transformation in the later period.

After all, this thing is originally the technology of mechanical life forms. If YoRHa can use it to self-destruct, it doesn't make sense that the mechanical life forms can't do the same?

Judging from the records of the thousands of years of conflict between the two sides, mechanical life does not seem to have this function, otherwise they would not use primitive powder kegs to perish together.

Therefore, YoRHa's black box is also a product of humanoid magic modification. Otherwise, with this kind of technology, the humanoid can more or less see that the mechanical life is letting it go.

"Then I want to know what information it contains."

Yan Luo's orders were quickly obeyed absolutely, with the help of Rui and a group of assistants in her laboratory.

The box was connected to something like a live wire, but because it required the connection of magic energy, the humanoid could not adapt directly like power transmission.

The equipment must undergo some modifications.

Soon, a thin black mist rose in the entire laboratory. This was the overflow of magic energy, materializing the appearance of the real world.

Yan Luo was naturally watching the entire experiment process. Having considered the dangers involved, he very steadily replaced his clone in advance.

So you can watch it up close.

As the black fog gradually thickened, it seemed that the magic element reaction in the laboratory had reached a critical level.

Then the changes began.

The box seemed to emit a white light that was different from the current environment. As time passed, its light became brighter and brighter until it was too dazzling to look directly at.

He even almost had an illusion about Yan Luo.

As if in a trance... Yan Luo seemed to see the scene of 9s and 2b colliding with each other with a black box.

Black box? Collision? Light?

"No! Stop it!"

That's too late.

As soon as Yan Luo finished speaking, the box exceeded the critical reaction threshold.

Then the world in front of his eyes entered nothingness. This... was a metaphor. To be precise, the last scene Yan Luo saw was a black ball-sized object similar to a protective shield appearing outside the box.