Chapter 358 Only Death and Taxes Are Inevitable

Chapter 358 Only Death and Taxes Are Inevitable

Chapter 358 Only Death and Taxes Are Inevitable

"Oh ho?"

"Something's not right."

Li Zhongren looked at the special handcuffs on his hands. As the author of this book, he knew it very well. This thing is called the Anti-Magic Handcuffs. For psychics whose strength has not reached a certain limit, once they are put on, it will block your interaction with the subspace, thereby indirectly preventing you from using your superpowers.

Of course, it cannot block the whispers of the evil god coming from the warp.

Therefore, it cannot be used to prevent psykers from becoming a source of pollution.

This is something.

In short, normal selection will not allow psychic reserves to bring this thing.

But he was caught, so there was only one conclusion: his golden talent attracted the attention of certain people at the top of the hive.

In a closed room, which was filled with various instruments and traditional spiritual energy barriers, an instrument was placed in the middle of the barrier, and the man was tied up on the instrument.

In response, Li Zhongren did not say anything, but just watched quietly.

He was very curious about what could be done on the top floor of this hive city.

But he was observing his surroundings.

In a certain room, the governor of the hive city was also observing Li Zhongren.

"wrong."

This was his first reaction.

When ordinary people encounter this scene, they will be afraid, horrified, hysterical, and beg for mercy, but they will not just watch the other person do whatever they want to them as if they were watching a show.

He could even see confidence in the other person's eyes.

I don't know where he gets the confidence from.

“Are the test data out yet?”

"Yes, Governor, everything is normal. The other party's qualification is gold."

"This is based on the test data provided by His Majesty the Emperor. We injected a small amount of inactivating subspace pollution into the opponent's body. According to the feedback, it has been proven that the opponent has a strong ability to resist and even offset subspace pollution."

"What about the spiritual energy content in his body?"

"At present, it is in the range of ordinary people, and the current value is 34 psychic energy."

"34"

Raphael put his hands behind his back.

The psychic power of ordinary people ranges from 1 to 50.

34 is a very popular number.

Proves that the other party had never used psychic power before today.

Because as a psychic, the minimum value of psychic energy in the body is over 10,000.

"Why, then, did he behave like this?"

"Has his past been investigated?"

This time, Raphael asked his secretary and housekeeper.

He has followed me for a long time and knows many of my secrets. He is absolutely loyal to me. I have no choice but to let him be loyal because his interests are highly tied to mine. In his opinion, any loyalty is not as good as loyalty to interests. People can betray anything except their interests.

"Governor, we have checked it out. From birth to now, all his data is there. There is no problem, no doubt. It is clean."

"What about his IQ?"

“He’s a normal person too.”

"So, you see?"

Raphael pointed at the screen and looked at Li Zhongren, who was tied to a chair with a nonchalant expression.

"This, Governor, I can't give a reasonable explanation."

The old man gave a dry laugh and bowed.

"Come on, I'll go and see for myself."

"Yes."

"buzz"

The door of the laboratory slowly opened.

Raphael followed his butler in, and the experimenters around him saluted him respectfully.

Raphael nodded slightly and came in front of Li Zhongren.

"You, why aren't you afraid?"

"you are?"

"I am the Governor of this planet."

Raphael replied.

"So, answer my question. Why aren't you afraid? You don't have any cards, and you don't have any backers. In this environment, why aren't you afraid?"

"Before that, I want to ask you a question. I am loyal to the Empire and the Hive City. Why do you want to tie me up?"

"Because I need your body."

After pondering for a moment, Raphael briefly explained what he was going to do.

"For the sake of the hive, for the sake of the empire, I hope you can hand over your body, and I will erect a monument for you."

"Well, Your Excellency the Governor, excuse me for asking you a question."

"what is the problem?"

Raphael felt more and more strange. When a normal person knows that he is going to die and his body is going to be plundered, he will definitely have emotions, but this person still has no emotions. It's just that things have come to this point and there is no room for retreat. If he fails, he will kill this person.

"After you took my body, when you used my body to have sex with your wives, was it you who had sex, or was it me? And if you had offspring after this, wouldn't he be my son?"

"You don't need to care about these things."

Raphael looked a little unhappy. He knew all the problems that Li Zhongren mentioned. In fact, the solution was very simple. He just needed to preserve the genetic factors in advance. As for the other things, after the body transformation, he would undergo plastic surgery to transform his body, so other people would not be able to see the external image.

As for the wife.

Well, there are no women in the Raphael family, and the core of the family is to pursue this illusory immortality.

Their Raphael family all produced their offspring through artificial labor.

"Begin the transfer ceremony."

After a moment, Raphael ordered.

As the saying goes, the longer the night, the more dreams you have. The golden psyker reserves are extremely popular throughout the galaxy.

This is true whether you are cultivating it or simply using it for experiments.

So, logically speaking, he should burn incense, take a bath, and concentrate.

But the reality is that in order to prevent any accidents, he has to prepare for transfer now.

Fortunately, the Raphael family has never forgotten this matter, so the ceremony is prepared, and as long as there are golden reserves, the conversion can be done on the spot.

"Om~~"

With Raphael's order, another test bench rose in the room.

Raphael lay on it himself. There were two test benches side by side. Under each test bench, there were intricate patterns. These were special barriers created by psychics.

Its function is to ensure that during the conversion period, the interior of the barrier will not be disturbed by the sea of ​​​​psychic energy.

"Om~~"

There was another sound of mechanical gears turning, and the robotic arm injected the medicine into Raphael's body. These medicines also served as auxiliary functions, used to enhance Raphael's spiritual abilities.

"Out-of-body experience."

That’s right, this is the special ability of the Raphael family. They can allow their souls to temporarily leave their bodies, which is also the core of their ability to occupy the bodies of other people.

At this moment, under the stimulation of the potion and the unsparing exploitation of his blood, Raphael's soul seemed like a physical entity. Then, he slowly floated to Li Zhongren and drilled into his body with a whoosh.

Fire, a burning volcano!
Raphael screamed in despair
Looking at the volcano in front of us.
He finally understood where the confidence of this pariah on the third level of the hive city came from.

In the world of his psychic projection, there was actually a huge furnace like a volcano.
The next moment, an irresistible attraction sucked Raphael's soul into the furnace.
Li Zhongren slowly opened his eyes. Standing beside him was the butler, Li Deoff.

"Governor, are you okay?"

Li Zhongren looked around. He was the only one in the room. Next to him, Raphael's corpse had turned to dust.

All I can say is that this guy is too anxious, but his anxiety is also reasonable. After all, in his setting, the golden psychic is an existence close to the emperor, and he can't help but be tempted.

In a sense, this is like the flesh of Tang Monk. The monsters in Journey to the West did not eat it because Sun Wukong had not yet conquered him and they did not dare to eat it. But in this world, there are no such restrictions. Once caught, they have to be digested. This is the unspoken rule.

"I'm sorry to hear that your Governor is gone."

"This"

The old man was stunned for a moment, then spoke.

"No, you are Governor Raphael, aren't you?"

"Ah"

Hearing this, Li Zhongren smiled gently.

"Then, I'll leave it to you."

He was not surprised by this result. As Raphael's butler, the old man had a relationship with Raphael in which they shared weal and woe. In a sense, it was like the relationship between the emperor and the eunuch. All his power came from the governor. Now that the governor was dead, who would care about him, an old man?
"I absorbed his soul and know all his memories, so everything went according to plan."

"As you command, Your Excellency the Governor."
-
One needs to work hard to determine his own destiny.

But sometimes, the decision of the goddess of fate is actually more important.

Just like he, yesterday, was still a civilian of the Third Hive.

Today, he becomes the Governor.

Where can I go to seek justice?

At present, according to the plan, he has completed the transformation of his appearance.

Combined with the memories gained through the Flame Furnace, he is Raphael, and even if the Emperor himself is here today, he is still Raphael.

Standing on the top floor of the hive, looking at the world outside the hive.

Li Zhongren turned around.

"Lidoff."

"Governor, what do you want?"

Li Deoff no longer had any contempt for this mysterious young man. In fact, in his mind, the other party was Raphael.

There is no other reason. The contact over the past few days has proved that the other party possesses vision and knowledge far beyond that of an ordinary young man from the nest city.

This is not something that can be obtained simply by devouring Raphael's memory. Otherwise, the ruler of this world should be an artificial intelligence computer, not a human being.

"I want to reform the hive."

Li Zhongren spoke.

"reform?"

"Ah."

Li Zhongren nodded. The construction of the hive city was actually still a copy of the Warhammer series.

But the Warhammer series, after all, is a European and American fantasy, and many things in it are in line with European and American ways of thinking.

To put it simply.

Some things that seem unreasonable to Oriental people are indeed commonplace to Europeans and Americans.

Before he traveled through time, the East and the West had a historic meeting on an app called Hongshu.

The two sides exchanged their lives, living, and daily lives.

Then, both sides were surprised by each other.

Europeans and Americans say that the East knows the SHZY giant baby, while the East says that Europeans and Americans have a will of steel.

It means working sixty hours a week and selling blood twice a week to make a living.

With 7% of the world's population, they provide 70% of the world's blood supply.
It's simply appalling.

Naturally, the Warhammer worldview based on such a set of capitalist logic is actually full of irrationality.

At least it is unreasonable to Oriental people.

For example, about the construction of the hive city, the order of the hive city, and so on.

They are all full of capitalist lazy politics.

Although we have entered the interstellar age and humans have already reached the sea of ​​stars, it still feels like a space opera.

play house.

Xiaojiaziqi.

It is also because of this that the hive city he depicted based on this setting is also full of many unreasonable things.

Of course, in this real world, behind these unreasonable things are many interest groups.

The governor has the highest power on a planet. He has the final say on politics, military affairs, and economy.

No one can resist him.

So, he said that if we want to reform, then we can definitely reform.

"But."

After a moment's silence, Li Deoff spoke.

“Will your reforms affect taxation?”

Taxation, this is another weird setting.

In the interstellar age, the operation of the empire actually requires all planets to provide taxes, that is, money, to the main planet.

This is actually still an idea under the capitalist worldview.

But in reality, such a large amount of money or resources would not even be enough to cover the travel expenses if it were to be transported to the main star over a long distance.

So, he modified this point at the beginning.

An administrative planet needs to pay taxes to the main planet in exchange for a high degree of autonomy. However, the taxes paid are not useless things like money, nor are they various mineral products.

What they exchanged was spiritual energy.

That's right, psychic power.

Only in this way is it most reasonable.

Psionic energy is the hard currency of the entire galaxy and the core that keeps the Astronomican burning.

Basically, except for the emperor's own Astronomical Torch which has infinite MP, other Astronomical Torches need to provide sufficient psychic energy in order to burn. This psychic energy is projected from the real world through the main Astronomical Torch, which is the emperor's Astronomical Torch.

In other words, their taxes are used to maintain the existence of the entire Star Torch network.

As for why the Emperor didn't just draw on the nearly infinite psychic energy of the Warp to maintain the Astronomican network?
It’s not that I can’t, but that I don’t want to.

Ordinary Astronomican cannot withstand the torrent of the Warp, not to mention the will of the evil god mixed in it.

Therefore, only clean spiritual energy can be used without side effects.

And then, the final point.

Where does psychic power come from?
Psychic energy naturally comes from the hive city.

In fact, the entire hive city, in addition to being used to maintain construction, mining, and expansion, also has another function, which is to absorb the fluctuations emanating from the human soul. These fluctuations gather into spiritual energy, which is used to pay taxes.

But, there is one thing.

In order for the hive to complete this ritual, the cooperation of psykers is needed.

As time went on, these psychics had become the ruling class of the hive. Even though their status was below that of the governor, without their cooperation, the governor would not be able to absorb the psychic energy of the entire hive and pay taxes by himself.

The price of not paying taxes is being conquered by the empire, and then getting a new governor.
There will be no problem with the second-level ruling class. They just changed their boss, that's all.

That's why his old butler asked this question.

After all, this is the empire's last line of defense, and only death and taxation are inevitable.

(End of this chapter)