Chapter 133: Loyalty is the First Priority
There was some time left before meeting with Denison Henry, so Gu Hang took care of something else first.
It had been a full standard Terra month since the last fixed income distribution.
The system was about to pay out wages again.
The last time wages were distributed, he had control over only two camps that couldn’t even be called “Revival City.”
By constantly drawing resources from Revival City, he barely managed to reach a population of around ten thousand before the end of the month, with a monthly fixed income just over fifty points.
In comparison, he now controlled a population of one million.
After taking over Revival City, various debuffs affecting the city state reduced his fixed income from the city’s million residents to only around sixty points.
When he first saw this, Gu Hang was almost shocked and quite dissatisfied with the situation.
However, upon reflection, he realized those debuffs weren’t imposed externally; they were inherent issues the city had when he first captured it.
Over the past two weeks, he had directed Osena and Lambert to undertake numerous tasks in the city.
Despite a crisis in the form of a storm that nearly destroyed the city, things were now finally on the path of reconstruction.
Many of the debuffs had indeed been removed due to their efforts.
“City Shutdown,” “Anarchy,” “Post-War Chaos,” and “Rebellion Factions” – to name a few among many that described the city’s previous dire state – had disappeared.
Debuffs like “Hunger City,” “Grassroots Out of Control,” “Administrative Disorder,” and “Trade Interruption” weren’t completely resolved but had downgraded to “Food Shortage,” “Shortage of Grassroots Managers,” “Insufficient Administrative Force,” and “Trade Routes Impeded.”
This indicated that while problems remained, they had improved.
However, several issues, such as “Extremely Low Living Standards,” “Poor Infrastructure,” and “Low Population Quality,” remained unsolved, with around ten debuffs still unresolved.
There was even a new debuff, “Large-scale Damage.”
Overall, however, things were far better than before.
This was evident from the numbers.
The fixed income for Revival City had risen from sixty to 211.
Meanwhile, the growth for Weixing City had been even more drastic.
Originally, it was just over fifty points. Now, with ten thousand people relocated from Revival City, Pobov’s efforts had brought in around twenty thousand more, bringing the population to one hundred and thirty thousand, mostly prepared industrial workers.
The automotive, military, and pharmaceutical industries were all expanding with sufficient population.
Even though many of these new residents had not yet been fully assimilated, with many still unqualified as industrial workers who required adequate training, the monthly grace income had already risen to 187 points.
Together, the two cities totaled 398 points.
Their wages had practically skyrocketed!
More importantly, this was clearly not the limit.
With the construction and production plans for both cities gradually being completed and put into action, increases in grace income due to productivity gains and the removal of negative statuses were foreseeable.
The development momentum was constant, and this number could continue to rise at a considerable rate.
With just this month’s income and the contribution from Pobov’s recent battle, plus previous earnings, Gu Hang now had a total of 889 grace points on hand.
He needed to spend it.
Saving grace points wouldn’t yield interest, but spending them would bring tangible improvements to his territories.
Deciding where to spend it, however, was a question.
Investing further in the “Technology” interface was tempting.
So far, nearly every piece of technology he had drawn had provided significant benefits, either becoming an essential industry within his territory or an invaluable resource.
A prime example of the latter was the reactor; without the reactor power plant, the development of heavy industry would have consumed massive amounts of hot ash stone as energy.
However, the training of industrial workers was a significant problem.
There were still many technological tools and methods that had yet to be fully assimilated.
Furthermore, as more items were drawn from the technology interface, the probability of drawing higher-grade mechanisms increased, making Gu Hang hesitant to invest all his grace points in this area.
First, he allocated 134 points for troop training.
The new two division-sized units he had assembled were almost fully staffed.
Most of the Shifeng Brigade’s personnel were from the old Alliance Legion.
These soldiers had received a certain level of military training, but it was hardly at an advanced level.
Perhaps if someone like Yan Fangxu, a professional military officer, were to dedicate two or three years solely to training them, with sufficient supplies and a few high-intensity battles, they might reach T5 grade soldiers and officers.
But Gu Hang couldn’t afford to wait that long.
The newly recruited infantry division of about seven thousand, organized into three regiments, faced similar issues.
With a combined force of around thirteen thousand, the 134 grace points were spent without much hesitation.
With these points invested, the two division-level units under his command would have formidable combat capabilities.
This applied not only to the soldiers’ military skills but also to their weaponry and equipment.
Even the infantry division, which might seem lacking when compared to the Shifeng Brigade, was formidable.
Each infantryman was equipped with the G9 series, featuring alloy and plastic steel armor plates, with machine guns for squads, mortars for platoons, rapid reconnaissance teams for companies, and artillery battalions for regiments – all they needed was there.
Comparing them to the Empire’s frontline Starfleet divisions, they were roughly equivalent to a third- or fourth-tier unit, a so-called “line-holding division.”
On Fury Owl Planet, few forces could field an infantry division with such high-quality personnel and equipment.
After spending this fixed amount of grace points, Gu Hang still had 755 left.
And now, he had a new place to invest this grace.
Because, when his fixed monthly income exceeded 300 points, a new interface appeared in the system panel.
“Construction.”
Clicking on it, Gu Hang found an extensive dropdown menu filled with icons, each labeled with a question mark, representing buildings yet to be unlocked.
However, five options were unlocked at the top: Technical Academy, Comprehensive Academy, Academy of Loyalty, Military Factory, and Civilian Factory.
The first three were similar in function, with the Technical Academy serving as an example.
“Technical Academy I: After constructing a school to teach mechanical skills and putting it into operation, you can exchange this option to grant the designated academy a minor boost in student learning efficiency and a slight increase in the probability of producing technical talent. Cost: 500 grace.”
The Comprehensive Academy had the same effect, with only the description changed from “mechanical skills” to “comprehensive skills.”
However, it offered only a slight increase in learning efficiency while requiring 1000 grace points.
The Academy of Loyalty was different, focusing solely on teaching “loyalty.”
Primarily centered around loyalty to the Empire, Gu Hang could add his own twist, intertwining loyalty to the Empire with personal loyalty to himself, something he had previously worked to achieve.
Moreover, the Academy of Loyalty provided an additional function by offering a new option for training troops.
Beyond the standard T1-T5 soldier levels, it would introduce a T3 variant: the Company Commissar training option.
The requirement was that personnel undergoing training would spend a week in the Academy of Loyalty for proper instruction, at a cost of 10 grace points per individual.
This price was ten times higher than the typical T3 soldier, but Gu Hang felt it was worth it.
He didn’t need a full army of company commissars; that would be absurd.
Instead, this option allowed him to swiftly train soldiers with absolute loyalty, assigning them to various units to ensure discipline, morale, and combat effectiveness within his forces.
These commissars might lack commanding abilities, and their combat power might only reach T3 due to their firm resolve.
However, their primary role was to inspire allies, steadfastly fighting to the death.
Gu Hang was eager to build the Academy of Loyalty and put his roughly one hundred commissars through a concentrated week of training.
Additionally, he came up with another idea.
In his previous plan to rebuild the Phoenix Battalion, one challenge had been finding absolutely loyal youths to train from childhood.
The Academy of Loyalty seemed like a promising solution.
By adopting orphans or individuals with clean backgrounds, raising them from a young age, and investing a bit of grace to transform them into commissars, he could thoroughly instill loyalty through ideological education.
They would then be promoted to T1 elites and eventually undergo gene seed implantation surgery.
Perfect plan!
All that remained was a way to either purchase or manufacture power armor.
For the former, he needed to find a Foundry World with production capabilities, often associated with the Mechanicus, but Gu Hang lacked such connections.
As for the latter, he had no idea when or if he would obtain technology on par with Star Warriors’ power armor.
However, with solutions emerging one by one, the personnel issue now had a clear resolution.
One step at a time, there would be a way forward.
As for the remaining two options, Civilian and Military Factories, they were similar.
“Civilian Factory I: After constructing a civilian factory and putting it into operation, you can exchange this item to designate the factory, moderately increasing production efficiency. Cost: 100 grace.”
The same applied to the military factory, with the price and description adjusted to focus on military use.
The construction
system mechanism was fairly straightforward based on these options with similar effects.
Instead of constructing buildings from scratch, Gu Hang had to establish the building and its facilities, along with supporting personnel.
The construction system merely offered a boost, like a bonus card placed in the respective factory or school.
Currently, he had only unlocked these two types of buildings.
Each unlocked building also had an “I” after its name, suggesting the possibility of Level 2, 3, or even higher levels in the future.
In addition to enhancing buildings, some structures like the Academy of Loyalty might bring changes to the system’s functions.
The Academy of Loyalty provided a new type of soldier, so other buildings might also do the same.
For instance, although the Technical Academy currently only offered a bonus effect, could higher levels introduce specialized soldiers?
He remembered that the Mechanicus had its own dedicated Guardian Corps, equipped with genuine military power, unlike the Empire’s Cult of Ecclesiarchy, which had been disarmed.
Most notably, the Mechanicus had the Titan Legions.
These powerful machines, akin to mechas, were unparalleled in strength.
One alone could determine the outcome of a battle.
Even if he eventually obtained the capability to produce such war machines, he would still need skilled operators.
For now, Gu Hang had a keen interest in this construction system, especially the Academy of Loyalty.
Unfortunately, the 1000 grace price was rather steep for him at the moment.
He could afford the civilian and military factories but didn’t see the need.
With industrial workers, technological tools to absorb, and an untapped production capacity, his efficiency still had significant room for improvement without resorting to system boosts.
Thus, he decided to save his remaining 755 grace points for now.
He would wait until the next payout and accumulate a thousand points to build the Academy of Loyalty.
Not only could company commissars be trained directly, but the ideological training function of the Academy of Loyalty would be extremely valuable.
In the future, all clerks, administrators, officers, factory managers, business leaders, and even the most common industrial workers could spend time there each year.
Policies could even specify that completing training there would be a requirement or merit for rank advancement.
Loyalty was the first priority.