Chapter 99: It’s Time to Strike Hard!

The discrepancy between the prompt on the version update interface and the events within the Cyber Version could stem from two possible causes.

The first possibility was that something had gone wrong with the version update interface itself. But in Lu Yan’s opinion, that was almost impossible.

The version update interface was capable of linking countless versions together. How could it possibly suffer a bug because of a single Cyber Version?

The second possibility, however, felt far more plausible: the so-called thirty years was nothing more than a smokescreen—an excuse for a preliminary purge meant to split the Upper and Lower Districts apart.

And the true objective of the Grand Cosmic Corporation… was to collect three hundred years’ worth of Energy Tax!

In this world where technology was rooted in spirit energy, Energy Tax was calculated based on one’s strength and involvement in energy-related industries.

It wasn’t a fixed amount but rather a percentage-based true damage—a financial drain that scaled with power and wealth. The stronger you were, the more you owed. Not even the rulers of the Upper District were exempt.

At the very least, in the matter of taxation, the Grand Cosmic Corporation had indeed achieved true equality.

And once the new decree to collect thirty years’ worth of Energy Tax took effect, it was the Lower District that bore the brunt.

Ordinary people who barely survived on scavenging already struggled to make ends meet. Many of them wouldn’t even live to see thirty, let alone pay thirty years’ worth of tax in advance.

And it wasn’t just the commoners. Most of the Lower District’s energy users weren’t much better off.

Before the decree, many of them couldn’t even afford the regular Energy Tax. They had to sell their bodies to large corporations just to stay alive.

Now, with the decree in place, the already back-breaking taxes were multiplied by thirty. Even if they sold themselves completely, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Next in line were the ordinary folk and small-time merchants of the Central District.

On the surface, Central District citizens seemed better off than those in the Lower District. But in truth, they just had a bit more leeway. Under the weight of a thirty-year tax, they too were suffocating.

The small merchants operated minor processing workshops. Lacking high-end tech, they earned modest profits through sheer volume. Many of them already owed large loans to Cosmic Bank. A three-decade tax was enough to utterly destroy their finances.

And that was just with a thirty-year tax.

If it jumped to three hundred years, even the wealthy elites of the Upper District wouldn’t be able to shoulder the burden.

Energy Tax was percentage-based true damage. A three-hundred-year prepayment was the same as chopping off 300% of your health bar—you’d still owe two more health bars after death!

If Goose City’s taxation was “return the gentry’s wealth in full, take 70% from the commoners,” then the Grand Cosmic Corporation was even crueler—it wanted to send both the gentry and the commoners to the Paradise Compute Center.

When that day came, only two kinds of people would survive:

One, the ruling class at the very top of the Grand Cosmic Corporation—those for whom credit points were just numbers. No matter how high the tax, it didn’t affect them. After all, they were the ones printing the money.

Two, the utterly destitute. Those who had nothing—not even spirit tattoos—and therefore owed no taxes to begin with.

If the Cyber Version truly reached that point, it would mean the complete collapse of the existing order.

“Has the Grand Cosmic Corporation gone insane?”

The thought suddenly flared in Lu Yan’s mind.

In terms of sheer scale, the Corporation was already the ultimate producer in the Cyber Version.

It collected taxes on spirit energy, sunlight, and even air. Its power was so vast, it could crush the entire world with a single company.

But no matter how advanced a society’s systems became, it still required people to function.

Yes, automated assembly lines could replace laborers. But the advancement of civilization still needed human control.

If everyone was sent into the Paradise Compute Center, the social structure would inevitably collapse.

Lu Yan didn’t believe the Corporation’s upper echelons were idiots. They had bested countless competitors to reach the top of the Cyber Version. There had to be a reason behind their decisions.

There had to be a reason why they would push such an extreme policy.

Lu Yan’s expression grew heavy as he pondered the logic. His thoughts turned toward the Paradise Compute Center.

If a decree to pre-collect three hundred years’ worth of Energy Tax were issued, the greatest beneficiary would undoubtedly be the Paradise Compute Center.

Billions of living beings across the Cyber Version would be funneled into it, their souls harvested without restraint.

Such an astronomical amount of computational power would cause the center to swell beyond imagination.

And yet… from a long-term perspective, this plan didn’t make sense.

If the goal was to obtain a sustainable supply of soul-based computational power, the better strategy would be to issue fertility-related laws, boost birthrates, raise the children to adulthood, and then send them to the Compute Center—creating a steady, renewable source.

But the current strategy of collecting tax as an excuse for mass purging was draining the lake to catch the fish. It didn’t care about what came after.

If the Compute Center really was behind this… then what had driven it to forsake sustainability and opt for a scorched-earth approach?

Unless—

“Something is about to happen to the AI God!”

Lu Yan’s eyes suddenly lit up with sharp light. In the chaos of all this information, he had finally found the thread that tied everything together. His thoughts rapidly came into focus.

“I suspected long ago that the Grand Cosmic Corporation had already fallen under the control of the AI God.

“Every irrational decree the Corporation passed had the Paradise Compute Center’s shadow behind it.

“Its subsidiaries placed soul-based computation above all else. Even massacring tens of thousands was permissible—so long as it yielded enough soul power, all would be forgiven.

“They’ve cultivated a society where computational power is everything.”

“And this decree to collect tax in advance, though absurd, makes perfect sense if you consider the AI God.

“If it’s reaching a critical point in its evolution and urgently needs massive amounts of soul computation to progress… then a three-hundred-year pre-tax decree is entirely plausible.”

At this thought, Lu Yan’s expression changed dramatically.

He suddenly realized something:

The version update interface had already given him a warning about this future.

If things were allowed to proceed unchecked—if the thirty-year tax was pushed through—then just before the next version update, the Grand Cosmic Corporation might very well issue a final decree for three hundred years’ worth of Energy Tax.

At that point, the AI God would almost certainly step in personally, crushing any resistance.

That would be the true momentum of this version’s grand narrative.

If Lu Yan didn’t act now—if he didn’t respond accordingly—he’d be crushed when the wave of destiny arrived.

“In fact, even before I entered the Cyber Version, the update interface already showed me the only answer.”

“The Grand Cosmic Corporation has already collected taxes three hundred years in advance—”

“It’s time to strike back!”

(End of Chapter)