Chapter 2: Grace
In fact, this was only Gu Hang’s first month after transmigrating.
He now found himself in an era of the universe, where a vast human empire ruled over boundless star domains.
The God-Emperor, who ascended ten thousand years ago, established the “Psynet,” bringing psychic energy to humanity.
The current empire was governed by the High Council stationed on Terra, the human homeworld.
About 120 years ago, the planet where Gu Hang now resided was just an ordinary world.
A war completely destroyed the surface environment, turning Fury Owl Planet into a wasteland.
29 years ago, the imperial government evaluated that Fury Owl Planet still had the hope of salvation.
For the first time since the war, they sent a governor to oversee the reconstruction work.
Within the empire’s system, a planetary governor could rule their planet by any means, with the prerequisite being: the governor must remain loyal to the empire.
What is loyalty?
Paying taxes is loyalty.
Failure to pay taxes or paying insufficient taxes results in execution and replacement with someone loyal.
Up to now, in the span of 29 years, Fury Owl Planet had replaced five governors.
In fact, the three governors before Gu Hang each only served two years.
Imperial taxes on Fury Owl Planet are collected every two years, and these three unlucky individuals did not survive past their first tax collection.
And now, Gu Hang had arrived.
A month ago, when he had just transmigrated and merged with the memories of his new body, he was already on the starship heading to Fury Owl Planet.
He needed to ensure that, two years later, Fury Owl Planet could pay a quarter of the standard tax.
The remaining three-quarters would be covered by the sector government, a favorable condition his political family, the Gu family, had secured for him.
Four years later, the second tax collection must be paid in full.
A cruiser belonging to the sector navy was stationed in the planet’s orbit, providing him with support.
The personnel he brought to the surface included only 3,000 slaves, 300 lobotomized and mechanically modified mechanized soldiers, and 30 marines led by Captain Yan Fangxu.
The main political power on Fury Owl Planet, named the “Alliance,” was established by the first governor 29 years ago.
Logically, upon arriving at Fury Owl Planet, Gu Hang should have landed in the Alliance’s capital city, Revival City, taken over the leadership role, and then begun to exercise the planetary governor’s authority based on the Alliance government.
But he didn’t do that.
Instead, he set up a camp not far from Revival City and started doing things that people couldn’t understand.
For instance, Captain Yan Fangxu couldn’t understand why Gu Hang wanted to train those 300 mechanized soldiers.
These slaves, who no longer had independent thought, couldn’t even operate armored vehicles or cannons properly and could only be equipped with the lowest level of gear to be used as cannon fodder, making them seemingly worthless for training.
However, he had to feel ashamed of his shallow understanding.
He watched in astonishment as those mechanized soldiers underwent a tremendous transformation in a very short period!
Under Gu Hang’s command, these mechanized soldiers quickly completed a series of pre-departure tasks, such as assembling and checking their equipment.
During previous training sessions, they also demonstrated significantly enhanced skills and tactics.
Their shooting, physical fitness, and tactical abilities had all seen substantial improvements.
Coupled with their inherent traits of fearlessness and strict discipline, they had become high-level soldiers.
This was already the standard of the Imperial Guard’s regular interstellar forces.
Although he still didn’t believe these mechanized soldiers could match his elite marines one-on-one, there were only 30 elite marines compared to 300 mechanized soldiers.
More crucially, Yan Fangxu couldn’t fathom how Gu Hang had achieved this.
This completely exceeded his understanding: weren’t mechanized soldiers’ capabilities solely dependent on their initial modifications, making further training meaningless?
While he was lost in thought, he heard Gu Hang’s commanding voice: “Captain Yan, get your squad moving faster. How can the elite marines be slower than the mechanized soldiers in pre-battle preparations?”
Snapping back to reality, Yan Fangxu felt a tinge of shame as he saluted Gu Hang, then turned to his subordinates, who were equally stunned by the transformation of the mechanized soldiers, and shouted angrily: “What are you slackers waiting for? Move it! The five slowest will start sleeping with the mechanized soldiers from tomorrow!”
After seeing Yan Fangxu start kicking his team members’ butts, Gu Hang chuckled softly and redirected his attention to the interface in front of him.
The floating, illusory text in his vision formed several options:
[Current Grace Points: 2]
[Total Territory Income: 5/Terra Month]
[Heroes]
[Military Units]
Gu Hang clicked on the second option, [Total Territory Income].
Here, he saw more detailed information: [Governor’s Temporary Camp: 5/Terra Month].
That was the only entry.
According to Gu Hang’s understanding, this monthly total income depended on the system’s recognition of the total income provided by his territories.
Currently, his only territory was this temporary camp.
When he first saw the system and learned he had become a governor, he was eager to see how much Grace a planet as his territory would provide him each month.
However, after disembarking from the starship at Revival City, the number remained zero.
He then speculated that nominal territories weren’t recognized by the system; only territories he had actual control over would count.
As a parachuted governor, it wasn’t easy to control a loose wasteland alliance and integrate the entire alliance.
If it were easy, the previous governors wouldn’t have met their demise.
Thus, he decisively abandoned the path that led past governors to ruin, requested slaves and some armed forces from the starship, left Revival City, and found a vacant lot to start anew, planning to utilize the golden finger that accompanied his transmigration.
After establishing a fully controlled temporary camp, the number finally changed from 0 to 4.
The initial 4, Gu Hang speculated, came from the population.
The subsequent increment likely resulted from the camp’s expansion and improvement.
In the system’s remaining two items, [Heroes] displayed his own interface, while [Military Units] had two entries.
[Marine Squad 1, Comprehensive T4 Level, Upgradable]
[Quantity: 30]
[Equipment: T4]
[Training: T4]
[Experience: T4]
This was the status of the 30 marines led by Yan Fangxu.
The other entry was the mechanized light infantry battalion that had just completed its upgrade.
[1st Mechanized Light Infantry Battalion, Comprehensive T5 Level, Not Upgradable]
[Quantity: 300]
[Equipment: T5]
[Training: T5]
[Experience: -]
The T-levels likely corresponded to the overall strength of the units, with smaller numbers indicating more elite forces.
The mechanized light infantry battalion initially had an unranked level. While well-equipped with rifles, grenades, squad machine guns, and mortar launchers at the platoon level, it lacked heavy weaponry, making it only a light infantry battalion.
He spent 3 Grace Points to upgrade this light infantry battalion.
In four days, this brainless, order-following, low-training-value cannon fodder force underwent a dramatic transformation.
Achieving a T5 training level meant they had reached the standard of the imperial regular army.
The marines at T4 level were considered conventional elite units.
Because the mechanized infantry, initially just cannon fodder, had completed their upgrade, Gu Hang had the confidence to intervene forcefully upon hearing about the Wasteland Society’s situation.
This was an opportunity, and he now had the ability to seize it.
He hoped to use this event to bring the Wasteland Society under his actual control, not just as a nominal governor.
In the future, he planned to gradually expand his actual control area until it encompassed the entire planet.