"Most people have arrived, so let's officially start the first board meeting of the United Development Company. First, we should introduce ourselves, so that everyone can get to know us. I'll start..."

The speaker sat in the chairman's seat and looked about sixty years old, his hair already graying. However, one cannot simply judge their age by appearance alone here.

Almost everyone here has a decent living environment and a social network that ordinary people can't fathom. A life of comfort allows them to avoid most factors that cause aging, so each person appears younger than their actual age.

The gentleman appears around sixty, but his actual age might be close to seventy or over seventy, yet his physical abilities resemble those of an ordinary person around sixty.

Though money cannot stop time in humans, it can slow time down to the greatest extent possible.

With the gentleman's introduction, the most prestigious board chairman group of the United Development Company was fully revealed to everyone.

If someone were to list the "Federation's Top Ten Consortia" or "Most Influential Consortia in the Federation," the top ones would be present here today.

People have long known about this. When they paid to buy shares in the United Development Company, they saw the list of the board chairman group. But at this moment, seeing these people in person, everyone was still very excited.

Excited to the point where some people's lips trembled, their eyelids twitching uncontrollably. The reverence for capital and money has already been etched into the bones by the capitalists.

If the chairman group members extended their hands to others now, many would line up to shake hands and present themselves humbly.

With each person's self-introduction, people gained a deeper, more nuanced impression of the board of the United Development Company.

Soon it was Lynch's turn. He stood up, smiled at everyone, "Chairmen and directors, some of us are meeting for the first time, while others we know well. I am Lynch, pleased to meet everyone..."

A very ordinary self-introduction, lacking personal characteristics, but in such a setting, ordinary is what's needed.

An unconventional approach works well for ordinary people at the bottom of society who are trapped in a gray world they can't escape. Only those unconventional things can brighten their eyes and add color to their gray world.

But for the top echelon of society, whose world is already vibrant, unconventional implies nonconformity.

You can say outrageous things or do outrageous deeds, even absurd ones, and no one will condemn you because people know "we are the same kind."

But being unconventional isn't acceptable; that would exclude oneself from the "us," Lynch understood this well, which is why his self-introduction was so plain, without any flair.

All the self-introductions took over half an hour, some spoke slowly or had more to say. All in all, after half an hour, the last shareholder sat down excitedly, and the initially speaking older gentleman began again.

This gentleman's name was "Jeruno," referred to as "Mr. Jeruno," with the surname "Duncan." Jeruno Duncan, a name that was a bit difficult to pronounce and didn't seem like the name of an extraordinary person.

But its owner was indeed different. The Duncan Clan belonged to the first batch of immigrant adventurers to the Federation. As long as they were part of the first batch and didn't encounter issues like "dying young" halfway, they were doing well now, like Mr. Pato's Akiner Clan.

The Duncan Clan was the same, although they weren't as well-known among the people, as they were very low-key.

They distributed shares fairly among their family members and various international and domestic foundations, making it seem like they lacked any well-known, representative figures.

But in the circles of the upper class, among the real elite, the Duncan Clan is a family that cannot be underestimated; they are adept at investing.

Three Federation Presidents came from their family, they are the largest landowners in the Federation, and they have close ties with the Federation's five major oil companies, owning many shares within them.

Mining-related companies also mostly have traces of their family. In short, no one except themselves knows the extent of their wealth.

However, people know that in Mr. Pato's Star Dream Butterfly Conglomerate, Mr. Wardrick's consortium, and other major consortia, their people and shares are present, which is why Mr. Jeruno can represent the board chairman group to speak.

No one else possesses this qualification, whether it's Mr. Wardrick, who is familiar with Lynch, or Mr. Pato, whom they've somewhat acquainted with. If they represented other chairmen to speak, some people would surely be unconvinced.

The Federation is not a country that values subtlety; if you don't assert your rights, others are even less likely to care about the interests of someone who dares not speak up for their own rights. Inevitably some conflicts would occur, but having Mr. Jeruno speak avoids much trouble.

"I reviewed the company's financial reports for the last quarter and must say we did well...," Mr. Jeruno said, laughing. "Everything is within our plan; we've found new opportunities in Nagariel."

"New opportunities, new development, new future, but also new troubles." Mr. Jeruno's pace wasn't fast; it seems as age increases, speech tends to slow down.

It's not that they can't speak quickly, nor that they can't speak clearly, but they fear speaking too quickly would prevent others from understanding, so they slow down.

Maybe they worry about expressing themselves clearly, but Lynch thinks they're more worried others can't keep up with their pace, having been old himself, he understood this.

"Some of the natives aren't very friendly to us, which we foresaw before developing Nagariel. Some ignorant people believe their ways are the best; we can't blame them, but they affected our business."

"Due to unrest and protests, the company lost quite a bit of money, which is one of the main topics for this board meeting, how to deal with these natives."

Lynch noticed that while Mr. Jeruno mentioned Nagariel people, he kept using the derogatory term "natives," his tone filled with barely concealed arrogance and contempt.

In fact, most principal members of large families from the Federation's founding era possess similar attitudes, like Mr. Pato, who also harbors unfriendly thoughts on cleansing the natives.

This attitude derives from their "family glory." Anyone familiar with the Federation's history knows its growth was built on the continuous slaughter of Federation Mainland natives.

The longer the family has origins from that era, the more natives they slaughtered. Currently, they don't advertise this publicly, but within family education, it's inevitable they instill in their children these matters they consider their ancestors' "glory."

Rumor has it some ancient...actually only a few generations old families even collect particular trophies; parts from prestigious native leaders, like some eerie, dried thumbs or some eyes preserved in jars.

Of course, these are not mainstream; mainstream remains old photos, gentlemen with small mustaches, dressed elegantly, donning a civilized hat, holding a Civilization Staff, standing on heaps of native corpses.

These people are the first-generation immigrants of the Federation, at that time, killing natives was seen as glorious, these "glorious deeds" almost filling the essential stages of these family members' growth. Naturally, they exhibit arrogance and contempt for natives.

It's not just the Federation's natives; all those deemed uncivilized are considered natives, and Nagariel people fit all native characteristics evidently.

Mr. Jeruno's voice didn't falter due to Lynch's lightning-fast thoughts, "Now, within the board, there are two opinions on handling matters, one is a relatively gentle approach, and the other..." He glanced at those with equally deep family backgrounds, "...slightly more severe, letting those natives know what rules are."

"The United Development Company doesn't belong to anyone, including everyone in the chairman group, who aren't the company's owners. This company belongs to everyone present, so we need to unify our opinions."

"I must tell everyone in advance once we've unified our opinion in the board meeting, no one shall act against our collective will. We are a whole, any divisive act should be strongly condemned!"

The atmosphere suddenly became heavy. On the surface, Mr. Jeruno talked about fairness, but everyone knew genuine opinions accepted came only from the board chairman group members.

In other words, ordinary people's opinions weren't important, nor did they need to express them; they simply had to follow the chairman group's opinions!

It felt somewhat hurtful, yet there was no choice, arms and legs were no match for those with heftier arms and legs, everyone could only comply.

Mr. Jeruno then looked at Mr. Pato, "Mr. Pato, I heard you have some opinions on this topic?"

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