In the CEO's office of the corporate group, Ren Zhong sat with his legs crossed, contemplating the list in front of him.

The list contained a pie chart of his current personal wealth distribution.

The large frozen gray section made him feel disheartened.

Apart from tens of millions of net profit not yet allocated in the company account, he only had about seventeen billion in cash on hand.

It seemed like only 7.1 billion was frozen, leaving a hundred billion, but he knew that this hundred billion was earmarked for the Molecular Regeneration Device.

This meant that, in essence, he was still penniless.

Ren Zhong's fingers lightly tapped the table.

No, relying on the normal income from the recycling company alone, it was impossible to achieve the "ambition."

Without investing in stocks, he could not sustain the massive expenses.

He must find a way back into the stock market, must upgrade to a Forth Level Citizen.

He suddenly understood why Yang Bingzhong was so desperately eager to transcend from Fourth Level to become a Fifth Level Citizen.

The restrictions imposed by the citizen ranking system of Source Star were so blatant and brutal, without any disguise.

Each upgrade brings obvious improvements in various conveniences.

But the pressure was omnipresent; regardless of the citizen level, looking up, there was almost always someone above.

The societal system compelled and enticed citizens to sharpen their wits and climb upwards.

Ren Zhong returned to his citizen information interface and checked his Credit Points.

Several days ago, through multifaceted efforts, he had just gathered enough Credit Points to upgrade from Second Level to Third Level.

As of today, despite having paid over twenty million in stamp duty to the Association in this round of stock operations and earning some points, he was still infinitely far from the Fourth Level.

Returning to the personal wealth interface, Ren Zhong moved the cursor to the gray section of 7.108 billion.

There was a clear prompt below, "This portion of funds is frozen, and can be unfrozen after being upgraded to a Forth Level Citizen."

Both the Association and the Securities and Exchange Commission only provided this single unfreezing solution, with no further clear explanations given, such as a freeze duration or whether Ren Zhong could use the frozen funds to repay loans.

Since Contribution Points are virtual currencies without physical presence, in a sense, he had already been robbed.

Ren Zhong once again returned to the citizen interface.

He clicked on the citizen upgrading guide.

The main reference indicator for upgrading below Fifth Level Citizen is Credit Points.

There are various ways to earn Credit Points, such as paying taxes, working at companies related to the Nine Major Groups or Association institutions to earn years of service, obtaining certain certificates, making special contributions, completing certain events, inheritance, donations, and so on.

Among all the channels, the main source of earning points is through paying taxes.

On Source Star, only death and taxes are inescapable.

They are omnipresent and inescapably so.

Ren Zhong paid no small amount in taxes.

With the current pace, if he continued to manage the group company steadily, in about five or six years, he would naturally rise to the Fourth Level.

Among ordinary citizens, this speed was already fast, but it could not meet his needs.

Ren Zhong's gaze fell on the last item "donations."

When Ren Zhong planned to enroll in the advanced study class at Liao Yuan Science College, he obtained specific information.

Completing the entire upgrade process from First Level Citizen to Second Level Citizen by the means of donations required forty million.

Upgrading from Second Level to Third Level required four hundred million.

Upgrading from Third Level to Fourth Level required four billion.

Ren Zhong suddenly realized.

He was awakened.

He understood the intricacies involved.

The real purpose behind the twists and turns of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Association landed squarely here.

Indeed, he was very capable of earning in the stock market, but it was basically by following the large stakeholders' coattails.

The large capital and major stakeholders composed of the families of the Nine Major Groups' and Association's leaders did not lose profits due to his disruption; it was still the small capital and small investors being reaped.

Perhaps the Association and the Securities and Exchange Commission were not as apprehensive about his earnings as they seemed on the surface.

What they feared was just that he made money for himself only.

If he were willing to share out sufficiently generous profits, the Association surely wouldn't mind lifting the shackles on him.

It's a win-win situation.

After all, Contribution Points are universal currency between advanced civilizations of the universe and Source Star, still useful even in the starry sky.

The rulers of Source Star never find them too much.

If they could, they would even more openly snatch them from all the savages and lower-level citizens.

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