Tianlong High-tech's drop was even sharper than Mengdu Group's, reaching about 5%.

Tianlong High-tech's market value is approximately 40% lower than Mengdu Group's.

Overall, the market value evaporation of both leading companies is about the same.

The reason it found for the crash surprisingly has some connection to Ren Zhong, the butterfly that steals time.

In Tianlong High-tech's latest financial report, Mengdu Group's fluctuations were explicitly noted.

The report stated that in the foreseeable future, the enormous demand for "volunteers" by Mengdu Group would inevitably lead to a sharp decrease in the population of the lower class wastelanders.

Hence, this segment of low-end sales for Tianlong High-tech would inevitably continue to decline.

On Source Star, almost all the basic rations for wastelanders come from Tianlong High-tech's synthetic food production.

Although the average daily consumption per wastelander is only 0.5 Contribution Points, a relatively crude Source Star population census decades ago showed that despite extremely harsh living conditions, driven by a high reproductive incentive, there were still as many as over 8 billion wastelanders on Source Star.

About three billion wastelanders live in towns, while there are as many as over five billion wastelanders living in wastelander tribes in the wild.

Now, decades later, Source Star's productivity has somewhat increased, so the number of wastelanders can only be higher, not lower.

Thus, the annual total sales created for Tianlong High-tech by at least 8 billion wastelanders is 1.46 trillion.

This portion of sales does not account for a large part of Tianlong High-tech's nearly 50 trillion annual total sales.

But this is not important, the market-maker responsible for reshuffling just needs to find a seemingly reasonable excuse, then logically short and shake the market to reap retail investors.

Ren Zhong does not care about this.

He is well aware of how the chain reaction in the stock market will develop next.

He cares about the number 8 billion.

Even if this number is decades out of date, it still has some representativeness.

He had never seen relevant information before.

Unexpectedly, the first time he saw Source Star's population status, it was in a company's quarterly report.

But he then noticed there was a permission prompt in the top right corner of the report.

"Readable only by Fourth Level and above Citizens, sharing with lower-level Citizens is illegal. Note: The 'Net' is watching you."

Now he understood.

The information seen by Source Star people is quietly filtered by the "Net".

Even when using the same software and reading the same report, there are still some fine adjustments between the lines.

It is these adjustments that conceal part of the "minor" information.

The external information accessed through the wrist watch space by wastelanders and Citizens of different levels varies.

Everyone can only see the side of society they are allowed to see.

It is precisely these information access rights delineated according to different Citizen Levels that create differentiated worldview across social strata.

Ren Zhong mused, after becoming a Fourth Level Citizen, he saw a decades-old population report, what about Fifth Level Citizens?

Or even higher levels?

If one reaches Level Nine Citizens, do they see the full truth of the world?

He went to check the upgrading conditions for Fifth Level Citizens.

This was new information that had suddenly appeared in his wrist watch.

At a glance, he was astounded.

There are indeed quite a few channels to upgrade to a Fifth Level Citizen.

Either pay a terrifying donation amount as high as 80 billion, or slowly accumulate up to 8 billion Credit Points.

The promotion standard from Fourth to Fifth Level is twenty times higher!

Just these two points are enough to lock out 99.999% of lower-level Citizens.

As for other paths, there are some, such as being promoted to a senior executive position in one of the nine big corporate headquarters. Unfortunately, this seems simple, but in the nearly absolute hereditary system of Source Star, it is almost impossible for most wastelanders to achieve and not everyone has brains as sharp as his.

Or, create a special contribution and get it approved through the annual highest council of the Business Association by vote.

No wonder Ma Dafu has long been a Fourth Level Citizen but has never considered upgrading.

No wonder Yang Bingzhong, already worth billions, still nearly maniacally chases wealth.

In addition, Ren Zhong also saw the benefits of being a Fifth Level Citizen.

On Source Star, Citizens from Level 1 to 4 can leave their inheritance to descendants upon death.

However, wealth inheritance requires paying an inheritance tax as high as 50%.

As for the inheritance of Citizen Level, there is another claim.

Assuming the highest Citizen Level of both parents does not exceed Fourth Level, their children are automatically born with First Level Citizen identity.

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