Perhaps it was because, at the lowest point in her life, Yun You bought her chip, offering her a large sum of money to solve her urgent financial problems... Therefore, when Yun You mentioned the name "Wu Ming," most of Yuanbao's alertness disappeared instantly.

Faced with the little girl's overture, she didn't immediately agree but bashfully lowered her head, completely losing the "air of superiority" she had earlier, now looking like a poor soul whose true identity had been unveiled.

Seeing this, Yun You sighed, realizing that this girl wasn't going to give an answer anytime soon, and decided not to insist on her following him, changing the topic instead.

"Then tell me how you got caught. By rights, someone like you, a seasoned Apprentice Death God, shouldn't have been captured, right?"

Upon hearing the question, Yuanbao was momentarily stunned, then helplessly shook her head.

"It's all because of that damn 'Death God Tax Bureau'..."

"Who knows how they managed to find me offline."

Looking full of melancholy, Yuanbao began to recount her ordeal.

...

As everyone knows, people born in Nest City cannot escape three things in their lifetime.

Birth, death, and paying taxes.

The tax items in Nest City are surprisingly diverse; eating requires paying crop taxes, drinking water needs purification taxes, sleeping incurs a slumber tax, and even breathing air demands an air filtration tax.

And naturally, buying and selling goods doesn't escape taxation.

To collect this vast amount of taxes, the Nest Capital Tax Bureau came into being.

The Tax Bureau doesn't belong to any force, similar to the Nest City Military, independent of major enterprises and the Death God Organization, with the authority to "collect taxes," "statistic," "hunt," and "arrest."

Don't be fooled by the inconspicuousness of the word "bureau," looking similar to hollow organizations, but in reality, the Nest Capital Tax Bureau itself possesses a comparable level to any giant enterprise.

Millions of employees work for the Tax Bureau, with nearly one-tenth of them being the Bureau's thugs... or private army.

Thanks to abundant tax revenue, the Bureau's army can equip various standard weapons, from rifles, grenades, and bulletproof vests for individual soldiers, to tanks, mecha, large drones, satellites... even space warfare ships.

They also have the ability to "flip the table," and after collecting taxes, they share a portion of the profits with the Death God Organization and the council to maintain the balance of Nest City, meaning all major powers tacitly approve of the Bureau's existence.

Usually, the Bureau doesn't deliberately collect taxes from Apprentice Death Gods, only symbolically taking a small "protection fee" among commodity taxes as a symbol of maintaining order.

These protection fees are usually 10% of the commodity price, already considered a very low tax rate in Nest City, where regular commodity taxes amount to as much as 40%!

But... Yuanbao, the girl, has never paid even that small amount of tax.

Despite her usual appearance of aloofness, in reality, she's an authentic homebody, and according to what she revealed, she suffers from severe social anxiety...

This makes her spend almost all her time at home fiddling with her chip and prosthetic body, relying entirely on food delivery for her essentials, and ignoring tax officers who often visit her home.

Moreover, due to frequent online shopping and her habit of selling things on the Ethernet, the taxes Yuanbao has accumulated over the years have slowly piled up to eight figures!

So much money, she couldn't even repay it by selling herself!

Therefore, she never thought of paying taxes, intending to muddle through... After all, she's a noble Apprentice Death God; surely those tax officers wouldn't dare provoke her.

Yet it was clear that the girl underestimated the Bureau's enthusiasm for tax collection.

One night, three weeks ago, Yuanbao was lying in bed for several hours as usual before finally getting up.

She planned to snack a bit before taking another nap, when suddenly she heard someone knocking at the door, claiming to check her home's water meter...

Without any defenses, Yuanbao foolishly opened the door.

Upon opening the door, she saw a few burly guys with smiles on their faces... but all of them were blockheads, instantly pinning her to the ground, saying kindly—

"Dear customer, the Death God Tax Bureau's 173rd squad warmly reminds you, it's time to pay taxes."

"You currently owe 96,040,000 Yuan, would you prefer cash or online payment?"

An outstanding debt nearing one billion, Yuanbao obviously couldn't come up with it.

She instinctually wanted to resist, but those burly guys seemed to have long guessed her intentions, each displaying their Sequence...

Well, practically all Tier Two Death Gods! The leader was even Tier Three!

This is the terrifying aspect of the Bureau.

Not only do they have a private army, but they also possess hundreds of Death God Squads capable of collecting taxes not just from ordinary folks but also Apprentice Death Gods.

In short, Yuanbao found herself utterly helpless.

Being an introverted homebody, she hardly socialized in reality, having no friends or family to help her, and online, she's the fiery surfing expert whose volatile temper leads her to play "solo symphony" with someone's family tree, ranting until the opponent breaks down, making it surprising she didn't have any friends.

So naturally, she was taken into the Tax Bureau.

Facing an unfazed Yuanbao, the Bureau gave her two options.

The first option: join the Bureau's Death God Squad, work for the Bureau, and gradually repay the billion debt.

The salary for Apprentice Death God is indeed substantial, and counting the year-end bonus, it would at least bring in millions of Silver Cannon.

Thus, by working for just ten years, Yuanbao could repay the debt.

The second option is to default on the debt, be thrown into prison, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Yuanbao, after all, is an Apprentice Death God, guilty of tax evasion rather than murder or mayhem; no matter the debt size, the Bureau doesn't have the authority to execute her, at most legally imprison her.

Between these choices, working off the debt is naturally better, as for Apprentice Death Gods, although ten years is long, it's only a fraction of their lifespan.

Moreover, working for the Bureau isn't all dull; when idle, you just clock in and out, and even when busy, you can let others in your squad do the work while you slack off, which beats lifetime imprisonment by far.

But Yuanbao, after all, isn't someone who likes to be bound by rules. For her kind of anxious homebody, wearing a uniform daily... getting up early for work is more torturous than punishment.

She would rather go to prison than rely on others.

So finally, she chose the second option.

Plead guilty and be sentenced to life imprisonment.

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