Chapter 25: Unregistered Citizens
Waking up early and stepping into the courtyard, Zhao Man saw Tang Heng hauling away the carcasses of mutated beasts. Overnight, a glaze of frost had frozen over every single creature.
“Did you not sleep at all?”
“Nope. We ran a massive lure operation last night, basically dragging in every stray mutated beast wandering the mountains. Don’t go out back these next few days. There might still be stragglers trickling in. Even if the defense system shoots them dead, don’t touch them—just leave them frozen outside.” Tang Heng held a mutated beast in each hand, hurling them toward the front gate.
No wonder an icy chill whipped through the yard; with both the front and rear doors flung wide open, it would be strange if it weren’t freezing.
“Are you taking off now?” Zhao Man asked.
A plain, neutral question, yet Tang Heng somehow heard a hint of reluctant attachment in it. Halting his stride, he reached out to cup Zhao Man’s cheek, but realized his gloves had just touched the freezing carcasses and pulled back his hand.
“Yeah. The temperature plummeted last night, so I’ve got clean-up duties to handle today. We weren’t the only ones hit by beasts; other sectors were attacked too. Some scum even tried to murder homeowners and steal their houses, just like those five last night.”
Zhao Man lingered by the doorway, watching Tang Heng vault onto the sulfur rocks and hoist a mutated beast in each hand. The bodies of the five intruders lay piled off to one side.
The sulfur rocks were littered with all manner of mutated beasts. The fallen bamboo bridging the gap between the grove and the carcasses had been snapped clean through, its stalk riddled with scorched blast marks and fracture lines born of sheer kinetic impact.
“Murder and steal houses? How does that even work?” Zhao Man trailed after Tang Heng step for step. Seeing this, Tang Heng felt his hands itch—he was so obedient, so endearing, it made him want to ruffle his hair.
“Just like those five last night. First, they lure the mutated beasts over. Under the cover of the gunfire, they use a laser cutter to slice a hole right through the wall and slip inside. Once they kill the homeowner, they draw more beasts to the breach and toss down one or two corpses of their own. Afterward, they claim a pair of drifters broke in during the night to rob the place, a pack of beasts descended during the struggle, and everyone took each other down together.”
“And the house just defaults to them?” Zhao Man turned the scenario over in his head as he listened. Was it really that simple and crude?
Two heavy thuds broke his train of thought as more weight hit the ground. Outside the front entrance, two massive piles had already formed, holding at least a dozen mutated beasts. Meanwhile, Tang Heng was tugging off his gloves.
“Whash are you doin’?” Zhao Man’s cheek was pinched firmly, warping his words into an indignant mumble as he swatted uselessly at Tang Heng’s wrist.
In high spirits, Tang Heng let go, pulled his gloves back on, and resumed the heavy lifting.
“Pretty much. Once a homeowner dies without an heir, the property is reclaimed by the base. The crew then surrenders the dead mutated beasts to the authorities, and in return, the base gives them priority to purchase the house at the original assessed value.”
“Bloodsucking profiteers.” Aside from the dead homeowner, everyone involved made a killing—especially the base, reaping pure profit with zero overhead.
Tang Heng nodded. “As long as things look respectable on paper, the base turns a blind eye.”
“If they already have five hundred points to their names, why not just buy an open plot elsewhere?” Zhao Man’s voice was muffled and low. Having been targeted as an easy mark twice now—with god knows how many more schemes looming in the future—he found it impossible to muster any cheer.
Tang Heng let out a soft sigh. His new spouse was simply too naive.
“Who says it’s just one household buying it? Take a guess: how many households could squeeze onto your foundation?”
Zhao Man surveyed his home from where he stood, thought for a moment, and said, “Four?”
Tang Heng shook his head. “Twelve, at the absolute minimum.”
“That many?”
Seeing Zhao Man’s eyes widen, Tang Heng nodded. “Six units on the ground floor, six on the second—twelve households at least. That’s less than fifty points per unit. Imagine how many bodies you can pack into twelve units. Averaged out, it costs next to nothing per person. But twelve units can only have one legal titleholder on the books; the rest are co-tenants. Everyone wants to be the registered owner, but no single person has enough points to buy it alone, and none of them trust anyone else enough to pool their funds. So filing a report and co-investing under the formal witness of a patrol team—signing a joint lease right there on the record—is their best possible angle.”
Sure enough, his own experience had been far too limited.
Zhao Man kept pace with Tang Heng, watching him hoist two more mutated beasts. “What’s more, by securing a property, those people can wash away their unregistered status.”
“Huh?” Zhao Man didn’t quite grasp the mechanics, but was thoroughly shocked all the same. Seeing Tang Heng step outside, Zhao Man hurried after him. Two members of Brigade 12 had pulled up in a utility transport and were currently loading the haul.
Following Tang Heng back indoors, Zhao Man waited until the other two were out of earshot before asking, “How do they clear their unregistered status?”
“I don’t know the exact administrative loopholes. Adult drifters need titled real estate to obtain base citizenship. Roughly speaking, an existing citizen acts as their guarantor. That guarantor leads the unregistered crew to buy a property together, the housing clerks run the verification, and once it clears, they’re issued official citizen ID cards.”
Zhao Man broke the racket down in his head: a motive, a clean execution plan, and a designated guarantor to take the credit. Aside from the murdered homeowner, every other party walked away with overflowing pockets and complete satisfaction. It was a grand setup where one person suffered so everyone else could strike it rich.
Heh. Splendid, assuming you aren’t the victim.
Lost in thought, Zhao Man didn’t look where he was going and bumped straight into Tang Heng’s chest.
“Hiss—freezing!”
Tang Heng was wearing a standard-issue garrison snowsuit. Whatever composite it was made of, it was ice-cold; brushing against it was like biting into pure mint in the dead of winter, chilling him straight to the marrow.
Zhao Man realized he had followed Tang Heng all the way into the kitchen. The bedroom door was ajar, the space heater humming along around the clock. In a few swift motions, Tang Heng stripped off the outer snowsuit and yanked Zhao Man straight into his arms.
“Don’t move. Just let me hold you for a second.”
Listening to his steady heartbeat in the silence for two minutes, Tang Heng finally released Zhao Man and drew a vial of nutrient solution from his pack, handing it over. Once each had downed a vial, Tang Heng pulled a smaller duffel out from his oversized rucksack.
Unpacking the contents one by one, he said to Zhao Man, “In here are five terminals, one lure beacon, one signal jammer, one laser cutter, three daggers, one firearm, and a wrist-mounted sleeve dart. Take these terminals and hide them away. Don’t power them on under any circumstances. In a couple of days, I’ll hit the black market to launder and cash out the points. Keep whatever gear you need from the rest, and we’ll sell off whatever you don’t want later.”
Zhao Man nodded repeatedly as he took in the haul. Truly, getting rich through honest means in this world was an uphill battle. Looking up at Tang Heng again, the man seemed three notches more handsome than before; the more Zhao Man looked, the more pleasing he found him.
Tang Heng gave Zhao Man’s cheek a playful, affectionate pinch. “The terminal that sent you that threatening message is in this pile too, so you don’t need to worry for now. The front yard has the surveillance feed and high-voltage grid, and I recalibrated the defense settings out back—the moment any living target gets close, it fires automatically. Steer clear of that area.”
“Got it.” Seeing him pack up his gear, Zhao Man felt his response had been a bit too perfunctory, so he added, “Stay safe out there.”
The corners of Tang Heng’s mouth curved up slightly. He hoisted his pack onto his shoulders. “Sync my retinal scan and fingerprints to your door lock so I can let myself in when I get back. You don’t have a proper snowsuit, so avoid going outside if you can help it, and don’t open the door for anyone. During the blizzard season, no one will come knocking on your door except the official supply delivery personnel. Understand?”
“Understood.”
Once Tang Heng was gone, Zhao Man pulled up the base payment portal. With the twenty-point bachelor tax waived, he still had sixty points of municipal dues to settle. His terminal balance showed ninety-eight points remaining.
He couldn’t help but sigh once more: no matter the world, money slipped through one’s fingers like water.
He wrapped the five terminals and three daggers in thick cloth and stowed them safely in the bamboo storage tubes beneath his bed. As for the firearm, signal jammer, sleeve dart, and laser cutter, every single one seemed like it might come in handy.
With the house suddenly falling into absolute silence, Zhao Man found himself with nothing to do. He tapped his terminal, intending to scroll through the base’s entertainment feeds. He hadn’t browsed two posts before remembering that he was now a married man, prompting him to pull up his personal profile immediately.
The profile displayed publicly showed only basic citizen data, which remained completely unchanged aside from the marital status field. But in his private financial registry, his holdings had been formally partitioned into pre-marital assets and joint marital property.
Zhao Man’s Pre-Marital Assets: 98.09 Points; Real Estate: West Sixth Ring No. 826 Residence (Sole Title).
Joint Marital Property: None.
Dragging out the bamboo tube from under the bed, he checked on the six energy stones stashed inside. Base regulations required energy stones to be processed at the central testing registry. The moment they were tested, they were officially recorded, and once recorded, they were taxed.
The six stones varied in size. Though all were milky white, the stone from the Spineblade Wolf shone with a noticeably brighter luster, whereas the stones harvested from the ants were dull and powdery, looking as though their glow might extinguish at any second.
Zhao Man thought: Good thing I was too busy scavenging before to bother registering them. If I had logged these stones into the system, who knows how much of my ninety-eight points would even be left.
