Chapter 2, Grace
In fact, this was only Gu Hang's first month since transmigrating.
He is currently in a Cosmic Era, a vast Human Empire that rules boundless star territories. The Divine Emperor who ascended ten thousand years ago established the 'Spirit Network' and brought psionics to humanity. The current Empire is governed by the Supreme Council seated on the Human Homeworld, Terra.
About 120 years ago, the planet Gu Hang is currently on was just an ordinary world. A war completely destroyed the world's surface environment, and Wrath Owl Star thus became a wasteland planet.
Twenty-nine years ago, the Imperial Government assessed that Wrath Owl Star still held hope for salvation and, for the first time after the war, dispatched a Governor to take charge of the reconstruction work.
Within the Empire's system, a Planetary Governor can rule their planet in any manner, provided that: the Governor remains loyal to the Empire.
What is loyalty? Paying taxes is loyalty. Failing to pay taxes, or not paying enough, results in execution and replacement with a more loyal candidate.
To this day, over 29 years, Wrath Owl Star has gone through five Governors.
Even the three predecessors before Gu Hang only lasted two years each. The Imperial Tax for Wrath Owl Star is due every two years, and these three unlucky individuals didn't survive past their first tax payment after taking office.
And now, Gu Hang has arrived.
A month ago, he had just transmigrated. When he was merging with the body's memories, he was already aboard the starship en route to Wrath Owl Star. He has to ensure that in two years, Wrath Owl Star can pay one-quarter of the standard tax. The remaining three-quarters will be covered by the Star Sector Government—this was the favorable condition secured for him by his political clan, the Gu family.
Four years later, for the second tax payment, the full amount must be paid.
A cruiser belonging to the Star Sector Navy is parked in planetary orbit to provide him with support. The personnel he brought to the surface only include 3,000 servants, 300 Servitor Soldiers who had their frontal lobes removed and underwent mechanical modification, and 30 Naval Marines led by Captain Yan Fangxu.
The main political power on Wrath Owl Star is called the Alliance, established 29 years ago by the first generation Governor.
Ordinarily, after arriving at Wrath Owl Star, Gu Hang should have landed in the Alliance's capital city, Revival City, taken over the role of Alliance Leader, and then, using the Alliance Government as a base, exercised the power of the Planetary Governor.
But he did not do so. He took his people and set up a camp not far from Revival City, then buried himself in work that was hard for others to understand.
For instance, Yan Fangxu couldn't understand why Gu Hang would train those 300 Servitor Soldiers.
These servants, who no longer possess self-awareness, can't even operate armored vehicles or artillery well. They can only be equipped with the lowest-level gear and used as cannon fodder, making training virtually worthless.
However, he had to feel ashamed of his shallow knowledge.
He watched with his own eyes as those Servitors actually underwent tremendous changes in a very short time!
He saw that under Gu Hang's command, these Servitor Soldiers rapidly completed tasks like forming ranks and inspecting equipment—a series of pre-departure operations. And in previous training, these Servitors had also demonstrated tactical and technical levels far superior to before. Marksmanship, physical fitness, tactics... all had seen significant improvements. Combined with their inherent characteristics of not fearing sacrifice and strictly adhering to discipline, this transformed them into high-level soldiers.
This already meets the standard of the Imperial Guard's Astra Militarum regular troops.
Although he still doesn't believe these Servitor Soldiers are a match for the Marine elites under his command, that's only in a one-on-one scenario. There are only 30 elite Marines, but there are 300 of these Servitors.
More critically, Yan Fangxu completely fails to understand how Gu Hang achieved this.
This is entirely beyond his comprehension: Aren't Servitor Soldiers only dependent on their modification level, making subsequent training meaningless?
As he was momentarily dazed, he heard Gu Hang's powerful voice: "Captain Yan, make your squad move faster. How can the pre-deployment readiness speed of the Marine elites be worse than the Servitors'?"
Snapping back to attention, Yan Fangxu saluted Gu Hang with a touch of shame. Then, he turned to his subordinates, who were also dumbfounded by the changes in the Servitor Camp, and roared, "What are you brats dawdling for? Hurry up! The slowest five will sleep with the Servitors starting tomorrow!"
Watching Yan Fangxu start kicking the backsides of his squad members one by one, Gu Hang chuckled lightly, retracted his gaze, and focused again on the panel information displayed before him.
The translucent, floating characters in his vision formed several options:
Current Grace Points: 2
Total Territory Income: 5/Terra Month
Hero
Unit Cards
Gu Hang clicked on the second item, Total Territory Income. Here, he saw more detailed information: Governor's Temporary Camp: 5/Terra Month.
There is only this one entry.
According to Gu Hang's understanding, this monthly total income is determined by the total income provided by the territories recognized by the system as belonging to him. And his current territory is only this Temporary Camp.
Upon seeing the system and learning he had become a Governor, he was initially excited, wanting to know how much Grace having a planet as his territory would provide him each month.
However, after descending from the starship to Revival City, the number remained zero.
He guessed at the time that a nominal territory might not be recognized by the system; it had to be under his actual control.
How easy is it for an air-dropped Governor like himself to control a loose Wasteland Alliance regime and integrate the entire Alliance? If it were easy, the previous Governors wouldn't have failed.
Therefore, he decisively abandoned the route that led to the downfall of past Governors. He turned around, requisitioned servants and some armed forces from the starship, left Revival City, found an empty spot, and decided to start from scratch, utilizing the golden finger that accompanied his transmigration.
After he led his people and established a Temporary Camp entirely under his control, the number finally changed from 0 to 4.
Gu Hang guessed that the initial 4 came from the population. The later increase of one point was likely because the camp was built larger and more complete.
In the latter two items within the system, Hero displayed his own panel; Unit Cards had two entries.
Naval Marine 1st Squad, Overall T4, Upgradable
Quantity: 30 people, Equipment: T4, Training: T4, Experience: T4
This is the status of the thirty people led by Yan Fangxu.
The other unit is the newly upgraded 1st Servitor Light Infantry Battalion.
1st Servitor Light Infantry Battalion, Overall T5, Not Upgradable
Quantity: 300 people, Equipment: T5, Training: T5, Experience: -
The T level should correspond to the overall strength of the unit, with a smaller number indicating greater elite status. The Servitor Light Infantry Battalion was initially an unclassified level. The equipment was complete—rifles, hand grenades, squad machine guns; platoon-level had mortars and rifle grenades—but it lacked heavy weapons, so it could only be considered a light infantry battalion.
He spent 3 Grace points to upgrade this light infantry battalion. In four days, this brainless unit, which only follows orders and was considered low-value cannon fodder, underwent a massive change.
Reaching a T5 training level can roughly be considered reaching the strength level of an Imperial regular army. The T4 level of the Marines is considered a conventional elite force.
It is precisely because the Servitor Infantry, who were originally just cannon fodder, completed their upgrade that Gu Hang felt confident enough to forcefully involve himself upon hearing about the situation at the Waste Pit Society.
This is an opportunity, and he now possesses the ability to seize it.
He hopes to use this incident to bring the Waste Pit Society under his actual rule, rather than just being a nominal Governor. In the future, he will gradually expand his area of actual control until it covers the entire planet.