The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

Cases involving the invasion of interstellar citizens’ portrait and privacy rights, including the theft of personal information and harm to individuals, are primarily under the jurisdiction of the Interstellar Patrol Bureau. In theory, military personnel do not need to be involved in these matters.

However, in recent years, these types of cases have almost all been committed by groups, and investigations often lead to established illegal organizations operating on the dark web and unregistered black markets. These illegal entities are involved not only in such illicit entertainment activities but also in other criminal aspects. The military now suspects that someone is organizing this industrial chain for larger schemes, which has led to a crackdown and tracking efforts everywhere.

Another reason for the heightened scrutiny is related to taxation.

In this interstellar era, currency circulation has become extremely transparent. The primitive use of stored value cards and credit cards has been largely abandoned in favor of a unified citizen identity account system, meaning that each person essentially has only one basic account.

For these basic accounts, every income, expenditure, and loan is recorded in the central system, making each citizen transparent before the national machinery. Furthermore, every related amount is taxed and actively deposited into the national treasury upon entry or exit, which is a strict regulation that every interstellar citizen must adhere to.

Of course, there are also types of named cards available for one-time use or specific functional purposes. These can facilitate opaque transactions under certain conditions, but ultimately, the beneficiaries still need to register and report their earnings, as well as pay taxes.

In summary, this interstellar world is one with very strict tax regulations.

However, those behind the scenes profiting through the dark web directly bypass the central system, using entertainment as a facade to launder money and disrupt the currency environment, not to mention evading taxes on a grand scale, which seriously violates the fundamental laws of the interstellar community. This is already a criminal offense that can lead to imprisonment, especially for those crimes deemed harmful to society.

Nonetheless, the people from the Patrol Bureau can only investigate the pawns on the chain, such as the hosts who are also half-victims, making it difficult to dig deeper into the roots of the masterminds behind these crimes.

When the Patrol Bureau is unable to handle such cases, they are transferred to the military for resolution.

In this case, the military has taken control of the device used for the crime, presumably to crack it and trace it back.

As for the citizen who was fooled into being a pawn, since he hasn’t committed any serious offenses, he naturally doesn’t have to face criminal charges. However, he must repay the taxes on his profits along with late fees, particularly since the latter amount isn’t small and serves as a lesson.

At this point, the person seemed a bit wistful: “The late fees for tax evasion aren’t small. I have an uncle who tried it. The base amount wasn’t large, but when the calculations were done, it almost exceeded the amount he tried to evade, and he ended up spending over ten days in the Patrol Bureau for it. So, it’s really not worth trying to cut corners.”

Hearing this, Jiang Hui couldn’t help but take a deep breath, and even the bite of her thin pancake lost its flavor.

Although this matter doesn’t have much to do with her, after all, she had just arrived and hadn’t even figured out the basic conditions for survival. She hadn’t encountered any systems that claimed they could help her complete tasks or anything like that.

However, through this instance, Jiang Hui deeply felt the execution power of the interstellar people and their rigorous attitude toward all rules.

It’s not that she wanted to do anything illegal, which made her feel uncomfortable about such examples.

Rather, she had never been so acutely aware that she had truly entered a completely new world. In this new world, everything was unknown to her—new customs, new environments, new backgrounds, and even new laws of the world. If she wanted to survive here, it was going to be more difficult than she had imagined.

The conversation between the two people next door was still ongoing, but this time, no matter how interesting the topic was, she couldn’t focus on it any longer.

Looking at the remaining food on her plate, she adhered to the principle of not wasting and quickly finished it, even though it was tasteless, before returning to her hospital room.

It was now twelve-thirty interstellar time, still during the lunch break, and she couldn’t do anything else. Jiang Hui simply decided to rest in the hospital room.

There was something embedded in the wall that resembled a television screen, but after studying it for a long time, she couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, so she ultimately gave up and collapsed back onto her bed.

Ah, how is she supposed to live like this? Knowing nothing at all, not to mention living, even surviving was becoming a problem.

The hospital was crowded with people, and the things Jiang Hui heard in the cafeteria made her realize how stringent the regulations were in this country. She didn’t dare to ask too many questions for fear of giving herself away.

So, she decided to sleep. Sleeping shouldn’t require asking anything, right? After all, creatures across the universe probably sleep in similar ways; it simply meant “rest.”

Jiang Hui fell asleep, her mind filled with worries.

When she woke up again, it was the doorbell that roused her. The identity display panel by her bedside indicated that it was already two o’clock in the afternoon. She had unknowingly dozed off for quite a while. Fortunately, the person knocking on the door knew to wake her up.

The person outside didn’t seem anxious at all. After the first round of knocking, Jiang Hui didn’t respond, but instead of immediately banging harder, they stopped right away.

Jiang Hui was puzzled. Did they knock for a long time and leave because no one answered?
However, the next moment, she dismissed that thought as a restrained and rhythmic knocking sound came from outside the door.

It seemed they hadn’t left after all.

Jiang Hui quickly reacted. Using what she learned from the therapist, Calet, that morning, she pressed a small inconspicuous button next to the identity tag, and the door opened.

This time, a young Asian woman entered, looking delicate and graceful, naturally eliciting a sense of closeness. She pushed a strangely shaped metal cart into the hospital room.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Jiang,” she said, her voice gentle.

“I’m Xu Jia, a level-one pharmacist from the surgical pharmacy. I’m here to deliver your mood stabilizer.”

“Oh, hello! I’m so sorry to trouble you by having you come all this way.”

Mr. Calet did mention that someone would be delivering some stabilizers in the afternoon. And they were quite punctual; they arrived right after lunch break. Does that mean she could pack her things and go back “home” soon? Although… she wasn’t sure if she could really call that place her home.

Xu seemed a bit surprised by her response, almost wanting to laugh. With a soft expression, she said, “It seems that Miss Jiang also comes from a lineage of the Chinese people. Nowadays, very few people use such old-fashioned phrases. It’s no trouble at all; it’s my duty.”

No way! Did what she just said—something like “I’m sorry to trouble you”—count as old-fashioned language?

And when she said “also,” did that mean Pharmacist Xu was also of Chinese descent? Jiang Hui couldn’t help but take a closer look at her. Indeed, Xu had a classic and beautiful appearance, carrying a unique softness typical of the Jiangnan water town, which made her a typical beauty of the Chinese lineage.

Seeing Jiang Hui seemed a bit distracted, Xu didn’t mind. She smiled slightly and pushed the cart beside the hospital bed.