Chapter 101 095 New residents
The brief journey of just over thirty minutes came to an end, and Liu Zhe bid farewell to the uncle, following the guidance of Iridium Star Immigration Bureau staff along with other laborers and their families, boarding a hover bus heading for the residential area in Ruyi City Zone A.
All carried only their small personal belongings, while the large luggage was sent directly to the homes assigned to them. Iridium Star residents and laborers lived together in the new homes in Ruyi City, as Bai Zhongqi did not wish for any estrangement between them.
On the contrary, he had always wanted to use Iridium Star to transform Country C and vice versa, hoping that the new civilization birthed from this integration would be the Universe Civilization Bai Zhongqi truly wished to witness.
The enthusiastic Immigration Bureau staff member, wearing a bright smile, introduced to the laborers coming to Ruyi City with various emotions, "Everyone will enjoy the same treatment as Iridium Star citizens, starting with free family housing provided by the Ruyi City government, equipped with all kinds of facilities."
Someone curiously asked, "So, is the house given to us?"
"The property rights belong to the Ruyi City Housing Management Bureau, but you have the usage rights. You can apply to change houses, but selling or subletting them is not permitted."
One bold individual joked, "Whom would we sell or rent to? We don't know anyone here."
The crowd followed with good-natured laughter, but Liu Zhe thought to himself, if all of Ruyi City's residents were provided housing by Iridium Star officials, everyone's housing needs would be satisfied, and the homogenization of these houses would be quite severe. Moreover, with the option to apply for transfers, selling or renting was impractical.
The staff member then displayed multiple images of apartment exteriors and interior design references in front of the crowd on a holographic projector. He simply plucked an image from his own smart device and threw it above the projector, creating a larger holographic image that seemed very convenient and useful.
There are over ten types of apartments to choose from, each calculated based on family registration sizes. However, the largest family to come to Ruyi City was that of a chef named Yuan Baitong, who brought his wife and elderly parents. This chef was a top Huaiyang cuisine chef who had won national competitions.
His parents were in poor health, and knowing the medical technology of Iridium Star available in Ruyi City could treat his parents' illnesses, he decided to resign from a job that paid hundreds of thousands annually for a job in Iridium Star paying less than 200,000 a year. His children had already established their own families and did not come to Ruyi City.
So, his was the largest family here, with others primarily being couples, and only two households included children.
Yuan Baitong was assigned a duplex apartment with a total living area of over 240 square meters. Couples like Liu Zhe and Liu Xiuzhen could choose from three types of layouts: 120, 100, and 85 square meters, and most would choose the largest.
Each apartment was fully equipped with Iridium Star home appliances, including family assistant robots, cooktops, refrigerators, and smart devices.
The immigration official also added, "If you have any other needs, the logistics company of Ruyi City now offers online shopping services.
You can directly choose from the online shopping platform integrated with the Ruyi City logistics plugin, place your orders, and our logistics staff will pick up the goods from Country C and transport them to Ruyi City, with free shipping during the company's new business period."
After the introduction, Liu Zhe and Liu Xiuzhen finally arrived at their new home, with their luggage already delivered. The overall home decor of the apartment was still in the Iridium Star style, emphasizing industrial design aesthetics and a minimalist style, or what is easy to understand on Earth as "industrial chic," which actually suited Liu Zhe, who had an IT background.
Liu Zhe now held in his hand a "glass panel," which was the newly issued smart device that could answer all sorts of questions through its artificial intelligence. Liu Xiuzhen was also getting acquainted with the various appliances in the home through artificial intelligence.
She had grown fond of interacting with artificial intelligence during their trip on the transport boat; although her personal device featured only the most basic Class D AI, it appeared as an adorable chibi cartoon character in the holographic image, which was very cute.
Liu Zhe had no interest in customizing the appearance of his artificial intelligence. His AI informed him, "Master, Mr. Nan Ma, the head of Flashpoint Company who is managing the 'new large-scale social platform' project, has asked if you could attend a meeting tonight. He hopes to communicate with you as soon as possible and initiate the Flashpoint Company's project."
Liu Zhe had not expected to be summoned by his employer so soon, and although it was his first day in Ruyi City, he did not take his work lightly and immediately responded affirmatively.
Later, Liu Zhe took another hover car assigned to him and arrived at the address of Flashpoint Company. Compared to any moderately sized internet company on Earth, Flashpoint Company looked downright shabby, as at this time, the company did not even have a complete office, just one floor in a rather small office building.
Nonetheless, the office building was entirely futuristic in style, and Liu Zhe thought to himself that it would take some time to get used to all the various office tools here.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
The person he was to meet, Nan Ma, was wearing a baseball cap and dressed in sportswear, appearing very casual. However, Liu Zhe had already recognized him; this was the Iridium Star man, a Star Warrior master more famous on Earth than Iridium Star Chancellor Bai Zhongqi.
"Hello, Mr. Liu," greeted Nan Ma, shaking hands with Liu Zhe with a familiarity that Liu Zhe found himself unaccustomed to.
"Hello, Master Nan?"
"Haha, don't call me master, it sounds like some conjurer. I'm the CEO of Flashpoint Company now. Just call me Old Nan, haha."
Nan Ma pulled out a chair for Liu Zhe to sit, and even his assistant robot offered tea. Iridium Star people didn't drink tea; this was clearly Nan Ma adopting some customs from Country C, and he had even procured high-quality tea leaves from there.
"As you've seen online, the company had already provided you with plenty of material and the Labor Recruitment Department had recognized your technical capabilities and insights. Flashpoint Company wishes to create a very large comprehensive social and life platform that can be accessed freely on current mainstream mobile and desktop platforms using Iridium Star's network technology.
There's no need to set up any servers on Earth; users can simply connect to the internet to log into our platform. We can operate a vast array of functions and provide various services needed by users."
Liu Zhe was surprised and asked, "Like WeChat, stuffing as many features as possible into one app? I understand, with Iridium Star Technology as a gimmick, Flashpoint's product will likely draw attention, but if it can't actually retain users, even the most advanced technology is meaningless."
Nan Ma nodded emphatically and replied, "Exactly, that's what I think as well. The technology itself is not the issue— Iridium Star can provide unimaginable support in this regard. What matters are the creativity and ideas, so I hope to have you join Flashpoint Company's development department to help develop such a product."