He called for two minutes, but no one answered, and the call was automatically hung up.
Jiang Ye was about to call again when he thought about it. Li Nannan had called him in the middle of the night yesterday. It was daytime on his side, and night on hers. Now it was early morning on his side, so it must be midnight on Li Nannan's side.
She might be sleeping. He'd call again in a few hours. It was impolite to wake up his superior in the middle of the night.
Jiang Ye opened the chat channel and sent a message to Tian Rao.
Jiang Ye: Are you up yet?
Tian Rao: I'm up early. I'm heading to the restaurant. Breakfast will be served in half an hour.
Jiang Ye: Find a worker to run an errand for me. Get me a small bowl of roasted goose, a cup of hot chocolate, a plate of broccoli, and two cups of orange juice.
Tian Rao: Okay, okay. I've got it. You eat a lot for breakfast, you big pig.
Jiang Ye smiled and closed the private chat window.
He got up and washed himself.
He was halfway through brushing his teeth when his communication tablet suddenly rang.
Jiang Ye quickly spat out the foam in his mouth, splashed some water on his face, and answered the call.
The scene was exactly the same as yesterday: Li Nannan in her military dress uniform, white clouds drifting outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and bright sunlight streaming in.
"I was just in a meeting. Did you call me?" Li Nannan tidied the documents on her desk.
"Yes, I wanted to ask about the autonomous region's rankings. You didn't pick up, so I thought it was midnight on your side," Jiang Ye explained.
"I'm on a floating port, not rotating with the planet, so it's always daytime," Li Nannan said casually. "I don't sleep. You can contact me anytime as long as I'm not fighting or in a meeting."
"You don't sleep?" Jiang Ye was confused. Da Feng Novel Network
"There's a neural coupler and accompanying medication. With a minor sleep control surgery, you can get rid of sleep and stay awake all the time," Li Nannan said as she finished tidying the documents on her desk. She looked up at the camera and asked, "Go ahead, what about the rankings?"
Jiang Ye was surprised. He hadn't expected people to not need sleep anymore. Wouldn't office workers be working all day?
Every time he heard about these unheard-of technologies, he felt like a primitive savage.
"My ranking is in the hundred thousands. The most important thing is that there's no development index," Jiang Ye asked. "I think this is abnormal because the ranking description states that the minimum development index is 1."
Li Nannan frowned, her expression puzzled. "No development index? Is it 0?"
"Yes," Jiang Ye nodded.
"That's really not normal. It shouldn't be like this. Even if you're so poor you're naked, your development index should be at least 1. What does 0 mean, having no butt?" Li Nannan reverted to her usual foul-mouthed self. "Wait a moment, I'll check the backend data for you."
Li Nannan lowered her head and tapped on the desk with her fingers.
A moment later, her expression changed, and she looked up, glaring at Jiang Ye.
"Are you an idiot?" she asked angrily.
"Huh?" Jiang Ye didn't understand.
"You haven't even designated your territory. How can you have a development index? Did you imagine it in your tender brain? Do you even have a brain? Is your head so big that it's all empty inside? A bamboo stalk head?" Li Nannan unleashed a barrage of questions with the look of someone staring at an imbecile.
Jiang Ye was very confused. "Designate territory..."
"Oh!" he realized. "So I have to designate my territory for data to appear?"
"Of course!"
Jiang Ye felt very awkward. When his base was upgraded, there was a function to designate his territory on the planetary map. Once designated, it would be displayed on the planetary maps of all colonial governors. At that time, Jiang Ye was still weak and feared attracting attention and being exploited if he revealed his wealth, so he didn't designate it.
Later, he almost forgot about it. If it weren't for the rankings, he probably would never have designated it.
"Are there any rules for designating territory? What constitutes valid territory?" Jiang Ye asked. "Can I just click anywhere and circle the entire planet?"
"The rules are very complex and can't be explained in a short time. Just mark it on the planetary map. Valid ones will be kept, and invalid ones will disappear immediately," Li Nannan said impatiently. "You have to mark the towns and factories you're currently operating, right? You can also mark places where you've mined before as your territory."
"However, if, for example, you mark an island as your territory, and someone else marks it as theirs, the ownership of that territory will be decided by the people living there. If most of them vote for you, it's yours."
"Alright, I have another meeting soon and need to write some materials. I don't have time to waste with you. Go and designate your territory," Li Nannan said, reaching out to the camera. Before hanging up, she added, "Eat more brain-boosting food. Early treatment, early recovery, and there's still hope of survival."
Jiang Ye's forehead was covered in black lines. This girl Li Nannan was good in every way, but her sharp tongue was too unforgiving.
Just then, there was a knock on the base door.
"Mayor Jiang, your breakfast!" a girl's voice called out.
Jiang Ye opened the door. A thin, small Black girl stood outside, with long braids like those from the late Qing Dynasty, wearing a restaurant employee uniform.
Taking the plastic bag from her, Jiang Ye nodded and said, "Thank you."
"Is there a tip? I ran here," the server asked timidly.
Jiang Ye was taken aback. He was about to close the door but looked at her again.
"What's your name?"
"Herbert Amy," she said.
"I'll transfer the tip to your account later. You can go back to work now."
"Thank you. It's my honor to work for you. If there's a car shop in town in the future, I'll save up to buy a car so I can deliver meals to you faster," she said, bowed slightly, and then hurried away.
Jiang Ye returned to the base panel and searched for Herbert Amy in the town chat group. He transferred 2,000 yuan to her.
Then he sent another message to Tian Rao.
Jiang Ye: The girl who delivered my meal, Herbert Amy, looks good. If you're promoting anyone, you can consider her.
Tian Rao: No problem.
He opened the plastic bag and took out all the food. It was still hot.
Sitting in front of the base panel, he ate while opening the planetary map.
Designate Territory!
First, he zoomed out and designated the 14 towns and the nearby beaches. The designation process was simple, even crude. He drew a closed shape with his finger and clicked confirm. It was comparable to Western colonists casually drawing lines on maps.
[Designation Successful!]
Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then circled the nearby sea and clicked confirm.
[Designation Successful!]
He gritted his teeth. He had previously sailed to the other side of the sea in a fishing boat and mined there. Did the entire route count as his territory?
He reached out and drew a large circle, extending all the way to the adjacent continent.
[Designation Successful!]
Jiang Ye chuckled. The speed of claiming territory was too fast. It was truly "the poor put aside disputes, the rich assert historical claims"!
Thinking about it, he felt at ease. This area was all within his sphere of influence. He had even killed a stranger named Amy who was flying a plane on the other side. Wouldn't that mean it was his territory? Who else could claim it if not him?
Jiang Ye, feeling smug, continued to designate large areas on the map.
Soon, a different prompt appeared.
[Designation Failed, Invalid Territory]
After a series of failed prompts, Jiang Ye realized that he had designated all his current valid territories.
The territorial area was displayed in the lower right corner:
6701.5 square kilometers
It was much larger than he had imagined. However, judging by the map, most of it was wasteland and sea. The truly developed land was probably only a fraction.
Jiang Ye couldn't wait and opened the [Expansion Race].
As expected, the development index and ranking data had changed!