"Most people have arrived, so let’s officially start the first board eting of the United Developnt Company. First, we should introduce ourselves, so that everyone can get to know us. I’ll start..."
The speaker sat in the chairman’s seat and looked about sixty years old, his hair already graying. However, one cannot simply judge their age by appearance alone here.
Almost everyone here has a decent living environnt and a social network that ordinary people can’t fathom. A life of comfort allows them to avoid most factors that cause aging, so each person appears younger than their actual age.
The gentleman appears around sixty, but his actual age might be close to seventy or over seventy, yet his physical abilities resemble those of an ordinary person around sixty.
Though money cannot stop ti in humans, it can slow ti down to the greatest extent possible.
With the gentleman’s introduction, the most prestigious board chairman group of the United Developnt Company was fully revealed to everyone.
If soone were to list the "Federation’s Top Ten Consortia" or "Most Influential Consortia in the Federation," the top ones would be present here today.
People have long known about this. When they paid to buy shares in the United Developnt Company, they saw the list of the board chairman group. But at this mont, seeing these people in person, everyone was still very excited.
Excited to the point where so people’s lips trembled, their eyelids twitching uncontrollably. The reverence for capital and money has already been etched into the bones by the capitalists.
If the chairman group mbers extended their hands to others now, many would line up to shake hands and present themselves humbly.
With each person’s self-introduction, people gained a deeper, more nuanced impression of the board of the United Developnt Company.
Soon it was Lynch’s turn. He stood up, smiled at everyone, "Chairn and directors, so of us are eting for the first ti, while others we know well. I am Lynch, pleased to et everyone..."
A very ordinary self-introduction, lacking personal characteristics, but in such a setting, ordinary is what’s needed.
An unconventional approach works well for ordinary people at the bottom of society who are trapped in a gray world they can’t escape. Only those unconventional things can brighten their eyes and add color to their gray world.
But for the top echelon of society, whose world is already vibrant, unconventional implies nonconformity.
You can say outrageous things or do outrageous deeds, even absurd ones, and no one will condemn you because people know "we are the sa kind."
But being unconventional isn’t acceptable; that would exclude oneself from the "us," Lynch understood this well, which is why his self-introduction was so plain, without any flair.
All the self-introductions took over half an hour, so spoke slowly or had more to say. All in all, after half an hour, the last shareholder sat down excitedly, and the initially speaking older gentleman began again.
This gentleman’s na was "Jeruno," referred to as "Mr. Jeruno," with the surna "Duncan." Jeruno Duncan, a na that was a bit difficult to pronounce and didn’t seem like the na of an extraordinary person.
But its owner was indeed different. The Duncan Clan belonged to the first batch of immigrant adventurers to the Federation. As long as they were part of the first batch and didn’t encounter issues like "dying young" halfway, they were doing well now, like Mr. Pato’s Akiner Clan.
The Duncan Clan was the sa, although they weren’t as well-known among the people, as they were very low-key.
They distributed shares fairly among their family mbers and various international and dostic foundations, making it seem like they lacked any well-known, representative figures.
But in the circles of the upper class, among the real elite, the Duncan Clan is a family that cannot be underestimated; they are adept at investing.
Three Federation Presidents ca from their family, they are the largest landowners in the Federation, and they have close ties with the Federation’s five major oil companies, owning many shares within them.
Mining-related companies also mostly have traces of their family. In short, no one except themselves knows the extent of their wealth.
However, people know that in Mr. Pato’s Star Dream Butterfly Conglorate, Mr. Wardrick’s consortium, and other major consortia, their people and shares are present, which is why Mr. Jeruno can represent the board chairman group to speak.
No one else possesses this qualification, whether it’s Mr. Wardrick, who is familiar with Lynch, or Mr. Pato, whom they’ve sowhat acquainted with. If they represented other chairn to speak, so people would surely be unconvinced.
The Federation is not a country that values subtlety; if you don’t assert your rights, others are even less likely to care about the interests of soone who dares not speak up for their own rights. Inevitably so conflicts would occur, but having Mr. Jeruno speak avoids much trouble.
"I reviewed the company’s financial reports for the last quarter and must say we did well...," Mr. Jeruno said, laughing. "Everything is within our plan; we’ve found new opportunities in Nagariel."
"New opportunities, new developnt, new future, but also new troubles." Mr. Jeruno’s pace wasn’t fast; it seems as age increases, speech tends to slow down.
It’s not that they can’t speak quickly, nor that they can’t speak clearly, but they fear speaking too quickly would prevent others from understanding, so they slow down.
Maybe they worry about expressing themselves clearly, but Lynch thinks they’re more worried others can’t keep up with their pace, having been old himself, he understood this.
"So of the natives aren’t very friendly to us, which we foresaw before developing Nagariel. So ignorant people believe their ways are the best; we can’t bla them, but they affected our business."
"Due to unrest and protests, the company lost quite a bit of money, which is one of the main topics for this board eting, how to deal with these natives."
Lynch noticed that while Mr. Jeruno ntioned Nagariel people, he kept using the derogatory term "natives," his tone filled with barely concealed arrogance and contempt.
In fact, most principal mbers of large families from the Federation’s founding era possess similar attitudes, like Mr. Pato, who also harbors unfriendly thoughts on cleansing the natives.
This attitude derives from their "family glory." Anyone familiar with the Federation’s history knows its growth was built on the continuous slaughter of Federation Mainland natives.
The longer the family has origins from that era, the more natives they slaughtered. Currently, they don’t advertise this publicly, but within family education, it’s inevitable they instill in their children these matters they consider their ancestors’ "glory."
Rumor has it so ancient...actually only a few generations old families even collect particular trophies; parts from prestigious native leaders, like so eerie, dried thumbs or so eyes preserved in jars.
Of course, these are not mainstream; mainstream remains old photos, gentlen with small mustaches, dressed elegantly, donning a civilized hat, holding a Civilization Staff, standing on heaps of native corpses.
These people are the first-generation immigrants of the Federation, at that ti, killing natives was seen as glorious, these "glorious deeds" almost filling the essential stages of these family mbers’ growth. Naturally, they exhibit arrogance and contempt for natives.
It’s not just the Federation’s natives; all those deed uncivilized are considered natives, and Nagariel people fit all native characteristics evidently.
Mr. Jeruno’s voice didn’t falter due to Lynch’s lightning-fast thoughts, "Now, within the board, there are two opinions on handling matters, one is a relatively gentle approach, and the other..." He glanced at those with equally deep family backgrounds, "...slightly more severe, letting those natives know what rules are."
"The United Developnt Company doesn’t belong to anyone, including everyone in the chairman group, who aren’t the company’s owners. This company belongs to everyone present, so we need to unify our opinions."
"I must tell everyone in advance once we’ve unified our opinion in the board eting, no one shall act against our collective will. We are a whole, any divisive act should be strongly condemned!"
The atmosphere suddenly beca heavy. On the surface, Mr. Jeruno talked about fairness, but everyone knew genuine opinions accepted ca only from the board chairman group mbers.
In other words, ordinary people’s opinions weren’t important, nor did they need to express them; they simply had to follow the chairman group’s opinions!
It felt sowhat hurtful, yet there was no choice, arms and legs were no match for those with heftier arms and legs, everyone could only comply.
Mr. Jeruno then looked at Mr. Pato, "Mr. Pato, I heard you have so opinions on this topic?"
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