Chapter 273: The Era of Underworld
After finishing their daily shifts, many of the Lizardmen would loiter around the commercial district, even though they couldn’t afford to buy anything yet. They just stood there quietly, staring blankly through the glass windows, minding their manners so they wouldn’t break the glass again. There were always puddles of drool left on the ground, which just meant extra work for the cleaning robots.
Finally, the long-awaited end of the first month arrived!
They had money!
When the first month’s wages were deposited, the plaza was instantly packed. It was bursting at the seams.
Chaos erupted immediately. These Lizardmen had no manners. They didn’t queue up or rather, the concept of waiting in a line didn’t even exist in their culture. They started a massive commotion, shoving and clambering over each other to buy things. The moment someone managed to squeeze to the front of a vending machine, others dragged them right back down.
The crowd was made up of workers from different villages, and they didn’t care about hierarchy or social status here. Everyone wanted to be first. As a result, nobody managed to buy a single thing.
Eventually, the pushing turned into shouting matches between different village factions, sparking their very first massive brawl. A few of the villages were already bitter rivals, having fought over hunting territories in the past. Now, they were even more aggressive, settling both old and new scores. Their pack mentality was strong; they always sided with their own kin, completely ignoring who was actually right or wrong.
They had no choice but to fight it out!
However, nobody dared to actually kill anyone inside the supermarket. For one, they didn’t have any weapons. Given their relatively light builds, beating someone to death bare-handed was difficult. After all, this was the territory of "The Emissaries." Human authority was absolute, and shedding blood was strictly forbidden. There were hidden cameras everywhere, recording their every move. If they broke the rules or committed serious crimes, they would be exiled immediately.
Naturally, the humans had no intention of interfering in these messy tribal disputes, as long as nobody died. In fact, many Federation sociologists found it absolutely fascinating to observe their brawls.
"Gah!"
"Die!"
Roaring, the Lizardmen let their blood boil and their wild instincts take over. With their tails held high, they bit and punched each other in a frenzy that looked a lot like a wild dogfight. A few of them, after taking heavy blows, simply curled up into defensive balls on the floor.
The massive brawl lasted for half an hour. Following their ancient traditions, the losers retreated. The victorious Lizardmen crowded proudly in front of the vending machines, smugly claiming their priority shopping rights.
Curiously, smartphones had become the most coveted item among the Lizardmen. When the humans first visited the native villages, they gave each village chief a phone as a diplomatic gift.
It caused an absolute sensation across the settlements! The reason was simple: the phones could take pictures and record audio! All they had to do was press a button, and a photo was captured. It was incredibly easy to use.
At first, the Lizardmen were a bit timid around the devices. But once they figured out how the cameras worked, they couldn’t stop snapping pictures. They grinned foolishly at the screens, completely obsessed. It was like they were addicted, needing to take a couple of selfies every few hours just to satisfy their cravings.
However, with only one phone per village, there was no way to share it with everyone, and no one dared to steal from their chief.
So, they never imagined that they would actually be able to buy their own here! Many of the Lizardmen shrieked with excitement when they saw the phones displayed in the glass cases. They wanted to buy everything!
Unfortunately, they were broke. A single month’s wages couldn’t buy much.
Humans couldn’t be satisfied with such simple things. A smartphone was a luxury item; did they really expect to afford one after just one month of basic labor?
Of course, not all the goods provided by the Federation were expensive. Basic metal tools like spears were forged from scrap steel, requiring very little effort to produce. Even the cell phones and music boxes were just outdated tech from years ago, dumped on the Lizardmen with zero warranties or customer support.
You buy it, it’s yours.
But even with their limited features, these gadgets were more than enough to dazzle the Lizardmen and ignite their greed! A little bit of greed was a good thing; it pushed a civilization to grow, and this applied perfectly to the natives.
Internal desire was always a better motivator than external coercion. The natives were naturally lazy and hated using their brains. To them, deep thought was a form of torture. So, the humans used consumer goods as bait.
You want to buy more things? You want to earn more money? Simple—start using your brain!
The humans even made the vending machines deliberately tricky to use. Most of the Lizardmen couldn’t read, hated thinking, and despised math. They refused to learn even the most basic arithmetic. During their initial training, almost all of them failed basic math, and the human instructors had given up in frustration. Primary school math looked like alien runes to them!
But now, look at them! If they couldn’t do basic math, they couldn’t buy what they wanted without losing money.
The vending machines weren’t fully automated. The user had to insert their payment card, manually type in the purchase amount, and calculate their remaining balance. If a Lizardman accidentally typed that they spent 1000 credits instead of 100, the machine would happily deduct the 1000 credits. Not a penny less.
But underpaying was impossible. If they typed 10 instead of 100, the machine rejected the transaction and slapped a 1-credit penalty fee on their account!
Don’t underestimate that single credit. A Lizardman working the resource mines only earned about two to three hundred credits a month. They couldn’t afford to lose money to stupid mistakes. Therefore, they couldn’t risk underpaying, and the only way to survive the system was to calculate the exact amount perfectly.
Gritting their teeth, the Lizardmen finally started learning math. One by one, they suffered through basic arithmetic, groaning and rolling on the ground in mental agony. They grasped the concept of a "transaction" for the first time. They also learned strange, terrifying new concepts like "time" and "currency."
"The Emissaries" were ruthless!
The natives soon realized that a month had 30 days, sometimes 31, and occasionally 28. But a day always had 24 hours, and wages were only handed out at the very end of the month.
Payday became their most anticipated event! What a pity they had to wait a whole month for the next one.
If they wanted higher wages to buy more tech, they had to learn advanced skills! The humans promised that harder, more complex jobs paid better salaries!
And just like that, a rudimentary economic system was born! The whole point of creating this economy was to force their societal evolution.
"What a fascinating transformation," Jason muttered to himself. He was reading the latest sociology report with keen interest; he was quite fascinated by this kind of cultural engineering.
He didn’t know exactly how this would alter the Lizardmen’s society in the long run, but according to existing sociological models, it was mutually beneficial. For the natives, the introduction of a monetary system would rapidly accelerate their civilization and force their brains to develop. For the Federation, it created a massive, motivated workforce. It was a perfect win-win.
"As for whether we can permanently control them, that isn’t an issue right now. We aren’t selling them firearms or teaching them advanced combat tactics," Lily noted softly from across the desk.
Jason nodded, continuing the discussion. To help the money circulate, the Federation had printed physical paper bills and minted coins. The Lizardmen were allowed to trade freely among themselves. Their primitive minds couldn’t comprehend digital currency just yet; they needed to feel the physical weight of the coins to trust their value.
How they spent their money was their own business; the humans didn’t interfere. This new currency was officially called the Native Credit, with portraits of various Lizardmen printed on the bills.
"Essentially, this currency acts as a highly stable foreign exchange for them," Jason explained. "They don’t have their own central bank, so they rely entirely on our credits."
Back in the old days on Earth, the US dollar was pegged to oil. Here, the Native Credit was pegged to the goods in the Federation supermarkets. It was a credit system based on basic commodities.
The Lizardmen had absolute faith in the purchasing power of the bills. They didn’t really understand the concept of "credit systems," but their instincts told them it was reliable.
"The Emissaries" represented absolute authority. As long as the humans didn’t abandon the planet and the supermarkets stayed open, the money wouldn’t lose its value. It could even be used in their own villages as a universal equivalent.
"Of course, if we ever pack up and leave, and the stores close, this entire currency will turn into useless scrap paper overnight," Jason smiled, a hint of dark humor in his voice.
