Ten minutes later, every public noticeboard, sky-curtain array, and cheap jade communication slip across three hundred and fifty galaxies lit up with a cheerful brass trumpet jingle.
[WELCOME TO THE DRY-WELL PUBLIC AGRICULTURAL & DEBT-RECOVERY BROADCAST! LIVE FROM SOLAR RING-WORLD FARM #8!]
On the screen appeared a lush, golden Ring-World wrapping all the way around a warm white-dwarf sun. Endless fields of pine-tree-tall Star-Core Beef-Grain swayed in the gentle breeze, while herds of plump, happy star-cattle grazed along the banks of a Sweet-Spring irrigation canal.
Right in the middle of the largest cattle pasture stood Prince Zhao Lie, Third Prince of the Nine-Suns Immortal Dynasty.
His shimmering star-silk robes were tucked into a pair of knee-high rubber muck boots, and over his chest hung a neon-yellow Debtor Vest that flashed with glowing red letters:
[CURRENT REMAINING ROYAL DEBT: 998,999,999,999,999,999,999,999.98 GRAIN-NOTES (2 COPPER PAID SO FAR!)]
Chained by his wrists to a squeaky iron wheelbarrow, Prince Zhao Lie was sweating buckets as he hefted an iron shovel full of steaming, rich star-cattle manure and dumped it into the barrow with a wet SPLORCH.
Standing right beside him with a bamboo pointer and a microphone was former Abyssal Devourer Sect Patriarch Old Monster Ming—now wearing a neat blue badge that read Senior Sanitation & Compost Supervisor.
