Chapter 847 Declaration of War

EBM, the full name of European Business Machines Corporation, in the late 1990s, it had become the world's largest computer and high-tech manufacturer.

At the same time, it was also the initiator of the first corporate war, which was the largest hostile takeover in the history of the free market——

For a long time, European Business Machines, or EBM, was the world's most advanced computer and high-tech manufacturer.

As a high-tech company, EBM has more than 50 AV4 armed aerospace vehicles, twenty second-generation vertical takeoff and landing attack aircraft, twenty corporate jets for executives and five aircraft in its public financial reports before 2020. A heavy transport aircraft, each headquarters is equipped with armed helicopters, parked at various headquarters in Europe.

Moreover, EBM is one of the first companies to own an orbiting laboratory. It can compete with each other in terms of its capabilities in low-Earth orbit and outer space businesses. However, the latter has turned this capability into profitable projects, while the former is for its own use.

Originally, EBM's growth momentum was very terrifying, and almost no other high-tech companies could compete. Until they reached a bottleneck period, they bought the entire Hamburg land and declared that they were an entity jointly with the European Community on an equal footing.

For this reason, Interpol treats EBM Enterprises and EBM Hamburg separately.

Later, the Internet crash caused serious damage to most of EBM's businesses:

The rabies virus in Bartmos destroyed the plans of all enterprises equally, and the more high-tech the company, the more dependent it was on network information technology, the worse it would be, as was the case with EBM.

The former Kangtao company was almost bankrupted by the collapse of the old network, and the CEO at the time could not bear the pressure and committed suicide. EBM's situation was almost exactly the same as Kangtao's.

The only difference is that it took decades for Konta to get sponsorship from a large organization, and EBM was backed by EBM Burger.

After that, EBM cut off most of its overseas business and concentrated on repairing data and developing slowly. This resulted in vacating most of the market in North America and turning it into today's Night City environment.

But in Europe, EBM has always been one of the top super companies.

At the same time, EBM is obviously a competitor to the Girafa Group. The two companies even have conflicting ideas:

The former wants to become the largest high-tech manufacturer in the world and label all high-tech items with the EBM label; the latter is committed to allowing everyone to enjoy technological progress and making technology that everyone can afford. .

During the recession, the European Community took the opportunity to repurchase EBM Hamburg's real estate in Bremen and make this land belong to Germany again. However, it is obvious that EBM's influence here is deeply rooted and it will be difficult for any other enterprise to survive here for a long time. Those who live well can only silently accept the squeeze of EBM.

The local government's money comes from taxes, and local companies are basically governed by the EBM. The European Community is also quite troubled by this, and can only keep spending money to ensure that the administrative agencies are obedient——

Now, the opportunity has come.

Maybe a group of angry strikers could directly disrupt EBM production?

What the European Community has to do is to let the local police and Interpol curb the possibility of EBM using force in an honest way and take back Bremen's right to speak in the business community.

On the street, workers stood on both sides of the road in an orderly manner, looking excitedly at the savior from Folkestone, hoping that the arrival of the Cyberpsychiatric Committee would change their current situation.

Network monitoring opens up some small powers to the remediation committee, allowing Severns to see how many people are currently on the streets:

“A total of 782 people are active on the streets, and the monitoring network shows that 6,832 people are active in the workers’ forum and have expressed varying degrees of support, and there are more than 120,000 potential supporters.

It’s a lot, much more than I imagined.”

In the rickety car, Severns was surprised and inspired.

Bremen is indeed a big city, but the global population has been declining compared to a century ago.

Precisely because Bremen is large enough and backed by the technologically advanced EBM, the production technology here far exceeds that of Folkestone and even Night City. In terms of standardization, production efficiency and coordinated production, it is beyond the reach of these cities. Therefore, the huge production lines and The factory does not require too many workers to intervene.

The entire city has a population of only 500,000, with workers accounting for 60%, and nearly 300,000 workers of all types——

Precarious workers account for nearly 200,000, and the rest are high-tech workers who can find long-term jobs.

There are nearly 7,000 people on the street, most of whom are skilled workers. The potential supporters are mostly people without stable jobs, and many have even lost their jobs recently.

If they can't find a job for a long time, they may be removed from the European barrier for various reasons. In other words, the city is already fermenting conflicts before they arrive!

Nearly 7,000 skilled workers chose to leave their jobs, 120,000 potential supporters were passively working at their stations, and the whole city suddenly became quiet——

As they stopped working, only the dull sound of footsteps was left in the noisy industrial area. Workers on the streets and alleys followed the Mackinaw, and the dissatisfaction they could only vent quietly on weekdays exploded at the same moment.

Under the instructions of the system, the EC police walked in front to clear the way for them. More and more workers gathered in the streets and alleys like a tide. The fatigue on their faces was swept away, and their bright eyes stared intently. Buildings on both sides of the road:

The drone hovered around the company's assets. Soldiers stood in front of factories and company buildings, their gun-holding hands tightly attached to the mechanical armor. Executives stood in front of the glass windows, looking down at the workers -

Compared to the excitement of the workers, most executives would only give them a cold look:

They thought they had learned how to resist, but in fact they only incurred greater anger. EBM has suspended performance statistics within the company.

It means that the next thing is to do it regardless of the cost.

Most workers felt that this was a victory: if the committee officials survived to reach Bremen, then the victory must be celebrated later, just like Folkestone and Bruges.

But EBM and Lille know that this is not a parade after victory, but a declaration of war——

Precisely because this was a declaration of war, the scene maintained an unclear and strange balance.

But the balance on the street was immediately broken.

As the crowd moved forward, a figure rushed against the crowd towards the middle of the road where there were only police cars and Mackinac. He looked very tired and could not stand firmly. His eyes were empty. He kept leaning on and pulling on the workers around him——

When he reached the last worker against the current and lost all support, he suddenly fell to his knees on the hard road.

"Do you think you can change anything by inciting people here? In the end, it will be us, the lowest-level small factories, who die! We have no choice at all!"

The people in the car and the workers on the road were stunned for a moment.

Elliot was suspicious: "What is this man talking about?"

Severns instantly understood what this man was doing - the man kneeling down was the owner of a basic component processing factory, supplying EBM.

According to network monitoring data, more than half of the workers in his factory have run away in the past few days.

Obviously, the workers of truly large enterprises, especially those who have gone through a round of emergency adjustments within EBM, will not all run away at once.

The unlucky ones are these small business owners.

[Lille: Don’t worry, keep pushing, let the policeman move aside, don’t run him over. 】

Elliot, who had been instructed, relayed this, but just when Phantom was about to turn the steering wheel, another graphic instructing her to work appeared in front of her.

She swallowed: this ghost had saved them from the car accident, and now the ghost was telling her not to turn the wheel.

To fight or not to fight?

I don't know why, Phantom suddenly recalled the days when he was called around by his elder brother in Night City, and he felt something in his heart——

Then don’t fight.