While in America, the system says Roosevelt was an emperor.

[Current Character Panel]

Name: Tom Smith

Strength: 2.8↑

[Agility: 3.1]

Intelligence: 5.0 or higher

[Psionic Power: ███]

SAN value: -8.7/4.46

[Negative buffs expected tomorrow: Greed, Cold-bloodedness, Imperial Rejection, Slaanesh Favorability, Tzeentch Favorability, Khorne Favorability]

Tom glanced at his personal stats, then went to sleep.

Tom's sanity dropped below -5, and he completely gave up on saving it.

Garlic bird, garlic bird, that's it. Having too much debt isn't a burden; at worst, I'll just experience a day with negative sanity.

If Tom's sanity value isn't too negative, he can sing, dance, and rap like crazy before midnight to restore his sanity value.

After transmigrating, Tom tried a three-in-one combo (not really) – Iron Mountain Lean, Crow on an Airplane, and Singing Like a Cicada, to see how the system judged it.

The system considered Tom's imitation of the Emperor as an act of loyalty to the Emperor, and directly rewarded him with 0.1 sanity points.

To test the limits of this technique, Tom tried performing the elementary school student's triple combo several times a day, and ultimately concluded:

If you jump more than three times a day, the sanity bonus for subsequent jumps will decrease.

The more you jump, the more you lose;

But there is a minimum guaranteed sanity value of 0.05.

Trading two and a half minutes of dance time for 0.05 sanity points is a pure profit.

But if Tom were to perform the elementary school student's triple jump hundreds of times to increase his sanity, it would be better to just let Tom die.

Tom is not a slave to the system, and the host will never be a slave!

The next morning, Tom was once again awakened by Penny's prayers.

Washing up, eating, tidying up clothes, going out...

Start the vehicle and drive towards the Corleone family's stronghold.

While driving, Tom suddenly realized that today was exactly the same as usual, and there was nothing special about it.

Where are the promised series of negative buffs?

There's no time to be confused about the disappearance of the negative buff, because Tom is about to face his first tax collection.

At seven o'clock in the morning, Tom arrived at the Corleone family's stronghold, where ten armed tax collectors had been waiting for some time.

For them, today was their first day at work, and they all arrived more than half an hour early.

Whether this can change the fate of our whole family depends on today!

Everyone, dressed in the new clothes Tom had bought for them, stood in a row, waiting for Tom to arrive.

Tom looked at the ten spirited men, walked up to them, and asked:

"Do you know how taxes are levied?"

Tom wanted to know first how much his men actually knew about taxation.

Before Tom could finish speaking, everyone rushed to answer.

First Humanity:

"Rush into the house, search for money and food, and take half of what you find!"

Tom slapped his forehead upon hearing this. This wasn't taxation; it was robbery under orders.

Although taxation is essentially robbery, it cannot be done too rashly and directly.

The government should maintain a dignified appearance, or at the very least, appear dignified.

The second person countered:

"This is too barbaric and vulgar; you can't levy taxes like this."

Tom turned his gaze to the second person, wanting to see what unique insights he might have.

The second person continued:

"You need to calculate exactly how many people are in the other family before deciding how much grain to take."

"We must ensure that the remaining money and food are enough to sustain the other side until the next autumn harvest, so that only one or two people will starve to death, rather than everyone starving to death."

"As long as no one starves, they will not fear Commander Tom."

"If the remaining money and food aren't enough to keep most people alive, and too many or all of them starve to death, the enemy might just fight you to the death on the spot!"

After listening, the first person suddenly realized and said:

"No wonder our village kept changing tax collectors; it turns out they were murdered."

"It seems your village's tax collector is the smartest."

The second man looked smug, as if the wisdom of their village tax collector was something they had come up with themselves.

Before he could even revel in his triumph, the third person, who was also the youngest among them, said:

"Your method of tax collection is for rural areas; we collect taxes in the city."

"No one would hoard food for the whole winter, and money wouldn't be kept at home like in rural Italy."

"There are banks in the city! There are banks!"

"If the other party deposits the money in a bank, are you going to go to the bank to retrieve it?"

Before the second person could respond, the third person continued:

"Commander Tom is a full-time employee of the Finance Bureau, and he can even arrange for us to work there as well."

"In addition, it will be able to provide us with formal proof of work experience in the future."

"Commander Tom must be an elite tax collector in the Finance Bureau. He just wanted to know how much we know about taxation."

"But we're just Italian country bumpkins, how would we know how taxes are levied in a big city like New York?"

"We would appreciate it if Commander Tom could enlighten us and tell us the correct way to collect taxes."

Tom's eyes lit up. The third person might not know how to levy taxes, but he would definitely know how to make Tom feel comfortable.

No wonder emperors liked eunuchs and treacherous officials; regardless of how they were used, at least it sounded pleasant.

Tom pointed at him and asked:

"What's your name?"

The third person's eyes lit up, and he quickly replied:

"Luca, Officer Tom, my name is Luca!"

The gazes of the crowd toward Luca now held an undisguised envy.

It seems that Lord Tom has taken notice of Luca.

Tom nodded and addressed the crowd:

"From a tax law perspective, this applies to both individuals and businesses."

"It simply depends on the other person's income level; the higher the income, the more tax is levied, and the lower the income, the less tax is levied."

"The key to taxation is to determine the specific amount of the other party's income."

"Some people might think that they can just go to the company and ask about an individual's salary level, or just look at the company's books."

"That's a big mistake. Many people and companies use fake accounting books to evade taxes."

"If you only look at the fake ledgers, they don't have to pay much tax at all."

"And don't forget, is taxation only levied on the federal government, state governments, and municipal governments?"

"No, no, no, we should tax ourselves!"

Taxing himself? Everyone was a little confused by what Tom said.

Tom continued to ask the crowd:

"Did everyone bring guns?"

Everyone paused for a moment, then Tom suddenly asked, "Why are you asking this?"

Luca was the first to act, immediately lifting his trench coat to show Tom the Colt M1911 pistol at his waist, and replied:

"Sir Tom, as per your instructions, we are to carry guns at all times while on duty!"

"Please inspect!"

Seeing this, everyone followed suit, lifting their trench coats to show Tom the gun at his waist, and shouting in unison:

"Please inspect it."

Tom smiled slightly and said to everyone:

"No amount of talking will change anything. Today I'll show you how to properly collect taxes."

"Most importantly, how to make taxation a way of taxing oneself!"

"Come on, get in the car with me."

Tom led the way into the car, and the others followed. At Tom's signal, Luca got into a car with him.