Chapter 616: It’s Time!
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
Penglai City continued to spark attention on international media and social media platforms, and the most direct impact to Xin was the exponentially increasing amount of tourism. The number rose from 200,000 at the beginning of the month to 410,000 by June of that year, equating to an increase of 205%.
It was certainly heavenly news for Future Tourism’s CEO, Wei Yun. Following the increase in tourism, Heart of the Sea’s financial report could easily break the 200 million USD promised to Jiang Chen with ease.
The remaining 200,000 square meters of leasing s.p.a.ce was fought over by major international retailers. Clients who were already settled in were secretly glad they made the decision early to “buy at the dip” when Coro Island’s traffic was low. Otherwise, they would be fighting like their colleagues over a few square meters of retail s.p.a.ce.
An enormous amount of pedestrian traffic packed the luxurious landmark building, but despite the crowdedness, people were still eager to visit this symbol of luxury and comfort. This wasn’t only the case for Heart of the Sea – people were also eager to explore the beaches of Coro Island, the narrow sandy islands, and the complex sea maze.
The tourists all uploaded their vacation photos onto their social media accounts and expressed their fascination with the area.
For example, they posted onto their Moments page on WeChat.
“This place is no different than my hometown. The air is just fresher, the environment is more beautiful, the roads are wider, the internet speed is faster, the housing prices are unbelievable… The official language of this place is the same as my hometown, I feel like I’m in the Hawaii of the East.”
For example, on Twitter.
“This place has permanently free Wi-Fi that covers the entire country! Oh G.o.d, this is heaven for us. Our president should really learn from Jiang Chen; our state should have permanently free Wi-Fi inside our borders! Does she not know we’ll die if we don’t have Wi-Fi!”
For example, on Facebook.
“This is so hot – so much hotter than Moscow. I have to drink champagne all day just to cool off. *Burp* I swear, I’m only drinking so I can cool off. I’m not drunk at all! Are you not going to try? I heard their champagne is made with tropical fruits; this is so addicting…”
Of course, people were most interested in the rumored Penglai City!
Was the city currently under construction really as magical as Future Group described it to be?
Smart travel agencies who smelled business opportunities from the public’s curiosity introduced scuba diving activities near the west Pacific Ocean.
The theme of these scuba diving tours was to explore the mysterious Penglai City.
Because it was a military zone, personnel not a.s.sociated with the area weren’t permitted to approach the construction sites, but Celestial Trade didn’t evict the civilian s.h.i.+ps outside the territory.
This was Jiang Chen’s decision.
People were filled with curiosity or suspicion about the mysterious Penglai City. If they managed to satisfy the curiosity of tourists and resolve their suspicions that Future Group was hyping up something fake, they would definitely pa.s.s the information back to their own countries and become firm supporters of the tale of Penglai.
If Celestial Trade hindered tourists from coming, it could kill off their interest toward the country.
And Xin needs tourists!
Especially since normal scuba diving equipment couldn’t submerge to a depth of 500 meters, there was no concern that tourists could interfere with the construction. However, if they approached the material drop off zones or went directly above the construction sites, Celestial Trade’s submerge devices would evict them.
Under the guise of safety concerns.
But because there were too many tourists, soldiers couldn’t keep up with the traffic, so Ivan had to report the status to Jiang Chen.
It was fine.
Jiang Chen immediately gathered all travel agencies with business in Xin and held a brief meeting.
It was concluded that it was okay to tour Penglai, but viewings were only permitted to occur in the outer radius of the construction. Once any travel agencies were caught taking tourists inside the military zone, the tourists wouldn’t be punished, but the guilty travel agency would be doc.u.mented. After three occurrences, the travel agency would be on Future Tourism’s blacklist.
Being on the blacklist meant there would be no way for them to continue to conduct travel business in Xin.
After the meeting, the bosses of the travel agencies immediately called for internal meetings back at their own companies. From today onward, all scuba diving equipment touring s.h.i.+ps visiting Penglai City would be connected with a rope. While the rope was heavily criticized by scuba diving enthusiasts, it was a rule strictly enforced by all travel agencies.
The reason was that no one wanted to get on the wrong side of the giant Future Group!
Time quickly flew to mid-June.
With summer approaching, the tourism industry welcomed a peak period.
What was more exciting was that on Future Tourism’s official site, the first level four unit was open for bidding!
It was a three-story mansion located on the beach sitting on the outermost ring of Penglai City. It was built with a garage, pool, and a private dock for a small private yacht! The starting bid price was 5 million US dollars!
Penglai City’s housing prices skyrocketed and the unbelievable speed of appreciation made the people who lost the opportunity to purchase properties resentful and envious. This time, no one wanted to miss the opportunity. With Future Tourism’s purposeful marketing scheme, the not-so-luxurious mansion was sold at a price of 70 million US dollars!
Because units above level three had no purchase restrictions, it made all investors who believed in the value of Penglai drool over the property.
Combined with level one and two unit as well as the commercial s.p.a.ces sold previously, it brought an astonis.h.i.+ng 61.7 billion US dollarsin revenue to Future Group! In Xia s.h.i.+yu’s words, it was like robbing money.
The tightened cash flow situation because of the construction of the New Malaysia Special District and Penglai City was quickly alleviated by this injection of capitals.
While the presale of Penglai’s real estate was a miracle, Future Heavy Industries’ Xiao Lin also demonstrated a stellar performance.
With the completion of the New Malaysia Special District, over 500,000 units of Xiao Lin were manufactured monthly. Its monthly net income also broke the 1 billion US dollars mark. Xiao Lin managed to completely dominate the home robot and adult toy markets.
With the intention of building off this momentum, Future Heavy Industries announced to the media that it would cooperate with Future Biology to develop medical robots to deliver clinical doctors to everyone’s homes.
The Phantom Helmet, housework robots, and pure electric vehicles with high mileage… a lot of people began to develop a taste of the future in their daily lives.
While they were enjoying the rapid speed of innovation, everyone was contemplating something in their minds.
What would Future Group change next?
Their sights s.h.i.+fted back to Future Biology, which had entered the medical industry.
The vaccine for the T virus was s.h.i.+pped to 11 countries worldwide. While people’s fear began to retreat with the pa.s.sage of time, the 200,000 vaccine units produced per month far exceeded the market demand.
The entire vaccine market was split by Future Biology and Tanaka Pharmaceutical.
After five months, quite a few other pharmaceutical companies also managed to develop similar anti-virus medications.
Some companies even stated that they controlled the technology to turn zombies back into humans, but there were no zombies now to prove the efficacy of their technology. Jiang Chen scorned the idea since even the apocalypse didn’t have the technology to revive the dead, let alone pharmaceutical companies in the modern world. Humans were dead the moment their immune systems were destroyed by the T virus; the infected hosts were long deceased from this world.
People who stated they could revive humans were only trying to build off the publicity.
Kurofune seemed to have gone into a period of hiding. The Ghost Agent sent to Yoto didn’t manage to find any traces of Kurofune but reported an interesting piece of information. CIB was contacting the Nippon government and was currently in the process of investigating Tanaka Pharmaceutical.
At the same time, the CIB agents searching for the fighter jet pilot on MLL Island also began to retreat.
The UA seemed to have noticed something.
While Jiang Chen didn’t know if it was for better or worse, he didn’t have the energy to figure it out.
He had been directing his energy in the modern world for too long.
According to Sun Jiao, things on the apocalypse side were well rested, and resting any more would cause the muzzles in the soldiers’ hands to rust.
It was time to start expanding!