Chapter 191: Mechanical Processing Plant
Looking at the newly obtained information in his hands, Chen Chen found himself engrossed in thought.
The recent changes in the USB drive gave way to an ominous guess in Chen Chen’s mind.
The appearance of the black pa.s.sage and the world it led to gave the impression that there was a deeper facet to everything so far.
It was as if the USB drive was intentionally designed this way, that the architect behind it was trying to convey some message to the user.
Before the user was able to attain sufficient energy, the USB form was only capped in its “first form”, which granted the ability to instantiate objects from movies, but it was unable to open pa.s.sages for entry.
Once the user of the USB drive had advanced past a certain point and had gathered enough energy, the USB drive systematically expanded into its “second form” which allowed the user to learn new things.
It may appear that its inability to instantiate living beings was a design specifically implemented to protect the user.
Take the world in Chronicle for example. If the USB drive was able to instantiate living beings, it was extremely likely that the alien plant would be brought into reality along with the crystalline.
As for the consequences of such an action, the scenario in the pa.s.sage should suffice as an example.
Chen Chen only had one question on his mind now – was it possible for the USB drive in its second form to revert to its first form?
Chen Chen thought about it. Since the USB drive still had some energy remaining, he returned to the main control room and booted up the USB drive. He looked at the movies inside the USB drive and selected G.o.dzilla 2: King of the Monsters.
The reason behind selecting this movie was because the technology in the movie nearly mirrored that of the real world. Even if they were not of any help, it was no skin off his back should something go wrong.
Besides, the USB drive did not have enough energy inside it for G.o.dzilla to crawl its way out. If it were to force its way out, it should end up similar to how it went for Chen Chen’s fingertips, the portion that crawled through would be cut off.
After Chen Chen double-clicked the movie, G.o.dzilla 2: King of the Monsters began playing in the computer’s video player.
Chen Chen was able to rest his worries upon witnessing this.
Fortunately, this movie did not also turn into a pa.s.sage.
Chen Chen turned off the movie. At this point, it was pretty clear to him that the USB drive had obtained a new functionality. In the future, there were two choices when opening the USB drive, either instantiate an object or open up a pa.s.sage.
In that case, Chen Chen decided to conclude his experiments. The total power generated by a 2 million kilowatt nuclear power plant over 20 days was only enough for four people to enter and exit the tunnel once. Chen Chen was rendered somewhat speechless.
There was hardly any power left in the USB drive as it needed to be recharged.
So, Chen Chen plugged the USB drive back into the charging device and gave it time to charge.
Concerning the constant prompt from the Namibian officials, Chen Chen decided he was going to drag his response out for another month.
There were a total of two nuclear reactors in the Blacklight Nuclear Power Plant. After a month, Chen Chen could use one to provide energy for Namibia and the other for charging the USB drive.
Even though at this rate Chen Chen was going to be operating at an enormous net loss, it was money that he could afford to lose.
After locking down the main control room, Chen Chen prepared to have Cheng Cao drive him back to the Spire laboratory.
However, when Chen Chen entered the car, he received a call. It was Qian Wenhuan.
“Boss, Professor Charles from the industrial zone just contacted me. They told me the thing you instructed them to design is completed and that they have produced a prototype. They hope you can head over to take a look.”
Chen Chen nodded in response to Qian Wenhuan’s report. “I got it. Tell them that I’ll be there in an hour.”
After hanging up, Chen Chen turned to Cheng Cao sitting in front. “Head over to the dock, I need to get something.”
“Got it, Boss.”
Chen Chen answered and proceeded to drive toward the dock in Walvis Bay.
Meanwhile, Chen Chen sent a message to Little X. When Chen Chen arrived at the dock twenty minutes later, there was already a cloned soldier standing ready by the Blacklight Cruise who then pa.s.sed a pendant to Chen Chen.
After receiving the pendant, Chen Chen had Cheng Cao switch route again and headed for the industrial zone in the Eco Science City.
This pendant was the Galaxy in Men in Black.
While the USB drive was being charged in the nuclear power plant, the Blacklight Cruise was left running as well. Chen Chen had left the Galaxy pendant in the power control room for the ship’s engines to charge it around the clock.
Although the power of the Blacklight Cruise’s generator was only 240,000 kilowatts which were only one-eighth of that of the nuclear power plant, it was still a substantial amount of electricity.
The price he had to pay was that the Blacklight Cruise would be burning more than 20 million U.S. dollars in fuel and maintenance costs every month.
Chen Chen also found a proper way to release the acc.u.mulated electricity, which he had done using a specially constructed generator. Upon inserting the Galaxy pendant into the generator, the generator trans.m.u.ted the electricity into an endless stream of thermal energy.
Chen Chen ordered three such generators from Germany. Although the efficiency may take a small hit, at least it served to accelerate the charging rate of the USB drive.
Apart from that, Chen Chen thought of a new application for the generated power.
Which was to manufacture weapons using the Galaxy pendant.
The earliest form of weaponry over the course of human civilization development was kinetic weapons. Even though energy weapons were available now, humans still largely depended on kinetic weapons since the technology for energy weapons had yet to reach a mature stage.
Kinetic weapons contained limitless potential as well. With enough acc.u.mulated power, it was able to fire more concentrated and faster artillery sh.e.l.ls. When the artillery sh.e.l.l was accelerated to light speed, it was even able to destroy an entire planet.
Therefore, kinetic weaponry was going to maintain its place in history for at least several centuries to come.
If the Galaxy pendant could instantly release powerful bursts of energy, would it be possible to repurpose it into a weapon or even utilize it as the core energy of a weapon, thus allowing it to unleash unprecedented power?
Thus, Chen Che spent several hours of his spare time learning how to draft blueprints. With the help of the references provided by Little X, he had produced several weapons blueprints which he handed over to the newly constructed mechanical factory in Eco Science City.
Now, they had brought Chen Chen’s designs to life using the ultra-high precision machine tools.
When they arrived at the industrial zone, it was immediately noticeable that this sector was much more desolate than Eco Science City. The mechanical factory was the only structure erected in the middle of Namibia’s barren plains.
Still, it would only remain this way for now. Soon, the construction team would arrive and begin constructing plenty of factories in the area to make up for the industrial sector shortcomings of Blacklight Biotechnology.
If it was possible, Chen Chen would like to liaise with ASML Holding in Netherland and bring back several EV lithography machines. However, even with the generous reward offered up by Chen Chen in the G.o.d’s Forbidden Zone forum, none of the families could help him with it.
After all, even the central government of the Mainland was unable to obtain such equipment, there was no reason to expect a company like Chen Chen’s which was rooted in the Mainland would be granted the privilege.
As the proud holder of the plaque of the world’s most precise machinery, it was even rarer than the ultra-high precision machine tools. Their orders were lined up till several years away. Under the strict joint administration of the North American and European continents, the relevant technology was locked away. This was not something that can be acquired with just money.