Chapter 1525: Cost Problem
The smell of monster feces was much stronger than that of ordinary beasts.
No matter how harmless the treatment was, it still had a smell.
Therefore, it had to be placed downwind.
Meng Chao was an insider and very familiar with the layout of this type of biochemical industrial park.
Soon, he found the intersection of dozens of sewage pipes. There was a glint from something silver, like the closed fermentation tank of a reactor.
It was dawn.
Many monsters were sleeping.
It was not yet the peak period of excretion, and the public treatment center was running at a minimum.
There were only a few sleepy and lazy workers.
The place was for small- and medium-sized enterprises that raised less than five hundred to six hundred monsters.
It was not a heavily guarded military area.
Meng Chao easily avoided the staff’s attention.
From his empty office, he stole the inventory list of consumables from the past month, as well as the related data table.
This was because there had been a great explosion in the Red Radiance Jade vein around Raging Waves Mountain Range.
Until now, the spirit magnetic interference had been very strong.
Many instruments and equipment were easily interfered with, resulting in data loss and system paralysis.
Therefore, most of the data still required manual records and physical ledgers.
Meng Chao flipped through the two ledgers labeled “Horizon Biotechnology Co. Ltd.” from beginning to end, then closed his eyes and did some mental calculations.
When he opened his eyes again, a suspicious glint flashed in his eyes.
“Strange.”
He muttered, “The data in here doesn’t seem to follow common sense.”
“What do you mean?”
Ai lei asked, “Senior, did you notice anything unusual?”
“It’s just that there’s nothing unusual. That’s why it’s So Strange.”
Meng Chao patted the warehouse receipt on his left hand first, “In this ledger, it records the various biological additives and chemicals used in the past month to ferment and degrade the monster feces transported over from Horizon.
“I took a look and found that most of them were common goods such as bacillus, Acetobacter, protease, growth-promoting factor, and so on.
“Judging from the types and amounts used, these additives and chemicals can at most handle the feces of three to five hundred ordinary monsters, such as the halberd demon pig and the iron-armored rhinoceros.
“The higher the level of the monster, the more psionic residues there are in the feces. Using these common goods won’t solve the problem at all.”
After pausing for a moment, Meng Chao opened the account book on his right.
“This account book records the return points that the public processing center should give to Horizon. Because after the monsters’ feces are processed, they can become a very good fertilizer. Therefore, not only does the public processing center not have to collect processing fees from the farmers, but it can help the farmers find a market. After the farmers sell on behalf of the farmers, they can use the sales to deduct the processing fees, the farmers’ rent, and the management fees for operating in the park.”
Meng Chao pointed at the figures for the past three months and explained to Ai lei, “Judging from the flow of water in the past few months, the selling price of the monster feces at Horizon isn’t too high. If we extrapolate from this price, they would only be raising 300 to 500 normal monsters.
“If they weren’t raising the sword-halberd demonic boar but the tyrant mammoth, or if they were raising more than 1,000 monsters, the monster feces wouldn’t have been sold for such a small amount of money.”
Ai Lei agreed with Meng Chao’s point of view.
But she still did not understand. “So, is there a problem? What if Horizon is really a small and medium-sized enterprise that is operating legally, and it really only raises three to five hundred halberd demon pigs
“If Horizon is really relying on these three to five hundred halberd demon pigs to make a living, then there’s no need to set up the breeding base in the depths of Raging Waves Mountain.”
Meng Chao a.n.a.lyzed calmly, “The artificial breeding technology of the sword-halberd demon pigs is already very mature. In the market, the price of pre-processed pork is almost cheaper than that of chicken breast. There’s not much profit at all.
“Moreover, the omnivorous monsters with thick skin and meat are very adaptable to the environment. They can set up a large-scale breeding farm with tens of thousands of animals in a place where transportation is convenient and birds don’t s.h.i.t.
“In fact, because the technical threshold is very low, the related farming industry has long been slaughtered into a red sea for the common beasts that can be raised easily and produce a lot of meat like the halberd demon pig and the iron-armored rhinoceros.
“Those who can survive in the highly compet.i.tive Red Sea are all super-large enterprises that can raise tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of animals.
“After all, Wild Waves Mountain is a blessed land with abundant spiritual energy. Setting up a breeding base here would be very expensive just to buy or rent the land.
“Horizon is located deep inside wild waves mountain. The rent might be a little cheaper, but no matter how cheap it is, it is still as cheap as a deserted area. Moreover, the cost of building and maintaining the highway and setting up such a tight defense system has been raised by a lot.
“May I ask, in such a place, what is the core compet.i.tiveness of raising only three to five hundred sword-halberd demon pigs? Can they be compared with the powerful large-scale breeding enterprises?
“By the way, speaking of the impregnable defense system — if we are only raising sword-halberd demon pigs and iron-armored rhinos, there is no need to pull up so many high-voltage power grids and set up so many machine gun turrets.
“Even if these pigs, dogs, cows, and sheep run out, perhaps the cleaning lady in the park will wave her broom and chase them back. Is there a need to surround the breeding base so tightly that it’s impenetrable?”
“That makes sense!”
Ai Lei suddenly came to a realization.
She thought for a moment and then said.., “Then, is it possible that Horizon is researching some kind of high-tech technology, such as making the demon pig taste more fresh and tender, or making the demon pig’s flesh have the quality of the flesh of a tyrant mammoth, and so on?
“If it’s such an experimental project, it doesn’t seem like there’s a need to raise too many monsters.
“Or perhaps, Horizon is a sh.e.l.l company with a big appet.i.te. On the surface, it has a decent breeding base, but in reality, it’s just to cheat the investors of their money. In that case, it doesn’t matter what kind of monsters it raises. Of course, the cheaper and easier it is to raise the monsters, the better
“First, if we are developing more advanced breeding technology, Horizon’s location is too bad.”
Meng Chao said, “The more spiritual energy is concentrated in a place, the easier it is to stimulate the cell division and genetic mutation of the monster to produce a new subtype of the monster.
“Look, this is the layout of the biochemical industrial park that I just got from the Office of the public processing center.
“These are all serious, small-scale start-ups that are researching high-end technologies. They are all gritting their teeth and building their breeding base in the center of the industrial park, the place closest to the Honghui jade vein where the spiritual energy is densest.
“Even if Horizon doesn’t have that much money and can’t afford to buy or rent the Fengshui land in the center of the park, they wouldn’t have gone to such a remote corner.
“If the money chain is really that tight, they shouldn’t have set up such a waste of money project in the first place.
“Secondly, if they’re selling dog meat just to cheat the investors of their money, what’s the most important thing? Of course, it’s publicity!
“Look at other sh.e.l.l companies. which one of them doesn’t have to boast in the major media and boast to the Sky?
“Their registered capital is only three to five million, yet they dare to say that they can beat the universe with their fists and kick the sky with their feet.
“There are only two to three one-star transcendents in the company. They’ve only bought a few battle videos of G.o.dly state experts, and they’re even pirated. Yet, they dare to say that they’ve received the careful guidance of G.o.dly state experts.
“They can even raise the halberd demon pig to death, yet they dare to say that they’re about to overcome the technical problem of artificially cultivating the diamond nine-headed dragon.
“There are even people who claim that they have solved the core technical problem of the ‘s.p.a.ce-time bridge’from the Otherworld to Earth. Now, they are only short of hundreds of thousands of startup funds to open the s.p.a.ce tunnel and return to Earth!
“Only such audacious swindlers can cheat the investors of their money.
“But look at Horizon. Since when did they do any publicity?
“They are not even willing to do door-to-door interviews. They only came up with a press release the size of tofu. How can they cheat money if they keep such a low profile?”
Ai Lei often dealt with sh.e.l.l companies.
She was very familiar with the style of these scammers.
After Meng Chao’s advice, she indeed felt that Horizon Biotech’s business strategy was completely illogical.
“All the possibilities have been eliminated. There’s only one answer.”
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and said, “Horizon’s legitimate business on the surface doesn’t make money, and it doesn’t need to make money at all, because it’s just a cover.
“I guess that there must be an even larger underground s.p.a.ce under Horizon’s breeding base, where some secret projects that can earn high profits are being run.
“But to get to the bottom of this secret project, I have to do aerial reconnaissance.”
Meng Chao explained to Ai Lei that Horizon Biotech’s secret project must be big.
Otherwise, there is no need to go to the mountains and forests to build a secret base, in the Dragon City to find a random biochemical laboratory can do.
And large-scale R & D projects, no matter which field they involve, must consume a lot of psionic energy, and discharge a lot of wastewater, waste gas, produce crystal ore slag and monster feces, and so on.
Since Horizon had been so secretive, it was impossible for them to do so.
It was impossible for them to build a pipeline of spiritual energy openly through the regular channels.
It was also impossible for them to release real waste to the public treatment center.
In that case, they must have their own crystal reactor and a secret sewage pipeline.
However, no matter how secretive they were, as long as their waste entered nature, even a gram of crystal slag would have an impact on the environment.
However, many changes would be hard to notice from the ground, since they did not know the real face of the mountain.
Even if they did, it would be difficult to connect them to Horizon.
Only when he looked down from the sky did Meng Chao have absolute confidence that he could catch Horizon by its tail in the shortest time possible!