Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Chapter 72 Return to Earth

White Orchid Star is a little over 10,000 light-years away from Earth.

At the speed of a Class C spaceship, a round trip can be completed in a single day.

In addition, the convenient transportation and cheap assets on the planet make it the most suitable choice for Jiang Chen to build a 'base' outside of Earth.

Among the millions of inhabited planets in the Galactic Empire, the living environment of White Star ranks near the bottom.

The extremely cold climate makes it impossible for beings below the planetary level to survive on this planet.

Even planetary-level powerhouses would never like the wild environment of this planet, and would have to spend most of their time indoors in a warm environment, which has caused the asset value on White Orchid Star to drop sharply.

—This specifically refers to fixed assets such as land and buildings.

In the frigid region of northern Bailan Star, rows of enormous warehouses stand in neat rows, creating a kind of 'deadly' beauty under Bailan Star's extreme climate.

Meanwhile, on an open space outside a warehouse, a group of high-ranking officials from Bailan Star were patiently waiting for something amidst the freezing cold.

Suddenly, a silver-gray spaceship streaked across the sky, flew to the warehouse almost instantly, and then slowly descended.

"coming!"

An official's eyes lit up, and he quickly signaled to his subordinates to perk up.

The spaceship landed on the open ground, and the hatch opened.

The officials on Bailan Star quickly forced out their warmest smiles and looked expectantly at the cabin door.

One by one, powerful individuals flew out of the hatch without even glancing at the high-ranking officials of White Orchid Star, and lined up neatly in two rows.

The aura emanating from these people made the group of high-ranking officials from Bailan Star tremble with fear.

The leader alone, a stellar-level mentalist, is enough to destroy a backward planet like White Orchid Star countless times!

Even the royal family of the Silver Blue Empire, if their bloodline is somewhat distant, does not receive such treatment.

After the slaves disembarked from the spaceship, Jiang Chen, dressed in a black combat suit, leisurely stepped out of the hatch.

Jiang Chen frowned as he glanced at the welcoming crowd and asked, "Which one of you is Director 'Bart'?"

"It's me, I'm 'Bart,' the director of the Commerce Department of Bailan Star." A fat man with a big head and ears hurriedly stepped forward to greet Jiang Chen respectfully: "You must be Mr. Jiang who purchased this warehouse base? Let me introduce you to the situation of this warehouse base?"

"Don't you even bother to verify their identities?" Jiang Chen's brow furrowed even more, his tone revealing his dissatisfaction with their behavior.

How could I possibly verify your identity?

A thought flashed through the mind of the director named 'Bart,' but his smile became even more humble and respectful as he explained in a low voice.

Jiang Chen didn't make things difficult for the other party. He simply waved his hand and said, "Let's hand over the work as soon as possible. I'm in a hurry."

"Yes!" Director Bart responded without hesitation, summoning a subordinate and ordering him to complete the handover procedures as quickly as possible.

In less than ten minutes, the handover procedures were completed. Director Bart bowed respectfully to Jiang Chen and then quickly took his leave with the rest of his men.

Throughout the entire process, Jiang Chen didn't even ask the second person's name once.

Jiang Chen bought a large piece of land covering tens of thousands of square kilometers. However, land on Bailan Star is not valuable, especially land in the coldest 'Extreme Cold Zone', where prices are even lower.

This huge piece of land, along with the massive warehouses and residential buildings large enough to house hundreds of thousands of people, only cost Jiang Chen tens of millions of Black Dragon Coins, making it extremely cost-effective.

If it were a slightly better inhabited planet, the price would be at least ten times higher, or even more.

If it were a high-level planet like Qiulong Star, even if you sold Bailan Star, you could only buy a manor at most.

"Butler." Jiang Chen looked at the short, green-skinned slave who looked like a goblin and instructed, "I will stay here until the factory is completed. After that, this base will be under your care. If there are any problems you cannot solve, contact me through the virtual universe."

'Butler' is also a code name. Jiang Chen doesn't bother to remember the names of his slaves.

Jiang Chen didn't even bother to give them code names, except for a few 'leaders'.

"Yes, Master. Our task is to produce a certain type of mechanical equipment according to the intelligent modules left by you, to ensure the normal operation of the production line, and to coordinate with material suppliers and product buyers."

The goblin, codenamed 'Butler,' reaffirmed his main mission.

Jiang Chen nodded and said, "The production process will be mainly based on the intelligence I left behind. You should not make decisions on your own. Apart from the 'mental guidance' step, no human intervention is needed in the other steps. Your main task is to ensure the normal operation of the factory and the coordination between upstream and downstream."

The technology for producing the 'Goliath' mech is already very mature.

Apart from the core 'alchemy enchantment' process, the entire process requires no human intervention and can be completed under Jarvis's control.

Even for the most crucial enchanting process, Jiang Chen designed a near-assembly line manufacturing process. It only requires some planetary-level mentalists to provide mental support, and the rest can be completed by automated machinery.

This is also for reasons of confidentiality.

Jiang Chen certainly didn't want his most important 'money-making product' to be discovered and mass-produced as soon as it hit the market.

Anything with too many competitors will have its profit margins squeezed to an extremely low level.

In the end, it will all turn into a game of who has the lowest cost.

Only monopolies are the most profitable.

Although there are similar alternatives to the 'Goliath' in the universe, due to the special nature of alchemy, the cost is far lower than the mainstream processes in the universe.

As long as this link is not cracked, Jiang Chen can use the cost advantage to overwhelm his competitors in the market.

Of course, Jiang Chen's preparations for maintaining secrecy went far beyond just 'reducing human involvement'; the structural design also included many details to prevent reverse engineering.

However, these slaves didn't need to know this confidential information.

"Yes, Master."

The 'butler' readily agreed.

Jiang Chen isn't leaving immediately; he'll stay until the factory is completed, the first batch of 'products' is produced, and everything is confirmed to be in order before leaving Bailan Star.

During this time, if there is anything you don't understand, you can ask Jiang Chen for advice at any time. The 'butler' knows very well that there is no need to ask too many questions at this time and upset his master.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Jiang Chen stayed on Bailan Star for more than half a month.

Through the virtual universe, a large amount of equipment and raw materials were purchased, and with the assistance of SCV, the production line for the 'Goliath Giant' was established and passed the acceptance test perfectly.

An AI created based on Jarvis's source code was left by Jiang Chen in the factory on Bailan Star to manage all the equipment in the factory.

As for other managers and technical slaves, they can only participate in some peripheral work. The most core processes are completely controlled by AI.

In addition, the self-destruct program, which is also intelligently controlled, achieves the ultimate in secrecy.

The first 'Goliath' mech produced in trial production, after being tested by Jiang Chen, fully met the performance level required by the blueprints, and was enough to fetch a good price in space.

After completing the test, Jiang Chen didn't linger.

After leaving all the management and technical slaves, half of the combat slaves, and all the slaves skilled in brewing on Bailan Star, Jiang Chen took Number Two, Number Four, and the other members of 'Group B' and boarded the spaceship.

On the way back to Earth, Babata was still settling accounts with Jiang Chen.

"The materials left on White Star are enough to manufacture two hundred 'Goliath Giants' with some left over. Assuming there is not much waste, let's calculate based on two hundred finished products."

“The market price of a single ‘Goliath’ is between 120 million and 150 million, but since you are shipping in large quantities, it’s impossible to sell it at the retail price. We need to give the distributors enough profit margin. Let’s calculate it lower and sell it for 100 million per unit.”

"Two hundred units, which is two hundred billion. After deducting costs, the profit is about ten billion, which is a 100% profit."

"Luo Feng got a share of the spaceships we sold before. I won't go into the details about the slaves and the other money. But you have to leave half of the profits from this batch of 'Goliath Giants' to Luo Feng! And Luo Feng has to get at least 30% of the future profits from this project!"

Babata analyzed the situation carefully, while trying to extract a large sum of money from Jiang Chen for Luo Feng.

"You registered a company for the factory that produces 'Goliath', right? I'll use most of the initial profits to expand production capacity, so I can't possibly distribute any money as dividends. However, I can give Luo Feng shares in the company."

Jiang Chen stated his terms: "We'll split the funding 50/50, and I'll also take 40% of the technology shares, making it 70% for me and 30% for Luo Feng."

After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, "Luo Feng can't just take these 30% shares for nothing. If I need your help in the future, you must assist me unconditionally. Of course, this only applies to business matters."

This condition was not proposed because Luo Feng had a share of the 'startup capital'.

Jiang Chen was simply after Hu Yanbo's very important 'legacy'—a five-star account at the Cosmic Galaxy Bank.

As a high-level client of the Cosmic Galaxy Bank, Hu Yanbo's account enjoys numerous privileges.

If used properly, it can completely avoid many unnecessary risks while also enjoying numerous conveniences.

Although Jiang Chen is also a disciple of the Meteorite Star lineage, he is not Hu Yanbo's direct disciple, so he naturally cannot inherit this bank account.

Faced with the conditions proposed by Jiang Chen, Babata hesitated only slightly before agreeing on behalf of Luo Feng.

Although Jiang Chen's "small-scale antics" were nothing in Babata's eyes, for Luo Feng at the moment, the benefits that the "Goliath Giant" could bring could accelerate Luo Feng's growth process considerably.

In order to fulfill Huyanbo's last wish and train Luo Feng, his personal disciple, Babata was also willing to make certain concessions in other areas.

Seeing that Babata had agreed, Jiang Chen couldn't help but smile: "Then it's settled. After Luo Feng registers his citizenship, I'll proceed with the share transfer."

"What do you intend for me to do?" Babata hadn't yet realized Jiang Chen's true purpose.

"Right now, I mainly need you to look up some information. I'll let you know when it's needed," Jiang Chen said, not directly answering Babata's question.

The main issue is that knowing about something like a 'cosmic galaxy five-star account' is simply inexplicable.

It wouldn't seem abrupt to bring this up after Luo Feng enters the universe, or even reaches the stellar level, and inherits Hu Yanbo's first legacy.

-

Upon returning to Earth, Jiang Chen did not alert anyone. He simply went to see Luo Feng quietly and then distributed his star-level and planetary-level slaves.

Aside from a few who remained at their base to guard the area, most of them dispersed to the homes of Luo Feng, Wei Wen, and several other friends of Jiang Chen who had good relationships with him.

After arriving in the world of Swallowed Star, Jiang Chen didn't have many close friends.

Luo Feng is one, and Wei Wen is another. The three of them grew up together and have known each other since before they started school.

When Jiang Chen was a child, he lived a very poor life because he had no parents to take care of him. Luo Feng and Wei Wen's parents also helped Jiang Chen a lot, which prevented Jiang Chen's childhood from being too difficult.

Without this connection, Jiang Chen and Luo Feng, and Wei Wen might not have become such close friends.

Besides the two of them, there were only some childhood playmates left, but as they grew up, they took different life paths and had already drifted apart long before Jiang Chen obtained the system.

However, Jiang Chen was ultimately a sentimental person, so he still assigned his slaves to be protected in secret.

With the strength of these slaves, who are at least at the ninth level of planetary power, if they want to hide, very few people on Earth can detect their existence; you could count them on one hand.

And these people wouldn't focus their attention on a group of 'ordinary people'.

Number Two, Number Four, and their dozens of ninth-tier planetary slaves seamlessly integrated into Earth, secretly infiltrating under Jiang Chen's orders.

Jiang Chen did not reveal anything about the universe to the higher-ups of humanity immediately. He did not even take out items such as the virtual universe login device and the 'Purple Dew' that he had brought back from the universe, which were specially prepared for human evolution.

Only Luo Feng knew that Jiang Chen had been to the universe. Jiang Chen left him a batch of metal materials for the Golden Horned Beast to devour, as well as ten kilograms of 'Azure Wave Marrow' and an anonymous virtual universe login device.

After returning to Earth, Jiang Chen reduced the time he spent in the laboratory or the system library, and devoted more energy to the virtual universe, constantly consulting a large amount of information about the universe to understand this vast and boundless cosmos.

Only after Jiang Chen felt he had a sufficient understanding of the environment and situation in the universe did he call Jia Yi and propose to initiate a 'high-level meeting'.