I accidentally joined a group of charlatans, so I immediately called the police and handed it over t

The night was as thick as ink that couldn't be dissolved.

The underground core of Base 001 is filled with cold, hard air, carrying a suffocatingly low pressure.

Chen Xi sat in the black swivel chair that represented the highest authority, his fingertips gently stroking a seemingly insignificant fragment of clay.

That was a fragment of the Treasure Basin sent by Zhao Gongming.

It is rough and dull, with sharp, knife-like edges. Under the shadowless lamp, it is dark and sinister, exuding an indescribable eeriness.

It's like a closed eye, greedily peering at the world.

"Bang."

The heavy blast door was suddenly pushed open and slammed against the wall with a dull thud.

Li Guobang walked in.

This old general, whose spine was usually as strong as steel, now walked with a heavy gait as if he were dragging a thousand-pound shackle.

He walked up to Chen Xi, without saluting or exchanging pleasantries, and simply slammed a document onto the table.

The file slid across the smooth desktop, bumped into the shards of the treasure bowl, and came to a stop.

The bold text on the cover was as glaring as a needle: "Emergency Notification Regarding the Joint Implementation of Export Controls on Rare Metals by the G7."

"This knife went straight into his heart."

Li Guobang's voice was hoarse, as if he had a handful of sand in his throat, and every word sounded like blood.

Chen Xi didn't look up; his fingertips were still lingering on the shard, and he didn't even lift his eyelids.

"What's the panic?"

His tone was flat, revealing no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.

"Panic? Chen Xi, look carefully!"

Li Guobang braced his hands on the edge of the table, leaning forward, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Chen Xi, his pupils trembling violently.

"Rhenium, a high-grade gallium."

"These are the blades of an aircraft engine; they are the eyes of a phased-array radar!"

"They didn't just raise prices, nor did they limit supply; they cut off the supply! It was a complete, thorough, and zero-tolerance supply cutoff!"

Li Guobang was breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently, like the mournful cry of a cornered beast.

"Our inventory is only enough to last two weeks."

"Two weeks from now, those hundreds of newly rolled-out fighter jets will be nothing but scrap metal, and our large aircraft project will be doomed on the spot!"

"This isn't just a stranglehold, this is chopping our heads off!"

Chen Xi finally stopped what he was doing.

He raised his head, and in his deep eyes, there was no panic as Li Guobang had expected, only a bottomless, icy pool.

"Are you done talking?"

Chen Xi picked up the document, flipped through a couple of pages, and then tossed it back onto the table like trash.

"Old Li, your ability to maintain composure has deteriorated."

"Regression? That's fate! It's the fate of the nation!"

Li Guobang grabbed Chen Xi by the collar, half-lifted him up, and spat almost onto his face.

"How can you expect me to stay calm? Even if I sold my blood right now, even if I skinned myself alive, I still wouldn't get a single gram of ruthenium!"

"Chen Xi, tell me, are we going to kneel this time?"

The two were extremely close, their breaths mingling, and the atmosphere was incredibly tense.

Chen Xi looked at the old man in front of him, who was on the verge of collapse, and saw the desperate tears in his eyes.

That was the deepest fear of the nation's future and destiny.

Chen Xi slowly raised his hand and pried open Li Guobang's fingers one by one.

The movements looked gentle, but the strength in his hands was frightening.

"kneel?"

Chen Xi slowly smoothed out the wrinkles on his collar, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.

"That word doesn't exist in my dictionary."

"Take me to the lab."

"Let me show you what it means to retaliate in kind."

Inside the Genesis Laboratory.

Su Qingge was going crazy over the fragment of the treasure basin.

Her hair was disheveled, and her once-elegant white lab coat was now stained with various reagents. Her eyes were filled with a fanatical and anxious expression.

"It's useless... completely useless..."

She threw a piece of 99.99% pure gold into the groove in the center of the fragment.

still.

Dead silence.

That fragment was like a stubborn rock, unresponsive to worldly wealth like gold.

"The voltage was increased to 30,000 volts! Laser irradiation! They even used small particle colliders!"

Su Qingge grabbed her hair, her voice sharp and distorted.

"It's a black hole! It devours all energy without giving anything back!"

"Chen Xi, this thing is inanimate! It doesn't conform to the laws of thermodynamics or quantum mechanics at all!"

Li Guobang stood aside, looking at the unmoving broken tile, the light in his eyes gradually fading.

"Just this?"

He pointed at the fragments and gave a bitter smile.

"You think you can fight against Western industrial hegemony with this broken rock?"

"Chen Xi, are you crazy?"

Chen Xi ignored their questions.

He walked to the lab bench and picked up the fragment.

It was icy cold to the bone.

"It's not dead."

Chen Xi said softly, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

"It's just... hungry."

"Hungry?" Su Qingge was stunned. "What does it eat? Electricity? Heat? Nuclear energy?"

"Those are too low-level."

Chen Xi took out his phone, and the screen lit up, showing the interface of the Heavenly Court chat group.

The "pay-to-win battle" just now brought the group's activity level to an unprecedented peak.

Countless deities within it flaunt, compete, quarrel, and anticipate.

That intense emotion.

That desire to overpower the other person.

That yearning for a higher level of enjoyment.

They converged into a golden torrent invisible to the naked eye, but appearing tangible to Chen Xi—the power of will.

Or rather, wealth.

"Zhao Gongming is the God of Wealth."

Chen Xi looked at his phone, a smirk playing on his lips, revealing his fangs.

"The God of Wealth's magic weapon is naturally the karma and vows generated by transactions."

"Watch."

With a light tap of his finger on the screen, Chen Xi channeled the immense willpower accumulated in the background, which had not yet been transformed, into the fragment in his hand through some mysterious connection.

Om-!

The air suddenly trembled.

That wasn't a sound; it was a mournful cry of distorted space.

The originally dull and rough clay fragments seemed to come alive in that instant, their surface shimmering with an eerie purple light.

The light wasn't dazzling, but it seemed to suck your very soul in.

Deep within the groove, it seemed as if a crack had opened up, leading to another dimension.

"gold."

Chen Xi uttered two words.

Su Qingge subconsciously handed over the gold bar in her hand.

Chen Xi threw the gold bar into the purple halo.

It did not melt.

No cutting was done.

Just as the gold bars hit rock bottom.

The purple light surged, like a greedy tongue licking a gold bar.

Followed by.

Before anyone could react...

"bite."

A crisp metallic clang.

Everyone's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints.

In the groove.

It was originally a gold bar.

It turned into two pieces.

The same.

Even the serial number, scratches, and fingerprints on it are perfectly replicated.

A deathly silence.

Li Guobang opened his mouth wide, making a "clucking" sound from his throat, as if someone was choking him.

Su Qingge's legs went weak and she collapsed to the ground, her glasses slipping off her nose. She stared intently at the two gold bars, her face filled with the terror of her shattered worldview.

"This...this is..."

"This is a treasure trove."

Chen Xi picked up the two gold bars and tapped them together, producing a pleasant sound.

He turned around and looked at Li Guobang, who was frozen in place, his eyes gleaming with a burning light.

"Old Li."

"Who said we were going to build a lithography machine?"

Chen Xi casually tossed the two gold bars onto the table with a heavy thud.

"We don't need to sculpt patterns on the silicon wafer."

"We directly copy atoms."