Chapter 28
3
“Our ‘Greenland’ oxygen plant boasts an excellent environment and is located in an ideal location. Even though the facilities are slightly outdated, you’ll find the production rate not too far behind current standards.
“We also have facilitated operating channels and an advanced production framework. If the equipment can be updated, then certainly…
“Most notably, even though we had to cease operations for the current period due to management problems, this won’t persist for more than two years. The government will dispatch a new set of regulations…”
While Chen Chen was touring the “Greenland” oxygen plant, the thirty-plus-year-old factory manager stuck by his side and rambled on the entire time.
The factory manager of “Greenland” was a middle-aged man dressed handsomely in a set of suits. Due to his mountain-shaped eyebrows, he looked like a failed-businessman.
Chen Chen initially did not know why the factory was named “Greenland”. He immediately understood the reasoning when he saw the owner’s temperament.
“Hm, it’s pretty alright.”
Chen Chen waved and said with an unchanging expression, “You don’t have to keep trying to persuade me. I can’t afford to buy your factory. All I want is to rent it for some time.”
“That works too. If you’re willing to rent it, we can deduct the depreciation cost of the facilities. Judging by the current market, it should cost around three hundred thousand. I’ll give you a thirty percent discount at two hundred thousand. What do you say?”
“It’s too expensive.”
Chen Chen shook his head. “Since your factory had already shut down anyway, why not make the rental cheaper? Besides, I doubt there’s anyone else other than me who will rent your factory, right?”
“It…” The man smiled awkwardly. “Two hundred thousand isn’t that expensive. Our factory comes with seven to eight acres of land and hundreds of equipment. If this is supposed to be considered expensive…”
“I’d like to see your transformer.” Chen Chen switched the topic.
“Alright, come with me.”
The man tossed aside the previous topic as well and led Chen Chen to the power distribution room. He pointed at the large metallic object hung mid-air. “Here’s our 10kv power dry type transformer, it’s capacity is up to 200KvA. It’s enough to power an entire factory so there won’t be any problem.”
“The electricity in the factory isn’t high current electricity, are they?” Chen Chen asked.
“That’s right, it can only sustain 380V industrial electricity, so a step-up transformer is used.”
Chen Chen nodded. He considered it for a while before saying, “How about this? You rent the factory to me at a hundred and fifty thousand per month. I’ll make an initial payment for three months. I might extend the rental period later on. What do you say?”
“Hundred fifty thousand isn’t much. We have dozens of staff here, it’s not exactly free to maintain the staff.” The man was troubled.
“I won’t be using your staff,” Chen Chen replied.
“What?” The man was taken aback. He made eye contact with several men behind him. “In that case, how about the electric bill and depreciation fee?”
“I’ll pay the electric bill out of my pocket. If any equipment is damaged, I’ll pay back what they cost,” Chen Chen answered him.
“Alright, good enough!”
The man finally revealed his cunning smile. “Mr. Chen, it’s a pleasure working with you!”
“It’s a pleasure working with you!”
The two of them shook their hands and smiled cunningly.
One of them thought he had finally chanced into a great bargain. He was operating at a loss anyway, why not rent it out and help even it out a little.
The other one was mainly after the power generation as the factory was simply a decoy. It may look like he had been ripped off, but who would have known Chen Chen’s intentions were not as it seemed?
After signing the agreement, Chen Chen was given the keys to the factory’s main door and power distribution room.
The other party was even going to invite Chen Chen out for a meal, but the offer was respectfully declined by Chen Chen. After politely sending off the original owner of the factory, Chen Chen went to the warehouse and found a bundle of high voltage cable.
These cables were almost as thick as a balled fist. They were able to sustain up to 110kV high voltage electricity. It was enough for Chen Chen’s purposes.
Apart from that, Chen Chen also found several bars of copper ingot and a welding gun. He then headed toward the direction of the power distribution room.
After cutting off the power source, Chen Chen unplugged all of the equipment wires from the transformer. He proceeded to plug the bundle of high voltage cables into the transformer. He connected the other end of the cable to the top of the copper ingot.
After setting down the copper ingot and completing the insulation treatment, Chen Chen retrieved a USB port from his pocket. He inserted the parts of the USB into the copper using a hand drill.
After completion, Chen Chen took out the USB drive to give it a try. The USB drive was able to fit perfectly into the USB socket inside the copper ingot.
“Now, we’ll find out whether this was a success or a failure.”
Chen Chen took a deep breath and headed into the power distribution room. He reconnected the power source.
Thump!
Immediately after, a low hum came from the transformer outside. It began to howl like an awakened beast. It was the sound of voltage being amplified by the transformer.
Chen Chen looked at the electric meter beside him. The numeric figures displayed in the electric meter began to slowly shift.
Showtime!
A hint of excitement flashed by Chen Chen’s eyes. “A transformer with a capacity of 200kVa. Going by the most ideal calculation, it can draw 200kW of electricity each hour and it can charge the USB drive around 4800 degrees per day…”
Chen Chen silently pondered. “Also, the general energy rate is around 0.8 to 0.9, which means that it could realistically charge around 4000 degrees a day…”
According to his knowledge, the price for industrial electricity in Shangdu was in the vicinity of 0.75 Renminbi. Which meant that he would need a monthly hundred and twenty thousand just for charging the USB drive.
This was a rip off in broad daylight.
Forget about several hundred thousands. Even an electric bill in the range of tens of millions was a fair price to pay for the ability to extract an item from a film.
7
In conclusion, Chen Chen was now approaching the final stages of his plans. If he was able to attain sufficient energy, he should be able to safely retreat his foot which was already halfway out the door.
The beginning was always the hardest part. After completing the first step which was accumulating capital out of the way, Chen Chen was now in the fast lane. It was all uphill from here on.
In the not so distant future, Chen Chen could potentially accelerate humanity’s civilization standards as a whole. He just might ascend to the top of the Earth Federation!
Chen Chen pressed pause and smiled at himself. It was too early to be thinking about all that.
Looking at the electric meter going up endlessly, Chen Chen was certain that he had plugged out all of the connections in the transformer. All of the electricity in the factory was now being fed into the USB drive.
When he thought of this, he left the power distribution room and headed outside. He saw the USB drive idly plugged into the palm-sized copper ingot.
If it was any other electronic device, it would have been smoldered by the enormous amount of voltage.
Only this particular USB drive could withstand it.
All this time, Chen Chen had tried various other methods to inspect the USB drive such as attempting to take off the USB drive’s cover to inspect the inside structure.
However, just as Chen Chen had expected, the USB drive was manufactured with some sort of unknown material and could not be easily dismantled by a person.
He went from carefully attempting to dismantle it in fear of damaging the USB drive to going ham on it with a glass cutter. All of his attempts proved futile as it did not even leave a single scratch mark.
According to the scale of Moh’s hardness1, the USB drive had far exceeded the highest grade in the natural world which was grade ten.
Still, Chen Chen heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that nothing peculiar happened to the USB drive.
All he had to do next was to wait patiently.
When he managed to get more money, he would have to switch to a more powerful transformer. 200kVA was not going to cut it. 2000kVa should get the work done.
If he had a transformer with a capacity of 2000kVa, the amount of power he could input would be ten times the current input. Since the USB drive could not be smoldered by high voltage, there was no reason to not go higher.