107: Chapter 108: Burning through 800 million in a month to forge a weapon that crushes a 10 billion empire.

It must be said that Xu Hao's deeply intertwined network of connections, spanning both the underbelly of Shanghai and the business world, unleashed terrifying efficiency at this very moment.

After receiving the absolute order from Shen Du, Xu Hao spent the night canceling all his daily business engagements and slipped into the Shanghai brokerage market like a ghost.

In less than two days, he successfully leased a completely forgotten, abandoned old factory in the remote, deep forests of Sheshan, Songjiang District.

This place was originally a heavy chemical laboratory with a military background.

However, during the global financial crisis of 2008, it declared bankruptcy due to a completely broken capital chain, and since then, its doors had remained closed, left to decay until now.

Xu Hao spent a fortune to secretly bring in a cleaning team that had signed non-disclosure agreements.

The factory area, originally overgrown with weeds and covered in thick dust, was cleaned from top to bottom in just one day and night, revealing its cold, industrial, and heavy skeletal structure.

Standing in the center of the factory, Xu Hao nodded with satisfaction.

The location was excellent.

Although it was deep in Sheshan and rarely visited by people, surrounded by weeds taller than a person and dense woods, the paved asphalt road connecting it to the outside world was smooth and convenient.

Because it was located in a remote dead end, no random vehicles or people would ever accidentally wander in, maximizing its concealment.

The entire surface factory area was massive, spanning over a thousand square meters, and surrounded by towering anti-climb walls.

The few red-brick dormitory buildings on the edge of the factory area, which originally belonged to old employees, still had solid main structures.

As long as a few engineering teams were brought in to renovate and redecorate them slightly, they could perfectly serve as enclosed, high-end apartments for this group of overseas experts.

But what really made Xu Hao spend money to buy this place without hesitation was the "underground core" hidden behind the heavy explosion-proof door.

Following a wide, dedicated inclined elevator down, there was a massive laboratory located more than ten meters underground.

Because it was previously used for high-risk chemical and heavy metal experiments, the foundation here was built directly onto the hardest rock layer of Sheshan.

There were load-bearing walls one meter thick, perfect independent military-grade ventilation ducts, and layers of strict physical partitions.

A few days later, under the cover of night, several black business vans with privacy film on the windows silently drove into the Sheshan factory area.

Six top-tier foreign technology fanatics, who had been "smuggled in" by the system and air-dropped into Shanghai, officially stepped into this underground fortress that was about to change the global semiconductor landscape.

The leader of the "Prometheus" Lithography Machine team, that Dutch scientist with a head of messy hair and eyes revealing a pathological fanaticism, Victor Zima.

He took a long tour around the factory area and the underground laboratory.

He even pressed himself against the load-bearing wall in the deepest part of the underground laboratory, using professional instruments to test the micro-vibration frequency.

After confirming that all indicators were perfect, Victor turned around, speaking with a heavy Dutch-accented English, and nodded with great satisfaction to Xu Hao, who had been accompanying him the whole time:

"The place is very good, and the environment is beautiful enough. The most critical thing is that there is no extra heavy vehicle interference outside. This can save us a large amount of redundant computing power required to build anti-vibration magnetic levitation bases."

But immediately after, this scientific fanatic changed the subject and threw out a practical question:

"However... in this wilderness, how will our future meals and daily supplies be handled?"

Hearing this question, Xu Hao immediately pointed to the adjacent independent apartment area that had just been renovated.

He indicated that the brand-new double-door refrigerators, microwaves, complete sets of kitchenware, and sufficient mineral water inside were all ready.

However, when Xu Hao subconsciously took out the personal background form that Shen Du had given him in advance, preparing to introduce the upcoming Chinese meal arrangements to these "grand masters," his gaze suddenly stopped on that row of dense foreign nationalities, and cold sweat instantly broke out.

He slapped his forehead hard, finally realizing what a fatal logistical blind spot he had ignored!

This isn't just a research and development team? This is basically a "miniature United Nations"!

The United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, plus a cold-tempered Russian-born woman from Germany... It spanned six completely different countries and dietary cultures!

Making this group of Western technology fanatics, who were used to raw, cold seafood and high-sugar, high-oil diets, eat Chinese canteen food with the security team every day in this deep wilderness—within three days, these masters would probably go on strike on the spot because their appetites would collapse.

Looking at this group of "national treasure-level" masters before him, who had high-IQ glints in their eyes but whose common sense for daily life was likely approaching zero, Xu Hao sighed helplessly.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and soothe them in fluent English:

"Everyone, although the kitchenware here is complete, the situation is indeed quite special. Regarding meals, you may have to bear with me and make do with some high-end Western-style light meals for the first two days."

Xu Hao took the black notebook out of his suit pocket and professionally stepped into the role of "Head Steward":

"Now, please tell me your usual dietary habits and any essential dietary restrictions. I will compile the information and go to the city to hire exclusive private chefs for you."

As it turned out, true geniuses not only crush ordinary people in IQ but are also absolutely more demanding and extreme than one another when it comes to daily taste preferences.

As Xu Hao's pen kept recording, the notebook was soon densely packed with a "logistics list" that would make even a five-star hotel executive chef feel suffocated.

The American chief architect, Arthur Pendleton, requested a daily supply of medium-rare, dry-aged ribeye steak, double-layer high-calorie burgers, and iced Americano coffee that must be available twenty-four hours a day;

The iceberg priestess Yelena specifically demanded the most authentic Russian hardcore black bread, borscht, and caviar.

She also domineeringly requested that several bottles of high-purity vodka for refreshment be kept in the underground laboratory freezer.

Marcus from the UK required greasy fish and chips and grilled meat chops with mashed potatoes.

However, he had the unshakable stubbornness of a British person: there must be a pot of high-quality Earl Grey tea every afternoon;

Even more outrageous was the Lithography Machine leader, Victor.

In addition to a large amount of Gouda cheese, this Dutch fanatic actually requested that logistics provide fresh "raw herring" every day.

And he specified that it had to be the kind that smells fishy, to be swallowed whole by tilting his head back.

As for Watanabe Toru from Japan and Linus from Sweden, the former requested exquisite and hygienic sashimi, tempura, and late-night sake.

The latter was completely an algorithmic tyrant driven by sugar, demanding that the table always be piled with salmon, Swedish meatballs, and cloyingly sweet cinnamon rolls...