933: Chapter 928 Big fish eat little fish, little fish eat shrimp

Shen Yan smiled.

He stood up and looked down at the former mining tycoon.

"Mr. Ma, this is the world of business."

"big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp."

"Right now, you aren't even worth a shrimp."

"Sign it, or not?"

Ma Xiong looked at the contract on the table, then at the satellite phone on the floor.

That was his last lifeline.

If he didn't sign, he'd have to jump off a building tomorrow.

"I... I'll sign."

Ma Xiong picked up the pen with a trembling hand and signed his name on the contract.

In that moment, he felt like he had sold his entire life.

Shen Yan picked up the contract, glanced at the signature, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Guang Ke, process the payment."

"Also, notify the Legal Department to go handle the mining rights transfer procedures first thing tomorrow morning."

When they walked out of 'Heaven on Earth,' a light snow had begun to fall in Jinghai in the early morning.

Chen Guangke followed behind, holding the contract worth two billion, feeling like he was dreaming.

"Brother Yan, aren't we being a bit too ruthless?"

"Six hundred million for two billion in assets, if this gets out..."

Shen Yan stopped walking and looked back at the brightly lit clubhouse.

"Ruthless?"

"When that Quantum Communication Module is successfully developed, the entire world will be begging us for these metals."

"At that time, the price of this palladium and rhodium will increase tenfold, even a hundredfold."

"Look at it then, six hundred million?"

"This is practically picking it up for free."

The solutions provided by the System were never intended for charity; they were for winning.

In this world of the strong preying on the weak, only those who control core resources have the right to set the rules.

...

Over the next forty-eight hours, the massive machine that was the Shenyan Group began to operate at full speed.

Due to Ma Xiong's sudden departure, a momentary vacuum appeared in the domestic rare metal market.

And Shen Yan seized this instant perfectly.

He utilized Ma Xiong's channels, combined with the System's real-time intelligence, to aggressively sweep up inventory.

Not just domestically.

Through An Ran's overseas accounts, Shen Yan quietly established thousands of long positions on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Whenever someone sold palladium, he bought it up.

He bought as much as was sold.

Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous factory in Jinghai City, Wu Ya was directing workers to move boxes of cleaned electronic tubes into a temperature-controlled warehouse.

These 'industrial waste' tubes, forgotten by the world, were now being enshrined as if they were divine statues.

Shen Yan sat in his office, looking at the reports on the screen.

Of the palladium circulating domestically, Shenyan Group now held 85%.

Rhodium, 9%.

As for the specific model of military electronic tubes, that was an absolute monopoly of 10%.

The feeling of monopoly was truly wonderful.

Just then, the office door was violently pushed open.

Chen Guangke rushed in, face full of excitement, waving his tablet computer.

"Brother Yan! It's blown up! Everything has exploded!"

"What's exploded?"

"Zhao Changhe from Aurora Motors, and Sun Lan from Huamei Bio, they are both scrambling everywhere looking for stock!"

"Their new model's three-way catalytic converters require palladium, and there isn't a single gram to buy on the market right now!"

"And several companies that make high-precision instruments urgently need rhodium for plating; they've been calling me nonstop!"

"They are asking if we have any stock, and they say the price is whatever we name!"

Shen Yan's lips curved slightly upward.

The fish had taken the bait.

"Tell them we have none."

"All of Shenyan Group's rare metals are only coming in, not going out."

"We're keeping it for our own use."

Chen Guangke was stunned for a moment.

"For our own use? Brother Yan, why do we need so much palladium? That's for catalysts."

"We aren't making cars."

Shen Yan stood up and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside, the dawn of Jinghai was breaking.

"Who said we are making cars?"

"What we are building is the future."

"Let's go to the lab."

"That madman Xie must be waiting impatiently."

...

The third basement level of the 'Jinshen' Laboratory.

This area had been transformed into a bizarre site.

The originally white walls were covered in strange physical symbols, and the air was thick with the smell of pine resin and ozone.

Xie Wenyuan, wearing a white lab coat he hadn't washed in days, was hunched over a giant metal frame.

That frame was the 'skeleton' Shen Yan had constructed from the batch of electronic tubes.

Thousands of crystal-clear vacuum tubes were arranged in a counter-intuitive topological structure, with dense wires connecting every tube base like blood vessels.

At the core was a large piece of purified palladium, plated with a thick layer of rhodium.

This punk aesthetic, intertwining retro and sci-fi, made one's scalp tingle just by looking at it.

"Madman... He really is a madman..."

Lin Dong stood beside him, looking at the monstrous device, muttering to himself.

As the chief scientist, he couldn't even understand the logic of this circuit diagram.

"The Boss is here!"

Someone shouted.

The crowd automatically parted.

Shen Yan walked into the laboratory and looked at the huge apparatus, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

This was the prototype for the [Primary Quantum Entanglement Communication Module].

In a world dominated by silicon chips, this device was like a freak from another dimension.

Xie Wenyuan heard the sound and jumped down from the frame.

His face was smeared with grime, but his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

"Boss! I knew you could do it!"

"The purity of the palladium is perfect! This is the carrier I needed!"

"And these electronic tubes... My God, where did you dig up these decades-old antiques?"

"Their non-linear response curve is practically born for quantum entanglement!"

Xie Wenyuan gesticulated wildly with excitement, like a child who had just received his favorite toy.

"Can it run?"

Shen Yan only cared about the result.

"Theoretically, no problem!"

Xie Wenyuan grabbed a handful of his messy hair.

"But... starting it requires an instantaneous high-energy pulse, and it must be extremely stable."

"Jinghai power definitely won't work; the fluctuations are too large; it will shatter the wave function."

"We need a supercapacitor, or..."

"Or connect to the energy center of the pangu Supercomputer, using their industrial-grade regulated power supply."

Shen Yan picked up the conversation.

"I already had Lin Dong run the lines over."

Xie Wenyuan froze for a moment, then burst into wild laughter.

"Hahahaha! I knew it! I knew following you was the right choice!"

"You thought of this long ago!"

Shen Yan walked up to the device and placed a hand on the cold metal casing.

Just then, the System suddenly popped up a new notification.

[Detected 'Quantum Skeleton' construction completion: 10%.]

[Activate now?]

Shen Yan hesitated for no reason.

"Activate."

He silently commanded in his heart.

The next second.

The lights in the entire laboratory dimmed sharply once.