935: Chapter 93 Welcomes All Partners

Zhao Changhe froze in place, cold sweat trickling down his temples.

He looked at Shen Yan's young yet completely impassive face and suddenly realized this wasn't a negotiation; it was a takeover.

It was a dimensional strike executed with absolute superiority in technology and resources.

If he didn't sign, it meant death. If he signed, although they would become vassals, at least they could survive—perhaps even thrive.

Sun Lan's hand was trembling. She looked at the terms in the contract and finally picked up the pen.

"I'll sign."

With the first one gone, the rest followed.

Ten minutes later, five signed indentures lay on Shen Yan's desk.

After signing, Zhao Changhe looked as if he had aged ten years. He looked at Shen Yan and gave a bitter smile.

"CEO Shen, from now on... Aurora will be Shenyan Group's vanguard."

Shen Yan didn't speak, merely pushing the palladium delivery order belonging to Zhao Changhe across the desk.

"You will be grateful for today's choice."

"Because you are about to witness the end of an era."

...

Half a month later.

Shenyan Group released a poster.

Against a black background, there was only a single deep-blue point of light, with a line of white text underneath:

"24 hours remaining until 'Distance' disappears."

The global tech community exploded.

Some claimed Shen Yan was just being mysterious; others speculated Shenyan Group had developed a quantum computer.

On Twitter, Mark posted a 'crying-laughing' emoji, commenting, "Hope this isn't another car company built on slides."

Jensen Huang of Nvidia hinted in an interview, "Computing power is fundamental, but the limit of physical transmission is the speed of light. Even God cannot break that."

No one was optimistic.

Even domestic media outlets were bearish, feeling Shen Yan was moving too fast and risking a fall.

Jinghai, Olympic Sports Center.

This venue had been temporarily converted into the press conference site.

There were no flashy light shows, no celebrity endorsements.

In the center of the stage sat the 'Deep Space' prototype machine, which had been running in the basement for half a month.

Now, it was housed in an aesthetically industrial black alloy chassis, allowing only a faint blue light flickering inside to be seen through bulletproof glass.

The audience was filled with over a thousand media representatives from around the world, plus countless industry peers waiting to see him fail.

Shen Yan, wearing his signature black turtleneck sweater, walked onto the stage.

No preamble.

The massive 8K screen behind him lit up.

The image split in two.

On the left, the current press conference scene. On the right, a pitch-black deep sea.

"This is the 'Challenger Deep' in the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 1900 meters," Shen Yan's voice echoed through the venue via the microphone.

"Under normal circumstances, this area is a radio dead zone; even sonar signals have a delay of over ten seconds."

The audience murmured in shock.

Some started booing, believing it was a pre-recorded video.

Shen Yan ignored them and walked to one side of the stage where a simple joystick was placed, connected to the 'Deep Space' mainframe.

"I have installed a mechanical arm and a set of ordinary drum kit on a probe at the bottom of the trench."

The right side of the screen lit up.

In the murky seawater, a custom-made drum kit indeed appeared, with two mechanical arms suspended nearby, each holding a drumstick.

"Next, I will perform a piece for you."

Shen Yan gripped the joystick.

He flicked his wrist slightly.

BOOM!

The speakers on stage emitted a drum sound.

Almost at the exact same microsecond,

On the screen's deep-sea footage, the mechanical arm struck the bass drum forcefully.

The delay was imperceptible to the naked eye.

The booing from the audience instantly caught in their throats.

Shen Yan's hand speed began to increase.

BOOM! CRASH! TAT! BOOM-BOOM-TAT!

A passionate drum solo erupted from the ten-thousand-meter-deep sea.

Every beat, every vibration, was perfectly synchronized.

It was as if the drum kit wasn't at the deepest point on Earth, but right beside Shen Yan.

This defied common physical sense.

Electromagnetic waves penetrating ten thousand meters of water required relays and time; achieving such millisecond synchronization was impossible.

"This... This is impossible!"

A reporter from 'Wired' magazine in the front row stood up, his face filled with terror.

"This is fake! It must be pre-recorded!"

Shen Yan stopped what he was doing.

He looked at the reporter.

"Sir in seat 14, row 3, please say any number."

The reporter was stunned for a moment and subconsciously blurted out, "3.14159!"

Shen Yan said nothing, merely manipulating the mechanical arm in the deep sea to use the drumsticks to sketch those digits crookedly onto the silt on the seabed.

Dead silence fell over the entire venue.

The live stream comments completely froze, then erupted like an avalanche.

"Holy crap! A miracle!"

"What the hell kind of black technology is this? Even deep-sea fiber optics aren't this fast!"

"I kneel! Mom asked why I'm watching the stream kneeling!"

Shen Yan released the joystick and walked back to the center of the stage.

"This isn't 5G, nor is it 6G."

"This is real-time communication based on quantum entanglement."

"Starting today, there are no more signal dead zones on Earth."

"Whether in the deep sea at ten thousand meters or on the far side of the Moon, as long as 'Deep Space' is present, I can hear your heartbeat."

The image on the large screen switched.

Familiar product images appeared.

Aurora's new cars, Huamei's remote surgery robots, the State Grid's intelligent inspection drones...

"These are the first batch of products equipped with the 'Deep Space' module."

"They don't need base stations, don't need data plans, and don't need fiber optic cables."

Shen Yan paused, then dropped the final bombshell.

"As for the service fee."

"Lifetime free."

BOOM—

Those four words were like a nuclear bomb, completely shattering the comprehension of everyone present.

The representatives from the telecom operators who had snuck in immediately turned pale; some were already trembling as they called their headquarters.

Free? How were they supposed to live?

He was trying to dig up the ancestral graves of the global multi-trillion-dollar communications market!

Shen Yan looked at the panicked faces in the audience, feeling no internal fluctuation.

Making money? How much could be earned by charging for calls?

The tycoon the System intended to cultivate wasn't one who lived off collecting rent like a landlord.

When every device in the world was connected to his 'Deep Space,' when all data flowed through his terminals,

He would be the central nervous system of this world.

That was a power purer than money.

"Additionally,"

Shen Yan spoke again, cutting through the commotion below.

"The core materials for 'Deep Space' require special transistors and high-purity rare metals."

"Unfortunately, 9% of the global production capacity is currently held by Shenyan Group."

A world map appeared on the screen.

The dense red dots were all labeled 'Controlled by Shenyan Group.'

The Western reporters who had just been questioning Shen Yan about monopolization now felt as if they had swallowed flies.

They finally understood.

Why palladium was unavailable on the market a while ago.

Why Shen Yan was acquiring those discarded vacuum tubes.

This wasn't picking up trash.

This was building a moat.

A moat so wide it brought despair to all competitors.

"Shenyan Group welcomes all partners."