155: Chapter 155: Embracing Morgan's Empire, Unlocking the Anti-Gravity Engine

A Thorough Clearing, A New Industrial Empire Takes Shape

The sound of Smith's knees hitting the ground was dull.

The muscles on Chairman Wang's fat cheeks twitched wildly. He stared fixedly at the English-language transfer documents in the mud pit. His head was buzzing.

He didn't believe it. He didn't dare to believe it.

"Who are you trying to fool!" The fat man tore open his tie, gasping for air. "You think you can play a comic book act with a few scraps of A4 paper? A behemoth like Morgan, how could a bankrupt local boss like you swallow it! Those superconducting laboratories are the lifeblood of United States semiconductors! Even if the foreigners burned their equipment to ashes, they would never sell it to the Chinese!"

Lu Chen didn't even lift his eyelids.

Old Zhou brushed the dust off his cuffs and took half a step forward.

"Open your dog eyes and look carefully." Old Zhou's voice was loud and clear. "Black and white text, official red seals! Filed and archived with the New York Securities and Exchange Commission across the ocean! Last night, you pack of old dogs colluded to cut off the city network. Trying to pinch our weak spot? The factory manager just happened to have some free time and dumped all thirty-four billion in overseas cash reserves into the United States stock market."

Chairman Wang's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, his legs turning to jelly.

"One hundred thousand anonymous accounts swept the market simultaneously." A sneer curled the corner of Old Zhou's mouth. "Breaking the whole into parts. While they were sound asleep, we emptied their foundation in one wave. Now, the name of the major shareholder of the suppliers is Chenguang Holdings!"

The fat man looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

He bent down and picked up one of the sheets of paper. His gaze swept over the technical terms, and the last shred of hope in his heart was completely shattered.

"You've poked a hole in the sky!" Chairman Wang's voice cracked, and he roared almost hysterically. "There's never been such a way of playing by the domestic rules! You've offended the entire foreign capital circle! So what if you hold the technology? The twelve financial magnates of Jiangnan control seventy percent of the land transport lifeline!"

The fat man's eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at the tall iron gate and roared.

"As long as I don't nod, not even a single handcart will be allowed to enter this industrial park in Jiangcheng! Without food or materials entering the factory, what will your tens of thousands of mud-legged workers use to work? Let's see who can outlast whom; we'll drag your skeleton until it falls apart!"

Lu Chen turned around, his back to the crowd.

He had no interest in listening to the nonsense of a dead man walking. He raised his left hand and waved it backward.

"Da Biao." The two notes slammed into the ground. "Throw him in the ditch."

"Got it!"

Da Biao grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. He slammed his alloy baton against his palm twice.

Dozens of elite security guards pounced like wolves and tigers. There was no hesitation or fear. Black rubber batons whistled through the air, raining down like raindrops.

"Ouch! You bunch of poor wretches dare to use force? I'm going to call the police and get a medical report!" The fat man covered his head and wailed.

"Go complain to the little ghosts in hell!" Da Biao raised his leg and delivered a heavy kick to his chest.

The fat man's corpulent body flew backward three meters. His gold-rimmed glasses shattered into pieces, and his high-end suit was instantly torn to shreds. Half a molar mixed with blood spat onto the ground.

The other foreign enterprise executives had just opened their mouths to protest before they were beaten down by a barrage of batons.

Grabbing collars. Pulling hair.

Da Biao dragged these people along the muddy side road like dead pigs.

A hundred meters away, on the edge of the national highway, lay a half-meter-deep stinking ditch. It was filled with fermented rotting leaves and fruit.

"Go take a cold bath for your grandpa!"

Da Biao kicked them several times with his big feet. Splashing sounds followed as they fell into the water.

The fat man smashed through the duckweed, swallowing a bellyful of foul-smelling black water.

He clawed at the slippery muddy bank with both hands, struggling to poke half his head out. Trembling, he reached into the hidden pocket of his underwear and pulled out a waterproof smartphone.

"Find someone... I must find my big brother to seal off this crappy factory..."

He had just slid to unlock the screen.

A bold red news push notification popped up, slamming directly into his pupils.

[The highest level has issued a cleanup notice: Multiple departments have jointly investigated and dealt with the malicious monopoly behavior of the Jiangnan Provincial Chamber of Commerce. Core accounts have been sealed. Several directors have been immediately detained and are awaiting trial.]

The fat man's brain nerves snapped. The deep moat he had relied on in the past had vanished into thin air.

At that very moment, a heaven-shaking roar came from the end of the horizon.

Three hundred dark green camouflage heavy armored vehicles, arranged in a steel dragon, sped over, crushing the asphalt road. Their thick cannon barrels turned in unison, aiming at the direction of the ditch.

Fully armed soldiers jumped out of the carriages and set up high-voltage electric fences.

Chairman Wang's vision went black. The last bit of his spirit was drained away. His head tilted to one side, and he fainted right there in the mud.

The crisis was dissipated into nothingness.

On the fourth floor of the office building.

Lu Chen pushed open the glass door and sat back in that old, peeling swivel chair.

Outside the window, the sun was shining brightly. One hundred thousand well-fed laborers were running all over the field, pushing dump trucks and carrying cement bags. The sound of excavator engines was deafening. The massive fusion core provided an inexhaustible, surging power.

Li Tiejun wiped the hot sweat from his forehead and chuckled to the fellow worker beside him.

"Did you see that! The big soldiers are even here to stand guard for us! Boss Lu is truly a living immortal!"

"Brother Jun is absolutely right. Only by working our hardest to lay bricks can we be worthy of that pocketful of real gold and silver!" The young man waved his shovel, full of energy.

Inside the office.

Old Zhou brought a cup of warm tea and placed it on the table.

"Brother, the path is completely wide open." The wrinkles at the corners of Old Zhou's eyes bunched up with a smile. "The young and strong men below are working very hard. The project progress is two and a half times faster than the original plan."

Lu Chen picked up the porcelain cup and took a sip.

"Offering high salaries isn't about running a charity." His tone was as calm as water. "What I want is this desperate fighting spirit. Whoever dares to slack off or cut corners, I'll immediately tell him to pack his bags and get lost."

"Understood perfectly!" Old Zhou patted his chest in assurance. "The personnel department just finished calculating the data. The loyalty values of the fifty thousand new employees are off the charts. The whole operation is solid as a rock."

Before he finished speaking, a crisp mechanical prompt exploded deep within Lu Chen's mind.

[Ding! Conditions met.]

[Absolute monopoly-level super industrial chain officially formed.]

[Hidden section restrictions lifted. tech points are showing an exponential surge.]

Within Lu Chen's field of vision, characters jumped frantically on the azure virtual panel. In the topmost area of the mall, a touch of dark red halo slowly dissolved.

It was a three-dimensional structural design drawing with extremely complex construction. The phantom of a massive starship flickered in and out of view.

[Aerospace Carrier-level anti-gravity propulsion engine blueprints unlocked successfully.]

Lu Chen narrowed his long, narrow eyes, the curve of his mouth deepening.

This was already far beyond the scope of ordinary civilian machinery.

On the same timeline. Across the ocean. In the center of Manhattan, New York.

The president's office on the top floor of Morgan.

Anderson stared fixedly at the giant LCD wall in front of him.

The pie charts of the controlling interests of all affiliated subsidiaries had all turned a glaring scarlet.

"Sir..." the assistant asked with a trembling voice. "The stock market has collapsed across the board. Should we activate the Class B backup financial intervention plan?"

"Screw his mother's number games!"

Anderson grabbed a brass ashtray and threw it violently toward the corner of the wall.

Clang.

The glass case shattered all over the floor, revealing a pitch-black, mottled metal briefcase inside.

His face was twisted like a demon. He entered the six-digit command code.

The lid popped open, revealing only a single crimson physical button inside.

"Notify the 'Viper' assassination squad. Everyone is to board a private plane and cross the border immediately." A beast-like, hoarse curse spilled from Anderson's throat. "Since Wall Street can't buy back that pile of scrap metal, then wipe the entire Jiangcheng Industrial Park, along with that bastard surnamed Lu, completely off the map on a physical level!"

His finger slammed down heavily on the red button. A piercing alarm resounded throughout the Morgan building.