29: Chapter 29: A Black Miracle Created by Hand, Crushing Global Giants

Chen Hao ran over.

His mud-covered fingers pointed at the molecular formula on the blackboard.

"This... Director Lu. This ratio is wrong. With such a high proportion of silicon-based material, how can you guarantee conductivity? Wouldn't this just become an insulator?"

He frowned and looked at the second line.

He stared for a full half-minute.

His eyes widened suddenly, and his breathing became completely erratic.

"Reverse doping. Incredible. Absolutely incredible!"

Chen Hao held his head in both hands, frantically tugging at his already messy hair.

"Once this film is applied, the internal resistance barely changes, but the high heat dissipates instantly. Thermal runaway is zeroed out! All those top-secret journals I read at the technical school were all fucking wrong! Director Lu, where on earth did you get this formula?"

"Stop asking useless questions. Make it according to this."

Lu Chen tapped the blackboard.

"I want to see the first finished product before dawn. Can you do it?"

Chen Hao ripped off his oil-stained insulated gloves.

"Fuck it! Brothers! Get on the coating machine! Big Mouth Liu, go cut the aluminum foil! No one sleeps tonight until we finish this piece of junk!"

The entire underground air-raid shelter fell into a frenzy again.

Over 130 vocational students, shirtless, scurried in front of various pieces of equipment.

The assembly process was brutally crude.

No dust-free workshop, no robotic arms.

"The edge of the electrode sheet is uneven! Big Mouth Liu, bring the hammer!"

Chen Hao squatted on the ground, placing an expensive composite electrode sheet on an iron anvil.

Big Mouth Liu handed over a dirty little automotive repair hammer.

Chen Hao found the right angle and hammered down with a few clangs.

The edge of the electrode sheet flattened instantly.

"Brother Hao, shouldn't we measure the error with a caliper?" Big Mouth Liu asked.

"Measure my ass, I hammered it perfectly flat! Apply the glue!"

Chen Hao grabbed a brush, dipped it in the pungent adhesive, and slathered the surface of the electrode sheet in a few strokes.

Old Zhou crouched in the corner, watching them work, his heart nearly giving out.

Old Zhou leaned over to Lu Chen and lowered his voice.

"Director Lu. This is high-tech material extracted from two hundred billion worth of minerals. Can they really pull this off by treating it like car repair? The stainless steel shell is all dented."

Lu Chen handed Old Zhou a cigarette.

"You don't know shit. High-tech is also man-made. As long as it can conduct electricity and store energy, it's a good battery."

Thirteen hours later.

The basement exhaust fan whirred loudly.

A square, jet-black metal block was held in Chen Hao's hands.

The solder joints on the shell were all irregular bumps of various sizes.

It had no aesthetic appeal, reeking of extreme industrial wasteland vibes.

Big Mouth Liu ran over holding an old internal resistance tester.

Two probes pressed firmly against the positive and negative terminals.

Red numbers pulsed on the screen.

Stable. No flickering.

Big Mouth Liu swallowed hard.

"Internal resistance: 0.1 milliohms."

Chen Hao pushed him aside and personally connected the short-circuit test cable.

"Discharge test! Apply maximum load!"

A coil of thick resistance wire instantly glowed bright red, emitting a dazzling white light.

The temperature in the entire basement rose by two degrees out of nowhere.

But the shell of the black block in Chen Hao's hand was deathly cold.

A layer of fine water droplets had actually condensed on it.

The absolute zero superconducting film rewarded by the system had taken effect.

It took the terrifying heat that should have caused an explosion and neutralized it all through internal circulation.

"Awesome."

Chen Hao spat out two words.

He slumped onto the ground, panting heavily.

"Director Lu, we did it. This black block can crush all the ancestors of the lithium batteries currently on the market."

All the vocational students knelt on the ground.

Some took off their shoes to wipe away tears, others were giggling foolishly.

Old Zhou ran down the passageway carrying two large plastic buckets.

"Brothers! Chef Lin from the cafeteria cooked shredded pork noodles for you! Added three big pork chops! Hurry and eat something hot!"

Over a hundred people, starving, swarmed up to grab bowls and noodles.

Big Mouth Liu held a sea bowl larger than his face, wolfing down food beside the test bench.

Old Zhou pulled over a folding chair, placed an old TV he brought on it, and plugged it in.

"Morning talk show on Jiangcheng News Channel. Director Lu, you must see this."

Old Zhou's face looked terrible as he turned up the volume.

The screen flickered a few times.

Wang Teng sat on a leather sofa in the high-end studio of the provincial and municipal station.

Wearing a custom silver-gray suit, hair slicked back, the fat on his face glowing red.

A beautiful female host held the microphone with a smile.

"President Wang, I heard that Tengfei Electronics recently achieved a major technological breakthrough and obtained technical authorization from the international giant, the Morgan Consortium. Does this mean Jiangcheng's new energy industry is about to face a major reshuffle?"

Wang Teng adjusted his sitting posture and crossed his legs.

"This isn't just a reshuffle. This is a clearance of inferior companies."

Wang Teng looked straight into the camera.

"Two days from now, at the City Exhibition Center, Tengfei Electronics will hold a global new product launch. The new generation of fast-charging batteries we are releasing will have an energy density 10% higher than the previous generation."

The sound of eating noodles in the basement stopped.

Over a hundred pairs of eyes stared at the TV screen.

The female host continued to ask.

"Regarding some competitors in the same city, such as Chenguang Electronics Factory, which has been very popular in online recruitment recently, what are your thoughts?"

Wang Teng sneered without hesitation.

"Manufacturing isn't something you can just do by paying high wages. Without core technology, without the support of major international manufacturers, even their channels to buy imported extraction machines will be blocked."

Wang Teng spread his hands, extremely arrogant.

"I have received confirmed news that the equipment Chenguang Electronics ordered at a high price is currently gathering dust in the Beigang Bonded Zone because of violations. Their so-called new energy project is destined to be a joke of bankruptcy and liquidation."

Wang Teng straightened his tie.

"Of course, as a peer, I specifically had someone send a VIP invitation for the launch to Director Lu of Chenguang Electronics. I hope Director Lu can come to the scene and learn how a major factory operates."

"Bang!"

The sea bowl in Big Mouth Liu's hand smashed hard onto the ground, soup splashing everywhere.

"Fuck his grandfather!"

Big Mouth Liu, with noodles still in his mouth, had eyes turned completely red. "Borrowing the influence of foreigners to step on us! And they have the nerve to brag about a 10% increase in energy density! Boss, can we endure this? I'll take a few brothers to block him at the exhibition center entrance!"

Chen Hao walked over, gripping the black block tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

"Boss. We've made our product. But he's clearly intending to trample us to death in front of the whole internet. Using just this one battery sample of ours to crash the party isn't enough weight. They will definitely bite back and say we used someone else's stuff to make up the numbers."

Lu Chen leaned against the micro-carving machine tool.

He didn't lose his temper, took a bite of raw garlic, drank the last drop of soup in his bowl, and set it down.

Lu Chen raised his head, his gaze cold and sharp.

"One piece isn't enough to crash the party."

Lu Chen looked at Chen Hao.

"Is ten thousand pieces enough?"

Chen Hao froze in place.

He looked at the 130 brothers around him who were exhausted to the point of collapse.

"Boss. Two days."

Chen Hao swallowed.

"Even if you whip us to death, a hundred people can't manually grind out ten thousand shells and packages. Assembly requires manpower!"

Lu Chen turned to look at Old Zhou.

"What are those old aunties and general workers in the factory doing now?"

"Just finished breakfast. Sunning themselves in the square. Zhang Xiufang is leading them, idling away because there's no work while they collect base pay. Everyone is saying they're itching to do something."

"Go take that group of Zhang Xiufang, along with all the nimble-handed aunties hired later, and pull them all into Workshop No. 2."

Lu Chen walked to the test bench and pulled a sheet from the pile of waste aluminum.

"The basement is only responsible for core electrode sheet processing and potting/coating. Throw all those shell polishing and screw assembly tasks that don't require brains—only hand speed—to the aunties!"

Old Zhou froze for a moment.

"General workers doing this? If the precision is off..."

"As long as the electrode sheet isn't broken, it doesn't matter if the shell is installed crookedly!"

Lu Chen interrupted him.

"Make it clear to them, pay by the piece. For every battery assembled, in addition to the base salary, there's an extra 50 yuan bonus! More work, more pay, no cap!"

The light in Old Zhou's eyes instantly lit up like a lightbulb.

He slapped his thigh hard.

"Fifty yuan to assemble a shell?!"

Old Zhou let out a howl.

"Director Lu, don't you worry! Forget about driving a few screws! Those aunties will make the welding guns spark for the sake of that fifty yuan! We can definitely finish ten thousand in two days!"

Old Zhou turned and ran out of the passage. He didn't even notice when he lost one of his shoes.

Chen Hao looked at this scene, his eyelids twitching.

"Boss... using aunties for mass assembly, the defect rate will definitely be sky-high."

Lu Chen reached out and picked up the first-edition battery that had been hammered into a dented mess.

The system judged this work to have over three hundred minor flaws, but he didn't care.

"Even if the things the aunties assemble leak air or water, I can find someone to polish them until they are cleaner than military-grade."

Lu Chen didn't mention the system's [Component Repair] function.

At fifty points for a repair, he could fully afford it with his account balance after the critical hit.

Lu Chen walked to the old TV.

Wang Teng on the screen was still prattling on, flaunting his noble status as an agent of the Morgan Consortium.

Lu Chen took out a cigarette but didn't light it.

He used the filter end to tap twice, not too lightly and not too heavily, on the center of Wang Teng's smug face on the TV screen.

"Chen Hao. Notify Da Biao to take people to take over the assembly line transportation. Let the brothers downstairs fully digest the reagent formula."

Lu Chen turned and walked out.

"The whole factory works to death for two days."

"Doesn't he like holding a press conference broadcast to the whole internet? I'll bring ten thousand pieces of black-tech batteries to give him the most decent funeral."