85: Chapter 85 Quantum Gravity Smelting: An Expansion That Overturns Common Physics

"Super Quantum Gravity Smelting Center" complete blueprints and core modules.

Price: 300,000 tech points.

This is not a traditional steel smelting furnace; this technology utilizes a quantum gravitational field, ignoring the physical temperature limitations of traditional blast furnaces to forcibly strip impurities from metal at the molecular level.

Even if you threw in a pile of rusty, broken bicycle frames, what would come out would be aerospace-grade special alloy without any impurities.

Lu Chen did not hesitate at all.

"Redeem."

[Command confirmed, 300,000 tech points consumed.]

["Super Quantum Gravity Smelting Center" complete blueprints and three sets of quantum gravity generator core modules have been issued to the personal space.]

As the system's cold notification sound faded, the tech points on the panel were instantly drained by more than half, shrinking to just over 210,000.

Lu Chen pulled open an empty drawer next to his desk and took out a blank kraft paper envelope; with a thought, the thick, hand-drawn engineering blueprints in his space materialized directly inside the envelope.

Lu Chen picked up his phone and dialed the number of Zhao Tiezhu, the general contractor for the Chengbei infrastructure project.

The phone rang for a long time before it was answered; the earpiece was filled with the piercing roar of pile drivers and the dull thud of steel pipes hitting the floor.

"Hello! Factory Manager!" Zhao Tiezhu shouted at the top of his lungs.

"How is the progress?" Lu Chen asked.

"The 30,000-square-meter foundation pit has reached the bottom! The first batch of steel has all gone in! I've never fought such a satisfying, well-supplied battle in my life! Wherever the blueprints point, that's where I pour the concrete!"

Zhao Tiezhu panted and shouted, "Song Changming is squatting at the bottom of the pit right now; he's gone crazy! He's using an iron rod to calculate some kind of... negative pressure ratio in the mud!"

Lu Chen's tone was calm.

"Notify your engineering team; the foundation is to be expanded outward by another 20,000 square meters immediately."

The roaring sound in the receiver seemed to pause for a second.

"Expand by how much? 20,000 square meters?" Zhao Tiezhu's voice became even louder. "Factory Manager! Aren't we building a cleanroom? Chief Engineer Wei said this is a Class 10 ultra-clean standard; what is an extra 20,000 square meters for?"

"To build a steel mill," Lu Chen said.

The other end of the line went silent instantly. A full three seconds passed before a pig-slaughtering roar erupted from the receiver; the voice was definitely not Zhao Tiezhu's.

Song Changming snatched the phone.

"Lu Chen! Did you get cement in your brain?!"

Song Changming's voice was raspy, and one could almost hear him spitting through the screen. "I've been squatting in this damn pit for six hours! Calculating that reverse-flow negative pressure! Your five thousand-plus experts are waiting to enter the Class 10 cleanroom to build the Lithography Machine!"

Song Changming breathed heavily, almost smashing the phone.

"You're building a steel blast furnace next to an ultra-clean workshop? Do you understand what dust is? Do you understand what sulfides are! Once that chimney starts smoking, Wei Jianguo's Lithography Machine lenses will be covered in a layer of black ash in a second! You might as well just bury me alive in the pit!"

Song Changming was the nation's top expert in heavy metal pollution control. Three years ago, he would rather be banned than alter pollution data; asking him to build an ultra-clean water curtain next to a blast furnace was equivalent to digging up his ancestral grave.

Listening to the curses on the other end of the phone, Lu Chen's expression did not change in the slightest.

"Are you done cursing?" Lu Chen said.

Song Changming choked for a moment, gritting his teeth and panting into the receiver.

"Old Song, if your technology can only prevent traditional dust, then you can roll back to the Beishan landfill."

Lu Chen said, "The foreigners have cut off all high-end special alloys. The highest standard materials from domestic steel mills are things Wei Jianguo would throw into the trash after one glance. Without materials, Wei Jianguo can only mold a machine for you out of mud."

Song Changming's voice was dry. "But you still can't refine iron next to a cleanroom! This violates the laws of physics!"

"Traditional iron smelting violates them; mine does not." Lu Chen tapped the envelope on the desk with his finger.

"The thing I want to build is called the Quantum Gravity Smelting Center."

The sound of the pile drivers on the other end of the phone seemed to quiet down.

Song Changming was stunned. "Quantum... what thing?"

"No chimneys, no blast furnaces, no burning coal."

Lu Chen's speaking speed was not fast, but every word hit hard. "Fully enclosed operation, using a gravitational field to drain impurities at the molecular level. As long as your water curtain can catch the basic air filtration on the perimeter, this machine won't let out even a microgram of dust."

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground came through the phone. It must have been the iron rod in Song Changming's hand dropping into the mud pit.

"Fully enclosed... separating impurities with a gravitational field?" Song Changming's voice trembled a little. "That's impossible. In the world's most advanced laboratories, not even the theoretical models have been successfully run."

"I'll be at the construction site in half an hour." Lu Chen picked up the car keys on the table. "I'm bringing the blueprints over; get ready to take on the work."

Lu Chen hung up the phone directly.

He tucked the red top-secret paper bag containing the red-headed document and the envelope containing the new blueprints under his arm, and pushed open the office door.

The sensor light in the corridor turned on; Lao Zhou and Da Biao were squatting on the steps at the stairwell smoking.

Seeing Lu Chen come out, Lao Zhou stood up immediately. His leather shoe wasn't on properly, and his left foot was still wearing only that grey sock, stepping on the cold floor tiles.

Da Biao stubbed out his cigarette and tucked the solid steel pipe into the back of his waist.

"Factory Manager, the workers downstairs are full; Old Liu and the others from Workshop No. 3 spontaneously organized two hundred people and are using water hoses to wash away the oil stains on the plaza."

Lao Zhou spoke, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing against rust. "Tens of thousands of portions of pork ribs and steak—I had finance settle it; it was a large sum of money."

"Spending it on our own people is called buying horse bones with a thousand gold pieces." Lu Chen walked down the stairs. "As long as the people are stable, the money can be generated back twofold."

"The group of small business owners outside the bank—Director Wu went to arrange it. Over two thousand people have brought hundreds of old machines and have all pulled them to the open space on the outskirts of the Chengbei High-Tech Zone. They said they don't want wages, just a meal to eat, and the debts can be recorded under our name." Lao Zhou followed behind Lu Chen, reporting the situation.

"Tell Wu Dong to sign formal contracts; these people will be very useful." Lu Chen walked out of the office building's main entrance.

The September night wind was cold. The workers on the plaza who had eaten their fill saw Lu Chen come out and all stopped what they were doing, staring fixedly at him. No one made a sound; there was nothing but fanaticism in those thousands of gazes.

Lu Chen did not stop; he walked straight to the car covered in yellow mud, opened the door, and sat in the passenger seat.

Da Biao sat in the driver's seat and turned the key. The Solid-state battery-powered motor let out a low roar.

"Go to the Chengbei construction site," Lu Chen said.

The car broke through the night and sped toward the direction of the Chengbei High-Tech Zone.

Half an hour later.

On that 20,000-mu plot of open land in the north of the city, hundreds of searchlights illuminated the entire wasteland with a deathly pallor.

Beside the huge foundation pit, dozens of heavy trucks loaded with steel pipes were parked, and Wei Jianguo, wearing a yellow hard hat, stood in the mud.