Chapter 119 A Furnace of Steel Balls Destroys an Industry

As the modified Centrifugal Steelmaking Furnace emitted a final dull thud, the teeth-gritting rotation finally slowed to a stop.

The furnace mouth opened.

Clatter!

The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the abandoned workshop. Countless tiny, silver-white steel balls glinted coldly under the lights as they poured down the guide chute, instantly piling into a small silver mountain in the prepared receptacle.

"Is that... it?"

Wang Dachui stared blankly at the scene, forgetting to put down the shovel in his hand, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.

Li Jiajun, on the other hand, appeared quite calm.

A short while later, after the cooling process was complete,

He stepped forward and casually scooped up a handful of the still-warm steel balls.

"Not bad. The look, the feel."

He weighed them in his hand twice and nodded with satisfaction.

"Big Hammer, stop dazing off and hurry up and weigh them! Let's see how much this furnace produced."

Dozens of minutes later, looking at the bright red numbers displayed on the floor scale, Wang Dachui felt his legs go a bit weak.

"Fac... Factory Director..."

He swallowed hard, his voice trembling, "Six... sixty tons! This one furnace produced a full sixty tons!"

Sixty tons!

One must understand, these things were miniature steel balls for ballpoint pen tips! These weren't rebar used for building houses; how much did a single one even weigh?!

How much was sixty tons?

For this niche sector, it was an astronomical figure!

Li Jiajun was also startled by the number.

'Good grief, I overdid it.'

He thought to himself.

'This crappy furnace looks unremarkable, but is its production capacity really this terrifying? I originally only wanted to smelt a few dozen pounds just to make a point and slap that Big V's face, but I accidentally made too much...'

Looking at the mountain of steel balls, Li Jiajun felt a headache coming on.

You couldn't eat these things, and piling them in the warehouse just took up space. Moreover, his accounts were currently frozen, and he desperately needed to recoup funds to maintain factory operations and pay the workers' wages.

"Let's sell them."

Li Jiajun made the decision with a wave of his hand. "I smelted them on the side anyway. The cost... well, it's just some scrap iron and electricity; rounding it off, it's basically free."

He pulled out his phone and checked the price of these specialized precision steel balls on the international market.

"Whoa! So expensive?"

Looking at the average price of 110,000 USD per ton displayed on the screen, Li Jiajun's mouth twitched, and he felt speechless.

"These foreign devils are quite greedy; selling these little steel balls for so much? This is highway robbery!"

He remembered what that Big V named Sober Human had said, and the fire of anger rose in his heart again.

Since you say the Eastern Country can't produce them, and since you're monopolizing the market and charging exorbitant prices, then today, I'll let you know what the cost-performance ratio of 'Made in Eastern Country' means!

He directly opened the backend of his online store and created a new product link.

[Product Name: Little Factory Director Li Brand Premium Precision Steel Balls (Specifically for Ballpoint Pens)]

[Description: Smelted a furnace-full while I had nothing better to do. The quality is okay, the hardness is decent, and the roundness is fine. Discounts for large quantities, fair prices for everyone.]

[Price: 50,000 USD/ton (Free shipping, dear!)]

Fifty thousand!

Slashed right in half!

It wasn't even half!

Li Jiajun looked at this price and felt like he was a living philanthropist, a hero breaking an international monopoly.

"List it!"

With a tap of his finger, these sixty tons of steel balls, enough to change the world's industrial landscape, officially entered the circulation market.

At this moment, he didn't yet know what kind of tsunami his finger tap would trigger on the other side of the ocean.

...

A few hours later.

Europe, Hans Country.

In the Ruhr Industrial Area, the global center for precision manufacturing, several century-old specialty steel companies were currently in a state of total chaos.

"Who can tell me what is going on?!"

The CEO of a century-old shop roared at a room full of executives, waving a procurement report as his spittle sprayed everyone's faces.

"Why are all our old customers canceling their orders? Why is this week's order volume zero?! Haven't our steel balls always been in short supply?"

The sales director wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and tremblingly handed over a tablet.

"Bo... Boss, look at this."

On the screen was Li Jiajun's unrefined-looking online store page.

"Eastern Country... a toy factory?"

The CEO looked at the price tag, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. "Fifty thousand dollars? Are they crazy? This price doesn't even cover the cost of raw materials! This is dumping! This is malicious dumping!"

"But... Boss..." the technical director added with a pale face, "We bought some samples back for testing... their quality... is even better than ours. The hardness is thirty percent higher, and the roundness error... is almost zero."

Thud.

The CEO slumped into his chair, his eyes devoid of life.

The quality is better than yours, and the price is less than half of yours.

How could they even fight this battle?

"It's over... it's all over..."

The same scene was playing out simultaneously at Kobe Steel in Foot Basin Chicken and the Pittsburgh Steel Center in the Ugly Country.

A release of sixty tons might not seem like much for the massive steel market, but for the niche sector of precision miniature steel balls, it was a nuclear bomb.

It was equivalent to ten whole years of demand for the global market!

Overnight, the supply-demand relationship completely collapsed.

The seller's market, which was originally high and mighty, instantly became a buyer's market. Those middlemen who had been hoarding and speculating wailed in despair as stock prices plummeted and hit the circuit breaker.

Two days later.

Baishui City, Li Family Toy Factory.

Li Jiajun looked at the already cleared inventory and the numbers on his account, feeling refreshed.

"It seems this industry is quite profitable."

He sipped his cola happily, preparing to humblebrag about his business acumen to the Netizens in the livestream.

Just then, a rapid knocking sounded at the door.

Wang Dachui rushed in clutching a thick stack of documents, his face written with terror.

"Fac... Factory Director! It's bad! Something huge has happened!"

"What's the panic? If the sky falls, the tall people will hold it up," Li Jiajun glanced at him calmly.

"It's not the sky that's falling, it's the lawyer's letters that are falling!"

Wang Dachui spread the stack of documents across the table with a clatter. Every envelope was stamped with intimidating-looking foreign official seals.

"This is a joint lawsuit from several companies in Hans Country..."

"This is a protest letter from Foot Basin Chicken..."

"This is an anti-dumping investigation notice from the WTO..."

"And this! The Ugly Country's Ministry of Commerce says we've disrupted the international market order and wants to impose secondary sanctions on us!"

Li Jiajun's hand holding the cola froze in mid-air. He stared blankly at the pile of colorful foreign letters, his mind going 'buzz'.

Anti-dumping?

Disrupting order?

Sanctions?

"I... I just sold some steel balls!"

Li Jiajun felt his scalp go numb as a massive sense of grievance welled up in his heart.

Facing the still-livestreaming phone camera, his mouth twitched wildly as he entered his signature unconscious voiceover Make complaints mode, muttering to the air:

"Is there no justice left? Is there no law?"

"I thought I was getting some benefits for my family by bringing the price down, so how did it become a crime? These foreign devils are just being difficult; they sell it expensive but won't let others sell it cheap? The officials are allowed to set fires, but the commoners aren't allowed to light lamps, is that it?"

"I clearly just wanted to make money and conveniently hit back at that contrarian. How did I end up crashing an entire industry? Am I some kind of industry destroyer?"

The Netizens in the livestream watched this scene, first in shock, and then they erupted into a burst of mischievous laughter.

"Hahaha! This is killing me! Main Streamer, you didn't just hit back at the contrarian, you smashed their rice bowls!"

"Not only did you smash the rice bowls, you even carried the whole pot away!"

"Although I feel bad for the Main Streamer, why do I want to laugh so much?"

"Well, this is great. You have more lawyer's letters than orders now. Main Streamer, you're really headed for a sentence now!"

...

Meanwhile, on the other side in the Imperial Capital.

In a meeting room of a certain ministry building, the atmosphere was so oppressive it made it hard to breathe.

Several leaders from the MIIT and the Ministry of Commerce looked at the pile of protest notes from dozens of countries and inquiry letters from the WTO on the desk. Every one of them had a gloomy face, feeling their hairlines recede by another few centimeters.

"This kid... he really doesn't let us rest."

The Minister of MIIT rubbed his temples, feeling speechless. "First it was drones, then it was stealth cars, and now even some steel balls can cause such a huge commotion. Sixty tons! He's trying to drive all his global peers to a dead end!"

"What do we do now? This is a serious trade dispute. Although we are in the right, the pressure is too great," the Minister of Commerce sighed.

The two looked at each other, both seeing a certain understanding in the other's eyes.

Since this Li Jiajun was a tough customer and a hedgehog that couldn't be touched, they had to find someone who could control him.

"Let's find Liu Jianguo!"

The Minister of MIIT picked up the secure phone without another word.

"I heard from within the system that the Old General Star said before that this kid is under his key focus. For this kind of specialized intractable problem, we must ask him to come out of retirement!"

As the call was placed, an invisible signal for help instantly flew toward a certain sanatorium thousands of miles away.

As for why an old comrade like Liu Jianguo, who was originally in excellent health, would be in a sanatorium—well, those who know, know.