Chapter 177 Cutting Through the "Monkey Version" Lock

After his first victory, Lin Xi's confidence soared.

He completely opened up and began to humbly ask the netizens in the livestream for advice.

【According to the current velocity model, in three minutes, the undercurrent on the left will bring over a school of sea bass. If you still can't catch one, I'll have to suspect there's something wrong with your character.】

【The wind has shifted to the southeast, the air pressure is rising, and the fish are about to start biting. Streamer, switch the bloodworms on your hook to sandworms!】

Lin Xi didn't say a word and silently changed the bait.

Three minutes later.

The float suddenly dipped, disappearing entirely into the water.

Lin Xi flicked his wrist, and the rod tip instantly bent into a full moon.

"Whoa! A big one!" The cigarette in Old Zhang's hand nearly dropped.

With that curve, it was a big guy weighing at least three jin.

After a smooth and fluid process of reeling in the fish.

A shimmering silver sea bass was scooped into the landing net by Lin Xi.

...

Over the next few days, the old Haiwei pier witnessed a one-sided "slaughter."

With real-time assistance from the netizens in the livestream.

A strange scene played out at the old Haiwei pier.

As long as Lin Xi cast his line, he was guaranteed to catch a fish within ten minutes.

Moreover, it was as if he had opened his third eye.

He understood how the tides flowed and where the schools of fish moved better than the Dragon King himself.

Old Zhang, sitting five meters away, saw his expression shift from the initial "kindness" of looking at a fool.

Gradually turning into the "terror" of looking at a monster.

And finally settling into a distorted "jealousy."

Looking at the lively, jumping big black porgy in Lin Xi's bucket.

And then looking at the few half-dead small miscellaneous fish in his own bucket.

Old Zhang spat fiercely and turned his back to sulk.

When packing up, Lin Xi happily carried the fish over and dumped them all into Old Zhang's bucket.

The livestream was filled with teasing comments like 【That's cruel】, 【No sportsmanship】, and 【This is just how society works】.

Old Zhang awkwardly accepted them, finally squeezing out a sentence: "I'll save you a spot tomorrow."

...

These boring yet "humble-brag" days passed by quickly.

On the morning of the seventh day, several Jiefang heavy-duty trucks.

Kicking up a trail of yellow dust, rumbled into the gates of the Haiwei First Fishing Gear Factory.

It was the Toray glass fiber production line being transported from the pier.

The entire factory area instantly erupted.

Workers dropped what they were doing and gathered around the big machines unloaded in the open space, pointing and gesturing.

These two production lines were discarded by Toray, dismantled into pieces.

The machine bodies were covered in oil and grime.

Much of the baked paint on the casing had peeled off, revealing the dark gray metal underneath.

They looked like a pile of junk just hauled back from a scrap yard.

"Is this the treasure Manager Lin spent a fortune to buy back?"

"What can this pile of scrap metal do?"

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the crowd.

A few people in suits carrying briefcases were standing on tiptoes, looking in.

They were from the Japan "Yamashita Trading Company."

The leader was named Nakamura, who was an expert on China.

They had come to China this time with a mission.

The previous acquisition attempt had failed, making him feel that something was wrong, so he had come specifically to investigate the situation.

At this moment, looking at that pile of "junk," his expression was uglier than if he had swallowed a fly.

As an industry insider.

He recognized at a glance that those were Toray's previous-generation drawing machines and winding heads.

Although old and discarded civilian equipment.

In 1982, this was still high-end equipment that China could not manufacture.

"Where did they get this from?" Nakamura asked his assistant in a low voice.

"Not sure. Ever since this factory was contracted out, they've been acting all mysterious. We can't dig up any useful information."

Nakamura looked at the equipment with a sinister expression.

"We must figure out what they are doing! Put other matters aside for now. Regardless of whether the purpose of this equipment is to make fishing gear or something else, we must nip these sprouts in the bud!"

...

Just as the local workers were at a loss regarding the equipment.

A Changhe van braked sharply and stopped at the workshop entrance.

The door opened, and ten workers wearing dark blue overalls filed out.

On the back of their overalls, four white characters were printed: "Red Star Technology."

This group didn't have the fatigue of someone who had just stepped off a train.

Their eyes were sharp, and their movements were capable.

The man leading them, with a buzz cut and a faint streak of machine oil on his face, was one of the technical masters from the Red Star precision workshop, Li Yaozhai from Guangdong.

"Manager Lin!" Li Yaozhai walked up to Lin Xi.

Without even bothering with pleasantries, he saluted directly, "Red Star mechanical repair assault team all present, please give instructions!"

This shout, full of vigor, stunned the local workers who were still watching the commotion.

This didn't look like they were here to assemble machines; the aura was more like they were here to blow up a bunker.

Lin Xi nodded and stubbed out the cigarette in his hand: "Get to work. Within three days, I want to hear the sound of the machines running."

"Yes!"

Li Yaozhai waved his hand, and the ten technicians immediately dispersed.

Some took blueprints, some took calipers, and some began counting parts.

The local workers, who had just been pointing and gesturing, were stunned and subconsciously began to assist this group.

However, less than half a day later, problems arose.

In the workshop, Li Yaozhai was squatting next to a main unit, his face livid.

"Manager Lin, these Japanese bastards are really fucking devious."

Li Yaozhai pointed to the spindle motor, "I've checked it; this is a typical 'export castrated version.' Or what we commonly call the 'monkey version.'"

Chen Guangwei's hand shook upon hearing this: "What do you mean? Is this a defective product?"

"It's even more disgusting than a defective product."

Li Yaozhai pointed with a screwdriver at a welded iron ring at the motor shaft, "They added a physical latch here to limit the maximum speed. That's not all; there's a hard-coded program in the control circuit board. As soon as the speed exceeds 400 RPM, or if it detects an incorrect load waveform, the motherboard directly cuts the power and locks the machine."

"400 RPM?" Chen Guangwei, standing nearby, had his eyes wide open, "Isn't the standard production line 800 to 1000 RPM?"

"That's the disgusting part about them." Li Yaozhai gritted his teeth, "They sold it to you, alright, but they only want you to be a low-end OEM factory. Want to make high-density, high-strength products? No way."

Chen Guangwei was so angry that he kicked a piece of scrap metal nearby, creating a loud "clang."

In this era, this kind of technological discrimination was the norm.

If you bought their equipment, you had to take their abuse.

Want to crack it? Once you touch the circuit board and trigger the anti-tamper mechanism, the entire machine might turn into a brick.

The temperature in the workshop instantly dropped to freezing.

Lin Xi walked over, squatted down, and looked at the dusty circuit board.

Instead of getting angry, Lin Xi sneered.

"Li Yaozhai." "Here!" "This is Haiwei, China, not Japan."

Lin Xi pointed to that physical limiter, "We don't follow their rules."

Lin Xi tilted his head slightly, and a faint light seemed to flicker deep within his pupils.

On his retina, the barrage in the livestream was scrolling wildly.

【Black Silk Creates the World: I know this one! This is Toray's early 303-type anti-tamper logic.】

【Electronic Enthusiast: This antique chip doesn't have an encryption algorithm; it relies purely on resistor voltage division detection.】

【Hardcore Disassembly Fiend: Listen to me! See that capacitor labeled C4 on the top left of the motherboard? And the R9 resistor next to it!】

【Just take a soldering iron and short-circuit them! Trick the voltage detection!】

Lin Xi's mouth curled up, his tone calm: "Bring the gas cutting torch; cut that limiter off for me."

"And that board."

Lin Xi walked over, picked up a soldering iron from the toolbox, and handed it to Li Yaozhai.

"Short-circuit the C4 capacitor and the R9 resistor."

Li Yaozhai was stunned for a moment.

Although he was skilled, this kind of flashy operation of directly modifying circuit logic still made him a bit unsure.

"Manager Lin, if this burns the motherboard..."

"If it burns, I'll pay for it." Lin Xi's voice was unquestionable, "Get to work."