163: The first gold brick

"It's perfect."

Su Li's voice was like a blade tempered in ice, precisely puncturing the bubble of ecstasy.

"But we are already bankrupt."

The ecstatic atmosphere froze instantly.

Before the production line prototype, the newly born energy block was quietly emitting a soft shimmer, looking like a rare work of art. On the test screen, the energy density was triple that of Giant Star Mining, while the manufacturing cost was less than one-tenth; every piece of data heralded the arrival of a new era.

The black soot on Lao Mo's face hadn't even been wiped clean before his smile froze at the corners of his mouth. The light in Eve's eyes also dimmed inch by inch under Su Li's cold questioning.

"What are we going to use to mass-produce it?"

Su Li's voice lacked any ripple of emotion as she projected a crimson financial report before everyone. The glaring deficit looked like bleeding wounds.

"And what will we use to tell the whole world of its existence?"

A deathly silence followed.

This double-edged predicament was more suffocating than any failure they had faced. They held the key to overturning the world in their hands, yet they were trapped inside a doorless vault.

"Eve."

Ultimately, it was Chen Feng who broke the suffocating silence. His voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Do you have the technical plan for mass production?"

Eve snapped her head up, her lips trembling. "I do! It's completely modular and can... can be deployed rapidly, but the materials..."

"Su Li." Chen Feng turned to the other side.

"Present." Su Li's voice remained cold, like a precision machine.

"I need you to perform a worst-case risk assessment on the safety and market acceptance of this new product. Remember, the worst-case scenario: how we should respond when everyone considers it 'infected trash.'" Chen Feng's gaze was as sharp as a hawk's. "I'm not asking if you can sell it; I'm telling you to prepare the legal and data weapons we'll use to strike back when the whole world doubts it."

"...Understood." Su Li was stunned for a moment before nodding in response. She had expected to see frustration or rage from Chen Feng, but she only saw an even colder fighting spirit.

Chen Feng ignored the blood-red financial report. What he gave Eve was complete trust and the final authority over resource allocation.

"Go do it, Eve. Turn our last remaining assets into products."

"But... Chen Feng, we really..." Eve's voice carried a hint of a tremor.

"What does Hanhai Trade sell?" Chen Feng interrupted her. "Is it energy blocks? No, we sell 'concepts' and 'information asymmetry.' It was true before, and it is true now. As long as it is safe and efficient, I have a way to make the entire universe believe it is a gift from the gods."

The materials warehouse of the Hanhai Trade Base was so empty that one could hear an Echo.

Su Li looked at the outbound order issued on the light screen; it was for the last batch of rare catalyst materials. Her knuckles turned slightly white from the force of her grip on the electronic signing pen.

The moment the authorization command was sent, she watched as the final crate of supplies was taken from the shelf by a robot. That empty metal rack looked like a skeleton stripped of its flesh.

She knew that this really was the last chance.

There was no way back.

"How about I do it instead?"

Inside the R&D main laboratory, Lao Mo looked at Eve's slender hands, which were slightly pale from nervousness, and couldn't help but speak up.

"No need!" Eve shook her head stubbornly, personally operating the precision injection equipment. "Only I can guarantee the precision of the data."

The first experiment began.

When that eerie green catalyst was injected into the organic waste mixture, the data in the reaction chamber instantly spiked into the red!

"Not good! The energy reaction is out of control!" Lao Mo cried out in alarm, pulling Eve behind him.

Boom!

With a muffled thud, a surge of black energy erupted from the reaction chamber's safety valve. Although the energy shield blocked most of it, the smell of scorched protein instantly filled the laboratory.

Standing the closest, Lao Mo was caught squarely by the fumes, his old face becoming blacker than the bottom of a pot.

"Cough... cough cough!" Covered in black soot, Lao Mo coughed violently while complaining loudly to the rushing Su Li. "Supervisor Su Li! I want to apply for 'high-risk position hazard pay'! Look at this, just look! My old face is practically becoming a living catalyst! Doing R&D with this girl is more dangerous than fucking going to a battlefield!"

The corner of Su Li's mouth twitched rarely, and she actually found herself unable to say a word in rebuttal.

Eve, however, ignored the chaotic scene. Her eyes were fixed on the failed data stream just recorded on the light screen.

"The activity... the activity is too strong," she murmured to herself. "It's like a runaway horse; it needs a tether... an inhibitor to control the reaction speed."

She dove headfirst into the base's material database, frantically filtering through thousands of substances' spectra and molecular formulas.

One hour, two hours... Just when everyone thought she was about to fall into another dead end, she suddenly sprang up from her seat, her face filled with unbelievable ecstasy.

"Found it!"

She pointed at an analysis chart of a substance on the screen, her voice trembling with excitement.

"The most perfect inhibitor... is actually this!"

Lao Mo leaned over to look, and his eyes instantly widened.

Displayed on the screen were the 'residues' they had always treated as high-risk industrial waste when purifying undead crystals.

It was the very trash they had spent money and effort trying to dispose of.

Before the crude production line prototype, all core members gathered once again.

A standard-sized grey brick pressed from organic waste was fed into the reaction chamber.

This time, the catalytic gel mixed with the 'inhibitor' was injected with absolute precision.

Everyone held their breath.

Inside the reaction chamber, there was no surge or roar, only a soft green light illuminating.

On the light screen, the internal structure of the grey brick was rapidly and orderly transforming into an indescribably beautiful lattice at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Minutes later, as the conveyor belt delivered an energy block shining with a stable shimmer—looking like a work of art—the test data was generated simultaneously.

Energy Density: 317% of Giant Star Mining's standard energy block.

Estimated Cost: 8.9% of Giant Star Mining's standard energy block.

Success!

"We succeeded!" Lao Mo slammed a fist onto the control console in excitement, not even caring about the soot on his face.

Eve's eyes welled with tears; this was the first time she had truly proven herself since escaping the Alliance.

The immense success and joy made everyone temporarily forget that blood-red financial report.

However, at the peak of this joy, Su Li's calm voice rang out again, like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone's heads.

"It's perfect."

"But, I will say it again." She looked around at everyone, her gaze finally landing on Chen Feng as she asked word by word:

"We are already bankrupt. What are we going to use to mass-produce it?"