221: Space devices

The production equipment was already in place. He Ming pulled Shui Meng along and sat at the control console, which reminded him of his past life's experience screwing in bolts at a factory.

The machine began to operate. An Intelligent Robot placed the processed and purified star source crystals onto the conveyor belt, and jarvis began the internal operations.

Ten minutes later.

The control panel displayed a five-second countdown.

He Ming steadied himself and focused his mind, placing both hands on the handprints.

Following the prompts on the screen, he performed the idiot-proof operations.

A minute later, a green light lit up.

The first compression and extraction were successful.

But they were still a long way from final success.

"Press this button."

Shui Meng sat beside He Ming, holding her Terminal and playing games. Upon hearing him, she slipped off her shoes and used her bare feet to lightly tap the spot He Ming was pointing to.

"Got it!"

He Ming raised an eyebrow slightly. Surely those smelly feet wouldn't affect the success rate?

The second compression and extraction officially began.

Success.

The operational process was incredibly boring—repeat, repeat, and repeat again.

Twenty-four hours later.

The 114th operation was successful.

He Ming looked at the display screen.

[Internal Space: 300,000 cubic meters]

"We've barely finished less than a third of the progress."

It wasn't until the 276th operation that the system prompted a failure. The stability component inside the equipment had been completely damaged by a spatial vibration and needed replacement.

He Ming stood up and stretched his limbs. Only now did he truly appreciate how difficult it was to be a Spatial Smith; one needed to maintain constant focus, as not even the slightest error was permitted.

During the 276th operation, He Ming clearly realized it was his own mistake; the input frequency of his spatial power had not met the system's requirements.

An hour later, the equipment replacement was complete, and the tedious operations began once more.

Time flowed like water, and in the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

He Ming nudged Shui Meng, who was sitting in the co-operator's seat.

"Wake up, today's task is finished."

Shui Meng pursed her lips and opened her eyes groggily. Wiping the drool from her mouth, she sighed, "His Majesty the Human Emperor, this is just too boring."

"Alright, let's go out and relax."

Hearing that they could finally go out, Shui Meng instantly perked up. She stood up, stretched her arms, and let out a weird cry... Over the past year, the two of them had completed a total of 370 operations at their workstations.

There were 290 failures and 80 successes.

Success rate: 21.62%.

The finished Spatial Artifacts had an internal storage space of 1.05 million cubic meters.

Compared to top-tier Spatial Artifact smiths, his success rate was over twenty times higher.

The problems had all originated from He Ming.

With Shui Meng's assistance, not a single energy clash in the pocket dimension had occurred.

The material cost to manufacture one Spatial Artifact was approximately 2 million tons of star source crystals, equivalent to two tons of seven-colored star marrow crystals.

The style was that of the currently most popular rings.

He Ming took Shui Meng to the mall, where they played for most of the day.

They ate, drank, and played to their hearts' content.

Tomorrow, they would have to go back to work as usual.

"Had enough fun?"

Shui Meng nodded, then subconsciously shook her head.

"Fine, let's go sell our labor's fruits from this past year first, then we can continue playing tonight."

To this day, Shui Meng still didn't know exactly what she had been doing all year. She had simply been mechanically repeating the same simple operations, pressing a button every ten minutes or so.

When she followed He Ming to the entrance of Huitong Technology, she suddenly understood.

"Boss, we wouldn't happen to be manufacturing Spatial Artifacts, would we?"

He Ming nodded.

"Yeah."

A long string of zeros behind the selling price of a Spatial Artifact immediately flashed through Shui Meng's mind... As soon as He Ming entered, the sales assistant who had served him a year ago instantly brightened up and walked over quickly with a smile.

"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Get your manager. I have some business to discuss with him."

Upon hearing this, the sales assistant's smile became even more radiant.

"Certainly, please wait a moment."

In the VIP reception room.

He Ming snapped his fingers, and eighty Spatial Artifacts without any logos appeared on the coffee table.

When the manager saw the Spatial Artifacts on the table, he was momentarily stunned.

He had originally thought He Ming had run out of money and wanted to continue pawning second-hand Spatial Artifacts, but the style and size of these artifacts before him were indistinguishable, clearly the work of a master Spatial Artifact smith.

"Sir, these are..."

"Spatial Artifacts, 1.05 million cubic meters of storage space, eighty pieces in total."

"Give me a price."

The manager's heart hammered. He immediately picked up a ring to inspect it.

A virtual interface emerged; the system operation was smooth, and the layout was clean and easy to understand.

"Sir, without a defense authentication code, I cannot make an appraisal."

"Please wait a moment. I will immediately notify Huitong Technology's Chief Smith to come here personally."

"Fine."

The Huitong Technology shop was temporarily closed, and business was suspended.

Before long, an old man with graying temples arrived hurriedly, carrying a case.

He Ming stood to the side and watched quietly as the old man tinkered with a hemispherical device and placed one of the spatial rings from the coffee table into it.

The machine operated, emitting a burst of spatial fluctuations.

Five minutes later, the machine stopped working.

The old man looked shocked. He raised his head in disbelief, his expression extremely excited.

"No problem, it really has reached 1.05 million cubic meters!"

He looked at He Ming and asked urgently, "What is your honorable surname?"

"Shui."

"Oh, Mr. Shui, might I ask which master these spatial rings were crafted by?"

He Ming smiled indifferently and said casually, "Who forged them isn't important. As long as the manufacturer's name is registered in the system, that's who produced them."

The old man was stunned, then he nodded with a smile.

"Quite right, I was being foolish."

"In that case, we'll take this batch of Spatial Artifacts."

"350,000 tons of seven-colored star marrow crystals per piece. What do you think?"

He Ming thought for a moment.

Spatial Artifacts on the market didn't come in 1.05 million cubic meter specifications; 1 million cubic meter Spatial Artifacts sold for around 300,000 tons of seven-colored star marrow crystals.

Although it was a bit cheap, he had to leave some profit margin for the other party.

"Alright, deal."

The manager stepped forward and handed over a dark-colored card, introducing, "Mr. Shui, this is our Huitong Technology Union Card. Please keep it safe."

"With this card, you can make purchases and withdrawals normally within the Fanda Galaxy System."

He Ming took the bank card, stood up, and pulled Shui Meng along.

"Alright, then I'll be going now."

Watching the two of them walk away, the old man's eyes narrowed slightly.

"This young man is truly interesting. Such a large deal, yet he leaves without even confirming the amount."

The manager added, "Yes, 28 million tons of seven-colored star marrow crystals. Elder Zhang, do you think..."

Elder Zhang waved his hand, cutting the manager off.

"Don't even think about things you shouldn't be thinking about. Huitong Technology's reputation is worth more than just 28 million tons of seven-colored star marrow crystals."

"You are right to scold me!"

Elder Zhang stroked the spatial rings on the coffee table and chuckled, "With this batch of spatial rings, our Huitong Technology can finally go toe-to-toe with Tianhuo Technology in the mid-range market."}

],"new_glossary_terms":[{"zh":" Star Source Crystal","en":"star source crystal","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Space Foundry","en":"Spatial Smith","entity_type":"class","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Stabilization components","en":"stability component","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Spatial oscillation","en":"spatial vibration","entity_type":"event","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Spatial power","en":"spatial power","entity_type":"skill","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Defense Authentication Code","en":"defense authentication code","entity_type":"other","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Chief Foundry","en":"Chief Smith","entity_type":"person","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Old Zhang","en":"Elder Zhang","entity_type":"person","gender":"male"},{"zh":" UnionPay card","en":"Union Card","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Tianhuo Technology","en":"Tianhuo Technology","entity_type":"organization","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Other Space","en":"pocket dimension","entity_type":"location","gender":"neutral"}]}