Chapter 5

In the early morning, Chen Xin was woken up by a shrill phone ring. Still half-asleep, he pressed the answer button.

"Hello, who is it?"

"Hey, Mr. Chen, it's already this late and you're still sleeping? What about the manuscript? The magazine needs to print the sample pages today. Have you finished it? If not, I'll have to find someone else right away!"

Chen Xin was startled by the voice on the other end, which sounded like a string of firecrackers, and immediately became more alert: "Old Hu, Old Hu, please don't. I stayed up all night to finish the manuscript. Give me an hour... no, half an hour, and I'll send it to you right away."

Chen Xin studied software engineering in college, but he was not focused on his major. He had been fascinated by CG since high school and was proficient in software like 3DMAX and ZBrush. His spatial imagination was excellent, and he particularly enjoyed military CG. In the Super Base Camp, his main ID, "Deep Blue Pirate Flag," was as famous as the military CG master "Gao Shan."

Later, due to family changes, he became less active.

After graduating from college, to take care of his grandfather, Chen Xin did not look for a job but became a freelance illustrator, providing weapon CG images for military magazines. Occasionally, he also took on programming tasks using his professional skills, earning about 6,000 to 7,000 yuan per month.

When the J-20 was unveiled, Hu Xianping, the cover planner for the "Weapons" magazine, called Chen Xin to create a CG image of the J-20. Chen Xin had just received a new coin and was not interested in the project, so he casually agreed.

However, he had been so busy playing that he completely forgot about it.

After working with Old Hu for so many years, they had always been on good terms, and Chen Xin felt bad about letting him down. He quickly got out of bed, not even bothering to put on clothes, and walked to his computer, slamming the table: "Coin, come out, help me, help me."

The 21-inch LCD screen suddenly rippled, and Coin's head appeared: "Dad, what's up? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Chen Xin said: "Stop reading your lousy novel. Help me create a CG still image of the J-20 fighter. It needs to be 25 million pixels, A4 size, 195mm x 271mm."

Coin's electronic eyes flashed, and he made a clucking sound: "Twenty yuan!"

Chen Xin said: "No way, ten yuan!"

This kid's appetite was getting bigger. Initially, he only needed five yuan to get the "Dawn Goddess" intelligence, but now the price had quadrupled. That's equivalent to 320 cents, enough to make the trolls on NetEase rant for dozens of times.

Coin gritted his teeth and said: "I'll take a loss this time, eighteen yuan!"

"No way, at most twelve yuan!"

"Sixteen!"

"Fourteen!"

"Fifteen."

"Deal!"

Chen Xin didn't want to argue anymore and found different angles of the J-20 online for Coin to reference.

Soon, the J-20 skeleton model appeared on the computer screen.

Starting from the diamond-shaped nose, the overall canopy, main landing gear, DSI bulge intake, canard wings, arch-shaped leading edge, inclined vertical stabilizers, and sawtooth landing gear doors, the body was painted a deep green, almost black from a distance.

Next, Coin painted the white 2001 number on the nose, and the red star and "August 1" emblem of the Chinese Air Force on the wings and vertical stabilizers.

Compared to Chen Xin, Coin's work was far superior in overall structure, color saturation, and clarity, not to mention speed. If Chen Xin hadn't seen Coin's modeling process, he would have suspected it was a high-definition photo of the J-20 taken up close.

Chen Xin thought for a moment and asked Coin to move the pitot tube from the radar dome to the top of the nose, then open the main and side weapon bays, hanging PL-9 short-range combat missiles and PL-12 medium-range air-to-air missiles inside. This way, others wouldn't think it was a photo.

As for the background, without a reference, Coin couldn't complete it independently. Chen Xin described the scene he had in mind, and Coin, with his strong understanding, quickly finished it. It took less than twenty minutes.

When Chen Xin captured the still image, he was amazed by the result.

The camera was focused on the front of the J-20, slightly upward, showing the canard wings, diamond-shaped nose, and bubble canopy. Inside the canopy, a bright green light was visible, the diffraction screen. Further back, the pilot's dark green helmet and the shiny red star were faintly visible.

The nose of the J-20 partially obscured a small orange sunset, the sky was deep blue, and the sharp canard wings and the faintly visible air-to-air missiles on the fuselage made the entire aircraft look like a fully drawn bow, ready to be launched. It was powerful and full of technology.

Chen Xin nodded in satisfaction. This was the most stunning work he had seen in his long career in military CG, but it was a bit disappointing that he didn't create it himself.

Chen Xin encrypted the image and sent it via email to the "Weapons" magazine's dedicated mailbox.

Less than ten minutes later, the phone rang again. Chen Xin answered, and Old Hu's voice, full of amazement, came through: "Chen Xin, damn! How did you do it? This is definitely a master-level work, incredible. If it weren't for the pitot tube and missiles, I would have thought it was a close-up photo of the J-20."

Chen Xin laughed: "How about it? Can it be on the cover?"

In the past, when Chen Xin submitted to magazines like "Weapons," "Three Major Knowledge" (Ship Knowledge, Aviation Knowledge, Weapons Knowledge), and "Military Technology," his work usually only made it to the back cover or the inside front cover. The magazine cover typically featured actual weapon photos.

This time, the news of the J-20's maiden flight was too explosive, and the only available photos were blurry ones uploaded by netizens, unsuitable for the magazine cover. So, Hu Xianping decided to use a CG image. He didn't expect Chen Xin's work to be so stunning.

"No problem, no problem. The editor-in-chief said, no need to choose, just use your image. As for the price, a flat rate of 10,000 yuan. How about that? Also, the editor-in-chief wants to know if you can transfer the copyright of this work?"

Chen Xin said: "No copyright transfer, just this price. Transfer the money as soon as possible, I'm short on cash right now!"

After hanging up, Chen Xin rubbed his face. With Coin around, it was time to think about how to make money.

Chen Xin's family had always been well-off, and he had never worried much about money.

When his parents passed away, the state paid a compensation of two million yuan, plus various subsidies and their savings, totaling over 2.9 million yuan. Although buying a house and his grandfather's hospital stay over the past two years had cost a lot, he still had about 700,000 yuan left in his account.

But after taking in Coin, the household expenses skyrocketed.

According to Coin, ten kilograms of metal a day was just enough to keep him from starving. Asking him to do anything more was too much.

At first, Chen Xin went to the scrap yard to find some copper and iron for Coin, but the little guy was picky and refused to eat, saying the rust content was harmful to his body.

So, Chen Xin rented a warehouse in the suburbs and ordered one ton of stainless steel, one ton of copper, one ton of aluminum, and other metals like nickel, tin, and antimony, spending over 100,000 yuan.

Currently, stainless steel costs 18,000 yuan per ton, copper 52,000 yuan per ton, aluminum 15,000 yuan per ton, nickel plates 100,000 yuan per ton, 99.9% pure tin ingots 150,000 yuan per ton, and antimony ingots 63,000 yuan per ton. Chen Xin, following Coin's requirements, fed him ten kilograms of stainless steel, ten kilograms of copper, five kilograms of aluminum, and one kilogram each of nickel, tin, and antimony, costing him 1,200 yuan per day.

This could only sustain Coin for three months, and it didn't include his special preference for coins.

As for precious metals like gold, silver, titanium, and tungsten, Chen Xin didn't even consider them.

After thinking for a while, with no clear solution, Chen Xin decided not to worry about it. With Coin around, he wouldn't have to worry about finding ways to make money.

Seeing that it was already daylight, Chen Xin didn't want to go back to bed. He brushed his teeth, washed his face, and called out: "Coin, let's go eat."

As soon as he spoke, a silver liquid metal ball popped out of the computer, landing lightly on Chen Xin's wrist and wrapping around it. With a series of clicks, it transformed into a stunning men's watch.

Chen Xin pointed to his eyes: "And here!"

The watch secreted a small metal ball, which transformed into a small robot and climbed up his sleeve to his ear, quickly turning into a pair of black-framed glasses and settling on his nose.

This was the price Coin paid for eating Chen Xin's titanium alloy glasses frame.

Chen Xin continued: "Go to hao123, I'll check the news."

A light screen appeared in his eyes, and the hao123 homepage suddenly appeared before him.

If someone were next to Chen Xin, they would only notice that his eyes were slightly glazed over, but nothing else.

Coin was very capable in this aspect. With him, all the so-called high-tech gadgets like smartphones were nothing. There was no need to worry about data usage, signal, or money. According to Coin, as long as Chen Xin was on Earth, he wouldn't have to worry about internet access.

Chen Xin visited the four major portal sites. The hot news about the J-20 from the past two days had been pushed down, and the front page was now dominated by news about the "Dawn Goddess." Xinhua News Agency even published an editorial criticizing the United States for maintaining a Cold War mentality and creating tension worldwide.

This time, China's response was swift. Clearly, the higher-ups, realizing they couldn't contain the news, decided to apply public pressure on the United States first.

Chen Xin skimmed through the news, finding it uninteresting, and then went to the Super Base Camp. When he opened the post, he was shocked. From 11:30 PM the previous night to 8:30 AM the next morning, the post had received over one million views and over 80,000 comments.

More interestingly, the comments were not only in Chinese but also in English, which accounted for over 20% of the replies. Other languages like French, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Italian were also common.

The comments were varied, with many domestic netizens joining in the fun, using broken English to interact with foreigners.

With the arrival of daytime, more and more idle Chinese netizens would join in.

Chen Xin hadn't expected such a scene, but fortunately, Coin had taken care of the network, ensuring it remained smooth and preventing the server from being overwhelmed.

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PS: Thanks everyone! After two days of uploading, I have 43 favorites, 117 recommendations, and the clicks are even higher. If you don't know me, you might think I'm cheating.

I can only say that my brothers are too awesome. Thanks to the LKers and CDers who came to support me, and thanks to the brother →Extreme Scum← for the tip.

I am now working hard to write and save drafts. If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them. I will do my best to make you satisfied.

Thank you again!