Chapter 24 of 100

Chapter 24

19 min read4,823 words

As his troops continued to advance along the Jinpu Road towards Xuzhou, Gao Yang handed over command to Weix and shuttled off to the metropolis.

That evening, in the newly opened building of the SC Trading Company in the French Concession, Gao Yang entertained officials from the British, French, Italian, and other European consulates in the metropolis, as well as several prominent business figures.

The Americans were selling sulfonamides worldwide, and the enormous profits had made all the merchants envious. It didn't take much effort to find SC Trading to sell them sulfonamides. Each of them loudly demanded the molecular formula, the ratio, and global agency rights, as if they were the ones selling the product.

Gao Yang, sipping his coffee slowly, sat on the sofa and ignored the clamor of these clowns, saying calmly, "Want to buy? Sure, $30 per unit, as much as you want, gold settlement, payment upon delivery, no other conditions."

After Gao Yang spoke, the noisy voices around him quieted down, and everyone was momentarily speechless.

After a moment, Baron Victor Sassoon slowly stood up, adjusted his glasses, and said slowly, "Mr. Gao, I am a merchant of the British Empire. Are you sure you want to sell sulfonamides to me at this price?" His words were filled with arrogance.

Gao Yang smiled and nodded to Sassoon, saying, "Mr. Baron, I certainly won't sell it to you at this price. After hearing your words, I've decided not to do business with you. Please leave my company now, immediately!"

Everyone in the room was stunned, never having seen such a brazen Chinese person. Sassoon was also taken aback. When he finally reacted, he angrily said to Gao Yang, "I am a merchant of the British Empire, and you dare to look down on the British Empire?"

"Is my English not standard, or can't you understand? Get out now!" Gao Yang said coldly to Sassoon.

An enraged Sassoon glared at Gao Yang, then turned and stormed out. "Anyone who doesn't want to buy can leave now. I don't lack for buyers. My time is valuable, so if you want to buy, sign the contract." Gao Yang then got up and left the reception room, leaving Gao Feng to deal with the merchants.

Gao Yang went to a small meeting room on the second floor. After lightly patting his cheeks and putting on a smile, he pushed the door open. "Добрый вечер! My dear friends." A few Caucasian men also greeted him with smiles.

After exchanging pleasantries, everyone sat on the sofas. Servants brought coffee, and the formal meeting began. "Mr. Cherkov, my opinions have already been conveyed to you by General Manager Gao Feng," Gao Yang said, lifting his coffee.

"Mr. Gao, I am here to negotiate the specific amount. Can the price be reduced further?" Cherkov, sitting opposite Gao Yang, asked.

Gao Yang remained silent, sipping his coffee quietly. After a while, he put down his cup and said softly, "As far as I know, the Americans will complete the industrial production of sulfonamides by the end of this year. Every second you spend chatting with me here is a loss of huge profits."

Cherkov was a representative sent by the Soviet Union to purchase the molecular formula and ratio of sulfonamides. Unlike other countries, Gao Yang agreed to this deal, quoting a price of 90 tons of gold.

One reason was that the Americans would complete the industrial production of sulfonamides within the year, and Gao Yang wanted to make a profit before the final moment. Another reason was that a few months ago, the Soviet Union had split Mongolia off, and Gao Yang, being far away, could only watch in anger. Now that the Russians had come to him, he couldn't be polite.

"Mr. Gao, you must guarantee that you will not resell the molecular formula and ratio within three years," Cherkov said after a moment's thought.

"This can be written into the contract," Gao Yang said with a smile, standing up and extending his hand to Cherkov. "Pleasure doing business."

The next evening, on a small boat off the coast of the metropolis, Gao Feng came to Gao Yang and said, "I've seen the gold on the ship, but there are many people on board." Gao Yang smiled and said, "You can go back first." He then took Arno and boarded a small boat heading towards a Soviet-flagged cargo ship nearby.

After boarding, Cherkov led them to the cargo hold. Seeing the neatly stacked pile of gold, Gao Yang smiled and nodded to Arno. Arno handed the box to Cherkov, and several experts quickly took it and began inspecting it.

Cherkov came to Gao Yang and said with a smile, "Mr. Gao, you should have a lot of inventory. How about selling it all to us?" Gao Yang looked at Cherkov and smiled, "There's quite a bit, are you sure you can afford it?" "We can negotiate the price, hehehe," Cherkov said, his eyes on the experts.

After a while, the experts put down the documents and nodded to Cherkov. "Hehehe," Cherkov's eyes lit up with a radiant smile. As he laughed, a large number of armed men suddenly burst in, filling the cargo hold and surrounding Gao Yang.

"Mr. Gao, how about you notify your men to exchange your inventory of sulfonamides for you? If you don't agree, I'll have to put you in a sack and throw you into the sea. By the way, how is your swimming?" Cherkov's eyes were squinted in a sly smile, like a weasel that had caught a hen.

"Ah," Gao Yang sighed softly, "I should probably pretend to beg for mercy, but I really don't have time to play with you. Since you don't want to do business the proper way, I can only say sorry."

To Cherkov's surprise, Gao Yang walked to the pile of gold and, with a wave of his hand, the gold disappeared. Everyone around him was stunned, unsure of what had happened. Gao Yang clapped his hands, turned to Arno, and said, "Two minutes." He then made an apologetic gesture to Cherkov and disappeared from the cargo hold, leaving Cherkov dumbfounded. Arno pulled out two MP18 submachine guns from his coat and began clearing the area.

Two minutes later, Gao Yang returned to the cargo hold, took Arno to the bottom hold, opened the sea valve, and set up a bomb before shuttling back to Africa in the original timeline.

On a section of the Ogoue River in Africa, Gao Yang, wearing shorts and a sun hat, sat by the river fishing leisurely. A dozen mercenaries and local security guards were scattered around. Gao Yang listened calmly to what Origin was saying in his mind, but the occasional tightening of his fishing rod revealed his true feelings.

"Creating the farthest temporal shuttle technology I can control is only 200 Earth years. Even 200 years ago, artificial intelligence was already gaining the upper hand in the war against intelligent life forms, but the advantage wasn't as significant. Therefore, the force that created me filled my internal space with war-related technology, materials, and energy, hoping that no matter which era I returned to, I could help the intelligent life forms win the war," Origin said, his words filled with a strange emotion.

Pausing, he continued, "Before the operation, to fully charge me, the intelligent life forms even shut down the entire star system's defense system. Just as I and the operator were about to shuttle, the AI's main body suddenly invaded the operation headquarters, and I was infected with a virus. The temporal shuttle was also activated. The operator successfully shuttled, but I, infected by the virus, was thrown into the temporal turbulence. When I exhausted my energy and emerged from the turbulence, I landed by your side. The operator's identity and commands were erased by the virus, and since I had just absorbed your DNA code, I recognized you as the new command leader."

Gao Yang suddenly said, "What do you mean now? I'm no longer the command leader?"

"No, the virus has been eliminated, and your identity is still retained," Origin explained. Gao Yang breathed a slight sigh of relief and asked, "What if I get infected again? Will you change to a new master?"

"Strictly speaking, it wasn't a virus but a powerful will of the main body. To infect me again, it would need to encounter an AI as powerful as the main body," Origin's words reassured Gao Yang, who wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a towel. He then asked, "Why don't you give me all the war materials in your internal space directly?"

"My energy was completely drained in the temporal turbulence. When you ordered the temporal shuttle, you used the energy from the materials. In the new timeline, by altering the flow of the timeline, you generated a large amount of spatial energy, which I collected to gradually open the materials and technology," Origin answered.

"Then where did the energy for all my shuttle trips come from?" Gao Yang asked curiously.

"Because there are temporal beacons. Shuttling between different beacons doesn't consume additional energy," Origin explained in detail.

"Okay, I understand. So what I need to do now is to gain more energy points to help you recover your abilities, right?" Gao Yang fully understood.

"Exactly."

Gao Yang stopped asking questions, held the fishing rod, and sat quietly, starting to fish. Time passed quickly. After the sun set, Gao Yang returned to the villa with two fish he had caught in the afternoon, and handed them to the chef to make braised fish and fish soup.

During dinner, Origin reported to Gao Yang that the hostile takeover of Orpheus Company had been completed. The specific process was that Origin, through the internet, found that Mr. Orpheus had been trading oil futures and had made significant profits due to his connection with a powerful figure in the U.S. government.

Origin, through the network, impersonated the powerful figure and told Orpheus that the U.S. was likely to intimidate Iran with military force soon, which would cause oil prices to rise sharply, urging Orpheus to buy a large amount of oil futures.

Mr. Orpheus, believing this, used most of his funds to invest in the futures market. At this time, an investment fund called SC Venture Capital approached Orpheus, expressing interest in acquiring Orpheus Company. Orpheus refused the acquisition but agreed to use the company as collateral to obtain a large amount of funds for short-term investment. After signing the contract, Orpheus invested all his assets into the oil futures market, waiting for the U.S. to intimidate Iran.

Even if the U.S. hadn't intimidated Iran, Orpheus wouldn't have lost much and might have even made a profit. However, just last month, the world's largest car-owning country, in an effort to combat air pollution, made a significant breakthrough in electric vehicle technology!

This news, once confirmed, was like a meteorite hitting the earth, plunging the oil futures market into a deep abyss. Mr. Orpheus, who was heavily invested, went bankrupt.

A few days ago, Mr. Orpheus was gunned down by unknown armed personnel in a European location. Gao Yang was now the largest company owner in the mining area.

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