Selling Books

To get enough funds, Bai Ge even considered buying a lottery ticket.

He could hack into the welfare lottery center's database, implant a record of purchasing the first prize, and then forge the ticket.

However, the moment the welfare lottery center completes sales, it backs up all data via optical discs and hard drives, then stores it offline.

Furthermore, claiming a prize requires the winning ticket, and the barcode on it is an important anti-counterfeiting measure.

Without relevant inside help, he couldn't forge this.

Rather than taking a huge risk, it was better to use the most perfect criminal method: coincidence.

He could make the winning numbers happen to be the numbers Bai Ge bought.

However, he didn't want to create a containment item just to win a prize.

So, he still chose to sell novels and music.

This even included games and movies.

With sufficient knowledge, technical skill, and a certain degree of imagination, Bai Ge could easily produce these things.

If it were Bell, it would be even more terrifying.

Bell alone was a team.

It could simultaneously perform everyone's work: programming, copywriting, art design, music composition, post-production...

Products that took others ten years to forge, Bell could do in one second.

And it was mass-produced.

As long as Bai Ge's creativity was sufficient, he could create works he had once imagined but never existed in reality.

"Music... forget it. Quantity can't compensate for quality. Even when pushing my skills to the peak, it still sounds so bad... I really have no talent in this area."

On his hard drive were hundreds of songs, all mass-produced by Bell.

Compared to novels, which pushed language to its limit, music should have been good too.

But the reality was that this music was too mediocre, so mediocre that Bai Ge couldn't even be bothered to feel embarrassed.

He truly had zero musical aptitude.

"I'll sell the books first..."

Bai Ge used his hacking skills to directly infiltrate the largest literary website in the country.

He quickly found the operating company's database center.

It contained the personal information of all signed authors, as well as all editors...

In fact, if he wanted to, he could directly implant the book into the database, forge an electronic contract, and change the work's status to published...

He could even... inflate the subscription data.

But that would be meaningless; comparing it to the offline saved data would immediately reveal the anomaly.

"For now... I just need a pseudonym."

He finished registering at the fastest speed, his pen name: A Million Updates Daily Is Not A Dream.

Bai Ge selected one of his most outstanding works, categorized as historical fiction, titled "The Fallen Emperor," and uploaded only the beginning.

Then, he found the automatic publishing software created by Bell from his hard drive.

This software would automatically log into the account and upload new chapters to the backend daily.

"I'll update ten thousand words daily for now."

"If the account receives a signing notification, it will automatically call my phone via VoIP."

Bai Ge wasn't worried about whether this book would fail. As long as the editor wasn't blind, they would definitely take it seriously.

Whether it was the writing style or the accumulation of knowledge, it was a top-tier work. At most, the creativity was a bit ordinary, but it was enough to be captivating.

Novels originated from life. The plots Bell created in the book could almost all find their prototypes in history.

Historical fiction is endless. So many events have happened throughout history. Besides some well-known eras, many other periods are quite fascinating, just unknown to most.

Those stories, with a change of time, place, and characters, become excellent plot points.

History itself is the best novel.

Bell ground down various historical events and artistically processed them, turning them into the protagonist's experiences. Unless one was a scholar who had thoroughly studied history, they would barely be able to recognize the prototypes.

This led to the vast majority of people believing it was original plot.

When it gets published later, Bai Ge decided to update a million words daily and start another new book. By the time the first book is finished, the second book will also be published.

With Bell around, writing a book to a hundred million words might not be impossible.

"But even at this speed, it will take a month to get any income. Hmm, I'll just sell the books directly to publishers."

For serialization, this one book is enough.

Bai Ge searched and quickly found the largest publishing houses in the country. He directly sent the beginnings of nine books in other categories to their emails, using different identities.

He planned to sell them directly, selling entire books to publishers, as they could pay the fastest.

Even if the per-thousand-character rate was suppressed, it didn't really matter.

The nine books combined had over 100 million characters. At 100 yuan per thousand characters, that was 10 million yuan.

These books were of superior quality and had almost exhausted Bai Ge's creativity in other genres.

Although Bell could still mass-produce books with different content in the future, they would likely be variations on a theme, forming a pattern.

For a steady, long-term income, one book was enough, and historical fiction wouldn't run out of creative ideas.

For three consecutive days, Bai Ge was continuously signing buyout agreements with various publishing houses.

Although the books were written very well, he was still a newcomer, and the price was even suppressed to 20 yuan per thousand characters.

This was a price Bai Ge could not accept. He still wanted to buy several more generator sets immediately. How could this amount of money be enough?

Fortunately, Bai Ge was willing to give up any copyright for these books. After selling all adaptation rights and even giving up moral rights, the other party was willing to offer 300 yuan per thousand characters.

In the end, the nine books sold for over 30 million yuan.

The cost... was a few dozen yuan for electricity.

Because Bai Ge made huge concessions elsewhere, the publishing houses felt they had gotten a great deal and paid him very promptly.

Furthermore, since the nine books were sold separately to multiple publishing houses, on the afternoon of the same day, he entrusted lawyers in various locations to sign the buyout agreements.

To reduce taxes, the money would be paid to him in thirty installments. After deducting agency fees, Bai Ge would receive over 20 million yuan by the time the generator sets were delivered.

Bai Ge, who was in urgent need of funds, could not hold onto this money.

"Hello, I want to order eight more 2000-kilowatt generator sets!"

June 16th.

Bai Ge's generator sets were finally delivered. Although he had added eight more temporarily, because he ordered so many, it was enough to build a power station.

The energy company immediately expedited the process and transferred equipment from other locations for him, delivering it within the deadline.

"Boss, we still need a few hours. We'll help you install them."

"No need. You can go. I'll install them myself." Bai Ge couldn't wait.

The delivery technicians were taken aback. Install them himself? This wasn't a joke.

"You really don't need our help?" The technician glanced around. Bai Ge had come alone.

Bai Ge smiled. "My people will come to install them. Just leave them here for now. Thank you for your hard work."

"Not at all, not at all. Then we'll be going?"

"Goodbye."

After seeing off the technicians, Bai Ge locked the factory doors. The windows were over three meters high, so he didn't have to worry about being seen.

After confirming no one was around, Bai Ge's gaze turned to the large boxes.

"Send all of them into the brain hole."

Bai Ge walked up and used his head to push the boxes, sending the equipment in batches.

Once a generator set was installed, it was quite massive. Bai Ge's strength was limited, so he couldn't move the entire unit into the brain hole.

This was why Bai Ge wanted them to leave. Individual pieces of equipment were much smaller and lighter, allowing him to send them into the brain hole for assembly.

In just one minute, the factory floor was empty.

Finally, he sent himself into the brain hole.

These past few days, besides selling books, he hadn't been idle.

Most of his time had been spent absorbing knowledge.

He hadn't stopped learning for a moment.

Assembling these machines was a piece of cake. Bai Ge could do it alone, it just required a lot of time.

But sending them into the brain hole was different. With the expenditure of some energy, he could easily manipulate physical matter.

Hundreds of boxes floated in the brain hole universe. With a single thought from Bai Ge, all the boxes were dismantled.

"Do you need me to do it?" Bell asked.

Whether Bai Ge did it or Bell did it, the energy consumed was the same.

Having Bell do it was more reliable, as it wouldn't make mistakes.

"I'll leave it to you."

After Bai Ge finished speaking, all the equipment moved on its own, connecting and assembling automatically.

In just one minute, ten high-power generator sets were assembled.

If the delivery technicians had done it, it would have taken over a dozen people several hours.

"Ten 2000-kilowatt generator sets. At full load, they produce 20,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour."

"Twenty-four hours a day would be 480,000 kilowatt-hours."

"The fuel consumption is 200 grams per kilowatt-hour. Ten units... that's four tons of diesel per hour? Ninety-six tons a day..."

"At current oil prices, I'll be spending 580,000 on diesel alone every day? Good heavens!"

Generating electricity with diesel would definitely be much more expensive than using a power plant.

To get the equipment running in the brain hole, Bai Ge could only accept it.

He contacted Zhuang Ze. This kid's family sold oil, and Bai Ge needed nearly a hundred tons daily now, so he had to find someone he knew.