Charging the USB Drive

"Our 'Greenfield' oxygen plant has an excellent environment and a convenient location. Although the equipment is somewhat outdated, our productivity hasn't fallen too far behind."

"We also have complete business channels and advanced production concepts. As long as we can upgrade our equipment, we'll definitely..."

"Most importantly, although we've suspended operations recently due to business problems, the government will issue a new round of regulations in less than two years at most..."

As Chen Chen toured the "Greenfield" oxygen plant, its factory manager, a man in his thirties, followed beside him the entire time, tirelessly pitching the place.

The manager of the "Greenfield" plant was a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes. He looked rather dashing, but his drooping eyebrows gave him the perpetual air of a wronged victim.

Chen Chen had not understood why the factory was named that way at first, but the moment he saw the Boss's face, he immediately understood.

"Mm, it's mediocre."

Chen Chen waved a hand, his expression indifferent. "Stop trying to sell me on it. I can't afford to buy your factory. I only want to rent it for a while."

"That works too. If you're willing to rent it, we can waive the equipment depreciation fees. At market rates, it would be three hundred thousand a month. I can give you a thirty percent discount—how about two hundred thousand?"

"Too expensive."

Chen Chen shook his head. "Your factory is shut down anyway. You might as well rent it out more cheaply. Other than me, I doubt anyone else would come rent your factory, right?"

"This..." The man smiled awkwardly. "Two hundred thousand really isn't much. This factory occupies seven or eight mu of land and has over a hundred machines. If even that is too much..."

"I want to see your transformer," Chen Chen abruptly changed the subject.

"Of course, please come with me."

Ignoring everything else, the man led Chen Chen to the power distribution room. Pointing at the enormous metal structure suspended overhead, he said, "This is our 10kV dry-type power transformer. It has a capacity of 200KVA, enough to supply a large factory. There definitely won't be any problems."

"The factory doesn't use high-voltage electricity, does it?" Chen Chen asked.

"That's right. It's only 380V industrial electricity, so it needs a step-up transformer."

Chen Chen nodded and pondered for a moment before suddenly saying, "How about this? I'll pay one hundred and fifty thousand in monthly rent for your factory, with three months paid upfront. I may extend the rental period later. What do you think?"

"One hundred and fifty thousand is really a little low. We have more than a dozen employees here, and they all need to eat and live..." The man looked troubled.

"I don't need your employees," Chen Chen replied.

"What?" The man froze. He exchanged glances with the people behind him. "In that case, what about the electricity bill and depreciation fees?"

"Of course I'll pay the electricity bill myself. If any machines are damaged, I'll compensate you at full value," Chen Chen answered.

"Good! You're straightforward!"

The man finally revealed a crafty smile. "Mr. Chen, a pleasure doing business with you!"

"A pleasure doing business with you!"

The two shook hands, both wearing foxlike smiles.

One had finally found a sucker. The factory was losing money sitting idle anyway, so renting it out would at least cut some losses.

The other was after the other party's power supply qualifications. The factory was merely a cover. It looked as though he was getting the worse deal, but who could know that Chen Chen's true intentions lay elsewhere?

Once the contract was signed, Chen Chen received the keys to the factory gate and power distribution room.

The other party had wanted to treat Chen Chen to a meal, but Chen Chen politely declined. After some pleasantries and seeing off the factory's former owner, Chen Chen went to the warehouse and found a length of high-voltage cable.

The cable was as thick as a fist and could withstand 110KV of high-voltage electricity—more than enough for Chen Chen's purposes.

Not only that, Chen Chen found several copper ingots in the warehouse, then located a welding torch before heading toward the power distribution room.

After cutting off the main power supply, Chen Chen removed all the equipment wires from the transformer and installed the high-voltage cable instead. He then welded the other end of the cable to a copper ingot.

After securing and insulating the copper ingot, Chen Chen took a USB interface from his pocket and used a hand drill to embed its components into the ingot.

Once everything was done, Chen Chen took out the USB Drive and tested it. It fit perfectly into the USB port on the copper ingot.

"Whether this succeeds or fails depends on this attempt."

Chen Chen took a deep breath, turned, walked into the power distribution room, and switched on the power.

Buzz!

At once, the transformer outside gave off a low hum. Like a giant beast awakening, it began to rumble softly—the sound of voltage being stepped up by the transformer.

Chen Chen looked at the electricity meter beside him. On its LCD display, the digits representing the power consumption began to tick upward slowly.

This might work!

Excitement flashed in Chen Chen's eyes. "A transformer with a capacity of 200KVA can, under ideal power conditions, input 200KW of electricity per hour, charging the USB Drive with 4,800 kWh per day..."

Chen Chen pondered silently. "Of course, the power factor is generally between 0.8 and 0.9. In other words, it can actually charge around 4,000 kWh per day..."

As far as he knew, Shangdu's industrial electricity price was around 0.75 yuan per kWh. In other words, charging the USB Drive for a month would cost him one hundred and twenty thousand yuan in electricity fees.

It was practically robbery.

Of course, let alone electricity bills of a hundred thousand or so, even if it cost several million or tens of millions, it would still be an astonishing bargain if it could buy him one chance to obtain an item from a movie.

In short, this plan was nearing its end. As long as he could successfully obtain enough energy, he could pull back the foot he had already stepped through the Gate of Hell.

Everything was difficult at the beginning. Once the first stage of capital accumulation was complete, Chen Chen would officially enter the fast lane of development, and his power would expand at a geometric rate.

In the not-too-distant future, Chen Chen might even use the USB Drive to accelerate humanity's civilization and stand at the pinnacle of power in the Earth Federation!

Chen Chen silently reined in his thoughts and laughed at himself. It was still too early to think about such things.

Watching the electric meter spin continuously, Chen Chen was certain that he had unplugged every device connected to the transformer. The entire factory's electricity was now supplying the USB Drive.

With that in mind, Chen Chen left the power distribution room and went outside again, only to see the USB Drive still quietly plugged into the palm-sized Copper ingot.

If it had been an ordinary electrical appliance, it would probably have been destroyed by the enormous voltage long ago.

Only this USB Drive could remain completely unscathed.

In fact, Chen Chen had tried other ways to examine the USB Drive during this period, such as taking off its casing to inspect its internal structure.

But just as Chen Chen had expected, the USB Drive seemed to be made of some unknown material. It simply could not be damaged by human strength.

At first, he tested it carefully, afraid of damaging it. Later, he even scratched at it wildly with a glass cutter, yet he could not leave the slightest mark.

This USB Drive's Mohs hardness had already far exceeded the natural maximum of 10.

Still, seeing that nothing had gone wrong with the USB Drive, Chen Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

All he needed to do next was wait quietly.

Once he had money in the future, he definitely needed to replace it with a higher-powered transformer. How could 200 KVA possibly be enough? 2000 KVA would be more like it.

If he had a transformer with a capacity of 2000 KVA, it would mean he could feed in ten times the amount of electricity at once. Since the USB Drive would not burn out from excessive current anyway, the higher the better.