Ten Years of Change (Part 2)

Building a Radiant Power factory is far from simple.

Reilo has strict safety standards to prevent the leakage of Radiant Power and has implemented maximum rescue measures for potential accidents.

As a result, the investment required to build Radiant Power production factories naturally skyrockets, far beyond the reach of small merchants.

With such massive investment, the only return is a mere 1 gram of Radiant Power per month.

After the factory obtains the Radiant Power, the Duchy purchases it at the exorbitant price of 5,500 gold coins per gram. The Duchy then consolidates it at the Solar Energy Laboratory, where Reilo converts it into Radiant Jinghua, the raw material for fission radiation weapon research.

This calculation shows:

Producing 1,000 grams of Radiant Jinghua alone costs a staggering 5.5 million gold coins on paper!

Such terrifying figures represent an astonishing profit for any merchant guild.

Keep in mind that the Duchy's annual tax revenue is around 1 billion gold coins. Of this, 5% is allocated to military construction, totaling 50 million gold coins, which covers equipment upgrades for major fortresses and daily expenses. Yet, Reilo demands one-tenth of the Duchy's entire annual military budget!

Of course, this is just the minimum investment for raw materials on paper.

According to Reilo's calculations, the actual investment required to produce fission radiation weapons could exceed 15 million gold coins!

What's even more terrifying is...

Once this weapon is successfully developed, the Duchy's investment in it could become a bottomless pit, long-term.

Although the merchant guilds are unaware of the weapon's power, their keen sense for gold allows them to perceive immense profit. Thus, they are relentlessly pushing for construction. However, due to Reilo's excessively strict safety audit standards, only 14 production factories have been completed so far, with most of them built in recent