Seeking a Workaround

For most people, 220-volt AC power is extremely dangerous.

Although Feng Jun is a liberal arts major, he is well aware of this, even if he didn't feel much pain just now.

Therefore, he was very cautious when conducting his tests.

He used the backs of his hands to carefully touch the exposed copper wire—there is a saying for this operation: when a person's hand encounters danger, it will subconsciously clench, which is considered a human stress response.

If he were to use his palms to grip the copper wire, the scene would be truly unimaginable... he would definitely clench down!

In fact, even when testing if a cup of water is too hot, most people use the back of their hand rather than their fingertips.

By using the back of the hand, the hand will subconsciously recoil the moment it encounters danger.

The back of Feng Jun's left hand touched the exposed copper wire first, followed by the back of his right hand...

The next moment, both his hands recoiled; both hands were jolted away!

Actually, this was also him being overly nervous; otherwise, recoiling just one hand would have been enough.

However, he was quite satisfied with this test because he truly felt the electric shock; his whole body went numb for a moment.

Yet, it was only a moment of numbness, and it was at a level he could accept.

He tested it two more times with the back of his hands and found that there was really nothing wrong. There was a tingling sensation, but it was truly just a tingle, far from his tolerance limit.

Then he tried turning his right hand over, one palm and one back of the hand.

And then, both palms...

When using both palms, Feng Jun didn't grip the wire tightly. Just like when he encountered that Stone Ring, he first gently rested his left pinky finger on it.

Fortune favors the bold! He actually found that feeling of touching the Stone Ring again: a dry heat in his left hand and a cool sensation in his wrist.

However, that dry heat was extremely faint, not even one-thousandth of the Stone Ring, perhaps not even one-ten-thousandth.

What surprised him even more was that the 100-amp circuit breaker didn't trip; isn't this a bit too buggy?

Feng Jun was too lazy to ponder the reason for this; he would just assume he had the protagonist's halo and the author had given him a cheat.

He had already encountered so many unreasonable things, so what was one more?

However, he soon discovered that as he pressed his left pinky harder against the wire, the dry heat gradually intensified. Later on, even the sound of the generator changed slightly.

So that was how it worked; the tighter and more solid the contact, the greater the power output of the generator.

The protection switch at the output end of the generator was 100 amps. Calculating from the data, a 50-kilowatt generator wouldn't overload under normal circumstances, even if connected to a 200-amp switch.

But Feng Jun didn't have that intention; he was a bit excessively cautious and felt that 100 amps of current was already quite significant.

Ruining a public utility transformer was one thing, but ruining his own generator was a loss of his own property.

Feng Jun finally happily discovered that he had found the correct way to charge—not through a mobile phone, but by touching the 220-volt line directly.

However, it didn't take long before he started to feel discouraged; this charging speed was truly too slow.

He had been charging for nearly an hour, using at least ten to twenty kilowatt-hours of electricity, but the mark of the Stone Ring on his wrist showed almost no change.

It was certain that the mark had absorbed energy; otherwise, where did all that electricity go?

Since no change was visible, it meant this amount of energy was too little.

Feng Jun was a person who liked to get to the bottom of things. He thought to himself, at worst, I'll just charge for a longer period. As long as I find a reasonable way to replenish energy and the plan can be carried out smoothly, all the waiting will be worth it.

He was a person who excelled at persistence; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to successfully obtain a double degree.

As long as there was a goal and a path, he was definitely one of those people who could persist until the goal was reached.

However, after twenty hours, he started to think about giving up—the charging was really too slow.

During this period, except for sleeping and eating, he was charging the whole time, persisting for nearly twelve or thirteen hours.

But the increased energy didn't even amount to a single energy point. According to his estimation, even if he tied his hands to the wires and charged while sleeping, he could at most charge one energy point in a day and a night.

Come on, 24-hour charging; even if the current is 80 amps, that's 16 or 17 kilowatt-hours per hour, which is nearly 400 kilowatt-hours in 24 hours.

And for Feng Jun to enter and exit the storage space, he needed at least five energy points. That is to say, he would have to charge for five consecutive days and nights, using nearly 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, just to make one trip.

If he also had to carry goods, it would consume even more.

"I finally know why the transformer exploded," Feng Jun sighed sincerely.

And he sighed even more, "This charging is just too expensive... I can't afford it."

While a diesel generator is convenient, the cost of generating electricity is too high. For a 50-kilowatt generator, even under the most economical operating conditions, the cost per kilowatt-hour is over one yuan, and it can easily exceed two yuan if one isn't careful.

Two thousand kilowatt-hours—how much would that cost? It would definitely be four or five thousand yuan!

Feng Jun believed that his smuggling plan would definitely make money and that digging up his first pot of gold would be effortless.

But the problem now was that he was really poor, so poor that his capital chain could break at any moment.

The 30,000 yuan Wang Haifeng paid him had already been turned into the generator and various supplies; he had even dipped into his own salary to cover it.

On top of that, he had bought a mobile phone and rented a house, so the 8,000 yuan he received this month was now less than 4,000.

Adding the 10,000-plus in his card, his total cash was less than 20,000, and besides... he still needed to buy stock for the smuggling, right?

At this moment, he was truly unwilling to spend four or five thousand yuan on diesel.

If all else fails, should I go ask Wang Haifeng for a loan? Feng Jun felt a bit troubled. I don't even work at the company anymore; how could I possibly open my mouth to ask him?

He let out a long, weary sigh. He truly didn't want to reach out to his parents. He was already grown up, and the fact that he couldn't provide for them was already unfilial—how could he let them continue to sacrifice for him?

As he dwelled on these depressing thoughts, he involuntarily tightened his grip, and with a loud "bang," the circuit breaker tripped.

Let me take a break, Feng Jun thought as he stood up, stretched his sore, numb arms, and walked out of the room.

This was the second time the circuit breaker had tripped. Because he had been carefully monitoring the load, the generator hadn't been damaged; after all, the redundancy was more than double what was required.

The key issue was that the charging time was simply too long. Feng Jun walked outside with his hands in his pockets, feeling restless, his mind wandering: charging five percent in five days and five nights was a rather extreme operation.

If he wanted to maintain long-term operation, charging five percent in ten days would be more reasonable, allowing him to get enough rest.

So the problem was, he would need at least thirty days of charging before he could feel confident enough to bring goods into the space once.

Even without considering the cost of diesel, he could only transport goods once a month, with all other time spent on charging.

Thinking of this, Feng Jun felt incredibly depressed. He was still young, in the prime of his life, and wanted to enjoy his existence—was he supposed to carry a generator as tall as a man to a bar?

The charging time was too long; it was a reality he truly didn't want to accept. Even if he solved his financial problems and reached the pinnacle of his life, this flaw would severely impact his quality of life.

Or... should he consider using 380-volt power? This thought couldn't help but pop into Feng Jun's mind.

The next moment, he hurriedly shook his head, casting this suicidal idea out of his mind.

380 volts compared to 220 was not just a little stronger; the arc could injure someone without even making contact.

Feng Jun wasn't opposed to taking risks, but risks had to be worth it. He was no longer the poor kid from ten days ago; with a miraculous opportunity in his hands, enjoying life properly was the right path. Under these circumstances, he had even less desire to take unnecessary risks.

It was just a matter of finding a few more compromise solutions.

Perhaps I could find a place to secretly tap into the municipal power grid without being discovered?

With this thought, Feng Jun walked out the front gate. Seeing that it was just past five o'clock, he hopped on a public bicycle and sped off toward Li Dafu.

Li Dafu was a local jewelry store in Yang City, and while they had branches in other cities within Funiu Province, they hadn't expanded outside the region.

And the people of Funiu Province were the most loyal to this old brand. Come to think of it, Yang City was a large city where various major jewelry chains could be seen everywhere, with nearly a dozen internationally renowned brands present.

Yet, Li Dafu had the highest sales volume, leading other jewelry stores to complain that the people of Funiu were xenophobic.

Feng Jun went there, of course, to see if he could find any rubies... or perhaps check out other gemstones.

The sales clerk at Li Dafu was very enthusiastic and didn't put on the "snobbish" act often seen in novels just because he was dressed shabbily.

They did business with the local people, and most of their customers came from the surrounding cities.

For the people of Funiu, being able to have a set of jewelry from Li Dafu for their wedding was a matter of great prestige.

Seeing that it was almost time to get off work, a young female clerk still greeted him very warmly.

Feng Jun walked around the store, but he didn't get that feeling that would make his wrist heat up. Even though he had already guessed that the ruby from the wilderness was definitely not the same as the rubies on Blue Star, a deep sense of disappointment still welled up in his heart.

In the end, he still had the clerk take out two rubies and a jade ornament so he could feel them up close once more.

Still, there was no sensation at all.

Watching him silently hand back the pendant, the female clerk hesitated for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "If you aren't particularly picky about the quality, there is an antique shop nearby that just received a batch of Black Dragon Jade pendants, which are relatively more affordable."

Black Dragon Jade? Feng Jun's heart skipped a beat; he had heard of this stuff.

Black Dragon Jade was something hyped up in recent years. It used to be sold by the ton, but now it was sold by the gram. In his view, the signs of hype were very obvious.

Moreover, he didn't know the first thing about the quality of jade.

But that didn't matter. In web novels, didn't jade always have all sorts of magical effects?