Moving House

Although Han Yang had no idea what position Shen the Butcher held within the Blue Army, or why he had stayed in the Vegetable Market District for over a decade, he could still tell that Shen the Butcher was no ordinary man.

Things like fighting techniques were merely trivial details to him, not worth mentioning at all.

Shen the Butcher looked at Han Yang for a long time. Han Yang kept smiling as he looked back at him.

After a long while, Shen the Butcher sighed and brought his cleaver down onto the chopping block. "Fine. Set aside a shop for me. I'll sell my meat as usual, and when I have time, I'll train your men as an instructor. Let me see just how far you can make it."

Having settled things with Shen the Butcher, Han Yang could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In this day and age, Shen the Butcher was the only person Han Yang could truly trust.

It was not only because Shen the Butcher had maintained his Blue Army identity for over a decade—a feat only true idealists and the utterly fearless could sustain—but also because of the care he had shown Han Yang all those years.

Not long after returning home, Han Yang received a call from Sun Gui. After exchanging a few words, he headed back out and met him at Aunt Wang's food stall.

Sun Gui was brimming with excitement and anticipation, as though he could already see Revival Mall flourishing under his management.

"Boss Han, I've thought it over carefully. Given the actual situation in the Vegetable Market District, no matter what business we run, it has to focus on cheap, affordable prices.

Here's what I'm thinking. First, we open a budget supermarket selling daily necessities and household goods. Then, a reasonably priced restaurant..."

Han Yang said, "Aunt Wang's food stall will be moving there too."

"That won't affect anything. Aunt Wang's place is more like a fast-food joint. What we'd open there would be a proper restaurant, mainly for drinking. Of course, the dishes and alcohol would both be cheap. I've looked into our Vegetable Market District. There may be a lot of poor people, but there's still demand for going to a restaurant for a few drinks now and then.

"Besides that, we should open a clothing store that sells both cheap new clothes and secondhand clothes, shoes, and hats."

Including Shen the Butcher's meat shop and Aunt Wang's food stall, that made five or six shops. Add the martial hall, dormitories, and internal cafeteria, and every area of the factory building outside the core zone would be filled.

"Good. Sounds good. Do it that way. Go make the preparations. If you need money, come straight to me."

"Got it."

Elsewhere, Han Yang summoned Li Hu and Zhao Fu from the Fuxing Gang.

"Starting today, the Fuxing Gang will begin recruiting. Applicants must be at least 1.8 meters tall, physically strong, free of illness, and honest and dependable. We'll recruit twenty people for now. Food and lodging included, with a monthly salary of two thousand yuan each. Good performance will earn bonuses.

"Also, pick ten men from our current brothers. Same pay and requirements. Everyone else stays as they are. Oh, and the ten brothers who protected me before were good enough. Use them."

Two thousand yuan a month with food and lodging included was not a low salary in the Vegetable Market District.

Li Hu asked excitedly, "Is the Fuxing Gang expanding its territory?"

Han Yang shot him a glance, and Li Hu immediately shut his mouth.

These thirty men were the full-time enforcers Han Yang had planned to build. Their salaries alone would cost him sixty thousand yuan a month, not including food, lodging, equipment, and training expenses.

But as long as they could safeguard his plan to develop in secret, every cent would be worth it. Han Yang did not care about spending a little money.

Fuxing Base—or rather, Revival Mall—began preparations with great fanfare. Sun Gui was so busy every day that his feet barely touched the ground. He coordinated all the renovation and setup work, and after a full month of work, all the shops were finally up and running.

Revival Restaurant, Revival Martial Hall, Aunt Wang's food stall, Revival Clothing Store, Butcher Shen's Meat Shop, along with several scattered single-room shops such as a barbershop and a roasted-snacks shop, plus the communal dormitories—seven sections in total surrounded the factory building's core area.

Besides their daily training, the thirty full-time enforcers were responsible for Revival Mall's security. If anything happened elsewhere on the Fuxing Gang's three streets, they could rush over to provide support at any time.

The framework was finally in place. Han Yang knew that the time had come for him to move.

After having several dozen large boxes brought over, Han Yang returned to the small courtyard and personally packed up the computers, drones, robots, and the like. Then he had the Fuxing Gang underlings carry them to the entrance of the factory building's core area.

Han Yang strictly decreed that no one was allowed to enter the core area without his permission. Anyone who dared disobey would be killed and fed to the stray dogs. After all, the death of one or two people was nothing in the Vegetable Market District.

On top of that, Han Yang used technological measures and installed several access-control gates there.

Even the steel plates around the core area had been specially reinforced. They likely would not be blown open even by machine-gun fire. Han Yang had spent an extra hundred thousand yuan or so on that alone.

After working for quite a while, Han Yang finally moved all the large boxes into the core area. Then came the assembly.

Computer after computer, robot after robot, was placed at its assigned station according to its serial number. Once the power and internet were connected and the computers switched on, all thirteen computers resumed working.

Because of the move, some power-leveling orders had piled up. And as his reputation continued to spread, more orders accumulated every day.

But Han Yang was not worried in the slightest. Because...

Besides the thirteen computers currently in use, the power-leveling room still had eighty-seven vacant stations. He could install another eighty-seven computer-and-robot setups.

If he had not needed to leave maintenance aisles for later repairs, Han Yang could have crammed several dozen more stations into the roughly 150-square-meter room.

Even so, one hundred stations in total were more than enough. They would still be enough even if the chip in Han Yang's head underwent another upgrade and further increased his computing power.

As for the remaining 150 square meters outside the power-leveling room, Han Yang planned to turn it into a research room for equipment used to study and manufacture chips.

For now, however, it was empty except for a bed. Han Yang was out of money, so he had not bought the equipment yet.

"With my current computing power, I can support twenty-seven computers taking high-end power-leveling orders at once. But those orders aren't always available. I need to take low-end orders too. In that case, forty computers should be about right."

Han Yang kept one computer for himself to communicate with clients and look up information. The other thirty-nine would all be used for power-leveling.

At that moment, he had already ordered twenty-seven computer-and-robot sets. They would arrive within two or three days at most.

Three days later, dozens of large boxes were once again piled up outside the core area. Han Yang personally carried them inside again, and after more than half a month of work, he finished assembling everything.

The robots took most of the time to assemble. The computers themselves were simple.

Now, forty computers stood lined up in a row at their stations. At Han Yang's command, thirty-nine of them logged into the game at once and, under the robots' control, simultaneously began their power-leveling tasks.