Chapter Eighty-Nine: Inspecting Fantasia Technology

The Minister showed no concern at all; his expression remained calm and unreadable.

He merely lifted his head and watched Chu Lan in silence.

Chu Lan frowned and met his gaze.

Very quickly, Chu Lan yielded. Compared with him, Chu Lan was still too young. Yet even in defeat, he felt no unease; he had absolute confidence.

"You’re good," the Minister said with a smile. He glanced at the tea and added, "This tea is good," then lowered his head and spoke a remark that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Chu Lan could not tell what the Minister meant. The hall of the meeting fell cold in an instant.

Li Hongjin could only shake his head helplessly. No one knew what those above were thinking, and it was difficult to guess.

"What is your opinion?" the Minister asked again after finishing his tea.

"The Battle Club is one of my money-making ventures. If the military thinks that way, then there is no need to continue discussing it. I would rather give it up. At worst, I would offend a few people. Have I offended too few already?"

The Minister actually agreed with him. Just because of the gene optimization serum, Chu Lan had already offended many people, from the central authorities down to local governments. If not for the military backing him, Fantasy Technology would likely have gone bankrupt long ago, and in a more serious scenario, Chu Lan might already be sitting in some prison.

"Virtual?" the Minister understood what Chu Lan was referring to.

Chu Lan nodded. "Yes. Virtual research has already consumed too much of my capital. I need a new project to earn enough money."

"And you’ve had my robotics project banned, so I have no choice but to choose something else."

"Why choose this? Don’t you know it’s prohibited?" the Minister asked with a frown.

Chu Lan sighed helplessly. "I had people investigate it. I found that there are too few fields I can enter. There are many that would suit me, but if I went in, there would only be one result: I’d be squeezed out."

"Squeezed out?" The Minister did not quite understand.

"Actually, during my investigation, I discovered that many companies are resisting Fantasy Technology’s existence. Within the province, there’s not much problem, but once we go beyond it, the moment the Fantasy Technology name is put forward, resistance follows."

The Minister frowned. He truly had not known that.

"In short, the Battle Club is one of the means by which I win over the powerful and wealthy at home. I need to use them to open up the domestic market. A lot of people have already accused me of worshiping the foreign and belittling my own country."

The Minister frowned, roughly understanding what Chu Lan was trying to say.

"So that’s how it is. I understand."

The Minister left without leaving any further words, and the matter of the Battle Club was set aside just like that.

Chu Lan was not in a hurry. The Battle Club was indeed important to him, but he had many more pressing matters now. This was one item he could afford to delay; time was on his side, so long as he could make the military interested.

After the Minister departed, Chu Lan went straight to Building Six.

When he entered the research center, Luo Wuyan was leading several people in treating Dan Mingshan.

Chu Lan stepped forward to look at the data displayed on the computer and nodded in satisfaction.

"Boss? You’re here?"

"Mm. Is the condition much better?"

"Mm. Dan Mingshan’s condition is better than we imagined. It has saved us a great deal of source matter, and the fusion probability between Dan Mingshan and the source matter exceeded our calculations. He is simply an experimental subject born for the source matter."

Luo Wuyan spoke with feeling. For the first human experiment, he had been both excited and uneasy. If it had turned out like the previous experiments, he likely would have had serious trouble. Yet the result far exceeded his expectations. He had never imagined that Dan Mingshan’s fusion with the source matter would be so successful, without the violent reaction seen in the earlier experimental subjects.

Chu Lan nodded. "How long has it been injected?"

"Seventeen hours. So far, everything has remained very stable. The genetic layer inside his body shows that the source matter is repairing his damage. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be fully repaired in another fifteen hours. By then, he can be considered to have snatched his life back from the King of Hell."

"Good. That is better than I expected."

"Boss, I have a request."

"Go ahead," Chu Lan said, looking at Dan Mingshan.

"Boss, Dan Mingshan’s condition is too strange. I was wondering whether we should inject that dose into him."

"No need to think about it. That one cannot be touched. If anything goes wrong, both you and I will be finished."

Luo Wuyan nodded in regret.

"Keep a close watch. Report to me immediately if anything happens."

Leaving there, Chu Lan went to the gene optimization serum production plant. The person in charge here was Wei Jianwen. Because this place was too important, Chu Lan had no choice but to temporarily assign Wei Jianwen to oversee it. Once someone suitable was trained to take over, Wei Jianwen would return to the virtual research division and continue assisting Song Tingxian.

"Boss!" Chu Lan’s arrival was quickly noticed by Wei Jianwen. This was a place under full intelligent surveillance, and as its head, Wei Jianwen had the authority to know everything here, including the monitoring feeds.

"Is production going smoothly?"

Wei Jianwen nodded. "Next month’s batch is already being produced at full capacity. The workers have become skilled now, and I believe that in another two months we’ll be able to reach the next stage of the expansion plan."

"Very good. Any problems?"

Wei Jianwen shook his head. "None. Everything is going smoothly. All systems are operating normally."

"Stay focused. This place cannot afford a single mistake."

Wei Jianwen nodded and watched Chu Lan leave.

Chu Lan then came to the Security Department. The department had already moved from its original location and was now housed in the building beside Fantasy Technology’s East Gate. The entire six-story building belonged to the Security Department, and all of its people worked there. The second and third floors were training centers, equipped with every sort of training apparatus to ensure the guards could always maintain their physical strength.

As he entered the Security Department, everyone he saw was busy. If one imagined that a security guard’s job was merely to stand still, then one was very wrong. Fantasy Technology’s guards were extremely busy. During the day, more than two hundred and forty guards were on duty, with one hundred and seventy-nine on patrol outside, divided into ten patrol teams and six fixed posts, each shift changing every six hours.

In order to ensure that these guards could respond smoothly to any situation, Chu Lan had not only equipped them abundantly, but their working hours were unmatched elsewhere. All the guards worked in four shifts, and in theory each person only needed to work six hours.

Of course, within several buildings outside Fantasy Technology, over a hundred guards remained on standby at all times to ensure immediate support whenever problems arose.

As for salaries, Chu Lan was generous. The minimum started at five thousand, while the highest monthly pay could reach fifty to eighty thousand, making it fair to say that the treatment for this job was excellent.

"Boss, why are you here?"

"I’m making an inspection. In a while I need to make a trip to Blue City. I haven’t looked over the company in a long time, so I’m just checking around."

"Boss, please come to the office."

Chu Lan nodded and walked into Yu Dongming’s office.

"Boss, these are the incidents from this period of time." Knowing that Chu Lan had come to inspect things, Yu Dongming handed over the file he had just organized.

Chu Lan acknowledged it, took it, and flipped through it casually.

When he saw the contents, he frowned. "Why are there so many?"

Yu Dongming gave a wry smile. "Boss, if not for the military’s help, there would probably already have been leaks slipping into Fantasy Technology."

"Damn it!" Chu Lan could not help cursing.

The number of spies captured this month had already exceeded two hundred, and there were more than a hundred others who were suspects with unclear motives.

"Boss, the materials sent by the military show that quite a few companies still harbor fantasies about the gene optimization serum. The city police bureau and the city customs have also sent over reports. After the agency rights conference, there are still many foreigners left behind. The National Security Bureau says that many of them are foreign business spies."

Chu Lan looked grave. "They really still refuse to give up."

Yu Dongming nodded.

"How is the Security Department doing?"

"There’s still some friction, but overall there are no major issues." When Chu Lan asked this, Yu Dongming looked a little awkward.

"However you choose to compete, I don’t care. But if there is any problem with security, then all of you will be punished."

Chu Lan said this lightly to Yu Dongming.

The Security Department was a very complicated mix: retired soldiers, active-duty soldiers, overseas mercenaries, professional bodyguards, and a small number of independent specialists.

The department already had more than five hundred people, because the new plans for Fantasy Technology involved a much larger area.

In order to allow the Security Department to patrol the whole site, Chu Lan had specially manifested thirty electric transport vehicles. Ten of them were two-seat rapid-response vehicles, while the remaining twenty were patrol vehicles with six or eight seats, capable of circling all of Fantasy Technology’s grounds four times in a single run.

When Yu Dongming first took over management, things were very chaotic. Later, however, he learned gradually, and with the addition of the second and third batches of personnel, his management became excellent. He broke the people into small teams and imposed strict rules: if anyone was dissatisfied, they could settle it one-on-one in the combat room.

As for the selection of squad leaders, Yu Dongming adopted a laissez-faire approach: the capable rose, and the incapable became ordinary guards.

A team leader earned more than ten thousand yuan a month, so naturally everyone fought hard for the position. Yu Dongming also stipulated that leaders would be reselected every three months, giving everyone a chance.

It was somewhat like a tournament-style election. This meant the Security Department had its share of friction, but overall it remained very good. After all, Fantasy Technology paid far more than anywhere else, and no one would give up such an excellent job. Moreover, those who could enter the Security Department generally had military experience. Fantasy Technology’s cooperation with the military gave them a sense of belonging, and what mattered even more was that armed soldiers existed within Fantasy Technology itself.

"In a moment I’ll send you a list. Pick out the people on it and send them to Zone Thirty."

"Yes, Boss!" Yu Dongming did not ask why.

He knew that some things he should know, and some things he should not. That was precisely why he had always been able to sit in the position of Security Minister.

Chu Lan patted Yu Dongming on the shoulder. "You’ve worked hard all this time."

Yu Dongming shook his head. "Not hard at all."

"Qin Shi and Wang Sheng are getting ready to come back, right?"

Yu Dongming nodded with emotion. "They’ll be back in four days. The doctors in charge of their recovery are all astonished. The doctors say they have already recovered completely to their peak condition, and they are now undergoing the final examinations."

"Good. Go pick them up. When they return, bring them to Zone Thirty. Qin Shi will be the captain, Wang Sheng the deputy captain. A brand-new set of equipment is ready over there, waiting for my orders."

Yu Dongming nodded. "I’ll arrange it properly. Don’t worry, Boss."

Chu Lan nodded in satisfaction. "All right, get back to work. I’m leaving."

"Boss, let me see you out."

Chu Lan smiled but did not refuse.

Yu Dongming sent Chu Lan off to the car before turning back.

"Boss, are we going there as well?"

Chu Lan shook his head. The car moved at will through Fantasy Technology.

"Let’s go back. Is the plane ready?"

"It’s already prepared. Tomorrow morning at ten-thirty, we’ll fly first to Emerald City, then transfer there to Blue City. I’ve already informed the people in Emerald City to make the arrangements."

"Mm. Take Kang Nuo and Yu Dangdang with us, and also bring one B-200, modified to look like a foreigner."

Kong Yan nodded. "Understood. I’ll arrange it right away."

"Let’s go. I’m tired."