Chapter 266

Free.

It was hard to imagine that one day he would use this word for a small tricycle, but besides that, he didn't know what else to say.

A group of engineers lay on the ground to look, and those who couldn't lie down simply hoisted the car up.

They had been wild foxes for so many years and had seen everything, yet for a moment, they were stunned. If one cast aside preconceived prejudices, they actually felt a kind of indescribable beauty of industrial design in a small tricycle...

Simple, concise, and under the extreme stinginess and extreme omission, what followed was actually terrifying adaptability and compatibility?

There was no need for drastic modifications; just by changing a frame, it perfectly accommodated almost all types of heavy-fuel engines, while the drive shaft, shock absorbers, and all other equipment could be seamlessly replaced with any parts of the same model!

Even different models would work...

Look at the remaining space inside where you could practically run a horse; you could even be bored enough to stack two sets of nitrogen injection on top!

In a way, with this frame, you could almost assemble any function you wanted to implement on a car.

For a moment, amidst the amazement and emotion, everyone found it hard to restrain themselves... their hands started to itch!

They began to discuss assembly and modification plans in a hubbub, or guess the design ideas and intentions, saying things like, "If I were Kongming, I would definitely bury a squad of ambushers here."

It wasn't until Shang Tongwen, who was waiting for the results nearby, had a face so dark it was about to drip water that everyone sheepishly stopped.

On the surface, they acted as if nothing had happened, but in their hearts, they decided to get one for themselves later.

The more professional one was, the more obsessed they became; the more they understood the trade, the more they liked it. Which engineering geek could refuse such a little treasure that you could buy as a blank slate and mold and build however you wanted?

Even if it's a small tricycle, a small tricycle is still a good baby!

As for the final functionality...

The leading old-timer scratched the frame with his key a few times and shook his head at the people behind him.

The head shake didn't mean it wouldn't work, but that there was no need to even look.

Just the feel of those two scratches made his own heart jump.

This frame and chassis, which looked like it had no technology to speak of, were ridiculously hard.

The old man took out his glasses to examine it carefully.

He restrained the urge to steal the company's air-conditioning assets.

The rated load written on the rear bucket was three tons, which was already exaggerated enough, but after buying a small tricycle, how could one not overload it?

Besides, if you don't overload... if you don't overload, are you using this kind of truck's heavy-fuel engine just to be funny?!

After calculating the horsepower slightly, the old man shook his head: "Never mind three tons, it could probably pull thirty tons, right?"

"It can pull it, but can it hold it?" someone nearby doubted.

"Then let's try it."

The old man was expressionless and waved his hand; with his status among the technical staff, he naturally didn't need to do it himself. The assistant he brought naturally gave the order.

Soon, the hoisting arm pulled over two steel coils, and amidst the humming sound, they were placed directly on the rear bucket. Yet, the terrifying weight of the two steel coils combined, over thirty tons, didn't crush this broken tricycle.

Even after a burst of harsh metal friction, the tricycle still stood steadily in its original position, without the slightest wavering.

There wasn't even any visible deformation.

"This is too ridiculous..."

While the engineers were stunned and speechless, the two people at the front squatted on the ground, leaned in, looked carefully at the material of the car body, and reached out to knock on the metal.

"Alchemy?" one person was uncertain.

"It is indeed alchemy," another artisan sighed: "No spiritual quality circuit, just the purest physical property enhancement, having gone through a hand.

But the enhancement is so uniform and natural, a whole piece, perfectly formed, without a trace of spiritual quality residue to be found."

Basic skills solid to a bizarre degree, wasted on a piece of ordinary steel, used to build such an extremely rough tricycle...

It truly had the beauty of a peerless master taking a child to play with mud.

Are we being too crazy?

After all, he is Ye Xian's student, the chief artisan of this generation; just this understated physical property interference is something many people can't learn. He is even extravagant enough to use the craft of carving flowers on tofu for mass production...

Even just the processing fee for this alone is worth more than the selling price!

Moreover, according to the association's regulations, not including the basic spiritual quality circuit structure, just physical property enhancement, doesn't count as an alchemical creation or market disruption.

Even if they wanted to manage it, they couldn't.

Abandoning R&D in favor of mature technology and craftsmanship shortened the time to the greatest extent, avoiding long nights and many dreams.

By using the small tricycle method, it bypassed environmental laws; by targeting the wilderness, it bypassed channel suppression; and by this method, it avoided the association's interference.

It looked like a set of bold moves, but in reality, it was like embroidery, extremely delicate.

It had skirted every edge that needed to be skirted, yet not a single fault could be picked out.

It was truly breathtaking.

Especially after the entire testing process was completed, everyone had nothing left to say.

In the destructive load test, they watched the small tricycle carrying over ten tons of weight move freely in mud, climbing slopes, descending slopes, and in high-temperature and extreme cold environments.

Even when it flipped a family sedan head-on at full speed and rolled over several times itself, it was righted again, and the frame didn't show any obvious deformation.

The quality was ridiculously good, the adaptability was maxed out, and there was absolutely no problem using it in high-temperature and extreme cold climates. The structure was simple, so simple that even if it fell from the second floor, tightening the screws would make it usable again.

It could even have a trailer added to the back; if one were crazy enough, one could even add another set of engines, upgrade the parts, and transform into a hundred-ton king of the wilderness...

You're telling me this dream war god is a small tricycle?

Where did it come from?

Cybertron!

This is simply a youth-version truck wearing a small tricycle skin!

What's even more ridiculous is that in the center of the original bucket, there was an interface left, and it even came with pillar-like accessories from the factory.

According to the two thin sheets of the manual, this place was mainly used for cultivating one's character; it could be equipped with a large telescope for bird-watching enthusiasts, or used to mount a fishing rod or something else. When using it, please follow local regulations and laws.

You must not weld heavy firepower like machine guns onto this, okay? Homemade cannons and rocket launchers are also not allowed; that's illegal!

This kind of unscrupulous small accessory and small function, combined with that insane load and quality, and finally paired with that outrageous price...

Its main functions and the customer base it faced were already so vivid they were about to leap out.

Stealing slag in the city, smuggling goods outside the city, fighting and driving away thieves in the wilderness, being a road judge on the road... it could be used for overloaded transport, or it could be used to mount guns and cannons!

Who said this bean-pod tricycle was trash? This tricycle is too damn good!

This is simply the goddess of the suburban masses, the white moonlight of the residents of small settlements, the childhood sweetheart accompanying every poor person, the heaven-sent girl appearing before every scavenger.

This is fucking love!

Mom doesn't have to worry about us not being able to afford semi-trailers and armed off-road vehicles anymore!

It can attack, it can defend, and in case of disaster, you can carry all your belongings and run away. Plus, the price is only a conscience-less fifty thousand-plus. Is this Coast Auto Factory?

Bullshit!

This is my Coast biological father, Yacheng foster father!

The wilderness doesn't talk about morality, the wilderness has no laws, and the drifters and settlements scraping a living on this wasteland have never cared for fancy things. The simple, sturdy usefulness and the price that felt like a father's caress were enough to make these poor brothers willingly bend their precious knees while the bean-pod tricycle was still in production, directly starting the process of a wandering life.

Good things are never too many, especially cheap good things; the more, the better.

As long as they can buy it, they will buy it even if they have to smash pots and sell iron. And through the circulation on the wilderness and the traffic between settlements, Coast Auto Factory's products will bypass all major cities and spread at a visible speed in Haizhou, no, even in the surrounding provinces.

Simply unstoppable!

"Professional theories and such, no need to say more."

Shang Tongwen rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed silently, his face gloomy: "Can it be targeted?"

In the silence, no one responded.

There was only a row of heads shaking left and right in unison.

"Difficult, very difficult," the old man said.

"Didn't you say there wasn't much technical content?"

"There isn't much technical content, but the cost can't be lowered."

The engineer, who was good at calculations, had the answer after just one look at the parameters and one run-through of the process: "Coast selling cars like this is definitely selling at a loss.

Even with our equipment and technology, if we did it at a loss, we probably wouldn't be able to catch up with Coast."

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The Ring of Unity has always severely punished artisans for disrupting the market and interfering with the normal operation of the world with alchemy. But the problem is, related cases have never been stopped.

After all, the aspects involved, from production and processing to sales, are too many; the connection between Chosen Ones and the world is already intertwined. If the scope is expanded, then every registered artisan will have to go to the Adjudication Hall.

Besides, there are only so many artisans, and the production capacity is only so much; even if everyone explodes their cylinders every year and frantically produces cheap alchemical works to disrupt the market, how much can they disrupt?

Therefore, they can only draw a line to define the scope and then severely crack down on those who cross the line.

The reason is nothing else...

Scavengers are too stingy and poor; not a drop of oil can be squeezed out of them.

How much can you earn from a small tricycle that costs forty or fifty thousand? Even if you don't lose money, so what? The profit from Echo Industrial selling a set of tank suspensions is more than that!

Scavengers don't care about brands, don't care about sentiment, and even if they have wine, they don't want to hear your story.

Look at those hodgepodge monsters cobbled together by various local talents, folks; the specifications are numerous, and the styles are bizarre.

You can't find two identical cars in one settlement.

And the only thing they have in common is, without exception, from the inside out, from the radio to the tires, everything is second-hand!

Even if it's first-hand, it's tail-end stock or knock-offs.

Facing such a bunch of poor ghosts, even if Echo Industrial started all its factories and produced at a loss twenty-four hours a day, how much could it satisfy?

Are we not living anymore?

Besides, even if we squeeze Coast out, so what? What can we get after all the trouble?

From today on, become the King of Small Tricycles?

Don't joke, the competitors' teeth would laugh off!

The moment he realized this, Shang Tongwen's face became even gloomier: "What if we block the supply? Start from the parts suppliers."

In the silence, no one spoke.

They just looked at Shang Tongwen with increasingly blank eyes.

Do you want to hear what you are saying?

Block?

They are already making small tricycles, how can you block... besides, what suppliers do you need? For these broken parts, take a plastic bag and go around a hardware supermarket, and you'll have everything!

As for the amazing quality of the frame and chassis, they produce and solve it internally themselves.

Can you stop them from buying batteries?

From raw materials to production to sales, the whole process, although a bit bizarre and ridiculous, has been completely mastered by Coast itself. You want to play cards with them and want to hurt people with capital, but they aren't even at the same table as you; how can you play this hand?

In your dreams!

Besides, Echo just spent a lot of energy pushing the environmental protection bill a few days ago; having offended so many peers, can you push for a small tricycle rectification regulation to be introduced now?

Even if it could be introduced, just see if the scavengers give a damn about your piece of paper.

Even if the Federal Legislative Court were high on drugs, it wouldn't pass.

A city can have no one driving light-armor, but it's absolutely impossible for no one to drive a small tricycle!

From the moment the bean-pod small tricycle left the factory, Coast Auto Factory's resumption of work was already unstoppable, breaking out from the ambush on all sides.

Now, a brand-new situation has opened up again.

In wild growth, there is a way out.

What Shang Tongwen should be worried about is not how to target the small tricycle, but how much more cost he will have to spend to maintain the original blockade, and how to persuade those upstream and downstream industrial chains and suppliers to continue turning a blind eye to a car factory with an increasingly rising demand!

In the dead silence, he was expressionless, his dark eyes scanning everyone's face; in the entire factory workshop, you could hear a pin drop.

But then a roar erupted.

A loud noise.

The small tricycle in the middle of the factory, which had seen so much, finally collapsed during the destructive load test, twisted and broken, the sound of steel friction so harsh.

Sparks flew, fuel leaked, and pungent thick smoke rose, activating the fire protection facilities; the water from the sprinklers poured down instantly, drenching everyone present like drowned rats.

So miserable.

"Let's stop here for today."

Shang Tongwen's expression twitched, unable to remain calm anymore: "You go back, summarize, and submit a report."

Saying this, he restrained his anger and turned to leave.

But right behind him, the small tricycle bathed in rain flashed with sparks, and the detached audio system emitted a harsh noise, mixed with cheerful music, and a child's voice singing:

"You have no dad and no mom, you have no home, you have no relatives or friends to help you, are you afraid of being lonely and helpless, ah hehehehe, ah hahahaha..."

Shang Tongwen's footsteps stopped abruptly, and he turned his head slowly.

A trace of scarlet appeared in his pupils.

"Turn it off," he squeezed the words out through his teeth.

For a moment, everyone rushed up in a panic, but the broken speaker's quality was ridiculously good; no matter how they smashed it, it wouldn't stop.

It wasn't until the assistant beside Shang Tongwen flicked his fingers that an invisible gravitational force erupted, crushing the entire speaker into a pile of trash, and there was no more sound.

But the echo of the hehehe and hahaha still seemed to linger in a hallucination.

Long-lasting and undissipated.

Meanwhile, under the night sky of Yacheng, Ji Jue rested his chin on his hand, staring at the sales data in front of him, and after a long while, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Yan Jian, next you can go talk to the people from the Labor Association about recruitment, hmm, having tea with suppliers is also good... I think they should have something to say to us now."

A cool night breeze blew in from the window, so fresh.

Refreshing and invigorating.

It suppressed Ji Jue's gradually rising body temperature from the past few days.

"It's getting cold."

Ji Jue gnawed on the alchemical waste in his hand, feeling the slow rise of ember essence in the matrix, and narrowed his eyes comfortably:

"The new model should also be on the market."

(End of chapter)