Chapter 295: Asia Star

They hadn't walked far before arriving in front of a low, newly constructed office building; calling it "low" was truly not a compliment.

In fact, although the buildings within the Nandu Supercomputing Center were dense, none of the structures in the various zones completed from phase one to phase four exceeded eight stories.

The layout here in D Zone also continued the architectural habit the Supercomputing Center had always maintained; for instance, Building No. 4, where they had arrived, was a building with only five floors.

However, one should not underestimate it just because it only had five floors, as it featured a basement—and a special two-story basement at that.

"A basement?"

Sun Cheng looked at Xu Chun in surprise. After being led by Xu Chun all the way into Building No. 4, the two of them did not stop walking, continuing along the first-floor corridor until they reached the middle, where they finally saw a fairly spacious stairwell.

It was just that this staircase did not lead upstairs, but rather to the basement.

"How about it, quite unexpected, right..."

Xu Chun smiled and nodded; he had also been taken aback the first time he came here.

Not to mention supercomputers, even normal servers had extremely high requirements for their placement environment.

The voltage had to be stable, ventilation had to be excellent, and it was best if the environment was dry and not damp, so very few enterprises or research institutions would build their expensive servers or supercomputers, purchased at great cost, in a place like a basement.

Not to mention that Nandu, being adjacent to the Yangtze River, was already more humid than the north.

"... Hehe, President Sun, no need to be surprised. This is actually a brand-new supercomputing application solution that our Supercomputing Center is currently testing..."

Just as Sun Cheng was feeling puzzled, a somewhat hoarse, middle-aged male voice suddenly rang out, replacing Xu Chun to resolve his confusion.

The voice came from not far ahead of him. He looked toward the sound and saw two middle-aged men standing at the end of the stairs ahead; one of them was someone he was familiar with, the President of Nanjing University of Technology—Shen Peiyuan.

And the one who had interrupted to answer the question in his heart for Xu Chun was another tall, thin man standing beside Shen Peiyuan who looked to be only in his early forties. He wore a standard side-part hairstyle, sported gold-rimmed glasses, and exuded the scholarly air commonly seen in television dramas.

Seeing Sun Cheng and the others arrive, Shen Peiyuan smiled and waved at him, "Little Sun, come over here, let me introduce you. This is Director Zheng Jun of the Nandu Supercomputing Center. He is also one of the outstanding alumni to come out of our Nanjing University of Technology, and at the same time, he is the person in charge of the 【Asia Star】 series supercomputer project. Director Zheng has helped quite a bit with your affairs this time..."

A director was nothing; in the other world, Sun Cheng had already dealt with the top Leaders of several countries, and even before returning to the other world, he had already set his sights on Brazil. If nothing went wrong, the next time he returned to the 【Transformers】 world, Sun Cheng would go all out to seize control of this largest country in South America.

Therefore, let alone Zheng Jun being just a director at the Nandu Supercomputing Center, even if the Minister of the Computer Industry Department were standing in front of him, Sun Cheng would not feel the slightest bit of stage fright.

However, the words "Asia Star" did cause his expression to shift slightly.

Since Shen Peiyuan was deliberately acting close, how could Sun Cheng not seize the opportunity? He hurriedly squeezed out a brilliant smile and praised, "So Director Zheng is actually my senior and schoolmate; President, you really shouldn't have kept this from me!"

Zheng Jun smiled noncommittally, but if one looked closely, it was not hard to see that his eyes behind his lenses were constantly sizing up Sun Cheng.

After a good while, he nodded slightly and asked in a hoarse voice, "Let's skip the polite talk for now. President Sun, the President not going into detail before was not just for my sake, but also for your own good. This is the Supercomputing Center, not only the largest supercomputer research center in all of China but also looking at the whole world. Therefore, our requirements for equipment procurement are not just for the newest and best equipment; the quality must also be the most excellent."

The implication was: don't even think about pulling strings for now; our Supercomputing Center only procures the best things. If your products are substandard, saying anything is useless.

Sun Cheng hit a soft wall, and the smile on his face faded somewhat.

He wasn't angry, though; for him, this was actually better.

From the very beginning, Sun Cheng hadn't considered making money when dealing with the Supercomputing Center. It wasn't that there were no kickbacks to be had here, but compared to the DRAM market worth tens of billions of dollars, it was simply the difference between a meaty bone and a mountain of meat.

As long as the Supercomputing Center was willing to procure Cybertron Technology's storage equipment, he could use this to break into the global DRAM market.

Since Zheng Jun spoke so bluntly, Sun Cheng's reply was equally crisp. He lifted the briefcase he had brought, his face composed: "I have full confidence in our Cybertron Technology products. Today, I have brought a series of rich products that you can test at your leisure!"

"Fine, follow me!"

His gaze was inevitably drawn to the briefcase in his hand. Zheng Jun nodded slightly, gave an apologetic nod to Shen Peiyuan, whose expression had changed slightly, and then gestured forward, inviting them to head toward the Laboratory.

The basement of Building No. 4 was clearly not renovated after construction, but had been specially designed before the building work began.

Sun Cheng followed behind Zheng Jun, observing his surroundings as he walked, his heart lost in thought.

The underground floor area of Building No. 4 was beyond imagination, because the basements of general buildings need to consider load-bearing and foundation issues, so the actual usable area is always much smaller than that above ground.

However, this place was an exception; although the underground structure of Building No. 4 looked like it was only one story, it was surprisingly large.

Just as he was estimating in his heart how big this place was, Zheng Jun, who was walking in front, had already stopped in front of a Laboratory.

"We're here..."

He said softly, then immediately pushed open the door to the Laboratory in front of him and walked in first.

Sun Cheng's eyes flickered. He turned back to look at Shen Peiyuan and Xu Chun, lowered his voice, and said jokingly, "President, it seems this senior doesn't quite take to my arrival..."

After finishing his sentence, he smiled lightly and immediately pushed the door open and walked in as well.

But as soon as he entered the Laboratory, Sun Cheng quickly realized he might have thought wrong.

"Director Zheng, are these the manufacturers of those two hard drives you brought last time?"

"... Oh? Is it really the producer of the 50T hard drives? Where are they?"

"Hey, Director Zheng, what do you think of my proposal from last time... let's redesign the 【Asia Star】 and customize larger capacity hard drives to replace these cabinet-style storage racks. I think we can reduce the volume of 【Asia Star】 by 15%..."

It was clamorous. The moment he pushed the door open, Sun Cheng suddenly felt as if he had arrived at a vegetable market. Behind the door was an office of about sixty square meters, and at this moment, more than a dozen researchers in white coats were surrounding Zheng Jun, who had just walked in.

The instant he pushed the door, dozens of gazes fell upon him in unison.

At the same time, Zheng Jun's hoarse voice rang out again, "President Sun, President Shen, welcome to our 【Asia Star】 supercomputer project Laboratory..."