Chapter 487 - 457: This is the Timber We Need!
At this moment, Comelon and a group of accompanying technicians eagerly pulled a piece of withered black wood from the pile, exclaiming in shock, "Mr. Chairman, what is this wood?"
Da Fei’s eyelid twitched, then he was ecstatic! What they picked wasn’t anything else but his abundant supply of Mercury Wood! Whole swathes of it! Who knows how many giant ships it could build, who knows how many years it could keep them busy!
Finally, it was Da Fei’s turn to show off!
Da Fei said casually, "This wood must be unprecedented, right? Mr. Comelon, how does this wood perform?"
Comelon casually pulled out a small hammer and tapped on the wood, creating a thumping sound, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "It possesses both the hardness of metal and the resilience and flexibility of wood. Even the genuine Iron-Wrapped Wood of warships might not have such good attributes!"
Da Fei asked in surprise, "Iron-Wrapped Wood?"
Comelon excitedly nodded, "The ship materials for giant ships must be wrapped in a layer of iron and copper before use, and the material before wrapping is just raw wood! Mr. Chairman, I think this is very suitable for giant ship materials, and the strength of this raw wood itself already exceeds the standard of normal ship materials, so there is no need to wrap it heavily with iron sheets. Therefore, the speed and maneuverability of the warship will improve accordingly, and this is just the physical attribute of the wood. Its magic attribute needs to be further tested—"
With that, Comelon excitedly grabbed Da Fei’s shoulder, speaking solemnly, "In short, Mr. Chairman! This is the wood we need. With this wood, we can develop a completely different type of new giant ship from the usual ones! At that time, our Elorin Shipyard can possibly replace the Tarolan Shipyard and become the First Shipyard of the Kingdom, no, the Alliance, and the profit return Mr. Chairman will receive is simply unimaginable—so, Mr. Chairman, we need more, please!"
Da Fei’s eyebrows danced! To become the First Shipyard of the Alliance! Haha, wow, hahaha! This Mercury Wood Forest is truly a treasure! It’s just a pity that this forest can’t be regenerated and is a one-time resource, so we must use it sparingly! Moreover, the key is, you don’t know how much I have, so, that means we just have to play it as precious!
Da Fei sighed long, "This wood is extremely rare, and the harvesting environment is very harsh, but to build one or two giant ships—by the way, how much wood is needed to build a giant ship? What’s the cost?"
Comelon said in a deep voice, "As far as I know, it should be no less than 3000 units of wood! The value of each unit of wood is about 4000 Gold Coins. Of course, this is the internal reference price; outsiders can’t buy it even if they have money! Then there’s the Iron-Wrapping process, which is an indeterminate cost belonging to the military commercial secret of the big shipyard, needing our own research. In short, based on the factory price of a giant ship at 1 to 2 billion, the material cost for a giant ship is roughly in the range of twenty to thirty million."
Da Fei nodded repeatedly, that is to say, as long as the research phase is passed, Da Fei, serving as the wood supplier, can first earn two or thirty million. If the transportation difficulty is exaggerated a bit, it might sell for thirty million, and then the shareholder’s dividend can returns 7% profit to the Chamber of Commerce. This business is worth doing!
Da Fei then said, "Understood, I’ll do my best to find ways to overcome all difficulties, and won’t hesitate to suffer significant casualties to deliver more wood."
Comelon was elated, "You truly are a chairman trusted by the mayor! We’ve heard you encountered some trouble at the Pool of Radiance; we don’t know if we can help you with something. How about this, I’ll give you this blueprint as a token of appreciation!"
—System Prompt: You received "Shipyard Blueprint" and "Standard Ship Type Manufacturing Recipe" given by Comelon, the owner of Elorin Shipyard!
Da Fei’s eyebrow shot up! A shipyard blueprint! And it includes the entire store’s formulas! Damn! This is fantastic! Habit Village has always used rafts, and it pains me to see it!
A shipyard is not one of the city’s basic functional buildings, so a player must find the blueprints themselves to acquire one. This type of commercial building can provide an industry for the player’s city and increase its prosperity. Of course, if a player’s shipyard wants to continuously receive orders and substantial profits like an NPC’s large city shipyard, there’s only one way: to constantly upgrade the shipyard, complete shipbuilding tasks to enhance the enterprise’s reputation, and develop new shipbuilding recipes.
Theoretically, it’s not impossible for a player’s shipyard to upgrade to the scale of Elorin Shipyard, and by then, Da Fei sharing shipbuilding technology with Elorin Shipyard wouldn’t be impossible either; the precondition being that the shipyard must have thousands of Advanced Shipworkers, hundreds of Master-level mechanics, and several Grandmaster-level chief engineers, even a God-level mechanic. Otherwise, it simply couldn’t operate. It’s safe to say, concentrating on developing a single shipyard is as challenging as being a City Lord.
In short, this kind of tedious and far-fetched thing is not something Da Fei can think about now. What Da Fei hopes for now is probably to make some decent small ships to replace the rafts.
Da Fei said joyously, "Thank you for your generous gift, sir. Time is tight, so I must take my leave. When we meet next time, I’ll surely surprise you!"
Comelon said excitedly, "Please rest assured, Chairman. We will also use this time to fully commit to the research and development of giant ship designs and iron-wrapping processes, striving for breakthroughs in the short term!"
Just as Da Fei was leaving the factory with the boss and a group of technicians accompanying him, he saw someone waving to him at the door—it was Spielberg, whom he hadn’t seen for many days!
Spielberg laughed heartily, "Chairman, you came too!"
Huh! That’s right, it’s been a month in game time since returning from the sea. This month in the game really makes Da Fei feel like a month in reality!
Da Fei laughed and asked, "Mr. Spielberg, how’s the modification of your ship going?"
Spielberg sighed and shook his head, "Progress isn’t ideal. Many ideas become complicated when put into practice. However, the bottom of the ship has been repaired, and it’s ready to set sail anytime."
Damn! Indeed! When an NPC proposes modifications, it’s an in-game plot event triggered that requires player participation to progress. Counting on the NPC alone to research was too naive; he emphatically found a blank sheet to show me! Darn it, how can this burly NPC possibly develop things?
Comelon asked in surprise, "Is this gentleman perhaps—?"
Da Fei laughed, "This is the head of our Chamber’s fishing division, who’s been here modifying the whaling ship for over a month. Our goal is to turn the whaling ship into a Sea Monster Slayer."
Comelon made an "oh," then solemnly saluted, "So it’s the man’s guild member, my apologies for the neglect! How about this, I’ll immediately assign a technical team to assist Mr. Spielberg!"
Spielberg celebrated with delight, "Great! However, the following modifications are quite costly! My funds might—"
Comelon waved his hand decisively, "No need to discuss money!"
Da Fei’s eyebrow twitched! I understand. Perhaps Spielberg, as a human, feels restricted here, but now I’m a major shareholder and wood supplier, so you all have to treat me with importance and respect.
Da Fei laughed, "How can I trouble everyone?"
Comelon coughed and smiled, "Honestly, our shipyard usually supplies merchant and fishing vessels, so we’re not very skilled with special ships like whaling ships, causing Mr. Spielberg’s progress to be less than ideal. I again apologize, so we should indeed concentrate some technical resources to assist him. This not only strengthens our development in specialty ships but might also provide inspiration for giant ship development!"
Darn! Not proficient with whaling ships? Who built the whaling ships provided by the Fishing Guild? Never mind, what’s done cannot be undone!
Before Da Fei could speak, Spielberg was already brimming with tears of joy, thanking repeatedly, "Thanks to the factory manager for the care, thanks to the chairman for the concern! I will definitely strive to fulfill the aspiration!"
Ah, this kid has been wronged! Now I’m personally stepping in with high stature, participating in the in-game event research myself; some results should finally appear, right? But the outcome should be targeted; I’ll assign you another mission, and this time, you can’t show me a blank paper!
Da Fei laughed, "Good! Now that the factory manager has spoken, there’s no worry the thing won’t be accomplished. A month ago, I received a task from the Dwarf Prince Alberon to clear crocodiles at the abandoned fishery of Black Ice Castle. Mr. Spielberg is also a Level 1 Sea Monster Hunter granted by the Fishing Guild, is this okay?"
Spielberg laughed heartily, "Crocodiles, huh, the simplest of tasks, no problem!"
Simple, my foot! Have you seen a Demigod-level crocodile?
Speaking of which, the one-month promise has expired, and I have to meet the Dwarf Prince by noon today. Damn it, I’m still in a war, will I make it in time? Annoying!
In any case, let’s stabilize the battle first. Once stable, I’ll have time; I have faith in the Slime Monster’s abilities.
Da Fei left the shipyard; the group of hecklers had been waiting for a long time, and upon seeing Da Fei, each of them started cursing maniacally as if injected with adrenaline! Darn it! You annoying flies! Wait, once I have everything settled, I’ll deal with you all!
No need to say, with the escort from the hecklers, Da Fei entered the street district again and continued being joked about and laughed at by passersby. Well, watch if you must, have a go at attacking me if you dare!
Wait, speaking of an attack, Da Fei remembered the Chamber of Commerce’s NPC. A whole evening has passed, which is a few days in game time, and Coltner hasn’t handled the matter of inviting his grandfather into the Guild yet? Damn! It’s probably like the Spielberg thing, needs the player to take a personal three-courtesy visit.
Fine, not joining now is also good; their safety isn’t something I can guarantee.
Teleporting all the way, with a flash of light, Da Fei returned to the Pool of Radiance. Just then, Anlicia waved at him from afar, "Chairman, your sweetheart Miss Catherine has returned!"
—Ah boo! Whose sweetheart!
At that moment, Da Fei was overjoyed and teary-eyed; his sweetheart had finally returned! Yet at the same time, it was too much to take in, what was supposed to come had finally come, but I’m still in the middle of a battle! How can I attend to your matters now?
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