"Black, seriously speaking, can Shadow Base’s products be commercialized?" Mu Fan sat solemnly on the bed; he indeed needed an economic source now.
"Of course they can, but don’t even think about selling warships. With designs entirely different from the current major powers, the moment you dare to sell, a large group of people would start investigating. Unless you’re sure you’re ready to withstand the scrutiny of the two major powers."
"What about selling parts?"
"Impossible, Mu Fan. Regarding high-tech equipment, Base 131 currently does not have a competitive advantage in material processing. The only piece of Shadow Fleet’s technology that can be said to have high scientific content is the Dawn Battleship, modified from the Icebreaker Warship template. As for other types of ships like escort ships and assault ships, their processing and assembly precision is at least 100% less than the Imperial Navy’s ships of the same class. This is due to the lack of precision machine tools, resulting in material processing that does not meet expected standards. The simplified production facilities of Base 131 can’t compete with those large factories."
Black still rejected the idea flat out and continued, "If we’re really talking about it, the Chad Metal Factory you infiltrated has equipment two levels higher than Base 131. What gives Shadow Base an edge are the unique High Crystal Ore, design blueprints of the Yake Empire’s ships, and the intelligent control system capable of fully automated production. So as for equipment truly related to cutting-edge technology, you’d better not even think about it. Unless in the future processing equipment is upgraded enough to perform closed-loop encryption of the structures, then you could consider selling."
Mu Fan, hearing Black’s words, did not argue but directly deleted the related thoughts from his mind.
When it came to unfamiliar fields, he was quite willing to accept the opinions of professionals.
But the predicament of being short on funds had not been resolved, which caused Mu Fan to worry for a moment.
Having a treasure mountain without any money, and now it was very likely that this issue with money would cause trouble for his travels.
This made Mu Fan worry endlessly.
Professional fields still required professional people!
Mu Fan’s eyes suddenly lit up. Business professionals—weren’t there two and a half right now?
Nuonuo and Fatty, those two, and White Hair, counting as half.
Subconsciously, Mu Fan’s preferred confidant was still Wang Nuonuo, but when he tried to contact her through Sky Communication, he discovered that her Sky Communication was still in a secure blocked state.
This meant Nuonuo’s space travel hadn’t ended, and she had not yet reached her destination. After all, she wasn’t on one of those military warships with exclusive warp travel channels; ordinary civilian ships had much slower travel speeds compared to military warships.
Since that was the case, he could only turn to the others who were still madly playing cards outside.
Mu Fan decided to act and stood up to push open the door; the lively sounds once again filled the air.
"Strip, no cheating allowed!"
...
"You’re so cool; are you using some kind of cheat? How can you remember all the cards?"
"Boss, you are too strong."
Hearing these words, Mu Fan couldn’t help but feel sorry for Fatty and Li Xiaoxi.
He knew that White Hair had implanted a highly capable biological chip into his head.
Especially those seemingly careless eyes of White Hair could absolutely be used as a human camera.
He himself was a cheat; did he even need to activate another one? Even without clothes, he was still a cheat!
When they heard the sound of the room door opening behind them, they all turned to look back.
"Wow, Mu Fan, you finished your secret mission so quickly?"
"How about it, want to join us for a round?"
Seeing their hopeful eyes, Mu Fan decisively shook his head and then looked towards the spot where Gu Yunyou had just been sitting, now empty.
"Gu has mysteriously left again; someone came over to fetch him."
Hearing this, Mu Fan walked over and sat down, his face showing inner turmoil as he struggled to find the right words.
Finally, under the almost bursting impatience of the others, he spoke up.
"Um, Harry, Yin Shuai, I want to ask you two about some business matters..."
"Hmm?"
Fatty and White Hair looked at each other, both seeing an interested expression in the other’s eyes.
Mu Fan was actually asking them about business issues.
"You tell me, how does a manufacturing enterprise create profits?"
Their eyes, hearing this question, lit up more and more, and then they simultaneously began to smile silently.
Mu Fan was being too sly, just say if you want to flirt with girls.
"Can’t you just ask Nuonuo directly?"
Originally, the Fowen Consortium was severely affected in its business due to its overly close relationship with Loki Heavy Industry, but with Nuonuo’s new market development and Donatello’s death,
the chaos at Loki Heavy Industry miraculously settled down.
Now that fatty is naturally in a good mood, so he spoke up directly, "Do you even need to ask? Of course, it’s about producing products with leading-edge technology, that’s an iron law in the current interstellar trade. Without technological competitiveness, you just can’t make it."
"What if... there is the capability to produce, but no technological competitiveness?"
This question from Mu Fan plunged fatty into deep contemplation; he hadn’t expected such a business noob like Mu Fan to come up with such a profound question.
Without competitiveness...
might as well shut down.
Fatty really wanted to say that, but the next second, he felt he was an idiot; if Loki Heavy Industry shut down, he’d have to drink from the northwest wind as well.
This was the big leg that Fowen Consortium had so difficulty latched onto.
However, the problem is, Loki’s metal smelting process is definitely top-notch, so how can it be said to lack technological level?
Compared to fatty’s deeper considerations, White Hair next to him had already burst into laughter.
"This question is easy. Oh right, Mu Fan, do you think I’m handsome today?"
Mu Fan’s face lit up with joy upon hearing the first half of the sentence, but after hearing the second half, he forcefully suppressed the urge to beat White Hair up.
"Handsome."
Mu Fan grunted out the word with a tiger face.
"Mu Fan, such an honest kid makes his words all the more persuasive, and the summary is really spot on—a single word, ’handsome,’ just runs through my entire life."
Upon hearing this, White Hair stood up, full of high spirits, and with a condescending look, looked down at fatty across him, finally conquering fatty.
There was no helping it, the other’s demon-like eye shadow was just too eye-catching.
"Mu Fan is asking, come on, speak up."
"Hahaha, asking me—you’re asking the right person because I’ve done this kind of stuff, man, the method is too simple—knockoffs!"
"Knockoffs?"
Fatty and Mu Fan asked in unison.
"Yeah, if there’s no surpassing technology level, then forget about competing in high-end domains. Fatty, you’re too straight-laced, that line of thought is too rigid," White Hair, with eyes as licentious as a dog’s, gave fatty a look, "If there’s production power, then knock off those mid-to-low-end products that can be made, steer clear of the Federation patent regulations, and sell to the needy in the lower strata of society."
"Can the lower strata afford them?"
"Can’t afford them? Regulated goods prices are only high, never low! For example, the leading weapon companies have developed the seventh-generation Pulse Rifles, but these are only supplied to the military, each costing 30,000 Star Coins. If you can make the fifth generation, sell it to those underground forces in chaotic areas, and you can start at a minimum of 80,000 each."
"Damn, that’s so cool, big bro, did you used to flip arms?" Fatty was dumbfounded.
"Haha, that’s right... not anymore, I didn’t say anything just now!" White Hair quickly retracted his statement and shook his head like a rattle-drum, having bragged too much and accidentally exposed his past.
So, he immediately changed the subject, "Mu Fan, what do you think of this route, bro?"
Having said this, fatty looked toward his good friend, but noticed that Mu Fan’s eyes were filled with immense admiration and respect.
A thumbs-up was generously raised by Mu Fan.
"Brilliant!"
With White Hair’s interruption, his line of thought successfully expanded.
Because the casual example White Hair gave actually touched the core of the matter—Mu Fan was indeed preparing to go into the arms business.
Since equipment designed by the Yake Empire couldn’t be sold, what about replicating ordinary military hardware needed by the grey forces with the production power of Shadow Base?
Firearms, exoskeleton armor, and even considering knockoff mechas for sale in the future.
However, now that White Hair finally got to dramatically show off in front of Mu Fan, how could he just leave it at that without thoroughly enjoying it?
"That’s just the most basic... I have deep research in this area, there’s another very crucial point to pay attention to."
He raised a finger to Mu Fan and shook it, the high poses of showing off nearly made fatty kneel down and call him brother.