"Practice is the only way to find the truth. So, how should these rails transport goods? Is there anyone who wants to give it a try?"
The moment Fu Zhu finished speaking, Xing excitedly raised her right hand.
"Me, me, me!"
Although she didn't know what her old bro was planning, she had a feeling that these rails would be a blast!
"Oh?" Fu Zhu tilted his head and looked at Xing with a smile. "Are you sure?"
Xing's raised right hand immediately bent, pointing straight at Sushang, who was watching the show from the side. "I recommend Sushang!"
Sushang: ???
Xing gave Sushang an apologetic grin. A moment ago, she had genuinely wanted to be the test subject and experience these rails, but seeing the strange smile on Fu Zhu's face, her intuition screamed at her that she absolutely should not get on!
Out of confidence in her old bro's work and trust in her own intuition, Xing decided—it was better to let someone else go first. Besides, she could understand how her bro's creation solved Golden Automaton Lane's predicament just by watching from the side.
Sushang stared at the rails, which formed a complete, undulating loop, with some hesitation. Isn't this just like a roller coaster? Can this really deliver goods?
Seeing Sushang's hesitation, Xing began to egg her on. "Sushang, the terms of the bet are that you have to bark like a dog if you lose. This is for you and the merchant association. If you don't go yourself, how can you confirm if my bro's method works? You've been buffed, hurry up and go! Besides, with Bailu here, she can heal you no matter what happens!"
Hearing that she had a part to play, Bailu eagerly patted her chest and guaranteed, "Mhm, mhm! As long as you don't die on the spot, I can fix you! And Xianzhou natives don't die that easily. At worst, you'll just lie in a hospital bed for a century or so."
Sushang, who had been mustering up the courage to get on, turned pale upon hearing the consequence could be sleeping in a hospital bed for a hundred years. She looked at the others with a long face.
"Is it too late for me to start practicing my barking now?"
"Aiya! Don't say such depressing things!"
Fu Zhu simply pulled Sushang directly to the front of the minecart and gave her a light push, making her sit right in it.
"Ah! I'm not mentally prepared yet!"
Bailu walked over to Sushang's side, hugging her arm and speaking with the pretentiously mature air of a wizened elder despite her childish face. "Don't worry. Treatment at my medical center can be reimbursed with Cloud Knight insurance."
"That's not the problem!"
"Never you mind about that!"
Fu Zhu placed a Redstone block next to the track. Instantly, the previously dim Powered Rails lit up. He walked to the back of the minecart and gave it a gentle push. The two minecarts began to rapidly circle the track, picking up speed with each loop.
"Ah!!!!!!!!!"
Sushang, sitting in the minecart, rose and fell with the track, letting out a piercing shriek.
"Ooh~"
Xing and the others couldn't help but gasp as they watched. Xing muttered, "Old bro, that shriek sounds just like the tourists on a roller coaster."
"Of course. The design was inspired by a roller coaster ride."
Fu Zhu crossed his arms, his eyes fixed on the crazily speeding minecart. Seeing that its speed had just about maxed out, he turned to the others and posed a question.
"Question: do you know what happens when a roller coaster's track suddenly breaks while it's at high speed?"
"Is that even a question?" Xing furrowed her brow, not understanding why Fu Zhu would ask such a thing. She answered with an expression that said it was obvious. "Of course the train goes flying right off."
"Correct!"
Fu Zhu immediately pressed a mechanism he had installed beside the track earlier. As he did, a section of the track on an upward slope suddenly broke off.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The minecart carrying Sushang and the one loaded with a wooden chest flew straight into the air, vanishing over the horizon in the blink of an eye, just short of twinkling like a pair of stars in a cartoon.
Fu Zhu raised a hand to shield his eyes. "Flew pretty far. At this speed, a hundred kilometers would take a very short time. Morning orders arriving by noon should be perfectly achievable."
After observing the result, Fu Zhu turned to the dumbfounded head of the merchant association and said, "Alright, this machine should be enough to meet your association's logistics needs, right?"
The association head turned his head mechanically, stammering, "B-but... those goods weren't going that way, and... that young lady, Sushang..."
His face was ashen. Putting aside what might happen to Sushang after being launched, that speed was like a cannonball. The goods were definitely not as sturdy as she was; they were probably smashed to bits!
It was over. On top of the medical expenses, he would now have to pay for the cargo as well!
Xing placed a heavy hand on Fu Zhu's shoulder. "Old bro, let's go turn ourselves in. I'll get you the best lawyer, try to get your sentence reduced."
Fu Zhu slapped her hand away with a speechless look. "Relax. Even I wouldn't joke about serious business. Sushang won't be hurt in the slightest, and there won't be any problem with the goods. If you don't believe me, you can send someone to go have a look."
The association head immediately said, "I'll have someone check on Miss Sushang's safety right away!"
He anxiously turned and called over several employees, telling them to take a starskiff to check where Sushang had flown off to and assess her condition.
A short while later, the association head received a message. His employees had also sent back a few photos.
In the photos, Sushang had fainted in the minecart, her tongue hanging out. Fortunately, she hadn't suffered any physical injuries, aside from being mentally scarred. But the state of the cargo left the association head utterly astonished.
According to the report from his employees, the goods inside the wooden chest were as if they had been stored in another dimension. No matter what happened outside, the contents were completely untouched.
Most notably, a small portion of the fresh goods required ice to stay preserved, yet not a single drop of water from the naturally melting ice had leaked out of the chest!
This meant that the wooden chest Fu Zhu had produced was no ordinary chest! Never mind its material, it at least utilized some form of space compression technology!
The association head, somewhat shocked, relayed the news from the scene to the others present.
Upon hearing that Sushang was fine, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Xing, with a dawning realization, slapped her forehead.
"That's right! Old bro, your wooden chests can store items and be placed on starskiffs, so why not just load a few chests onto the cargo skiffs? Wouldn't that increase their carrying capacity? There's no need to build this whole roller coaster delivery device at all!"
The next second, Fu Zhu flicked her on the forehead with a "you're hopeless" expression.
"Did you think I didn't add a clause to the bet making Scott cover all expenses for a reason? And why do you think I asked if the merchant association could issue invoices?"
Xing, who had been rubbing her forehead pitifully, froze when she heard Fu Zhu's words.
"You're right... why?"
Fu Zhu sighed and patted his forehead, a look of "hating iron for not becoming steel" on his face. "My dear sister, do you really think I couldn't have come up with the simple solution of using the wooden chests to directly increase cargo capacity? But sometimes, solving a problem by controlling costs isn't the best outcome. If I didn't waste materials building this flashy roller coaster delivery device, how could I make an outrageous demand and bill Scott for it?"
Hearing this, Xing finally understood. Her eyes narrowed into slits.
"Old bro, you mean to say..."
Fu Zhu nodded and snapped his fingers at the association head.
"Bring me your invoicing machine."
As he spoke, Fu Zhu pulled out a set of pre-crafted wooden chests and placed them to the side.
The association head immediately had someone bring over the invoicing machine and a computer. "Mr. Fu, please, go ahead."
"Mm, first off, these Powered Rails. Do you understand what kind of technology they use?"
The association head shook his head very honestly.
Fu Zhu nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent."
The whole point was that they shouldn't understand.
"Next, this wooden chest. Do you understand it?"
The association head instinctively wanted to shake his head, but he quickly caught himself and nodded. "This wooden chest's material looks quite ordinary, but it seems you've installed some kind of advanced space compression technology on it. Am I correct?"
"Hiss... you can understand it?"
Fu Zhu thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone and dialed Herta.
A moment later, Herta answered the call, her lazy voice coming through the line.
"Yo? Little brat, calling me all of a sudden. Don't tell me you're that eager to see my real body?"
"While I do have some thoughts on that, I'm actually calling to ask for a favor, Herta. Could I borrow your name to help me sell some tech?"
Herta, on the other end of the line, was taken aback by Fu Zhu's request to sell technology. What tech did Fu Zhu have on hand? It could only be what he called MC technology or Redstone technology.
And recently, through her research on the simulated MC, she had already begun to grasp that the so-called technology in Fu Zhu's hands was a hot commodity!
Herta's tone immediately became urgent. "You're short on money? Why didn't you tell me! Just sell it to me directly. Name your price, and I'll have Asta transfer the money to you!"
"Hiss..."
Fu Zhu was momentarily tempted at the mention of Asta's name. Asta had plenty of everything, but especially money.
However, what he was selling were just basic items like Powered Rails and Wooden Chests. It wasn't worth specifically seeking out Asta to maximize his profit.
"It's fine, just some ordinary little trinkets. If you want some, I'll send you a pile later. This time, I just want to borrow your name. If someone contacts you to confirm, just say it's yours."
For such a small matter, Herta naturally agreed immediately. "Fine. As long as you don't mind me taking credit for your hard work. You'll be famous throughout the cosmos for these things sooner or later."
"OK, thanks then."
Fu Zhu hung up and looked at the association head, who was waiting for him to speak. He cleared his throat twice and said, "You're very clever. You saw right away that the space compression technology used in this chest is the latest tech developed by Lady Herta of the Genius Society. As for the price, well, you know how it is. Xing, show him the price."
Xing, standing beside Fu Zhu, had at some point put on a pair of sunglasses. Holding a phone with the calculator app open, she first pressed a "1," then her fingers flew across the screen like afterimages, frantically tapping away until the long string of digits stretched to a ridiculous length. Only then did she, with some reluctance, show the screen to the association head.
The association head took one look and immediately felt dizzy, quickly averting his gaze.
This price... even if they sold their entire merchant association, it wouldn't cover a single zero!
"Mr. Fu, do you really want the invoice made out for this much...?"
"Of course."
Fu Zhu and Xing rubbed their chins with some excitement. This string of money was so long that in their eyes, it was just a bunch of ordinary numbers. But the thought of getting one over on Scott was a different matter entirely.
To be safe, Fu Zhu even remembered to confirm with the association head, "Is your invoice long enough for this?"
Hearing this question, the corner of the association head's mouth twitched. In his hundred-plus years of life, this was the first time anyone had asked him if the invoice paper was long enough.
"...It's enough."
"Good. Remember to state on the invoice that we used one thousand Powered Rails and two hundred Wooden Chests."
The association head gulped at those numbers.
Scott would probably faint on the spot when he saw this invoice.
Hopefully, his medical insurance could cover it.
"Very well, Mr. Fu. I'll issue it right away."
A short while later, the association head had the ridiculously long invoice printed out. And, at Fu Zhu's request, he even made a special note that the space compression technology used came from Herta.
March 7th was dumbfounded by this scene. She hadn't expected Fu Zhu to have so many mischievous tricks up his sleeve. But seeing that the technology source was listed as Herta made her a little confused.
"Fu Zhu, why does the tech have to be credited to Lady Herta? Why not write your own name?"
Fu Zhu sounded a bit helpless when he heard this question.
"No choice. I'm not famous enough yet. When it comes to scientific reputation, I'm definitely no match for Herta. Using a famous person's name naturally allows me to add a few more zeros to the price."
"Oh, oh, so that's how it is."
After Fu Zhu confirmed there were no issues with the invoice, he said to the association head, "Send the invoice to Scott. It's time he honors the bet."
"Huh?" The association head was stunned and asked in return, "But the association hasn't paid off its debt yet..."
Fu Zhu casually pulled out his phone. "How much is it? Just tell me, I'll transfer it to you. Of course, remember to write me an IOU."
For Fu Zhu, all he wanted now was to see Scott's defeated face as soon as possible. As for shifting the association's debt onto himself, he couldn't care less.
With the Wooden Chests, it was only a matter of time before the association paid him back.
"Understood, Mr. Fu."
Meanwhile, Scott had just sat down to relax in his luxurious hotel suite. Before he could even have a cup of tea, one of his subordinates burst in, looking flustered.
"Mr. Scott, the Golden Automaton Lane merchant association has transferred the payment for the debt!"
"What?! So fast?!"
"Also, this is the invoice from Mr. Fu's side. He says it's for you to honor the bet and cover the expenses they incurred while helping the association repay the debt."
Scott waved his hand in annoyance. "Give it here. It's probably just some travel expenses."
Compared to the invoice, he was more concerned about how the merchant association had managed to clear the debt so quickly. Could it be they borrowed money from somewhere else?
But when he saw the invoice his subordinate handed him, the sunglasses on his face fell to the floor with a clatter, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
The next second, Scott ripped the invoice to shreds.
"Dammit! Is he messing with me?!"
Seeing Scott tear up the invoice, the employee kindly reminded him, "Mr. Scott, that's a photocopy. There are others."
"Fuck! You think I needed you to tell me that?!"
PS: This is a 2-in-1 chapter, a total of 10,000 characters updated today.
PS: Also, an apology. I've noticed feedback from readers about the pacing being too slow. I apologize, that's my mistake. I will pay more attention to this in future chapters.