Chapter 704: Opening of the Black Market (Patreon)

Transformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List

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Even though Sun Cheng speculated that the state was merely a bait thrown out by the Americans, the good stuff still resided in the pockets of the Americans.

After all, since the end of World War II, the United States had established global dominance. The mines and ore veins under their control worldwide were, if not the best, certainly not lacking.

Although Sun Cheng had been in competition with the Americans for a slightly longer time, if they were willing to reveal their true assets, he wouldn't mind selling them some slightly inferior items.

He had no Cybertronian advanced technology to offer in the Black Market, but he did possess equipment that was advanced by several, if not a dozen, years compared to the current world.

However, compared to Moscow and Beidou, Sun Cheng would secretly sell even better products than those available on the Black Market.

It wasn't that he was adamant about making things difficult for the Americans. The resources on Earth were limited after all. Since the Americans missed their opportunity to utilize their past dominance to become a spacefaring civilization, naturally, someone would rise to replace them.

Sun Cheng's primary reason for establishing this Black Market was to temporarily draw the attention of those around the world hunting for extraterrestrials to Terindad Island.

But now, his objective has shifted!

It took Accel and the team more than half a year to finally locate the Cybertronian spaceship that had once crashed in South America.

Although the New World Explorer spaceship at the bottom of Lake Titicaca had no potential for reuse, Sun Cheng was generally satisfied with the outcome.

The Central Main Control AI of the New World Explorer was intact. He had acquired data on a genuine spaceship capable of interstellar travel, something he had long desired.

Even though it might take Base Two some time to assimilate the information to successfully construct an Explorer-class spaceship, as long as one is built and Sun Cheng, along with a group of engineers and robots, can reach Mars, he's confident that within half a year, a base far grander than Base Two can be established on Mars.

Although Mars is much smaller than Earth and has a harsh climate unsuitable for Earthlings, its resources are abundant. Decades of satellite exploration by humans show a wealth of minerals, with water possibly being the only scarce resource.

However, for the Cybertronians, these challenges aren't insurmountable. Using temperature differences to produce fresh water was a plan for terraforming Mars proposed by humans a long time ago.

But they were limited by their technology and could only theorize. In contrast, Sun Cheng and his Decepticons could actually produce these temperature differential devices, mass-producing water resources for industrial needs.

From the New World Explorer, he found its Central Main Control AI—Explorer 203. This discovery directly changed his plans for the Black Market on Terindad Island.

On his way back to Terindad Island, Sun Cheng had already overturned almost all of his original plans.

Now, he decided to play the merchant once more. He aimed to use the Black Market to extract as many resources as possible from the major human nations on Earth to accelerate the spaceship construction at Base Two.

"Within two years, I must obtain enough resources from these countries to build two spaceships... No, within one year, I must have enough for three spaceships and the resources for Base Three on Mars..."

In the era of spacefaring civilizations, spaceships no longer use heavy, primitive metals like steel.

They've been replaced by lighter, more corrosion-resistant, heat-resistant, and non-flammable alloys such as titanium-aluminum-manganese, iron-aluminum, tungsten-iron, chromium, and dozens of other materials.

"Producing this requires a vast amount of rare metals and rare earth elements, so a seemingly unremarkable Explorer-class medium-sized transport Spaceship could have material costs alone reaching sixty to seventy billion dollars. Some of these items can't even be procured with just money.

Building this behemoth, which is more intricate and heavier than Earth's aircraft carriers, is a monumental task.

Sun Cheng conservatively estimated that Base Two would need to add tens of thousands of various robots, operating around the clock, to achieve his ambition of constructing three spaceships within a year without hampering Base Two's expansion.

Of course, for now, all of this remains a fantasy in his mind.

Whether this dream can become a reality will depend on the Black Market on Terindad Island operating as smoothly as he envisions.

Thinking of this, Sun Cheng grew more and more eager about the national powers that would soon visit the island.

Results quickly followed after Forerunner's contact with the representatives from Yi Nation.

Having spent so much time with Sun Cheng, Forerunner had become accustomed to getting straight to the point when dealing and negotiating with humans.

So, even though the representatives from Yi Nation might not be accustomed to Sun Cheng's style of negotiation, in just over four hours, Forerunner successfully struck a deal with this first-arriving national power.

The Yi Nation representatives had initially approached from Saint Helena Island using a large private yacht.

It was undeniable that the yacht was extremely covert.

So covert, in fact, that when the yacht stopped near Terindad Island's waters and launched a hovercraft towards the island, Forerunner and his team initially thought they were merely human tourists.

After the negotiations concluded, the Yi Nation representatives left on the same hovercraft they had arrived in.

Once they had left, Forerunner hurried over to report the outcome to Sun Cheng.

"Oh? Yi Nation wants to trade mineral resources that meet our requirements for the nineteen types of machines, totaling over forty units, that we manufacture?"

Sun Cheng was genuinely surprised.

Although the Black Market hadn't been fully established, he had already preselected the products he planned to trade with various nations.

He wouldn't claim to encompass all industries on Earth, but after engaging with Moscow and Beidou for over a year, all the items he listed were restricted military and high-tech devices. Redesigned and improved by his Decepticon engineers, they surpassed their Earth counterparts by one or two generations.

Because of this, the prices he set were relatively high, with the cheapest costing tens of millions of dollars and many exceeding one hundred million.

He had assumed that Yi Nation was just a pawn thrown out by the United States to test the waters. However, to his surprise, they were genuinely willing to pay.

"Does Yi Nation have industry? Or did they buy on behalf of the Americans?"

Driven by curiosity, Sun Cheng connected to the internet to research. For someone who hadn't paid much attention to this country before, what he found was truly unexpected.

He was astonished to discover that Yi Nation, which he had previously thought depended on purchasing military equipment and relied on economic aid, not only had an industry but seemed to be thriving.

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Next Chapter >>Chapter 705: The Test Ship