“Baoyu Heavy Industry? That’s not a great deal. I recommend you go...”

“No. I’m going to this place.” Before the man could finish, Su Mo cut him off.

The harvester he wanted made was simple. Even those low-level handicraft shops could produce it.

But if the cutting work were handed to shops like that, it would probably take forever to get a finished product.

With the Summer Harvest right around the corner, there was not much time to wait.

“Two yuan. I’ll drive you there. Want to come?”

Seeing that Su Mo was determined, the man stopped trying to persuade him and instead began recruiting a fare.

“Sure.”

Su Mo took two yuan from his pocket and climbed into the man’s tricycle.

The tall, thin man was clearly very familiar with the route. Soon, after turning at one intersection after another and passing through one alley after another, in only about half an hour he took a shortcut and stopped the vehicle in front of a sizable factory.

In the western district, the factory occupied a site of about two thousand square meters, enclosed by barbed wire. Even before entering, one could hear a great deal of welding, cutting, and grinding from inside.

As soon as Su Mo got out at the gate, staff standing in front of the factory came forward to greet him.

“This is Baoyu Heavy Industry. Is there anything you need us to manufacture?”

“Oh, you’re from Zizai Liang Lane? Please come in, please come in!”

Upon seeing the badge hanging on Su Mo’s chest, the staff member tilted his head slightly and immediately recognized where Su Mo came from.

The warm-up meeting had been held the day before yesterday.

Zizai Liang Lane had made a big splash, drawing the attention of many people to this powerful rising star.

As Hope City was nearby, these factories had naturally received the news and learned that such a large enterprise had emerged in the surrounding area.

Soon, on the strength of that identity alone, Su Mo was led to an office inside the factory and invited to sit.

The moment he sat down, a waiter brought a small fruit platter and a glass of chilled plum juice.

Not long after, the office door opened, and a middle-aged man with a protruding belly and a round forehead walked in.

“My name is Yan Jianhua. I’m the business manager of Baoyu Heavy Industry. I heard you’re looking to build a medium-to-large machine?”

Getting straight to the point, Yan Jianhua had barely sat down when he cupped his hands lightly in greeting and went to the heart of the matter.

Su Mo looked the man up and down.

Just as the collected information indicated, Baoyu Town possessed natural geographical advantages and abundant fishery resources, and every person in the county had a fixed welfare meat quota. Although Yan Jianhua looked fat, under that fat he was all muscle, making him much stronger than the average person.

“My surname is Su. I need this made. How many days do you think it will take to complete?”

Su Mo took the prepared blueprints from his pocket, set them gently on the table, and pushed them forward.

Yan Jianhua picked them up and began to look through them carefully.

“Well, our Baoyu Heavy Industry ranks among the top three of the county factories, so you can rest assured about the speed... It seems what Boss Su wants to build is a derivative of the energy stone vehicle, right? The technology is not a problem. As for the outer casing, it doesn’t require precision cutting or painting. We can finish the cutting and assembly in about two days. As for the internal drive shafts, we have them in stock in the warehouse, so we can assemble them as soon as the outer casing is done.”

“Huh? Your machine actually requires three-millimeter cutting blades, and you need two hundred and fifty-eight of them?”

“What, you can’t make a three-millimeter blade? That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”

Hearing Su Mo’s question, Yan Jianhua gave a wry smile. “Boss Su, this thing isn’t difficult to make. With the right machine tool it can be manufactured in a foolproof way. But unfortunately, the raw material for making it, grade-one buffer alloy, has all been transferred away because of a project at the Academy of Sciences.”

“If you need it urgently, we can use grade-two buffer alloy, but the cost will rise to one hundred and fifty thousand points.”

“That expensive?” Su Mo’s eyelids twitched.

Buffer alloy was the soul of the entire harvester. Only with that buffering property could the impact of the blades on the wheat stalks be reduced, and the fragile Xinghuo No. 3 wheat preserved as much as possible.

If other alloys were used, even flexible alloys, they would not have that effect.

“I only need two or three kilograms of these small blades. Can you find me some other way to get them?”

“Boss Su, I’m not kidding. There’s really no other way.” Yan Jianhua shook his head helplessly. “The Academy of Sciences is issuing military-style orders for these transfers. Anyone who dares to disobey is disobeying the territory, and that means going to jail.”

“If you’re not in a hurry, production capacity here might free up in about ten days?”

“Ten days or so?” Hearing that timeframe, Su Mo frowned even more deeply.

Buffer alloys were widely used within the territory and had always been in abundant supply.

Before coming, Su Mo had considered that there might be problems, but he had not expected the trouble to fall on this particular point.

“Look for Pei Shao?” As that thought arose, Su Mo silently dismissed it.

It was understandable for Pei Shao to get involved where high-grade alloys were concerned.

But for such a low-level search, unforeseen circumstances might follow and prevent the later production of the armor. That would be a huge loss.

“Boss Su...” Perhaps sensing Su Mo’s hesitation, Yan Jianhua thought for a moment and then continued. “Every researcher within the Academy of Sciences, including prospective researchers, is allocated a quota of research materials.”

“They’ve allocated tens of tons this time. If you can find a researcher you know, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get them to share a little with you.”

Yan Jianhua emphasized the words “find someone you know.”

Clearly, this “acquaintance” was not the same as an ordinary acquaintance. It was obviously someone paving the way for a transaction.

He had not expected it to be this troublesome. Su Mo had originally planned to wait until the armor was ready before making contact with the still-unknown Academy of Sciences.

But right now...

“It seems this is the only way!”

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.