Chen Mo thought for a moment and shook his head. "Of course not."
"Oh? Aren't we trying to attract the military's attention? Why aren't we responding to their email?" Red Queen asked.
"We do want to attract the military's attention, but we still need to maintain our sense of prestige. If the military asks us for our ultra-intelligent robotic arm technology, do we just hand it over? If we give them whatever they ask for, wouldn't that make us look cheap? Plus, agreeing too easily puts us at a disadvantage."
"So…?" Red Queen tilted her head in confusion, her CPU taking a moment to process.
"So, we ignore the military's invitation. Treat it like spam and move on. We'll stick to our plan—keep posting videos of the ultra-intelligent robotic arm online to attract commercial partners. Meanwhile, have Tian Tian establish an Ultra-Intelligent Robotic Arm Division. You'll assist her in developing a prototype. That way… we'll maintain the upper hand."
"You mean… we're still fishing?" Red Queen shrugged, her big eyes blinking.
"Exactly. Dealing with the military is like business negotiations—whoever shows their cards first is at a disadvantage." Chen Mo nodded.
"Understood. You want to keep baiting them, let them see how amazing our technology is, and then come begging for it," Red Queen's eyes gleamed red, as if she suddenly understood something about human nature.
Chen Mo nodded. Then, as if remembering something, he chuckled and asked:
"You told me the good news. What's the bad news?"
After speaking, he stood up, stretched, and paused the charging process, shutting down the thermal power generator.
After his talk with Tian Tian, followed by a short nap, and then a chat with Red Queen, time had flown. It was already 5 a.m. He had to shut down the generator since passersby might notice something unusual—like a power plant generating electricity that wasn't feeding into the grid.
"The bad news?"
"The bad news is—we're almost out of thermal power fuel. We need to restock. Coal isn't hard to buy, but the generator is a British-made UnionTech model, and it requires a specific imported additive called 'combustion enhancer.' We don't have any supply channels for it."
Red Queen appeared sitting on a stool, then popped up on the TV screen. Surrounding speakers echoed her voice eerily.
"No domestic alternatives?" Chen Mo frowned.
"There are, but domestic enhancers aren't compatible with the imported UnionTech generator. Using them could cause an explosion in the combustion chamber."
"…"
Chen Mo thought for a moment and asked, "Any substitute products?"
"None at the moment," Red Queen replied.
"So once the combustion enhancer runs out, we can't use the thermal generator anymore?" Chen Mo raised his brows, a bad feeling creeping in.
"That's basically it," said Red Queen.
"…" Chen Mo fell silent. This was indeed a very bad piece of news—catastrophically bad.
His confidence in standing up to the Dihao Group came from his ability to reach into movies, pulling out products and technology at will.
With all the sci-fi black technologies available through movies, he stood undefeated and had no reason to fear anyone. Black Domain wasn't afraid of competition.
But now his golden finger was at risk. His cheat code was on the verge of vanishing. That made him uneasy—like he was about to lose all his leverage.
"Is there no way to purchase more UnionTech combustion enhancers?" Chen Mo asked again.
"No. The Americans have already imposed restrictions on us. The enhancer is on the restricted list. No entity will sell it to us."
Hearing that, a wave of anger welled up in Chen Mo's heart. Damn it—another tech stranglehold.
Falling behind really means getting bullied. If young people don't fight for progress, they'll be trapped in cages of limitation and never grow strong.
Once, the nation endured war and devastation. Cities were broken, infrastructure destroyed, civilians displaced, and the economy stagnated.
Though Jiuzhou had made great strides to catch up, it was still behind compared to the world superpower.
That's why the Americans didn't hesitate to impose restrictions and sanctions.
Chen Mo used to think these tech blockades had nothing to do with him. But now, that idea was gone.
Just a single combustion enhancer…
And his generator was rendered useless.
Absolutely infuriating.
After long contemplation, a vague idea began to take shape in his mind. Maybe it was time to abandon the thermal power generator entirely and switch to full-scale nuclear reactor repair. If he could restart nuclear energy production, the energy gain from his reach into movies ability would be drastically increased—and the cheat would grow even stronger.
Not a bad plan.
And if, during the process of fixing the nuclear reactor, he happened to invent miniaturized controlled nuclear fusion, then he'd be the one blocking the Americans instead.
Plus, Black Domain had plenty of money now, with Hatsune serving as a cash cow. Funding wasn't an issue. He could divert some company funds into repairing the nuclear reactor.
"Alright, let's go with that!"
"By the way, how much longer can the thermal generator run?" Chen Mo asked.
"About two days," Red Queen replied.
Chen Mo nodded. Then, as if remembering something, he quickly opened his personal attribute panel and checked the stats.
[Host: Chen Mo]
[Ability: Reach into movies]
[Possessed Items: Red Queen AI, Nano Battle Suit]
[Available Uses: 0]
[Energy Stored: 96%]
[Charging: No external power source. Absorbing ambient energy.]
Seeing the energy bar at 96%, Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he had almost finished charging. Two more days and he could use his reach into movies ability again.
"Alright. Since we're out of combustion enhancer, scrap the thermal generator plans. We're a nuclear plant—let's focus on nuclear power. From now on, nuclear energy is our main direction."
"You've finally decided to restart nuclear operations, Master?" Red Queen asked joyfully. Energy was the lifeline of any high-tech force, and gaining nuclear energy would be a massive leap forward for Black Domain.