103: Chapter 103 The Family Advances to Level Five!

The moment he thought of his wife's betrayal, his anger flared.

Just as he was about to start shouting, Mina threw herself at him, holding onto him tightly while whispering humble, pleading words, begging for her husband's forgiveness.

It turned out that the promiscuous Piero had grown tired of her and had kicked Mina away like a worn-out shoe.

Mina wanted nothing more than to tear the playboy to pieces, but she couldn't find him anywhere. With nowhere left to turn, she had no choice but to slink back to the apartment.

Fortunately, the two had not yet officially filed for divorce, and she had also given birth to two children, which served as her get-out-of-jail-free card.

Outsiders found it difficult to grasp the specific details, but in the end, Edison swallowed his pride and forgave his wife.

After all, the social atmosphere in the USA was relatively open, and people there cared far less about such scandals than people in the East.

And so, with a green hat firmly on his head, Edison officially joined the Umbrella Laboratory.

Lin Tian waved his hand and sent him straight to the Electronics Department, headed by Nikola Tesla.

Upon entering the R&D base and running into his former rival, Tesla, along with a group of researchers recently recruited from the former Edison Laboratory, the atmosphere became incredibly awkward.

To the contrary, Tesla, as the department head, didn't care in the slightest and had no intention of bringing up old grudges.

In his earlier years, when Tesla visited the Paris World's Fair and first saw the twenty-seven-ton power generation equipment Edison had exhibited, which illuminated the entire venue, he had been deeply shocked and had regarded it as a guiding light for his life ever since.

Although the two had had unpleasant moments later on, because Lin Tian had intervened, these two arch-rivals had not ended up in a total fallout as they had in history.

Therefore, Tesla held no grudges and instead generously showed the new employee the latest scientific achievements of the Electronics Department.

"This is a radio receiver. Mr. Bruce asserts that it will completely revolutionize the way humanity accesses information!" Tesla said, pointing to an exquisite square box.

Subsequently, he pointed to a cylindrical object placed inside a glass cover.

"This is an electronic signal amplifier, which I have named an electron tube. By using an electric field to inject electron-modulated signals into the control gate in a vacuum, we can obtain amplified data parameters at the anode."

"The core principle uses exactly the 'Edison Effect' you proposed!"

Hearing this, Edison stood frozen in place.

In his early years while researching carbon filament light bulbs, he had accidentally discovered that a weak current passed through the inside of the bulb. Although he had casually applied for a patent, he hadn't taken it seriously at all.

Who could have foreseen that the Umbrella Laboratory would use this as a cornerstone to develop an electron tube!

Edison was essentially a profit-driven capitalist, but his scientific intuition was absolutely top-notch, and he saw the terrifying potential behind the electron tube at a glance.

After an in-depth explanation from Tesla, Edison was completely won over by the heaven-defying scientific foundation of the Umbrella Laboratory.

He had always felt that his own territory was the top scientific holy land in the USA, but now, by comparison, it was like a frog at the bottom of a well!

This sense of disparity instead completely ignited his fanatical desire for exploration.

Once the burden of being a capitalist was lifted, this old man might just unleash even more terrifying inventive talents.

On the other side, the moment he completely secured all the patents, a long-awaited system notification sounded deep in Lin Tian's mind.

"Ding! Congratulations to the host for meeting the upgrade conditions!"

"The host has obtained the title 'World's Greatest Inventor' (achieved) and possesses assets of 100 million dollars (achieved)!"

"Family level is jumping…"

"Upgrade complete!"

The holographic panel unfolded accordingly.

Family: Lin Family

Level: 5

Introduction: A top-tier family famous throughout the world, one of the super-financial groups capable of intervening in the economy and politics of the USA.

"Ding! Detected that the host has completed the upgrade, rewarding one luxury gift package. Do you wish to open it immediately?"

"Ding! Next level promotion conditions released: Check in at ten random special coordinates and possess assets of 1 billion dollars!"

Lin Tian raised an eyebrow, secretly surprised: "Random coordinate check-ins? What kind of bizarre task is this?"

As for the asset requirement of 1 billion dollars, although the amount was extremely large, for Lin Tian today, it was not a difficult threshold to cross.

Rockefeller's personal wealth would only touch the 1 billion mark in twenty years; while Lin Tian's current assets were slightly inferior, the logic of making money had already changed.

It was harder than ascending to heaven for a pauper to earn one million, but for a top giant holding 100 million in principal, wanting to leverage 1 billion in wealth was merely a matter of going with the flow in a capital game.

As long as one possessed resources and connections inaccessible to ordinary people, money would automatically snowball.

"System, if you set the check-in point at the Mariana Trench, wouldn't I be unable to level up for a hundred years?" Lin Tian complained crazily in his heart.

As usual, the cold system simply played dead, with no response.

"Can't be bothered to argue, let's open the gift package first!"

"Ding... Congratulations to the host for obtaining: One vial of 'Resident Evil' t-virus Perfect Serum! One 'Elysium' special medical pod!"

"Rewards have been stored in the personal space and can be retrieved at any time!"

Lin Tian felt ecstatic.

The t-virus Perfect Serum went without saying; this was an unparalleled divine object capable of granting people long life, terrifying strength, and abnormal self-healing abilities.

And the medical pod from 'Elysium' was even more of a heaven-defying piece of black technology!

As long as brain function remained, even if the skull were shattered, this machine could pull a person back from the gates of hell. Eliminating terminal illnesses and clearing nuclear radiation were all a piece of cake.

This all-around medical pod, named Medpod 3000, could even be bound to exclusive DNA.

As long as Lin Tian registered his genes, not even the King of Heaven could take control away from him.

It could use special radiation and energy to accelerate cell reconstruction, curing terminal cancer more easily than treating a cold.

Under the blessing of this artifact, the average human lifespan could easily soar three times over.

Not only could it maintain eternal youth, but even if one encountered facial disfigurement, reshaping a perfect face would only take forty-some seconds.

If this thing had existed a few years earlier, the brain tumor of Anna's mother would have been nothing worth mentioning.

This was also an ultimate artifact that exceeded the technological limits of the 21st century!

Lin Tian secretly made up his mind that unless it was a life-or-death situation, he would never expose it easily.

This medical pod would be the strongest trump card for the Lin family to reach the top of the USA; only people in the core circle would be qualified to come into contact with it.

Suppressing his wildly beating heart, Lin Tian hurriedly threw himself into the next layout.

Lin Steel Company had just called to report that the new equipment had been fully retrofitted and was expected to officially start production in a week.

The initial goal was set at an annual production of 300,000 tons of raw steel. Relying on the advanced smelting technology provided by the Umbrella Laboratory, production costs were slashed by 70%, ensuring an annual profit exceeding the 2 million dollar mark!

Upon hearing the good news, Lin Tian immediately rang the phone and sent invitations to observe the ceremony to a group of shareholders including Rockefeller, J.C. Fargo, and James Roosevelt.

The financial tycoons were very interested upon hearing this.

In early November, in Pittsburgh.

The area in front of the Lin Steel Company was bustling with noise and excitement.

In addition to the 300 veteran staff, the factory had spent a fortune to recruit over a thousand strong men.

Two rows of workers wearing brand-new blue uniforms stood along the path, looking forward with anticipation.

When several Lin-brand Model T cars drove steadily closer, thunderous applause erupted instantly.

The cars stopped steadily, Lin Tian stepped out of the carriage, scanned the towering factory gates and the hanging sign, and nodded with satisfaction.

Rockefeller and the others behind him followed out of the cars, all wearing smiles of having made a big profit.

"Look! The one standing in the middle is our big boss, Mr. Bruce!" A white worker nudged his Chinese coworker, full of excitement.

"Of course I recognize him! He is the pride of us Chinese! I just brought my mother over from the country, and the old lady prays to the boss's longevity tablet at home every day!"

Although the foreign coworker didn't understand what a longevity tablet was, it didn't prevent him from respecting Lin Tian from the bottom of his heart. After all, this big boss not only provided enough food but also created the life-saving Sulfonamide medicine.

Immediately afterward, exclamations erupted in the crowd again.

"My God! That is the oil tycoon, Mr. Rockefeller!"

"Next to him is Mr. J.C. Fargo!"

These poor people who struggled at the bottom of society all day long never dreamed that one day they would be able to see so many super-rich people who lived in newspapers with their own eyes.

Each of them was so excited that their eyes turned red, wishing they could rush up and listen to a few secrets of making money.

Led respectfully by the factory manager, the big shots walked into the core production area.

When the towering heavy blast furnace came into view, everyone was deeply shocked by this steel behemoth.

"Distinguished guests, this is the new blast furnace that we have exclusively retrofitted. Ore and coke are loaded directly from the top, and after a series of high-temperature deoxygenation processes, liquid molten iron can be continuously refined!" The manager reported loudly at the top of his lungs.

"How many tons of iron can this furnace produce in one turn?" Rockefeller asked professionally.

"Reporting to you, sir, the furnace volume is as high as 800 cubic meters! A single steel output is guaranteed to exceed 500 tons! In contrast, the old factory could only refine 25 tons at most each time!"

Hearing this exaggerated data, Rockefeller nodded with satisfaction and praise.

Although he didn't understand the specific tricks of the smelting process, this capacity, which had increased dozens of times, was real money.

The old fox turned to look at Bruce and laughed: "Bruce, it seems that I am going to make a big profit in your territory again this time!"

J.C. Fargo and James and others beside him laughed loudly.

"Hehe, Uncle Rockefeller, since the production capacity is so high, shouldn't we take the opportunity to raise the price of iron ore?"

Lin Tian's mouth curled into a cunning smile: "I always feel that the current ore pricing simply doesn't match the increasingly expanding market demand!"

Looking at the insidious smile of the little fox in front of him, Rockefeller understood in a second. A certain steel tycoon who didn't know what was good for him insisted on provoking people who shouldn't be provoked, and now the retribution had arrived.

"Bruce, I also think the current ore price is too cheap; we have no obligation to subsidize outsiders with raw materials." Rockefeller smiled shrewdly and made the decision on the spot.

Boom—

The giant blast furnace poured out a massive amount of orange-red, scorching molten iron, and the splashing sparks illuminated Lin Tian's face on the high platform.

Facing the heat wave, he lightly set the death sentence: "In that case, let's just raise it by 50% for now."

"No problem!" Rockefeller agreed readily.