276: Chapter 275 Where's the money?

8:00 AM.

Wang Shuo looked at the sky outside, which was already bright, and shook his head helplessly.

It was another brand-new day, and it seemed he hadn't slept all night again.

young man, well, he had nothing else, but his liver was strong; staying up all night was nothing.

Looking at the content on the screen, Wang Shuo was very satisfied.

Zero had improved a little bit more since yesterday.

This was good. If it kept up this momentum, sooner or later, he would make Zero a true Artificial Intelligence.

"Zero, exit coding mode, close the source code page."

Wang Shuo stretched and said indifferently.

The page on the screen automatically disappeared, restoring the plain, unremarkable desktop background.

"Sir."

Just after exiting work mode, Zero's voice began to sound.

"At 9:13 last night, someone successfully activated the permission system."

"Oh?"

Wang Shuo was slightly surprised and asked, "Who is it? What level did they activate?"

"Name: He Chenguang, activated authentication permission, marked as Level 5."

Level 5?

Wang Shuo nodded in understanding.

If it was his senior, activating Level 5 permission was indeed no problem.

"Did he trigger intermediate permission?"

Wang Shuo asked with interest.

"Triggered, Sir." Zero's voice was calm and gentle. "Because He Chenguang's performance while executing the primary permission promotion met your target settings, Zero has granted him intermediate permission qualifications. According to your requirements, the highest-level terms have been signed."

Wang Shuo nodded slightly.

Well, now He Chenguang could never go back.

No one could return to their previous life after entering intermediate permission authentication.

This statement, said by him, Wang Shuo, was just that confident.

Waving his hand to hide He Chenguang's profile on the screen, Wang Shuo said indifferently, "Keep monitoring, and also, inform me promptly of the next activation of the permission system."

"Understood, Sir."

Wang Shuo had no intention of changing the permission system. This was his original plan when designing the zero egg; it was meant to add a new way to play with the zero egg. After all, being the world's number one Artificial Intelligence, it had to have something different.

The only thing he didn't expect was that someone would break through the many obstacles he set so quickly and unlock the qualification for intermediate permission upgrade.

According to his settings, this should have happened half a year or even longer after the zero egg went on sale.

As for why... just look at the people buying the zero egg now; is there a single scholar dedicated to research? They are almost all entertainment streamers or lifestyle influencers interested in Artificial Intelligence. Relying on them to complete tasks to gamble for that 2% permission upgrade qualification? That would take forever.

If he wanted the zero egg to truly enter the circles of upper-class elites, Wang Shuo would still need to employ various means.

Originally, Wang Shuo had everything arranged, but he didn't expect that among these elites, one would just blindly deliver themselves to his doorstep.

This... if he wasn't shocked by this, it would really be inexcusable.

Putting the matter of He Chenguang aside for now, Wang Shuo commanded, "Zero, have Liu Yemei come over."

"Understood, Sir."

Since every employee in the company had been equipped with a zero egg, there was no need for Zero to use communication tools to send messages; it could call them directly through their personal zero egg, which was fast and convenient.

The only inconvenience was... sometimes you couldn't even slack off if you wanted to...

Liu Yemei quickly arrived at Wang Shuo's office. Since Wang Shuo had called her, Zero opened the door directly upon identifying Liu Yemei.

"General Manager Wang, you wanted to see me?"

Liu Yemei was still the same, her expression indifferent and her tone calm.

"Mm, Sister Liu, there is something I need you to do."

Wang Shuo withdrew his gaze from the drawings on the desk, turned to Liu Yemei, and then revealed a strange expression, blurting out an incoherent sentence.

"Sister Liu, you didn't go home again?"

With his keen eyes, how could he fail to notice the subtle wrinkles on Liu Yemei's clothes?

For a powerful woman who presented herself as shrewd and capable, this was an almost intolerable flaw.

The only explanation was that Liu Yemei had slept in her clothes. If she were at home, would she sleep in her clothes?

Liu Yemei frowned slightly, appearing somewhat unnatural, and then said, "There are some financial reports to process these past two days, so I've been working overtime for a few days."

Wang Shuo's expression became even stranger.

He nodded slightly and said indifferently, "Sister Liu, pay attention to the time when working overtime; don't overwork yourself."

Liu Yemei nodded gently without speaking.

Since she didn't say anything, Wang Shuo tacitly stopped asking and instead said, "Sister Liu, I have a few things I need you to handle."

Watching Liu Yemei listen quietly, with the zero egg beside her lighting up its screen, Wang Shuo nodded and continued, "First thing, I just took over a factory in Jiangcheng. Go and coordinate with them. If necessary, select a new management team from the people left behind."

"I need them to start production as soon as possible."

Liu Yemei, who was listening attentively, raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but look up at Wang Shuo in front of her.

Another new factory?

"The second thing also concerns this factory. I've picked a few people from there; handle the onboarding procedures for them. From now on, they are our company's people."

"Hmm..." Wang Shuo pondered for a moment. "Establish a new department for our company, let's call it the R&D Department, and put these people in it."

Liu Yemei couldn't help but look at Wang Shuo again.

"As for the third thing..." Wang Shuo's expression became slightly more serious. "This matter is quite important. I need you to coordinate with the Chen Group. I need them to assign a transport fleet, at least twenty vehicles. They shouldn't be too big or too small; they need to be able to traverse mountain roads."

Liu Yemei remained silent, refraining from complaining, and only asked indifferently, "General Manager Wang, are there specific size standards?"

"This..."

Wang Shuo recalled for a moment and said, "The vehicle width cannot exceed 2.2 meters, the length should not exceed 7 meters, and the height should preferably not exceed 3 meters."

"I understand."

Liu Yemei lowered her head to write it down. "When do you need them?"

"The sooner, the better."

Wang Shuo said with great satisfaction, "Also, during the time you are preparing the vehicles, I need you to purchase some supplies. Here is the list."

Liu Yemei glanced over it roughly, feeling slightly surprised. This list enumerated construction materials like cement and steel bars, even specifying the grades of some cement, and the quantities were not small. What was he planning to build?

"If these things can be stocked in Heishui County, Sichuan Province, that would be best. If not, notify the fleet to transport them to Heishui."

"General Manager Wang, the demand for this batch of supplies is very large, and it might take some time."

Liu Yemei rubbed her temples. She was finding it increasingly difficult to understand what Wang Shuo was thinking. Dragging so many construction materials to that remote mountain gully—what was the benefit?

"The sooner, the better; it doesn't matter if the price is a bit higher."

Wang Shuo said indifferently.

Rich people were just that capricious; as long as it was a problem that could be solved with money, it wasn't a problem at all.

"Understood."

Liu Yemei replied and pondered inwardly. In that case, she would have to contact local sources nearby. She didn't know if there were any suppliers there with enough production capacity and who met the standards.

"There is one more thing."

Before Liu Yemei finished thinking, Wang Shuo added, "I'm planning to build a large server cluster center. Do you have any suggestions?"

After a long while, seeing that Liu Yemei didn't speak, Wang Shuo turned his head, only to see Liu Yemei frowning and looking at him seriously.

"What's wrong?"

"General Manager Wang, are you serious?"

Liu Yemei asked.

Wang Shuo was stunned and nodded, "Of course."

Liu Yemei let out a breath and said seriously, "My suggestion is to postpone it."

"Postpone?"

Wang Shuo was slightly taken aback. "Why?"

Liu Yemei didn't say anything; she just picked up the tablet Wang Shuo had placed to the side, tapped it a few times, and then handed it to Wang Shuo.

"These are the company's accounts for the past two months. According to your requirements, another batch of custom Chips was added, with a total investment of 200 million; you previously traded US stocks, investing 200 million; purchasing equipment for the zero egg production line has already cost nearly 100 million; payments to zero egg suppliers are settled monthly, totaling 100 million; in the last two months, staff salaries and bonuses have amounted to 23 million; besides these, there are miscellaneous other expenses, plus the need to reserve funds in advance for the construction materials you just ordered."

"General Manager Wang, your company has no more money."

Liu Yemei said indifferently, "Building a large data center doesn't just require tens or hundreds of millions in funds. Our company's current cash on hand cannot cover it at all. If you insist on doing this, you must be prepared for the capital chain to break."

Scanning it, the data was detailed and clearly listed.

Wang Shuo couldn't help but be speechless.

Damn it, where was the money he had worked so hard to earn?

Where did it go?