34: Chapter 34 Advanced 3D Printers

The expansion of the collection space provided him with more than just that; the spatial cutting ability attached to the Collection Function made Cao Xiao invincible in close combat within a hundred-meter range. Without using any weapons, he could simply use the Collection Function to harvest a small horizontal section of a person's body, causing them to snap in two. Alternatively, he could directly collect a vital organ to cause instant death, or even place lethal substances inside someone's body without them knowing, leading to a silent and slow death.

Even if someone attacked him with a missile, unless it exploded more than a hundred meters away and produced a strong shockwave, it would be captured by the Detection Function as soon as it came within a hundred meters of him, and then be pulled into the space by the Collection Function to be sliced into powder. In this way, Cao Xiao's personal safety was even better guaranteed, and he didn't have to worry about being attacked. Otherwise, as he accumulated more wealth in the future, many people would target him, and he feared he would live in constant fear despite being rich. However, this didn't mean he could do whatever he wanted without restraint; there were still many things in this world that could harm him, often in unpredictable ways—even a tiny amount of poison could kill him instantly. Therefore, he had to keep a low profile, try not to attract attention, and live carefully for ten thousand years.

Uh, as Cao Xiao thought about it, his mind drifted toward these dark things. He wondered when he had become so dangerous, thinking about harming people at every turn. It seemed he should read more books on self-cultivation in the future. How could there be so much darkness in this world? Even if there were, within the range of his detection, everything would be bathed in light!

The processing space had also expanded, now with a volume of one million cubic meters. The Synthesis and Decomposition Furnace had also become much larger, capable of processing one hundred thousand cubic meters of minerals at a time, though it could still only decompose matter down to the atomic state.

The Manufacturing Space, research space, and energy space had all similarly expanded to one million cubic meters. In the Manufacturing Space, nine more manufacturing devices identical to the previous one appeared, along with a strange new piece of equipment. After checking the information on this device, he realized it was an Intelligent 3D Printer.

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a type of rapid prototyping technology. It is based on digital model files and uses bondable materials like powdered metal or plastic to construct objects by printing layer by layer. 3D printing requires no machining or molds and can generate objects of any shape directly from computer graphic data, thereby greatly shortening the product production cycle and increasing productivity. 3D printing technology originated in the late 19th century and was developed and popularized in the 1980s. It can be used in jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many other fields. It is often used in mold manufacturing, industrial design, and other fields to create models or for the direct manufacture of certain products.

3D printers are not uncommon in modern society’s production and daily life; one can buy a decent domestic 3D printer for around ten thousand yuan. However, the one in the Manufacturing Space was different; it was a beyond-the-era intelligent printer. Just looking at its size, it left the largest current 3D printers in the dust. It wasn't that its physical volume was massive, but rather that its printing method was completely different from existing 3D printers. When Cao Xiao first saw it, he thought it was a meaningless pattern on the ground. It was an eye-shaped, nearly elliptical metal plate only ten centimeters thick. The reason he said it looked like an eye was that there was a circular ring-shaped ripple line area inscribed in the center of the ellipse, looking just like a circular pupil.

This ellipse was seventy meters long horizontally and fifty meters vertically. Theoretically, it could print objects with a maximum volume within a one-million-cubic-meter cube. Because there was no gravity in the space, the powder materials could be arranged closely through the space itself. That eye-shaped base could emit high-energy lasers within a hundred-meter range to perform laser melting on the arranged powder, and its efficiency was incredibly high. Printing a hundred-cubic-meter component only took one hour. Of course, this required massive energy support. Currently, the fastest large-scale printers can only manage at most one meter per hour, and that's only under conditions where the base is very small and the precision is not high. This speed alone was at least a hundred times faster than the most advanced existing 3D printers. Furthermore, the 3D printer in the Manufacturing Space could directly and finely adjust the density of the printing powder and print different materials simultaneously. Even printing a precision instrument could be done in one go; one only needed to prepare the materials. Its printing precision was also at the nanometer level, reaching exactly one nanometer. One thousand nanometers equals one micrometer, so one nanometer is the highest precision at the nanometer scale.

It was called an Intelligent 3D Printer because it didn't require computer-aided design or the creation of data models. As long as there was a physical object, it could autonomously build a data model through the Detection Function scan and print it directly. This meant it could replicate items. Even without a physical object, it could assist in building a data model through Cao Xiao's thoughts and imagination. This ability was incredibly powerful. As long as there was sufficient energy and materials, any existing technological product no longer than a hundred meters could be printed—from chips as small as a pinhead to airplanes and ships. After being scanned by Cao Xiao, they could be printed directly, and the hardware would be no different from existing ones, perhaps even finer. So, in the future, would he no longer need to spend money to buy things? If he wanted something, he could just look at the physical object, scan it, and print it himself. He could also mine the materials himself and process them into powder.

After fantasizing for a long while, Cao Xiao was feeling excited, but once he calmed down, he realized things weren't that simple. He could handle the hardware himself, but what about the software? Besides, materials weren't that easy to collect, especially some rare metals. Furthermore, printing directly with the 3D printer consumed a lot of energy, and the cost of printing ordinary items might not be much lower. It would also be a hassle to slowly print everything piece by piece himself. Therefore, while his energy source was unstable, he shouldn't act recklessly; he should just use it to manufacture some precision items.

The nine additional identical devices in the Manufacturing Space didn't mean much to him because he hadn't yet used the Manufacturing Space to produce a single product. Aside from the Intellectual Brain and the expansion of space, there were no other changes in the research space. The Intellectual Brain's computing power had increased nearly a hundredfold, with a peak calculation speed of one hundred quintillion operations per second. Cao Xiao had no concept of these numbers; he only knew that the most advanced one in the country was the Sunway No. 1, whose computing power barely reached one sextillion operations per second. Even before the permission upgrade, his computing speed was ten times that of Sunway; now it was a thousand times. Regardless, it was very impressive.

Entering the energy options, the changes here made him somewhat joyful. The space had expanded, and the remaining energy was only one percent. In other words, the full energy capacity before the permission upgrade was only one percent of what it was now—it had increased a full thousandfold. What made him happy was that another type of usable energy had been added: atomic energy, and it was atomic energy that didn't need to be converted into electricity. The energy space also provided a set of blueprints for an atomic energy reactor; as long as Cao Xiao could manufacture it and place it in the energy space, it could continuously provide energy. Since this information appeared in the energy space, it was likely a condition for the next permission upgrade. However, setting aside the complex manufacturing blueprints, the raw materials required alone made Cao Xiao's wish to reach Level 3 permission in the short term fall through. There were many types and large quantities; the steel alloy needed alone was no less than a hundred thousand tons, and it wasn't ordinary alloy. Cao Xiao estimated that even the best-performing alloys currently available wouldn't meet the requirements; he would have to refine them himself according to the formulas in the blueprints. Besides these, there was another big problem: the reaction materials were all internationally controlled radioactive substances. No matter how much money he had, he couldn't buy them, nor could he even show an intention to buy them; otherwise, he would surely be investigated thoroughly. He had no choice but to secretly search for undiscovered mineral deposits and mine them himself.

Thinking about these things gave him a headache. It was already dark, so he decided to head back early and take things slowly later. With a thought, all the corn in Warehouse No. 2 was collected. Five thousand tons of corn were consumed in the energy space in less than a minute. Looking at the energy bar that was only at two percent, Cao Xiao wanted to cry but had no tears. Over ten million yuan worth of corn only provided two percent energy; to fill the energy bar, wouldn't he have to spend five hundred million? For him now, earning five hundred million in a short time was simply impossible. Originally, having a few tens of millions had made him complacent, but he hadn't expected that even a billion might not be enough now. The road ahead was long and difficult. No wonder an atomic energy reactor needed to be built; relying solely on biological energy to normally use the industrial mother machine was barely enough.

Driving his car, he arrived at the place full of rotting meat again. Sure enough, that food company was still heartless; in less than half a month, there was a lot of garbage here again. This bit of garbage could provide very little energy, but even a mosquito's leg is meat. Besides, this garbage really was meat. This time, Cao Xiao dealt with it from a distance, avoiding getting covered in the foul stench again. Not long after it was taken into the energy space, it was all consumed, but the energy bar only moved slightly—not even 0.1% of the energy was added.

Speeding all the way, two hours later, Cao Xiao arrived in Xinyang County. He hadn't told his parents he was coming home today, so he ate dinner outside before driving back. By then, it was already past nine in the evening.

“Xiao Xiao, why are you back?” Li Fengmei opened the door for Cao Xiao and asked happily when she saw it was him.

“Mom, I came back this time to discuss something with you both. Is Dad not home?” Cao Xiao entered and saw the TV was on, but his father, Cao Jingde, was nowhere to be seen.

“He went out to have fun; there's a performance at Minsheng Square today. Right, you said you had something to discuss. What is it? Should I call him and tell him to come back?” Li Fengmei said.

“It's not a big deal; it's good news. I'll tell you first, and then we can discuss it together when he gets back,” Cao Xiao said.

“I'd better call him to come back; it's getting late anyway.” Li Fengmei took out her phone and called Cao Jingde.

After his mother finished the call, Cao Xiao said, “Mom, I made a large sum of money again a few days ago and bought a house in Huanghe City. I'll be spending most of my time there from now on, so I want to move our home to Huanghe City.”

“You bought a house? How many square meters? How many rooms? Well, if there are few rooms, we can partition them; it's fine even if it's a bit crowded. How much did it cost? You bought it with a loan, right? Are you short on money? Your dad's grocery store has been transferred, and I have over ten thousand yuan here; I'll give it all to you later.” Li Fengmei became very excited upon hearing that Cao Xiao had bought a house. Their family had been renting for the past few years; as soon as the rent went up, they had to immediately move to a place where the rent was a bit cheaper. They had moved six times in the last few years, having no fixed abode, so she was thrilled to hear they had their own house. With their own house, the family finally wouldn't have to wander anymore.

“Mom, don't get too excited. There's no loan; I paid in full. It's a villa, it's very large, and there are many rooms—more than enough for our family. There's even a vegetable patch in the back, so we can eat home-grown vegetables in the future.” Cao Xiao didn't plan to lie; one lie often requires more lies to cover it up. There was no need to do that with his family. Even if it was hard to explain, he wouldn't be able to hide it once they moved, so he decided to come clean.

“A villa? Where did you get so much money? Don't do anything foolish. Even if our family is poor, we must not spend 'dirty' money, or else it will all come to nothing in the end and you'll get yourself into trouble. Quickly, tell me honestly, what exactly have you been doing?” Li Fengmei thought Cao Xiao had made the money through illegal activities and immediately questioned him with extreme seriousness.

“Mom, what are you thinking? What kind of illegal activity could make so much money in such a short time? To tell you the truth, wasn't I dealing in coal? A friend of mine—her parents are directors of the Hongdu Group. You know Hongdu Group, right? It's a famous large group nationwide. Through her, I sold coal to Hongdu's steel company. The quantity was huge, and with the high price, the commission was also substantial, so I made a large sum of money. I didn't plan on buying a villa at first, but while I was in Huanghe City those few days, I took a teacher. My teacher has a very good relationship with the developer of Biyuntian, and they gave me almost the cost price. That's how I could afford it; otherwise, I could only have bought a larger apartment.” Fortunately, Cao Xiao had thought of a countermeasure a few days ago. He hadn't expected his mother to really misunderstand like this, so he explained with a mix of amusement and helplessness. He was moved by his mother's care but helpless because he had no choice; he couldn't let anyone know about the existence of the industrial mother machine except himself. It wasn't a matter of trust, but rather his fear of bringing disaster to his family.

“That's true; even selling drugs wouldn't make that much money in a few days. But I believe what you've said; you've never been good at lying since you were a child. However, this is such a big deal—if I find out you're lying to me, your father and I will kick you out of the house.” His mother still had some doubts, but based on her lifelong understanding of her son, she chose to believe him.

“I'm really not lying to you. Changchang knows about this too; that girl is living in the villa right now and asks me for allowance every day. If you don't believe me, you can ask her. But once we move there, you have to keep an eye on her. That girl eats from morning till night now, without any restraint.” Cao Xiao secretly wiped away a sweat, thinking that it was finally over. His mother was the main hurdle; his father wouldn't be much of a problem. Now he had just sacrificed Liu Chang; who told that girl to think about reporting me every day?