Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 116 - 116 99 Lila's Upgrade

116: Chapter 99 Lila’s Upgrade 116: Chapter 99 Lila’s Upgrade Upon receiving Xu Yang’s instructions, Zuo Hongchen exported his business plan while making idle conversation with Xu Yang.

“There are hardly any decent investment channels available,” complained Zuo Hongchen.

“Everything is depreciating, and all profits are diminishing; business is so difficult.

I truly wish that some talented individual would emerge to lead us into a new way of life.”

“A war is on the verge of breaking out,” Xu Yang glanced at the financial section on Zuo Hongchen’s screen, where the stock prices of major military companies were soaring.

After this series of events, Black Fire Innovation had become a focal point of attention, with its stock price skyrocketing.

From this perspective, the majority believed that Black Fire Innovation would gain the upper hand in the upcoming corporate civil war.

They had committed a series of horrifying crimes, yet, in a way, their actions had proved their strength.

Experts had assessed their attack on the Shenkong Tower, pointing out that Black Fire Innovation had the capability to destroy several corporate cities with similar tactics within the first week of war, making the joint intervention by gigantic corporations resemble playing with fire.

“It’s chaotic out there,” Zuo Hongchen said with a bitter smile.

“I don’t know who can show us the way.

If there really is a savior, he should appear now to maintain order.”

“Do you like this order?” Xu Yang asked.

“This order is disadvantageous for most people.

A true savior should innovate this order, not preserve it.”

“That’s not an option,” muttered Zuo Hongchen.

“Change comes with bloodshed and death!

Who likes stirring trouble?

Most people just want to live a simple life.

Why shatter everyone’s livelihood?

There’s a lot of anti-corporatism online, but I simply don’t buy their rhetoric.

Have you heard their propaganda?”

“I haven’t looked into it,” Xu Yang couldn’t reveal his true thoughts.

“You really should take a look,” said Zuo Hongchen.

“Their rhetoric is grand, claiming they want to change the world.

But they lack guns and cannons, relying solely on typing!”

“Enough talk,” Xu Yang shrugged.

“Give me the plan.

According to you, Jumen Commerce is facing a challenge.”

“It’s an opportunity, sir,” Zuo Hongchen sent the business plan to Xu Yang.

“Challenges come with the best opportunities.

Other companies are severely damaged just like us, but we are the first to restart business.

A continuous flow of business opportunities is being monopolized by us, it’s just that…

we need more investment.”

“Lila is a major shareholder.

I’ll show it to her, and if she agrees, we will make an additional investment,” Xu Yang scanned Zuo Hongchen’s plan.

According to the assessment, post-chaos Aizu City needed massive amounts of construction materials, food, medical supplies, vehicles, and robots.

The local residents had a potential consumption power of about 2.19 billion in funds.

Jumen Commerce had a comprehensive range of imports, extensive business contacts, and within the next 12 months, could handle 5% of the shares.

After deducting the cost of imports and exports, attrition, and the operating license fee paid to Kyoto Infinity, they could achieve a sales volume of about 100 million by next year, with a comprehensive gross profit margin of 9%, which meant an annual profit of 9 million, bringing Xu Yang a profit of 750,000 funds every month.

This was corporatism.

Xu Yang saw numbers and wealth dancing in front of his eyes as he looked over the business draft.

Despite the external chaos, the stability here was guaranteed.

After all, Anjiu City was located deep within Kyoto Infinity’s territory.

Unless Kyoto Infinity was completely overrun in the war, corporate warfare would not affect this area.

“…But I still boldly request that you provide additional investment,” Zuo Hongchen earnestly said.

“With just a bit more funds, 3 to 5 million, we could seize a larger share.

Many local shops are seeking supplies, and if we don’t make the connections now, it will be too late.

My sales elites keep piling business plans in front of me, like mountains, yet I lack the funds to execute them—it’s such a waste.” He patted a stack of documents on his desk.

“Lila will take care of it,” Xu Yang forwarded Zuo Hongchen’s message to Lila.

“Just wait.”

“Is that…

a robot?” Zuo Hongchen, who had seen Lila once before, now recalled that somewhat strange appearance.

“…It seemed a little…”

He searched for the right words but ultimately couldn’t speak them.

“Regardless of appearance, Lila Nestor is a Witch and shareholder recognized by the Corporate Alliance,” said Xu Yang.

“Show some respect.”

“Yes,” Zuo Hongchen hastily replied.

“Don’t be too nervous; I’m just a layman in this area,” said Xu Yang.

“You are the one who can lead the company forward.”

“Running a company is truly difficult…” Zuo Hongchen’s gaze returned to the screen, his eyes weary.

Xu Yang felt this was indeed a sentiment from the heart.

Xu Yang went out to the corridor for a walk and opened a window to breathe some fresh air.

Next door, Zuo Hongchen was still issuing orders non-stop, summoning employees like dogs into his office, where they listened to his commands with eagerness and anticipation.

They needed to rent a larger space, purchase equipment and consumables, schedule office renovations, order goods from other companies, apply for business qualifications, and take out a loan from Enomoto Bank—a major bank under the umbrella of Xisheng Capital, with operations covering the entire Kyoto Infinity territory.

The company was busy with operations.

“Yes!”

“I’m on it!”

“Right!”

“Received!” Upon receiving Zuo Hongchen’s instructions, Jumen Commerce’s employees were busily engaged in their work, fully immersed, and striving to prove their worth.

Even at Jumen Commerce, Xu Yang could see many Synthetic Humans at work, quietly sitting at their stations, connected to power sources, performing highly repetitive tasks.

Next to them were a large number of stiff and robotic company people, sometimes making it hard to tell which was the machine.

Lila initiated communication with Jumen Commerce, and Zuo Hongchen promptly connected, putting on his headset, unwilling to miss any instruction from Lila.

“Based on the current situation in Aizu City, Jumen Commerce Corporation is poised to become an extremely profitable company,” Lila, having read the plan, made a judgment, “as long as Mr.

Zuo’s management competency score is above 7 out of 10.”

“I scored a 9/10,” said Zuo Hongchen proudly, “My father had me tested at 18 years old, and that has been my greatest confidence in starting a business.”

Xu Yang knew they were talking about a comprehensive business management assessment, a complete set of evaluation questions produced by the Corporate Alliance that determines whether a person is qualified to run a business.

The average human scores 3.5/10, while the business AIs used by large companies score 20/10.

The “Sinan” core array used by Kyushu High Pavilion scored a staggering 40/10, capable of making correct decisions far beyond human capability in the vast majority of management decisions.

The business AIs of major corporations calculate against each other, executing tens of millions of computations per second to find opportunities to win in competition.

With a score of 9/10, Zuo Hongchen possessed a certain level of business acumen.

He was considered a skilled entrepreneur among small and medium business owners, unlikely to engage in loss-making transactions.

Coupled with Lila’s endorsement of Zuo Hongchen’s proposal, Xu Yang then invested 3 million funds in Jumen Commerce, with additional investment to follow depending on his profit situation.

The remaining 88 million funds, Xu Yang decided to save for the company he would establish in the future.

He left the affairs here in the hands of Zuo Hongchen, no longer involving himself, and waited to collect the money.

At the same time, Xu Yang drafted a shopping list for Zuo Hongchen, asking him to purchase the items quickly to facilitate the setup of his own company.

The list included:

One King Class Shuttle Machine, 5.8 million.

It was the flagship product of Suvy Metals, a giant corporation specializing in the production of military vehicles, tanks, and power armor, with exceptional product quality.

The King Class was a large shuttle machine, luxurious in terms of speed, resistance, and its own armament.

Many medium-sized companies would have such a large shuttle machine as a standard feature, and some companies directly made use of a King Class machine as their entire security department.

Shuttle machines, as convenient and powerful vehicles, were always good to have in abundance.

This King Class machine, purchased for self-defense, was comparable to an army of combat robots in terms of cost-effectiveness, while the Anonymous was used for covert operations.

Next on the list were six sets of “Ming” level Witch Armor, each costing 250,000 for a total of 1.5 million.

These consumer-grade standard armors were directly purchased from Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing.

Witch Armor was designed to fit a witch’s body as closely as possible, equipped with various auxiliary features for movement, flight, and the use of magic power.

The brand-new armors would be used to arm agents 101 and 102.

Since Kyoto Infinity and Lighthouse Core were both monitoring Aizu City, these materials were naturally purchased in the name of Jumen Commerce.

Zuo Hongchen actually had a license to train Combat Witches, and he even dreamed of winning a corporate zone one day to concentrate and train the witches born in the company.

With the license, acquiring Witch Armor would not attract attention, as it was considered regular business activity.

If purchased in a personal capacity, one would immediately draw attention.

Even if one could not catch the secret organizations covertly raising witches, one might still ensnare a problematic individual who harbored witches at home.

Furthermore, medical supplies were purchased for 20,000, to replenish the Automated Doctor on Anonymous and included detoxifying agents for Sally for the next step of dealing with Ratmen.

Other items included furniture, industrial production equipment, hydroponic farms, computers, batteries, robots, and machine gun turrets for defense.

Xu Yang felt that one could not do without these essential materials if finding a place to develop in the future.

He didn’t rush to buy because there were many intricacies in these categories of goods, and it was easy to end up with substandard or poor-quality products with a little inattention.

He first collected a massive amount of information on the deep anonymous network, with countless content being crawled by his Digital Mind.

Utilizing the high computational capability of “Flying God 4,” Xu Yang kept analyzing and recording valuable content from within, separating the wheat from the chaff, repeatedly selecting, and ultimately choosing a bunch of cost-effective products.

He tasked Zuo Hongchen to import them, storing a large volume of products in the warehouses of Jumen Commerce, to later be transported to Xu Yang’s own company.

Besides the shuttle machine and armor, other various items cost 6 million in total.

The collection was comprehensive, more than enough to build a base with development potential, and now all that was missing was a proper site.

With this, the remaining funds were about 75 million.

After returning, Xu Yang initially did not have the heart to tell Farosa how much he had spent, but considering the importance of honest treatment and not wanting to hide things from each other like Farosa did, he still shared the expenses with her.

Upon hearing the news, she was deeply hurt by the expense.

“Next time, consult me before buying,” Farosa emphasized.

“Your company is Lila’s company, so your money is my money.”

“There’s another big expense coming up,” Xu Yang scanned the market for suitable new types of robots and Consciousness Chip carriers, planning to upgrade Lila.

These products were extremely rare and also very expensive.

Lila’s current Sky Crane Robot was valued at roughly 1 million.

If one were to purchase a model that marked an upgrade from the Sky Crane, the price would instantly soar to 7-10 million.

At the same time, Lila’s Consciousness Chip had been running for nearly 20 years and was due for a replacement.

The new chip needed to be of a higher grade than the original to expand Lila’s mind and bring her closer to her original spirit, with the price around 5 million.

Farosa certainly didn’t want to spend money on Lila, and she immediately informed Lila of this news.

As soon as Lila learned how much her upgrade would cost, she instantly rejected the plan, which was what Farosa had anticipated.

“Lila can still operate,” she said hastily.

“Please don’t worry about Lila.”

“Right, right, right,” Farosa repeated, “and to think it would cost so, so, so much money!

There are much better things to spend on!”

“Yeah,” Xu Yang appeased.

Despite saying that, Xu Yang secretly contacted a factory in the Great Northern Region that specialized in custom high-end robotic bodies.

Starting with Lila’s previous figure and her head, he began designing and producing a brand-new body perfectly matching Lila’s figure and facial features.

It would be much tougher and more robust than the “Sky Crane,” suitable for all combat and reconnaissance activities.

Once this new body was manufactured, and a new Consciousness Chip was ordered, Lila would be infinitely closer to her original, life-like form – vibrant, beautiful, tangibly real.

She would no longer be seen as a robot, nor would she need to carry her original head around.

Watching Lila’s serene, earnest demeanor, Xu Yang could imagine how excited she would be when the new body arrived.

No matter what, I won’t let you down, Lila.