Life Game In Other World
Chapter 173: Life and Profit (Long - , Please Subscribe, Add to Favorites, Request Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 173: Chapter 173: Life and Profit (Long Chapter, Please Subscribe, Add to Favorites, Request Monthly Tickets)

"This one should be Talent Sequence 2: Student,"

Roger pointed to the lightest colored elixir on the far left, then he pointed to the darkest elixir on the far right, "This one should be Talent Sequence 40: Magician, as for what the one in the middle is, I don’t know, nor am I very clear about what other Secret Medicines there are in this pathway."

Then he looked up at He Ao, "If you are going to take this Secret Medicine, you should be mentally prepared. The names of the Talent Sequences have Transcendent significance.

Not knowing the name of the Talent Sequence means you won’t be able to pinpoint the nature of your Transcendent power, nor have any direction in mastering these Transcendent powers. If something goes wrong, you might plunge into chaos and madness."

"Mm."

He Ao gazed at the three Secret Medicines.

He was actually very clear about the consequences of mistaken recognition.

The ’Magician’ that was killed by him in the main world had gone mad because he mistook his ’Magic Apprentice’ Talent for that of a ’Magician’.

However,

He Ao’s gaze lingered on the middle vial of Secret Medicine.

Was this Talent Sequence between ’Student’ and ’Magician’ perhaps ’Magic Apprentice’?

From those he had encountered in the main world with the ’Magic Apprentice’ Talent, the abilities seemed somewhat similar to those of a ’Magician’, and the mad Transcendent even identified himself as a ’Magician’, which could very well mean that there was some connection between the two.

However, He Ao had his guesses but didn’t dare to confirm them; if he were wrong, the trouble would be serious.

He withdrew his gaze, didn’t reach for the Secret Medicine on the test tube rack, but looked at Roger who had started yawning again, "Why aren’t you sleeping at this late hour?"

"I’m staying up late to extract the Talent Sequences for you."

Roger rolled his eyes, ignoring the three Secret Medicines lying on the table, and walked toward the corner of the clinic.

The corpse of the Assassin was lying there.

Watching Roger getting busy again, He Ao shook his head with a smile, sat down on a chair nearby, and took out the manual that was over a thousand pages long from his chest.

He had memorized the entire manual, but since the book itself was important evidence, he brought it back with him.

Mm, when leaving, he had even completed the procedure for borrowing the book, which was handled by the skinny man.

As the operator of the I-27 robotic arm, the skinny man was entitled to borrow this book according to the factory’s rules. After verifying his identity and paying a deposit, He Ao took the book away.

The deposit for the book was a hefty 1750 federal coins. If the book was lost or not returned when due, the deposit would be forfeited, and it would count as a ’purchase’.

Such a high deposit was essentially a deterrent for the workers; no one would be willing to advance more than seventeen hundred federal coins just to borrow a thousand-page book to read.

But He Ao was wealthy, and thus he successfully swiped his card and legally took this important piece of evidence out of the factory’s archives.

As for why this manual is an important piece of evidence,

Although the manual mentioned at the back that the design lifespan of the robotic arm was fifteen years, it detailed each individual module’s lifespan when discussing them separately.

None of these important modules making up the robotic arm, except for the outer layer of iron, had a service life longer than fifteen years, with the highest lifespan being only thirteen years.

It didn’t mean that it couldn’t be used beyond the design lifespan.

After exceeding the design lifespan, it could still function, but the modules would start to exhibit various issues, and the longer the time, the bigger the problems.

Especially the emergency system of the robotic arm would start to have problems after ten years, and after twelve years, there would already be significant wear and tear, leading to intermittent failures.

Moreover, most of the other modules would surpass their maximum safe lifespan after eleven years and could potentially cause various accidents.

The robotic arm that Joey’s parents operated had been in use for over fourteen years.

In the middle of the manual, there was a sneaky small print statement: the robotic arm was designed with a maximum lifespan of fifteen years, but it could not guarantee safety for fifteen years. Some important parts should be replaced after ten years.

All these important parts were core components of the robotic arm, and in a normal situation, the retail price of such components would be more expensive than when installed in a finished product, and according to the laws of Dawn City, they couldn’t continue being used after exceeding the design lifespan.

Replacing these core components and using the arm for another five years wouldn’t be as cost-effective as buying a brand-new robotic arm to use for ten years.

Naturally, Avis Group could also opt to replace the parts and continue using them.

But did they replace them?

Obviously not.

If Avis Group had replaced the core parts, the unusual noises Jack heard wouldn’t have happened. In fact, by the time Joey’s parents started working, the robotic arm’s emergency system should have already been on the verge of collapse.

After memorizing the entire manual, He Ao’s understanding of the robotic arm was no less than some relevant professional engineers; after all, not everyone would memorize a manual over a thousand pages long.

He could also clearly identify the probable source of the issues with the robotic arm.

After placing the manual aside, He Ao turned on his bracelet, entered the homepage of the ’Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company’, the producer of the robotic arm, and directly went to their online store to search for ’TB-167A’ in the search bar.

But there was no such model.

Usually, not finding a model could mean not having enough access rights or searching for a custom product.

Of course, it could also be out of stock, but considering that Avis Machinery Factory could still purchase a brand-new model, the likelihood of it being out of stock wasn’t high.

He Ao pondered for a moment, then opened the category page of the online store and entered the robotic arms section, quickly scanning through all the categories.

Finally, his gaze settled on a large robotic arm. The model number of this arm was NB-167, similar to that used by Avis Machinery Factory. The product image seemed almost identical to the TB-167A robotic arms used by Avis Machinery Factory.

He Ao clicked for more details, and the specifications of this robotic arm were exactly the same as those of the TB-167A. The 3D images also looked identical, it was released twenty-three years ago, and the price was 10.73 million federal coins.

The price roughly matched as well.

After a moment of consideration, He Ao opened the online customer service chat.

To chat with customer service, company name was required to be filled in. He Ao casually entered Roy’s company name and proceeded to the chat interface.

Initially, it connected to an automated customer service, but He Ao immediately chose to switch to a human operator.

The time was now approaching ten o’clock, and customer service was still online.

Customer Service: [Hello, how can I assist you?]

He Ao scanned the structural diagram on the instruction manual with his bracelet and sent it over, with the note,

[Do you have the TB-167A model of the robotic arm, I visited the Avis Machinery Factory today, and it seemed quite useful.]

Customer Service: [Please wait one moment.]

Customer Service: [Hello, that machine is customized for the Avis Group, may I suggest you take a look at this one?]

He received the link to the NB-167 model that He Ao had just looked at.

He Ao: [What’s the difference between these two models?]

Customer Service: [They are pretty much the same.]

He Ao: [What is the lifespan of this model?]

Customer Service: [The design lifespan is ten years, after which we do not recommend continued usage.]

He Ao: [Is there a model with a lifespan of fifteen years?]

Customer Service: [No, this model lasts a maximum of ten years, and there could be various issues if used beyond that period.]

He Ao: [Thank you.]

He Ao logged out of the website and opened the stock inquiry website, logging in with Roy’s account.

Roy had topped up his membership for the site, allowing him to freely look up the shareholding structure and risk information of companies within the Federation.

He typed ’Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company’ into the search bar.

Soon, the information page for Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company popped up.

He Ao immediately turned his attention to the shareholding structure.

The shareholding structure of Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company was extremely complex.

The software showed that its controlling shareholder was ’Anvis Holdings’, which possessed over 67% of Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company’s shares through multiple layers of holdings and subsidiaries.

Moreover, all of the company’s past CEOs had been executives of the Avis Energy Group.

In other words, Abert Intelligent Manufacturing Company was essentially controlled by the Avis Energy Group.

After finding this out, He Ao put down his bracelet and leaned back in his chair.

This machine had a price tag of ten million and a ten-year lifespan, amounting to a mechanical cost of one million per year.

That was the case for a ten-year usage.

What about if it was used beyond ten years?

Essentially, the mechanical cost of one million per year would be gone, starting from the eleventh year, and each year’s net profit would increase by a million, adding up to five million in profit if used for an additional five years.

Five million, how much is the life of a manual worker worth? 300,000.

Even if two operating workers died, it would only come to 600,000.

Oh, that 600,000 would be compensated by the insurance company.

Without any accident insurance legislation, they could be dismissed for no more than 100,000.

Even if they had to go to court, the cost spread over each case by the team of lawyers maintained by the group was extremely low, ten thousand at most.

And how many of those workers, who hadn’t even attended community college, would have any legal awareness?

If you calculate it using mathematical expectation, the ’life’ cost spread over each machine might be just three or four hundred thousand.

But how much profit could it bring?

Even if, like the machine in Dawn City, it exploded after just over fourteen years, it would have brought the factory over four million in profit, close to a 1000% profit margin.

To achieve such a terrifying profit margin, all that was needed was a change of a single line of text.

Alter the design lifespan from ten years to fifteen years.

Then rebrand the robotic arm with a new number, and it becomes a ’custom new model’ with a fifteen-year design lifespan.

It was launched twenty-three years ago, with accidents starting to occur a decade ago.

Thirteen years—exactly the time when this type of robotic arm began to have various issues.

With that, everything matched up.

He Ao took a deep breath, gripping the armrests of the chair tightly, then slowly released his grip.

He opened the social networking app, and of the five suspected victims from other cities he had contacted in the afternoon, two had replied, both of whom were currently online.

He Ao messaged them, discussed a few things, and obtained the materials related to their incidents.

He quietly read through these materials, then put on his mask and called Christos’s video phone.

"Hello?"

The phone rang a few times before it was swiftly answered.

"Remember when I said I needed your help with something?"

He Ao looked at the man in the silver suit on the video call, "I think you might be very interested in some materials I have."