After thinking for a while, he said, "Brother, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but... I have to see this thing with my own eyes and use it to know if it can be sold; otherwise, I can’t convince the buyer."
Lin Miao already knew Reyes would say this.
"How about this, in a few days, I’ll contact you. By then, bring the buyers you found to Evil Land. I’ll show you a live demonstration. Decide after you see it if you want to buy or not. How about that?"
"Sure." Reyes became increasingly surprised by the other’s tactics. "Who is the target?"
"Damn, you’re really milking it dry, aren’t you?" Reyes laughed initially, then said seriously, "But let me remind you, Night Wanderer is backed by the Chaotic Blade Association, a big entity. Night Wanderer is their branch outside Night City, responsible for managing the smuggling operations in this area. If you push them too hard, the Chaotic Blade Association might come looking for you personally."
"Even a rabbit will bite when it’s cornered, let alone this pack of hyenas."
"There’s nothing I can do." Lin Miao shrugged with some regret, "This place is only so big. If I take a bite, someone else eats less. But if I don’t eat, I’ll starve. Compared to competing with city people for food, this hyena is a bit easier to bully."
As he spoke, Lin Miao glanced again at the heavily guarded dog town gate. He certainly couldn’t compete with Kurt Hansen for food.
Reyes also noticed his gaze.
This man... has ambition...
But ambition is only worth anything if you can achieve it.
Reyes chuckled and said,
"Then I can only wish you smooth sailing. When you, sir, have established yourself outside the city, just remember to lend your brother a hand."
After saying this, three semi-trailer trucks stopped in front of the garage door. More than a dozen casually dressed thugs got off one after another, but despite their different outfits, they had a distinctly military demeanor.
The leader was a bald black man, with pure white prosthetic eyes, his left eye covered with an auxiliary optical lens, and his arms were obviously military-grade prosthetic limbs. From what Lin Miao knew, the force from those hands alone was no less than the exoskeleton he sold.
Of course, they weren’t cheap, costing at least four times as much as his exoskeleton.
The black man was Dao Jie, whose original name was Carl Robinson. He stood a head taller than Lin Miao, estimated to be about two-point-one meters tall. His dark skin and deliberately exposed advanced prosthetics gave a strong sense of oppression, coupled with the Netherworld Dog emblem exposed on his chest, anyone would know this guy’s affiliation.
He crossed his arms in front of him, looked down at Lin Miao and the old captain, and casually said,
"The stuff you wanted is on the truck. You can pay now."
"I have to inspect the goods first."
Even if the other party was a warlord on Taiping Continent, so what? Lin Miao’s money wasn’t blown in by the wind. If the truck was full of junk, who would he complain to?
Money matters are no small matter.
"If you don’t trust me, why are you doing business with me?"
Dao Jie frowned slightly, blocking Lin Miao from passing as if he didn’t intend to let him through. The old captain was familiar; after all, Dog Town also required smuggling vehicles, or Dao Jie wouldn’t have agreed to do business with him for selling CNC machine tools.
The guy in front of him was probably the buyer, but he looked unfamiliar.
He tried to scan but got no results other than a name.
"Trust is built over time. This is the first time we’re meeting. Maybe in the future, we can be as close as brothers, but not today."
Dao Jie glanced at the old captain, waited a moment before waving his hand, signaling to open the truck door to let Lin Miao and the old captain board to inspect the goods. The seller, a person from Meta Group, also came along.
They entered the truck one after another. This kind of semi-trailer carriage was very large, not much smaller than those mobile homes. Four people could enter and have plenty of space to move around.
An employee from Meta Group introduced,
"These two are military-grade micron-level five-axis CNC fully automated machining centers, model NUSG55-7, 2700mm in length, 1950mm in width, 2100m in height, equipped with Micro-S programming technology, Militech technology integrated into the CNC system and PHD/CYM system, fully closed-loop five-axis control, multi-axis positioning, and five-axis simultaneous machining...."
It seemed they anticipated an on-site inspection. The Meta Group person even had a temporary battery prepared on the truck to demonstrate it to Lin Miao, machining a screw.
Although he didn’t understand what was shown.
But that didn’t matter because Lin Miao knew as long as these were connected to the internet, if the machine tool manufacturer didn’t want you to use them, even if you moved the machine tool a few meters, they could remotely disable it at any time, and there was no use complaining. This was technological monopoly.
Fortunately, this place was full of rivalry, with each side developing and competing in all aspects. Dozens of multinational companies were producing and fiercely competing with machine tools; otherwise, even the CNC software alone would start at hundreds of thousands.
You think it’s expensive, but I find it expensive too. If you have the skills, go write your own.
So, the first thing to do after moving the machine tools back was to wipe their system, something Lin Miao couldn’t do, but he believed the system could.
Because the other party had already written "I am a strong AI" on its face, Bee and prosthetic system versions could be wiped, and there was no reason the machine tools couldn’t.
After both CNC machines were verified, Lin Miao cheerfully paid the bill.
thousand, plus the old captain’s 20 thousand commission, totaling 150 thousand.
Originally, the 170 thousand mentioned included 20 thousand for the reactor and materials, which had already been paid.
The recent earnings mostly vanished with this transaction, making Lin Miao’s heart ache yet leaving him helpless.
The three big trucks belonged to the old captain, and the Meta Group employees would accompany them to the office to help install the machine tools. To be safe, Lin Miao would also go along.
Dao Jie watched the departing convoy, his mouth slightly twitching.
Even though prices were similar, machine tools were a different concept from prosthetics or other military equipment; they were sensitive items. Thus, companies were very strict about machine tool control, and money alone couldn’t always buy them.
Because this thing represents production, with it, many items could be manufactured, even using machine tools to make other machine tools, so Lin Miao could only buy them on the black market.
But buying on the black market didn’t necessarily mean it was truly safe.
As previously mentioned, every machine tool had a serial number in their systems, regardless of where they went. Before the system was wiped, they could be remotely tracked.
But what did that have to do with Dao Jie?
He was only responsible for selling goods on the front lines. Who wanted to buy, who wanted to sell, or who was watching this transaction didn’t concern him.
As long as the money was in hand, that was enough.