“Ta-da, this is your ‘Blacklight’.”
Two days later, outside the Meyer dock in Papenburg, the general manager of the Meyer Shipyard pointed to the dock in front and proclaimed loudly to Chen Chen.
Chen Chen looked at where he had pointed. A large group of people stood on the pier, looking at the dock that was the size of a hill, by the sea.
Three towing boats tugged at the towing ropes at full horsepower, pulling straight the steel cables that were as thick as arms.
The other end of the steel cables was connected to a pitch-black mammoth vessel within the dock.
Tens of thousands of people had formed a dense crowd on the pier. These were the local residents of Papenburg. With nothing better to do, they had come to watch the launching ceremony of cruise ships.
Meyer Shipyard had spread the news. Apparently, they had paid money to be a trending topic, announcing to the world that they had built the world’s largest cruise liner — the Blacklight.
Currently, as Chen Chen observed the large crowd of onlookers that had gathered on the pier, he mused to himself that it was not just Chinese people who enjoyed a spectacle. This probably applied universally to everyone in the world.
As the tugboats kept up their effort, a black behemoth slowly revealed its head. The bow of the Blacklight, which was being pulled forward by the tugboats, appeared in everyone’s visions.
There was a collective gasp from the crowd of onlookers.
Black!
This tanker had been painted black all over, which was a rare sight!
Not only that, but on both sides of the main deck, they could also see a massive logo. It was a black ball that was surrounded by red and yellow lights.
Under the contrast of the lights, the black ball looked just like a black hole…
This was the Blacklight, which could also be called the Blackwatch.
As more of the ship was revealed, its presence grew stronger and stronger. It was four hundred and four meters long, eighty meters wide, and seventy-five meters high. This gigantic ship had completely redefined the limits of cruise ships in the Federation!
Half an hour later, when the stern had broken free of the dock, the crowd erupted into an enthusiastic cheer. Chen Chen and the people from the shipyard who were standing on a platform of the dock also applauded.
“Congratulations, Mr. Chen Chen.”
The general manager of Meyer Shipyard shook hands with Chen Chen and joked. “This is the largest cruise ship in the Earth Federation to date. Even if it’s ranked among all the ships in the world, it must be in the top ten. I heard that you’ve previously rented Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship, the Symphony of the Seas. Presently, the ship you’ve ordered is much larger, whether in terms of length or width. I don’t know if you’ve hired employees — this ship can’t even move without one or two thousand employees.”
Chen Chen nodded. “Fortunately, I’ve poached the captain and the staff who worked specifically in engine navigation from the Symphony of the Seas by offering a higher salary. With them, I should be able to operate the Blacklight.”
“Then, I can be rest assured…”
The general manager of Meyer Shipyard laughed dryly.
As they were exchanging their pleasantries, the tugboats had pulled the Blacklight to moor at a port a few hundred meters away from the dock. The crew members who had been waiting a long time boarded instantly, including the white-bearded Captain Bernard of the Symphony of the Seas.
However, from the next second onward, he would be the captain of the Blackwatch.
Finally, Chen Chen and the personnel from the Meyer Shipyard followed suit and boarded the ship. A podium had already been prepared on the bow deck and all the employees on Chen Chen’s ship had lined up automatically, quietly waiting for Chen Chen’s speech.
Chen Chen had always disdained such bureaucratic speeches. After a few careless lines, he picked up a pair of scissors and quickly cut the rope on the bow, causing a suspended bottle of champagne to smash into the bow of the ship.
“Crash!”
As the sound of shattering glass rang out, everyone applauded. This was the launching ceremony of the ship. The west had always used this form of “bottle-smashing ceremony” to celebrate a ship’s official entry into the big family that was the ocean.
When this cruise ship was designed, Chen Chen had added a core power room, as was his habit. After the motors on the ship generated the electricity, it would pass through here first before being distributed to the engines and cabins.
A total of 12 Leroy-Somer LSA62 generators had been installed on the ship, providing a total power of 240,000 kilowatts, which was 2.4 times more than the Symphony of the Sea. Now that Chen Chen thought about it, this would be his largest device to generate electricity before the official operation of the nuclear power plant.
A few days later, Chen Chen had cleared the red tape of various countries. He boarded the Blacklight and left Germany directly, moving from the Heligoland Bight to the Strait of Dover, then passing through the English Channel, and finally entering the Atlantic Ocean.
The Blacklight traversed the entire Atlantic Ocean in only eight days. From Europe, it returned to Africa and arrived at Walvis Bay.
Eight days flew by quickly.
In the early morning of the ninth day, as the Blacklight berthed at Walvis Bay for the first time, Chen Chen also got off the cruise ship.
Qian Wenhuan was waiting on the dock, like clockwork. He opened the car door for Chen Chen and suddenly asked tentatively, “Boss, do you have any recent plans for this ship?”
“Not for now. I’ll have to recruit more people first,” Chen Chen responded.
“In that case, shall we hold the press conference for the Eco Science City here?”
Qian Wenhuan seemed delighted. “At the moment, newspapers all over the world are promoting the launch of the world’s largest cruise ship. With all this buzz, let’s hold the press conference on the cruise ship. Wouldn’t it better reflect the strength of our company’s technology and funding?”
“Sure. You take care of it then.”
Chen Chen nodded nonchalantly. “When do you plan to hold the press conference?”
“Ten days later, on 1 April,” Qian Wenhuan replied.
“An April Fools’ Day conference?”
Chen Chen laughed. “How interesting.”
“Will you…” Qian Wenhuan asked uncertainly.
“I won’t be joining.”
Chen Chen patted Qian Wenhuan’s shoulder and spoke in an encouraging voice, “I’ll leave it all to you then. Keep up the good work — I have faith in you.”
“…”
Cheng Cao was still playing the part of the mute driver. After he drove Chen Chen back to the research center, Chen Chen immediately went to the hidden human cloning laboratory on the 6th floor of the laboratory building.
“Boss!”
“Boss!”
In the laboratory, a group of researchers was bustling around and they immediately saluted Chen Chen when he arrived. Hannibal and Li Lei came in and greeted him too.
Chen Chen nodded, then looked at massive cylinders behind. There were over a hundred of them.
These cylinders were situated at the back of the laboratory. They were the life incubators that Chen Chen had been using.
These life incubators were much larger than the previous ones. They were about forty centimeters in diameter and two meters in height, with a body made entirely of tempered glass.
The life incubators were filled with a turbid, pale yellow liquid. Currently, a large number of bubbles kept forming in the liquid before they rose to the surface with a gurgle.
Through the yellow liquid within the glass, one could vaguely make out a figure, curled up like a fetus, floating up and down.
These figures looked like fifteen or sixteen-year-olds, but the strange thing was, their belly buttons were still attached to umbilical cords.
The ends of these umbilical cords were connected to a large number of pipes, which extended from the inside of the life incubator, out to a huge apparatus behind.
Chen Chen stared at the large number of life incubators in front of him. Some of them were cloned bodies of the members of the eleven Disciple families while the rest were clones that Chen Chen would use to conduct experiments.
Long ago, Chen Chen had gotten an idea:
To prevent these clones from thinking, they would all be injected with targeted, inhibiting serotonin to inhibit brain development. Eventually, their brains would atrophy completely, leaving behind a cavity in the brain.
Nonetheless, strangely enough, their cerebellum and brainstem would be unscathed.
In that case, Chen Chen wondered, if these clones were implanted with the God chip, would he be able to control them to act like normal people?
Therefore, Chen Chen had immediately asked Hannibal to begin a “hormone regulation experiment”. Through the regulation of hormones, they would make these clones grow into their adult forms within a year.
At this point, it appeared that the experiment had been successful.
