On the first day of May, the tranquility of Tiangong City was broken by a burst of news.
Star Sky Technology announced the acquisition of Fuxing Mining Company and merged the management of the other party. It would also reorganize the company’s mining and scrap alloy smelting business.
After this adjustment, Fuxing Mining Company became a subsidiary of Star Sky Technology. It would be renamed Fuxing Voyage, and its main business was the development of extraterrestrial resources and interstellar trade.
At the same time, Noah’s Ark would also be renamed Milky Way, and the flight path would be changed from Alpha Centauri to Tau Ceti, which was ten light-years away. Fuxing Voyage would continue the construction of the Milky Way.
Many people went crazy when they heard the news.
Especially the people who had bought the corporate bonds of the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation and reluctantly sold to cut their losses. They were flabbergasted.
Although the name of the Noah’s Ark project had changed, the contracts tied to the starship still had the same legal effect.
In other words, whether it was going to Tau Ceti or Alpha Centauri, as long as the colonial ship could successfully reach and deploy the colony capsule on the surface of the planet, all investors holding these special debts would obtain huge profit returns from this, and these benefits would be guaranteed by the colony’s land and other fixed assets.
There was only one risk, which was that the starship would not complete construction or that it would not reach a habitable world outside the solar system during its lifetime.
But now, this risk had undoubtedly been reduced.
There was only one reason.
It was because the person who took over this project was Lu Zhou; the man who was known as the pinnacle of the human mind!
Almost no one would doubt that he, who was smarter than anyone else, would buy a pile of useless broken scrap metal, and no one doubted that he didn’t have the ability to complete this magnificent project.
But then again, for those that had sold their corporate bonds, they couldn’t do anything.
After all, who would have thought that after they sold their corporate bonds and left the market, Fuxing Mining Company would be acquired by Star Sky Technology?
Star Sky Technology’s actions pissed off countless people.
For the vast majority of people in this era, this company that occasionally appeared in history textbooks had been swept into the tomb of history, but now, they came out of nowhere and stole the spotlight.
Most people couldn’t accept such a reality.
However, whether they could accept it or not, the reality was placed in front of them.
Their complaints were reasonable before, but they were unreasonable now. After all, no one forced them to sell their corporate bonds, and Star Sky Technology had no obligation to disclose such things in advance.
If there was a day when all information in this world were equally open and transparent to everyone, then there would be no such thing as risk…
As for the lucky ones who had not sold their corporate bonds, they felt like they were riding a roller coaster and experiencing the highest highs and the lowest lows, going from the ground to the skies.
And there were those who still had Noah’s Ark tickets in their hands.
Whether it was investors or people that really planned to travel to the world a few light-years away, they all planned to collect these scraps of paper as souvenirs. They didn’t expect everything to turn around again.
Star Sky Technology not only still recognized these tickets but also opened a refund channel, allowing those who changed their minds to refund the ticket at the original price.
However, no one refunded the tickets at all.
As soon as this news was released, the price of second-hand ship tickets was pumped to the sky.
Lu Zhou heard the news from Professor Wu Qinglai later. Apparently, at the craziest peak, the ticket price was pumped to 100,000 credit points…
“Anything, whether tangible or not, once it is labeled as a financial product, it will no longer be its original self.” In the office of the Mars branch of the AIIB, Zhong Ziyu looked at Lu Zhou, who was sitting on the sofa. Zhong Ziyu gently turned the ballpoint pen in his hand and said happily, “I suggest you release a batch of tickets at twice or even three times the original price.”
Lu Zhou: “But there is no more space on the ship.”
“There is a term called overbooking. If you know the aviation industry, you will know that every airline will issue more tickets than the number of seats. After all, not everyone can take the flight in the end. There are all sorts of reasons to cancel their plans.” Zhong Ziyu smiled and continued, “Of course, I’m just suggesting. The choice is yours.”
“I don’t need that much money at this stage.” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “If there is a shortage of money later, I will consider your suggestions.”
“It’s not a question of shortage of money… Wait a minute.” President Zhong suddenly realized something. He stood up from the office chair and looked at Lu Zhou sitting on the sofa. With a surprised expression on his face, he asked, “Do you really plan to use your own money to build this ship?”
Lu Zhou asked, “How else? I haven’t borrowed money from you.”
“That’s true… I’m sorry, I’m just a little surprised.” With an awkward smile, Zhong Ziyu gave a light cough and changed the expression on his face. “I heard from somewhere before that you are going to go to Tau Ceti… Is it true?”
“Yeah.”
Staring at Lu Zhou for a while, Zhong Ziyu’s face immediately showed a look of realization. He sat back on the office chair with a wry smile.
“No wonder… In that case, money really doesn’t make much sense to you.”
Lu Zhou smiled faintly. He said in a casual tone, “It’s not totally meaningless, just not as attractive.”
“Actually, I still don’t understand one thing.”
“Don’t understand what?”
“You are definitely able to design the Milky Way ship to be more perfect, so why would you leave this to Academician Yang Chongping?”
“Because he is more professional in this area. I really don’t have much experience in starship design.” Lu Zhou smiled as he looked at President Zhong. He continued after thinking for a while, “Of course, there are other reasons. After all, I still have more important work to be done.”
Zhong Ziyu: “The space elevator?”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “It’s not just the space elevator. Remember the stargates I talked about before?”
Zhong Ziyu suddenly showed a touch of emotion on his face as he looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief.
“Wait, you—”
“Yes, in addition to the warp drive, this is what I have been researching during this period of time.”
Lu Zhou reached out his right hand and spread his palm.
A holographic light beam shined from his wrist, and a ring gleaming with blue light appeared above his palm.
“The highway of material and information exchange. I’ve told you about this before.”
President Zhong’s attention was completely distracted by this holographic beam.
Lu Zhou smiled and continued, “Whether it is mass or massless photons, when passing through it, they will briefly enter the hyperspace channel until they come out from the other side of the channel.
“And just yesterday, I finished it.”
