I accidentally joined a group of charlatans, so I immediately called the police and handed it over t

The negotiating table was set up in a small conference room at Base 001.

There were no flowers, no mineral water.

There was only a cold iron table and two iron chairs so hard they could crush your bones.

The special envoy from the White House, Mr. Williams, who was used to being domineering on the international stage, was now sitting upright, his shirt back already soaked with cold sweat.

He was sitting across from a young man dressed in cheap blue overalls.

Chen Xi held an old-fashioned calculator in his hand, his slender fingers tapping away on it.

The crisp sound was like nails hammering into Williams' fragile nerves.

Li Guobang sat silently to the side, like a black-faced door god with his arms crossed.

He would occasionally glance coldly at Williams with the look one gives a dead man.

"Mr. Chen."

Williams finally couldn't take the torment anymore. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his voice dry as if sandpaper was being rubbed.

"We...we have agreed to your request and acknowledge that this was a serious misinformation."

"Please be lenient and allow our personnel to leave safely."

Williams took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and felt his heart bleeding.

"As for the ship, we can give it up."

As long as the people can get back, even if the ship is lost, at least the current government can save face.

If thousands of soldiers were to be treated like trash and left to die in the South China Sea, they would either end up in prison or be torn apart by angry citizens upon returning home.

"Abandon the ship?"

Chen Xi stopped pressing the calculator.

He looked up, a genuine look of surprise on his face.

"Mr. Williams, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Chen Xi pointed to himself, then pointed out the window.

"Those piles of scrap metal are now stuck in my super glue, like flies in amber, impossible to pry off. They've long been my spoils of war."

"Since it's mine, what right do you have to give it up?"

"you--!"

Williams was so angry that his face turned red and white in turns, and he almost couldn't catch his breath.

"Let's talk about compensation instead, so as not to waste time."

Chen Xi didn't give him a chance to retaliate and directly threw an outrageously long bill out of the drawer.

The paper cascaded to the ground like a waterfall, densely packed with items that made one's head spin.

"This is the garbage disposal fee calculated by our technicians overnight; it's fair and transparent."

Please take a look.

Williams took the bill with trembling hands, and after just one glance, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

[Project 1: Unauthorized use of our company's dedicated test lane fee.]

Billing standard: $1000 per second. Total duration: 79 hours. Subtotal: $2.8 million.

"This...this is robbery! Blatant robbery!"

Williams finally couldn't hold back and roared.

"Robbery? No, no, no."

Chen Xi shook his finger and calmly retorted.

"Mr. Williams, here we call this prime location on-street parking, and we've already given you a 20% discount."

Williams resisted the urge to flip the table and continued reading, his hands trembling more and more as he read.

[Item Two: Cost of Marine Ecological Environment Damage]

[Note: This includes, but is not limited to, malicious behaviors such as frightening dolphins, damaging coral reef lighting, and affecting sea turtle mating. Subtotal: $50 billion.]

[Project Three: Labor costs for manual dismantling of large-scale marine debris.]

[Note: This includes compensation for high-altitude operations, high-temperature allowances, and emotional distress suffered by our employees after witnessing the unsightly state of your warships. Subtotal: US$100 billion.]

[Item Four: The Ultimate Visual Pollution Fine.]

[Note: Due to the extremely ugly and aesthetically unappealing design of your warships, which seriously violates mainstream Eastern aesthetics, it has caused irreversible psychological and visual harm to fishermen in the surrounding waters.]

[Fine: $200 billion.]

"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"

Williams slammed the bill on the table, the veins on his neck bulging like earthworms.

"Ugly?! You're actually going to fine us 200 billion just because our captain is ugly?!"

"This is unprecedented in the history of international law!"

Chen Xi slowly picked up the bill and blew off the dust as if it were a precious treasure.

"Mr. Williams, times have changed."

"In the East, beauty is productivity, and ugliness is original sin."

He raised his head, his eyes suddenly turning cold, the amiable but cunning businessman demeanor from before vanishing completely.

"In our territory, what I say is the rule."

Chen Xi slammed the bill back onto the table.

"A total of three hundred billion US dollars."

"or……"

He pulled another pre-prepared list from his pocket and casually placed it next to the bill.

"If you use the technology patent on this piece of paper as a deduction, we can consider giving you a small discount."

Williams practically lunged at the list and grabbed it.

His heart stopped beating the moment he glanced at it.

ASML's complete upgrade technology for EUV light sources, Boeing's aerodynamic layout data for its next-generation supersonic passenger aircraft, Lockheed Martin's prototype blueprints for quantum radar...

This is not a list!

This is going to uproot the very lifeline of technology for the entire Western world for the next fifty years!

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Williams suddenly stood up and roared, his voice filled with bravado but his heart was filled with fear.

"This is extortion! It's blackmail! We will absolutely not sign!"

He attempted to reclaim some superpower dignity, bluffingly threatening, "If you don't release them, our carrier battle group..."

"It's still under repair in the shipyard in the East China Sea, right?"

Chen Xi interrupted him casually, a cruel smile playing on her lips.

"Mr. Williams, it seems you haven't figured out who's begging whom right now."

Chen Xi took out his phone, opened a video, and projected it directly onto the wall.

The dimly lit conference room was instantly illuminated by blinding firelight.

In the video, a cute little girl with a topknot and bare feet is holding a spear that is burning with Samadhi Fire.

The background sound is the child's extremely furious roar:

"Why haven't you made a move yet?!"

"My Fire-Tipped Spear is itching for a fight!"

"If those piles of scrap metal don't get out of here soon!"

"Let them taste what authentic American-style boiled fish is like!"

boom--!

At the end of the video, the long spear suddenly plunges into the sea.

In the video, the entire sea instantly boiled!

Although it was just an image, the terrifying heatwave that could be felt even through the screen—enough to incinerate everything and dry up the ocean—made Williams instantly suffocate, and he even felt a warm current flowing through his crotch.

Chen Xi turned off the video and looked at the special envoy, whose face had turned ashen and whose legs were trembling.

"This is the next phase of testing that our company plans to conduct—intense high-temperature sterilization of marine ecosystems."

"As you know, our Nantianmen Company always puts environmental protection first."

Chen Xi stood up, straightened his cheap blue overalls, and spoke in a calm tone as if he were announcing a death sentence.

"If you refuse to pay this negligible garbage disposal fee."

"Then we have no choice but to start the high-temperature incineration process to thoroughly and harmlessly gasify the pollutants."

Chen Xi slowly walked to Williams' side, leaned close to his ear, and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"At that time..."

"Then even the ashes will be lost."

Williams looked into Chen Xi's unfathomable, emotionless eyes.

He glanced again at the American soldiers on the screen, who were already on the verge of death, lying on the deck like dried corpses.

The fear of being crushed by absolute power finally shattered his last, laughable dignity as a representative of a superpower.

"I...I'll sign."

Williams slumped into the chair, as if all his bones and spine had been instantly removed.

With trembling hands, he picked up the cheapest disposable ballpoint pen and signed his distorted name on that "contract of servitude" that could set Western technology back ten years.

that moment.

Chen Xi looked at the signature, then turned to look at Li Guobang.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

There was not a trace of triumphant elation in that smile.

There's only a nonchalant "I knew you guys were just as worthless" attitude.