After leading everyone to the castle's second floor and entering a large conference hall, Chen Yu sat in the main seat. He then gestured with his hand and said, "Everyone, please take a seat."
Chen Yu had inserted a small national flag into every seat. All the representatives needed to do was find the corresponding seat.
The countries closest to Chen Yu were America and China.
Everyone present started pondering over the information revealed by the rankings, wondering if Chen Yu had expressed a certain inclination and attitude.
In reality, however, Chen Yu didn't think too much about it. He simply ranked the countries based on their strength.
After waiting for the representatives to take their seats and his assistants to take their positions, Chen Yu straightened his mask and went straight to the point. "I'm pressed for time, so I won't bother with opening remarks and pleasantries.
Everyone, take a look at these documents. "
After saying so, Chen Yu distributed a stack of documents to everyone present.
The representatives hurriedly received the documents, and after taking a glance at them, their expressions instantly changed.
"As stated in the documents, I plan to build a large island below the floating city. The island will cover an area of 820 square kilometers, larger than Beijing's Fifth Ring Road.
The island will occupy at least 60% of the area covered by greenery.
The Transdimensional Academy will occupy 20% of the land, the port and airport will occupy 5%, and the remaining 15% will be reserved for the various governments to use as office, commercial, tourism, and residential areas. "
Pausing slightly, Chen Yu gave everyone half a minute to think. He then continued, "The island will be permanently neutral. It will not participate in or interfere with any international affairs.
No international affairs can interfere with the island.
The area within 20 nautical miles of the island is the Academy's territorial waters.
The area above the island cannot be crossed without permission. "
"This..."
The representatives present exchanged glances with each other, and the assistants also began whispering among themselves.
Seeing this, Chen Yu said in a calm tone, "The island's construction will be completed by the Academy independently.
The island's facilities, infrastructure, management, and operation will be funded by the various governments.
The Academy's professors' salaries, experimental expenses, and students' daily living expenses will also be borne by the various governments. The various governments will also enjoy the corresponding income based on the proportion of capital contribution.
The income includes basic commercial income, intangible income, and the Academy's scientific and technological output and industrial output income. "
After waiting for Chen Yu to finish speaking, the Japanese representative promptly raised his hand and said, "We are willing to bear all construction and operating funds!"
America's representative stared at the other party coldly. After a moment of silence, he spat out six words in Chinese, "The American side shall bear the investment."
"Russia is also willing to bear all costs."
"It should be distributed according to the proportion of each country. A hegemonic monopoly is not desirable."
"The French side is willing to bear double the investment."
"Double!"
“？？”
"Quiet, everyone, quiet down."
Chen Yu, who was well-versed in the art of balance, had long since expected the various countries' "enthusiasm." Clearing his throat and attracting everyone's attention, he said loudly, "In order to respond to the call of a community with a shared future for humanity and for the scientific and technological development of all human civilization, monopolization is not advisable.
"Therefore, after careful consideration, I've decided to use the 'secret auction' method for the election. That is, everyone has to write down on a piece of paper how much they are willing to contribute to the construction of the island, and the distribution of the profits will be based on this contribution. The whole process cannot be communicated or negotiated with the officials of other countries, but they can contact their superiors. They only have five minutes to make a decision to ensure fairness to the greatest extent."
The representatives cursed in their hearts.
Due to the competitiveness of all parties, in order to ensure the greatest profit, they would definitely "raise the stakes" with all their might, but this would invisibly increase the cost by too much.
In the end, it was very likely that the construction would only cost 10 billion, but the government would spend a total of 100 billion …
Moreover, they only had five minutes, so it was very difficult for them to communicate and trade with the various officials.
Being on guard against each other, it was difficult for them to reach an agreement.
"This person …"
China's representative pinched his thumb in frustration, finding the situation incredibly thorny.
Although Chen Yu's scheme was simple and immature, due to the resources and power he possessed, even if he could see through this crude scheme, he couldn't resist it.
He had a misconception deep down.
For some reason, he felt that Transdimensional's UP was toying with them like children …
"In that case, we only have five minutes. Everyone, contact your superiors and apply for authorization as soon as possible."
After saying so, Chen Yu stood up and summoned Hermione to control the situation. He then leisurely walked out of the conference hall and entered the classroom next door. He then sat at the lectern and quietly looked at the sea of clouds outside the window …
Five minutes later, Chen Yu walked into the conference hall and sat back in his seat of honor. He then scanned the audience and said, "Five minutes are up. With such ample time, I believe everyone should've finished studying the proposal. Now, let's start bidding."
"Pa!"
Along with the snap of Chen Yu's fingers, a piece of paper made of liquid nanoworms appeared before each representative.
Everyone wore conflicted expressions on their faces. After hesitating for a long time, they picked up their pens and wrote down the maximum number they could obtain for authorization …
After filling in the paper, the paper automatically flew to Chen Yu's desk.
Picking up the 45 bids, Chen Yu quickly flipped through them, his grin spreading all the way to his ears under his mask.
"You'll never know how fat a sheep is without an operation …"
…
Now that he had the education and scientific research capabilities, he also had the funds and operations.
Now that everything was ready, he only lacked the 800-square-kilometer island.
However, the island-building ship had already arrived. Now, all he needed to do was input the blueprint and wait for the ship to automatically build the island.
A few months ago, it took him half a day to build the 40-square-kilometer "Sword Island." Moreover, that was only in shallow waters.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean's equatorial region, even if Chen Yu chose a relatively shallow location, the water depth would still exceed a kilometer.
Moreover, due to the cofferdam's large size, the island-building method could easily cause the cofferdam to collapse. Hence, he had no choice but to choose the more reliable method of adding water to the island.
However, this method would undoubtedly reduce the construction speed even further.
According to the island-building ship's artificial intelligence, Dimwit, the island's embryonic form would take at least 20 days and 25 days to complete.
By the time the various countries' governments sent the necessary materials to further modify the island, it would be early 2021 at the earliest.
After sending off the various representatives, who couldn't tell whether they were happy or sad, Chen Yu ordered Hermione to set up an airport at the Hogwarts Railway for the transportation of supplies and personnel.
Afterward, while it was still early, Chen Yu returned to the castle's library and started working.
Boom!
Shutting the door tightly, Chen Yu led Hermione and the nine Auror mages into the reading room. He then started erasing the mountain of books on the table.
These books contained popular science knowledge from 2021 to 2100. He intended to give them to the professors.
Meanwhile, what Chen Yu wanted to erase were the names of these books!
These included the names of formulas, annotations, scientific research stories, and so on.
So long as there was a person's name, he would erase it.
Reaching out, Chen Yu picked up a book titled "Interesting Illustrations of Electromechanical Integration." He then flipped to the first page and began reading it carefully.
According to the illustrations, the integration of electromechanical characteristics was a revolutionary breakthrough for the electromechanical industry!
It was born in 2022.
The author was Bai Jicheng.
Meanwhile, in the Transdimensional Academy, only one person had the authority to borrow this book.
The person's name was also Bai Jicheng.
Suppressing the chill in his heart, Chen Yu picked up the pen with his trembling right hand and erased his name from the book...