614 The Second Immigration Wave

The term "Penglai" was first seen in "Lie Zi (The Tale of Lie Zi)" and later in "Shan Hai Jing (The Tale of Mountain and Sea)" and appeared in books such as "Records of the Historian" and "The Ten Continent of the Sea" (1).

With the thought of spreading traditional Chinese culture, the giant floating city on the ocean was named Penglai by Jiang Chen. As to if the name was the same as a city across the ocean… this is not within his consideration range.

When the advertisement in virtual reality was pushed to the global virtual reality system, the mysterious underwater construction first entered the sight of the public.

The entire main structure of the island was a ring five square kilometers in diameter and it looked like a "lifesaver". Arm-thick graphene cables intertwined within the middle, just like the metal skeleton of a skyscraper. Though it was not filled with concrete in the middle and it was relatively light. It was like a special foam aluminum that was more ductile than graphene but less strong. The bearing capacity of the graphene could easily withstand the enormous tidal force without the fortress being shredded apart.

The finished construction from afar resembled a "Gyro" inserted into the ocean.

A tall tower standing above the ocean surface; the conical on the bottom was submerged in the ocean.

It was the most expensive place in the entire city; it was like an inverse pyramid. The more toward the tip, the more expensive it was. And the "tip of the tower", the top and bottom, were not sold to the public because they were private rooms for Jiang Chen himself.

Three-dimensional island structure, five square kilometers of the island can accommodate up to one million people! Unit population per area could be described as insane.

The exterior of the ring was designed with connectors which could be used to construct sub islands to connect with the main island via graphene tunnels.

Even before that, the commotion created by Future Group in the ocean already built up enough hype for them. F first accused Future Group of constructing missile silos with the intention of threatening world peace, then UA's skepticism was followed by the United Nations' intervention. When the world's media zoomed their cameras to the quiet ocean, Future Group gradually unveiled the trump card hidden for a long time and it stood in the eye of the public criticism storm.

"This is impossible. Don't believe that the computer-generated cinematic could fool us, the Hexagon will closely monitor the situation of the West Pacific Ocean—" The UA spokesperson told the media, Jiang Chen then sent an invitation to the Rainbow Mansion, inviting Hill to personally tour the region.

Hill didn't attend the trip due to schedule conflicts, but did send out a FBA Agent and an UA experts for investigation.

But just as they were bringing back first video footage, Future Group conducted the first update of the Phantom Helmet. They installed the voice communication system inside the chat software while installing an advertisement interface below the menu that would not interfere with the user's usage of the system.

And the first advertisement was the concept map of the ocean city – Penglai.

Although the viewing experience was limited to thirty minutes, almost everyone's heart followed the witty mermaid guide to the west Pacific Ocean thousands and even ten thousands of miles away. The sci-fi island; the magically ocean city!

Like an explosive thunder, "Wall Street Journal" first expressed their exclaimed opinion!

"The Atlantis of the East! Future Group is creating a miracle!"

Then, it was "Christian Newspaper".

"An unbelievable project. If they are not joking with us, then it must be God that's joking with us."

But doubt still existed for the construction of the century. Jealous people who underestimated Future Group's ability to repeatedly create miracles were still unwilling to accept its marvelous technological abilities.

The Economic News persistently criticized Future Group and highly suspected the existence of the underwater city. Future Technology defeated Nippon's best corporations in the robot and artificial intelligence fields, which was viewed as humiliation by extreme right wing parties. With the media controlled by them, they of course did everything they could to slander Future Group.

"An ocean city? That is just a gimmick! Our material scientists stated that no materials could complete the construction of the illogical design! And before the completion of product to sell high risk products to investors is an extremely irresponsible move! Our people will not pay for such a stupid thing!"

But their own people slapped their face with the high number of purchases for property on Penglai.

They had enough of the crowded Yoto. Especially the despairing unemployment rate and the widely criticized economic conditions built on printing money.

Of course, the majority of the immigration source came from Hua with over 50% of the buyers from the maritime region of Hua.

The halo of high benefits disappeared in Europe that was in a period of unrest, the high barrier and low benefit North America was too difficult, and people with money or technical skill began to look at Xin that was growing incredibly fast. The small country with Han's culture was evolving into the second Singapore.

Most critically, housing was cheap!

Ten thousand US dollars was not a small number for most people, but equating to a property, most Han people were willing to open their wallets.

Why?

Because a lot of people worked for their entire lives without being able to purchase a place in the city they worked in unless they didn't drink or eat, or carried a mortgage for half of their life. Ten thousand US dollars was the price of one Xiao Lin, although a lot of the level one property's final price was bided to fifty thousand US dollars, it was still far lower than the housing price of most cities.

Trusting the reliability of Future Group's products, a lot of people paid with the idea of trying it out.

Especially since Future Group did promise that if the buyer was unhappy with the experience or Penglai City ultimately was unsuccessful, they were willing to pay twenty thousand US dollars, double the initial price to purchase back the property in the buyer's hand. The term was written in the purchase agreement with Future Group putting its asset as collateral and letting the government of each country monitor it.

The export-led business meant that Xin didn't need to rely on real estate nor sacrifice the benefit of its citizens to boost spending. The irreplaceable high tech products made Xin's products impossible to be rejected by the international market. And the tourism industry developed by Penglai injected large quantity of fresh blood into the local economy. With such a natural advantage, Future Group didn't need to sacrifice its support in the country in order to bolster Xin's economy.

Wall Street analysts' valuation of Future Group continued to skyrocket.

A lot of investors even ran to Future Group's UA subsidiary, waving bundles of cash. They were hoping to 'gift money' to Future Group.

With the persistent pestering of the media, Buffet expressed reluctantly that if Future Group was willing to go public on NASDAQ, his fund will consider adding Future Group's stock as part of its portfolio. To the media's question of never touching NASDAQ tech stocks, he could only say to the public, "There are always exceptions to the rule. We have to try to live a new life and accept new things. Do we not?"

…

"I heard you need immigrants?"

The Saudi Prince seemed to be very keen on his oriental friend Jiang Chen and called him constantly.

"The population problem is indeed giving me a headache." Jiang Chen laughed.

But the problem will soon be solved with the high demand in the housing presale. After the completion of Penglai, the benefits of a growing population will be realized. As long as Future Group could digest the labor force in a timely manner, they will create value for Future Group ten times the value created by Penglai.

"We have a bunch of homeless people, why don't I send them your way?" Yerif offered generously.

"… Are you helping me or are you screwing me over?" Jiang Chen was speechless.

Infectious diseases, poverty, religion extremists, violence… were all common among refugees. While Xin lacked people, they were not at the point where they were desperate for anyone.

"Hahaha, my friend. Why would I screw with you? It was just a joke." Yerif laughed. "I heard you are building an ocean city on the west Pacific Ocean?"

"That's right, are you interested?"

"Extremely! Dubai has a new artificial island project with a price above 20 billion, is Future Group interested?" Yerif asked.

"No need. We currently don't have experience operating internationally, it would be terrible if we fail you." Jiang Chen euphemistically rejected his proposal.

Mentioning the bidding process before seeing the completed construction, Jiang Chen knew Yerif wanted to return the favor, but he didn't plan to use the favor here.

Yerif smiled and didn't mention this further.

"If the level five property of your ocean city is up for sale, please tell me. I'm really intrigued by the… Penglai City floating on the sea." Yerif didn't' pronounce the words too clearly.

"Haha, indeed."

Open level one and two properties were open for presale and part of commercial land. The former was targeted toward immigration while the latter was opened to domestic citizens. Only when the "indigenous people" truly felt the reward will they stand on Future Group's side, protecting the skyscraper piled up with cash and willingly adding bricks and tiles to the massive empire.

The level three property and above would gradually be put up for sale. As to the highest level five property, it was naturally targeted to the senior executives within Future Group as well as the most wealthy people around the world.

Jiang Chen obviously wouldn't reject the rich Saudi client.

The underwater project burned cash at a rate of 100 million US dollars per day. By the end of construction, it will have burned through 32 billion US dollars which makes it the most expensive artificial floating island in the world…

But at the same, it will be the most cost-effective and technologically advanced artificial island!

1. The novels discussed are all ancient Chinese historical novels. The oldest is dated more than 2500 years ago.