CHAPTER 98: CHAPTER 30: STEALING, A TECHNICAL SKILL_2

Next, the grinding machine equipped with the diamond resin wheel began to polish around the circle, adding a different brightness with the flying sparks in the dark underground cave, until both circles on the pipe wall were ground to a thickness of 1.5mm.

At this point, the engineer was drenched in sweat, but he still dared not remove his helmet to wipe it, fearing being recognized.

It was only after two large valves were installed that he paused.

Paul, who had been holding his breath watching, noticed the engineer stopped and curiously asked,

"Is this the end? What was the purpose of having me receive those five truckloads of water?"

The engineer glanced at him, and even through the helmet, Paul could sense disdain and contempt in the other’s eyes, which made him somewhat angry.

What a bunch of corporate dogs trying to act smart?

If it weren’t for the money, Paul would’ve killed all three of them right now, dismembered them, and hung their bodies on the camp’s flagpole.

The murderous aura emanating from Paul made the three engineers flinch, reminding themselves they were still on someone else’s turf, feeling a chill down the spine.

One of them couldn’t help but say,

"The water is used to stabilize the pressure sensors. Later, one valve will let water in, and the other will let oil out. Every amount of Chun Er released must be matched with water input; otherwise, the pressure sensors will alert, and we won’t be able to escape then."

"Water mixing?"

Paul pulled out a dagger, fiddling with it in his hand, and looked maliciously at the three engineers, "Do you take me for a fool? They’ll find out if the water gets to the oil station, right?"

"Someone over there will use a hacker data override program to block the detection system. By the time they actually discover it, it’ll be at least three days later."

In three days, even if Peizhuo Petrochemical’s manager in Night City has eyes in the sky, they won’t be able to retrieve this batch of Chun Er from the Night Wanderers. But Peizhuo Petrochemical’s loss figures will have at least one more zero added.

Moreover, if the matter gets exposed, Peizhuo Petrochemical’s executives will inevitably hold the relevant personnel accountable, so the local managers will not only avoid pressing charges but will use means to suppress the incident with all their might.

As for the remaining matters, it’s just corporate dogs biting each other, unrelated to the small fries below and the Night Wanderers.

Only then did Paul put away his murderous expression and signaled his men to prepare for loading the trucks.

As time trickled away, it soon approached two o’clock.

The previously calm atmosphere in the underground cave gradually became heavy, and no one dared to speak, the silence so profound that hearts could be heard beating.

Suddenly, the pipeline began to vibrate, and upon hearing the sound, Paul immediately stood from the bench,

"Is it here?"

The engineer was exceptionally calm,

"Not yet, it’s just the vaporized Chun Er gas causing fluctuations as it passes through, the main force is still coming."

After waiting for more than a minute, the engineer guarding the two valves suddenly initiated the program, and eight pneumatic valve bolts activated, crashing through the pre-reserved 2mm pipe wall, fixing both valves firmly to the pipe wall.

The transparent, colorless solution inside the pipeline surged at a speed even faster than the most turbulent river, and as it passed through the weakened section polished by the engineer, the suddenly increased pressure instantly broke through the pipe wall, autonomously bursting through the barrier.

"It’s now! Quick, quick, quick, open the water valve, start loading oil and water!"

Both valves activated simultaneously, one end absorbed turbid river water into the pipeline under air pressure, while the other end released Chun Er at a market price of 3.7 Euros per liter, three times the price of gasoline.

Their large oil tanker trucks here could each load 40,000L, five trucks in total, calculated at market price, that’s a solid 740,000!

....

Night City, Peizhuo Petrochemical Corporation building, 17th floor, central server room.

Rows of mainframes were filled with countless jumpers, resembling a spider web of uncertain layers, such that just a glance could drive a network hardware engineer insane.

While taking away what few strands of natural hair he might have left.

The person responsible for maintenance here was Ron Exxon, a hardware engineer who diligently worked at Peizhuo Petrochemical for 60 whole years.

Having survived numerous rounds of cleansing and remained, he could be said to have devoted his entire life’s work to this Texas enterprise.

No one was more familiar with where each line in the server room should be connected than Ron, nor did anyone know better than him which spots were the camera blind spots, and how to bypass Peizhuo Petrochemical’s ICE firewall without triggering any alarms.

After his colleague left the server room, he had 30 seconds to complete his task.

Unplug the line, connect the USB drive given by his old friend Handz, upload the virus, erase his login info using someone else’s staff card, then reconnect the line...

When the colleague returned, Ron was still standing in a corner of the server room checking the lines, as he had done every day for sixty years.

Ten minutes later, the colleague looked at the day’s program scan report and, after breathing a sigh of relief, said to Ron, "Everything’s normal on my end, the server’s showing no abnormal fluctuations, are you good?"

Ron smiled, his face marked by many wrinkles left by time appearing very serene,

"Everything’s normal on my end too."

......

Under such high-pressure injection, the oil tanker trucks filled up quickly, usually taking forty to fifty minutes to load the full 40,000 liters, then switch to the next truck.

As for the engineers, they had already driven off.

From start to finish, Peizhuo Petrochemical made not even the slightest sound, everyone seemingly blinded, watching dirty water mixed with Chun Er flow into the storage tank.