Chapter 1123: Greed

“If you want to obtain 500 million just by borrowing, it won’t be easy even for me. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get back any lent money. Besides, from what you said, 500 million is only the initial capital.” Han Lu picked up the teapot on the table and poured Zhang Heng a cup of Biluochun. “How much more do you plan to ask for later?”

“I’m not sure yet, but the total amount is likely to reach eight billion,” Zhang Heng frankly told Han Lu.

An ordinary person might have been paralyzed with fear when they heard this number, but Han Lu was a well-known venture capitalist after all. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen an enormous amount of financing when she was still working at an international investment bank. Thus, when she heard this, she didn’t show too much of a surprised expression. She only said, “Looks like you’ve already thought about how to repay that large sum.”

“Yes, I do have a preliminary plan, but I’m not absolutely sure. Furthermore, I’ve been quite busy recently, so I can’t take care of this matter for the time being,” Zhang Heng said.

When Zhang Heng commissioned D4 to post the transaction, he had naturally thought about how he would be able to fork out such a large sum of money. B-grade items were only used as collateral, and Zhang Heng did not intend to use B-grade items to complete the final payment unless absolutely necessary.

However, forking out 8 billion yuan was definitely no easy task, even for the likes of Zhang Heng. Even though he had the time freeze ability, it was impossible for him to sneak into the bank vault without anyone noticing. The severe consequences of such a matter were also worth considering. It was almost inevitable that the police would intervene, attracting large-scale public attention. Furthermore, this was out of line with his usual style.

Therefore, Zhang Heng did not overthink it and passed on this method. Then, he turned his gaze elsewhere.

The Black Sail dungeon was the longest one he had ever experienced. At the beginning of the dungeon, he was intercepted by a pirate ship and boarded the pirate ship of Edward “Blackbeard” Teach. He followed the latter to Nassau, a legendary pirate kingdom that eventually became the King of the Seven Seas. It witnessed the final glory of piracy in the 18th century.

Over the past ten years, Zhang Heng had become friends with many famous pirate captains in history or fought with them. As a result, he learned of numerous secrets, including the whereabouts of some of the pirate treasures.

Because of his involvement, the fate of some of the pirates had changed, and the final location of the treasure might have changed as well. However, it was not easy for the pirates to choose the treasure’s location, and after considering all the factors, Zhang Heng believed that there were still some treasures that remained in his memory.

In addition, Zhang Heng still had the route of a Spanish treasure ship and the sunken ship’s location. The latter was known as the shiniest pearl in the treasure-hunting world, with initial value estimates of the treasure on the ship to be worth over 13 billion yuan, even though Colombia had announced not long ago that they had found the Spanish treasure ship.

Nonetheless, Zhang Heng also browsed through the news from that year and found that the sunken ship announced by Colombia was not on the route of the Spanish treasure ship. Moreover, Colombia had not organized any salvage operations until now, thus causing Zhang Heng to be inclined to think that this was just a publicity stunt. The actual Spanish treasure ship was still somewhere in the ocean, sleeping with the treasure ship, waiting for the day that it was discovered.

If he could find the treasure ship, Zhang Heng could basically solve funding once and for all. However, this wasn’t such a simple matter. In the Black Sail instance, Zhang Heng had participated in the attack on the Spanish treasure ship, meaning it was very likely that the location of the treasure ship would be affected to a certain extent. Therefore, he probably needed to follow the route of the ship to search again. Considering that almost 300 years had passed, and he had to take into account the ocean currents and wind direction, this was not an easy task.

In addition, transporting the treasure after finding it was also a big problem. If it was not appropriately resolved, the issue might escalate into an international dispute. However, compared to moving the bank vault directly, the impact would be much smaller. Furthermore, it could also be controlled within a specific range.

However, even if everything went smoothly, Zhang Heng would not get 8 billion in a short span of three months. This was also the reason why he had asked Han Lu to raise the money first.

And Han Lu did not disappoint.

“If you want to borrow such a large sum of money, even with my guarantee, it is impossible because no one would lend such a sum to someone they don’t know or understand. However…” Han Lu paused. “…It’s different when it comes to investment. Capital will always chase after profit. As long as there are good investment projects, you don’t even need to ask. Naturally, countless people will rack their brains to give you money.”

“But I don’t seem to have any valuable investment projects in my hands.” Zhang Heng frowned.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as you can convince the capital market that your projects have a profitable future, you can still receive an endless stream of funds,” Han Lu said, “And I happen to be the person who is best at this kind of thing. However, investors nowadays are not fools. The era where you can raise funds purely by telling stories has passed.”

“Then what should we rely on? Fine products?”

“No, we should rely on telling better stories,” Han Lu said while fluttering her eyes. “Your luck is not bad. This just so happens to be an era where traffic is king. Initially, only veteran companies would dare to use loss-making strategies to seize the market and rely on burning money to defeat their opponents. But now, almost all of the emerging companies have become unusually bold and aggressive. No one gives a damn about the profit margins of unicorns. That was something from the last century. As long as the churned-out data was good enough and the prospects were attractive enough, they would naturally find investors to inflate the valuations, finally entering the secondary market continuously. Everyone gets something like this.

“Fine, I’ll get to the point. The point is that the current environment is very conducive to what we’re going to do next. The more money we burn, the easier it will be for you to hide the final flow of funds. So, what we need now is a convincing story. This might be difficult for others, but for you, I don’t think it’s a problem.”Han Lu’s face revealed a sly smile.

On the other side, Zhang Heng had already guessed her intention. He raised his eyebrows and said, “You want me to take out a prop to sell?”

“That’s right. Currently, the market favors science and technology. I’ve been looking for a suitable project, and it’s time for the other investors to experience the charm of black technology. I’ll be taking the angel’s wheel. Eighty million in exchange for 10% of the shares. Isn’t my offer a little too greedy?”