50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 805 Monetization
Sun Zhiwei stood on the small hill behind Batam Port, watching the port and the adjacent naval base engulfed in flames, which severed the foundation of this deep-water port.

With that, the enemies on Batam Island were eliminated.

He watched with amusement as the Singaporean navy and air force followed behind, as if sending away a plague god, watching the two frigates leave the Singapore Strait.

However, Singapore's naval and air forces seemed oblivious to the fire that engulfed Batam on the other side of the strait, showing no intention of going to help put out the fire or rescue people.

But they didn't seem to have any intention of occupying Batam Island, and Sun Zhiwei understood the reason after thinking about it.

Singapore's geographical location is adjacent to the Strait of Malacca, a vital international shipping route. If they occupy Batam Island, it would be equivalent to completely blocking the Strait of Malacca.

It's important to understand that if major international waterways like the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal, and the Panama Canal weren't controlled by the Soviet Union and the United States, then neither country would be allowed to dominate.

Batam Island was actually left behind by the US and the Soviet Union after their compromise to contain Singapore, but it just so happens that it was occupied by Harto.

Singapore can weaken Batam Island, but it cannot take the initiative to occupy it; otherwise, it will certainly face intervention from two major powers.

Even though Batam Island Port has been destroyed beyond recognition, as long as the port still exists, even if it can only accommodate small sampans in the future, it does not mean that Singapore has monopolized the Malacca Channel.

This situation is probably what the Singapore government is most pleased with; a half-dead Batam port is exactly what they want.

Having figured out what Singapore was thinking and what they were planning, and considering that they wouldn't have a major negative impact on his plans, he stopped worrying about it.

On the contrary, with the new J-slope constantly looking across at Batam Island, they might even cause trouble for their reconstruction efforts.

This is actually a good thing for Sun Zhiwei, saving him the trouble of keeping an eye on things every day.

Watching the escort fleet sail away, he didn't linger there any longer. Instead, he took out an Apache helicopter from his spatial storage and headed towards Subi Island ahead of everyone else.

He needed to send the 36 188mm coastal defense guns in his space back as soon as possible. Once these coastal defense guns successfully established defensive positions around Subi Island, he would be able to feel much more at ease.

Two hours later, Sun Zhiwei arrived over Subi Island. He then left the 36 coastal defense guns on the west side of Subi Island, near the submarine base.

He was too lazy to make up any more excuses to get a cargo ship to transport the cannons; as long as no one could see him using his spatial abilities, that was fine.

Afterwards, people might wonder how these cannons were transported here, since this wasn't a port.

But no one would ever think of storage space as a supernatural phenomenon; instead, they would imagine all sorts of reasonable transportation methods to explain what they don't understand.

After disembarking from the Apache, he retracted the helicopter into space and returned to Subi Island base.

Back at the base, Sun Zhiwei instructed Dong Haoyang to send someone to receive the coastal defense artillery while waiting for Captain Ivan to come and pick him up in his Gulfstream III.

That said, he had owned a Gulfstream III for several years, and over the years, he had become increasingly dissatisfied with its insufficient range.

However, unless he buys large passenger planes like Boeing, the limited range of small aircraft is a major drawback, and he has no better solution.

Actually, there are small planes with extremely long ranges.

Albert Leander Bert Rutan, a pioneer in the civilian aerospace field and a brilliant aircraft designer, whose Rutan Aircraft Factory launched a series of small aircraft for home assembly starting in 1974.

He designed a small aircraft called the "Virgin Atlantic Globefighter," which set a world record for solo flight. The Virgin Atlantic Globefighter flew continuously for 76 hours without refueling, covering a distance of 42469.5 kilometers, almost circling half of the Earth.

However, this aircraft is designed to be extremely basic, with an all-fiber fuselage, only one engine, and a space that can only accommodate one person. It is designed to save fuel, so it has no real commercial value.

He had heard that Gulfstream was test-flying its latest model, the Gulfstream 4 business jet, which was later renamed the Gulfstream G300 business jet. He wondered when it would be finalized and put into mass production.

His current Gulfstream 3 has a range of only 6700 kilometers, and he remembers that the basic model of the Gulfstream 4 only has a range of more than 1000 kilometers, which he is not very satisfied with.

What he needs is an ultra-long-haul business jet that can fly directly from America across the Pacific to Subi Island, but unfortunately, that's not available right now.

There are only two types of aircraft that can meet his requirements: large passenger planes and strategic bombers, but neither of them is what he wants.

The increase in the range of small business jets depends entirely on the upgrading of new engines, and they can only wait for the technological progress of major aircraft manufacturers.

Half a day later, Ivan arrived, and Sun Zhiwei got into the Gulfstream 3 and asked them to take him to Hong Kong Island.

He needed a way to monetize the treasure he obtained from the temple in his space, but neither returning to his home country nor going to America was a good solution.

Public trading of such treasures is not allowed domestically, and America's IRS would pounce on it and bite back hard if they heard about it.

But there's a better solution on Hong Kong Island: entrust an international auction house to hold the art auction.

While this would earn the auction house a commission, it would also save Sun Zhiwei a lot of trouble. More importantly, it would resolve the issue of the treasure's origin in order to ensure the smooth running of the auction.

Even if the treasure was stolen or robbed by a client, the auction house will find ways to make it legal and compliant.

A few hours later, the Gulfstream 3 landed at Kai Tak Airport on Hong Kong Island.

After leaving the airport, he went straight to Victoria Harbour and rented a large warehouse in the port's cargo area.

He then checked into the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui and contacted Christie's by phone.

Christie's is a century-old auction house with many branches around the world and excellent information dissemination.

This time he used the identity of America James. As one of America's wealthiest individuals, they should be able to find out his identity.

Christie's pricing is based on individual preferences. To ensure the longevity of its business, celebrities and the very wealthy often receive discounts when buying and selling art through them.

But for ordinary people, the transaction fees are not cheap.

This fee usually consists of two parts. One part is a fixed fee, which includes the appraisal fee, storage fee, and insurance fee for the auctioned item, and is generally around 10%.

The other part is the auction handling fee, which is charged from both sides.

They typically take 10-30% of the seller's profit from the transaction price and another 10-20% from the buyer.

After both sides agree, they will take about half of the transaction price.

(End of this chapter)