Naruto: I'm really not an evil scientist!

"And aren't you the same?"

The two looked at each other and smiled, knowing each other's difficulties and hardships. So they skipped over those and got straight to business.

The industrial representatives were there for transportation capacity and the development of future projects.

"One floating fortress, isn't that enough?"

"What's enough? There are 312 cities in the Land of Fire!"

Well, this guy wants to open up the entire country's logistics system in one go, which is certainly a good thing. But building a zero-tail system is not something that can be done in a short time. The first one can be revived, but the second one will have to start from scratch. This problem is really difficult, and neither side has a good solution. This kind of thing requires hard power; if you can't do it, you can't do it.

As for new projects, industrial capital is naturally eager to multiply itself, but in this era of rampant capital flow, there are too many things sprouting, and for a time, representatives of the industrial faction did not know what to invest in.

Hiruko was known for his resourcefulness, so he came over to ask Hiruko if he had any ideas.

Hiruko actually knew about this, after all, his country had gone through this stage, and if all else failed, he could always copy someone else's homework.

What truly troubled Hiruko was how to take this opportunity to get the industrial faction to resolve the issue of the fire country's levies on the daimyo. The financial conglomerates were unwilling to pay this money unless they were forced to.

Hiruko pondered the two matters together for a while and finally came up with a solution.

"Perhaps we can improve the zero tail."

"What...improvement?"

"The biggest advantage of Zero-Tail is its extremely high energy conversion ratio. A few dozen people can activate the floating fortress. However, Zero-Tail itself has combat capabilities, but combat capabilities are not necessary for you. To put it bluntly, what you need is a device that can absorb negative emotions and life force as energy, right? We'll just create it directly."

This is pretty outrageous. Basically, it's like taking a tank apart and keeping only its two wheels, but the industrialists really only need those two wheels.

"According to you, the new version of Zero Tail's abilities will definitely be greatly weakened, and it will certainly no longer be able to drive large floating fortresses. What would we do with these things that can't drive large floating fortresses?"

"Take a three-wheeled vehicle."

The industry representatives were full of questions.

"what is that?"

“That’s the demand and transportation capacity of the liberated rural areas.” The representative of the industrial faction was quite unfamiliar with the concept of “three-wheeled vehicles”, and his face was full of incomprehension and curiosity.

Seeing this, Hiruko smiled slightly, calmly took out paper and pen, and began to patiently and meticulously explain to him in an almost academic manner.

He mentioned that although the Naruto world is still relatively primitive in terms of technology, internal combustion engine vehicles have already quietly existed, becoming an unknown miracle of this era.

However, even so, the problem of insufficient transportation capacity remains severe, seemingly a unique "national condition" of this world.

Within large cities, the problem is relatively manageable, mainly due to slightly higher transportation costs, but solutions can always be found.

However, the problem becomes more complex when we look at the vast area between cities and between cities and the countryside.

The industrialists were not unaware of the advantages of highways and railways, but two insurmountable obstacles stood in their way—funding was secondary; the most pressing issue was the ubiquitous natural energy in the Naruto world.

The abundance of natural energy in the Naruto world played a crucial role in attracting the attention of the Otsutsuki clan.

These energies not only shaped plants and animals different from those on Earth, but also filled the world with unknowns and uncertainties.

Towering trees that reach into the clouds are everywhere, giant beasts roam freely, and even the summoned creatures summoned by ninjas are all enormous.

The cost of building railways and highways under such circumstances is unimaginable.

Not to mention, the newly built roads could be trampled to pieces by passing giant beasts at any time, and the maintenance costs are astronomical.

The issue of land acquisition, however, is more like an unsolvable puzzle.

The large landowners held onto their land as a family heirloom, and were unwilling to relinquish it easily, no matter the price offered.

Even if they managed to persuade them, the compensation amount would be enough to make the Land of Fire's government back down.

For them, land is a form of wealth passed down through generations, unrelated to the development of productive forces.

They only care about rent, and they can always profit from it no matter how times change.

This situation is not unique to the Land of Fire, but a common problem throughout the entire Naruto world.

Even today, large landowners still wield considerable power.

This inevitably brings to mind India, a country with modern industry yet still plagued by peasant problems.

The farmers surrounded New Delhi so tightly that even the most powerful sages were helpless.

The incompleteness of the Industrial Revolution has left the world filled with helplessness and compromise.

Since large-scale infrastructure construction is not feasible for the time being, Hiryu-kō put forward a more pragmatic suggestion—to innovate transportation tools.

The industrialists were initially confused, but when they saw the sketch of the three-wheeled vehicle drawn by Hiruko, they suddenly understood.

"This kind of transportation tool looks simple, with a load capacity of only a few hundred kilograms, but its advantage lies in its flexibility and compact size."

Large shipments can be handled by floating fortresses, but for these smaller items, a three-wheeled vehicle is barely feasible.

In terms of transportation capacity, three-wheeled vehicles are naturally incomparable to large trucks.

However, it has an unparalleled advantage—it can easily handle even the most rugged road conditions.

This is precisely the most pressing need in the rural areas of the Land of Fire.

A low-end internal combustion locomotive can easily cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, while a three-wheeled vehicle, due to its simple structure, costs only fifty thousand taels of silver.

For impoverished rural areas, this is undoubtedly fantastic news.

In the Land of Fire, a large number of rural areas are outside the modern logistics system, hidden deep in the mountains and forests, inaccessible to ordinary vehicles.

The reason the villagers chose such a remote place was actually a lingering effect of the exorbitant taxes levied by lords during the Warring States period.

In order to evade taxes, they were forced to flee to remote places, and over time, this situation came about.

When the Warring States period ended, they considered returning to normalcy, but unfortunately, all the other lands were occupied by large landowners, leaving them no room to intervene.

Now that three-wheeled vehicles exist, the situation may have improved.

Not only do those hidden households benefit, but even regular rural areas have a demand for transportation capacity.

Even if three-wheeled vehicles cannot pass, there are tractors as an alternative.

With the strength of Konoha and its military-industrial complex, building a tractor is not difficult.

If even tractors can't pass through, then perhaps these roads shouldn't be used by humans in the first place.

The Land of Grass also has similar problems, but because of its small size and small population, a single Grass Ninja can cover it all.

The grass ninjas of this era are extremely pragmatic. They don't care at all if they are jokingly called banana ninjas. Making money is the only thing that matters.

As they listened to Hiruko's account, the industrialist representative's interest grew even stronger.

He seemed to see a grand blueprint—the highway system between major cities was like the aorta, while the low-end three-wheeled vehicles formed the capillaries that stretched in all directions.

Although they are fragile, they are indispensable; only when the two are connected can they form a complete whole.

"As expected of you, this sounds like a perfect strategy." The industrialist representative's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Do you have any actual samples here?" Hiruko shook his head, but confidently indicated that he could make them on the spot.

There's nothing special about a three-wheeled vehicle; an engine, three wheels, a large cargo box, and a braking system are all you need.

He didn't even need to ask the engineers at the Konoha Research Institute to help. He just found two members of the Anbu and had them find a bunch of parts in the engineering department. They tinkered around and cobbled together a primitive version of a three-wheeled motorcycle.

However, Hiryuko had some ideas regarding the motivation.

He had someone bring him a small jar containing Zero-Tails chakra.

Zero-Tails was born with the ability to plunder and store chakra. Even when Naruto and Sasuke were fighting Shennong, he was able to collect the scattered chakra and use it for his own purposes.

Moreover, when these different types of chakra merged, there was no rejection whatsoever; the stability was astonishing.

The sealing techniques of the ninja village are incredibly powerful; they can even seal such a large Shukaku in a small jar, and Shukaku can still freely stretch out its arms and legs and hop around.

To put it simply, the sealing techniques of the ninja village can specifically seal certain things while leaving nearby objects unaffected.

Therefore, sealing the Zero-Tails' chakra poses no challenge to the ninja village.

The Anbu members made some adjustments and connected the can containing the Zero-Tails' chakra to the engine.

After some adjustments, the three-wheeled vehicle was able to move freely.

The floating fortress itself has a chakra-driven engine and various combat modules, so this technology is not new to the ninja village.

The industrialist representative's curiosity was thoroughly piqued. He took it for a test ride and quickly came to a positive conclusion.

"Aside from the fact that my butt was going to be shaken to pieces, there wasn't much of a problem."

However, this is a shock absorption issue that can be resolved later.

As far as the vehicle itself is concerned, the logic is entirely feasible…

From a purely design perspective, this three-wheeled vehicle, haphazardly assembled with protective parts, is hardly worthy of serious consideration.

But this thing is sturdy, durable, and cheap.

The suffering and despair of a few dozen people can sustain a floating fortress for a long time—after all, the new version of the floating fortress doesn't require combat.

So how much would it cost to drive an even weaker three-wheeled vehicle?

The industrial representatives inquired about this issue in detail.

Hiruko brought the data from the floating fortress, giving him a perfect answer.

"If it's a three-wheeled vehicle, fully loaded, one excruciating experience with a Minotaur could probably power it for tens or hundreds of kilometers."

But generally speaking, there's no need to go to such extremes, because it can provide energy for multiple people.

Zero-tail absorbs dark emotions and life force.

If you only take advantage of one person, no one can stand it.

But what if it's divided among dozens or even hundreds of people? They'd probably only get bitten by a mosquito.

“I understand what you mean. You want to use a new energy vehicle model similar to electricity.” The industrial representative’s eyes gleamed with intelligence.

“Yes.” Hiruko nodded. “This is indeed the direction that Boruto should take.”

Boruto's best friend's father made his fortune with Thunder Cars.

The so-called Thunder Car is, in essence, a new type of electric car driven by chakra.

However, I'm currently using the Zero Tail mode, and I don't know what principle Boruto's best friend's father is using.

But it doesn't matter, since they're all essentially chakra anyway; they just lead to the same goal through different paths.

"I'm willing to believe in Konoha's technology, but if that's the case, wouldn't the cost go up if each vehicle needed a charging device?" The industrial representative expressed his concern. "Ordinary people's logic is simple: cheap, durable, and easy to use are all they need."

But as a producer, I also have to worry about costs.