ABT Chapter 3: The New Landscape of the Automobile Industry

 "What the heck, Li Bumbum, what are you doing? Staring at your phone like you're staring at a girl's chest!"

Li Bumbum was the nickname given to Li Fanyu by the three beasts in the dormitory. Speaking was the eldest, who was vigorously shaking Li Fanyu, making him feel like a leaf in a storm.

Exiting the space, Li Fanyu broke free from the sweaty palms. Looking at the sweaty eldest in front of him, he sighed, "You're back so early. Didn't you say you were helping the third one confess? Did it work out?"

Wiping the sweat off his face, the eldest plopped down on Li Fanyu's bed and said, "Hey! No chance at all. It was all wishful thinking on our third buddy's part. He hailed a taxi for a girl at the school gate, thinking she'd be grateful and fall for him. It was scorching hot, the three of us shouted outside the girls' dormitory for over an hour, and when she finally came out, her first question was 'who are you?' This whole thing... the girl doesn't even remember our third buddy."

The eldest was a good guy overall, straightforward and righteous, but he had one flaw—he was a bit of a chatterbox, a legendary nag.

Li Fanyu quickly changed the subject, asking, "So where are the second and third ones? Why did you come back alone?"

The eldest smirked and wiggled his thick eyebrows like Chen He, "Isn't the third one's love affair a failure? The second one took him for a 'spa' session."

Li Fanyu: "…"

Li Fanyu had no strength to comment on the third one's view of love. That guy basically just wanted to make do with any pretty girl he saw. He always tried to approach them, regardless of whether they had feelings for him or not. Often, after being rejected, he would be heartbroken, suffering like a dying butterfly, but he recovered quickly and usually started looking for the next target in a day or two.

Li Fanyu's mind was still on Xapp, but with the eldest babbling on about League of Legends while complaining, he didn't enter the space again. During this time, he took out his phone and checked again for anything related to cars.

This time, Li Fanyu felt a bit frustrated; some of the car brands he used to like had disappeared, and the German brands were greatly different from before, with only Mercedes-Benz remaining. Many new brands had emerged, and Japanese and German cars remained mainstream. American cars were lukewarm, but SUV models were flourishing. As for domestic cars, they were in a sorry state. Most of the domestically produced ones were low-end models, and even these mostly used foreign engines.

It seemed that what the professor said was correct; in the changed world, the national automobile industry was indeed in a pitiful state.

He even noticed that the Lamborghini AVENTADOR poster on his wall had changed. It turned into a brand he had never seen before, although the lines were beautiful.

Li Fanyu was lost in thought, while the eldest had already thrown in the towel for the twentieth time.

Seeing Li Fanyu lost in thought, he said, "Hey, I said Bumbum, why are you daydreaming so much today? Otherwise, you'll be called Daidai in the future. Stop staring at the Riesefast; even if you look at it eight hundred times a day, you can't afford it. Hurry up and go online to assist me. The matchmaking today is too bad."

Li Fanyu snapped out of it; WTF!? This car is called Riesefast? Racefast, run fast? Are car names nowadays so straightforward? This is too lowbrow.

He pointed to the poster on the wall and asked, "How much does this car cost?"

The eldest looked disdainful and said, "You're always looking at cars, and you don't even know. It costs $5.5 million in the US, about $7 million when imported to China."

Li Fanyu was once again shocked, "WTF!? Are the tariffs so cheap?" Previously, in order to protect the development of the national automobile industry, the country imposed hefty taxes on imported cars.

The tariff, plus consumption tax, value-added tax, and displacement tax, added up to about 120%. This meant that a car priced at 100,000 yuan overseas would cost at least 220,000 yuan when imported to China.

So, most foreign cars in that world had established production lines in China to reduce costs. This profit-oriented investment directly drove the development of the domestic automobile industry.

However, now that this benefit was gone, it led to the lagging development of the domestic industry.

The eldest seemed to not understand Li Fanyu's surprise and said, "Why are you so surprised? We can't produce high-end cars domestically. But the market is too large; we can't keep the people from driving cars, so we import them. Even most of the government's official vehicles are imported now. Haven't you seen it before?"

Li Fanyu couldn't imagine it; the scene was too beautiful, too unbearable to watch. But thinking about Xapp on his phone, he felt somewhat uplifted; in this twisted world, watch me change it! Since so many classic car models had disappeared, then, sorry, they're all mine from now on.

With that in mind, Li Fanyu couldn't help but pick up his phone and rush to the bathroom, leaving the bewildered eldest behind.

In the bathroom, Li Fanyu opened Xapp and stared at the dark screen for three seconds. Suddenly, everything went dark, and he entered the X space.

He entered the program and casually clicked on the technology category. Opening the only option that was lit up under technology, "Specialization in Fault Diagnosis," he carefully read the description.

"Specialization in Fault Diagnosis": Improves the ability to diagnose mechanical faults by simulating mechanical structures in consciousness to identify problem areas. Do you want to apply this skill to the user? Yes/No.

Of course, Li Fanyu chose "Yes."

System Prompt: Application successful. The user can now invoke the specialized skill with their mind to simulate the structure of mechanical targets and diagnose faults.

After the prompt indicating success, Li Fanyu exited the space and returned to reality.

He needed to find something to experiment with, something mechanical. What in the bathroom was mechanical?

Ah, the toilet hasn't been working well lately.

Li Fanyu stared at the toilet, and after a few seconds, he could see a change. The toilet seemed to be X-rayed, and the porcelain outer shell became translucent, revealing a transparent 3D model of its internal structure.

Every detail of the toilet's internal structure was visible to Li Fanyu. The normal structures were all light green, except for a red part at the top of the water pipe. It looked like a lump, maybe a rag or something.

Surely, the red part represented a fault or anomaly!

Li Fanyu withdrew his gaze and reached for the toilet tank cover, feeling his way to the top of the water pipe. Soon, he pulled out a dark lump.

"Ew... who stuffed a sock in the toilet!"


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