From the time he learned about the Tiger Tank, Li Du had thought that that piece of information was exclusively acquired by Lu Guan. In the past, the information that Hans had given him was valuable and could not be obtained by ordinary means.
In the end, it turned out that what Lu Guan had told him was common knowledge.
It was at this point that Li Du felt how important Hans had been. While Hans – that b*stard – always seemed to be flaky, history had proven that others were even less reliable and trustworthy than him.
As everyone knew of the existence of the Tiger Tank, it would be even harder to try and land that warehouse at a low price. After all, the tank was a giant monster. It was eight to nine meters long, about three meters wide, two and a half meters tall, and weighed more than fifty tons!
Disappointed at this turn of circumstance, Li Du gave Lu Guan a scare – he sliced off a big chunk of the grilled beef that Lu Guan had on his plate. Frightened, Lu Guan pleaded, “Boss, you won’t take my life just because of this, right?”
“You still have the cheek to say that?” Li Du snapped and glared at him.
As they had taken dinner early, night had yet to fall after they finished eating. Li Du decided to check out the warehouse that night.
He had known that there would be only 45 warehouses. Typically, with his powers, he would have only tried to gain information on the day of the auction. However, now that he knew that everyone else was aware of the Tiger Tank’s existence, he felt that it would be better if he checked out the situation beforehand himself.
To be prepared for the worst, he wanted to think of solutions in advance, before problems cropped up.
Li Du first went to the bankrupt warehouse company, which was where the legendary Tiger Tank warehouse was located. The company was situated in the north of the Tucson city and spanned about thirty to forty acres. Its name was Combat Squadron Storage Co., Ltd.
As the area occupied was large, it encompassed many warehouses.
The warehouse company had been set up in the 60s and 70s of the previous century. At that time, the economy in America was stable and prosperous. It was common for people to change their jobs or move house. It was also during that period that technology made great leaps and everyone started to replace their appliances and furniture. There had been a great demand for warehouses and many of the warehouse companies expanded quickly at that time.
Hence, the warehouse of that era were designed to be very close and dense. In one area, warehouses of different sizes were all clumped together wherever they could fit to max out space.
During those days, the more warehouse there were, the more money the company could make. However, today the warehouse trade was in decline. People had less need for storage.
As a result, a problem occurred. In the current era, the more warehouses a company kept, the more money was spent on maintenance fees. There were fees for modifying the warehouse space, getting rid of mold, working new walls, replacing the doors, etc. In addition, the company also had to keep security guards and pay them a regular salary.
That created a basic existential problem for the old-fashioned warehouses. They had to tear down and rebuild the warehouses or declare themselves bankrupt as it was hard for them to adapt to a new era and continue making profits.
However, Li Du felt that this warehouse company had gone bust not because it had been poorly managed. Instead, it was because the city was developing and so the boss decided to sell the land to make money.
Plots of land around the warehouse company had been selling like hotcakes. It was because Tucson was aggressively developing new town areas. Hence, land was valuable. Once a plot was cleared for building, there would be plenty of money to be made.
When the car arrived at the door of the old warehouse company, Li Du released his two little bugs.
There were more than two hundred warehouses in there. Because of the bankruptcy status, most of them had already been cleared out. There were thirty-odd warehouses, however, that had not been claimed by their owners. Those leftovers warehouses would be cleared and sold during the upcoming auction.
Out of those warehouses, eleven were big-sized. Li Du felt that the Tiger Tank monster must be in one of them.
American warehouses usually had universal sizes. They were split into five different size categories: super-sized, big-sized, medium-sized, small-sized and mini-sized.
The big-sized warehouses spanned 200 square meters. The medium-sized warehouses were slightly above 100 square meters, and the small ones spanned 50 square meters. The mini ones were slightly over 20 square meters.
The Tiger Tank would require a warehouse of no less than 50 square meters. After taking into consideration the space required for some accessories, a medium-sized warehouse might be insufficient. Hence, the tank could only be in a super-sized or big-sized warehouse.
The super-sized warehouses in the Combat Squadron Storage had already been cleared out. The largest-sized warehouses that would be entered into the auction list were the big-sized ones, which narrowed Li Du’s field of search.
The little bug flew into a big-sized warehouse. There was chaos inside and the items seemed to belong to an office. There were many stacks of office stationery strewn all over. Of course, those office supplies had been rejected.
There was definitely no value in such a warehouse. The companies were smart; they would not have kept useful supplies in the warehouse. They would not have left behind anything that would be valuable.
Next, the little bug flew into another big-sized warehouse. It contained a bunch of rubbish too. The two little bugs split up the work and started to search very quickly. Still, there was nothing valuable.
It was the same for the four consecutive warehouses. Li Du thought that there must be something different in the fifth warehouse. Five was his lucky number.
Then, the little bugs entered warehouse number five. What he saw shocked him.
It was an airplane!
However, it was not a helicopter or a small plane. It was a full-fledged passenger plane!
However, it was a rejected model, the Boeing 707. That was the first generation of Boeing’s passenger planes. It was first produced in the 50s and had once gone around the entire world. It had been famous.
However, that plane had lost the glory of the Boeing trademark. It had been disassembled into a few big parts. The wings were randomly placed near the head of the plane. The paint on the surface of the fuselage had faded so much that it made the plane look mottled and old.
The most important part of the plane was gone. That plane model originally had three engines. Now, there were none. The dashboard inside the cockpit was still intact, but the circuit of the dashboard had long been destroyed.
The dismantled plane filled up the entire warehouse. Li Du shook his head and withdrew the little bugs. He willed them into warehouse number six.
Such a plane had no use. It was not worth a cent and would be a burden. Even its owner had abandoned it. In fact, Li Du could not help but suspect that its owner had purposely rented warehouse space to get rid of it.
It was often troublesome to clear trash in America. People had to spend money to haul their garbage away. Hence, some people would find it was cheaper to rent out the warehouse space to store the old stuff they couldn’t afford to clear out.
In the future, when their rent was up, they would not continue the rental so that they could just dispose of their trash like that. Then the warehouse company would have to get rid of their junk at its own cost.
It would be a troublesome process to dispose of the damaged plane. The scrap metal was worthless, and unless they were able to bump into plane enthusiasts, they would have to fork out their own money to clear it.
He had viewed all of the eleven big-sized warehouses. Li Du felt vexed. There was no sign of the tank in any of them!
Having no choice, he could only head towards the medium-sized warehouses. If the tank were in a medium-sized warehouse, it would significantly lower his chance of a successful bid.
Taking reference from the size of the Tiger Tank, a medium-sized warehouse had just about enough space to hold it. If the tank were truly there, not much would be able to camouflage it. Hence, anyone would be able to see it from the door.
Unfortunately, Li Du found the metal monster in the first medium-sized warehouse!
The information was accurate. Who cares who leaked the news? It was the truth. There was an incredibly expensive Tiger Tank in the warehouse of Combat Squadron Storage Co., Ltd.
From the time he learned about the Tiger Tank, Li Du had thought that that piece of information was exclusively acquired by Lu Guan. In the past, the information that Hans had given him was valuable and could not be obtained by ordinary means.
In the end, it turned out that what Lu Guan had told him was common knowledge.
It was at this point that Li Du felt how important Hans had been. While Hans – that b*stard – always seemed to be flaky, history had proven that others were even less reliable and trustworthy than him.
As everyone knew of the existence of the Tiger Tank, it would be even harder to try and land that warehouse at a low price. After all, the tank was a giant monster. It was eight to nine meters long, about three meters wide, two and a half meters tall, and weighed more than fifty tons!
Disappointed at this turn of circumstance, Li Du gave Lu Guan a scare – he sliced off a big chunk of the grilled beef that Lu Guan had on his plate. Frightened, Lu Guan pleaded, “Boss, you won’t take my life just because of this, right?”
“You still have the cheek to say that?” Li Du snapped and glared at him.
As they had taken dinner early, night had yet to fall after they finished eating. Li Du decided to check out the warehouse that night.
He had known that there would be only 45 warehouses. Typically, with his powers, he would have only tried to gain information on the day of the auction. However, now that he knew that everyone else was aware of the Tiger Tank’s existence, he felt that it would be better if he checked out the situation beforehand himself.
To be prepared for the worst, he wanted to think of solutions in advance, before problems cropped up.
Li Du first went to the bankrupt warehouse company, which was where the legendary Tiger Tank warehouse was located. The company was situated in the north of the Tucson city and spanned about thirty to forty acres. Its name was Combat Squadron Storage Co., Ltd.
As the area occupied was large, it encompassed many warehouses.
The warehouse company had been set up in the 60s and 70s of the previous century. At that time, the economy in America was stable and prosperous. It was common for people to change their jobs or move house. It was also during that period that technology made great leaps and everyone started to replace their appliances and furniture. There had been a great demand for warehouses and many of the warehouse companies expanded quickly at that time.
Hence, the warehouse of that era were designed to be very close and dense. In one area, warehouses of different sizes were all clumped together wherever they could fit to max out space.
During those days, the more warehouse there were, the more money the company could make. However, today the warehouse trade was in decline. People had less need for storage.
As a result, a problem occurred. In the current era, the more warehouses a company kept, the more money was spent on maintenance fees. There were fees for modifying the warehouse space, getting rid of mold, working new walls, replacing the doors, etc. In addition, the company also had to keep security guards and pay them a regular salary.
That created a basic existential problem for the old-fashioned warehouses. They had to tear down and rebuild the warehouses or declare themselves bankrupt as it was hard for them to adapt to a new era and continue making profits.
However, Li Du felt that this warehouse company had gone bust not because it had been poorly managed. Instead, it was because the city was developing and so the boss decided to sell the land to make money.
Plots of land around the warehouse company had been selling like hotcakes. It was because Tucson was aggressively developing new town areas. Hence, land was valuable. Once a plot was cleared for building, there would be plenty of money to be made.
When the car arrived at the door of the old warehouse company, Li Du released his two little bugs.
There were more than two hundred warehouses in there. Because of the bankruptcy status, most of them had already been cleared out. There were thirty-odd warehouses, however, that had not been claimed by their owners. Those leftovers warehouses would be cleared and sold during the upcoming auction.
Out of those warehouses, eleven were big-sized. Li Du felt that the Tiger Tank monster must be in one of them.
American warehouses usually had universal sizes. They were split into five different size categories: super-sized, big-sized, medium-sized, small-sized and mini-sized.
The big-sized warehouses spanned 200 square meters. The medium-sized warehouses were slightly above 100 square meters, and the small ones spanned 50 square meters. The mini ones were slightly over 20 square meters.
The Tiger Tank would require a warehouse of no less than 50 square meters. After taking into consideration the space required for some accessories, a medium-sized warehouse might be insufficient. Hence, the tank could only be in a super-sized or big-sized warehouse.
The super-sized warehouses in the Combat Squadron Storage had already been cleared out. The largest-sized warehouses that would be entered into the auction list were the big-sized ones, which narrowed Li Du’s field of search.
The little bug flew into a big-sized warehouse. There was chaos inside and the items seemed to belong to an office. There were many stacks of office stationery strewn all over. Of course, those office supplies had been rejected.
There was definitely no value in such a warehouse. The companies were smart; they would not have kept useful supplies in the warehouse. They would not have left behind anything that would be valuable.
Next, the little bug flew into another big-sized warehouse. It contained a bunch of rubbish too. The two little bugs split up the work and started to search very quickly. Still, there was nothing valuable.
It was the same for the four consecutive warehouses. Li Du thought that there must be something different in the fifth warehouse. Five was his lucky number.
Then, the little bugs entered warehouse number five. What he saw shocked him.
It was an airplane!
However, it was not a helicopter or a small plane. It was a full-fledged passenger plane!
However, it was a rejected model, the Boeing 707. That was the first generation of Boeing’s passenger planes. It was first produced in the 50s and had once gone around the entire world. It had been famous.
However, that plane had lost the glory of the Boeing trademark. It had been disassembled into a few big parts. The wings were randomly placed near the head of the plane. The paint on the surface of the fuselage had faded so much that it made the plane look mottled and old.
The most important part of the plane was gone. That plane model originally had three engines. Now, there were none. The dashboard inside the cockpit was still intact, but the circuit of the dashboard had long been destroyed.
The dismantled plane filled up the entire warehouse. Li Du shook his head and withdrew the little bugs. He willed them into warehouse number six.
Such a plane had no use. It was not worth a cent and would be a burden. Even its owner had abandoned it. In fact, Li Du could not help but suspect that its owner had purposely rented warehouse space to get rid of it.
It was often troublesome to clear trash in America. People had to spend money to haul their garbage away. Hence, some people would find it was cheaper to rent out the warehouse space to store the old stuff they couldn’t afford to clear out.
In the future, when their rent was up, they would not continue the rental so that they could just dispose of their trash like that. Then the warehouse company would have to get rid of their junk at its own cost.
It would be a troublesome process to dispose of the damaged plane. The scrap metal was worthless, and unless they were able to bump into plane enthusiasts, they would have to fork out their own money to clear it.
He had viewed all of the eleven big-sized warehouses. Li Du felt vexed. There was no sign of the tank in any of them!
Having no choice, he could only head towards the medium-sized warehouses. If the tank were in a medium-sized warehouse, it would significantly lower his chance of a successful bid.
Taking reference from the size of the Tiger Tank, a medium-sized warehouse had just about enough space to hold it. If the tank were truly there, not much would be able to camouflage it. Hence, anyone would be able to see it from the door.
Unfortunately, Li Du found the metal monster in the first medium-sized warehouse!
The information was accurate. Who cares who leaked the news? It was the truth. There was an incredibly expensive Tiger Tank in the warehouse of Combat Squadron Storage Co., Ltd.
