"I feel like I'm not happy at all after getting rich, really."

Chen Yiyang was eating an apple peeled by the junior accountant while resting his feet on the junior accountant's lap.

Cold.

Oh, it's that prosthetic leg.

"I think my happiest time was when I lived in the gaming hotel, just waking up every day to play games, not worrying at all about having too much money or too many things to do."

"What, you want to be the national father too?" The junior accountant glanced at Chen Yiyang, wondering if his wealth had made him conceited, preparing to go around giving speeches and becoming a life coach for others.

"No, I just feel too busy." Chen Yiyang looked at his phone.

He had scheduled a meeting today.

To be precise, it was a request from Yang Chengru's side for him to meet someone.

Probably about seeking investment or something like that.

Chen Yiyang couldn't refuse such matters, so he had to make time to meet the other person.

"Then just don't be so busy. You've already made enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life."

"That's not enough," Chen Yiyang said. "My dream is to become the richest person in the world. I won't stop making money until I achieve that."

"A lofty ambition," the junior accountant thought Chen Yiyang was joking.

Even becoming the richest person in the country is actually quite difficult.

Look at the nation's top few billionaires.

Either they sell water to the entire nation.

Or they provide short videos and entertainment with goods to the entire nation.

Or they have a monopoly on social media.

For Chen Yiyang to surpass these people, at the very least, he must create a monopoly advantage in a major industry.

And this is just to become the richest person in the country.

Becoming the richest person in the world, however, is unrelated to what you do.

You need to ensure that your company's stock is sought after by investors worldwide. Only by mastering the game of stocks can you become the richest person in the world.

But Chen Yiyang truly wants to become the richest person in the world.

He's already gotten cheat codes, it wouldn't make sense not to become the world's richest.

If you can't become the richest without cheats, and you still can't with them, wouldn't that be a waste?

However, Chen Yiyang hadn't relaxed for long before the person he was supposed to meet arrived.

So Chen Yiyang quickly stood up and waited for the person in the reception room.

"Hello, Mr. Chen." A middle-aged man with a scholarly appearance shook hands with Chen Yiyang.

"Hello, Professor Xie." Chen Yiyang greeted him politely.

This Professor Xie is a legitimate professor, currently working at a university in Lin'an.

This time, he came to find Chen Yiyang mainly to seek investment for their research project.

"Currently, the project my team is working on is called 'Seawater In-situ Direct Electrolysis Hydrogen Production without Desalination.'

"Hydrogen production?"

"Yes." Professor Xie explained to Chen Yiyang, "Hydrogen is a very important resource, widely used in fuel, heating, and raw materials.

Since the only by-product of hydrogen combustion is water, it doesn't cause any environmental pollution. It's a perfect green energy source.

Besides being a fuel, using hydrogen for heating is also very important in the industrial field, because hydrogen can provide high temperatures while reducing or eliminating carbon emissions.

Currently, countries around the world are promoting hydrogen heating in steel, cement, ceramics, and even in the construction field, hydrogen can be mixed with natural gas, making it very valuable in applications."

"What you're saying, it's still not widespread, right?" Chen Yiyang caught the key point and finally managed to interject.

"Of course, hydrogen isn't widespread in the first two areas, but even now, it's a widely used raw material in industry.

Moreover, almost all hydrogen used in industry currently comes from large-scale hydrogen production from natural gas, coal, and oil. These methods account for 96% of the total hydrogen production."

Chen Yiyang's scientific literacy isn't very high.

But he was a good student when he studied.

So he thought for a moment and asked, "I remember reading about water electrolysis to produce hydrogen in textbooks."

"Yes, water electrolysis is indeed one method of producing hydrogen," Professor Xie adjusted his glasses with a finger and continued,

"Water electrolysis hydrogen production can be considered the most traditional method, with mature technology, simple operation, and low cost.

But its disadvantage is also fatal—high electricity consumption and low efficiency, making it unsuitable for industrial applications."

"How does your research project, the seawater in-situ direct electrolysis hydrogen production, plan to overcome these shortcomings?" Chen Yiyang inquired.

"It's simple, use wind power." Professor Xie took out a tablet to show Chen Yiyang an illustration.

Illustration of seawater electrolysis hydrogen production.

"At sea, the cost of wind power is very low, but the downside is it's challenging to transport the generated electricity back to land.

So, instead, why not use that electricity directly on an offshore platform?"

"Sounds promising, but this principle seems obvious. Why hasn't anyone tried it before?"

"Because the main issue is that seawater contains over ninety chemical elements. That's the biggest problem seawater hydrogen production faces. My proposed solution combines molecular diffusion, interface phase equilibrium, and physical mechanics with electrochemistry to establish a new principle and technology for phase transition-driven seawater in-situ direct electrolysis hydrogen production without desalination."

"Simplify it, please." Hearing a slew of technical terms made Chen Yiyang's head spin.

"Simply put, the technology I'm researching can directly isolate seawater ions, achieving efficient hydrogen production without desalination, side reactions, or additional energy consumption.

If commercialization is achieved, the cost of hydrogen production for humans will drop significantly."

"How far along is the research now?" Chen Yiyang asked.

"The preliminary theoretical research is complete, and now we're short of funds for sea trials." Professor Xie said.

If Professor Xie's theory and research are to be implemented, a small platform needs to be constructed at sea for trials.

The cost is clearly beyond the means of a professor alone.

So Professor Xie, through Yang Chengru's connections, reached out to Chen Yiyang, a notably active investor in the business circle, hoping to secure some funding.

"How much is needed in the early stages? How will patent rights be distributed?" Chen Yiyang asked a very practical question.

"About fifty million is needed for the initial sea trials. As for patent rights, our team would just retain certain dividend rights."

Fifty million isn't much compared to the potential of seawater hydrogen production.

But Chen Yiyang is no fool.

The initial sea trial requires fifty million.

That fifty million is just the beginning, and there will be various other sea trials later.

Moreover, the cost could exceed five hundred million just to build the first commercial hydrogen production platform at sea.

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