The Superfactory with No Inspector

The first time Lu Yao saw Factory Zero, he thought his navigation app had brought him to an unfinished city. Beyond the curtain of rain, a charcoal-gray perimeter wall stretched across the wasteland until it vanished into sea fog. Behind it rose not a cluster of workshops, but an industrial skyline: cooling towers, reactors, storage domes, and elevated logistics tracks stacked in overlapping layers. At the center, a black tower pierced the low clouds. Its red aviation beacon blinked like the slow opening of a gigantic eye. The project brief on his phone was absurdly modest: Tianheng Industrial, Factory Zero Flexible Manufacturing Base. Phase-one acceptance inspection. Estimated labor: eight hours.