The atmosphere in the underground storeroom suddenly became stifling. Bai Yulan walked behind Xu Le and lowered her head to look at the contents of the news. Zhou Yu's brows also furrowed. Jose sighed and brought up the news screen. Xu Le's gaze moved away from the phone and landed on the news screen again. His eyes narrowed, and he remained silent.
Everyone watched the news screen in silence. The scrolling news of the Federation was currently replaying the news conference held by the Federal Academy of Science today.
In front of the dark blue background of the stage, the leader of the Federation's academic community, Dean Lin, was currently waving his arms and vigorously explaining something. Following his explanation, the 3D light screen behind him began to change. A light purple mecha gradually condensed within the light, revealing its intimidating and elegant figure.
The 3D light screen changed again, and the new light purple mecha broke down into countless parts, floating in the air above the hall, revealing its advanced design concepts. In particular, the streamlined twin engines floating in the middle attracted everyone's attention.
Countless cameras in the press conference were focused on the stage. The reporters were so shocked that they couldn't ask any questions. They all vaguely knew that the Federation was researching this revolutionary new mecha, but they didn't know that the Academy of Science had actually quietly succeeded in developing it. They knew better than the average citizen what kind of glory this new dual-engine mecha would bring to the Federation.
"This is a new era, an era that belongs to MX." Dean Lin placed both hands on the stage and used an extremely dignified gaze to calmly scan the surroundings as he spoke slowly.
As his voice fell, the parts of the new mecha scattered around the 3D light screen began to gather towards the center. Accompanied by the beautiful sound of metal assembling, the new light purple MX was reassembled, emitting a faint glow. At the same time, the blue background suddenly turned into a soft existence like flowing water, pouring down like mercury!
A realistic purple streamlined MX mecha appeared in front of everyone's eyes, gradually merging with the mecha in the three-dimensional light beam image. Then, the light beam dissipated, leaving behind the new mecha that was seven meters tall, looking coldly and proudly at everyone at the press conference.
…
…
The rolling news had ended, and the warehouse of the Shell Engineering Department was still silent. A depressing atmosphere hung over everyone's head. Supervisor José's face was pale, and Xu Le lowered his head.
Zhou Yu clenched his fists tightly. Secretary Bai tilted her head to look at him. Only Major Lan Xiaolong did not understand why these people seemed so dejected.
The white MX mech that was fixed to the wall of the quarantine zone had yet to be assembled. Its three thick and heavy mechanical arms were slowly adjusting. The body of the white mech was slightly tilted to one side, as if it was watching the news in a daze. Even it did not understand why that purple goblin on the screen had been born before it.
No one knew better than the people present what the Federal Academy of Science's announcement of the successful development of the MX mech represented. This meant that the Shell Motor Company's 10 years of hard work had all become a wedding dress for the Federal Academy of Science. This meant that the hard work of countless engineers had all been for naught.
For Xu Le, this meant even more. For example, Professor Shen, the presidential election, shameless people … Bai Yulan, who was standing behind him, looked at his dejected back with a complicated expression. Suddenly, she whispered a few words to Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu shook his head.
The information of the engineering department had been leaked. This had already been determined after the arrest of the board of directors. However, the most suspicious person, Supervisor Hao, had already been transferred away before the incident. From a certain perspective, this senior supervisor's actions were equivalent to betraying the Tai family and also betraying the Nutshell engineering department. However, this senior supervisor also had his own background. If this was really his doing, then he had now climbed up another big tree. The Federation was a place where rules were followed. The Tai family could not just drag out that supervisor and kill him. There were also no leads on the spaceship that the gunman had escaped from. Therefore, the crux of the matter now was the speed of the development of the MX mech. The Nutshell engineering department and Xu Le had allowed for failure, but the Academy of Science had rushed to announce the success first.
Xu Le thought of the pressure Deputy Minister Zou had displayed on the phone and those words he had said. He knew that he could not lose. He lowered his head and rubbed his disheveled hair. Both his feet were on the chair, but he did not express any opinion.
At the same time, in the Nutshell engineering department not far from this backup storage, the atmosphere had also become extremely strange. More than 200 of the company's top engineers were silently looking at the large holographic screen on the ceiling. They were looking at the scene of the Federal Academy of Science's press conference. A feeling of disappointment and defeat pervaded the air. A very long time passed, but still, no one spoke. The work that had been busy for many days also came to a temporary halt.
Only a female engineer wearing cute round glasses stood up with curiosity. She stared at the beautiful yet murderous light purple mecha on the news screen. She compared it with the blueprint of the MX mecha on her workbench and found some differences. From these differences, she felt that there was something strange.
…
…
Supervisor José knew very well that the reason Xu Le was willing to cooperate with the engineering department was because this young man had a certain stubbornness. He did not want Professor Shen's research results to be maliciously stolen by those academic bureaucrats. He also knew how much effort Xu Le had put in for this new mecha. Many sleepless days and nights had all been spent on this matter.
Looking at that somewhat dejected back, he could not help but be a little worried. Would this young prodigy find it difficult to accept this result? However, right now, his mood was also unusually cold. Even if he wanted to comfort the other, he could not find any words.
Just as everyone thought that Xu Le was about to break down, he slowly raised his head and turned to look at the crowd with a smile. It was not a bitter smile, but rather a smile like the radiant sun. His eyes were narrowed like two beautiful moons in the night sky, and his pearly white teeth were exposed outside his lips, as clean as the snow in Lin Hai.
"What are you all standing around for? The Federal Academy of Science is a top academic institution. Do you all think that because their technical reserves are weaker than ours, they should naturally fall behind us? " Xu Le stood up, stretched, and said with a smile, "They've already announced success, so we can't just stand around. We need to hurry up and finish what we have on hand."
This overly normal reaction made everyone feel that Xu Le had become somewhat abnormal under this kind of shock. Manager José laughed bitterly and said in a hoarse voice, "You also know that their level is higher. They've gotten ahead of us, so what we're doing is already meaningless. You should know that there can only be one standard for the new generation of mecha. "
In that instant when he had lowered his head, Xu Le had thought of many things. He had always felt that something was not right about this matter. He had a mature design plan personally guided by Professor Shen, and he himself had long since stopped deliberately slowing down the engineering department's research speed. Even if the data was leaked, the Academy of Science could not possibly be faster than the engineering department.
On that rainy night, the other party's last attempt to stop the development of the nutshell engineering department had failed. Furthermore, if Manager Hao had really leaked part of the engineering department's progress and data, the Academy of Science would definitely feel unprecedented pressure. Pressure could sometimes be motivation, but it could also make the person in charge feel anxious and flustered, just like Manager José was right now.
Xu Le was increasingly certain that the Federal Academy of Science must not have completed sufficient internal testing. As such, the possibility of the other party discovering that he had tampered with the core data was even lower. Thus, he was not flustered. In fact, he was even somewhat glad about the events of that rainy night and Manager Hao's leak. If not for that, he really did not have the confidence that he would be able to use those fake data to fool the other party.
"This is a one-sided press conference by the Academy of Science. The Federation government might not even know about it. Perhaps that Dean Lin wants to create an established fact, but the problem is that we're almost there too. How could the government not consider our side?"
He smiled and said to everyone, "This press conference was very well done, but I keep having this feeling that the bigger their momentum now, the more embarrassing it will be in the future."
No one understood this sentence, but looking at Xu Le's smiling face, for some reason, they suddenly felt a little more confident.
…
…
In the small conference room on the top floor of the Ministry of National Defense building in the capital special administrative region, a voice rang out. The owner of the voice was President Sieg's scientific advisor. He looked at the big shots around the round table, frowned, and said, "What exactly is the Academy of Science doing? Even Mr. President does not know about this matter, and they just held a press conference. If in the future, the experiment fails again like last autumn, who will explain it to the people of the Federation? How will the Empire view us? "
This scientific advisor had a good relationship with Zou Yingxing. They had once attended Professor Shen's funeral together. For him to say something like this now naturally represented the attitude of a certain side. However, sitting in the very middle of the room, the national security advisor said disapprovingly, "Since the Academy of Science dared to hold a press conference, they naturally have confidence. As for the testing aspect, with the lesson of the nutshell incident, they will definitely be much more careful."
Zou Yingxing sat quietly in a corner of the round table. Such a meeting of the highest level of the Federation was usually held in the President's official residence, but today, because of the matter of the new MX mecha, it had been moved to the Ministry of National Defense. As the deputy minister of National Defense, he was not considered a key figure in such an occasion. In the past, he had rarely spoken, but today, for some reason, he looked at the document in his hands and reminded everyone in a low voice, "The engineering department's research is also nearing completion …"
The national security advisor rudely interrupted him and said sharply, "How much of the Federation's funds has the engineering department wasted in these past 10 years? In the end, all they made last year was a piece of trash that could explode! So what if their research is successful this time? Could it be that the Federation's new generation of mecha coexists with two standards? Then in the future, which standard will be used to equip the troops? "
At this time, President Sieg was still inspecting South Kezhou. The person with the highest status in this meeting was naturally the national security advisor. This important figure's clear stance and faint dissatisfaction in his words made all the officials in the meeting think that Zou Yingxing would be as silent as before.
However, right at this time, the usually low-key Deputy Minister Zou took off his glasses and threw them onto the table. Meeting the gaze of the national security advisor, he said coldly, "Of course, we'll use whichever standard is better."
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