Chapter 146 Since I'm just killing time anyway, let's get a drone to play with.

"F*ck! Is this Chinese phone case made of Kevlar armor?!"

The American gun blogger's voice cracked in a roar.

Accompanied by that nine-millimeter brass bullet head that had been flattened by brute force.

This video clip spread like a virus, killing its way back to the domestic internet from overseas within ten minutes.

The Weibo trending list was instantly dominated by the five deep red characters: "Xinghai Bulletproof Case."

Domestic netizens looked at that nineteen-ninety-nine with free shipping black lump and were completely dumbfounded.

Keyboards clattered.

"This is called 'bored with nothing to do'? This is called an 'innovation bottleneck'?"

"Boss Lu makes bulletproof vests when he's bored? The Pentagon in the US must be scared to the point of wetting their pants after watching this video!"

"Don't even mention it! The official website crashed! I added it to three shopping carts and still didn't manage to grab one!"

Donghai City.

In the top-floor office of the Xinghai Technology building, the air conditioner blew out white mist with a whir.

Chu Xuan tugged at the collar of his purple-based, yellow-flowered shirt.

He slammed the tablet onto the glass coffee table, making a crisp "crack" sound.

The tissue in his hand was already soaked through with cold sweat, dripping wet.

"Boss Lu! It's sold out!"

Chu Xuan swallowed dryly, his Adam's apple aching.

"One million bulletproof cases, gone in two seconds!"

His legs were shaking. "Over in Huaqiangbei, they've organized groups to go to the US overnight to buy retired firearms; they're determined to test the limits of our cases!"

Lu Jingming leaned back in his leather executive chair.

His legs were crossed, resting casually on the edge of the desk.

His faded black T-shirt was slightly wrinkled.

His right hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a paint-chipped green plastic lighter.

He pressed his thumb against the metal grinding wheel.

"Click."

A deep blue flame jumped up, reflecting the lazy light in his eyes.

"Selling a lousy plastic case, look how excited they are."

Lu Jingming casually extinguished the flame, the plastic casing making a crisp, light sound.

"Chu Xuan, this thing is too boring."

Accompanied by the "tap-tap" sound of high heels on the wool carpet.

Shen Qingqiu pushed open the solid wood door and walked in.

The collar of her white shirt was buttoned meticulously.

She pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, a cold, actuary-like glint flashing behind the lenses.

"The hardware for holographic projection can already be mass-produced."

Shen Qingqiu placed a document on the desk.

"But we are currently facing a problem of lacking underlying data."

She rested her hands on the edge of the desk.

"We need 3D beam data of global topography and spatial architecture."

"If we want to do holographic real-scene projection, without the support of underlying 3D scanning data, what gets projected will just be large-grained pixels."

Chu Xuan gasped.

Cold air choked his lungs, raising goosebumps.

"Global data?"

He trembled, wiping the sweat from his neck with a tattered tissue.

"General Manager Shen, how many survey teams would we need to hire to run around the world? How long would that take?"

Lu Jingming took his legs off the desk.

He leaned forward slightly.

"Manual surveying is a stupid method."

He closed his eyes, his consciousness instantly sinking.

He dove headfirst into the deep blue intermediate 'Defensive-Break' exchange mall.

His gaze swept rapidly over those dark-gold-glowing black-tech icons.

Soon.

His gaze locked onto a complex aircraft matrix.

[Micro Anti-Gravity and Spatial Hovering Algorithm].

Underlying note: Completely discard aerodynamic layout, reverse offset of gravitational ripples.

Deducting 'Defensive-Break' points.

"Hum——"

Vast fluid mechanics and anti-gravity code instantly flooded his mind.

His temples throbbed, as if a handful of hot iron sand had been stuffed into them.

Lu Jingming opened his eyes abruptly.

He grabbed the black signature pen on the desk.

With a few quick strokes, he drew a sketch of a drone with four small rotors on a white sheet of paper.

The lines were sharp.

"Rip."

Lu Jingming tore off the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it at Chu Xuan.

"Take the magnetic levitation brushless motors left over from making the air conditioners and shrink them down to the size of a coin for me."

He pulled up the corner of his mouth, his sharp, white canine tooth flashing with a cold light.

"Go to the basement and find Xia Weiliang and Old Li. Let's make a little toy that can run all over the world."

Late at night.

Core hardware laboratory on the third basement level.

The air conditioning was on full blast, making one's bones ache.

Xia Weiliang was barefoot, squatting on a large gaming chair.

The hem of her yellowed, dirty lab coat dragged on the floor, picking up a layer of dust.

She was biting on half of an unfinished instant noodle companion sausage.

"Crunch."

Biting off a piece of meat, her ten oil-stained fingers hammered the mechanical keyboard, leaving afterimages.

The screen was filled with dense underlying flight control code.

"Shrink the air conditioner motor? And add an anti-gravity algorithm?"

Xia Weiliang rolled her eyes dramatically, cursing incoherently.

"Does Boss Lu really take me for a turtle in a wishing well?"

Old Li was lying on the stainless steel workbench next to her.

His bottle-bottom-thick glasses were almost touching the circuit board.

He held precision electronic tweezers in his hand, carefully gripping a micro magnetic levitation coil.

"Sister Weiliang, stop cursing."

Old Li's forehead was covered in sweat, dripping down his cheeks.

"The algorithm Boss Lu gave us is simply amazing."

He swallowed. "No mechanical gears, relying entirely on electromagnetic fields to cancel out gravity. This thing is simply a miracle of physics."

The next morning.

Lu Jingming walked into the lab with one hand in his jeans pocket.

His old sneakers made no sound on the anti-static floor.

In the center of the workbench.

Sat a pitch-black, palm-sized quadcopter.

The casing was coated with matte radar-absorbent material, feeling cold and rough to the touch.

Four small rotors rested quietly on the supports.

It looked like a cybernetic black bat with its wings folded.

Chu Xuan stood nearby.

Clutching a newly replaced tissue, he wiped the oily sweat from his forehead for dear life.

"B-Boss Lu, can this little thing really fly?"

Chu Xuan swallowed dryly.

"The aerial photography drones on the market sound like tractors as soon as they take off; they make your brain ache with the noise."

Xia Weiliang jumped off the chair barefoot.

She had switched to a watermelon-flavored lollipop, the plastic stick bobbing up and down.

She walked to the workbench.

"Idiot. That's because they use brushed motors to violently cut through the air."

She handed a tablet connected to the control terminal to Lu Jingming.

"This machine has micro magnetic levitation plus an anti-gravity algorithm; the rotors are just auxiliary tools for calibrating the heading."

Lu Jingming took the tablet.

His gaze fell on the black drone.

His thumb hovered over the "Start" button on the screen.

He tapped it lightly.

"Hum——"

A low frequency rippled through the air.

It couldn't even be called a sound; it was just a subtle vibration of the air.

His eardrums tingled slightly.

That palm-sized black drone.

Left the workbench without any warning.

There was no roar of rotors cutting through the air at high speed.

Nor was there the wobbly struggle of an ordinary drone taking off.

It just rose straight up to two meters above the ground.

It was nailed firmly in the air.

Without even the slightest sway.

It was as quiet as a daylight ghost.

The airflow beneath the fuselage was pitifully weak.

It didn't even cause a single ripple in the lightweight anti-static plastic sheet next to the workbench.

Old Li's mouth was wide open.

His chin nearly hit his collarbone.

He gasped, his lungs feeling as if they had been drenched in ice water.

His bottle-bottom-thick glasses.

Slid down his sweat-covered nose bridge, nearly falling to the tip of his nose.

"B-Boss Lu."

Old Li's lips trembled, his voice floating.

"This thing doesn't even have wind noise; this defies aerodynamics!"