Chapter 148: The civilian version of the drone accidentally met military standards.

"It's pieced together from scrap chips."

These few light, airy words were like a hundred-pound iron hammer, smashing squarely into the back of CEO Wang's head.

His brain went "buzz," and blood rushed straight to his head. CEO Wang's legs turned to jelly. His knees knocked against the steel pipe at the bottom of the safety net, emitting a dull thud.

He retreated two steps, collapsing directly against the adjacent sheet-metal cabinet. He gasped for cold air, his lungs stinging with pain.

"R-router scrap leftovers?"

The bloodshot veins in the whites of CEO Wang's eyes burst open instantly, like a nest of red poisonous spiders. He swallowed dry saliva, his Adam's apple scraping painfully against his parched throat.

He stared fixedly at the black bat hovering in mid-air. The flight control obstacle avoidance system that DJI had spent billions in R&D to develop, in front of Xinghai Technology's scrap parts, looked like a fool that had just learned to walk and still tripped on flat ground.

CEO Wang didn't mention being a supplier again. He didn't even dare to take the computer full of PPTs. He slunk out of the underground test field, his very back radiating the despair of a stray dog.

Three days later. In Donghai City, at the top-floor office of Xinghai Technology. The air conditioner was huffing out white mist.

Chu Xuan tugged at the collar of his purple leopard-print short-sleeved shirt. He clutched a stack of shipping orders tightly in his hand. The pages were wrinkled and damp from the sweat in his palms.

"L-Lu, CEO Lu." Chu Xuan used a crumpled tissue to frantically wipe the greasy sweat from his forehead. "The drones are listed. Priced at 1,999. We sold out 100,000 units in two minutes."

Lu Jingming leaned back in his leather executive chair. His faded black T-shirt was slightly wrinkled, and his legs were casually crossed on the edge of the desk. He didn't even lift an eyelid.

"If it's sold out, have the production line work overtime." Lu Jingming pulled a green plastic lighter from his pocket with his right hand. His thumb pressed against the metal grinding wheel, and with a "click," a deep blue flame appeared. The firelight illuminated the sharp, white canine tooth on one side of his face.

"It's just a toy made from scrap. Let the netizens take it to film flowers and grass; consider it making friends."

But the "filming flowers and grass" that Lu Jingming spoke of soon turned into a completely outrageous style on the domestic internet.

Late that night. On a coastal highway in Shenzhen, a red Ferrari was speeding wildly. The owner, a second-generation rich kid, gripped the steering wheel with one hand. The speed on the LCD dashboard had already hit 200 km/h. The engine let out a deafening roar.

"This acceleration is insane." The second-generation rich kid grinned, turning to brag to the influencer in the passenger seat. "Looking at all the highways in the country, who can catch my LaFerrari?"

Before he could finish his sentence, the influencer in the passenger seat's eyes bulged out. Her nails dug deep into the leather seat, her knuckles turning pale white. "W-what is that thing?" The influencer pointed outside the car window, her voice cracking.

The rich kid turned his head. A palm-sized black quadcopter was flying quietly alongside the Ferrari, hugging the passenger window. There were no flashing red and blue navigation lights. There was no wind-breaking sound of propellers spinning wildly. It was like a ghost strolling through the night. The camera was fixed intently on the two people in the car, and it even effortlessly pulled ahead by half a car length.

"Holy shit!" The rich kid's foot trembled, and he slammed on the brakes. The tires ground against the asphalt, emitting a pungent smell of burning rubber. "Is this a fucking alien UFO! At 200 clicks, it doesn't even vibrate!"

A similarly outrageous scene occurred during a Category 10 super typhoon in Qiongzhou. A storm-chasing weather blogger was wearing a raincoat, hiding under a concrete bridge. Outside, the gale-force winds and torrential rain snapped trees as thick as a bowl in half. Rainwater slapped against the concrete ground with a "patter."

The blogger clutched the Xinghai Technology wristband controller. His hand trembled as he stared at the aerial footage transmitted back to the screen. "Guys. I thought this thousand-yuan toy would be totaled as soon as it flew out."

The blogger's mouth hung open, not even noticing the rainwater pouring into it. "Look at this footage!" The footage was infuriatingly stable. Amidst the gale and rain, the black drone's magnetic levitation anti-gravity algorithm was running frantically, completely canceling out the external wind interference. The high-definition footage transmitted back was as still as if it were mounted on a tripod on solid ground.

These two test video clips dominated the trending topics in the tech section of YouTube in less than an hour. But the more outrageous this thing became online, the tighter the nerves in certain dark corners became.

Across the ocean. In Washington, USA, in the fourth-level underground intelligence analysis room of The Pentagon. The air conditioning was turned to the lowest setting, freezing enough to make one's bones ache. Several technicians in camouflage uniforms were surrounding a large metal dissection table. On the table sat two Xinghai Technology drones obtained at a high price through the black market.

A senior analyst clutched a metal detector in his hand. The red alarm light was flashing frantically. His uniform back was soaked through with cold sweat, sticking tightly to his skin, freezing cold.

"Report, sir! The shell material analysis is complete!" The analyst swallowed dry saliva, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. "This is not just some ordinary engineering plastic!"

His voice wavered, "It's covered in a layer of polymer carbon nanotube composite!" Beside him, a white old man with the rank of Major General knitted his brows into a tight knot. The whites of his eyes were instantly covered in fine red bloodshot veins.

"Speak plain English." The Major General gritted his back teeth, making a dull grinding sound.

"It's the same bulletproof phone case material that Xinghai Technology was selling a while back!" The analyst gasped for air. "This stuff can not only stop a 9mm pistol round at close range, but it also has a terrifying ability to absorb radar waves!"

The flesh on the Major General's face twitched violently twice. He shoved the technician in front of him aside. "Cut the fuselage open! I want to see the flight control motherboard inside!"

Several technicians hurriedly picked up high-energy laser cutters. Deep blue laser beams struck the matte black drone shell, sending sparks flying everywhere. With immense effort, the shell was finally cut open.

A technician picked up precision electronic tweezers. His hand shook as if he had touched high-voltage electricity. He carefully probed into the gap, attempting to extract the core motherboard. Just as the tip of the metal tweezers touched the coating on the surface of the main control chip.

"Beep—" A faint sound of a short circuit erupted from deep within the chip. Immediately after, "Sizzle!" A thick, pungent black smoke shot out frantically through the cut gap. It choked the officers gathered around, making them cough and tearing up.

The underlying encrypted physical fuse was activated directly. The high temperature instantly burned the circuit board into a lump of charcoal. The tweezers in the analyst's hand dropped onto the stainless steel tabletop, making a crisp metallic clinking sound. His legs went weak, and he slumped into the iron chair behind him. "It burned. It all burned to ash."

The analyst's brain was buzzing. He hadn't even managed to get a single strand of code. The Major General gasped for cold air, his lungs stinging. He grabbed the analyst by the collar. "You spent all night analyzing this, and you're showing me a pile of smoking broken plastic?"

The analyst's eyes were bloodshot. He gripped the freshly printed radar cross-section test report in his hand. The pages rustled as he clutched them. "Sir. Forget about the motherboard."

The analyst looked at the test data in his hand, his voice cracking completely. His voice was filled with unconcealable fear. "Do you know what the reflection area was when we scanned it with the air defense radar?"

The analyst suddenly looked up, staring fixedly at the Major General's pale face. "0.001 square meters! That's smaller than the shadow of a sparrow!"

There was a deathly silence in the basement. Only the air conditioner continued to tirelessly emit white noise. The analyst swallowed the metallic taste of blood in his throat, his whole body trembling. "Sir. This is absolutely not a civilian aerial photography drone."

He pointed at the pile of smoking wreckage on the dissection table, his voice sounding like a broken acoustic guitar with snapped strings. "It's coated in bulletproof armor, the noise is near absolute zero, and the radar can't see it at all. This is a fucking military-grade stealth reconnaissance drone!"