Chapter 187 So you admit it, kid?

Although these harsh words were spoken loudly, anyone could tell it was just bravado, hiding a lack of confidence underneath.

However, such baseless threats did not stop them from submitting a sternly worded protest note, accompanied by a large number of high-definition battlefield photos, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Eastern Country through diplomatic channels.

Soon, this document, reeking of gunpowder, was placed on the table in the highest-level military conference room in the Imperial Capital.

The atmosphere in the conference room was not relaxed.

The Old General sat at the head of the table, his face looking very grim, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table, making a du-du-du sound.

Liu Jianguo had been summoned by an emergency call and was currently sitting on one side of the conference table. Seeing the Old General's meaningful, even scrutinizing gaze, he felt his scalp tingle.

He couldn't help but shift in his seat, trying to make himself more comfortable; the atmosphere was too oppressive.

"What's going on?" he thought to himself.

"Why does the Old General's gaze toward me feel so strange?"

Finally, the Old General stopped tapping. With his sharp eyes fixed on Liu Jianguo, he asked slowly, "Jianguo, the task of tackling the technical difficulties of the quadruped robot has been in your hands for quite some time now, hasn't it?"

Liu Jianguo's heart skipped a beat.

"It really is about this."

Recently, he had been worrying so much about that cursed quadruped intelligent combat platform that his hair was turning white. The technical bottlenecks were one after another; the servo motors and balance algorithms were simply two insurmountable mountains.

"Chief, it has been a while," Liu Jianguo had no choice but to bite the bullet and answer, his voice very cautious. "But as you know, the technical difficulties involved…"

"I'll just ask you one thing."

The Old General interrupted his complaints, leaning slightly forward, his tone intriguing, "Does the project you are responsible for have results yet?"

When Liu Jianguo heard this, he was stunned.

"Results?"

"Results my ass!"

"The prototype in the lab trips after walking two steps; it can't even walk in a straight line. Where would results come from?"

He looked at the Old General's "I've seen through you" expression, his mind racing through countless possibilities in an instant.

"Something's not right."

"Where did the Old General get this news from?"

"It must be those other military industrial units that were also assigned the task! Those bastards, since they couldn't figure it out themselves, they're dumping the blame on me to divert the superiors' attention!"

Having figured this out, Liu Jianguo's anger flared up instantly.

"These peers of mine really have no professional ethics!"

"No, Chief! Heaven and earth bear witness!"

Liu Jianguo stiffened his neck and denied it immediately, his tone sounding particularly aggrieved. "Which bastard is spreading rumors about me?! You can send people to check my progress at any time; I don't even have a functional prototype that can run yet!"

The Old General watched his agitated state without speaking, his gaze only becoming more peculiar.

That look was as if he were watching him act.

Liu Jianguo felt his heart creeped out by this gaze. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, feeling certain that someone was stabbing him in the back, trying to set him up for a fall.

He had to prove his innocence and strike back hard.

So, in a heat of the moment, to prove how absurd the rumor was, he deliberately said loudly in an exaggerated and sarcastic tone:

"These bastards don't even draft their lies! Since they're saying this, do they also want to spread rumors that my quadruped robot is already on the battlefield? That it's already wreaking havoc?"

After speaking, he looked angrily at the Old General, waiting for the Chief to join him in denouncing such an outrageous rumor.

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

Only the air conditioning vent was humming loudly.

After listening to Liu Jianguo's words, the Old General did not get angry as he had expected, nor did he laugh.

Instead, the Old General was silent for a moment.

Then, he slowly raised his head, looking at Liu Jianguo with a complicated expression, and said in a very calm tone:

"You kid… admitted it, huh?"

"Huh?"

...

Liu Jianguo was dumbfounded on the spot.

He opened his mouth wide, staring blankly at the Old General, feeling that his brain wasn't working quite right.

"Admitted?"

"Admitted what?"

"This was sarcasm! This was a rhetorical question! Can't you tell, Chief?"

"No… Chief, you…" Liu Jianguo stammered, trying to explain.

The Old General, however, didn't give him any chance to explain, waving his hand directly at the technical personnel nearby: "Since Comrade Jianguo has already admitted it, show the evidence so he can see it, and let him know that our intelligence work is not just for show."

The technician understood immediately and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

The large screen at the front of the conference room lit up instantly.

A high-definition video began to play.

The background of the video was the typical Gobi landscape of Middle East.

In the footage, hundreds of silver-white quadruped robots were moving at high speed, charging wildly through the rugged rock piles under a hail of bullets.

Machine guns were mounted on their backs, spitting tongues of fire, suppressing the Israel soldiers so they couldn't even lift their heads.

Some robots even nimbly leaped over two-meter-high trenches, pouncing directly onto tanks.

Such fluid movements, such perfect balance, such terrifying battlefield dominance.

Liu Jianguo watched the big screen, his eyes nearly popping out.

He looked at the robot dogs wreaking havoc in the video, then recalled the semi-finished product in his lab that did the splits after walking two steps.

"Did I build this?"

"If I had this technology, I would have been walking around with my head held high long ago!"

He was completely bewildered.

This video was too real, so real that even he, a professional, couldn't find any flaws at first glance.

But precisely because it was too real, he found it even more incredible and absurd.

He muttered to himself, his voice filled with shock:

"Damn it, these jerks, to make me attract fire, they actually used AI to create such a realistic video?"