Chapter 91, Version 2.0

Wang Dachui's fatal blow, that phrase "it's just gathering dust in the warehouse," sucked the air out of the entire office.

Time froze, and silence filled the surroundings.

This silence lasted for a full dozen seconds.

Then, this frozen air was broken by an irrepressible, heavy gasp.

This sound came from the Chief Engineer of Chengfei Group, the white-haired Academician Zhang Jingmin.

His face, previously slack with shock, was now being replaced at a visible speed by an excited flush.

His eyes, which had dimmed after seeing Version 1.0, reignited with flames at this moment—no, they reignited with two volcanoes!

"2.0..."

His lips trembled as he squeezed these two words from his throat, his voice hoarse.

"The version 2.0... that can be used on... the big guys..."

These few words instantly shattered the shackles of reason in the minds of all the technical Experts present.

An irrepressible ecstasy instantly overwhelmed all their restraint and composure.

"Where is it?!"

Academician Zhang Jingmin was the first to react. He lunged forward, completely disregarding his elderly body, and grabbed the shoulders of the bewildered Li Jiajun with both hands, his entire body trembling violently from excessive excitement.

"Where is the sample of Version 2.0?! Take us there! Quick!"

His voice cracked completely from excitement, sounding sharp and urgent.

Li Jiajun was completely bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

He was shaken about by the Old Expert until he was dizzy, his mind going completely blank.

Before he could recover, several other Experts nearby, their eyes equally bloodshot, crowded around him.

"Quick! Comrade Li! Take us to the warehouse!"

"This is a matter of top priority for the country! We cannot delay even a second!"

A group of national treasure-level Experts, with an average age of over sixty, were now like a crowd of fanatical believers, talking over one another, grabbing, pulling, and pushing Li Jiajun as they rushed out of the office.

"Hey, hey, hey! Leaders, grandfathers! Slow down! Slow down!"

Li Jiajun was terrified by their display; he felt like he had fallen into a pile of people who had been injected with stimulants. He could only be passively swept along by them, stumbling all the way as they ran towards the warehouse Wang Dachui had indicated.

The bigwigs urged him on as they ran, afraid that if they were even a second late, the achievement would vanish.

"Faster! Even faster!"

"Young comrade, pick up the pace!"

The Old General and Liu Jianguo, who were following behind and hadn't had time to react, were also stunned by the chaotic scene before them.

Liu Jianguo watched that group of Old Experts, who usually needed help just to walk, now running incredibly fast. His mouth twitched, and he felt speechless.

'These old guys... they really don't care about their lives anymore.'

He followed quickly, afraid that one of the Old Experts might get too excited and collapse on the spot during their charge.

The Old General, on the other hand, followed at the very back, hands behind his back, at a leisurely pace.

He watched the pillars of the nation who had completely lost their composure, then looked at Li Jiajun, who was surrounded in the middle with a look of utter despair, and finally, a complex expression appeared on his usually tight-set face.

...

Creak—

With a harsh, grating sound, the large, dust-covered iron door of the warehouse was roughly pulled open by the impatient Experts working together.

A gust of air mixed with the smell of rust and dust rushed towards them.

"Where is it?!" Academician Zhang Jingmin was the first to rush in, his cloudy eyes scanning the dim warehouse.

"There... over there..."

Wang Dachui was also frightened by this display; he tremblingly reached out and pointed to an inconspicuous corner in the deepest part of the warehouse.

There, something resembling an abandoned metal plate was casually covered by a canvas full of grease stains and holes, with a few dented paint buckets piled on top, looking like a pile of ignored trash.

The Experts immediately surged over like a tide.

They carefully moved the debris on top, and then, Academician Zhang Jingmin and another senior Expert, with the posture of archaeologists, solemnly and slowly lifted that dirty canvas.

Beneath the canvas, a metal plate about two square meters in size, entirely pitch-black and radiating a metallic texture, lay there quietly.

It didn't look like anything special, but everyone held their breath.

"Quick! The instruments!" Academician Zhang Jingmin growled in a hoarse voice.

A young assistant immediately opened the silver briefcase he was carrying and took out a portable spectrometer and a multi-band radar detector.

Under the gaze of a dozen pairs of eyes, the Experts carefully aimed the instrument's probe at the black metal plate.

Everyone was staring at the small LCD screen of the analyzer, forgetting even to breathe.

Time, at this moment, seemed to have slowed down.

One second... two seconds... three seconds...

Beep—

With a soft sound, the data analysis was complete.

A line of green data appeared clearly on the screen. The data itself had no color, but it was enough to shake the entire world.

【Full-band visible light absorption rate: > 99.99%】

【X-band radar reflectivity: < 0.001%】

【After coating, as the area increases, the data coefficient decreases in an inverse sequence...】

When these lines of data appeared, the entire warehouse fell into a silence even more profound than before.

That group of Experts, who had just been so excited, were now all staring blankly at the numbers on the screen, their minds completely blank.

Gulp.

Someone, it was unclear who, swallowed with difficulty.

This sound allowed time to start flowing again.

"We succeeded..."

"We really... succeeded..."

The white-haired Academician Zhang Jingmin swayed, his hand trembling as he reached out to take off his reading glasses; two lines of hot tears gushed from his wrinkled eye corners.

He didn't wipe them away, letting the tears stream down his cheeks.

He slowly crouched down, extended his hands, which were trembling violently from excitement, and gently stroked the surface of the black metal plate, his movements precious, as if he were caressing a lost treasure that had been regained.

His lips trembled, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and finally, in a tone mixed with ecstasy and shock, he muttered to himself:

"A breakthrough..."

"This is the... true achievement that can be used in actual combat..."