190: Chapter 190 Everyone on the Internet Wants to Buy One

October 17th, 8:41 PM.

The Qingya Tunnel Joint Headquarters released the latest bulletin.

[All seven missing personnel have been found.]

[All safely transferred.]

[During the on-site rescue process, no additional casualties occurred.]

Less than half an hour after the bulletin was issued, the first batch of on-site footage appeared on the internet.

What first caught attention was not the formal news with restrained tones and accurate information.

But rather a 15-second smartphone live recording that didn't even have time to focus.

Rainwater kept sliding down the lens, blurring the pale searchlights into patches of dazzling light spots.

In the front of the frame, several mud-covered fire rescue personnel were moving demolition equipment.

Subsequently, a low, dark gray machine stood up from beside the box truck.

Six mechanical legs stepped into the accumulated water at the cave entrance one by one, walking towards the lightless darkness.

The video had no background music, nor any commentary.

The videographer only said one sentence at the end.

"People can't go in yet, the machine goes in first."

9:27 PM.

The video views exceeded 100,000.

10:44 PM.

After several rounds of sharing, views surpassed one million.

Those who initially shared it were mostly Jiangcheng local accounts, fire rescue practitioners, industrial robot enthusiasts, and tech media.

Someone recognized that the machine came from the Low Entropy Workshop.

Someone dug up Jiang Lin's previous introduction to the non-periodic hexapod platform.

And others edited the publicly available on-site footage together with several task records subsequently released by the Joint Headquarters.

The machine crossed obstacles that people temporarily could not pass through.

It deployed communication relays step by step in the maintenance tunnel.

It delivered drinking water, thermal blankets, and communication terminals beneath the deformed door panel.

Rescue personnel entered the tunnel along the routes transmitted back by them.

After 11:00 PM, discussions about Qingya Tunnel had spread from the local news section to multiple tech, outdoor, and engineering accounts.

That very night, someone used the Unreal Engine to create a simple 3D model of the Low Entropy Workshop hexapod robot based on the public footage.

During the all-night live broadcast, tens of thousands of viewers watched this gray, six-legged iron lump traverse realistic mire, ruins, and collapsed buildings as if walking on flat ground in the virtual Wasteland World.

But back then, most people only knew that seven people had been rescued.

They hadn't truly seen clearly what those five machines had done inside the tunnel.

October 18th, 6:12 AM.

After a night of spreading, that 15-second video still hung at the top of the hot lists across multiple platforms.

The sky was gradually brightening.

The second batch of rescue records reviewed by the Joint Headquarters last night began to be released successively by on-site media.

One of the clips showed unit 3 passing through a deformed ventilation pipe at the 930-meter mark.

The rough and sharp metal edges were almost pressed against the top of the mission cabin.

The hexapod robot lowered its body, squeezing bit by bit through the gap with only minimal height remaining.

Several rescue personnel carrying oxygen cylinders and demolition equipment were forced to stop on the other side of the obstacle, starting to erect supports and dismantle the blocking ventilation pipe.

There was only one line of text beneath the video.

[People couldn't get past, so it went past first.]

Another clip was only 21 seconds long.

The heavy door panel was already severely deformed.

A mud-covered hand reached out from a gap of less than 30 centimeters, fumbled twice in the darkness, and finally grabbed the nylon strap of the communication terminal.

The machine outside the door cooperated by moving forward a small step.

That hand slowly dragged the terminal back behind the door.

A few seconds later, noise-reduced sound came out from the darkness.

"Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you."

7:00 AM sharp.

This footage surged to the top of the hot lists on multiple short video platforms.

The earliest comments in the comment section were anxiously asking whether the person behind the door had actually been rescued.

Until someone posted the official bulletin from the Joint Headquarters last night.

[All seven missing personnel have been safely transferred.]

After seeing this sentence, the emotions suppressed by the video truly flooded into the comment section.

[When I saw that hand reach out, my tears fell instantly.]

[In the past, rescue team members always braved the danger of secondary collapses to go in, but now there are finally machines that can send the path, supplies, and communication in first.]

[This is what robots are supposed to do.]

[Whose is this? I want to know which company built it.]

The answer was quickly found.

Low Entropy Workshop.

Non-periodic hexapod robot.

As for Jiang Lin, the vast majority of people had already heard of this name.

What truly entered the public view for the first time was the company he founded, along with these five machines that had previously only garnered attention in industrial and robotic circles.

At 7:35 AM, the visit volume of the Low Entropy Workshop official website exceeded one hundred times its usual peak.

At 8:03 AM, due to excessively high concurrent requests, the webpage began to experience response delays.

At 8:11 AM, a national-level media account released a 48-second rescue short video.

The video started with unit 1 stepping into the first puddle of accumulated water.

Crossing severely deformed low obstacles.

Deploying communication relays step by step along the maintenance channel.

The mission cabin delivered the communication terminal, drinking water, and thermal blanket to the front of the door crack, to be dragged inside by the person within.

Finally, under the rain curtain and searchlights, rescue personnel carried stretchers and walked out of the tunnel.

The video caption had only one sentence.

[Let machines walk into danger in place of humans.]

The fire that had been burning for several hours last night finally broke completely out of its original circle.

Tech and digital accounts began to use slow motion to dissect its stunning non-periodic hexapod gait frame by frame.

Engineering and off-road vehicle accounts began to observe frame by frame the landing points of the six mechanical legs, body posture, and obstacle-crossing movements.

Outdoor adventure accounts were heatedly discussing whether its stable back could replace pack animals and follow heavy equipment teams across snowy mountains to transport supplies.

Agricultural self-media accounts even directly targeted its high load capacity, calculating whether it could be used to haul fertilizer in muddy orchards.

Film and television editing accounts seamlessly mixed the muddy live-action footage of Qingya Tunnel with mecha footage from Hollywood doomsday sci-fi movies.

At 8:30 AM, an outdoor blogger with over 8 million followers, known for hardcore exploration, directly issued a serious public inquiry on his social media account.

[@Low Entropy Workshop, not riding the coattails of clout, asking seriously, can you sell one? Next time I plan to hike across the Hoh Xil uninhabited area, I really want to spend money to bring one along.]

The comment section underneath instantly boiled over.

The top comment mercilessly mocked: [You bring it? Once you actually reach the uninhabited area, it'll probably be carrying you instead.]

The second one was very realistic: [Blogger, stop daydreaming about crossing the uninhabited area; go ask how much this thing costs per unit first, careful you don't lose your underwear over it.]

The third one went completely off-topic: [Um, timidly asking, I don't have an uninhabited area to cross, can I buy one and walk it like a dog in the neighborhood normally?]

The direction of dissemination, in a very short time, rushed rapidly and fanatically from solemn and heavy life-and-death rescue to another crazy world that Jiang Lin and the Low Entropy Workshop had never anticipated or faced before.

Some people truly needed this tireless machine to replace humans in doing high-risk, dirty, and tiring work.

But in this vast internet world, more and more people were simply captivated by its coolness and power, wanting to own one.

8:49 AM.

Zijing Building No. 17, Room 402.

When Jiang Lin finished washing his face with cold water and sat back down in front of the computer, the red numbers belonging to system notifications in the lower right corner of the screen were already off the charts.

The company's external public email received over 5,000 new emails overnight.

The business email automatic classification program originally used to filter spam experienced processing queue backlogs twice consecutively due to the concentrated influx of new emails.

The two business hotlines announced to the public by the Low Entropy Workshop had been busy since 8:00 AM, never stopping at all.

Knocking sounded twice.

When Jiang Lin opened the door and saw Zhao Chengyu, the latter was holding half an unfinished jianbing guozi with double eggs in his hand.

"Jiang Lin, does your company sell machines to individuals?"

"You want to buy one?"

"Big brother, do I look like someone who can afford it?" Zhao Chengyu rolled his eyes and shoved his phone directly in front of Jiang Lin's nose.

"But believe it or not, right now, anyone on the entire internet with a little spare cash in their card wants to buy one."

On the screen, a real-time outdoor live stream was playing.

The anchor in the frame was holding a selfie stick, standing excitedly outside the huge iron gates of the Low Entropy Workshop Jiangcheng manufacturing node.

Behind the anchor, on that remote road where originally only delivery trucks passed, more than a hundred people had gathered at this moment.

Someone was holding up their phone high and broadcasting simultaneously.

Someone was even carrying a professional telephoto camera and tripod.

Sweeping past the roadside of the lens, someone actually moved camp folding chairs and sunshades out of a car trunk, looking very much like they were going to pitch camp and settle down here.

The title of this live broadcast was also very simple and crude.

[Staking out the Low Entropy Workshop on the front lines, taking you up close to see the true form of a real rescue robot.]

When the camera occasionally swept past the closed black gates of the factory area, the bullet comments in the live broadcast room instantly covered the entire screen like rushing water from a breached dam.

[I'm begging you, let President Jiang come out and open the door, let one out to walk a few steps so we can see it!]

[Anchor, go ask the security guard uncle if we can pay for a trial experience? I'll offer 500.]

[I'm a local from Jiangcheng, right in the next district, brothers I'm charging ahead first, driving over now.]

[Don't go if you're driving ahead, I just arrived, cars can't drive in at all anymore.]

Zhao Chengyu took a fierce bite of his jianbing guozi, pointed at the screen and said: "This anchor started broadcasting at your factory gate at 7:30 this morning."

"Just hanging around blindly at the door like that for over an hour, and their followers directly increased by 10,000."

9:30 AM.

The total number of people gathered outside the factory gate had exceeded 150.

The front few rows squeezed outside the temporary isolation belt were mostly engineering students and geek tech enthusiasts who rushed over from nearby universities.

Some of them held phones playing the rescue video repeatedly, while others hugged computers, trying to deduce the machine's structure from the public footage.

Behind them, both sides of the road were messily parked with private cars bearing license plates from Jiangcheng, neighboring cities, and even other provinces that had driven over overnight.

In the crowd, an old man hoisted his four-to-five-year-old grandson onto his shoulders.

The child tightly clutched a plastic model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in his hand, shouting excitedly toward the closed iron gate:

"Security guard uncle, when is that six-legged Transformer coming out to fight monsters?"

The security guard uncle, squeezed until he was covered in sweat, could only use a megaphone to repeatedly remind:

"Everyone, this is a production area and is not open to the public. Please do not block the vehicle passageway."

"The cars in front, please back up a bit and don't block the fire lane."

"Everyone, please pay attention to safety and do not crowd."

No one was causing trouble.

But simply no one was willing to leave.

Right at this moment, after a black business car was blocked by the crowd at the intersection for over ten minutes, relying on the traffic police's guidance, it finally moved laboriously to the front of the factory gate.

The car door opened, and two men wearing gray work clothes, with exhausted faces but sharp eyes, got out of the car holding two thick data bags.

They came from a large mining group in a neighboring province with an annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan, responsible for procurement and safety production respectively.

The two presented their company's introduction letter and procurement authorization documents to the on-site staff, and were then led to the temporarily established registration desk at the entrance.

"We are from a large mining group in a neighboring province, planning to procure six hexapod platforms in the first batch," said the procurement head.

The administrative reception personnel, who were already flustered and overwhelmed, hurriedly handed him a thick standard business requirement form.

"Hello, sir, thank you for your trust. But according to President Jiang's requirements, before purchasing, you must first submit real scene data of the usage site for evaluation."

"The data is brought."

The procurement head placed an encrypted mobile hard drive and a stack of paper documents on the registration desk.

"This is the point cloud of underground transport roadways, geological data of goaf edges, and information on three old roadways with water seepage risks that require regular monitoring, which can be used for preliminary evaluation."

"The core raw data is stored with encryption, and you need to designate authorized technicians to receive it on site."

"Our group can prepay the on-site verification fee. I'll just ask one thing: when can we see the machine perform a real-scene demonstration?"

Just as the receptionist was about to check the materials, a middle-aged man who had been standing by the desk all along suddenly spoke up.

"I want to buy one too, name your price."

The two heads of the mining company froze for a moment, then turned to look up and down at the man wearing casual clothes.

"Sir, which organization are you with?"

"No organization, just an individual."

"An individual? Why are you buying this kind of industrial special equipment?" The safety engineer found it unbelievable.

The middle-aged man casually pointed at the black off-road vehicle parked on the roadside with a sequence of matching license plate numbers.

"I've leased a few mountains in the western mountains and built a private estate."

"I see this machine has a very stable chassis, so I'm buying it to help me transport some supplies up the mountain normally. At night, I'll set a route and let it patrol around the estate."

"When I drive my off-road vehicle out to tear up the sand on weekends, I'll let it follow behind the convoy. If the car gets stuck, we can see if we can attach the towing component to help."

He took off his sunglasses, his tone extremely flat.

"Price is not an issue for me. I came all this way today just to ask if I can swipe my card and reserve one first?"

In the crowd behind who were listening with pricked ears, someone heard this sentence and immediately shouted as if high on adrenaline.

"Holy shit, individuals can apply to buy it too?"

The crowd suddenly surged forward by half a step like a tidal wave.

The guard and several security personnel turned pale with fright, and hurriedly used their bodies to firmly brace against the retractable gate.

But all kinds of absurd and fanatical purchase questions still battered the poor registration table from all directions like hail without mercy.

"Are there ready stocks? Is it okay if I pay extra to pick up the spot stock right away?!"

"I'm not buying it out, can I rent it by the day? I want to take it to Motuo."

"Brother, what is the maximum steep slope this thing can climb?"

"What is the chassis waterproof rating? Can it be driven directly into waist-deep water?"

"Can the flatbed on its back carry an adult? I want to ride it for a joyride."

"Can the exterior paint job be modified? Can it be customized in pink?"

"I'll bring my own radar and cameras, how much is the labor fee for you guys to help me install them?"

"I' rather('ve) leased a five-thousand-mu farm, can I use it to pull pig feed through muddy roads?"

"I make sci-fi movies, our crew is just lacking this. I'll offer a high price to rent it for just three months."

"I am the manager of XX Scenic Area, we want to buy two units as a special sightseeing project."

"Big brother, I'm not buying, I'll just scan the code to pay, can you let me go in and experience controlling it once?"

It was complete madness.

Two supplier heavy trucks originally scheduled to deliver the core chassis castings this morning were blocked on the branch road outside the industrial park entrance, unable to turn into the factory area for a long time.

The supplier's driver made three inquiry calls, but still couldn't move an inch, so anxious that he was stamping his feet in the cab.

The administrative head at the manufacturing node scene was sweating profusely and could only order an emergency suspension of all material warehousing plans for that morning.

At the same time, all non-production line personnel were mobilized to set up a second hard isolation barrier outside the retractable gate to keep all fanatical temporary visitors outside.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, the public reception area on the floor housing the Beijing R&D Center of the Low Entropy Workshop inside the Tsinghua Science Park suffered the same fate.

It was completely packed to bursting.

9:53 AM.

The first wave of the fastest-responding tech media, carrying long lenses and cameras, arrived on the floor where the Beijing R&D Center is located.

10:11 AM.

The vice president of procurement of a large heavy industry group renowned in the industry visited with an introductory letter stamped with an official seal and a procurement team.

10:35 AM.

The investment promotion head of a large high-tech industrial park proposed purchasing a high-configuration display machine.

The reason he wrote on the demand form was very frank, and even somewhat righteous.

[Used to be placed in the core lobby to enhance the park's technological image and attract investment.]

10:47 AM.

A private buyer wearing a high-end customized suit arrived with his legal team.

He stated that as long as they agreed to sell, he could sign a letter of intent that very day and pay two million yuan first as a scheduling deposit.

But he put forward one single request.

The machine's outer shell armor must be completely custom-repainted into an extremely oppressive black-and-gold color scheme.

10:59 AM.

The producer of a top domestic film special effects company pulled strings to get Liang Zhixia's private phone number.

He repeatedly assured her over the phone, hoping to purchase two units at a heavy price, or long-term lease three machines at an extremely high rent to participate in the shooting of their upcoming sci-fi movie.

"President Liang, rest assured, we absolutely do not need you to open any core control system code!"

"We just need your engineers on-site to let the machine walk a few times along the planned fixed shooting route!"

"Your machine chassis is too awesome!"

"Of course, during the filming period, it would be best if you could accept us sticking some safety modification parts on the outer shell that do not affect the structure..."

11:16 AM.

A large, sprawling modern farm in the Northwest sent a detailed scenario procurement list via the business email.

Unmanned farm inspection in severe weather.

Dead-angle-free infrared night anti-theft monitoring.

Short-distance transportation of large-tonnage feed in muddy terrain.

And, after blizzard or rainstorm disasters, venturing deep into dangerous areas for infrared searches of lost large livestock.

After watching the video, the other party directly requested to purchase four high-configuration versions.

On this crazy morning.

Before 11:30 AM.

Official inquiries with clear scenarios, clear procurement quantities, and unit contact information had accumulated a demanded volume exceeding 140 units.

As for the purchase intentions of individual buyers, tourist scenic spots, film and television crews, various exhibitions, and science parks purely out of fanaticism, face projects, entertainment, or exploration, they accumulated to over 1,000 units.

Not a single one of these figures could directly enter the production plan.

Whether the scenarios were valid, contracts could be signed, and advance payments had arrived all needed to be screened item by item.

In this massive demand, the vast majority of buyers simply could not provide formal scenario materials as rigorous as that mining group.

Even a large portion of people waving cash didn't even know what kind of daily charging conditions this kind of industrial equipment needed, or what kind of flatbed trailers were needed for transportation.

They knew nothing.

They only knew that the robot they saw in the mobile phone video, with six legs and taking the initiative to walk into the dark depths of the tunnel, was simply cool to the extreme.

It could enter places that people temporarily could not safely enter.

And, it actually rescued people from the hands of death in the Real World.

11:38 AM.

When Liang Zhixia finished an important business call and pushed open the door of the meeting room to walk out, she found that the originally spacious and bright public reception area could no longer even accommodate a single place to stand.

Administrative personnel were forced to urgently open up a second registration point outside the Low Entropy Workshop access control using a few temporarily borrowed folding tables.

Unverified visitors were strictly prohibited from entering the R&D area.

However, in the corridor outside the access control, a long crowd was still anxiously queuing up.

An executive client wearing a high-end suit was arguing with a young man carrying a camera, red in the face over who got the queue number first.

On the other side of the R&D area, two young people with Tsinghua campus cards hanging on their chests stood outside the access control, trying to catch a glimpse of the test area through the occasionally opening and closing isolation doors.

"Hey, look quickly, is there a prototype hanging on the rack inside?"

"Holy crap, I really saw a leg move just now."

"Quick quick quick, did you film it?"

"Don't push, the door is closed."

Liang Zhixia walked over and completely closed the inner isolation door.

The two students looked at the completely closed door and let out a disappointed sigh.

"Um, can the R&D Center really not be opened slightly for visits today?" one of the boys asked unwillingly.

"Sorry, there is no such plan for now." Liang Zhixia's tone left no room for negotiation.

"What about in the future? Such an awesome machine, will we have a chance to take a close look at it in the future?"

Liang Zhixia looked at the pure longing in their eyes.

"There should be in the future."

After saying this, she froze in place for a moment herself.

At this moment, a set of photos just taken by Xu Man was sent to her mobile phone via WeChat.

In the photo, outside the huge black iron gate of the factory area, hundreds of people were densely packed.

The supplier truck transporting the core reducer components was still blocked on the branch road outside the industrial park entrance, unable to turn into the factory area.

And what gave administration the biggest headache was that the procurement head of the mining group who truly brought mine geological data and prepared to sign a formal procurement contract was awkwardly squeezed at the same crude registration table at this moment with the sunglasses-wearing tycoon who merely wanted to buy a machine to place in his private estate, staring at each other wide-eyed.

Liang Zhixia thought for a moment, then strode back to the small meeting room.

She did not continue revising the original "Low Entropy Workshop Recent Market Emergency Response Plan", but instead created a new project initiation draft.

[Project Initiation Application for Establishing Experience Stores of the Low Entropy Workshop in Jiangcheng and Beijing]

She first wrote down the functional positioning, site requirements, and safety boundaries that must be guarded for the two experience stores.

Jiangcheng Experience Store: Positioned as an industrial-grade scenario experience and verification site.

Renting an industrial site with independent entrances and exits near the Jiangcheng manufacturing node.

Constructing adjustable gravel roads, muddy water areas, controllable slopes with replaceable loose overburden, staggered steps, and low passages.

In addition, replicating a section of a simulated underground flood control pipe corridor.

For industrial rigid-demand clients, they are allowed to carry their own mission payloads and on-site materials, and make an appointment to enter the closed area for paid scenario verification after signing a confidentiality agreement.

Beijing Experience Store: Positioned as a brand window and client reception node.

Selecting a science park with convenient transportation, or a first-floor exhibition space with independent entrances and exits and sufficient floor load-bearing capacity.

Mainly responsible for receiving government agencies, mainstream media, university scholars, high-net-worth individual buyers, and clients from all over the country coming to Beijing.

Here, the modular structure of the chassis, the quick disassembly and replacement of various mission cabins, as well as the platform's safety boundaries and restricted operation procedures will be demonstrated.

Visitors are allowed to use experience terminals with restricted access rights under the supervision of staff.

...

12:21 PM.

Jiang Lin received this expedited report on his mobile phone.

At this time, he was standing in the long queue at the Zijing Yuan Canteen of Tsinghua University, holding a stainless steel meal tray in his hand.

A boy standing in front of him, wearing a jacket printed with the words "School of Civil Engineering", suddenly turned his head.

"Um, God Jiang, can I ask you something seriously?" The boy was somewhat nervous.

"What is it?" Regarding others calling him God Jiang, Jiang Lin corrected them a few times to no avail, and later stopped paying attention to it.

"Does your company accept individual purchase applications now?"

"There are currently no sales plans targeting individuals."

Hearing this, a clear trace of regret flashed across the boy's face.

"Alas, what a pity. My dad's engineering company does infrastructure construction for mountainous high-voltage transmission towers all year round. Mules can't even get up to that ghost place."

"He watched the news this morning and insisted on making me come ask you, saying he wants to buy two units."

Jiang Lin's eyes flashed slightly, and he pondered, saying: "Are there data on slope, effective width, turning radius, road load-bearing, and post-rain conditions?"

The boy was stunned: "This, I' rather('m) not too clear about it."

"Tell your father not to rush." Jiang Lin pointed at the boy's mobile phone, "Have him contact us through the official business email, and include high-precision topographic maps of the construction site, slope data, road load-bearing conditions, and post-rain on-site videos in the email."

The boy nodded in agreement as if receiving a treasure, and just as he turned back around, he suddenly turned back as if remembering something.

"Um, God Jiang, even if my dad can't buy one, as a tech fan myself, is it possible in the future that I'll have the chance to personally go and experience operating that kind of machine?"

"There should be a chance." Jiang Lin gave him a vague but affirmative reply.