For a few minutes, a deathly silence hung over the auditorium. The audience continued to stare at me, completely shell-shocked by what they had just witnessed.
Since the energy shield consumed quite a lot of power, I switched it off. As the barrier faded, I patiently waited for any sign of response from the audience.
First, there was applause. Then the generals and bureaucrats of the Ministry of Defense broke into an excited chatter at the front, gesturing wildly.
"This will revolutionize everything!"
"It'll change warfare forever!"
"Did you see that? It's incredible!"
"We need to get that! No matter the cost!"
"Who is that guy? Conduct a background check on him! How did we not know of such a genius before? Where did he come from?!"
I couldn't help but smile in relief. This demonstration was, without a doubt, a resounding success.
"I am not convinced!"
However, my relief and triumph were short-lived, cut off by a single, skeptical voice. I shifted my gaze, my eyes coming to rest upon a furious Justin Han. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I met his glare evenly.
"Oh? What are you not convinced by?"
"I…" Justin trailed off, his current beau forgotten. The woman was staring at him, her mouth hanging open, but he ignored her to continue his tirade. "Let me test it out! I'm sure you don't mind, right? Mr. Shen?"
"No, I don't. But what do you mean by testing out? You want the soldiers and tanks to fire a few more shots?"
"No, not them. I was thinking…how about my Astral Crystal Exosuit and Astral Light Exosuit? Let's test out products out against each other."
The military bigshots stared at him before glancing at me. They weren't sure about this, but it was clear they were curious about this as well. Nonetheless, from their body language, they were willing to leave the decision to me. I hesitated and glanced at William, who shrugged helplessly. After thinking for a second, I nodded.
"Fair enough."
It took a few minutes for Justin's volunteer pilots to get suited up. I patiently waited until they were ready before I flicked the switch on and generated the energy shield again.
"Do your worst."
The two volunteer pilots flanked me from opposite directions, firing their arm-mounted lasers at the barrier. The ruby beams sliced into the shimmering walls of energy, dissipating harmlessly against the bluish-white surface.
The pilot in the Astral Light Exosuit swerved to the side, making use of his lighter suit's agility to throw me off and confuse me with his movements. Not that it mattered to me because I could do nothing against him, but in a normal combat situation, the opponent would shoot back and he would be forced to evade.
The more heavily armored Astral Crystal Exosuit lumbered across the ground, firing laser beam after laser beam. Unlike his more mobile counterpart, he was confident of his exosuit shrugging off any attacks the enemy could muster.
Even as the laser beams continued to dissipate harmlessly against the barrier. Switching tactics, both exosuits opened up their missile pods and bombarded me with explosives. I watched as the projectiles swirled about, homing in on me. They detonated against the shimmering barrier, sending more ripples across the surface. My location was consumed in bright, colossal conflagrations and my lenses automatically darkened to protect my eyes from the glare.
As the smoke and fire cleared, it was obvious that the missiles had failed to penetrate my energy shield. It was still standing strong and I continued to wander about in the center of the protective dome, keeping my eyes on both Astral Exosuits.
"Incredible," a five-star general gasped, watching the scene with wide eyes. His colleague nodded, his fingers tightening on the armrest of his chair.
"That's more powerful than any armor we've ever seen!"
"Even the exosuits can't stand up to that kind of firepower," another general added. "No matter how sturdily built, even the Astral Crystal Exosuit will be heavily damaged, if not outright destroyed when taking a direct hit from a 120mm tank shell, or suffering multiple impacts from those sidewinder missiles. Yet there's not even a hint of failure or overload on these shields!"
"How are we even supposed to penetrate these energy shields?" A third general wondered out loud.
"We must obtain this!" A bureaucrat in a suit, visibly from the ministry of defense, declared determinedly.
However, delight and excitement weren't the only emotions to emanate from the audience. There was jealousy, resentment and rage too.
"Ugh! How is this possible?!"
Justin Han was howling in fury, striking the armrest of his seat with a fist. The woman beside him recoiled, scared by his anger. But she didn't dare to say anything. Ignoring her, Justin rose to his feet, jabbing at me angrily.
"You must be lying! This cannot be possible! You are trash! TRASH! It's not possible for you to construct something like this! Where did you steal it from!? Did you steal it from my company?! That must be it! Only I can construct something as advanced as this!"
"Oh? Then why haven't you shown it?" I asked dryly, switching off my energy shield. "If your company has already created it, then why didn't you include it in your demonstration? Go ahead and show your product then."
"What?! You…I…trash…!"
Justin could only splutter incoherently. William shook his head in disgust before stepping forward.
"Do you have evidence that we stole this from you? Where's your prototype? Your schematics? The blueprints? Who were the ones working on this? The team who designed this? When did you complete your first prototype? When did you start working on it? Did you get a patent for it?"
"I…I…"
"Unless you can provide solid evidence, please don't throw accusations about. Otherwise we will take the appropriate action to defend ourselves…which includes suing you for slander."
William glared at Justin, who could only drop back to his seat, looking defeated.
"That's right, Mr. Han," a general agreed, looking grave. "Please mind your behavior. It is most unsightly. You're supposed to be a CEO of one of the most advanced corporations in the military industry, not some bully in a schoolyard."
"But…but it's impossible! With the amount of resources that trash has, a complete lack of parts, and no talent whatsoever, how could he construct an energy shield generator? More intelligent people than him have tried, but they have failed. How did he succeed when none had before? He must be using some sort of trick! Stole it from somewhere!"
"Like I said, stole it from where?" William snapped. "From who? You? Provide the evidence then, Mr. Han. I'll be bringing this to court."
"Also, why are you so obsessed with calling Mr. Shen trash?" Another general asked, annoyed. "It's clear that he's not trash at all."
He consulted his smartphone, where an aide had emailed him the relevant information.
"Graduated from a university in America with a PhD in robotics engineering. Do you think just anyone is capable of that?"
"It sounds like you have a grudge against Mr. Shen and that is blinding you to his intelligence and ability somehow," another general added.
"I can understand you having a rivalry, but you're taking too far. At least show some sportsmanship." This time it was a bureaucrat from the ministry of defense. "You're not a child."
Justin Han looked as if he had been slapped several times. He sank deeper into his seat, looking as if he wished he could just disappear from the auditorium. His woman looked at him sympathetically, placing a hand on her arm, but he shook her off in annoyance.
As tempted as I was to twist the knife already in his gut, I didn't. The general had just literally spoken about sportsmanship and I wasn't about to embarrass myself or descend to Justin's level. I didn't even need to. I had so many people speaking up for me. Not to mention, it was unseemly for me to gloat, so I refrained from such childish behavior. Instead, I maintained a dignified appearance.
"Thank you very much," I said with a bow. Pressing a button, I had the heavy machinery wheel my energy shield generator back into the backstage.
Before I disappeared into the backstage, I glanced at the audience one last time. Lily Ling looked extremely impressed and she nodded at me in approval. She even did a slight imitation of applause, flashing a smile at me.
Susan Song was also watching the whole thing in disbelief, her mouth hanging wide open. Something seemed to gleam in her expression as she closed her mouth, but I didn't comprehend what it was. Nor did I want to.
I had more important matters to think about. While I joined William in the backstage, I found a man in a suit and sunglasses waiting for us.
"Matthew Shou, Ministry of Defense," he said curtly by way of introduction. He raised his arm for a handshake, which I accepted. He smiled, his stiff expression relaxing. "I'm here to discuss with you on purchasing your energy shield generator."
"Sure."
"How many of them can you sell?"
"How many of them do you want?" I asked evenly, a grin creeping across my face.
"As many as you can make."
"Excellent." My grin widened. "As long as you can provide us the funds we need to purchase the necessary components, we'll build as many as we can for you."
"All right then." Matthew nodded and gestured for me and William to follow him. "Let's find a place to sit…and we can negotiate a proper contract."