The expressions of the whole crowd below the stage, at this moment, could well be called a spectacle.
A fellow merchant?
Though you've made their interstellar warship into a "black shadow," that hull shape, those positions of the main gun and secondary guns… Are you taking everyone present here for blind men?
And what's more, you've gone and listed out that ship's data in full detail.
Fellow Merchant's Warship
Hull armor: 150–180 units
Cruising speed: 43 star-knots
Ship weapons: one medium pulse-laser main gun, four medium electronic rapid-fire secondary guns, sixteen medium point-defense guns
If the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer could speak, it might well leap out right now and shout: Why don't you just read out my ID number outright and be done with it? Who here couldn't tell that this so-called "fellow merchant's warship" meant the hottest ship of all, the T2 Hyena!
No few people began to look toward the spot below the stage where the three Hurricane Conglomerate father-and-sons sat.
"This… isn't this our T2 Hyena!" Feng Xiaowei was dumbstruck, thrown into a fright by the other side's move.
By comparison, Feng Dawei and Chairman Feng Weihao were a good deal calmer.
"Let's see just what trick this woman's got hidden up her sleeve," Chairman Feng Weihao said, composed and unruffled. After all, this procurement fair asked only that one promote one's own interstellar warship — but there was nothing forbidding taking a warship already on the market to use for comparison. Yet a tactic of this kind was, in the end, simply a case of whoever's the uglier bears the embarrassment. Since this Northern Goose Group dared stage a scene like this, it meant they had the confidence in their own warship — confidence that it could arm-wrestle the hottest ship of the day, the T2 Hyena.
"This ship our Northern Goose Group is presenting, named the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer — some of the detailed terminology I'll not dwell on for now; what everyone wants to see is surely the most direct, at-a-glance data. First, let's take a look at the fellow merchant's warship, which can stand for the average level of T2 interstellar destroyers at present." Li Yaqi, a ship projection to either hand, began her "performance."
The average level?
The T2 Hyena, in your mouth, can reach no more than an average level?
Feng Dawei's face gave a faint twitch; one could see he was holding his emotions in check.
"The fellow merchant's warship has a hull armor strength of 150 to 180 units, while our T2 Tibetan Mastiff's hull armor strength is 170 to 200 units. And at the same time, the former's average hull armor strength is only 167 units, whereas our T2 Tibetan Mastiff's average hull armor strength stands at 193 units. The fellow merchant's warship has a cruising speed of 43 star-knots; our T2 Tibetan Mastiff's is 50 star-knots; and in energy-conversion rate, we've reached 78% — while by the word we've gotten, the fellow merchant's ship is only at 69%. Now to look at the ship weapons — the fellow merchant's ship we'll leave aside for the moment. Our T2 Tibetan Mastiff is fitted with one twin-linked medium pulse-laser main gun, six medium electronic rapid-fire secondary guns, and 30 medium twin-linked point-defense guns…"
Though Li Yaqi didn't introduce the T2 Hyena's ship weapons, the data was still set out there for all to see.
(Hyena-class: one medium pulse-laser main gun, four medium electronic rapid-fire secondary guns, 16 medium point-defense guns.)
The audience understood, then, why she hadn't bothered to look at it. So the gap was that great — you simply didn't deign to compare with the other side at all! But the trouble was, how was it these two warships' weapon types were, of all things, exactly identical? One who didn't know might well take this for a heavily modified version of the T2 Hyena!
"This Northern Goose Group doesn't have some grudge against the Hurricane Conglomerate, does it? This T2 Tibetan Mastiff is exactly like an upgraded version built along the T2 Hyena's very design philosophy — beating down every last one of the T2 Hyena's figures, on every front!" Xue Xiaoxiao exclaimed within the box.
"This Miss Li's address this time is far too formidable. Though if she'd simply presented her own warship outright, leaning on those powerful performances she could still have made everyone's eyes light up. But now, she's openly and grandly taken the competitor's warship and used it for comparison right in front of everyone — this is climbing to the top by treading on the other side," Chu Xuan exclaimed, sighing in admiration at this maneuver of Li Yaqi's.
Beside her, Zhao Wan'er, just now, was looking at her own brother with a dubious eye. If she recalled rightly, Li Yaqi ought to be the elder sister of Li Wei — her brother's good sworn-brother from his academy days. Over this stretch of time, the Northern Goose Group had brought forth, one after another, the T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer and no small number of other excellent warships. And now, more than that, they'd brought out a T2 Tibetan Mastiff like this, climbing to the top on the back of the T2 Hyena. Such astonishing ship-development ability — she had a feeling this was her brother making mischief behind the scenes.
Perhaps, in an outsider's eyes, how could this be? So many warships — how could they possibly all be brought forth by Zhao Chen, one man alone? But Zhao Wan'er knew more of the inside story. This big brother of hers was a terrifying, freakish genius who could develop T3 star gates and T3 carrier starships! Thought of that way, developing these T2 and T1 warships was surely a thing that followed as a matter of course, wasn't it?
"I never thought this procurement fair would turn out so exciting, of all things. Those earlier few sessions nearly put me to sleep watching them." Up in the procurement committee, the little princess said in high spirits to the North Wind Governor beside her.
"Exciting it is, exciting indeed — though certain folk are, I fear, about to be scorched to their wits' end." The North Wind Governor laughed.
As the information Li Yaqi unloaded grew and grew, the crowd's attention to the T2 Tibetan Mastiff climbed higher and higher too — for by this comparison of the data, the T2 Tibetan Mastiff was, quite simply, an existence that crushed the T2 Hyena outright! Where same-class warships were concerned, there might still be differing battlefield positionings, so that one could use one's own traits to create a draw. Say, I put the stress on speed; I put the stress on firepower; I put the stress on hull armor, and so forth. But the trouble was, the other side had gone and optimized precisely along your own strengths, at the very level of your strengths! In a case like this, who would still give thought to a warship of the lower tier?
Feng Dawei's face just now was quite hard to look upon; however deep his composure, by now he couldn't help clenching his fists — and if a look could kill, he'd long since have struck dead that woman up on the stage.
"Don't lose your heads. Even if this woman's warship is stronger than our T2 Hyena in every respect, her sale price is certain to be no cheap thing either. It'll be at least 30% higher than ours — 50%, even! After all, she's got R&D cost folded into it!" Chairman Feng Weihao sat there consoling himself.
Soon the 30-minute address had only five minutes left to it.
"At this very moment, what everyone's attention is fixed on is surely the sale price of this T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer of ours, isn't it? You might say: your T2 Tibetan Mastiff is this much more formidable than the fellow merchant's warship, so mustn't your sale price be quite a bit higher as well?"
Li Yaqi raised a hand and first pointed at the fellow merchant's ship price. "By our understanding, the fellow merchant's warship has a public sale price of 4 million star coins; over the past 10 years its average public sale price has been 3,880,000, and its lowest sale price 3,660,000. Then, next — it's time to reveal the market sale price of our T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!"
Everyone held their breath and stilled themselves, looking to see just how much the price of this suddenly risen warship would be!