Just as everyone was waiting for this price quote, Li Yaqi, as though deliberately whetting the crowd's appetites, held off and held off from speaking. This atmosphere held for roughly 10 seconds.
Li Yaqi raised a hand, and before the holographic projection of that T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer there appeared a row of blurred numerals — seven digits. First the ones digit, the tens, the hundreds, the thousands, the 10-thousands went straight to lighting up.
Five zeros.
The three Hurricane Conglomerate father-and-sons held their breath and stilled themselves, each imagining in his heart that the first digit of this seven-figure number ought to be a "5" or a "6" or the like. For if this interstellar warship truly did beat their T2 Hyena outright, there was only one possibility: that its build cost was exceedingly expensive! That was the sole explanation they could accept.
The sixth digit began to change.
The sixth digit: 0!
Now only the very last numeral remained.
"Sister Su Lan, what do you reckon the price of this T2 Tibetan Mastiff really is?" Xue Xiaoxiao asked Su Lan beside her, curious.
Su Lan thought a moment. "Because it's a newly released warship, and considering the need to recover the R&D funds as fast as possible, this price absolutely won't be too low. But since Li Yaqi dares to set it against the T2 Hyena, she shouldn't make it too high either. The price range ought to be somewhere around 4 to 5 million. That's a price everyone could accept, too. Otherwise, if you're too expensive, then even if you surpass the other side's warship in every respect, your cost-effectiveness still won't be higher than theirs. All the more so since theirs is an old-model warship that's sold well for over a decade — that's a bit higher on brand trust as well."
Zhao Chen listened to their discussion from the side and said nothing. Before this — the day before — Li Yaqi had discussed this price quote with Zhao Chen. In the end, the two of them had settled on a quote fully capable of catching the Hurricane Conglomerate utterly off guard. Since they were to make a move against the Hurricane Conglomerate, then they mustn't leave the Hurricane Conglomerate too much room to maneuver — they had to knock it down with a single blow!
Up in the procurement committee's seats, the assembly, too, awaited the appearance of the last digit in high spirits. Down in the ordinary audience seats, some of those seated at the back — though, relying on technology, they could see everything on the stage clearly enough — nonetheless couldn't help rising to their feet.
The Hurricane Conglomerate's Chairman Feng Weihao had his two hands crossed before his chin. Those who knew him well knew this was the subconscious gesture he made every time he was at his most nervous. Beside him, his eldest son, Feng Dawei, wore a severe expression; this T2 Tibetan Mastiff was challenging the T2 Hyena's overlord status. Should it succeed, that would beyond doubt be an enormous blow to the Hurricane Conglomerate. And now the thing of the utmost importance lay in this price quote.
This time Li Yaqi again paused for a full 10 seconds, and then she snapped her fingers. That last numeral actually began to spin. This sight left everyone burning with impatience; this woman truly knew far too well how to work on people's hearts.
That endlessly spinning numeral began, gradually, to slow. It began to move by degrees from "9" toward "6." Everyone could see this number was about to come to a stop. And from "6" it turned to "5."
"5 million star coins?" someone began to guess. 5 million star coins, though somewhat pricier than the T2 Hyena, could still — leaning on its edge in performance — hold its own against the T2 Hyena. Even if it didn't win the bid this procurement, in the T2 interstellar destroyer market the T2 Hyena would no longer stand as sole champion.
And at just this moment, that numeral "5" turned into a "4."
This one leap of a numeral made everyone feel their very hearts give a shudder. The gazes of no few people turned fervent in this instant. So excellent a T2 interstellar destroyer, and it was pegged flat to the very price of the T2 Hyena!
The smell of gunsmoke was already growing thicker and fiercer throughout the whole hall!
Feng Xiaowei's eyes held a certain disbelief; unlearned good-for-nothing though he was, he too understood the present situation — his own family's warship's standing was being shaken.
"If it's 4 million… we can bring our price down to 3,500,000, and at the very worst adjust it to 3,300,000. Though this will cause some none-too-good repercussions among those order customers already in our hands. But whatever the case, we absolutely must carry off this procurement order." Chairman Feng was already there turning countermeasures over in his mind. He meant, in the coming address, to lower the original quote yet further.
But it was just then—
that numeral "4" actually vanished!
Everyone's eyes went wide, and in this instant their very breathing seemed to stop.
Impossible!
This was impossible!
This was absolutely impossible!
Everyone seemed to know what was about to happen, yet in their hearts they still held it to be a thing that absolutely could not happen.
Feng Dawei, just now, could no longer keep his composure; his face aghast, he rose to his feet.
A numeral several times larger than any of the preceding six appeared before the eyes of all.
"3"!
"The T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer our Northern Goose Group presents — the price quoted here is 3 million star coins!" The moment these words of Li Yaqi's came out, they swept through the whole hall like a solar storm.
Chairman Feng Weihao's eyes went from the shock of the outset, to panic, to fury, to anxiety. In this bare span of a few seconds, his mood could be called complicated to the very utmost.
And everyone in the hall, at this moment, was busy digesting this quote. This interstellar destroyer that surpassed the T2 Hyena was priced, of all things, at 3 million star coins! This was a price lower than the T2 Hyena had ever once reached!
"3 million star coins! This T2 Tibetan Mastiff, which sets itself against the T2 Hyena and beats it clean on every metric, is quoted at only 3 million star coins!"
"The Hurricane Conglomerate's in big trouble now!"
"What's the background of this Northern Goose Group, that on the heels of that T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer last time, they've gone and made another splash this big!"
"That's not so simple a thing as a T1 warship — this is a T2 warship! The market share of this is hundreds of times that of the former! And the profit tens of thousands of times more!"
Everyone was struck with no end of astonishment at this T2 Tibetan Mastiff that had come bursting onto the scene from nowhere. This unbelievable performance, matched with this unbelievable price quote. And the trouble was, it had, moreover, benchmarked itself entirely against the T2 Hyena's very performance traits. One might put it this way: the customers who'd originally been considering the T2 Hyena could transition wholesale to this T2 Tibetan Mastiff! For what fool would leave aside a warship both more excellent and cheaper in price!
"I raise a challenge!" Chairman Feng Weihao suddenly shouted out at the top of his voice.
The eyes of the whole assembly fell upon that Chairman Feng Weihao at the venue's edge.
Chairman Feng Weihao rose to his feet and said, his expression grim and sunken, "Our Hurricane Conglomerate challenges the authenticity of these ship technologies the Northern Goose Group has brought out! I contend that the Northern Goose Group is fabricating its data wholesale, out of thin air!"