Chapter 209: A Procurement Order

“The Association of Machinists hosts the Golden Finger Cup, a top mechanist competition, every five years. This is a competition that garners a high degree of attention within the Alliance, representing its peak mechanist standards at present. Plus, this particular event will be very beneficial to you as the rules stated that every participant can receive thirty million star coins for the retrofitting of a small frigate.

“It means that the scope of the modification will be limited by the cost of assembly; the parts used can’t be too expensive, so this will be fair to all participants. Additionally, the entry rules regarding the supplier are very lax. Any registered company within the Alliance is qualified to send their components and parts for the participants to choose from; whether they will end up being used or not is all up to the participants.

“We can totally register the energy-shield booster in the component list. Because it is an entirely new creation, very few participants are likely to choose it when the time comes, which won’t pose an issue to us. Given the high-performing capabilities of the energy-shield booster, the ultimate champion may very well be Quantum Holdings.

“After all, there are various categories aside from being a warship retrofitter. It’ll be great publicity for the company as long as we are able to win any of the various categories.”

Porter expanded on the details regarding the Golden Finger Cup, and Xia Fei nodded meaningfully at the side. With the total expenditure cost as a restriction for the participants, it would of course be a lot more lenient than the Supreme Command’s contest and will at least be much fairer in comparison, making it ideal for them to focus their preparations on.

Xia Fei carefully reviewed the information regarding the Golden Finger Cup. This very-renowned competition not only consisted of warship retrofitting, it also had machinery maintenance, circuit processing, and dozens of other events. Each and every one of these events would have a winner, and the competitor who won the most points out of all would become the overall champion.

With a light tap on the screen, Xia Fei opened the honor record listing previous champions and saw that Old Porter’s name was impressively listed there.

Xia Fei was extremely surprised, realizing why the old man had been given the title of machine god; it turned out that the old man was a three-time overall champion.

First in the ship-retrofitting event, the power system deployment event, fire-control system precision lock-on event, and so on. He was pretty much the champion for all the events that were in the fields of machinery, warships, and electronics.

Becoming a winner in any one event was hard enough, yet Uncle Porter had won dozens of such events consecutively, his extraordinary skills practically unmatched.

Potter flicked his finger on the screen and closed the honor record window, softly saying, “There’s no need to look back in the past; best to first concentrate on how you’re going to win the competition this time.”

Xia Fei knew that Porter did not wish for people to learn that he was a three-time overall champion, but Xia Fei was quick with his eyes and had already browsed through Porter’s resume at that moment. Charlie, who was sitting on one side, had not yet realized it, and even if he did, it was very hard to imagine that the famed machine god of yesteryear would actually be this one-eyed old man here.

“Let’s do this then. Charlie, immediately send men to the nearest registration site and have Quantum Holdings apply to the Golden Finger Cup as a supplier; also, have my name registered as a participant for the warship-retrofitting event and the best defense event.”

Xia Fei knew of the adage regarding biting off more than what one could chew. This was why he had only chosen to take part in two events out of everything listed—the two that would best demonstrate the benefit of having an energy shield booster.

Porter nodded. “Just signing up for two events is good. By the time the competition is over, it will be the Admiralty’s decennial tender convention. Just from the reputation that you’ll accumulate from this Golden Finger Cup, as well as the fact that the energy-shield booster itself is of good quality, it can give you the chance to be included in the list of suppliers for the Admiralty. Once your product gets chosen, it will be the equivalent of getting a free advertising across the entire Pan-Human Alliance, and what you have to worry about by then won’t be how to market your product but rather how to produce it quickly.”

Charlie was visibly excited. “Understood. I’ll send someone to the nearest registration site right away to sign you up for the competition as well as the Admiralty’s tender convention.”

Porter thought about it, lightly tapping on the screen. “Put Xia Fei’s name in for these three events as well; we can talk about it when the time comes whether he can participate in them or not. The registration fees won’t cost much, anyway.”

Charlie earnestly jotted everything down on his notebook. “Understood. I’ll get to it right away.”

That was when a loud noise filled the sky. Xia Fei glanced outside the window and saw a Gaian Ares-class interceptor slowly making its landing on a clearing outside the factory.

It was Thuram’s private ship. It was the same ship that Xia Fei had ridden on when he came, which was why he had been able to identify it immediately.

“That was quick,” Xia Fei muttered to himself. Last night, he received a call stating that Thuram and Qin Mang were coming for a visit on Earth, but he did not expect for them to arrive so soon.

Xia Fei chuckled and dragged Porter along. “Come on; old man Qin Mang’s here. You guys didn’t get the chance to meet back on Hek, so this is the perfect chance to do that.”

Porter arched his eyebrow. “I only wish to keep a low-profile and live my days in peace. I noticed that there are many machines in the workshop that can be improved on when I was passing by earlier; you go ahead and receive them. I’ll go work on modifying those, see if doing so can help increase productivity.”

Porter did not wish to draw people’s attention, and Xia Fei could do nothing about that. With the distinguished machine god being willing to help him make improvements on the machinery in this factory, the old man was already giving him plenty of face, so it was best to just go along with his temperament regarding everything else.

Xia Fei gave Charlie a knowing look, and the latter hurried over to Porter. “Uncle, let’s head to the workshop together.”

“Sure,” said Porter, then the two left to get busy inside the workshop. Xia Fei drove his car out to welcome Qin Mang and Thuram to the factory’s office.

“Why not use a hovercar? This contraption of yours almost caused my old bones to crumble from all the justling,” said Thuram as he exited the car, looking at Xia Fei’s brand-new land rover with very disgruntled eyes.

Xia Fei laughed. “Uncle Thuram, just bear with it. Earth’s technology level is very low, and this is already one of our best off-road vehicles.”

Qin Mang rolled his eyes at Thuram, signaling him to keep his comments to himself, which was precisely what Thuram did.

Because his bones had yet to condition themselves properly, the Ling brothers had to push Qin Mang into the office floor while he sat in a hoverchair, but the old man remained fairly spirited, evidently very interested in Xia Fei’s factory, even asking him questions about the place.

Xia Fei led Qin Mang and everyone else to their spacious reception room, calling someone to bring in tea and snacks.

“Old man, why did those doctors let you out when you’ve yet to make a full recovery?” Xia Fei jokingly commented.

Thuram helplessly answered, “This old-timer had no choice but to listen to the doctors then since his bones weren’t doing so great, but now that he’s been getting better, would there be any doctor out there who could stop him?”

Qin Mang smiled. “I was getting stressed out, depressed even, from staying cooped up at that hospital. I heard the environment here on Earth is pretty great, so I plan to do my recuperation here, taking a look at this precious company of yours while I’m here.”

Xia Fei gave Qin Mang a brief introduction of Quantum Holdings, mentioning the matter regarding the energy-shield boosters. Thuram was very interested in this new shield equipment, so he of course wanted to test the thing himself.

Xia Fei knew that Thuram was in charge of the armaments procurement for the entire Adjudicator Union and wielded plenty of power. Quantum Holdings would benefit greatly if this equipment caught his eye; after all, the Adjudicator Union was extremely popular, and getting a large purchase from it was no less than getting a procurement order from the Admiralty.

Right now, Xia Fei only had two samples from the laboratory, and he ordered the better one to be installed to Thuram’s Ares-class interceptor.

Turning on the monitoring system, Thuram sat in the office and remotely controlled the ship.

“At present, the energy shields’ value is at one hundred percent. The testing will now commence,” declared the big bearded captain after taking a look at the reading.

Thuram nodded, then he spoke to Ling Feng on the other side of the screen. “Okay. Ling Feng, use Xia Fei’s Vampire to attack and reduce the shields down to around fifty percent.”

“Roger that.”

Ling Feng piloted Vampire, locked onto the Ares-class interceptor, and fired all four laser-cannons non-stop. As this was just an experiment, the interceptor did not bother to evade the shots and bore the brunt of the cannonfire with its energy shields.

“Energy shields at seventy-nine percent!

“…Sixty-five!

“…Fifty-three!”

The bearded captain kept updating them about the damage received, and the moment the shields hit forty-eight percent, Thuram ordered Ling Feng to stop the attacks, then the Ares-class Interceptor began to recharge. With the shield booster activated, the energy shields’ value very quickly recovered.

The energy shield recovered to ninety-seven percent and still going…

“…A hundred three percent!

“…A hundred eight percent!

“At peak performance, every second of recharge is at a rate of 108.8 standard units, thirty-six percent faster than before!” declared the bearded captain excitedly.

The Ares-class’s energy shields could originally only recover about eighty standard units per second; now, it was able to reach 108 standard units. It could be seen as a huge improvement on this front.

“Standard units of 108… This new thing ain’t bad, huh.” As the weapon and equipment department head of the Adjudicator Union, Thuram could very clearly see the great value of the energy-shield booster. That small equipment was able to increase the defense performance of all warships by ten percent at least, which was already an immeasurable improvement in actual combat.

The Pan-Human Alliance had developed to this day, and plenty of their technology had reached a bottleneck. It was difficult even to make a breakthrough improvement of one percent, yet this new component that Xia Fei’s company had just produced was able to increase a ship’s defense by ten percent. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a quality product in terms of defensive equipment.

“When it comes to the total numerical output, the Ares-class interceptor will see an 11.35 percent improvement after installing an energy-shield booster.” The bearded captain’s eyes sparkled as he stared at the reading, gushing over it with much excitement.

Xia Fei smiled. “If you used it right from the start, that value ought to increase by another one percent or so.”

Thuram nodded gravely. “Indeed, the Ares-class interceptor only activated the booster right after the fight ended. If it had it on from the start of the combat, the value would indeed be much higher. Who invented this thing?”

“I did, but plenty of the credit goes to the old man.” Xia Fei furtively glanced over at Qin Mang. The technology had come from the ‘Introduction to Robot Coding’ tome Qin Mang had given Xia Fei, and he merely added some bits to create this small and practical equipment.

Thuram guffawed loudly. “Xia Fei, I have to say: What you’ve got here is really quite something. Now, let us talk.”

“What are we going to talk about?”

“Business.”