Mr. Mars had once been one of the biggest names in global technology, hailed as a real-life Iron Man.
Now, however, Mr. Mars had lost his shine.
More than two months earlier, SpaceX, the company Mr. Mars ran, had launched a powerful carrier rocket, declaring that it would send humanity back to the moon.
Before that, although humans had already set foot on the moon, they had done so through the efforts of an entire nation. Now, countless people had pinned their hopes on SpaceX, putting Mr. Mars squarely in the spotlight.
But in less than a month afterward, Phantom Immortal Technology had made a series of moves that utterly demolished him.
First, Tesla's electric cars had suffered a setback.
Tesla had once claimed to set the trends for the global automotive industry and lead the field in new energy vehicles. Although the cars Phantom Immortal Technology released were electric too, theirs could fly! And even when it came to electric performance alone, every specification left Tesla in the dust.
Faced with the tremendous pressure from the "Skyflying" sedan, Mr. Mars had simply conceded defeat.
By backing down, he could still cooperate with Phantom Immortal Technology, modify cars, and purchase components. If he went head-to-head with them, he wouldn't stand a chance, would he?
That alone would have been tolerable. The problem was that their Skyflying cars performed so exceptionally well that they had inadvertently swept his other company, SpaceX, aside too.
What was the most hopeless thing in the world? It was working hard to overcome one obstacle after another, researching rockets and spacecraft, preparing a grand effort to send humanity to the moon—only for someone else to fly a little car straight there.
Wouldn't that leave you in despair?
Mr. Mars certainly felt despair, so he had immediately