"R&D team?"
Xu Fan paused, then answered truthfully, "I don't have an R&D team."
"If you insist on calling it an R&D team, then I am the R&D team!"
"What? What did you say?"
Elder Wang's pupils trembled, his beard bristling and eyes widening.
"Impossible!"
"Young Xu, don't be ridiculous!"
"Developing cutting-edge technology of this caliber would take hundreds, if not thousands, of people working together."
"You did it alone? Are you kidding me?"
"No, Elder Wang, I really did develop and build it myself."
Xu Fan thought for a moment,
then explained,
"Back then, Wang Yixue said she wanted a five-meter mecha."
"It had to be grand and impressive, too. The more sci-fi, the better."
"The customer is God! All I could do was work overtime by myself. I even skipped a day of classes."
"I finally finished it the night before last."
"All for that little bit of money. Do you think I had it easy?"
At this, Elder Wang couldn't help frowning.
The knowledge involved in a mecha this huge was simply unimaginable.
Could a young fellow in his twenties like you have developed it independently?
I'm seventy years old. Would I believe that?
No matter how convincing your act is, you'll show your fox's tail sooner or later.
Elder Wang narrowed his eyes slightly and said with a smile,
"Young Xu, since you developed this mecha yourself, you must know every detail about it by heart, right?"
"Yes, I know this thing very well." Xu Fan patted the plating on the mecha's lower leg.
"In that case, could you tell us about this material?"
Elder Wang pointed to the alloy most widely used in the mecha and spoke slowly.
Beside him, Elder Hua secretly gave Elder Wang a thumbs-up.
Clever!
Truly clever!
Whether it's a mule or a horse, just take it out for a trot and you'll know.
Tong Yao, Wang Yixue, and the surrounding researchers all looked at Xu Fan as well.
If Xu Fan couldn't tell them anything at all,
then they could be certain.
Xu Fan must have had a team packed with geniuses working under him.
"Oh, you mean this!"
Xu Fan had wondered what Elder Wang was going to ask. He promptly began introducing it in a casual manner.
"This stuff is called carbyne alloy."
"Under extreme overload, its mechanical property rating is at least 389."
"Under normal circumstances, a nuclear blast can only scrape a little paint off it."
"But!"
"That's not its greatest advantage."
"The most badass thing about it is that, under a specific magnetic field, it gains super temperature-regulating properties."
"During extreme temperature-control simulations, from absolute zero to above zero degrees, its core-layer temperature can stay between fifteen and thirty degrees."
"???"
Elder Wang was dumbfounded.
His eyes widened.
He stood rooted to the spot in a daze.
Gulp!
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
His aged face trembled faintly.
He had thought this material was already unrivaled in its mechanical properties.
He had never imagined it had other special effects.
And!
Xu Fan really did know it like the back of his hand!
Elder Wang remembered how, when Yixue had piloted the mecha past Mach 4, the cockpit temperature had still stayed at twenty-five degrees.
Even later, when it had reached space,
the temperature had remained unchanged in that extreme cold.
A glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes.
So that was it!
Now I understand!
Elder Wang's eyes gradually brightened.
"Phew-"
"Young Xu, I believe what you said is correct."
"Then could you tell us about that thing, too?"
Elder Wang pointed to the railgun on the mecha's shoulder and asked with a kindly expression.
Since you know carbyne alloy inside out, surely you can't understand this completely as well!
Xu Fan looked up at the shoulder-mounted railgun.
An involuntary smile of fondness lifted the corners of his mouth.
"Oh, you mean that!"
"That's simple, too. It's actually an improved electromagnetic railgun."
"Unlike using gas pressure to act on a projectile,"
"it uses the force of the electromagnetic field in an electromagnetic system to launch a shell, applying that force for much longer."
"It can greatly increase the projectile's speed and range!"
"I'm sure you already understand all that, so there's no need for me to say more, right?"
Having finished, he looked at Elder Wang and Elder Hua beside him.
"Well..."
Elder Wang's face twitched twice, and his aged cheeks reddened.
With a hint of embarrassment, he said,
"Perhaps you should explain a little more after all!"
"Huh?"
Xu Fan froze and looked at Elder Hua beside him.
But Elder Hua nodded as well.
"Please explain."
Xu Fan looked around at the researchers, who appeared even more bewildered and clueless.
They were still murmuring among themselves.
"Did you understand that?"
"No!"
"What about you?"
"I wouldn't say I didn't understand. I'd say I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about!"
Xu Fan covered his face briefly, thinking that fulfilling this order really wasn't easy.
I even have to explain things to these people!
Forget it. Explaining won't take much effort anyway.
"This thing consists of three parts."
"The power source, the accelerator, and the trigger system."
"The underlying power source I used is the core battery module paired with the hydrogen-powered engine."
"The accelerator requires..."
He finished it all in one go.
His mouth and throat were parched.
Wang Yixue handed him a bottle of mineral water.
Xu Fan gulped down a couple of mouthfuls.
"Any more questions?"
No one around him spoke.
A brief silence fell.
Most of the researchers wore bewildered expressions.
After Xu Fan's explanation, they understood even less.
It was too profound!
Just then, Elder Wang suddenly spoke, brimming with anticipation.
"Young Xu, there's one more thing."
"Do you still remember the synthesis pathway for this carbyne alloy, and the relevant chemical reaction equations?"
There was actually a hint of apprehension in his words.
He knew that asking this already amounted to prying into someone else's research results.
Once a core secret like this was told to someone else,
it meant handing over one's research results on a silver platter.
Although he had asked,
he hadn't held out much hope.
"The synthesis pathway and chemical formulas?"
"They're all in my head. Get me some paper and a pen," Xu Fan said to Wang Yixue beside him.
"Oh! Okay!"
Wang Yixue froze for a moment, then hurried to the office to fetch paper and a pen.
Xu Fan sat on the floor, holding the notebook in one hand and a gel pen in the other.
He kept writing and sketching.
Ten minutes later, he had filled more than ten pages.
Then he handed the notebook to Elder Wang.
"It contains detailed steps for making carbyne alloy, along with the theoretical basis. The specific chemical reaction equations are attached at the end, too."
"You're just giving it to us like this?" Elder Wang was shocked.
"Yes. It's just a few formulas. No big deal."
Xu Fan smiled as he spoke.
Elder Wang took the notebook.
His heart pounded wildly, thump, thump.
It almost seemed ready to knock the top of his skull off.
After casually scanning a couple of pages, he immediately knew it couldn't be fake!
If he had lived to this age without even that much discernment,
then all his years really would have ended up in a dog's belly.
This manuscript was far too valuable!
If it were made public, even a world war breaking out over it wouldn't be surprising.
Yet Xu Fan had casually given something this valuable to their research base.
And he had asked for nothing.
It was free!
Young men like this really were rare!
People grew sentimental with age, and tears were already shimmering in Elder Wang's eyes.