Even the research base personnel, who had been about to burst into wild cheers, stared blankly at their phones, petrified on the spot, utterly motionless.
"What's wrong?"
Xu Fan noticed that Wang Yixue's expression was off.
"Hurry up and find the lunar landing monument. Let's see what it looks like, so we won't have come for nothing!"
"Other people travel abroad. This counts as traveling off Earth for us, right?"
Wang Yixue's eyelids twitched as she spoke with difficulty.
"Xu Fan, when you landed just now, did you happen to step on something without noticing?"
"I think I stepped on a rock. It jabbed the mecha's right foot a little. Why?" Xu Fan frowned in confusion.
"Guess what the mecha's right foot stepped on?"
Xu Fan's brow furrowed even more deeply.
He thought for a moment.
His pupils suddenly shook.
"Holy shit!"
With a startled cry, he hurriedly moved the mecha's right foot away.
He had stomped the great lunar landing monument into the lunar soil, leaving only its top exposed.
As for Arms's footprint, he had already stomped it out of existence.
At that moment, Xu Fan was dumbstruck.
Humanity's giant leap was just... gone!
And he had done it!
If Arms learned of this from beyond the grave, he would absolutely be furious enough to come back to life and fight him to the death.
Elder Wang and the others also stared blankly at the phone screen.
For a moment, they had no idea what to say.
If this got out, Xu Fan would absolutely become a target for many self-proclaimed champions of international justice.
Xia Nation would also be condemned for destroying the most precious historical relic in human history.
"Ahem..."
Elder Hua gave a few dry coughs and swept his gaze around.
His eyes were rather sharp.
"No one saw what happened today. Is that understood?"
"What are you referring to, Elder Hua? I was using the computer just now and wasn't paying attention," Tong Yao said with a serious face, taking the hint.
The researchers beside her suddenly changed their tune too.
Countless people began rubbing their eyes.
"I don't know what's wrong with my eyes. I can't see clearly. I need to rub on some Mayinglong!"
"What a coincidence, me too!"
"You too?"
"Hehe, of course! Pick some up for me when you buy Mayinglong!"
"Me too!"
"..."
Standing off to the side, Tong Yao's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
These bastards sure reacted fast.
But the damn problem was, did Mayinglong treat eyes??
Seeing everyone's response, Elder Hua stroked his graying beard in satisfaction.
Elder Wang looked at Elder Hua and gave him a thumbs-up.
Nicely done!
He then dismissed all the researchers, sending them back to their respective posts.
The observation and learning session was over!
Only the old pair, Elder Wang and Elder Hua, remained, with Tong Yao beside them to look after them.
On the moon.
Xu Fan looked at the "testament to humanity's lunar landing" he had stomped out of existence.
He felt somewhat bad about it.
After thinking for a while.
He simply stepped on it again and stomped down hard twice.
Now the mecha's footprint sank more than one meter into the ground.
There was no air on the moon, and naturally no wind either, so this footprint should last a long time.
Then he reached out and scratched a line of words into the ground beside it.
"One small step for a mecha, one giant leap for technology!"
After writing it, he frowned slightly, feeling that his crooked handwriting did not look very good, but he left it at that.
With that done, as Wang Yixue stared in utter, slack-jawed astonishment, he yanked the control stick and hurriedly made himself scarce.
"Boom-"
Afterburner mode activated, and the mecha vanished from the lunar surface in an instant.
Only an enormous, seventy-centimeter footprint remained.
The trip there had been fast, but the return was even faster.
Xu Fan had said he did not want to delay lunch.
In afterburner mode, the mecha's engines worked furiously.
At forty-five times the speed of sound, even the distance between the moon and Earth no longer seemed so impossibly vast.
Watching Xu Fan control the mecha as naturally as his own limbs, Wang Yixue could not help yearning for the same.
If only she could reach that level of proficiency too.
Along the way, she humbly asked him some questions about piloting.
Xu Fan patiently answered them all.
After all, the customer was God.
That was his principle in doing business.
Only by sticking to principles could he develop in the long run.
An hour later, the mecha had entered geosynchronous orbit.
Farther ahead lay low Earth orbit and the various nations' space stations.
Xu Fan did not stop, speeding onward all the way.
Trailing a long plume of blue flame, it plunged into the atmosphere like an artillery shell.
At the same time, he did not forget to provide proper after-sales instruction.
"Watch closely, Yixue."
"Adjusting Crimson Sky No. 1's attitude and braking are actually very simple."
"First you do this, then that..."
As Xu Fan spoke, his hands flowed smoothly over the control sticks with a series of clicks.
"And that's it."
"This is what people call the Falling Leaf Drift!"
All the mecha's main engines shut down, leaving only the attitude-control vectoring thrusters working.
Like a falling leaf, the mecha danced, spun, and descended.
"How was that? You understood, right?"
"Uh, well..."
Wang Yixue gave a stiff smile.
She actually had no words in reply.
She looked at her own hands, then at the control sticks in Xu Fan's grasp.
She could not help sinking into profound doubt.
My hands don't seem to be the same as Xu Fan's.
Could these not be hands?
One mecha Falling Leaf Drift sequence had left Wang Yixue completely bewildered.
Seeing Wang Yixue remain silent, Xu Fan thought that perhaps she did not like the Falling Leaf Drift maneuver.
Then I'll teach him another one!
"Don't worry, Yixue. Since you bought my mecha, I'll teach you until you're satisfied!"
"This next one is called the Paperclip Maneuver!"
"Watch how I control it."
As he spoke, Xu Fan casually performed another series of exceptionally difficult inputs.
Plummeting from the sky in a straight dive, the mecha suddenly turned and braked hard.
The next moment, it climbed rapidly again, completing a paperclip-like 180-degree reversal in just a few seconds.
"This maneuver is fairly simple. You've definitely got it now, right?"
"..."
Wang Yixue stopped speaking altogether.
Her face was deathly pale, and she looked as though she had nothing left to live for.
She finally understood why talking with Xu Fan had previously made Tong Yao shut down.
Don't you have any idea how insanely good your skills are??
Are you trying to crush people on purpose?
Wang Yixue's confidence shattered all over the floor.
She felt so aggrieved that she wanted to cry.
Ever since she was little, she had excelled at everything she did.
Even Wang Ning from her family could not match her, no matter how hard she tried.
Now she finally experienced true defeat.
There was no comparison. Comparing yourself to this man would teach you the meaning of despair!
Xu Fan checked his watch. It was already noon.
He figured he would leave it there for today and teach her again when he had the chance.
Although he had indeed made money on this deal.
The after-sales service really was exhausting.
Deciding to suspend the lesson for now, Xu Fan piloted the mecha swiftly toward the ground.
Below them was the Zhonghai Military Research Base.
Wang Yixue finally breathed a sigh of relief too.
He was afraid Xu Fan would keep teaching her. It was not that she did not want to learn; she genuinely could not understand what she was seeing.
Yet she was too embarrassed to say she did not understand.
She was terrified that Xu Fan, this exceptionally skilled teacher, would think she was stupid and never teach her again.
Once the mecha was parked in the indoor area, Wang Yixue finally let out a long breath.
A smile of having survived a disaster appeared on her face.
Xu Fan followed Wang Yixue to the conference room.
Elder Wang and Elder Hua were waiting for them with kindly smiles on their faces.
"Young Xu, I really never expected even your piloting skills to be this good. If you have time in the future, please do teach Yixue. This girl is very bright. Teach her once and she'll get it."
"No problem, Elder Wang." Xu Fan respectfully nodded in agreement.
He held immense reverence for Elder Wang and Elder Hua.
Beside him, Wang Yixue frantically signaled Elder Wang with her eyes, as though saying, "Grandpa, stop praising me! I'm too ashamed to show my face!"
After some discussion, Xu Fan received another commission from Elder Wang.
It was to build another similar mecha and complete the laser weapons and Dragoon System.
Xu Fan had no reason to refuse. First, Elder Wang and Elder Hua were people he greatly respected. Second, they were offering far too much: a full ten million.
After deducting costs, he could make at least five million.