"Teacher, are you really planning to let him take charge of the trade fair? What if he really uses that profit to..."
After watching Lin Lan and the others leave in their car amidst the cold wind, Tian Ming let out a long sigh and turned to look at Sun Xingxue, concerned.
"Hehe, Little Tian, it's normal for you to have such thoughts after staying at the Battle Axe Military Industrial for so long."
Sun Xingxue smiled faintly and turned to look at his student.
"Let's not even talk about whether someone of President Tian'ou's caliber would care about that small sum of money.
The main point is, from his eyes, I saw the same respect for science that I hold."
"Even when the Auroran regime was still around, when did you ever see someone of that level address me as 'Old Sun'?"
Sun Xingxue's words made Tian Ming suddenly understand, recalling how Lin Lan and his teacher had been enjoying a friendly conversation on the way earlier.
Embarrassed, he adjusted his round-framed glasses.
At that moment, Sun Xingxue's phone suddenly vibrated.
He opened the phone, and a transfer notification titled "Research Funding" appeared prominently on his screen.
"Isn't this transfer initiated by the Tian'ou Group's official account? Research funding? Am I seeing things?"
Sun Xingxue looked at the transfer initiator with suspicion.
Of course, he recognized this account, as he had been sending monthly profits from the Science and Technology Institute to this account.
But when he opened the transfer notification and saw the enormous amount of money, his hand trembled, and the phone fell to the ground.
"Teacher, are you okay?"
Seeing Sun Xingxue not even picking up his phone and staring at it in a daze, Tian Ming hurriedly showed concern and picked up the phone.
"Little Tian, you… you quickly look at the amount on the phone screen, what's the transfer amount?"
Hearing his usually calm teacher speak in such an urgent tone, Tian Ming looked at the phone screen in confusion.
"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... Damn!"
After realizing the amount, Tian Ming gasped in shock, and the phone once again slipped from his hands.
This time, when it hit the ground, the poor screen flickered and then went black.
Leaving both teacher and student standing frozen in the cold wind, staring at each other in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Lin Lan was in the passenger seat, making a call to Sun DeWang.
"The day after tomorrow, you must come to host the fleet equipment trade fair. I don't care how busy you've been, you have to be there."
"I've already sent you the new rules for the trade fair. Just make sure those people use their phones to download the software and draw.
I'll send you the software, and at the fair, you must act like you don't know me."
"Tomorrow night, send more transport vehicles to my villa. I'll provide the rewards for this trade fair, so don't go asking the Science and Technology Institute for their old junk."
"Yes, it's better than the Technology Institute's trash. You can even leak it to the media now to stir things up."
"What? You say Tian'ou Group wants to attend? Fine, fine, they can come, I welcome them."
"Oh, and remember to tell the Navy department, this trade fair can use not only money but also equivalent oil to draw."
"I'm not joking. With their budget limits, they'll probably use oil to draw..."
After hanging up the phone, Agir, sitting in the backseat, curiously asked:
"Commander, why aren't you personally hosting the trade fair? Why leave it to that fat guy?"
Lin Lan put his phone in his pocket and mischievously turned to look at Agir in the backseat.
"Of course, it's to play... act."
"Just imagine, I'll pretend to be a regular member of the Navy department, watching the others lose their minds with the draws, and then I'll pull out a purple equipment with just two pulls. How interesting is that?"
This kind of "acting cool" while everyone else is clueless, Lin Lan had been eager to try for a while.
Under his supervision, Akashi had nearly completed the lottery software.
In addition to the previous ten consecutive pulls, Lin Lan had asked Akashi to add a feature to control the probability of items being drawn in the backend.
In other words, he could make it so that he always drew purple equipment with just one pull or that others would only get purple equipment after hitting the guaranteed draw.
"Sounds fun when you put it like that," Agir said, now fully aware of how exploitative the "lottery software" could be, especially after hearing Z23's experiences.
Thinking about how countless unaware people would be experiencing the agony in two days, a wicked smile appeared on her face.
The fuel filter equipment as the ultimate prize, which was originally just discarded gear for them, had become the most sought-after treasure in Lin Lan's hands.
No wonder he was the commander.
"Akashi, did you find the technology to extract oil?"
With more than an hour still left in the return trip, Lin Lan turned to look at the sly merchant Akashi, who was sitting in the middle of the backseat and fiddling with her phone.
"Of course, I found it, nya! Once we have the blueprints, it's simple to implement, nya~ With Manjuus help, any faction can easily apply it, nya~"
Seeing Akashi's round face glowing with confidence, Lin Lan nodded in satisfaction.
That's good. The troublesome oil problem had finally been solved.
After all, there were plenty of Manjuu in every faction at the port.
"By the way, I've always wondered, why can't the cube's energy power your fleet equipment? Why does it have to rely on oil?"
Now that the necessary goal of the trip had been completed, Lin Lan relaxed and casually asked the three in the backseat.
"Commander, we're not too clear about that either," Ulrich replied.
The dark-haired, bold battleship ship girl stroked her chin, seemingly pondering Lin Lan's question.
"Since we were created, we've only known that both mass-produced units and fleet equipment must be powered by oil."
"Iron Blood had once studied this issue, and the conclusion was that it might be related to our ship girls' prototypes."
Listening to Ulrich's words, Lin Lan thought about how real-world warships also relied on oil for propulsion.
That could explain things.
Thinking about the Wings of Sui Qiong and the real Overlord Mech, which also consumed oil, Lin Lan thought it made sense.
"But if we really have to rely on the cube's energy to launch, Commander, can you afford to support us?"
After Ulrich finished, Agir, sitting directly behind Lin Lan, mischievously sat up and threw her arms around his shoulders, speaking in a tempting tone.
If they really needed the cube's energy to launch...
Agir's words conjured an image in Lin Lan's mind:
Imagine you're a commander who's just starting a game. To launch your initial ship, you must spend "red gems" to exchange for an energy cube.
As you continue battling, more and more ship girls are added to your port, but you'll need more "red gems" to exchange for the energy cubes to level up your fleet...
Lin Lan shivered at the thought. What kind of money-grabbing game was this?
"Your fleet equipment using oil doesn't seem too bad..."
"Commander, are you scared?"
"No, I'm not."
After a brief exchange with Agir, Akashi suddenly asked:
"Commander, according to the traditions of Dragon Empery, aren't you supposed to complete the vow ceremony with Sui Qiong tonight, nya?"
Akashi's question plunged the car into two seconds of silence.
"Commander, what's the vow ceremony?"
Breaking the silence was the adorably naive Sui Qiong, who was driving.
"Hehe, I know! Yat Sen once explained it to me. It's when the commander does that kind of embarrassing thing with you on the night of the vow ceremony~"
"She even mentioned that some 'heartless man' has never done that with everyone~"
Agir mischievously explained to Sui Qiong, while Lin Lan felt the strength in the arms around his neck tighten a bit.
It wasn't that he didn't want to do the vow ceremony with his ship girls; it was just that when it was through a screen, how could he?
At least, he was glad he didn't try it with his secretary ship...
Wait, on second thought, maybe he did...
Lin Lan stiffened, suddenly recalling a certain silver-haired Sardegna Empire leader in a swimsuit L2D illustration.
And the reckless things he did when he was young and hot-headed.
"Hope VV has forgotten about that... Yeah, she must've, since she didn't bring it up during our last communication. She probably forgot..."
As Lin Lan sweated profusely, silently praying, he didn't notice Sui Qiong beside him blushing slightly.
"But Sui Qiong already did that with the commander, right?"
"Hehe, silly girl, the vow ceremony is when the commander does that kind of thing with you alone on the night of the vow ceremony. Doing it at other times doesn't count~"
"So, Commander, Sui Qiong wants to do the vow ceremony with you tonight."
After hearing Agir's strange explanation, Sui Qiong seriously invited him, and Lin Lan helplessly covered his face with both hands.
"Fine, we'll do it..."
With the ship girls' playful teasing, the car sped across the empty plains toward Yunhai City, shrouded in heavy clouds.
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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