()"acquaintance?"

My first thought was Edith, but when I thought about it, something felt wrong, because I had never heard her mention that she had entrusted such a black company. Could it be... the Rhodes family!

Claude confirmed my guess with his eyes.

"Please don't worry about Mr. Chen Xiang. We are well aware of the pressure you are facing now. My employer just hopes to proceed to the third round, which is the final stage of the bidding. Of course, whether you are defeated or successful at that time, it does not matter whether Chen Xiang

Sir, please take the trouble. Of course, since you don’t charge money, my employer also allows you to make some reasonable requests based on this."

Compared with Lin's high-pressure attitude of using all means and aiming to win, the request of the Rodades family, the most powerful among the four major chaebols, seems a bit careless and even a bit inexplicable.

Do they have any backup plans in the final stage?

"Why should I help you?"

I asked cautiously. After experiencing a series of unpleasant transactions with the Volga Company, I couldn't help but be cautious, but Krader's expression seemed calm.

"Because you are a friend of Miss Rhodes."

Agelina?

This knife was accurate enough, but it was not fatal. I gritted my teeth and carried it down, showing my cowardice in front of this carpenter.

"It's true that they are friends, but this little friendship shouldn't be worth taking such a big risk for me."

"That's natural. It's just that although Mr. Roddes is in charge of important matters, Miss Roddes is the nominal leader of the team this time..."

"Holy crap, their old man is crazy!"

I cursed loudly, and after I finished cursing, something suddenly occurred to me.

"Hey, what does that have to do with anything?"

"It's very simple," Claude said with a relaxed look, "The family of my big client can basically be regarded as a strictly run company. Every family member is an employee of the company, and those with good performance will receive extra points.

The one with the highest score will become the patriarch, while the one with poor performance will continue to have points deducted, and his status will become lower and lower, and eventually he will even regress to the point where he is not even as good as a gardener."

"I'll go, that has nothing to do with me... Wait, how many times has Atelina led the team?"

Just when I was bored, I suddenly thought of a very important question.

"Haha, Lieutenant, the reaction is very fast. Since she reached the legal age, she has been leading the project with the highest risk and the largest amount of money. Of course, the profit-loss ratio has always been 30 to 70. Although it is not very clear, in terms of points, there should be 100% left.

Not much left.”

"Ah, it doesn't matter. This guy is not suitable for this job anyway. It would be nice to just stay at home and be taken care of."

"Haha, you didn't hear me clearly, Mr. Chen Xiang. What I said is that the status will decline with the score to the same level as a servant. In other words, from now on, he can enter her room openly and play love games over and over again.

The scenes in action movies don’t seem to be a crime..."

"Nah, what a beast!"

This stimulation is not something that ordinary people can bear. I couldn't control it immediately and started screaming and jumping up and cursing wildly.

"Haha, that's it. I've already explained the situation. If we have a chance to see you again, I'll say goodbye."

Claude bowed slightly and withdrew. I looked around and realized that I was sweating profusely.

The next day, I arrived at the hangar at the test site early. It was very early at that time, and the mechanics and soldiers were having breakfast in the canteen. I opened the door with a special officer magnetic card and walked into the machine easily.

inside the library.

This hangar is said to have been used as a parking spot for testing weapons in the old century. Five small hangars of the same size that do not interfere with each other are separated inside. Because it takes into account the need to park strategic bombers, mechas and

A pile of weapon spare parts is more than enough and does not seem crowded.

After opening the door, I did nothing but start circling around the machine body.

Round after round, I almost vomited in the end.

The form code is xll-910 [Vulture], a tactical trial mecha belonging to the Lin family. It is 17.1 meters tall, has a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tons, has no fixed armaments, and the body is made of high-strength titanium alloy.

It adopts a hybrid arc and diamond structure, and the power unit is four 14,300-horsepower engines. The biggest highlight is the use of a variety of weapon modules, which greatly expands the versatility of the body.

Generally speaking, among the bidding mechas, this thing's performance can be considered above average. Except for the average engine performance, other aspects are pretty good.

But to be honest, I don't like this model.

"To be honest, I was quite happy when you came to see me, but now why do you just leave me alone to discharge electricity on the mecha?"

Edith's cold voice came from behind me. My intuition told me that if I didn't respond to her, it would lead to the terrible consequences of letting the tiger out of the cage.

"Ahem, cough, don't say it so harshly," I coughed twice, "By the way, I have something important to discuss with you."

After integrating the words and sentences, I made a brief report on the events I encountered yesterday. In fact, yesterday was not just a movie. Even Asimov, whom I hadn't seen for a long time, called in to join in the fun. He represents the Lin family and is responsible for the consequences in the north.

I deeply apologized for the serious injury (I don’t know if it was her who said it), and expressed concern and condolences for my health (I hope I die soon), and I also hope that for the sake of money, [

Vulture] Take care of me (this sentence is the truth), the enthusiasm in the tone, and the sincerity in the attitude, as if what I said in the north were all scolded for idiots, all kinds of nonsense, which made my head feel big.

"Volga Company? I heard the family salesman talk about this shady company. It is said that they have the thickest face, the darkest hands, and are so shameless. I didn't expect you to have a relationship with these gangsters."

Edith frowned slightly.

"Ah, I was still young and ignorant at that time, and I fell into the water when my brain got hot. Fortunately, Miss, you rescued me in time and allowed me to turn back as a prodigal son, and I will be able to find my way back..."

I don't care whether the sentence is fluent or not, I shamelessly flatter him.

Edith turned her head and gave a dissatisfied "hum", but her tone softened a lot. She turned her gaze to the mecha in front of her, and gently stroked the smooth shell and joints of the mecha with her long fingers, her face

He showed a slightly surprised expression.

"Is this Lin's prototype? I didn't expect that this family, which has never developed a mecha before, can be so excellent in craftsmanship. It should not be much worse than the Roddis family, which is the strongest in this field.

"

"Can't you Crassow's family do the same?"

I asked stupidly, and without any surprise, I received a murderous evil eye from Edith.

"I'm sorry, it really doesn't work. Although our family is good at making breakthroughs in new technologies, we have the same view as the Zaravel family on processing technology that has little improvement in performance. In order to save costs and man-hours, it's all a few simple steps.

It can be pulled out and sold after rough processing, so it is not like the Rodades stuff, which can still run very well after thirty or fifty years."

The beautiful Slavic girl said angrily, very unhappy that her family was lagging behind others.

This is the first time I have heard that there is a mystery in the performance evaluation of mechas. It seems that I should be careful when doing this kind of work in the future.

"Speaking of which, you don't seem to like Lin's machine very much. Is this thing just a vase?"

Edith raised her index finger and tapped the body armor, then suddenly turned to look at me.

"Of course not. The Xing function is very outstanding, and the design concept is relatively new. It actually completely modularized the entire weapon system, and it took in so much messy equipment at once, and there was no compatibility problem with the body. I really admire it, 'Taurus'

'What a designer does."

Hearing that I spoke so highly of [Vulture], Edith's eyebrows almost knitted together, and her dark blue pupils became colder and colder. Then she sarcastically said in a sharp tone:

"Then it's just right. Choose it right away. Why are you delaying?"

"No, not good at all."

I answered decisively.

"What's wrong?"

“Too expensive.”

Edith's eyes flashed with interest.

"With all due respect, I would like to ask how much they are quoting now. Anyway, everyone's reports have been submitted, so it shouldn't be considered confidential."

"Oh, of course, it's 120 million gold pounds per unit."

"…….."

Edith's eyes were not only cold now, but also angry. She was furious as if she wanted to eat me - because their price was 160 million gold pounds per unit, which was more than 40 million more expensive.

Since I think Mrs. Lin is expensive, shouldn't she have already packed up her bags and left?

I quickly explained:

"Don't get me wrong, I'm just talking about the bare metal price, other weapon modules have to be calculated separately."

"In addition, the money is calculated."

"That's right, it's just a small marketing gimmick. Cheapness is just a theoretical thing, because bare metal with only armored machine guns and hand-to-hand weapons has no combat effectiveness. If you don't want to fly out and be a target, you must purchase the matching tactical module. Every

A module is composed of more than three sets of subsystems, and each subsystem is a complex component that is expensive to fake. If we follow the "universal" concept of the bidding, we will configure each mecha with ground, sea and

With three empty modules and more than nine subsystems, after careful calculation, the actual price quoted is not much lower than that of Roddis."

"At the same time, bundling sales with follow-up orders such as battleships seems to greatly strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Republic of Korea. However, in fact, it captures the Republic of Korea's eagerness to expand its strength and incidentally brings the Republic of Korea's new army to the market.

The big monopoly is completely controlled by them, and their intentions are really sinister."

The first is my judgment as a professional mecha soldier, and the second is the analysis of a top student. Taken together, it is a simple conclusion: Lin is playing a very big game.

Speaking of the Rodades family, I started to feel depressed again, because it was obvious that the boss who hired the department was the Rodades family. Although this group of people should be the most stable among the bidding teams so far, they only eat and go shopping every day.

I did nothing except have a tea party, and looked like I was sitting on the Diaoyutai. But I am not so naive as to think that everyone in the family is like Agelina, who only acts cute in a daze.

Especially since I got along with those businessmen from the Volga Company, I would be really sorry for the people if I didn't cause something sinister and sinister. Moreover, the Agelina incident gave me a nightmare all night, so I couldn't help it.
To be continued...