Chapter 163

The third day of the defense exhibition, ten o'clock in the morning.

The Dragon Chant booth was surrounded by people, three layers deep inside and out.

It wasn't because the booth had suddenly become luxurious, nor was it because some big shot had arrived.

It was purely because Wang Hao had set up a phone on the booth and started a livestream.

"Come, come, come! Look over here, folks!" Wang Hao held up his selfie stick, the lens pointed at his own face, which was grinning from ear to ear.

"We are live at the Abu Dhabi Defense Exhibition! Dragon Chant Technology booth! Today we're holding an event—a lucky draw to send out blessings!"

On the booth behind him sat a piece of equipment that looked completely unremarkable:

A half-meter square metal box with a rotatable mechanical arm on top, equipped with a black cylinder at the end.

Next to it stood a sign: "Dragon Chant Civilian Laser Engraver—Adding a Little Art to Life."

The device looked just like those small machines in shopping malls used for engraving keychains.

In the crowd of onlookers, someone wore a look of disappointment: "That's it?"

Wang Hao had sharp ears and immediately chimed in: "Hey! Don't underestimate this machine, my friend! This engraver of ours is the crystallization of civil-military integration technology! It looks ordinary, but it holds a world of wonders inside!"

He walked over to the machine and patted the casing: "First, unlike traditional engravers that screech and wail, we use a laser—a quick 'zizz' and it's done!"

"Second, it's precise! It can engrave a pattern as thin as a hair without a single tremor! And finally—"

He drew out his voice to build suspense.

"Finally what?" someone asked, as expected.

"Finally, it's safe!" Wang Hao slapped his thigh.

"Fully enclosed operation, no laser leakage, it's perfectly safe even for kids to watch from the side! A must-have for home, travel, gifts, or expressing your feelings with an engraving!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.

A young Chinese man wearing a baseball cap raised his hand: "Streamer, how do we enter the draw?"

"Great question!" Wang Hao pulled a small cardboard box from his pocket.

"On-site audience, put your business cards or contact info in this box. At twelve o'clock noon, I'll draw them on the spot!"

"For the lucky winners, whatever you want engraved, we'll do it right here!"

"Engraved on our special commemorative steel plates, free for you to take home!"

He took out one of those "commemorative steel plates"—palm-sized, five millimeters thick, with a frosted surface finish; it really did look like a souvenir from a tourist attraction.

The crowd began to push forward.

While collecting business cards, Wang Hao continued the livestream: "Don't worry, friends in the livestream! Even though you aren't here in person, you can participate in the cloud!"

"Spam 'Dragon Chant Technology is awesome' in the comments section, and I'll randomly pick three netizens. I'll engrave their names on another plate and mail it to them after the exhibition ends! I'll cover the postage!"

On the phone screen, the barrage of comments began to scroll by.

【The streamer really knows how to put on a show】

【This engraver looks so ordinary】

【Is it a military-to-civilian conversion?】

【Engraving steel plates? How deep can it go?】

【Five-millimeter steel plate, the laser must take a while, right?】

Wang Hao glanced at the barrage and chuckled: "Some friends are asking how deep it can go—let's give a demonstration!"

He walked to the engraver and opened the software interface.

On the screen was a simple operation window with a few buttons: Select Pattern, Adjust Size, Set Depth, Start Engraving.

"Let's start with something simple." Wang Hao selected the Dragon Chant logo, adjusted it to the size of a fist, and set the depth to "0.5mm."

He pressed the start button.

The mechanical arm moved into position, and a beam of dark red light shot from the end of the black cylinder, landing on the steel plate.

There was no sound, no smoke, only the light spot moving slowly.

On the steel plate, the outline of the logo gradually appeared. The lines were clear, the edges clean, and the depth uniform.

Thirty seconds, and it was finished.

Wang Hao picked up the steel plate and showed it to the camera: "Look! How about that? This precision, this speed! The key is—no burrs! No need for polishing! You can hang it directly as a keychain!"

It was indeed beautiful.

The laser-scorched marks presented a dark gold color after metal oxidation, contrasting with the silver-gray of the base plate, possessing a certain industrial aesthetic.

A few exclamations of admiration rose from the crowd.

A middle-aged white man in khaki cargo pants squeezed to the front, stared at the steel plate for a few seconds, then looked up and asked Wang Hao: "Can I... touch it?"

"Feel free!" Wang Hao handed it over.

The middle-aged white man took the plate, touched the engraving with his finger, flipped it over to look at the back, and his brow gradually furrowed:

"This heat control... the back barely heated up at all. Are you using a pulsed laser? What's the frequency?"

Wang Hao blinked: "Oh, as for technical parameters... that's a trade secret! Anyway, it's advanced!"

The middle-aged white man gave him a deep look, didn't press further, but didn't leave either, standing in the front row to keep watching.

The livestream continued.

Wang Hao demonstrated a few more patterns: Arabic calligraphy, calligraphy, and even took a photo of a spectator's smiling face on the spot, converting it into a line drawing to be engraved.

Each time it was completed within thirty seconds, and each time the result was perfect.

The number of viewers in the livestream exceeded fifty thousand, and the barrage scrolled by rapidly.

【This speed is impressive】

【Faster than the laser marking machine in our lab】

【The key is portability! That box weighs at most twenty kilograms, right?】

【Confirmed military-to-civilian conversion】

【Streamer, can you engrave deeper?】

Eleven-thirty, half an hour until the lucky draw.

Wang Hao looked at the booth, which was packed tight, his eyes darted, and he had another idea.

"Folks! Seeing everyone so enthusiastic, let's add another segment!" He raised his volume.

"On-site audience, who has something special they want engraved? Speak up! As long as it doesn't violate public order and morals, we'll pick one on the spot and engrave something bigger! Engrave it on—"

He looked around, then pointed to a board in the corner of the booth that had been covered with a cloth the whole time.

"Engrave it on that board! As a memento of this exhibition!"

Below was a larger steel plate, about the size of an A3 sheet of paper, and the thickness...

It also looked to be about five millimeters.

The audience grew excited and began to make suggestions all at once:

"Engrave 'World Peace'!"

"Engrave a panda!"

"Engrave the character 'Dragon'!"

"Engrave the list of exhibitors!"

Wang Hao listened with a smile. Suddenly, the young Chinese man in the baseball cap raised his hand again: "Streamer, how about 'Wishing the Dragon Chant Team Continued Brilliance'?"

"Good!" Wang Hao clapped his hands. "That's the one! It's imposing! It's a blessing! And it fits the theme!"

He turned to the camera: "Friends in the livestream, that's the one! 'Wishing the Dragon Chant Team Continued Brilliance', nine characters, we'll engrave it in running script!"

Setting the parameters: he chose an elegant running script font, adjusted the size to fill the entire plate, and the depth...

Wang Hao entered "2.0mm" into the software.

Then he paused, tilted his head to think, and muttered to himself: "2 millimeters might not be eye-catching enough... let's make it sincere!"

He deleted the number and re-entered "3.5mm."

Clicked confirm.

The mechanical arm moved into position.

This time, when the laser lit up, the color was a bit different—no longer dark red, but a brighter orange-red.

The light spot landed on the steel plate.

The first stroke, the dot of the character "Zhu" (Wish).

There was no sound.

But on the surface of the steel plate, where the laser landed, the metal instantly vaporized, rising in a trace of almost invisible vapor.

The engraving extended at a steady speed, its depth visible to the naked eye.

Three seconds, the first character was finished.

Wang Hao held up his phone for a close-up: "Look! This depth! This effect! Is our civilian engraver powerful or what?"

The barrage went wild:

【This depth is definitely more than 3.5】

【I work in metal processing, with this amount of vaporization, the power is at least 500 watts】

【A 500-watt portable laser?】

【Civilian? You call this civilian?】

【Streamer, are you sure you didn't grab the wrong machine?】

In the crowd, those in the know began to change their expressions.

The middle-aged white man in cargo pants stared at the laser point, his lips moving silently as if calculating something.

A man in a military-green jacket standing next to him, who had been very quiet until now,

suddenly pulled out his phone, took a few close-ups of the steel plate, and then lowered his head to type rapidly.

Wang Hao pretended not to see and continued the livestream: "The second character, 'Long' (Dragon)! The Dragon of Dragon Chant! Let's make it look imposing!"

The laser moved.

The strokes of the character "Long" were complex, but the laser glided through the entire process smoothly, without the slightest pause or tremor at the turns, just like the most high-end CNC machine tool.

Six seconds, the second character was finished.

Deep in the engraving, the metal displayed a lattice texture after melting and re-solidifying, reflecting subtle rainbow colors under the exhibition hall lights.

A young man with glasses in the front row couldn't help but pull out a UV flashlight to shine on the engraving—this was a common method for checking metal phase changes.

Under the UV light, the engraved area emitted a fluorescence clearly different from the other parts.

The young man's hand trembled slightly.

The third character, "Yin".

The fourth character, "Tuan".

The fifth...

When it reached the seventh character, "Zai", several people who had been standing in the shadows on the side of the booth could finally no longer hold back.

They were dressed in plain clothes, but their demeanor was uniform: standing straight, eyes sharp, their way of observing with shifting gazes carried clear signs of training.

One of them, slightly older, gave a signal to his companion.

The companion nodded, quietly stepped back, and whispered something into their collar.

In Wang Hao's headset, Chen Guang's calm voice came through: "Haozi, at three o'clock, that group in gray suits just sent an encrypted signal."

"Part of the content was intercepted, keyword: 'Confirm power is non-civilian, suggest intervention'."

Wang Hao curled his lips and continued to smile at the camera: "Almost there! Only two characters left! 'Huihuang' (Brilliance)!"

The speed of the laser... seemed to have increased slightly.

It wasn't the software accelerating, but the laser pulse frequency increasing—a change that could only be detected with a high-speed camera.

The character "Hui", four seconds.

The character "Huang", five seconds—because it had more strokes.

The last stroke fell, and the mechanical arm lifted.

On the entire steel plate, nine large characters stood out: "Wishing the Dragon Chant Team Continued Brilliance". The running script was fluid, the depth uniform, and the bottom of each character was as smooth as a mirror.

Wang Hao put down his phone and applauded: "Beautiful! Come on, let's give a panoramic view!"

He had Li Yang hold the steel plate upright, facing the audience.

Then, as if he had "suddenly" discovered something, he leaned close to the steel plate, stared at the engraving for a few seconds, and let out an "Oh?" sound.

"This depth..." He scratched his head and turned to the operation interface, "Let me check the parameters... Oh my!"

He slapped his forehead, making an expression of sudden realization: "Got it wrong, got it wrong! This machine is equipped with a high-power module for testing! No wonder it engraved so fast!"

He looked at the audience with an "embarrassed" face: "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding! This is a module our lab uses to test performance; it shouldn't have been installed on the demo machine... Staff negligence! Negligence!"

The crowd was silent for a few seconds.

Then, the middle-aged white man in cargo pants was the first to laugh out loud.

He shook his head and turned to leave.

The man in the military-green jacket also put away his phone, gave Wang Hao a deep look, and turned to leave as well.

The group in the shadows—the older one shook his head at his companion, and the few of them retreated into the crowd without a sound.

Only the ordinary audience members were still excitedly taking photos and discussing:

"So it was a test module!"

"I was wondering, how could a civilian machine be this fierce!"

"But even the regular module is pretty impressive!"

"Streamer, is this machine for sale? I want to buy one to engrave wood!"

Wang Hao responded with a smile: "For sale! Of course it's for sale! But today's machine is the high-power test version, not for sale! If you want to buy the civilian version, go register over there!"

He pointed to the registration desk at the side of the booth, where a line had already formed.

Twelve o'clock noon, the lucky draw segment.

Wang Hao pulled a business card from the cardboard box and read the name—it was a reporter.

The reporter excitedly went on stage and requested to have a famous quote by Hugo engraved.

Wang Hao operated the machine, and this time it was indeed in "civilian mode": the laser color was dark red, the speed was one-third slower, and the depth was significantly shallower.

The result was still good, but compared to that steel plate of "Wishing the Dragon Chant Team Continued Brilliance" from earlier,

it was like the difference between a primary school student's homework and a calligrapher's work.

The reporter left, satisfied with the steel plate.

Before ending the livestream, Wang Hao said to the camera: "I've already noted the information for the three netizens drawn today!"

"The commemorative steel plates will be mailed within a week after the exhibition ends!"

"Thanks to all you folks for your support! Remember to follow the official Dragon Chant Technology account!"

Turning off the livestream, Wang Hao let out a long sigh of relief and slumped into a folding chair.

Li Yang walked over and handed him a bottle of water.

"Good acting," Li Yang said.

"I'm exhausted," Wang Hao gulped down a large mouthful of water. "Having to be hyped up and play dumb at the same time—this job is more mentally draining than R&D."

"Although tiring, the effect was achieved." Li Yang looked at the steel plate with the nine large characters.

"Now, everyone in the world who needs to know, knows."

"Knows what?"

"Knows that our 'civilian' laser can engrave on armor steel with a depth of 3.5 millimeters in thirty seconds." Li Yang paused.

"And the heat dissipation control was perfect throughout, with the back temperature not exceeding fifty degrees."

Wang Hao grinned: "Then they should also be able to calculate the power density, pulse frequency, cooling efficiency... of this laser, right?"

"They can." Li Yang nodded. "So they should be unable to sleep now."

As the two were talking, Chen Guang's voice came through the headset: "The video clip has already spread on international military forums."

"The title is: 'Civilian engraver? Do you believe it?' Currently 170,000 views and still rising."

Wang Hao chuckled, opened his phone, and sure enough, saw several military analysis accounts reposting the edited clip.

The comments section exploded:

【This steel plate is definitely not ordinary low-carbon steel; looking at the oxidation color, it's at least 4340 grade】

【3.5 millimeters deep, thirty seconds, heat-affected zone this small—this cooling system is heaven-defying】

【If a portable laser has this power, traditional armor needs to be re-evaluated】

【Longguo is playing with its cards face up this time: I have this technology, so what?】

【To the person above, they said it was a 'test module' and 'staff negligence'】

【Do you believe it?】

Wang Hao flipped through the comments, finding it more amusing the more he read.

Li Yang patted him on the shoulder: "Pack up. Tomorrow is the last day; according to the plan, the orders that needed to be discussed have basically been negotiated."

"Alright." Wang Hao stood up and stretched. "Let's have a good meal tonight! Brother Hao is treating!"

He took one last look at the steel plate.

The nine large characters shone brightly under the lights, and deep in the engravings, the metal's lattice texture seemed to be telling some kind of silent declaration.

Wang Hao put away his smile and said softly:

"This is just the beginning."