Things like phone discounts, promo pricing, gaming check-in rewards, prize draws, and red-envelope giveaways.
Unlike other greedy businesses, he genuinely wanted to push smartphones into the market at the lowest possible price within the limits each country and industry would allow. As far as the phone division was concerned, it only needed to make enough to keep the factories and workers running.
But the more money Killian poured into it over those months, the more absurd the results became. In the end, the related profits came back dozens or even hundreds of times over, to the point that even Killian did not know what to say anymore.
At that stage, Baymax's computing power had simply grown larger and more expensive by the day. It had started with only the company's most top-secret projects having access to the AI's processing resources, then gradually dropped to classified projects, then Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and now even ordinary employees could use it normally.
At this point, the one thing Killian lacked least was AI computing power.
Not to mention that his next step was already to launch satellites into orbit and build true signal base stations in space, achieving seamless coverage across land, air, sea, and orbit.
After wrapping up Baymax's side of things, Killian continued walking deeper inside.
The overall setup here felt excellent to him. Everything was top-tier. Each unit came equipped with six advanced combat robots, ensuring the user would never find themselves in a situation where they had no subordinates available.
They were designed to perfectly carry out any combat order from the owner. Every single one had top-tier combat parameters. They were cold, efficient fighting machines, and their firepower package was equally impressive. Not only were they equipped with high-output energy rifles that could blow apart a massive boulder with one shot, they also carried MK smart handguns, making sure that whether the situation called for wide-area firepower, a breakout assault, or precise elimination of a single target, they could perform with extreme efficiency.
Then there were two advanced domestic-service robots, one male and one female, both functioning as butlers.
Their main responsibility was handling every aspect of daily life for the aircraft's owner while onboard.
It could be said that they were capable of satisfying nearly every normal human need. Each one came preloaded with the most advanced current-generation memory templates and intelligent routines for butlers, housekeepers, attendants, and chefs.
Then there was one companion robot, automatically paired with an intelligent adjustment chamber.
The owner of the aircraft could freely customize nearly every aspect of the companion model, adjusting and personally designing it however they liked.
And on top of that, the fighter itself had powerful onboard weapon systems and an ultra-high-strength alloy hull capable of withstanding direct strikes from high-yield missiles without being destroyed.
In other words, everything aboard this fighter represented the highest-end technology and configuration AIM currently possessed.
Any one of those technologies, sold on its own, would already be worth a fortune.
And yet here they had all been integrated into a single aircraft.
Compared to this, even a Quinjet, or even a Helicarrier, would not be enough to make this thing nervous.
Then, as Killian continued forward, he finally reached the cockpit, the true heart of the craft.
At the very front was an open, manually operable pilot's seat, allowing the owner to take full manual control at any time.
Compared to the fighter's own autonomous operation, though, manual control was practically meaningless. In many ways, it existed mostly to let the pilot enjoy the sensation.
After all, this king-class intelligent fighter carried its own onboard AI server cluster. That meant even in the total absence of network access, the fighter's AI could still make independent flight decisions.
It could even identify and attack nearby enemies on its own.
So compared to that, manual piloting was more about experience than necessity.
Even so, it was still included.
Because Killian believed that most people, if they ever got their hands on a fighter like this, would not be able to resist trying the controls themselves.
"Baymax, open the shaft platform. Prepare the king-class intelligent fighter for its test flight."
Once he reached the front of the pilot section, Killian stood before the transparent viewing pane, looking out over the whole facility as he gave the order.
"Confirmed."
"Shaft platform activating. Transfer in progress."
The moment Baymax received the command, the platform carrying the fighter began shifting under mechanical transport systems, moving toward a nearby launch chamber.
Once it arrived in that enormous bay, large enough to accommodate dozens of aircraft taking off or landing at once, it became possible to clearly see the disguised artificial mountain ceiling more than a hundred meters above beginning to fade away. As the projection vanished and the overhead structure opened, the actual sky was slowly revealed.
At that moment, this highly classified base, buried deep in the mountains across hundreds of square kilometers of uninhabited land, was exposing itself to the world for the first time.
"Shaft platform fully open."
"Ready for takeoff."
Baymax's voice echoed through the fighter.
Then, once Killian gave the takeoff order, the previously silent king-class intelligent fighter erupted with blazing fire.
With the engines igniting downward, the entire aircraft launched vertically upward at astonishing speed.
Within only a few seconds, it had already reached the upper edge of the valley, a silver-white fighter with sleek, razor-sharp lines appearing high above in the night sky.
"Let me see what kind of speed this thing really has, Baymax."
Feeling the incredible launch acceleration, Killian smiled.
"Confirmed. Flight test beginning. Calculating flight path. Flight path confirmed. Beginning run."
As Baymax spoke, the control panel in front of the pilot seat lit up, and streams of data started flashing across the displays.
Then, as soon as the final words left Baymax's mouth, the entire aircraft shot forward like a drawn blade cutting through the sky. The clouds gathered in the night were split apart as the king-class intelligent fighter tore through them.
"Damn, this feels good!"
Watching the world blur past around him, Killian felt the excitement in his chest flare up again despite how calm he had thought he'd become.
"Baymax, push it harder. I want to feel what the limit really is."
"Full speed."
The moment he said it, the aircraft accelerated again, charging forward like a bolt of lightning.
But while Killian was having the time of his life, radar networks across the world were going insane.
A heat signature with extraordinary intensity had appeared inside one country's monitored airspace, then vanished almost immediately at impossible speed. In Russia, the alarm ended before the air force command officer had even fully gotten dressed.
"What happened?!"
Not long after, inside a Russian air force command center, a middle-aged officer wearing the unmistakable insignia of high rank rushed in with an imposing expression and demanded an answer from the monitoring staff.
Incidents involving border radar alerts were among the highest-priority matters of national defense. There was no room for carelessness. That was exactly why he had gotten here within minutes.
"Report, sir. At 23:41:37 through 23:41:45, radar detected an unidentified flying object entering our airspace at extremely high speed. It crossed in a straight-line flight path and vanished from radar before we could obtain a full lock."
A younger officer stood up at once, saluted, and responded.
"That's impossible. Can you identify which country it belonged to?"
The senior officer moved forward in shock, trying to review the data while asking the question.
"Negative, sir. It was too fast."
The young officer shook his head.
He had already gone through the data himself, and there was nothing useful to extract from it.
"Could it have been American?"
"Or from next door? No... impossible. They wouldn't send aircraft into another country's airspace like that."
"Then Britain?"
As he looked at the figures and the direction the object had come from, the senior officer began muttering through possibilities, as if trying to eliminate every target one by one.
"Sir, this may sound a little absurd."
"But based on the distance covered before it disappeared from radar and the time involved, I can say with confidence that the craft does not match anything currently fielded by any major power."
"It exceeds even the newest fighter that country next door just unveiled, and if they really had this level of technology, it would make no sense for them to publicly show off anything weaker."
"By my estimate, the speed of that aircraft is at least fifty years ahead of the current military aviation level of every major power, including the United States."
The officer beside him spoke after hesitating for a moment.
He had served on the border for nearly a decade and was deeply familiar with advanced aircraft data from all the major powers. Even for his own country's most advanced platforms, both deployed and under development, he knew at least some of the numbers.
At present, the fastest publicly known aircraft was still the MiG-31 from their own side's old development line.
And what they had just tracked was several times faster than that.
No matter how he tried to reason it out, he could not imagine which country could have built something like it.
"You're saying...?"
After hearing that, the senior officer pointed upward with one finger.
When he saw his subordinate give the faintest nod, he did not continue the topic aloud.
"Prepare a full report and come with me back to central command. I need to make a direct briefing."
"Whatever that thing was, it cannot be allowed to happen a second time. From this moment forward, by my authority, the entire border command is to enter full alert status until I return."
"Any unauthorized craft entering our airspace is to be shot down immediately without waiting for approval."
"I'll take full responsibility."
After a brief moment of thought, the officer delivered the order in a cold, iron tone.
"Understood!"
Everyone present rose at once, saluted, and shouted back.
And so, as Killian joyfully flew his king-class intelligent fighter all the way around the planet, every country on Earth quietly began heightening its border alert status.
At that moment, every nation assumed it was some kind of probe from a neighboring country or one of the permanent powers testing them.
For a very long time afterward, border vigilance around the world remained at unprecedented levels.
Of course, that excluded the Middle East, where war kept raging without pause.
For them, an unidentified aircraft was not going to stop anyone from fighting.
...
"Hahaha. This stealth system really is ridiculous."
"The second time I crossed over those major countries, they didn't react at all."
Elsewhere, Killian, having decided he'd tested enough, finally guided the fighter out into space and laughed.
For an aircraft meant to perfectly satisfy human imagination, stealth was as important as maneuverability. Radar stealth came first, optical stealth second.
And now it had both.
That was the proper result of pouring insane amounts of money into development and combining it with the system's support.
At that moment, Killian even found himself imagining what would come after the king-class intelligent fighter: the next generation, then something more massive beyond that, then maybe true interstellar transports, or even full universe-class spacecraft.
Even focusing on that one technological line alone would be enough to sustain his development for years.
But for now, those later technologies were still extremely far away.
Forget advanced universe-class ships. Even a true interstellar transport would probably still take years for his current self to produce, and the capital investment would be nearly impossible to estimate.
The one good thing about those ship designs was their durability. They were tough, built to last, genuinely hard. Not like so many sci-fi ships that crumpled the moment a floating meteor clipped them, as if the hull had been made of paper.
If all he had were flimsy ships like those, Killian would rather stay on Earth than go to space. Otherwise, the moment he entered cryosleep, he might never even know how he died.
Then, pulling himself back to the present, Killian looked outside.
At that moment, the vast emptiness of the universe and its bottomless, abyss-like darkness spread out before him.
Anyone seeing what Killian was seeing now would feel their own insignificance. In that immeasurable expanse, even a planet was no more than dust.
And for the first time, Killian felt he truly understood why so many astronauts required psychological counseling after returning to Earth. Spending too long in a place like this really would be a form of torment.
Still, for now, everything remained thrillingly new to him.
The king-class intelligent fighter came equipped with both oxygen regeneration and gravity systems, so even in outer space, he felt no different from how he did back on Earth.
"Sir, according to visual data analysis, there is an anomaly in sector 300:1894:1222:****."
"Likely presence of a specialized optical cloaking system."
At the exact moment Killian was still admiring the scale of space, Baymax's voice sounded inside the craft.
A magnified image of the highlighted region appeared before him.
At first glance, it looked like nothing.
But once Baymax continued enlarging the footage and applying its environmental modeling algorithm, the difference became clear.
"So what you're saying is... there's probably a large structure or ship hidden there under camouflage?"
As Baymax used data reconstruction and environmental back-calculation to rebuild the area, the projected model of a large artificial object appeared in front of Killian.
Looking at it, Killian began running through every known force he could think of.
At this point in time, there were several possibilities.
A Kree ship.
A hidden structure on the far side of the Moon.
Or perhaps S.W.O.R.D., the high-level outer-space response organization led publicly by Abigail Brand and supported internally by Nick Fury.
Unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., that group was specifically built around extraterrestrial threats and cosmic observation.
Its full name was the Sentient World Observation and Response Department.
A mouthful, yes.
Put simply, it was Earth's space-based response agency, a kind of S.H.I.E.L.D. in orbit.
(End of Chapter)
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