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Ryan returned to his dorm and, as usual, checked the artificial intelligence's training progress. Before sleeping, he glanced at MOSS's development progress in the system.
For the past six months and more, he'd basically not shown off anywhere, nor left the base. But even so, the new project's development progress had still reached seventy-two percent.
The system seemed extremely adept at this kind of project, one with no physical body, composed primarily of code.
He opened the system panel and looked at the code inside. By now there was no telling how many lines there were. With code this voluminous, never mind copying it, without the system's index directory he couldn't even have located a specific functional module.
Ryan went to sleep with peace of mind, with no idea whatsoever of how much shock the news of Crimson Typhoon's completed assembly had brought everyone else.
When Logan reported the news up the chain, the people at Aegis and the Department of Science and Technology were at a loss for what to say.
Aegis was alright. They knew Ryan's habit had always been to succeed on the first try. Yes, in their eyes this was simply Ryan's habit.
But the Department of Science and Technology was genuinely stunned. This was their first time collaborating with Ryan, and they'd never imagined that a mech this large, one using entirely new technology at that, could be completed so quickly.
If they ordered a seventy-six-meter ship from a shipyard, wouldn't they wait a year or two? A mech could be completed this fast? If not for the on-site photos and video in the report, they'd have suspected it was faked.
As for the test Ryan had mentioned for a week later, they had no objection. Once a thing was built, of course it had to be tested.
The next day, Ryan had only just woken up when Patricia called, timing it precisely.
"How much confidence do you have in the test a week from now? There may be an official livestream then," she asked the moment he picked up.
Exactly as Ryan had said before, testing a mech, like launching a rocket, was something there was simply no hiding. If Ryan's confidence was sufficient, it was better to broadcast the test footage live, to strengthen national confidence and pride, and to hit back at the voices at home and abroad that doubted the project.
The country's degree of openness had been increasing by the day recently, and it placed more and more importance on publicity. Many important projects and important organizations now had their own online accounts. Even the postal service's delivery vans had an account. Beyond daily promotion, these accounts occasionally ran livestreams.
"A hundred percent confidence, of course."
Ryan's answer didn't exceed Patricia's expectations.
"Good. I'll arrange the publicity work."
Patricia hung up after that, and Ryan, after washing up, returned to the new base for pre-test preparations.
On-site, someone had already started the mech's self-check program, and personnel had been assigned to repair the problems it detected.
He'd come to arrange the detection of the operating data from the mech's various systems during the first test. A large number of sensors were installed inside the mech, and every time it ran, the data generated by each system would be stored, recorded, and transmitted back to the master control room.
This data represented the mech's operating state. Only by thoroughly studying it could the corresponding technology possibly be fully understood. And only then was there any possibility of transcending the system's technology and making major modifications to the mech.
There were nearly a thousand research groups on-site, and they'd help Ryan analyze each portion of the data, forming report after report.
Just as Ryan was assigning tasks, the publicity work outside had already begun.
The evening news broadcast spent five minutes reviewing the Crimson Typhoon project, announcing that the project had achieved preliminary success, and offering high praise for the technological breakthroughs the project had achieved so far, as well as its personnel.
The broadcast also disclosed a great deal of new information about the project, such as the base's location, and the date of the first sea test, and that this test would be tracked via livestream.
As for the mech base's location, although every country's satellites had detected it long ago, the general public hadn't known. For a moment there was an uproar.
But what drew more attention was the mech's test date, which was somehow next week.
"Isn't that way too fast?"
"A test next week? Is there any chance I could rush over?"
"The area around the base is a controlled zone, you can't get in, but you can go to the Redcliff Islands across from it. They're already organizing a mech sea tour over there."
"What's a mech sea tour?"
"I read the description. A boat tows you out to sea, then hands you a pair of binoculars, and when the mech goes into the water you can watch. There are all kinds of boats too, speedboats, yachts, even cruise liners."
"The Redcliff locals say it's not just that service. If you board a cruise liner, you can also rent a helicopter on top of it. The pilot can fly you to the airspace closest to the edge of the restricted zone, and you can watch however you like."
"I hurriedly opened my wallet."
The evening news report caused a sensation not only at home but quickly abroad as well.
With the earlier Crimson Typhoon project, many politicians and researchers abroad had been skeptical, and repeated to this day, plenty of people believed what they'd said.
Who could have known a test announcement would suddenly pop up? Some of these people had even used the Crimson Typhoon project as a negative example just last week.
It hadn't even been a year. How could it be fast to this degree?
Some even assumed they'd had too much to drink and were still lying in bed having a grand dream.
Before these politicians could figure out how to face this piece of news, their citizens had already given their own response with great speed.
Many people, following the travel guides that had suddenly appeared online, booked flights to the Redcliff Islands. In just one hour, every later flight was booked solid.
Two hours later, even the flight routes with transfers to the Redcliff Islands were booked solid. Many people went online begging for a three-transfer route, anything that could get them to the Redcliff Islands.
Barring the unexpected, many of them would spend a wonderful vacation there. In a single day, the Redcliff Islands became an internationally renowned tourist destination.
This effect set a certain small county muttering to itself, one that had spent over forty billion on tourism and failed to make so much as a ripple.
Should they build a mech of their own here too? The effect was so much better than the abandoned half-finished project they'd put up.
It wasn't only these newly arrived tourists. Some cruise companies at home and abroad had set their sights on the mech as well.
They decided to add a mech route, running across the sea area outside the base, then onward to the country's major coastal cities. This route wouldn't make it in time for the upcoming first test, but the mech base was right there on the route, and that wasn't going anywhere.
The route was only a trial. If its results were good enough, they could turn it into a long-term route. And even if business was poor, they could later time it to the mech's tests, rolling the route out temporarily then, and business was sure to be decent.
As time went on, Crimson Typhoon's test date drew ever closer, and online, after so many days of fermentation, Crimson Typhoon had become the representative emblem of humanity's industrial miracles.
The tourists on the Redcliff Islands grew more numerous too. Not only domestic faces, but plenty of foreign ones. Foreign reporters with microphones in hand appeared often on the streets, a whole camera crew filming behind them. Beyond these people, many celebrities great and small, domestic and foreign, came to the Redcliff Islands one after another.
Star directors from film circles around the world all hoped the soon-to-be-tested Crimson Typhoon might bring them fresh inspiration.
And many more ordinary people waited on the islands to witness this new miracle of human industry.
At last, the day of the test arrived.
Early in the morning, the cruise ships and speedboats at the islands' docks left the shore one after another in order. On the sea beneath the rising sun, boats large and small covered the water, and helicopters flew past overhead.