178: Chapter 178 You're going to use this kind of thing commercially?

Early the next morning, Chen Shuyu left with a specially assembled, confidential-level team.

The motorcade was small; the prototype was kept separately in a shockproof box in the back, encased in two layers of encrypted packaging.

The accompanying modeling and filming teams only knew this was a "new project" Lu Li had specifically requested on short notice, but no one knew what was actually inside the box.

Chen Shuyu sat in the car with a tablet at her side, its screen packed with today's itinerary.

There were still three meetings, four documents awaiting signature, adjustment plans for two production lines, and a pile of test reports waiting for her approval at the Robot Company.

Yet, as CEO, instead of sitting in her office signing documents early in the morning, she was dragging people out to a place like this.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but curse inwardly.

Other CEOs met with investors, signed contracts, and reviewed financial reports.

Her, as a CEO, she was running to the military, carrying prototypes, and even had to deliver gifts for Lu Li.

Being used as an all-purpose assistant when she was a secretary was one thing, but now that her position had risen, her workload hadn't decreased; instead, things were getting increasingly absurd.

But curse as she might, she had come nonetheless.

Because she knew better than anyone that although Lu Li was lazy, he never did anything without a purpose.

Especially that sentence from last night— "Let them feel the warmth."

Even now, she hadn't fully recovered from it.

An hour later, the motorcade slowly drove into a strictly controlled, restricted area.

There were three security checkpoints. Two rounds of identity verification. Even the accompanying equipment was individually registered.

By the time Chen Shuyu finally walked into the confidential meeting room, there were already people waiting inside.

At the head of them was Elder Wu.

The old man was dressed simply, but his shoulders and back remained straight. Just sitting there, he exuded an aura that commanded the room.

Sitting next to him were three or four others; two looked like technical evaluators, while another was clearly someone forged on the front lines, their gaze as sharp as a blade.

After entering, Chen Shuyu greeted them steadily. "Elder Wu."

Elder Wu nodded, his gaze quickly falling on the shockproof box behind her. "Is this what Lu Li had you bring?"

"He said I needed to see this thing first." Chen Shuyu nodded. "Yes. Mr. Lu asked me to perform a basic demonstration first."

Elder Wu leaned back and said only two words: "Begin."

Several technicians immediately stepped forward, carefully removed the prototype from the box, and connected the independent power supply module.

The device's appearance was not exaggerated; it could even be described as concise. It lacked bulky metal frames and the crude feeling that screamed "military-grade" at first glance; it looked more like some excessively quiet, high-end instrument.

Chen Shuyu pressed the start button. The next second, the air above the conference table vibrated gently.

A translucent topographic outline floated out. Mountains, roads, and buildings seemed to be "carved" out of the air bit by bit, suspended in mid-air and rotating silently.

A technical officer at the table, who had been holding a pen, stopped moving. Another person subconsciously stood up and walked around to the side to look.

The thing didn't collapse. The angle had changed, but the sense of space remained.

Elder Wu didn't speak, just narrowed his eyes slightly.

Chen Shuyu swiped her finger. The model on the table expanded instantly.

The topographic map that had just been suspended over the conference table suddenly seemed to lose control the next second, "spreading" out in all directions.

The light flickered. The walls, ceiling, and lights of the entire conference room seemed to dim all at once.

It wasn't the lights going out. It was being forcibly overwritten by another space.

Everyone felt their vision blur. The next moment, although the cold, flat floor of the conference room was still beneath their feet, their surroundings had completely changed.

The walls were gone. The table and chairs seemed to have been silently swallowed up.

In their place was a scene of a desolate, cold frontier.

Weathered earthen slopes, broken low walls, a low-hanging gray sky, the silhouettes of buildings crouching in the distance—even the light had turned into that cold white unique to the frontier, so empty it made one's heart tighten.

It was as if they weren't still standing in the conference room. It was as if the entire conference room had been moved to another place in an instant.

A technical officer's breath hitched, and he subconsciously looked down at his feet. The original floor was still beneath them. But everything around them was as real as sleepwalking.

Chen Shuyu herself was momentarily dazed. She had seen the prototype demonstration, but back then it was mostly partial projections in a laboratory.

But this time, Lu Li had clearly adjusted the parameters beforehand. This wasn't "seeing an image." This was space itself being tampered with.

Before anyone could recover, a figure slowly materialized on the cold white open ground ahead.

It was a fully armed soldier. It wasn't a light shadow standing in mid-air, nor was it a thin human outline. He just stood there.

He had depth, distance, and a sense of presence. The equipment on his shoulders, the wear on the edges of his helmet, the layers of gear on his chest—everything was crystal clear. Even when viewed from the side, it held up perfectly.

The next second, the soldier flickered slightly. Like ripples on a water surface. He vanished.

In his place appeared the outline of a vehicle. Another flicker, and it became a temporary observation post. Another flicker, and even the "traces of activity" faintly visible behind the bunker changed along with it.

It was as if there were really people, vehicles, and positions in that space just now.

The entire conference room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The accompanying technical officers were all staring blankly. Some even forgot to blink.

Chen Shuyu stood beside the equipment, a fine chill inexplicably creeping up her back.

At a product launch, this thing would be called black technology. But here—the flavor of it changed instantly.

Finally, Elder Wu spoke. He didn't look at Chen Shuyu, nor at anyone else nearby; he only stared at the nearly indistinguishable space, his voice slow but driving into people's hearts like nails, word by word.

"This is not an ordinary commercial projection." "This is creating battlefield illusions."

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the entire conference room changed instantly. The officer from the front lines beside him narrowed his eyes sharply, as if something had suddenly clicked for him.

Elder Wu stood up and walked a few steps closer to the projection. He stared at the newly formed observation post, his voice growing deeper.

"If this were placed on the border line—" "One spot could be disguised as another." "Open ground could become a position, ruins could become supply points, and a 'force' could be conjured out of thin air in a place where there was nothing at all."

He glanced at the vehicle outline again, the light in his eyes having completely changed. "Reconnaissance will see it wrong." "Probing fire will miss." "Drones will misjudge." "In night combat, the fake is even more deadly than the real."

He paused, his voice lowering further. "And this is just a single unit." "If multiple units were linked..."

Elder Wu didn't continue. But everyone in the conference room understood.

What multiple linked units meant. It meant fake convoys, fake fire points, fake movement routes, and even the existence of fake troops. It meant that even though the enemy saw everything, they had been wrong from start to finish.

Elder Wu finally turned back and looked at Chen Shuyu. For the first time, a clear sharpness appeared in his eyes.

"If this thing is developed for military use, it could absolutely support an entirely new branch of the military."

He stopped for half a second after saying this. Then, he spat out three words, one by one: "Phantom. Shadow. Troops."

The conference room fell completely silent. Chen Shuyu was also stunned, her fingertips even stiffening.

She had originally only known that this device was impressive. She knew Lu Li had created something capable of crushing Google's AR glasses. But she never expected Elder Wu to see it at a glance as—a new branch of the military.