180: Chapter 180 is just another small post.

September 1st.

Guanghui Technology Autumn Launch Event.

The security perimeter outside the venue was set up in three full layers.

The media area, guest area, and experience area were packed to the brim.

Even in front of the giant outdoor screen usually used for advertisements, it was crowded with digital enthusiasts who hadn't managed to grab a ticket.

The moment the online livestream went live, the number in the top right corner began to jump crazily.

One hundred thousand.

Five hundred thousand.

One million.

The numbers jumped so fast it made one dizzy; it broke through magnitude levels in just the blink of an eye.

The barrage on the screen was so thick that even the background color couldn't be seen.

"Front-row heads-up, Google's ecosystem offensive has already rolled out. What is Guanghui Technology going to use to counter it today?"

"Is the moon still rounder abroad? Thanks to Ma Sheng for the open source!"

"Don't be in such a hurry to praise Google. In terms of experience, they can't even see the taillights of the Virtual Helmet."

"But they are fighting for the definition of the 'next-generation mass personal terminal entry point'! Can relying solely on hardware parameters break the deadlock?"

"Indeed, this event today isn't just about competing on hardware; it's about competing for the prototype of the future real-world personal terminal entry point."

"God Lu never plays by the book. Just sit back and wait for the face-slapping!"

Backstage rest area.

Su Qingxue sat in the middle of the family reserved seats, leaning back against the chair, her hands folded on her lap, her posture as relaxed as if she were watching a movie.

She knew Chen Shuyu had flown to the border a few days ago.

But she hadn't asked what exactly she did.

It wasn't that she wasn't curious.

It was that she intentionally didn't ask this time.

Having experienced so many launch events, she had mastered every detail in advance every single time, reviewing every PPT and every presentation flow as CEO.

Only this time, she wanted to be a simple audience member for once.

She wanted to be surprised by her husband, as his wife.

Wang Peng and Lu Yaoguang were sitting in the family reserved seats next to her.

Wang Peng's leg had been shaking at a high frequency.

This wasn't nervousness.

This was the tormenting kind of excitement that comes from having seen the answer key in advance, yet having to watch all the other examinees still frantically fumbling in the dark.

The two of them hadn't just seen the engineering prototype; they also knew how terrifying the item featured as the finale today was.

Right now, Wang Peng felt like a director sitting in the first row at a premiere.

He stared fixedly at the monitor, just waiting for the audience to let out their first scream.

"It's coming, it's coming."

"Brother is about to serve the main course."

Wang Peng rubbed his palms; they were covered in sweat.

Lu Yaoguang glanced at him.

"Can you be a bit more steady? You've already shaken the chair until it's about to fall apart."

"Sis, what do you know? This is called emotional pre-heating!"

"That's what you call ADHD."

While the two were bickering, the main lights of the venue dimmed all at once.

Meanwhile.

Across the ocean, at Google headquarters.

In a spacious, high-level conference room, an entire wall of screens was broadcasting the Guanghui Technology launch event in real-time.

Sitting around the long table was Google's core think tank for this new project.

The head of AI business, the head of the XR product line, the global PR director, and two high-level vice presidents.

Coffee cups and analysis reports printed overnight were scattered on the table.

The atmosphere in the conference room wasn't tense at all; it even radiated a sense of relaxation, as if victory were already in their grasp.

A blond man leaned back in his leather chair, watching the Chinese barrage constantly refreshing on the screen, his tone carrying a touch of condescending casualness.

"Guanghui Technology's phone may win attention, but it's still just a phone."

The AI head next to him nodded in agreement.

"As long as Lu Li can't produce a concrete answer for the 'next-generation mass entry point' today, our narrative logic won't be broken."

The XR head crossed his hands under his chin, his expression resolute.

"Hardware design can win a day's worth of trending topics."

"But it can't win the definition power for the next ten years."

They had reviewed everything countless times overnight.

The sharpest knife in Guanghui Technology's hand was the Virtual Helmet, that extreme immersion that was far ahead of the era.

But Google didn't intend to touch that knife at all this time.

They bypassed the frontal battlefield and went straight to grab the cards of lightweight design, penetration rate, and the global Android ecosystem.

As long as Lu Li couldn't give a clearer, more fundamental ecosystem answer today.

No matter how beautiful that phone was, Google wouldn't lose.

At least, at this very second, they firmly believed this.

Back in the country, at the launch site.

The noise in the venue quickly settled down.

A few seconds later, a figure walked onto the stage from the side, unhurriedly.

It was Lu Li.

There were no deafening opening sound effects.

There were no dazzling holographic projections to set the stage.

Even his gait carried a sleepy kind of laziness.

Walking to the center of the stage, Lu Li's gaze swept over the sea of people below, and the first sentence he spoke was extremely casual.

"Releasing some little things today."

"Mainly a phone."

There was a brief blank space at the scene.

Immediately, a wave of uncontrollable laughter and whistles rang out from every corner.

But behind the laughter, in the hearts of the media and industry executives in the front row, the highest-level air defense alarm went off simultaneously.

Oh no.

Going by this man's style, the more understated he was, the more the thing he pulled out would be able to rub his competitors into the dirt.

The next second.

The giant screen behind Lu Li lit up without warning.

A front-view render of a phone occupied everyone's field of vision with an extremely domineering posture.

The sound in the venue dropped off a cliff.

It was truly silent.

The quietness of thousands of people shutting up at the same time made the air feel a bit tight.

No annoying notch.

No abrupt waterdrop.

No screen hole.

Even the chin at the bottom had been shaved away completely.

The entire front was just one piece of glowing glass, pure to the extreme, with bezels so narrow they were almost invisible.

Clean.

Violent.

Unreasonable industrial aesthetics.

After stagnating for a second, the barrage in the livestream room welcomed a nuclear-explosion-like rebound.

"Holy shit!!!"

"A real Full-screen display?!"

"Am I blind? Where's the camera? Where's the earpiece? Were they all eaten?!"

"This front-facing visual is amazing!! OCD patients are climaxing on the spot!!"

"Competitors: We're still studying how to make the patch smaller, and he just deleted the patch itself?"

"How is this even done? Did he cut the front camera just for the screen?"

"As long as the screen is awesome enough, what do I, a grown man, need selfies for!"

On stage, Lu Li's tone remained as flat as if he were introducing what he had for breakfast.

"Many people are looking for the front camera."

"We made a mechanical pop-up solution."

"Under the current technological barriers, to make a truly complete Full-screen display, this is the only non-compromising answer."

As soon as he finished speaking.

He raised his hand and tapped on the camera interface on the demo unit, switching to the front camera mode.

Buzz—

A sound of mechanical gears engaging, full of texture and extremely slight, spread throughout the venue through the amplification equipment.

The front camera module rose smoothly and firmly from the top of the device.

The movement was crisp.

Fluid.

It carried the kind of ultimate romance exclusive to technology that only precise mechanical structures can bestow.

The venue completely exploded.

Applause, screams, and incredible gasps instantly blew the roof off the venue.

Backstage area.

Wang Peng jumped up from his chair and swung his fist hard.

"Cool!"

"That's so fucking cool!!"

"I knew seeing this mechanical lift live would be ten thousand times more satisfying than watching the engineering prototype in the study!!"

Although Lu Yaoguang didn't make a sound, her beautiful eyes reflected the light of the screen, shining astonishingly.

She understood communication theory too well.

This wasn't cold parameters at all.

This was a visual.

A killer visual that could be etched into the minds of all users on the entire network in one second and spread virally.

And at this moment.

Far away in the overseas Google conference room.

The atmosphere became noticeably stagnant.

The XR head's brows were knitted tightly together, his body leaning forward involuntarily.

The pen in the PR director's hand stopped on the notebook, and he quickly wrote down a line:

Industrial design dimensionality reduction strike, extremely strong dissemination penetration.

The blond man who had just said "It's still just a phone" now had the hand holding his coffee cup frozen in mid-air.

"Beautiful hardware design."

He muttered to himself, his voice an octave lower than before.

Another vice president immediately chimed in, his tone carrying obvious self-defense.

"It will indeed ignite global social media."

"But gentlemen, don't forget our bottom line."

"No matter how stunning it is, it's still just a phone."

"It cannot change the existing interaction logic, nor can it steal away the ecosystem narrative we have just established."

The people in the conference room quickly exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

Stunning as it may be.

Fearful as they may be.

But the backbone in their hearts hadn't snapped yet.

They firmly believed that as long as the core battlefield remained on the "future ecosystem," Google would remain invincible.

But they had no idea.

This piece of glass that shattered the global tech circle was, on Lu Li's table today, merely an appetizer.