200: Chapter 200 The Rhythm of Buying

The day after the military parade concluded, the fervor not only failed to subside but instead became even more frantic.

From the start of the morning, several names never dropped off the trending search list.

[Lu Li Military Parade]

[Titan Mecha]

[Guanghui Technology]

[How Much Was Lu Li Actually Involved In]

[Tech Hero]

One after another, they took turns surging to the top.

Some were editing footage from the scene.

Some were dissecting the equipment details frame by frame.

Others dug up Guanghui Technology's technology roadmap from the past two years, stringing together everything from the Full-screen display, batteries, and Xingchen System to the Virtual Helmet, Robot, and Mirage to examine them.

The more they connected the dots, the more their scalps tingled.

"I'm really starting to believe that saying now."

"What saying?"

"The scariest thing about Lu Li has never been what he has already revealed, but rather the things he definitely still has up his sleeve that he hasn't shown yet."

"I used to think he was a cheat code in the tech world, but looking at it now, he's practically transcended the industry."

"Forget transcending the industry; I feel like this guy isn't even operating within normal business logic anymore."

"The problem is, why did he appear in a place like that?"

"To the person above, don't ask why yet; tell me first, what kind of heavyweight status must someone have to be able to stand in that position?"

"To put it bluntly, Lu Li is probably even more exaggerated than many people think."

"Are the faces of those people who used to call him a 'kept man' still swollen?"

"I don't know about swollen, but just looking at it makes me feel the pain for them."

The entire internet was discussing him everywhere.

And this time, it was no longer just simple admiration and shock.

It was more of a belated sense of unease.

Because everyone slowly realized that every step Lu Li had taken along the way didn't seem like he was just making products.

It was as if he was bit by bit bringing a future that had only existed in imagination into reality.

Mobile phones, systems, AI, Robots, Virtual Helmets, Mirage...

Taken individually, these things were already scary enough.

But once put on the same person, only the word 'terrifying' remained.

And over in the United States, this 'terrifying' nature was no longer just a casual exclamation from netizens.

It was genuine fear.

...

United States, White House conference room.

The curtains were drawn tightly, and the lights were cold and white.

On the large screen, the military parade footage was still playing on a loop.

Guarding the Frontiers marched in formation, Ya Ya crept forward in a low stance, and the Titan mecha took heavy steps. Finally, the camera swept over the high-altitude viewing area, and Lu Li's excessively young face flashed by calmly.

No one in the conference room spoke.

The atmosphere was stifling, making it hard to breathe.

When watching the live stream yesterday, many people just felt uncomfortable, shocked, and irritable.

But once all the intelligence was re-aggregated, and all of Guanghui Technology's technical roadmaps and military extension possibilities from the past two years were laid out together, that feeling completely changed.

This was no longer a question of "a certain technology being caught up to."

It was another technological civilization path that was taking shape in an extremely fierce manner.

At the table, a high-ranking military official spoke in a low voice.

"Our threat assessment for him was too low."

No one refuted this.

Because it was the truth.

Most people initially thought that Lu Li's most dangerous identity was that of an overnight, extremely exaggerated tech entrepreneur.

But looking back now, this judgment itself seemed naive.

If the technology in his hands had already deeply intervened in future equipment systems, AI control, Brain-Computer Interfaces, dual-use Robot architectures, and even high-end manufacturing could potentially be pierced through by him.

Then was he still just a businessman?

At the end of the conference table, President Trump's face was grim, his fingers tapping on the table one by one.

Not heavily.

But each tap made everyone's nerves tighten further.

He hadn't slept well all night yesterday.

In his mind, over and over, it was all military parade footage.

It was all that four-meter-tall heavy mecha.

It was all the way Lu Li stood there.

What made him most uncomfortable wasn't even the equipment.

It was the almost matter-of-fact calmness on that young man's face when he stood in that position.

As if those things, which were enough to shake the whole world, were nothing to him.

"Who can tell me —"

President Trump finally spoke, his voice low but clearly carrying anger.

"How many more things does this person have that he hasn't revealed yet?"

The conference room was silent for a few seconds.

No one could answer.

The intelligence chief could only bite the bullet and speak:

"The currently public part already covers consumer electronics, operating systems, AI, Robots, spatial displays, high-end batteries, and even extends to higher-level civil-military fusion technologies."

"And the undisclosed part..."

He paused here.

President Trump looked up at him.

"Speak."

"The undisclosed part cannot have its upper limit accurately estimated."

As the words fell, the conference room became even quieter.

Because everyone knew that this kind of answer was worse than any bad news.

Unable to estimate the upper limit.

It meant — you had no idea what else he was hiding in his hands.

President Trump stared at the screen, at Lu Li's face, silent for a long time, before finally speaking slowly.

"Initiate that plan."

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of several people at the table changed simultaneously.

Some looked up subconsciously, while others' gazes darkened.

But no one voiced any objections.

Because they all knew what that meant.

It wasn't a simple public opinion countermeasure.

Nor was it as simple as a few analytical articles or a few media outlets.

It was another, dirtier, more systematic, and longer-term plan.

Specifically targeting those who couldn't be easily touched but whose influence had to be weakened.

President Trump leaned back in his chair, his expression gloomy.

"He is not a god."

"As long as he is human, there will definitely be places that can be attacked."

"Even if there aren't any, create them for me."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the room.

"First, destroy his public image."

"Let everyone, when they mention him, think not of strength, not of genius, not of the future, but of controversy, of suspicion, of disgust, of annoyance."

"As long as there is a stain, smear him repeatedly for me."

"If there are no stains, create noise."

The financial advisor quickly pushed over a budget proposal.

President Trump didn't even look at it in detail and nodded directly.

"Allocate one billion dollars."

"Throw it in first."

In the conference room, breathing became a little lighter.

One billion dollars.

Just to fight a public opinion war against one person.

But no one felt it was exaggerated.

Because they all knew that this money wasn't being spent on one person.

It was being spent at the throat of the new path that China was about to form.

And the best way is often not a head-on collision.

But to drag the most critical symbol into the mud before it completely gains momentum.

Otherwise, in the future, the United States' position as number one on this blue planet might be taken by that ancient country, China.

...

That afternoon, the prevailing wind domestically indeed started to feel a bit off.

At first, it was just a few scattered new posts.

"Let's be reasonable, hasn't Lu Li been over-hyped?"

"Doesn't it feel out of place for a businessman to stand in that position?"

"Technology is strong, but personal worship should be moderate, right?"

"Recently, the whole internet has been deifying Lu Li, and it looks a bit weird."

When these posts first appeared, not many people paid attention to them.

After all, the people online who were bashing Lu Li couldn't suppress the prevailing trend anyway.

But the problem was —

There were too many of them.

And the style was very similar.

It wasn't the kind of copy-paste job from internet trolls that you could spot at a glance, but rather they changed wording, angles, and tones, and even made the account's historical activity look real.

Some looked like "rational, neutral, objective" commenters.

Some looked like ordinary netizens with slight resentment.

Some even praised him for a couple of sentences first, then deliberately and "rationally" stepped on him.

"I admit Lu Li is very strong, but there's no need to hype him to this extent, right?"

"Strong technology doesn't mean a perfect personality; don't create a personal myth."

"His wife is the president of Guanghui Technology, and he himself is a core figure; this kind of resource integration makes it easier to succeed than others."

"To put it plainly, wasn't he pushed up by capital and traffic?"

And what was more subtle was that these things soon started to extend in another direction.

From bashing Lu Li, it slowly turned into bashing "the things around Lu Li."

First, it was Guanghui Technology.

"Hasn't Guanghui Technology been getting a bit too arrogant lately?"

"Always talking about the future, the future—is it really that magical?"

"Why do I feel like everything nowadays wants to be attached to Lu Li?"