The Industrialist

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail

Famous quote

***

There were follow-up questions here and there. Lance answered them. The difficult ones were thrown by Doctor Greggory about the schematic design, the integrated circuitry connections, and even the programming.

Lance did not like programming.

Luckily, during this age, AI did the programming. The user would only make minor adjustments to the generated programs. Even so, Greggory scrutinized his programming.

Lance answered them with every wit he could execute. His preparation gave him the utmost advantage and the panelists just nodded in agreement with every answered question. Small talks loomed, disregarding the proceedings of official questions. They talked about what company would take on the manufacturing.

Or who was capable of doing such intricate mass production? Who would do the marketing, which agency, and even subtly, they talked about profit margins, especially the small private wastewater treatments in far North sectors?

"Kranian Industries will do the manufacturing," Greggory suggested.

"No. It must be in the mains and central sectors. For easy transportation," Tanaka countered. "How about Ultrasteel Technologies?"

"No, not Ultrasteel. They do not have the equipment for the tentacles," Zee added.

"We can do separate manufacturing of small components, Ultrasteel would manufacture the casings, and the integrated circuits and other Electronic boards will be manufactured by Kranian of the North. Consolidate the parts together, maybe Cultz Industries will do the final assembly," Greggory said.

The back-and-forth conversation went on, following whispers of somewhat confidential information.

By observation, Lance knew that these people in front of him controlled the majority of the City’s economy. Politic schemes screamed so obviously amongst them.

There were smiles and small laughter among the panelists. Jaqi joined the conversation. Her wit and humor made the other panelists laugh too. This went over for half an hour and Lance just stood in front of them, waiting for another official question.

For a few minutes, there was total silence. There were whispers from each of the panelists.

The air of concern built up, filling the room as seriousness now masked their expressions. Lance knew that they went over his scores.

"Before the verdict," Jaqi said. "May I request the presenter to hand me over one sample of the prototype? I would like to confirm the materials used with this scanner."

Lance took one sample and gave it to Jaqi. Jaqi pulled out a handheld scanner and the lasers emerged from the equipment’s nozzle with one squeeze. The small equipment hummed as the lasers trained on the spherical prototype.

Then after a few seconds. The scan was complete. All materials used in the prototype were then reflected in Jaqi’s tab.

She inspected them one by one.

"You must understand," she said after her inspection. "that the amended protocol suggests that any smuggled and unregistered material used or any false declaration of such components utilized will give automatic forfeiture of the patent. And also, my department will commence a full investigation towards the inventor to trace the sources of these smuggled materials."

Lance nodded. He knew the amended Corporation Order articles. So, he was cautious about using the materials for the project.

Then she gave a thumbs up. "Everything checked out. Confirmed materials used were legal and registered."

"It seems that you have everything we need to know here in this presentation. Now, for the verdict," Zee announced. "We arrived at thirty official questions and all were answered but some were not as solid as we expected. There were loopholes in your answers that we suspect were beyond your knowledge as a Scientist. However, the majority of it was convincing.

You have referred to many theorems which it is still yet for the Corporation to study and come up with evidence to support claims, yet again, the theories you use are sound and relatable. The claims upon the use of proper and registered materials were confirmed. We cannot just approve a project with illegal components, can we?" Doctor Zee chuckled.

"We have collected the scoring from the panelists and you got… 85% mark." Doctor Zee continued. "A round of applause my fellow Panelists."

A soft applause loomed from the five panelists.

85% was good enough to push his project to a patent. The required passing mark was only 75%.

"Now, as new amendments of the ranking awards and the monetary awards in that matter. It has been established with our current GLD guidelines that your project becomes a Rare level equipment." Doctor Zee said.

That announcement was not expected. To be able to achieve a Rare level of equipment was beyond his scrapper knowledge and imagination. It only means that his invention, RoFlo, had surpassed the value of residential service robots.

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"You probably are wondering how you achieved a Rare level of equipment," Doctor Zee said and came in a few silent moments. "It is because of its application. It is simple compared to the Masterwork-level equipment and even compared to the uncommon-level AI service robots.

But… the frugality of its design as emphasized by Doctor Greggory and the impact of this project served the public more than you will ever know. This is not only a matter of just cleaning wastewater treatment but it will save billions of units of Government Budget. This will change the face of wastewater treatment methods and probably won’t be needed microfiltration facility expansion anymore."

Another round of soft applauses loomed as Doctor Zee squinted at each of his fellow panelists.

Lance’s heart melted at the soft cheers of the most influential scientists in the Corporation, however, he suddenly remembered that this was only a grand scheme of taking down the tyrant organization, and in front of him were the foundations that built such tyranny.

He just made a fake veneration among them to make his expression seem authentic.

They seemed to be inclined morally, their decisions were for the greater good, or maybe their grandiose purpose was to make the City move forward to more scientific breakthroughs and make the citizens’ lives easier.

Lance delivered a curtsy towards them.

"Well, unto the next award. We will grant your project a monetary award and based on our assessment… the project RoFlo will garner 5000 units for this phenomenal scientific breakthrough."

His hard work only amounted to 5000 units and the Corporation and the Government budget would save Billions of units. Apparently, unfairness defined the established guidelines of the Governing Laws Department (GLD).

’My designs will be sold off to the private sectors, counterparts of WWMDs, and to the private factories. Eventually, the Corporation would profit Billions for the coming years.’ Lance cursed in his thoughts.

He already expected it which had lessened his surprise and disappointment. Despite his dissatisfaction, on the brighter side, the perks of the next rank would grant him further income.

"Lastly, other than your monetary award of 5000 units. We will offer you a Mechanical Tier 1 level. That is three levels up. However, you will pay 5000 units to achieve this. Otherwise, you can opt to just augment your level to Scrapper tier 3 and you would only have to pay 1000 units."

Lance had not decided on what to feel. Would he be happy with what was announced? They were going to take all of his monetary earnings in exchange for his Mechanical Tier 1 level. Such a juicy offer that one would have privileges beyond Scrapper Tier 4. It would mean he would become one of the Middle-class inlander residents.

It would take him three steps closer to his goal of becoming an Industrialist.

On the other hand, earning 5000 units would mean that he could afford the Energy Accelerator easily. However, creating an Ultragenerator immediately would be a total waste of resources. Powering Bay City by the Ultragenerator approaching the Demetrian Season - where Abominants were more active even in daytime, would defeat its purpose. The Energy Accelerator acquisition can wait.

"Now, this is good news, Lance Berkley. The two ranking offers are all up to you. You do not need to decide right now. If you want to know about the perks of being Mechanic Tier 1, you can inquire in SARS. The same with being a Scrapper Tier 3. But the Mechanic Tier 1 offer will expire in fifteen days."

"Yes!"

"Excuse me. Yes, what?" The Industrialist Tier 1 panelist was surprised and the other panelists as well.

"I accept the Mechanic Tier 1 offer," Lance said without further weighing.