Eternals

The next day, after attending the launch ceremony for the God Spear Bureau’s aerospace carrier, Chen Mu returned to the industrial park with Xu Jia.

The God Spear Bureau’s aerospace carrier was actually packed with advanced technology. Setting aside the anti-gravity systems, China’s top-tier air-defense weapons and long-range strike weapons alone gave it formidable offensive and defensive capabilities, not to mention various electromagnetic cannons, Laser Weapons, and other "future weapons."

Of course, all of that technology had now been added to Chen Mu’s technology database…

In truth, electromagnetic cannons and Laser Weapons had long since been developed. They simply could not be put to effective use because of energy limitations.

And all of that had been resolved by the Arc Reactors Chen Mu provided.

That was why the Fengtian Ship could carry those weapons.

The energy supplied by four Arc Reactors was more than enough to keep those weapons running with ease.

"Once the system optimizes these weapons a little more, I can either pull these technologies out separately or directly produce blueprints for the second-generation aerospace carrier."

After returning to the Huaqiangbei Industrial Zone, Chen Mu finally had some rare free time.

"By the way, Xu Jia, how are Xiao Mu Phone’s sales doing now?"

Now that he had some time to spare, Chen Mu remembered that aside from his military-related businesses, he also had quite a few civilian industries.

Not only did he have the phones produced by Xiao Mu Technology, but there was also his father’s prosthetics business.

And now, Xiao Mu Phone was undoubtedly the most profitable project on Earth. He had heard that even Stark Industries had made a fortune because of it…

"You still remember that?"

Xu Jia rolled her eyes at him and said, "Xiao Mu Phone has been on the market for less than a month, but thanks to its incredible value for money, its worldwide sales have already reached a terrifying level."

"The domestic version of Xiao Mu Phone has shipped eight million units in China, with massive numbers of orders still waiting. Stock ran out long ago. The company has already found quite a few contract manufacturers working around the clock, but demand still far exceeds supply."

After all, Xiao Mu Phone cost less than a thousand yuan.

In this era of feature phones, the sudden arrival of smartphones had completely stunned mobile giants like Nokia.

A thousand yuan was not expensive for most Chinese families.

At the same time, Nokia and other phones with even a hint of smart functionality cost four or five thousand yuan, yet their features were miles behind. Unless someone was an idiot or buying purely for nostalgia, no one would choose those overpriced, outdated things.

Anyway, traditional phone manufacturers were basically finished because of Xiao Mu Phone.

"Although the international version of Xiao Mu Phone costs much more than the domestic version, global shipments have still reached an astonishing twenty million units. It is also in short supply. Even with Stark Industries manufacturing at full capacity, they still cannot keep up with demand."

It seemed that entering the phone industry had been a very wise choice for Stark.

"The domestic version of Xiao Mu Phone earned you several hundred million yuan in a month. As for the international version, your dividends should come to one billion US dollars."

In fact, the domestic and international versions had exactly the same specifications, but their prices were worlds apart. The international version sold for four or five times more than the domestic one. It would have been hard not to make money!

"The domestic and international versions have the same specifications, but some people in China still think the international version is better and go out of their way to buy it. There are quite a few such people—at least four or five hundred thousand."

Chen Mu was speechless about that, though not surprised.

In this era, many people still believed foreign products were inherently better. Even foreign air seemed sweeter to them.

Besides, the international version of Xiao Mu Phone was made by the mega-corporation Stark Industries. No matter what, it had to seem more reliable than the obscure domestic "Xiao Mu Technology."

Just looking at the names, they thought there was a difference. Xiao Mu Technology sounded like a low-end brand, not classy at all. It might as well have been called Rice Technology! But Stark Industries—just listen to it. A foreign name, so classy!

This was no joke. In this era, a large portion of Chinese citizens genuinely thought that way. Anything even slightly "foreign" was considered high-end, while purely domestic products only felt cheap to them.

That was why four or five hundred thousand people were willing to spend several times as much for the so-called international version, even though it was identical to the domestic one.

Chen Mu could do nothing about the current widespread attitude in China, but he now understood why Director Zhang found it so troubling.

The people today had very little national confidence. They truly needed an inspiring military parade to awaken that confidence.

"By the way, there is one more matter. The Indian market is also a huge market that cannot be ignored. We plan to enter it with lower-end specifications…"

They had no choice but to lower the specifications. India was poor, after all. Even if they sold it at the domestic Chinese price, it would not sell!

Although India had many wealthy people, it had even more poor people!

In that bizarre country, more than ninety percent of the population lived below the poverty line. Buying a Xiao Mu Phone worth one thousand yuan was truly as difficult as reaching the heavens!

So that market could only take the low-end route…

"Cough, cough. I can’t exactly pretend I didn’t hear that…"

At that moment, a somewhat awkward voice sounded. Someone appeared at the office door: a flamboyantly dressed South Asian man. Clearly, he was Indian.

"Uh, you are?"

Chen Mu raised an eyebrow and looked curiously at the newcomer. Something strange flickered in his eyes.

"Kingge, a Bollywood star and the Indian spokesperson for our Xiao Mu Phone."

Xu Jia looked at the newcomer and said to Chen Mu, "At our invitation, Mr. Kingge came to our industrial zone today to film an advertisement for the India-exclusive version of Xiao Mu Phone."

"As for your company’s intention to reduce the phone specifications for the Indian market, I can’t pretend I didn’t hear that!"

Kingge approached with a broad smile and amicably held out his hand to Chen Mu.

"My name is Kingge. It is an honor to become the spokesperson for your company’s phones. However, could we discuss the specifications of the phones for the Indian market a little further?"

"Of course. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kingge!"

Chen Mu also smiled happily and shook his hand.

Chen Mu’s happiness was genuine, because the system had given him a notification at that moment.

"Scanning. Eternals, 1%, 5%, 10%…"

I was originally planning to pad things out for a few more chapters, but it seems the readers can’t wait any longer. So no more padding—straight to the plot…