19 Chapter 19: So Many Zeros

Without rushing to open the door, Lincoln cautiously peered through the peephole.

The man standing outside the door was a broad-faced man in a suit and leather shoes.

"Hello, who are you?" Lincoln asked in confusion as he opened the door.

"Hello, Mr. Lincoln, I'm from the Daxia Secret Patent Technology Bureau, here is my ID."

"Secret Patent Technology Bureau? But I haven't applied for a patent?" He's been way too busy lately to handle patent matters, nor does he have the money to hire someone to do it for him.

So, his original plan was to let Mavis encrypt deeply when it comes to production and then bury trap instructions in the underlying code.

If anyone could afford the huge cost of replicating the neural modulator-demodulator and start mass production, with a single command from Mavis, all of these duplicates could be rendered useless.

That way, he wouldn't have to bother making another trip to deal with the tedious task of implementing programs. Lincoln preferred to avoid such tasks whenever possible.

"The thing is," the broad-faced man explained to Lincoln, "we shouldn't be here, given that your technological achievements have already been publicly demonstrated. However, your technology is of great importance - we can't treat it like a regular patent - so the Secret Patent Technology Bureau is stepping in to help you resolve some issues."

Lincoln was a bit confused. What issues did he need to resolve?

Nevertheless, he invited the three men in, poured them a glass of water, and sat down.

"What are your names?"

"Lorin, from the Daxia Secret Patent Technology Bureau."

"Henry, from Daxia Military Industrial Research Institute."

"Pengju Yue, from security."

This security man, Pengju, whose posture was strictly upright, instantly caught Lincoln's attention: "Pengju Yue? Of the Yue Fei?"

"Not the 'peng' in 'dapeng'. It's the 'peng' of 'pengzu', 'pengshan', and the surname 'Peng'," he corrected smoothly, seeming familiar with this misunderstanding.

"Nice to meet you."

"Let's get to the main topic without wasting Mr. Lincoln's time," Luowei began.

"Okay," Lincoln nodded, feeling a bit worn out. He had planned on going to bed, after all.

"First of all, I am here on behalf of the Daxia Scientific Research Institute to invite you to join us."

As soon as Lincoln's video was posted, relevant departments immediately took action to investigate the situation.

Because of Princess Camille Victoria, they were able to contact her immediately and verify the authenticity of the technology.

So now, even without examining the equipment, they demonstrated full trust in Lincoln.

"Ah, I'll pass on that," Lincoln turned down the offer, aware of his limitations. His technology was picked up along the way, and he might give himself away if he were to join. Moreover, the idea of staying in a lab day after day, carrying out scientific research, was unthinkable to him.

I haven't even graduated from university yet!

"Alright, we respect your decision," Lorin nodded, not insisting.

"Next, we want to know if you plan to apply for a patent? If you do have such intentions, we suggest that even though your achievements have been made public, it's best to go for a secret patent for extra protection."

"I planned not to because I'm too lazy to do all the running around and I don't have the money," Lincoln replied honestly.

Although applying for an invention patent is not costly, with printing fees it only comes around to less than a thousand CNY. But over the past few days, he had spent nearly all his money on the Spiritual Rhinoceros annual membership, and was now left with less than two hundred CNY.

"But since you're here, does this mean there's a free path?" He was very willing to apply if he could stay at home and have someone come to him to take care of everything for free.

Lorin promptly nodded in confirmation, "Yes, there's 'green' expedited service, completely free of charge, and it's not listed in the public patent database. If you agree, as long as the documents are written well, they can be completed in 8 hours."

"Really?" Lincoln looked at his phone, typing a few lines.

Seeing Lincoln suddenly look at his phone, Lorin thought he was unwilling to register his patent.

So he added, "It's okay if you don't want to apply, we're just providing you with an option; it's not a mandatory request for you to complete the registration. Don't worry, we won't be dictatorial with our own people."

He glanced at Henry, gave a shake of his head, and continued addressing Lincoln, "We can go for another mode of cooperation; we could directly buy the products you produce with the prerequisite of your assistance in software design. The design fees would definitely be satisfactory to you."

"You can also be assured that none of these devices will enter the market in any form, it won't influence your business plans."

With this explanation, Lincoln immediately understood what these devices were likely to be used for, and likely scenarios of usage for the software – most likely a war simulation kind of script.

However, Lincoln shook his head, raised his phone and gave it to Lorin.

Seeing Lincoln still shaking his head, a hint of anxiety appeared on Lorin's face. He wanted to say something but had no choice other than to take Lincoln's phone and look down at its screen.

What he saw were pages of technical documents.

Just now, Lincoln contacted Mavis through his phone, let her check the identities of these people, and then had her compile and send him the documents once their identities were confirmed.

This technology was too important to him, and with only him working on it, he felt more secure with a strong backing.

And in Daxia, what was more powerful than the Daxia government itself?

Lorin went through a few pages and lifted his head abruptly to look at Lincoln, "Is this?!"

"Technical documents for a virtual reality device." Lincoln confirmed, "But I've never written a patent application before, so I don't know the format. These are purely technical documents."

"No problem, no problem!" With ups and downs in his mood, Lorin became a bit excited," This is enough, formats and such are not important at all. Rest assured, your patent will be done tonight!"

"Seeing as you agree to apply for the patent, we will not claim any of your production devices. Mr. He wants to get your patent license, with a preliminary payment of ten million, and an additional 5% of the market price for every device that will be produced later as licensing fees. And these devices will not appear in the market."

The terms were very generous, that ten million was just a bonus, the 5% patent fee was the main part.

That is a percentage of the market price.

As far as Lincoln remembers, Qualcomm's notorious 5% premium patent fee in his previous life was also based on the wholesale price of the phone, not the selling price.

Another important point is that all the devices they produce will not appear on the market. This implies that Lincoln gets to decide the market price! Essentially, they're letting him decide the price.

And for all devices to achieve the best realism, purely human manual adjustments would take 1-2 years for a single scene to achieve perfect realism!

But with Mavis involved, the number of devices would depend on how many devices there are. This is something that can't be concealed.

Considering the battlefield effects of virtual reality and the almost identical real battle training effects, these devices are likely to be produced in millions.

Hmm... I'm thinking of pricing it at 10,000 yuan, 5% of one device would be 500, 1 million devices would be...

500 million!

How many zeroes is that? 500 million!

Lincoln has never seen so much money in his two lives!

Of course, these are not all to be given to him upfront, but would be given to him monthly over the next few years as devices are produced.

Still, he couldn't help but marvel: This is too generous!

If it were a big company like NetDragon, he would have definitely ripped them off without any hesitation.

But considering that those using these devices were soldiers defending their homeland, he felt a bit like a student, and started to hesitate: "Would the price be a bit high?"