5 Chapter 5: Reprieve

"Phew!"

I couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief as I stretched myself in the garage. I could finally shuck off the stifling suit that William Wang had lent me and wear the much more comfortable jumpsuit again.

Casual wear was so much better than formal attire. I couldn't stand it. I had no idea how all the CEOs could stand wearing those stupidly expensive blazers and suits everyday, but I wasn't going to follow their example.

I was a hands on CEO, which meant it was impractical for me to wear a suit everyday. Speaking of which, I was glad to see my Titan again.

"That said, without the components that I need, I can't do much."

I scratched my head and pushed my glasses up my nose as I studied the colossal bipedal machine before me. Perhaps I might have to cannibalize some parts here and there? There had to be several alterations to my original plan. I should focus on creating the energy shield generator and patenting that before I moved on to the much larger war walker.

Even without the chassis, the shield generator should still be profitable. The military would definitely want to purchase that…not just the military, but even civilian sectors. I could imagine embassies or even billionaires installing the shield generators around their buildings to withstand an enemy attack.

"Yeah, I'll focus on that instead…"

While I pulled wires out and studied the circuitries, I heard someone step inside the garage. Before I could turn around, a familiar voice called out to me.

"Oh, boss! You're already here! Did you enjoy yourself last night?"

Pulling my head out of the fuselage, I turned and waved at William.

"Nah, same old. I went to my room early and ended up sleeping the rest of the night off."

"What a waste." William shook his head. "You should have used the chance to network. There were so many big shots there you could establish connections with."

"Other than CEO Arthur Qi, none of them was interested in talking to a small fry like me." I sighed wearily. "That Justin Han, in particular, he enjoyed telling everyone else how our company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Thanks to that, none of the other attendees dared to touch me with a nine-foot pole."

"Ugh…that bastard. He's just afraid of you." William shook his head with a grimace. Then he brightened up. "I do have some good news, though. I spoke to my lawyer friend – the one I was telling you about – yesterday. He agreed to look over our case. I just came from his office this morning, and he has already taken action. Huang Zhou Bank has withdrawn their demands for immediate repayment."

"That's great!" William was right. This was the first piece of good news I had heard this morning. However, my secretary held up a hand.

"However, we had to compromise a little. Seems like Huang Zhou Bank is under pressure from Han Industries. So after negotiating, we managed to extend the repayment deadline to two months later. If we can repay the loan two months later, they will cancel all interest."

"Excellent!"

"Really?" William sounded skeptical. "Do you think you'll be able to repay a few hundred thousand yuan in two months' time? Where are you going to get the money from? You still need to find funds from somewhere in order to get those components you need. It's not going to be easy."

"Yeah. But I'll take any reprieve I can get. This gives me a lot more breathing room than before." I glanced at my Titan. "I probably need to cannibalize some parts to create an energy shield generator and then patent it first before selling it separately."

"That's an excellent idea." William nodded. Then he frowned. "But can you really scrounge up the components you need from what you have right now? It's not as if the energy shield generator uses the same parts as the rest of the war walker."

"You're right. I'll have to make do with what I have."

I scratched my head and exhaled wearily. Then I picked up a spanner and tapped the hull of my half-built Titan.

"Don't worry. I'll figure it out eventually."

Even though I said that, I wasn't able to figure anything out. The next few days passed by, and I ended up completing the hull of the war walker…simply because I couldn't do anything else. I realized that none of the components I currently had worked for the energy shield generator.

William was right. The shield generator didn't use the same parts as the other parts of the Titan. Even so, I thought I could get around the problem by using substitutes or bypasses. After all, the idea was to generate a magnetic field that could deflect both ballistic and energy projectiles by warping space around the Titan.

Unfortunately, such exotic technology required far more sophisticated components than the rest of the fuselage. Not to mention, in order to cut cost, I had to procure cheaper parts for the rest of the war walker.

"Oh boy, I'm screwed."

"That doesn't sound good." William emerged from the office after having done some paperwork. He raised an eyebrow. "But it looks like you had some good progress with your Titan. It almost looks like a working war walker now."

"It helps that the wires and circuitry aren't dangling, exposed outside of the chassis. And there's so much more I wish to do with him." I stared at the arms hanging from each side of the Titan. "He needs weapons. But that's fine, I adjusted the chassis so that it's modular…so I can swap out weapons. That means the military can provide and hook up their own weapons to my Titan."

"That sounds promising."

"Yeah, but it's still not practical. It lacks the shield generator." I ruffled my hair in frustration. "It's like you said. The current Titan will easily be destroyed by Han Industries' smaller Astral Crystal Exosuits or whatever exosuits they produce out of their Mech Marine program. There's no way the military will purchase my Titan, not when it costs so much more yet is so easily taken out. The energy shield generator is the only thing that will set my Titan apart from the Han Industries' exosuits."

"I assume you weren't able to cannibalize the parts then."

I winced and nodded. There was no point lying to my best friend. The reason why we trusted each other was because we didn't hide important matters such as this.

"Well, I guess we should just go home for today. I'll think about the problem tomorrow."

Rubbing my forehead, I sighed. William nodded and disappeared into the office, but I could still hear his voice through the door.

"Let me finish up some documents and then we'll head back."

After we locked up the warehouse, we proceeded toward the apartment that the two of us rented (it was cheaper if we split the rent between us). However, we hadn't gotten very far when the landlord for the warehouse strode up to us, looking incensed.

"Hey! Your rent is due next week! Do you have the cash?"

"Uh, if it's due next week, why are you approaching us for it now?" I asked, confused. The landlord blanched, and then turned away with a snort.

"Because your company is in the red. Don't think I don't know what's happening. You're heavily in debt and can't even repay your bank loans. How can I expect you to pay the rent?"

He then shoved a finger into my face.

"Remember, if you can't pay the rent by next week, you'll be evicted!"

"But that's a breach of contract!" William protested. "Even if we can't pay the rent next week, you can't just evict us like that! Eviction notice can only be sent after three months of failure to pay you your rent, and we have been paying it all this while!"

"I don't care! Since your business is failing anyway, I would much rather rent the space out to someone else who can make money!"

"Right. Okay." I sighed and shook my head. "We understand. We'll talk about this next week then."

"Hmph!" the landlord spun away and stomped off. William glared after him.

"What a bastard."

"What can we do?" I sighed. "We have to find a way to pay the rent. Maybe find a new place after this. I can't stand that fella."

"Same. But we can't afford a new place." William groaned as he covered his face with a hand. I shook my head and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go home. We'll grab some burgers and fries for dinner on the way back. Or would you prefer fried chicken?"

"Nah, burgers sound good." William then snickered. "I can't believe a CEO like you is reduced to eating fast food."

"What were you expecting?" I scoffed. "A mansion with an entire entourage of maids?"

"…er, yeah. Haven't you read all those CEO novels? The male leads always have extravagant estates, an army of servants and billions of yuan. Not to mention Lamborghini or Rolls Royce or other limousines."

"And here we are, having to take public transport because we can't afford a car." I sighed as we strolled toward the bus stop.

"Once you succeed, we'll show everyone how wrong they were about us!" William vowed, throwing his arm around my shoulders. I grinned.

"Yeah. We're going to change the world, my friend!"