Inside an empty, spacious hangar, a table and chairs were set up, and within the entire enormous space, only the giant robot in front of Li Feng remained.
Li Feng sat on the chair with his legs crossed, saying nothing, while Cawl opposite him was still examining Li Feng's computer... This computer was very new; although it was a product from tens of thousands of years ago, its manufacturing date didn't seem to be more than half a year old.
Cawl extended an antique-grade "Pisen" Type-C to C data cable from his body and plugged it into the computer to charge it... Another camera on Cawl continuously observed Li Feng. Through the changes in Li Feng's expression and pupil details, he concluded that the person opposite him knew him and understood him very well... Cawl put down the computer, the data cable still connected and charging it on the side, and then immediately said: "I've always been curious, what do you people from the golden age think of us, the humans of today?"
Cawl's words were calm and steady. His old but sharp eye stared straight at Li Feng, as if he were facing an abyss.
"I don't have any particular opinion, it just feels a bit awkward. However, I must remind you, what you consider the 'golden age' isn't really the golden age... it's called the Globalization Era..."
Li Feng had no intention of hiding or fabricating excuses. When speaking with an intelligent person, feigning ignorance doesn't insult the other person's intelligence, but one's own.
Hearing Li Feng's reply, Cawl opened Li Feng's computer screen and turned it towards Li Feng, indicating if he could try it. Li Feng nodded.
However, Cawl pressed a few keys on the keyboard but couldn't turn it on no matter what. So, Li Feng reached out, covered the fingerprint sensor, and after it powered on, Li Feng entered the password, allowing Cawl to access the desktop.
"Where do you find it awkward?" Cawl typed on the keyboard, opening some programs to test the computer's performance and more of its mysteries.
It wasn't that this computer was incredibly high-tech; Cawl wouldn't consider it high-tech. Cawl at this moment was more in the mindset of playing with an antique, as a computer built with human wetware didn't have higher computing power than Li Feng's Apple laptop.
At this moment, Cawl gave Li Feng a very good impression. He looked like a super-sized classmate, patiently and kindly asking Li Feng questions, without the muttering or strange rituals of other Adeptus Mechanicus members.
"You've seen my uniform; you should know that I've spent some time in the army of this era."
"Hmm, please continue."
"Looking at the weapons used by the Astra Militarum, I feel a sense of indescribable awkwardness. Although those weapons and equipment are highly technological, the individual weapons and equipment lack ergonomics, the tanks have a steam-diesel punk style from World War I, and the fighter jets are designed in a way that completely fails 'wind tunnel tests'... I just feel awkward all over."
Then Li Feng began to talk about everything in this world. Although the Empire's technology relied on archaeology... but! But! It was still far beyond what his own world could compare to! Just the ubiquitous modified servitor and brain-computer interfaces alone, if people from his era saw them, they would probably kneel.
If only this technology were tweaked just a little, made a little more humane... it would be so much better.
For example, the Empire's technology is like a beautiful, multi-layered wedding cake, beautiful and delicious. It's just missing a cherry or a strawberry to make it perfect! But instead, they directly threw a durian on it... It's like a designer using the best materials in the world to build you a magnificent latrine, and it's a dry toilet!
Cawl listened to Li Feng's words, shifting his gaze from the computer screen to Li Feng. Some of the words he had never heard before piqued Cawl's interest.
"Please, what is steampunk, and what is a wind tunnel test? Also, what are cherries and durians?"
Hearing Cawl's words, Li Feng pointed at Cawl's body: "Your style, or rather the overall style of the Adeptus Mechanicus, is a blend of steampunk and dieselpunk."
Saying this, Li Feng turned the computer around. He remembered there was a PDF version of the 'Cyberpunk 2077' lorebook on the computer, so Li Feng opened that PDF document for Cawl to read... When Cawl saw the cyberpunk-style bionic modifications and body implants, as well as the design drafts of those smart weapons and electric energy technology weapons, he was completely stunned!
Cawl avidly flipped through the entire lorebook, his flesh eyes and the mechanical eye beside him rapidly recording everything on the screen about "possibly the technological heritage of golden age humanity"... This was the era he, Cawl, truly wished to pursue!
Cawl had recently been troubled by the manufacturing of the armor of destiny, burning out many wires in his head, and some things in Li Feng's lorebook gave him inspiration... Moreover, he now felt that his own redundant, cumbersome modifications were truly blaspheming the omnissiah... Meanwhile, Li Feng continued: "A wind tunnel test is a test conducted by every aircraft design bureau. Why can the Orks' hodgepodge aircraft fight humans to a standstill? Because the shape of the Ork fighter jet is the shape of a MiG design bureau aircraft."
(Little Popular Science: In warhammer 40K, all races' aircraft cannot pass wind tunnel tests in reality, except for Ork fighter jets, because GW was lazy and copied the shape of the MiG-15 for Ork fighter jets.)
Cawl asked, puzzled: "MiG Design Bureau?"
"Unlike your era, where technological development relies on archaeology. In our era, people developed new scientific technologies. MiG Design Bureau, Sukhoi Design Bureau, Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Lockheed Martin... and various academies of sciences, universities, research institutes, technology production enterprises, laboratories..."
Saying this, Li Feng used the computer to show Cawl a video of himself playing 'War Thunder', where his Su-27 SM was being obliterated by an AIM-120 active radar missile... "This is a fighter jet with a blended wing body and central lifting body structure, manufactured by the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the Su-27 SM."
As an engineering man, upon seeing the shape of this aircraft, Cawl's eyes immediately glazed over. In these ten thousand years, he had experienced too much, leaving his footprints all over the Galaxy, but no fighter jet produced by a Forge World could possess such a perfect shape.
This! This shape is too beautiful!
"She... is too beautiful!" (General Lin Hu's original words when he saw the Su-27 (J-11) back then; the MiG engineers cried themselves unconscious in the restroom.)
Seeing Cawl staring at the aircraft on the screen like an obsessed fan, Li Feng smiled:
"Want it?"
Suddenly, a bright white light flashed, making Cawl unable to open his eyes. The detection data on his body continuously reported data of high-energy energy convergence to his brain. After a while, the white light disappeared... a hard drive-shaped stc template appeared in Li Feng's palm, with a screen on it displaying exactly the Su-27 he had just seen.
A miracle! An absolute miracle! Cawl's two small track-like feet immediately roared as he retreated... That kind of miracle, Cawl, who considered himself to have lived for ten thousand years and seen everything, instantly panicked. The calm demeanor he had maintained during his conversation with Li Feng had long vanished.
omnissiah above! ...Then he must be... Li Feng suddenly saw Cawl bow his body, then perform the highest ritual of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and then let out a devout and loud shout:
"omnissiah!"
Li Feng was stunned... Then Li Feng pointed to himself... "Me? I'm a liberal arts student..."
(GW official explanation: The God of the Adeptus Mechanicus is the 'omnissiah', and the 'omnissiah' is God's representative on Earth. Machines have 'machine spirits'. Similar to the Trinity relationship of 'God', 'Jesus (Son)', and 'Holy Spirit', and 'messiah' is another name for Jesus. When an Oil Man shouts "omnissiah above", it's similar to foreigners shouting "Jesus Christ")