Aurantius Industries, Suburban Weapons Proving Ground.
In fact, this place looked less like a weapons testing site and more like a venue for a banquet gathering.
Apart from the empty test area that occupied most of the proving ground and various devices that left outsiders completely confused...
Nearly a third of the venue was filled with gorgeously set long buffet tables.
Waiters in tuxedos busied themselves weaving through the crowd, while "guests" dressed in various expensive attire stood in small groups around the long tables, holding wine glasses and chatting among themselves.
The contrast between this scene and the somewhat empty weapons testing ground nearby created an indescribable sense of dissonance.
These people included investor representatives, small individual shareholders, and senior executives within the company. Fundamentally speaking, they were all "insiders" of Aurantius Industries.
However, these "insiders" were currently standing on Aurantius Industries' turf, discussing Luca, the company's successor, without any reservation.
"Tsk tsk, I thought the Aurantius boy would be more like Ms. Gina. Who knew he'd insist on copying Hermann and messing with energy guns?"
"With that effort, he'd be better off networking with Stark Industries. Maybe the company could start turning a profit tomorrow!"
The speaker was a minor shareholder of Aurantius Industries, with no deep background, but that didn't stop him from looking down on Luca.
In fact, he wasn't the only shareholder like this.
Although these small shareholders didn't hold many shares—perhaps less than 20% combined—if they united to cause trouble, they had plenty of ways to ruin things.
Of course, no one would turn down money. If the leader of Aurantius Industries could expand the company and increase the value of their shares, they would absolutely be the first to rally around him.
However, even among small shareholders, views differed.
A middle-aged gentleman with graying temples glanced at the speaker and said softly.
"Don't underestimate this young master of the Aurantius family. From what I know, the shares he holds now aren't all inherited. He killed his own uncle just like that, tsk tsk..."
As soon as these words were spoken, several people around them looked over.
Clearly, many hadn't heard this news.
"Councilman Connor came specially this time. Could it be that you received some news?"
The middle-aged gentleman, Councilman Connor, put on a mysterious expression and adjusted his tone before sharing the news he heard from a "friend" with everyone.
Councilman Connor hailed from Tennessee and was currently a state senator there.
Although Aurantius Industries was headquartered in New York, due to cost considerations, its large factories were located in central states like Tennessee, which offered convenient transportation and low labor costs.
Councilman Connor received some company shares as a consultant for Aurantius Industries.
Similarly, there was a retired army procurement director and a retired special forces consultant.
These retired "veteran cadres" receiving share dividends or consultant salaries were actually quite common in various American arms companies. They usually only appeared occasionally to provide policy guidance or introduce connections.
However, those two didn't belong to the small circle currently gathered.
After hearing the news shared by Councilman Connor, the people around him either looked thoughtful or lowered their heads in contemplation.
Someone sighed first.
"Sigh, if Ms. Gina hadn't fallen into a coma, the situation wouldn't be like this..."
The man paused slightly, then shook his head helplessly.
For some reason, others also sighed softly in tacit agreement.
Their sighs were naturally not out of concern for Luca's current situation.
Compared to pitying a young man who inherited a huge fortune, they cared more about the company's future.
And in this regard, Luca's mother, Gina, enjoyed a very high level of trust among these shareholders and even the entire staff of Aurantius Industries.
This was why the first shareholder hoped Luca would be more like Gina, not Hermann.
The reason most of these people hadn't sold their shares yet, and why Aurantius Industries hadn't fallen apart...
Besides Luca's suspected unclear relationship with Stark Industries, the hope that Gina might wake up and regain control of Aurantius Industries was probably the more important reason.
In fact, Aurantius Industries didn't have many products that could truly stand out right now.
Apart from some "civilian home defense weapons" made to enrich the product line, which survived on scraps from major established military industries...
Aurantius Industries' core business could be roughly divided into three parts.
First, and formerly the main business of Aurantius Industries...
Was the "Smart Chip Combination Suite" previously outsourced and manufactured for Stark Industries and Hammer Industries.
The "smart" here naturally didn't refer to an artificial intelligence butler like Tony Stark's "JARVIS."
Instead, it was a modular chip integrating various intelligent components such as "Smart Ballistic Aiming Module," "Smart Voice Recognition Module," and "Lightweight Smart Weapon Control Module."
Compared to similar smart systems from other large companies, the advantage of Aurantius Industries' "Smart System Combination" lay in modularity and low cost.
The former was once a core requirement of Stark Industries for secondary weapon accessory suppliers, while the latter was a corporate philosophy Hammer Industries had always pursued.
However, now that orders from both companies had fallen through one after another, Aurantius Industries had a severe overcapacity in this area, leaving a large number of customized production lines in factories idle.
This was one of the main reasons why Aurantius Industries was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The second featured product of Aurantius Industries was the "Combat Drone," which the company began independently developing several years ago.
In fact, the combat drone project had always been championed by Luca's mother, Gina.
Initially, due to Gina's own battlefield experience and her judgment of the development of the military industry...
She wanted to make combat drones the future flagship product of Aurantius Industries, thereby breaking away from the situation of relying on large military enterprises for parts manufacturing.
It was also to avoid a crisis for Aurantius Industries if Hammer Industries decided to "abandon its weapons division" one day.
Moreover, Aurantius Industries' existing "Smart Combat System Module" had excellent compatibility with "Drone Combat" itself. Coupled with the company's ample funds at the time...
The prospects for all this should have been very bright.