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Prism's entry into the translation-machine market was now a fact beyond changing. Swiftvox and the others hadn't managed to stop it at the gate, but they hadn't let Prism's results detonate either, and as they saw it, the board was still playable.
They had already launched next-generation translation machine projects of their own, preparing for whatever offensive Prism mounted next.
Meanwhile, the New Year drew closer by the day, travelers multiplied by the day, and setting aside those going abroad, the hottest destination in the country was the Redcliff Islands.
Because according to the officially published Crimson Typhoon training schedule, on the night of New Year's Eve, Crimson Typhoon would conduct a rare nighttime training. And on the following day, in broad daylight, there would be another.
There was no need to doubt it.
These two tests had been scheduled at this time on purpose.
As for the purpose, the first was to wish the entire nation a happy New Year. The second was the development of Redcliff's tourism industry.
It had been nearly half a year since Crimson Typhoon's testing began.
In that time, the Redcliff Islands, sitting right beside the Dome Base, had eaten the tourism dividend down to the plate.
In the preliminary statistics compiled not long before, the islands' visitor count for the past year had reached eighty-seven million total person-visits, of which foreign visitors accounted for an astonishing nine million.
And last year's tourism revenue had risen thirty-seven percent over the year before, reaching an unprecedented 144.3 billion, a straight surge of nearly forty billion.
By Patricia's account, from now on, whatever diesel Crimson Typhoon drank and whatever screws it wore through, all of it, the whole logistics bill, Redcliff was picking up.
From the growth curve, you could see that ever since Crimson Typhoon's tests began, Redcliff's fourth-quarter growth had gone up like wild horses on the steppe, climbing madly.
The bulk of the foreign visitors, and most of that extra forty billion, had arrived in exactly that stretch.
Within a mere three months of the tests beginning, more than ten short-haul cruise companies had sprung up on Redcliff, dedicated to sail-out mech-watching services, their ships serving as viewing platforms at sea.
Not one of them was cheap, and yet every sailing filled, even when no training was scheduled at all and the whole trip was to go out and look at the Dome Base's front gate from the water.
The cruise industry had, for no reason anyone could quite articulate, caught fire at Redcliff.
The free-trade zone that had already been under construction on the islands was now strapped to a rocket, being shoved skyward.
On top of that, in the latest domestic and international rankings of the ten must-visit destinations, Redcliff sat in the top three if it wasn't outright first.
Under circumstances like these, Redcliff pressed the advantage harder still, advertising across the entire world, at home and abroad both.
Mech training, combined with the country's one-of-a-kind New Year, pulled in foreign travelers by the planeload. International flights into Redcliff had increased fivefold and more.
And when those foreign tourists landed, before they'd even made it out of an airport freshly dressed in its New Year skin, they saw the duty-free shop inside already ringed by a crowd.
"What are they selling in there?"
"Prism's translation machine, I hear."
"A Prism product? The genius scientist's company?"
Standing outside the duty-free shop hung with New Year garlands, the newly arrived travelers questioned the travelers ahead of them.
Inside, the staff were introducing the Hermes line to the foreigners.
And their method of introduction was something special. They spoke only the local language, and let the translation machine do the translating. Or they simply set a pair of demonstration Hermes earbuds on the foreigner's ears and let the earbuds handle it directly.
"The translation machine you're looking at is Prism Sciences' newest product. It translates through AI and frees you entirely from the language barrier. It also comes with a built-in exclusive travel guide to the Redcliff Islands, and can book your cruise tickets for the mech-watching sailings..."
"And these earbuds are also a Prism Sciences product..."
The machine rendered the clerk's voice into English or Japanese without pause, and the foreigners wearing the Hermes earbuds felt something close to sorcery.
"I can actually understand what you're saying!"
"These earbuds are incredible!"
Astonishment spread across their faces.
They were discovering that the earbuds on their ears were translating everything spoken around them into English or Japanese, and translating it with precision.
Irving stood with the demonstration earbuds on, staring at the translation machine in his hands, thoroughly excited.
This was already his second visit to the country.
As a citizen of the English-speaking world, he'd always traveled abroad on the strength of English alone. But on his last trip here, he'd discovered that this particular experience didn't carry.
Plenty of people here either couldn't follow his English, or spoke an English he couldn't follow, and communication had been a misery. His overall experience last time hadn't been good.
If the mech hadn't been so genuinely staggering, he had not planned on a second trip.
He had never expected to walk off the plane into Prism's translation devices.
The surprise delighted him, and the staff's live demonstration of the translation quality delighted him more.
"How much is this?"
Wearing the demo earbuds, he asked one of the saleswomen.
The saleswoman turned at the sound of his voice. On her own ears sat a pair of Hermes earbuds. She smiled slightly and answered in the local language. "Ninety-seven euros, or a hundred and fourteen US dollars."
As she said it, she pointed at the tag beneath the earbuds, where the price stood marked in a whole row of currencies.
Irving didn't hesitate for a second. "I'll take them. Wait, that big mech-looking translation machine is only three hundred something euros? I'll take that as well. With that one, I can talk back."
"Then I'll take a set too."
"One for me as well!"
At the payment counter, one foreigner after another stood waiting with a machine or a pair of earbuds in hand.
And the moment one satisfied wave carried its purchases out the door, a fresh wave filled in behind it.
Before long, the people of the Redcliff Islands noticed something. A great many of the foreign tourists in the streets carried Prism's Hermes translation machines in their hands, or wore the Hermes earbuds on their ears.
On the strength of these devices, they talked with people, and explored their way through the city and the scenic zones.
One netizen finally couldn't hold it in and posted:
"I swear I've seen a ghost. Of the dozen or so foreigners I passed on Redcliff today, nearly half were holding Prism's translation machine or wearing Prism's earbuds!"
"Plus one. Same here on Redcliff. So many of the foreigners are carrying the Hermes line."
"When did Prism's translation machine start selling abroad!?"
More and more people confirmed it was real.
And only then did it dawn on everyone, all at once.
The target customer of the Hermes translation machine, from the very beginning, had possibly never been the domestic market at all.
Prism had been aiming at the foreign tourists coming to Redcliff.
This was a market everyone had overlooked.
Swiftvox and the rest had positioned the translation machine, as a matter of course, as a product for domestic tourists heading abroad. It had never occurred to them that it could just as well be essential kit for foreign tourists coming in.
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EXTRA CHAPTER FOR EVERY 500 POWERSTONES.