The Hypersonic Game Changer
Out on the corner of the terrace, a man and a woman had been slumped in gloomy silence for quite some time, looking for all the world like mourners at a wake.
At a glance, the man was the quintessential nerd—the sort who lived buried alive in research labs, complete with unkempt stubble and a rumpled, neglected suit. Seeing him felt uncomfortably like looking at myself from not so long ago, leaving a strangely bittersweet taste in my mouth.
The woman beside him, by contrast, was a sharp, smartly dressed professional. Yet despite their utterly contrasting appearances, they shared one undeniable commonality: a shattered, despondent look that practically screamed, We're ruined.
Did their funding pitch fall through?
A sudden spark of curiosity stirred within me. Mask had mentioned that only strictly vetted companies had been invited to this party, hadn't he? What kind of technology could they possibly be developing?
Straightening my jacket, I rose from my seat.
"What are you doing?" Hyung-jun asked.
"Nothing much. Just curious."
They had clearly come seeking investors, so why the long faces? I wanted to find out. We could hear them out, and if their pitch caught our eye, we could even invest ourselves.
Stepping quietly toward their table, I cleared my throat.
"Excuse me."
Both of them looked up. Their eyes were thick with guard, the woman in particular sizing me up with an unmistakably sharp edge. I softened my voice as best as I could.
"I couldn't help noticing from across the terrace that you two seemed terribly troubled. I was wondering if you might share what's on your mind. As the saying goes, a burden shared is a burden halved, isn't it?"
"Ah. Thank you for the thought, but we're fine," the woman replied firmly, drawing a clean line. "We have private matters to discuss between ourselves."
Though her defensive walls had lowered slightly, she clearly wasn't keen on entertaining a stranger's curiosity. The man beside her, however, seemed to have a different take. Fidgeting anxiously, he glanced between us, and despite the warning glares shooting from her eyes, he finally broke the silence.
"It's fine, Sarah. It's all over anyway—what's left to hide?" His voice was laced with half-resigned defeat. "We're an advanced materials startup called Ex Forge. I'm Ethan White, in charge of technical development, and this is our CEO, Sarah Wilson."
A team structure not unlike our own. Perhaps feeling the same kinship I did, Hyung-jun leaned in, listening intently to the nerdy researcher.
"We've been researching materials applied to hypersonic craft," Ethan continued, offering a brief summary of their plight. "Fortunately, we achieved modest success in a laboratory setting, but securing follow-up funding has proven… exceedingly difficult."
He offered a bitter, self-deprecating smile. "When we heard about this joint party where major investors would gather, we scrambled to secure an invitation and attended, but…"
One didn't need words to guess what had followed.
"It didn't go well, I take it?"
"Actually, there was an investor who showed genuine interest. But just as we were about to dive into our technical pitch, a sudden commotion broke out and…"
"A commotion?"
"Because of Arcane Technology," Sarah Wilson cut in, her voice bristling with barely suppressed indignation. "That monster of a company devouring every tech headline lately."
She crossed her arms tightly. "They didn't even come here looking for funding, yet the moment they showed up, our pitch went straight to hell. The investor lost interest the second he heard their name and sprinted off to fawn over them."
"Ha… haha…"
Hyung-jun and I exchanged an intensely awkward chuckle.
So our grand entrance had sucked all the oxygen out of the room and blown away their once-in-a-lifetime pitch opportunity? Now I felt genuinely guilty.
In the spirit of making amends, I asked, "If you don't mind, would you be willing to pitch that technology to us? We attended this party as investors ourselves, and we're on the lookout for promising opportunities."
"Is that so?"
A glimmer of hope instantly rekindled in their eyes. Fumbling through their pockets, they hurriedly produced their business cards and offered them to us with both hands.
"Thank you so much for granting us the opportunity to present our technology."
"Not at all…"
Feeling somewhat sheepish, I reached into my coat, pulled out my card, and handed it over with an apologetic smile. "It seems we inadvertently caused you some trouble. I'm Park Ji-hyuk, CTO of Arcane Technology."
"And I'm Kim Hyung-jun, CEO."
"…Excuse me?"
Sarah Wilson blinked in stunned disbelief, her gaze darting back and forth between our faces and the cards in her hands. "You're… really Arcane Technology?"
Her brain seemed momentarily incapable of processing the sheer absurdity of the moment.
Hyung-jun smoothed things over with his polished corporate charm. "We hadn't anticipated drawing quite so much attention ourselves. I hardly know how to console you, but by way of apology, we would like to offer you a fresh presentation opportunity right here. How does that sound? As CTO Park mentioned, we are actively looking for promising investments."
"What the…"
The very company that had torpedoed their pitch was now offering them an audience. It was irony at its finest. Sarah Wilson stood frozen, struck entirely dumb.
Beside her, however, Ethan White was staring wide-eyed at my card before firing off a rapid barrage of questions.
"You're truly the Arcane Technology that developed the Magician?! The Zero-Interface technology?! I was utterly awestruck! How on earth did you manage that at the atomic level?!"
"You idiot!"
Classic engineer behavior—completely unable to contain himself when confronted with cutting-edge science. Trembling with exasperation, Sarah Wilson smacked Ethan hard upside the back of his head.
"Is this the time to pry into other people's trade secrets?! We're staring at a golden opportunity right this second!"
"S-Sorry…"
It was painfully clear that Ethan lived firmly under her thumb. Watching their dynamic brought an amused smile to my face.
Sarah bowed repeatedly in apology. "I am so sorry for this fool's rudeness. If… if it's still alright with you, could you spare us a moment to hear about our technology?"
"Of course. It was our proposal to begin with. Please, take your time."
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
After offering another profuse bow, Sarah jabbed Ethan hard in the ribs. Coughing a couple of times to clear his throat, Ethan stood tall. The flustered nerd had vanished, replaced in an instant by the blazing, proud gaze of a dedicated researcher.
"Thank you for your interest in our work. Let's see… let's begin with this."
With practiced ease, Ethan drew a tablet computer from his briefcase and oriented the screen toward us. On the display was an intricate molecular lattice model set against fluid-dynamic simulations rendered in blazing crimson hues.
"The material Ex Forge is currently developing is a Self-Adaptive Ablative Ceramic Matrix Composite. In short, we call it SAACMC."
Quite a mouthful. Sounds like you'd bite your tongue trying to pronounce it.
Judging by the name alone, it sounded like an ultra-high-temperature ceramic designed to withstand extreme thermal environments.
"The name is a bit long and complicated, but its objective is remarkably simple," Ethan said, his voice brimming with renewed vigor as his passion took the wheel. "To withstand and master the scorching heat of several thousand degrees generated by friction during hypersonic flight!"
Seeing how his entire demeanor transformed the second he began discussing his field made me grin. A true engineer through and through. The sense of kinship was undeniable.
Ethan pressed forward with his explanation.
"As you know, hypersonic flight is fundamentally an existential war against heat. Atmospheric friction drives the airframe's surface temperature up to blast-furnace levels."
He swiped across the tablet screen.
"Currently, aerospace applications rely on Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC) with exceptional heat resistance, or ablative materials that shed heat by deliberately burning away the outer layer. But CMCs are prohibitively expensive and dangerously brittle against impact, while ablators are single-use consumables. Both suffer from severe inefficiencies."
The display shifted again, moving past conventional thermal protection systems to a new slide.
It depicted a porous three-dimensional weave of microfibers.
"Our SAACMC takes an entirely new approach to shatter the limitations of legacy materials. This specialized ceramic fiber matrix is a silicon carbide-based architecture developed entirely in-house."
Ethan zoomed in on a cross-section of the diagram.
"While this matrix is vital, there is something far more crucial."
Embedded densely between the strands of the matrix were countless microscopic nanoparticles.
"These little guys right here! The core of our innovation: specialized Phase Change Material (PCM) nanoparticles!"
Ethan beamed with pride as he tapped the screen.
Now this is interesting.
I spoke up immediately. "Phase Change Materials—those are substances that absorb large amounts of heat to alter their physical state, right? I recall hearing they're often used as high-efficiency thermal insulation in construction."
"Precisely! But our PCM operates on an entirely different level!" Ethan answered, his voice climbing an octave with irrepressible pride. "Upon reaching a specific threshold temperature, these nanoparticles undergo an instantaneous phase transition, absorbing an immense amount of latent heat. This prevents the material's bulk temperature from spiking. Simultaneously, the microscopic gases and liquids generated during this phase change vent outward through the micropores of the matrix, creating an active cooling film along the surface. In essence, it functions as a self-cooling system!"
Whoa, that's legitimately brilliant.
I marveled inwardly. It was an exceptionally clever design. Cooling via phase change materials was already a familiar concept in conventional engineering, but engineering them into nanoparticles embedded directly inside high-temperature composite structures for hypersonic airflow was a stroke of genius.
Ethan wasn't finished yet.
"What makes it truly revolutionary is its self-adaptive nature! Only the PCMs in the localized areas subjected to intense thermal stress react, and their reaction scales dynamically with temperature. Furthermore, unlike conventional ablative shields that erode unevenly and disintegrate into ragged chunks, ablation here occurs in an exquisitely uniform, micro-calibrated fashion, preserving the aerodynamic profile of the airframe. And when the temperature drops back down, portions of the material recombine, exhibiting self-healing properties!"
Beside him, Sarah Wilson added with fierce conviction, "Once perfected, this technology will completely dismantle the aerospace materials monopoly currently held by defense behemoths like Nockheed Martin and Viewing. From military hypersonic weapons and atmospheric reentry vehicles to launch vehicle reusability and safety for commercial ventures like SpaceZ, it drastically slashes operational costs while maximizing structural integrity. It is an absolute game-changer!"
Her eyes burned with unwavering certainty that their composite could turn the entire aerospace sector on its head.
I quietly assembled everything they had presented in my mind.
On paper, there was no denying its sheer brilliance. A technology that drastically elevated thermal endurance and wear resistance under hypersonic friction… In practical terms, that meant airframe safety margins and maximum velocity thresholds would surge exponentially. It was poised to exert tremendous leverage over both space exploration and hypersonic defense applications.
This is exactly the kind of tech Mask would drool over.
So why on earth had they failed to secure backing until now?
Hyung-jun must have arrived at the exact same question, because he voiced it without skipping a beat.
"From what we've heard, it sounds like an extraordinary piece of engineering," Hyung-jun said cautiously. "However… if you don't mind me asking, what has kept you from securing investment until now?"
At Hyung-jun's question, the bright enthusiasm on Sarah Wilson and Ethan White's faces instantly plummeted into shadow.