During a nationwide audit of industrial and military manufacturing, an inspection team sealed off the entire site of my outdoor gear factory.
A group of experts clutched their test reports with trembling hands and insisted on bringing me into a national defense project.
I was completely stunned.
Come on, I just run a small outdoor gear factory!
All I wanted was to make durable climbing ropes and high-strength carbon-fiber poles, then whip up some anti-glare outdoor coatings and earn a steady living from outdoor enthusiasts.
Who could have guessed that the specialty fiber I used for climbing safety ropes would happen to have the exact properties of the top-grade specialty cables urgently needed for aircraft carriers?
The specs of my carbon tubes matched those of high-end aerospace carbon materials across the board.
And the matte coating I made to prevent glare turned out to be a full-spectrum radar-absorbing stealth coating.
After that, things got completely out of hand.
The long-endurance observation drones outdoor enthusiasts used for field surveys outperformed every reconnaissance drone currently in service.
The quiet underwater thrusters used for fun diving had noise-reduction performance on par with military submersibles.
The entire defense industry was in an uproar.
So all these years, we'd been wearing our sweaters inside out!
The core technologies that the country had poured vast sums into developing, and that overseas powers had worked so hard to embargo, were all hidden inside my tiny outdoor gear factory.
