The air of uncertainty filled the atmosphere. Whatever happens, he must find a way to make his invention passable by the Awards Committee. Jaqi may not be of help.


    He assessed that she could be the worst among the panelists as she needed to show her fellow panelists that she deserved the seat.


    He hoped it otherwise.


    At first, before he could say anything, a sharp difort had filled his throat. It was dry. In addition, he felt his stomach rumbled inside like he was hungry.


    Well, he was hungry.


    He never had his breakfast as being full would diminish his cognitive activity. As food was digested in his digestive tract, blood flows towards the area reducing the blood supply and oxygen towards his brain, thus, reducing the supplement to the brain’s optimal function.


    But he needed to start anyway, in any form he could.


    His voice made him concerned, it could be awkward at first and would portray a negative first impression.


    Instead, he made a curt bow just to dy freezing moments.


    Without uttering a word, he took out four spherical prototypes from his knapsack, activated them each, and ced them in the water tank ced at the center of the room.


    They floated.


    ’Ok, what’s next?’ he thought.


    "Lance Berkley, do not break protocol. Before you perform the functionality of your prototype, you need to give us an overview first," Dr. Zee said. He was the lead Panelist.


    Lance halted and listened.


    He felt the involuntary shivering behind his skull. It might be because of Jaqi’s presence that he felt so weird. He felt unprepared despite his weeks of practice.


    Simting his lines alone in his room for weeks every time he had the time to linger inside his apartment. After he tended his Aiveez nursery production in his room, he would review his RoFlo presentation.


    He straightened his voice, smoothened his clothes, and started to speak.


    "Greetings, most honored Committee…" his voice was hoarse. "Ahem… I called this project, RoFlo."


    "Don’t be nervous, Lance Berkley. You did well on yourst defense. This should be a walk in the park," said Mister Tanaka.


    Lance nodded and squinted at Jaqi. She winked.


    "RoFlo… or Robotic Floating Device for Waste Water Pollution Control," he found his momentum. He found courage. That smile couldunch a thousand projects, he thought.


    "You may be wondering how these metallic casings floated in the water." Lance continued. "Well, I mixed umon level metals and made their characteristics into a certain level of specific density that could float in water. I used umon level metal binder, Benzium to achieve such level."


    "Their main objective is to have an additional stage for our Waste Water Treatment Facilities to filter our effluent wastewater in an aerobic tank. Just to impart general knowledge to the wastewater treatment – the effluent wastewater discharged from our establishments, manufacturing nts, and even residential andmercial sectors, would undergo septage treatment underground.


    This is the first stage. The septage treatment would eliminate about 80% of the present bacteria borne with the wastewater discharge because of Tyllrium and 30% of solid waste trapped within its chambers."


    "Secondly, after septage, the wastewater is then passed along an equalization tank.


    Such a tank would mix the entire water volume by the use of a motorized mixer then evenly distribute the pollutants, unmp the lumped pollution, turning the lumps into specks, then pass by a series of aerobic tanks by the use of conventional bacterial function to gather another 30% pollutants into sludge, which in turn sank them at the bottom of the tank living 40% of pollution in wastewater.


    After a few hours of treatment, the chambers would open and pass along another series of FOG (Fats, oil, and Grease) pollutants treatment living only 10% of pollution in water."


    "Now," Lance had inserted the general knowledge of wastewater to establish further momentum in his brain before he would dwell on the most intricate parts of his robotic design. "Do we want 10% of that pollution in our wastewater?" Experience tales at NovelBin.C?m


    Nobody answered. Nobody would dare answer the question trailing to the disclosure of one of the secrets of the Corporation – recycling of wastewater into potable water for human consumption.


    The thought of it was immoral - water with urine and feces would be filtered into drinking water.


    They wanted to eliminate the 10% of pollutants in the water. But the 10% volume seemed to be stubborn to treat. They flowed with water with almost the same fluidity. The water would take another cycle of filtration (micro-filtration) before water filtration for potability – -softening, hard metals treatment, and further sediment filtration.


    This was where the problem existed. Micro filtrations could eliminate the 10% pollutants but would take days to eliminate them. Secondly, the bacterial treatment by using another round of Tyllrium chambers would eliminate the remaining 20% of pathogens.


    The Panelists knew that the Microfiltration process required arge area to install the chambers and currently, one sector would take three city blocks for only such tedious processing.


    Theck of salt supply also added to the predicament in microfiltration. Salt portrays the most important part of water softening to eliminate the hardness of water for one to consume a refreshing water. Not that it would give one a sore throat.


    If not for the supply of salt, the 10% pollutant presence in wastewater was second to the problem. The volume of water consumption increased every year and the current capacity of these micro-filtrations were already at its peak.


    An additional facility was the least they coulde up with, but it would cost them billions of units, sacrificing other programs that served their middle-ss and high-ss citizens.


    Connecting the dots, Lance knew that these were the problems that created the Death by Thirstst year.


    Lance had paused. He expected that nobody would answer that question.


    "I don’t want my wastewater to have 10% in my wastewater," It was Jaqi who answered.


    Lance smiled and executed a curt bow.


    "Thank you for that, Miss Jaqi," Lance said. "Yes, we don’t want 10% of pollution in our Wastewater. We want it to eliminate the pollution at 100% before reaching the microfiltration chambers. How to do it? RoFlo would do the trick."


    Lance observed discernible reactions from the panelists. Mister Tanaka whispered to Doctor Cultz and Doctor Zee whispered to Engineer Greggory.


    Lance knew he hit the jackpot. He knew that the brains of the Corporation had been working with the predicament for years, augmenting the microfiltration. However, they neglected the possibility of improving the prior stages such as an aerobic tank, which may eliminate the need for microfiltration of 10% of pollutants.


    Only the pathogen removal by Tyllrium and water softening by salt would be left in the process.


    "Ok, Lance. It’s a good introduction," Doctor Zee interjected. "We already know where you are going with this. This is an important project. Before we will scrutinize your schematic designs and materialpositions, show us first how they work. We are baffled with the result that this may present."


    "Thanks, Doctor Zee," Lance responded. "This water tank consists of 1000 liters of clean water. This represents the aerobic tank that we have in our WWMDs (Wastewater Management Department) in ind sectors. And I have four of my RoFlo floating on the water. Lance took out the prepared gallons of F.O.G. (Fats, Oil, and Grease) and poured them inside the tank.


    Filling the tank with ckish pollution, Jaqi questioned. She also studied water pollution for his ShowerSmart project.


    "Can you borate on theposition of your F.O.G. for us to appreciate your project’s effectiveness?" Jaqi asked.


    It was a good question that Lance forgot to mention to them.


    "Well, it is 40% Chopped food waste, 20% of mud, and 40% of human urine," Lance said.


    Jaqi nodded and Lance proceeded with the presentation.


    The ckish liquid now filled the clean water, gradually invading the colorless portions with pollution.


    "The volume I poured in the water tank represents the 10% of water pollution in the tank, granting the 90% of it was already addressed by the conventional treatments. Activating the RoFlo, now!"


    Lance remote-controlled them and the four floating metallic balls hissed, releasing fine thread-like strands, like tentacles invading the space in the water tank.


    The ck minuscule specks that mixed with clear water were drawn towards the tentacles gradually.


    "Based on my experimental runs, this device would collect all minute solid pollutants in the water for about 30 minutes," Lance exined.


    The panelists were awed with what they saw. The tentacles somewhat served as mas to the ck specks, harvesting them portion by portion in the water.


    They observed great progress for around 10 minutes. The water became clearer.


    "It’s a great progress, Lance Berkley. What is your current rank again?" Mister Tanaka questioned.


    It was not yet the official questions that they would grill the presenter. They were just awed with the progress after which the true war would ensue.


    "Scrapper level 2, Mr. Tanaka," Lance responded.


    A pleased expression filled Tanaka’s face.


    "Ok. While we wait for 30 minutes, let’s give him our official questions first," Doctor Zee said.


    Then the true war began.