441: Chapter 441 Chen Qiaoshou's Improvements: Problem Solving Leads to Progress

The door to the Technical Research Room on the west side of the assembly area had just creaked open when Chen Qiaoshou looked up from a pile of disassembled circuit boards.

The door was half-ajar, and a slanted beam of light cut through, illuminating the back of his calloused hands.

He didn't move, waiting until the shadow had fully settled before speaking: "The Family Head said today that the receiver needed to be modified. I guessed you would come to me first."

Chen Wuwang stood at the doorway, neither entering nor retreating, his silver hair swaying in the draft blowing through the corridor.

His left Mechanical Prosthetic Eye adjusted its focus slightly, scanning the pile of scattered parts on the table—etching needles, microchips, and a piece of black slate, its edges polished to a sheen by fingernails.

"Did Engineer Zhang send you the problem report?" he asked.

"He did." Chen Qiaoshou lowered his head, using tweezers to pick up a nanochip and placing it in front of the magnifying array. "The filtering was cut three times, the gain module was deleted outright, and it's running in energy-saving mode by default... This isn't a modification, it's a castration."

Chen Wuwang's mouth twitched: "So, can it be fixed?"

"It's not a fix." Chen Qiaoshou finally looked up, his eyes as heavy as iron at the bottom of a well. "It's a recasting. The old shell can't hold the new components; I have to stuff the five-fold compensation circuit in there, and add an amplification ring. Otherwise, the moment high-sensitivity capture is activated, the Spiritual Qi overload alarm will go off immediately."

"What about safety?"

"A spiral nested structure. I'm making the compensation circuit into a double helix, one layer wrapping around the other, with heat dissipation running along the side channels so it doesn't touch the main power lines. The amplification ring is tunable—it turns on automatically when the signal is weak and retracts when it's strong, so it won't blow out."

After finishing, he tapped his fingers on the corner of the table, as if calculating dimensions. Then, he reached out and grabbed a blank talisman paper, dipped his fingernail in some spiritual ink, and drew a few lines on it.

"Look here, at the front end of the receiving array, add a circular etching. I've tested it with the micro-spiritual array table, and it can withstand the thin fluctuations at an altitude of three thousand zhang."

"But the protocol has to be adjusted manually. The System's original protection logic is too rigid; as soon as it detects abnormal gain, it cuts off the output directly."

Chen Wuwang stared at the sketch, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye rapidly scanning the trajectory of the lines: "How do you plan to bypass that?"

"I won't bypass it." Chen Qiaoshou put down his pen. "I'll make it stop judging things as 'abnormal.' I'll release the raw signal stream, bypassing the predictive algorithm, and feed it directly to the navigation core. It means well by filling in the data, but what if it fills it in wrong? On the battlefield, half a beat is the difference between life and death."

Chen Wuwang smiled: "Fine, do it. Send me the list of Materials; I need it now."

"The spiritual array etching table needs to be set to the highest precision level. It consumes a lot of energy and needs to be connected to a separate voltage stabilizer array."

"Approved."

"I also need a piece of Gold-Eating Insect stomach lining for the clutter filtering layer."

"We have stock in the warehouse; I'll have someone send it over."

"The last thing—the source code for the five-fold dynamic compensation. I don't have the authorization to access it."

Chen Wuwang raised his hand and tapped the air. A pale blue light screen popped up. After inputting a string of commands, three segments of rune sequences jumped out.

"I'm giving you read-only access. You can only look at it; you cannot copy or distribute it."

"Understood." Chen Qiaoshou nodded. "I'll just memorize it."

Neither of them said anything more. Chen Wuwang turned and left. The moment the door closed, Chen Qiaoshou had already put on his microscopic finger cots, picked up the etching needle, aimed it at the center of the first chip, and gently lowered it.

Three days later, the lights in the Technical Research Room had not been turned off.

The daylight outside had changed three times, and even the meals inside were brought in by apprentices. The bowls were placed in the corner, and no one touched them even after they turned cold.

Chen Qiaoshou sat at the workbench, his back arched like a fully drawn bow, his eyes fixed on the final etching line.

His right pinky finger was trembling slightly, a side effect of seventy-two consecutive hours of precise operation.

On the table lay a palm-sized metal box, its surface engraved with fine circuits, and a rotatable ring-shaped chip embedded in the center, slowly emitting a faint glow.

This was the new signal receiver—the shell was made of alloy, but the core was a composite of Gold-Eating Insect stomach lining and nanochips, with the five-fold compensation circuit wrapped in layers in a spiral, like a living heart.

He took a deep breath, inserted the receiver into the main control slot of the test mecha, connected the conduits, and linked it to the portable oscillation chamber.

"Start simulation." He pressed the button.

The oscillation chamber hummed to life, and the density of Spiritual Qi inside dropped rapidly, simulating the thin environment at an altitude of three thousand zhang above Qiming Plain.

The signal generator began inputting extreme fluctuations, one set, two sets... until the seventh set.

The curve on the screen trembled violently, then returned to stability.

Sampling completeness rate: 99.8%.

Deviation value: 0.00 degrees.

Navigation trajectory: Stable as ever.

Chen Qiaoshou stared at it for a full ten seconds before slowly letting out a breath.

He took off his goggles, rubbed his temples, then stood up, copied the test log into a spiritual energy storage box, carefully wrapped the physical sample, and put it into his carry-on bag.

When he left, he casually turned off the lights.

The entire Technical Research Room plunged into darkness, with only the indicator light of the oscillation chamber still flashing green, like an eye that refused to close.

The metal floor of the central control platform was still cold, just as it had been three days ago. Chen Wuwang stood in front of the main console, his fingers resting on the edge, tapping rhythmically.

He didn't turn around, but his ears caught the sound of footsteps—approaching from afar, steady in rhythm. It was Chen Qiaoshou.

"You're here?" he asked.

"Yes." Chen Qiaoshou walked to his side and handed over the spiritual energy storage box. "The test is finished. Seven sets of extreme signals, sampling completeness rate 99.8%, deviation zeroed out. The navigation core didn't fill in data on its own; it was driven entirely by raw signals."

Chen Wuwang took the box and inserted it into the main console. A holographic projection unfolded, and the test data scrolled past line by line.

He read extremely fast, his gaze sweeping over every frame of the waveform graph, finally stopping at the last set of records.

"The amplification ring held up?"

"It's stable. The tuning ring responded automatically, and no overload was triggered."

"What about the protection protocol?"

"I manually bypassed the redundancy judgment and used a pure raw signal stream. As long as the firmware isn't re-synced, it won't be cut off again."

Chen Wuwang finished reading, pulled out the storage box, and turned around.

He looked Chen Qiaoshou up and down—his eye sockets were bruised, his clothes were as wrinkled as a rag, and there were faint marks left by etching fluid on his hands.

"How many days has it been since you slept?"

"I didn't count."

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm alright."

Chen Wuwang suddenly raised his hand and patted his shoulder heavily.

"You've rendered a great service!"

The pat was solid; Chen Qiaoshou's body swayed, and he nearly lost his footing. But he didn't dodge, nor did he smile; he just pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "As long as it works, that's enough."

"It's more than just 'enough'." Chen Wuwang tucked the box into his robe. "This is our first true high-sensitivity receiver. From now on, when the mechas go up to the heavens or down into the earth, we won't have to worry about losing signals anymore."

Chen Qiaoshou nodded without replying. He turned to leave but was called back.

"Wait."

"Is there anything else?"

"Next time you take on a job like this, report it in advance."

"...Oh."

"It's not that I don't want you to make modifications, but everyone needs to know what has been changed. Don't have another repeat of 'temporary solution becoming the default'."

Chen Qiaoshou stopped, his back to him, and said softly, "Understood. This time I kept a full record; there is video documentation for every step."

"Good." Chen Wuwang nodded. "Go get some sleep. You look like you'll fall apart if you keep pushing yourself."

"No rush." Chen Qiaoshou raised his hand and checked his watch. "I still need to write down the installation procedure for the new module. The technical research group needs to perform batch replacements tomorrow."

After saying this, he walked away. His steps were a bit unsteady, but he walked firmly.

Chen Wuwang stood in place and opened the final page of the test log.

The data was clear, and the trajectory was steady.

His fingers rested back on the table, tapping gently.

Da, da, da—three fast, two slow.

It was as if he was confirming something.

In the distance, the hum of a welding torch starting up could be heard, along with someone shouting, "Reconfigure the diversion channel, add a buffer node here!"

He looked up, his voice not loud, yet it clearly resonated across the platform: "Once the cause is found, it's easy to handle. We are improving the signal receiver."