112: Chapter 112 The Possibilities of Superconductors

When the player [Qianlong Wuyong] followed the crowd, waking up from the incubation pods on level B5 and taking the elevator to the surface, even this man, hailed as the youngest genius researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, could not suppress his inner shock.

Standing under the piercing wasteland sun, he clenched his fist hard, feeling the rough texture of his palm and the slight damping sensation as his knuckles exerted force.

“Unimaginable technology. This delicate and realistic physical feedback is definitely not something the non-invasive brain-computer interfaces on Earth can achieve.”

Qianlong Wuyong took a deep breath of air laden with radioactive dust.

“Well, no time to stand here and marvel. I need to set up a proper physics laboratory as soon as possible.”

As a special newbie entering the game with top-secret national missions and massive financial backing, Qianlong Wuyong didn't need to laboriously haul bricks or kill monsters to earn points like ordinary players.

The moment he logged on...

Over a dozen veteran players, who had collected real-world currency outside, directly transferred several sums of points to him through the system's transfer function, the amounts being jaw-droppingly large.

In just a few minutes, he became one of the wealthiest newbie big-shots currently on the server.

Qianlong's thoughts were exceptionally clear; he ignored the other players around him who were frantically messing around.

“Hey! Buddy!”

A player carrying a machete approached him.

“You look like a smart guy. Come on, let's team up and go to the northwest to hack some Greenskins!”

“Newbie trade caravan looking for one more! Going to Shahe Town to flip supplies, guaranteed profit! You in, buddy?”

Even another player waved enthusiastically:

“Farming playstyle over here! Partnering up for a one-to-one replica of Stardew Valley! Buddy, want to come farm?”

Qianlong was like a cold, aloof top student just stepping out of a train station, ignoring this group of soliciting unlicensed taxi drivers.

He turned straight around, returned underground, and found 73, who was busy on the B4 production line.

Qianlong didn't waste any words, directly transferring a large sum of points to rent a two-story red brick building of about a hundred square meters in the industrial zone on the west side of the camp through 73.

He rushed over and forcefully pushed up the rusted rolling shutter door.

The interior was spacious and dry, free of extra clutter; he was very satisfied.

Next, Qianlong opened the player mall interface and bought several sets of basic lab benches, benchwork equipment, and electronic testing instruments produced by the Matter Constructor in one go.

With the help of dozens of Ape-style Robots, a simple laboratory was quickly set up.

“Preparations complete.”

Qianlong looked at the room full of equipment and rubbed his hands. “First, I'll go test that new constructor underground to see where its bottom line actually is.”

Over the next few days...

Qianlong completely shut himself away between the laboratory and the giant constructor on level B5.

He spent a massive amount of points to have 73 assist with complex calculations, constantly probing the processing limits of the B5 Matter Constructor.

He first fashioned the blades of a miniature turbojet, then even drew up a model for a liquid rocket engine's combustion chamber, and successfully printed the physical objects in the constructor!

Even more outrageous, he even attempted to construct a silicon-based chip engraving plate with 5-nanometer precision!

These top-tier technological creations, which would be considered national treasures on Earth, were casually piled in a corner of the lab by Qianlong.

His true goal was not these traditional industrial products at all.

“Hydrides.”

Qianlong stood before the lab bench, staring at a metal sample in front of him.

“As far as I know, this world has long mastered the technology for mass-producing Solid-state Hydrogen Batteries. And a key part of this technology is how to stabilize the crystal structure of hydrides under high pressure.”

But the direction Qianlong wanted to test was not for making batteries.

He had even greater ambitions.

He wanted to attempt using special alloys containing hydrides and, through precise chemical doping methods, forcibly introduce large-volume atoms such as Yttrium, Lanthanum, and Carbon into the material's crystal lattice.

Through this microscopic atomic compression, a terrifying internal chemical pressure would be generated within the material.

By this means, he hoped to realize the legendary ultimate material—a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor!

“If this hypothesis tests successfully in this infinitely realistic physics engine... although Earth still lacks the manufacturing means, as long as the theoretical model holds, once it's replicated in reality...”

Qianlong's breathing became excited.

This meant that the controlled nuclear fusion, desktop-level quantum computers, zero-loss superconducting motors, and infinite energy storage devices that humanity has dreamed of for decades... all these things that only exist in sci-fi movies would be fully realized on Earth!

Human civilization's technological level would take a qualitative leap!

Qianlong threw himself frantically into the experimental deduction of microscopic lattices.

However, what he didn't know...

Was that in the old workshop next door, the grease-monkey Kane was currently sweating profusely while hammering away at a bloated prototype plasma rifle.

Kane was facing the same problem.

Because there were no room-temperature superconductors to construct perfect magnetic confinement coils, the high-temperature components he used to confine the plasma had to settle for second best, using a large number of Adamantium coils wound by force.

This resulted in the rifle's body being as large as a rocket launcher, bloated and prone to overheating.

But Kane remembered a wise maxim full of wisdom that the red-armored Lord had said to him during an inspection a few days ago:

“It’s not like it doesn't work!”

“What does a bit of an ugly appearance matter? It’s not like it doesn't work. As long as it can burn the enemy to ash, it's fine!”

...

On the other side.

Beneath the ruins of the Gaobo Food Factory.

Carmen sprinted all the way back, and without any hesitation, went straight through the long, narrow passage to the deep room where twenty stasis field pods were arranged.

In the room, some field pods still emitted a faint blue glow, while others were already empty—those were brothers who had previously died due to genetic collapse.

Carmen walked to the stasis field pod in the very center, which was also the largest.

He took a deep breath, extended a thick finger, and pressed the control button to terminate the slumber.

Lying inside the pod was the supreme Commander of the Fourth Legion of Thunder Warriors—Ushtan.

Looking at that sleeping face covered in scars and the weathering of time, a blood-and-tear-soaked history from ten thousand years ago involuntarily surfaced in Carmen's mind.

At the end of the Unification Wars of Terra.

As the genetic collapse of the Thunder Warriors grew increasingly severe, and the plan for a new generation of more stable, more obedient Space Marines gradually matured.

Ushtan, relying on his keen political intuition, sensed the Emperor's intention to discard the hounds once the rabbits were caught.

To seek justice for his brothers suffering from genetic diseases, and to survive this conspiracy destined for purging.

Ushtan led his subordinates to launch that mutiny on Terra that shocked the Empire—known as the Cerberus Insurrection.

Of course, facing the Emperor's all-crushing power...

This rebellion was quickly and ruthlessly suppressed by the Captain-General of the Custodes, Constantin Valdor, who personally led the troops.

Ushtan was defeated and heavily wounded in a duel with Valdor.

Before dying, Ushtan lay in a pool of blood, angrily denouncing the Emperor's inhuman coldness.

He looked at the new generation of Space Marines taking their places, his eyes full of pity.

Because he knew better than anyone that as tools, the Space Marines would sooner or later face the same fate of being heartlessly abandoned as they were today!

Fortunately, Ushtan was not slain on the spot.

The First Legion Master of the Thunder Warriors, Arik Taranis, who was responsible for clearing the battlefield at the time...

This legendary figure requested to personally execute his rebellious comrade.

In reality, he used the convenience of his position to secretly fake Ushtan's death.

And he secretly arranged an unrecorded freighter, allowing the heavily wounded Ushtan, Carmen, and a group of surviving brothers to escape Terra under the cover of night, drifting like rats to this remote Ultima Segmentum.

“Beep—!”

The buzzing of the flashing indicator light pulled Carmen back from his memories to reality.

The faint blue light curtain of the stasis field slowly faded.

The heavy metal pod door opened with the sound of hydraulics.

However...

Carmen waited with a heart full of joy for the Commander to wake up so he could tell him the heartening news, only to find Ushtan lying on the metal bed with his eyes tightly closed, showing no reaction at all!

“Commander!”

Carmen turned pale with shock.

He hurriedly lunged forward, placing his thick fingers on Ushtan's carotid artery, which was covered in horny growths.

After a simple check, Carmen's heart instantly sank to the bottom.

During the long stasis slumber, the genetic collapse within Ushtan had not only failed to stop but had instead spread to the edges of his heart and brain!

Currently, their supreme Commander, who once dominated Terra, had completely fallen into a near-death state, his breath as thin as silk, with only his last gasp keeping him alive!

“Damn it! Hold on!”

Without a second thought, Carmen directly ripped away the life-support lines connected to the pod.

He extended his arms, picking up the more than two-meter-tall Ushtan in his arms like a child, turned, and sprinted toward the surface like a madman!

“Hold on! I’ve found someone who can cure us!”

...

Inside the concrete watchtower on the surface of Fire Seed Shelter.

“Bang!”

The door was violently burst open.

Carmen rushed in carrying the dying Ushtan and knelt heavily on one knee before Lin Li.

“My Lord! I beg of you! Save him!”

Carmen's resolute face was full of anxiety.

“As long as you can save Commander Ushtan! I, Carmen, personally declare my permanent departure from the Thunder Warrior Legion! I am willing to swear a blood oath to be loyal only to you from now on! To go through fire and water for you!”

Lin Li looked at the burly giant in Carmen's arms, who was exhaling more than inhaling, his skin already starting to show a necrotic gray color.

He was a man even taller and stronger than Carmen; Lin Li estimated this guy was at least three meters tall.

He didn't take the opportunity to haggle over conditions.

On this wretched wasteland, the death-defying loyalty of a top-tier veteran was worth much more than any gold or jewelry.

Lin Li nodded decisively and directly ordered over the communication channel:

“Hong, get here quickly to pick up a critically wounded patient.”

Subsequently, Lin Li took Carmen and descended straight to the third underground level via the main elevator.

When the elevator doors opened and revealed the spacious and bright genetic laboratory on level B3...

A flash of deep shock crossed Carmen's bloodshot eyes.

A sterile underground facility of this level and scale was definitely not something a warlord in the wilderness could build.

This further confirmed the guess in his heart: the man before him was definitely a legitimate descendant of the Golden Men!

Stone Man Hong was already waiting in the laboratory.

With a cold face, she directed several robots to place the dying Ushtan into an oversized incubation pod.

Next...

Hong performed a display of genetic technology that could be called a miracle before this ancient Thunder Warrior.

Her fingers became a blur on the control console.

A pale blue nutrient solution was injected into the incubation pod.

Hong not only forcibly halted Ushtan's collapsing telomeres but even, on a microscopic level, excised the redundant junk code in the Thunder Warrior's genetic sequence used to create violent emotions!

Carmen watched all this through the glass, completely won over by this miraculous biological technology.

“His underlying genetic logic has been rewritten and repaired by me.”

Hong stopped her movements and looked at the data on the screen.

“Next, the incubation pod will perform deep cellular reconstruction on his body to adapt to the new genetic sequence. This process will take 24 hours.”

“In 24 hours, he will wake up.”