bioinnovel Chapter 469 The Price!
Chapter 469 The Price!
The laboratory lights reflected in Zhang Yan's eyes, casting a cold, golden glow.
The golden energy flow of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart receiving the data packet has been running stably for six hours. On the screen, the details of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Final Blueprint are peeled away layer by layer, like dissecting a delicate mechanical heart.
"...The main frame uses nested quantum alloy, and its load-bearing capacity is seventeen times that of the Chaos Mech."
Zhang Yan's voice echoed in the empty laboratory as he reported to Nie Qingcheng on the other end of the communication channel, "The furnace core needs to be designed separately; the traditional fusion mode cannot keep up with the energy level transition of the star core."
"What should we use instead?" Nie Qingcheng's voice was hoarse from just waking up, but she spoke quickly.
"The entropy-reversing properties of high-dimensional debris can be considered, but the structural strength is insufficient."
"The blueprint suggests using an 'energy-anchored furnace,' with the Heart of the Celestial Craftsmanship as the core anchor point, to directly extract stellar energy for synchronous conversion."
"You mean you're going to stuff the Heart of the Gods into the furnace?"
"It's not about stuffing it in; it's about using it as the 'core' of the reactor."
Zhang Yan pulled up a structural simulation diagram. "The energy in the star's core is too violent; ordinary containers simply cannot contain it."
"The frequency of the Heart of the Celestial Craftsman can resonate with stellar energy, which is equivalent to using a known stable frequency to 'tame' another unstable frequency."
"And the price?"
Zhang Yan remained silent for two seconds.
"It's not written in the blueprint, but I've done my own calculations. With prolonged high-load resonance, the energy reserves of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart will be rapidly depleted, and the core temperature will continue to rise."
"In the worst-case scenario, core overheating could cause the protocol to lock up, or even... permanent damage."
There was silence on the other end of the communication.
Zhang Yan could imagine Nie Qingcheng's expression at this moment; she wouldn't show any worry, as that wasn't in her nature.
She would suppress all her emotions and then use the calmest mind to calculate the gains and losses.
"Risk assessment," Nie Qingcheng began, her voice now fully back to normal.
"If we only use the Heart of Heaven for initial energy guidance and then switch to an autonomous furnace later, the risks are manageable."
"But this will extend the construction time, requiring at least forty-five days."
"We only have five months."
"I know."
"Then let's use the first option." Nie Qingcheng's voice was unwavering. "We'll find ways to reduce the risks."
Zhang Yan turned off the blueprint and stood up.
A slight stinging pain came from his knee; he had been sitting at the control panel for too long.
As I walked to the window, the sky outside was already turning a pale white, and the outline of the city in the distance was gradually becoming clear in the morning light.
"There's one more thing," he said.
"explain."
"The blueprint mentions that the final form of the Heavenly Craftsmanship requires a 'consciousness synchronization rate' of over 95% to fully realize its potential, and the improvement in synchronization rate requires time to adapt."
What is your synchronization rate now?
87%.
Another brief silence followed.
"How long will the adaptation period take?" Nie Qingcheng asked.
"According to the standard training plan given in the blueprint, it will take at least sixty days, but high-intensity training will further increase the burden on the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship."
"Change the plan," Nie Qingcheng said. "Forget standard training, use combat simulation."
"Let the Stargazing system retrieve historical battle data from the network to build a virtual battlefield. You can practice synchronization in the virtual environment, which can reduce real-world time by half."
Zhang Yan turned around, his gaze returning to the streamlined mecha silhouette on the screen.
"Yes, but virtual simulation cannot fully replicate the pressure feedback in real combat, and the efficiency of improving synchronization will be reduced."
"Then after we reach 85%, we'll conduct a small-scale practical test," Nie Qingcheng said. "I'll have Qin Xiao arrange for a test area to be cleared out on the far side of the moon."
"The moon?" Zhang Yan frowned. "Too far away."
"It's closer than going to the sun."
Nie Qingcheng's voice carried an undeniable air, "The moon is a ready-made testing ground with a controllable environment, and... the community has left traces on the far side of the moon before, making the simulated battlefield data more realistic."
Zhang Yan did not object further.
He walked back to the control panel, pulled up the timeline for the renovation plan, and began to reschedule.
【改造周期：45天。】【同步率适应：30天（虚拟模拟）+ 15天（实战测试）。】【材料採购：10天（并行）。】【总工期：60天。】
Five months, one hundred and fifty days.
Subtracting the 60-day construction period, there are 90 days left.
But this is the ideal situation.
"A beauty that could topple cities," Zhang Yan said.
"Um?"
"One item on the materials procurement list is 'stardust coating,' which needs to be purchased from the interstellar market."
"But I checked the public database of observation protocols and there are currently no suppliers."
"What do you mean?"
"This means that this material may have been discontinued, or... it only forms naturally in specific high-dimensional environments."
"Then let's build it ourselves," Nie Qingcheng said. "I'll figure out what equipment we need."
"We need a 'dimensional compressor' that can compress ordinary matter to near a singularity and then release it to form a high-dimensional coating."
"The technical specifications of this equipment may exceed our existing industrial system."
"Stargazing."
"Yes." Guan Xing's voice came in from the other end of the channel; she had clearly been listening the whole time.
"Are there any records about dimensional compression technology in the archives of Guantiange?"
"have."
The stargazer's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible excitement, "Thirty thousand years ago, Tiangong City once built a prototype machine for processing the hull of a starship."
"The design drawings are stored in a fourth-layer encrypted file, and I need time to decrypt them."
"how long?"
Three hours.
"Go do it."
"Yes."
The communication channel fell silent again, with only the low-frequency hum of the equipment running.
Zhang Yan's finger slid across the screen, his gaze landing on the second item in the materials list: Star Core Crystallization.
The guided precipitation scheme requires the core of the star to release pulses of a specific frequency to "pull" the condensed crystals out of the high-temperature and high-pressure environment of the star's core.
This process is extremely resource-intensive and requires very high precision; if the deviation exceeds 0.1%, the crystals will break apart during precipitation.
He pulled up a simulation model of the sun's core and began calculating the optimal operational path.
[Entry Path: Entering from the corona, accelerating using the solar wind.] [Operating Depth: 1/3 of the outer core (peak pressure region).] [Dwell Time: 35 seconds (theoretical limit).] [Energy Consumption: 17% of the Heavenly Core's reserves.]
He stared at the red "35 seconds".
Thirty seconds to enter, ten seconds to work, five seconds to return.
Every second is calculated precisely to the millisecond level.
Any unexpected event—such as a solar flare, magnetic field disturbance, or deviation in the rate of crystallization—can shorten this limit time, or even reduce it to zero.
He reached out and pressed his hand to his chest; the pulse of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart pulsated through his skin, steady and powerful.
"Zhang Yan." Nie Qingcheng's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"exist."
How long did you sleep last night?
Zhang Yan paused for a moment. "Four hours."
"It's six in the morning. You've been working since noon yesterday, for eighteen hours straight, and only slept for four hours." Nie Qingcheng's tone was calm, but every word seemed to carry weight. "Go upstairs and go to sleep. Don't come down before nine o'clock."
"The plan isn't out yet—"
"The plan can wait, but your body can't," Nie Qingcheng said. "Modifying the mecha requires your hands to be steady and your mind to be sharp. The probability of making a mistake due to fatigue is four times that of being in a normal state. I don't want to gamble."
Zhang Yan stared at the densely packed data on the screen and remained silent for a few seconds.
"it is good."
He closed all interfaces and stood up. The laboratory lights cast long shadows at his feet. As he reached the door, he glanced back at the streamlined mecha silhouette on the screen.
It floated silently in the darkness, like a sleeping giant, waiting to be awakened.
The villa was quiet when Zhang Yan went upstairs. He opened the bedroom door and found Nie Qingcheng sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a tablet with Qingcheng International's financial statements on the screen. She was wearing a dark gray silk nightgown, her long hair draped over her shoulders. When she saw Zhang Yan come in, she put down the tablet.
"Lie down," she said.
Zhang Yan walked to the bedside, but instead of lying down immediately, he reached out and took her tablet, glancing at the numbers on the screen.
"You are raising funds."
"Yes." Nie Qingcheng didn't hide anything. "Some of the materials needed to modify the mecha must be purchased from the interstellar market. I'm currently consolidating all the liquid funds under the group to prepare for the establishment of a special fund."
"How much do you need?"
"Converted at the current exchange rate, it's about three times the annual net profit of Qingcheng International," Nie Qingcheng said. "For the shortfall, I plan to mortgage some of our overseas assets."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"You know what this means."
"I know." Nie Qingcheng took the tablet and put it aside. "It means that if the transformation fails, Qingcheng International will go bankrupt. But if we don't transform it, the Earth might disappear, so keeping the money will be useless."