81: Chapter 81 Brain-Computer Interfaces and Nuclear Energy

Returning from Engineer Li's place, Chen Fan walked with a spring in his step, unable to suppress the smile on his face as he headed straight for the underground laboratory deep within the Pan Shi Base.

"Fan Zi, look at you, beaming with joy. Is the matter settled?" Lin Hao had been waiting at the door and immediately approached him upon seeing this.

"Settled? It's more than that," Chen Fan grinned, revealing a row of white teeth. "Those old experts' eyes almost popped out. Their hands were shaking as they held our material samples! It's a sure thing!"

"Awesome!" Lin Hao pumped his fist. Before his excitement could fade, his brows furrowed habitually. "But Fan Zi, I'm still uneasy. We suffered a lot from that grandson Long Zaitian's EMP last time. If we really go all out against him and he plays dirty again—like cutting the power to our district or something even worse... our lifeblood would be in his hands."

The smile on Chen Fan's face vanished, and his gaze instantly turned heavy. "You hit the nail on the head. Being a sitting duck isn't my style. Energy must be in our own hands—it must be absolutely independent, stable, and reliable! From today on, the external power grid will only be a backup!"

Lin Hao's heart skipped a beat as a familiar premonition surfaced—a mix of 'Fan Zi is going to do something big again' and 'is this even possible?'. "What... what do you want to do? Build your own power plant? Burn coal or gas? Not to mention the investment, the approval process alone would be exhausting..."

"Burn coal or gas?" Chen Fan sneered, his gaze looking at Lin Hao as if he were an elementary student. "Too backward and not environmentally friendly. Wind or solar? That's relying on the weather, not stable enough." He paused, staring at Lin Hao with eyes like torches, and said word for word:

"If we're going to do it, we'll go for the best—a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor."

"Nuclear?!" Lin Hao jumped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his voice cracking. "Fan Zi! Wake up! That's nuclear! Not a toy! Technical issues aside, what about approvals? Safety regulations?"

"I'll solve the technical problems," Chen Fan's tone was terrifyingly calm, yet carried an unquestionable confidence. "Have you forgotten how we started our business?"

Lin Hao was stunned.

Chen Fan continued, his thoughts clear. "Once the reactor core is built, we'll put it directly into the space jade pendant. It's a self-contained space, physically isolated from the outside world. Any risk of leakage or explosion theoretically drops to zero. It saves external space and provides the ultimate insurance."

"Holy crap!" Lin Hao slapped his thigh, his eyes lighting up. "That's brilliant! Using the space jade pendant as a containment shell! Fan Zi, you're a genius!"

"Cut the flattery," Chen Fan chuckled and then turned serious. "This matter is classified as top secret, with the highest priority. Proceed with the medical equipment as planned, but this 'energy heart' must be replaced immediately!"

This thought was like a prairie fire, instantly igniting all of Chen Fan's ideas.

Nuclear energy! The most advanced energy source in human science to date!

"Xiao Zhi!" Chen Fan's mind raced as he immediately called out to the future smart brain. "Using the most cutting-edge nuclear reactor theoretical knowledge, design a Miniature Nuclear Fusion Power Supply System suitable for the Pan Shi Base! The output power goal: meet the peak load operation of all existing equipment, with a hundredfold expansion redundancy! Compress the volume to no more than three meters in length, width, and height! For safety standards, design it to withstand a hundred times the intensity of the previous EMP attack! It must be absolutely safe and foolproof!"

In his mind, Xiao Zhi's computing core seemed to stutter for a moment, and the faint blue data stream was momentarily disrupted.

"Master, are you sure?" In Xiao Zhi's electronic voice, there was a rare hint of almost "human-like" hesitation. "According to my database analysis, the various indicators you proposed, especially the combination of volume and safety, have significantly exceeded the current public technological level of human civilization by at least a hundred years. This is a concept on the edge of theoretical physics limits, with many unknown risks and unsolved problems."

"Oh?" Chen Fan was amused. "You're an AI, and now you've even learned 'emotions' and 'questioning'?"

"Continuously learning human interaction patterns and emotional expression models," Xiao Zhi's tone returned to steady, but with a faint, almost imperceptible hint of "playfulness." "Attempting to simulate the reasonable reaction of a human engineer when receiving an impossible task."

"Nice simulation, don't do it next time," Chen Fan teased. "You don't need to worry about the implementation; leave that to me. Just get me the most optimized and boldest theoretical model possible, the more detailed the better!"

"Understood. Highest authority command confirmed. Beginning transcendental theoretical model deduction..." Xiao Zhi's voice became absolutely rational again as its massive computing power began to run at full speed.

A moment later, a massive flow of information, blueprints, formulas, and parameters poured into Chen Fan's mind like a galactic waterfall. The complexity was enough to keep any team of top nuclear physicists busy for a lifetime.

Chen Fan frowned. Having the model wasn't enough; he needed to "understand" and truly internalize this knowledge to use his "Amplification" ability to turn concepts into reality. If he started learning now, it would be too late.

"Xiao Zhi, is there a way for me to quickly 'master' this knowledge? Like a direct mental download?"

"Yes, Boss," Xiao Zhi responded immediately. "Through a non-invasive high-precision Brain-Computer Interface, specific knowledge modules can be encoded and transmitted directly to the long-term memory and logical processing areas of your cerebral cortex, forming an 'instinctive' understanding. However, this process requires extremely precise interface equipment and stable neural signal amplifiers."

"Equipment isn't a problem!" Chen Fan's eyes lit up.

He had Uncle Wang find a few ordinary VR headset components and medical EEG monitoring patches from the trash pile, concentrated his mind, and covered them with his palm.

"Amplification direction: Brain domain knowledge infusion interface. Effect: Safe, efficient, and lossless."

[Ding! Strong demand from the host and low-value electronic components detected... Triggering ten-thousand-fold Amplification!]

[Ordinary VR components + medical patches → "Divine Revelation" Knowledge Infusion Helmet (Safety Type)]

The components in his hand transformed and combined in a flash of light, finally forming a streamlined, futuristic silver-gray helmet. The interior was soft and form-fitting, emitting a faint, soothing light.

Chen Fan put the helmet on without hesitation.

The next second, a vast sea of nuclear physics knowledge, engineering details, and material science mysteries poured into his consciousness like the most refined spring water.

There was no pain, only a sudden, clear realization. It was as if those laws, formulas, and exquisite structures had always been a part of his life.

In just ten minutes, taking off the heavy helmet, Chen Fan's eyes seemed to hold the birth and death of stars and the rotation of the universe.

"Amazing..." he murmured, feeling the weighty treasury of knowledge in his mind that now belonged entirely to him. "If I had this back in school, what would Tsinghua and Peking University matter? Nobel Prizes would have to wait in line to be awarded to me."

With the knowledge in place and materials ready (Wang Defu had already procured a pile of seemingly ordinary special alloy ingots, superconducting material blanks, and high-purity chemicals according to the list), Chen Fan took a deep breath and went to the specially cleared and reinforced experimental room.

He sat cross-legged and gently pressed his hand on the pile of "raw materials." In his mind, the perfect blueprint for the "Miniature Fusion Reactor" provided by Xiao Zhi—which he had now thoroughly mastered—emerged clearly, every detail vivid.

"Amplification..." Chen Fan closed his eyes, and all his mental energy, like invisible tentacles, delved deep into the matter before him.

"Target: Perform material reorganization and conceptual realization according to the 'Pan Shi' miniature fusion energy core blueprint in the 'Divine Revelation' knowledge base! Grant it absolutely safe space-anchoring characteristics, energy conversion efficiency beyond theoretical limits, and a resilient structure that ignores EMP!"

His consciousness seemed to sink into an atomic ocean of metal, sensing the position and movement of every particle, guiding them through a rearrangement and combination that defied natural laws. Impurities were precisely stripped away, structures were built according to the most perfect crystal lattices, and invisible energy channels were carved out at the microscopic level... Sweat instantly poured from Chen Fan's forehead, temples, and back, forming streams that dripped onto the floor.

His face turned pale at a visible rate, and his body trembled slightly as if bearing a weight of ten thousand tons. The long-term mental and physical enhancement brought by the Heart-Clearing and Mind-Stabilizing Water was now being pushed to its limit!

For two full hours, the experimental room was eerily quiet, save for Chen Fan's heavy breathing and the sound of sweat hitting the floor.

Finally—

Buzz! It was a perfect cylinder about two meters high and one and a half meters in diameter. It was a dull dark gray all over, with a surface as smooth as a mirror, without any seams or bolts. Only a few elegant blue lines flowing with a faint light flickered like breathing.

It stood there quietly, without terrifying heat or violent radiation. Instead, it emitted a strange, reassuring sense of "stability."

Chen Fan leaned back as if drained of all strength, gasping for air. His face was as pale as paper, but his eyes burned with an unprecedented fire of excitement.

It's done! The casting is complete!

He struggled to get up and performed a simple startup test according to the knowledge in his mind. With a thought command, a clearer rhythm, like a heartbeat, came from inside the cylinder, and the blue lines brightened for a moment. On the connected external test meter, the pointer representing energy output instantly maxed out and then stopped steadily beyond the scale—the power was too great for a conventional meter to measure!

"Haha... Hahaha!" Chen Fan couldn't help but chuckle, his laughter echoing in the empty experimental room.

With a thought, the cylinder disappeared instantly, taken into the space of the jade pendant. There, it would become the eternal "sun" of Chen Fan's future empire.

With energy in hand, any threat from Long Zaitian would no longer be a concern!