144: Chapter 144 Elevator to the Moon? Musk Cries in the Toilet

California, Hawthorne City.

At the SpaceX headquarters press conference, the atmosphere was as heated as a rock concert.

"This is our future!"

Musk stood in front of a giant screen, holding an exquisite model of the "Starship" in his hand, his face radiating a confident and fanatical smile. He pointed to the magnificent blueprint of Mars colonization behind him, his voice passionate:

"Recycling rockets is just the first step!"

"Our goal is the sea of stars! It is to make humanity a multi-planetary species!"

"Although there are bottlenecks in current technology, and although fuel costs are still very high, I guarantee everyone that within ten years! Just ten years! We will be able to send the first batch of warriors to Mars!"

Thunderous applause broke out in the audience.

Countless tech fans had tears in their eyes, as if they had already seen the scene of humans planting potatoes on Mars.

However, just as the atmosphere reached its climax, the side door of the press conference venue was slammed open.

Musk's chief assistant, that Harvard PhD known for his calmness, stumbled onto the stage looking as if he had seen a ghost.

He didn't even care that the event was still being live-streamed; he grabbed Musk's arm, his voice trembling uncontrollably:

"Boss! Stop bragging... No, wait, stop talking!"

"Something happened! Something big happened!"

"Look outside!"

"Look outside?" Musk frowned, looking displeased. "Look at what? Did a UFO land?"

"It's even more outrageous than that!"

The assistant frantically cut off the original PPT and projected a set of real-time satellite images just taken over the Dragon Country onto the giant IMAX screen.

The entire venue fell into instant silence. You could hear a pin drop.

In the image, it was exactly the Western Suburbs of Tianhai City in the Dragon Country.

A pitch-black, straight "thin line" with no supports, yet reaching straight into the firmament, stood upon the earth.

It pierced through the clouds, broke through the atmosphere, and extended all the way into the depths of space beyond the reach of sight.

And at the top of that "line," a huge silver warship was vaguely visible, acting as the "scale weight" that stabilized the heavens and earth.

"This... what is this?" Musk was stunned.

The Starship model in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter" and broke in two.

But he didn't even glance at it.

As the world's top aerospace madman, he knew better than anyone what this "line" meant.

Carbon nanotubes? Ultra-high-strength cables? Geostationary orbit connection?

These three terms combined in his mind to produce an answer that made his soul tremble.

"A... a Space Elevator?!"

Musk's voice was as sharp as a cat that had its tail stepped on, and he jumped up directly:

"This is impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

"Materials science doesn't support it! That would require materials with tensile strength over one hundred thousand times that of steel! It can't be built on Earth at all!"

"And that counterweight... what's going on with that warship? Does it not need fuel to hover? Does it not obey the law of universal gravitation?!"

His mentality collapsed. Completely collapsed.

He was here struggling to research how to recycle rockets, how to save those pathetic fuel costs, losing his hair just to lower costs by even 1%.

And the result?

That Jiang Chen on the other side of the ocean just built an elevator?

It was like everyone was in a race to climb stairs, seeing who could climb faster. Then just as you climbed to the third floor, you looked up and found your neighbor sitting in an observation elevator, holding champagne, waving and smiling at you.

What the hell is the point of competing anymore!

"Cheating! This is cheating!"

Musk grabbed his hair and paced back and forth on the stage, his eyes red:

"I'm not playing anymore! This isn't fair!"

"I'm still burning kerosene, and he's gone straight to anti-gravity? I'm still building ships, and he's already building roads?!"

"How am I supposed to explain this to the shareholders? How am I supposed to explain this to Mars?!"

Just then, the screen changed, and a new Twitter post popped up.

Poster: [ChenStar (Chenxing Technology - Jiang Chen)].

The attached image was a selfie.

Jiang Chen stood in front of a fully transparent, sci-fi-style elevator car, holding a bag of hot pot seasoning in his hand, with that black cable reaching into the clouds in the background.

The caption was still that familiar "Jiang-style" that made people want to climb through the internet cable and bite him:

[Sigh, oil prices have risen too much lately, flying a spaceship is a bit expensive.]

[So I just built an elevator to make commuting easier.]

[In the future, anyone who wants to travel to the Moon can come here and queue up. The ticket price is affordable, 998 per person, honest and fair.]

[Note: Insurance and dining are not included, after all, I'm running a small business.]

"Pfft—!!!"

Looking at the words "small business," Musk felt a sharp pain in his chest, and a mouthful of old blood almost sprayed onto the screen.

998? To the Moon?

My rocket ticket costs twenty million dollars!

"Too bullying... simply too bullying..."

This Silicon Valley Iron Man finally could not bear this huge blow.

Covering his face, under the gaze of countless flashes, he stumbled off the stage and headed straight for the restroom in the back.

A few seconds later, heartbreaking sobs came from the restroom, along with the sound of him slamming the toilet lid.

A generation of aerospace titans, in the end, could not withstand this dimensional strike from the East.

West Suburb Base, Space Elevator shaft.

Jiang Chen put his phone back in his pocket and glanced at the elevator control panel, which had just lit up with a green light.

"Done."

He was in a great mood and turned to look at the core team behind him who were all geared up.

Zhao Gang was carrying a modded laser rifle, his waist hung full of high-explosive grenades, and he was holding that Pikachu, which was wearing a custom spacesuit and looking excited.

Academician Chen Shuyin was carrying that silver briefcase; although she tried her best to maintain a scientist's composure, her hands, which were gripping the safety railing tightly, betrayed her inner tension.

"Boss, are we really... going up in this?"

Zhao Gang looked at the fully transparent elevator car and swallowed, "This thing doesn't even have a seatbelt. If the rope snaps..."

"Snap, my foot."

Jiang Chen rolled his eyes. "This rope could hoist Mount Everest. Get in, don't dawdle."

He was the first to step into the elevator car and put the bag of hot pot seasoning in the corner.

"Sit tight."

Jiang Chen pressed the red start button, a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes:

"We aren't just going to the Moon for a vacation this time."

"Up there, there's a big guy waiting for us to... sign for it."

"Hum—"

A slight vibration.

The anti-gravity field was activated.

The huge elevator car instantly lost its weight and shot up into the sky along that pitch-black cable without a sound.

The speed got faster and faster.

Everything on the ground began to shrink rapidly.

The West Suburb Base turned into a matchbox, Tianhai City turned into a sand table, and finally, the entire Yangtze River Delta was in full view.

The clouds were left behind.

The sky changed from azure to deep ink blue, and finally turned into a silent and brilliant starry sky.

"Wow..."

Academician Chen Shuyin leaned against the glass, looking at the blue planet getting further and further away beneath her feet, her beautiful eyes filled with shock.

This was her first time overlooking the Earth from this perspective.

"Don't just look at the scenery."

Jiang Chen stood beside her, but his gaze was cast towards that silver disk hanging above their heads, which was getting larger and larger—the Moon.

"Prepare to get to work."

"Our neighbor seems to be unable to wait to greet us."

As his voice fell, the elevator car broke through the synchronous orbit and completed docking with the luan niao starship that had been waiting there for a long time.

The cabin door opened.

A chill from the depths of the universe rushed toward them.

The Far Side of the Moon.

That ruin, which had been sleeping for billions of years, finally welcomed its first batch of... visitors from Earth.