31: Chapter 31: Using a Tactic to Win Over a Spy and Get Him to Write My Thesis

The moment she stepped into the study, Alice's heart accelerated, and a thin layer of sweat even beaded on her palms.

As a highly trained S-class agent, she had entered the archives of The Pentagon and infiltrated the underground vaults of Middle Eastern warlords, but never before had she felt as excited and nervous as she did today.

This was Jiang Chen's study.

It was the core area of that mysterious man, regarded as a coveted prize by the Long Kingdom military and marked in red by countless intelligence agencies.

"Is this the legendary... Forbidden Land of the Gods?"

Alice scanned her surroundings with greedy eyes.

The massive solid wood bookshelves were piled high with messy documents, the walls were covered in sketches filled with gibberish, and a few unfinished instant noodle cups were tossed in the corner.

It looked chaotic, but in the eyes of a professional like Alice, this was what they called "the chaos of a genius."

"Sit wherever you like, don't be polite."

Jiang Chen closed the door, locked it casually, threw the trash bag containing the "500,000" prize money into a corner, and slumped into that expensive ergonomic chair, letting out a comfortable sigh.

Alice's eyes shimmered as she cat-walked over to Jiang Chen's side.

She didn't rush to flip through the documents; instead, she softened her body and sat on the edge of the wide desk, crossing her slender legs, causing her skirt to ride up and reveal a large expanse of dazzling white skin.

"Mr. Jiang," she extended a finger, gently tracing it across Jiang Chen's chest, her voice sweet enough to pull strings, "It's so quiet here... What exactly is this 'good stuff' you mentioned? I can't wait anymore."

As she spoke, she leaned forward slightly, her cleavage partially visible. The miniature camera hidden in her brooch was aimed directly at Jiang Chen's face, ready to record the ugly sight of this man lost in infatuation.

However, Jiang Chen didn't even glance at that expanse of snow-white skin.

He abruptly sat up straight, as if he had remembered something important, pushed Alice's hand away, and began frantically rummaging through the pile of waste paper on the desk that was as messy as a chicken coop.

"Wait a second! Don't rush! It'll be ready in a moment!"

"Found it!"

Jiang Chen shouted excitedly, pulling a thick stack of grease-stained handwritten manuscript papers from under a pile of takeout receipts.

"Bam!"

He slammed the stack of manuscript papers heavily in front of Alice, his eyes flashing with the kind of capitalist glint that would make any worker want to call the police.

"This is the treasure!"

Alice was startled by the sudden action and instinctively looked down.

The manuscript was densely packed with words, along with countless complex formulas and charts. Although the handwriting was as illegible as a doctor's prescription, the overwhelming sense of profound mystery instantly made her breath hitch.

Could this be... the blueprints for the Lithography Machine? Or the core parameters of that mech?

"Mr. Jiang, this is..." Her voice trembled, and her fingers were shaking.

"My paper."

Jiang Chen yawned and pointed matter-of-factly at the computer nearby, "Just a few small thoughts on 'Controlled Nuclear Fusion'. I originally wanted to submit it to the journal 'Nature' to earn some writing fees, but I have a problem—my hands hurt whenever I type."

He looked up at Alice and flashed a brilliant smile, "I see your fingers are slender; you must use a keyboard often, right? Your typing speed should be fast?"

"Come on, do me a favor. If you can finish typing this up tonight, I will... hehehe."

He deliberately left an ambiguous tail to his sentence.

Alice was stunned.

Let me... type? I'm here to steal secrets! Not to be your typist!

But on second thought, wasn't this a god-given opportunity? While typing, couldn't she legitimately transmit the content back to headquarters? Plus, she could use this to paralyze the opponent, making him think she was just a naive fool!

"Sure."

Alice suppressed her inner ecstasy, put on a well-behaved and sensible act, and sat down in front of the computer, "It's my honor to be able to help Mr. Jiang. But... there's so much, my hands will get sore."

"It's fine, no one will feel sorry for you if they get sore, just get to work."

Jiang Chen didn't respond to her coquettishness at all, shoved the stack of manuscript papers into her arms, then lay down on the sofa nearby and covered his face with a book.

"Start, I'm going to nap for a bit. Remember to format it well, I'm counting on this for my professional title promotion."

Alice gritted her teeth.

Damn straight man! Once I empty out your villa, let's see how you get your promotion!

She took a deep breath, opened the document, activated the scanning and transmission function in her brooch, then picked up the first page of the manuscript, preparing to begin this "great theft operation."

However, when she saw the first line of the title, she was completely dumbfounded.

[On the Feasibility of Isotope Centrifugal Separation Using 500ml Polyester Containers (Coke Bottles) in High-Pressure Environments]

Alice: "???"

Coke bottles? Centrifugal separation? She thought she had misread it, rubbed her eyes, and continued reading.

[Abstract: Traditional centrifuges are expensive and difficult to maintain. Through my long-term practice, I have discovered that the 2.5-liter large Coke bottles on sale at supermarkets have a bottle curvature that perfectly matches aerodynamics. As long as the rotational speed reaches 3,000 revolutions per second, combined with microwave heating...]

"What the hell is this?!"

Alice almost flipped the table on the spot.

This is a nuclear fusion paper? This is the ravings of a lunatic! Building a nuclear bomb with Coke bottles? Why don't you use a pressure cooker to refine alchemy pills?

She turned her head sharply toward Jiang Chen on the sofa, her eyes filled with the anger of being fooled.

This kid is messing with me, right?

"Um... Mr. Jiang."

Alice couldn't help but speak up, "The content here... isn't it a bit too... sci-fi?"

"Sci-fi?"

Jiang Chen's voice came muffled from under the book, "That's because you don't understand. Truth is often in the hands of the few. Just type it as is, don't ask why; if you ask, it's quantum mechanics."

Alice took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

Perhaps... this is a form of encryption?

Yes! It must be encryption!

What scientist would actually use Coke bottles for experiments? This must be using layman's terms to refer to some high-end, cutting-edge equipment! "Coke bottle" might refer to a new type of centrifuge, and "microwave" might refer to a particle accelerator!

This is an extremely clever "jargon" that only top-tier geniuses can understand!

Thinking of this, Alice's gaze instantly became serious.

She no longer questioned it, but with a feeling of pilgrimage, she began typing away on the keyboard.

As she delved deeper into the input, the more she saw, the more shocked she became.

Although the previous descriptions were nonsensical, the dense formula derivations that followed were the real deal!

Those formulas... they were perfect!

Although the symbols were strange (Wasteland simplified version) and the logic jumped around, every equation was like a precision gear, interlocking perfectly, ultimately pointing to a problem that left the physics community in despair—the "ignition threshold of Controlled Nuclear Fusion."

"My God..."

Although Alice was just an agent, she had received higher education in physics. She was confused by what she saw, yet she could feel that logical beauty at a mathematical level.

"This is absolutely real! This is the core algorithm for Controlled Nuclear Fusion!"

"That 'Coke bottle' is just a disguise! These formulas are the real treasure!"

Her fingers trembled with excitement, and her typing speed instantly soared to its limit.

Must transmit it back!

This is something that can change the world's energy landscape! If the Eagle Sauce gets this, they can completely break free from their reliance on oil and dominate the world again!

"Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack—"

In the study, only the sound of frantic typing on the keyboard remained, along with Alice's slightly rapid breathing due to overexcitement.

She was like a tireless machine, sending every symbol and every decimal point continuously through the transmitter in her brooch to a top-secret server across the ocean.

And on the other end of the sofa.

Jiang Chen, who was supposed to be sleeping, quietly shifted the book covering his face just a crack.

He looked at the "free labor" sitting in front of the computer, with a graceful figure, working frantically as if she had been injected with adrenaline, and a mischievous smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Tsk tsk, this typing speed, she really lives up to being a professional."

"She's saved me so much trouble."

The paper was indeed real.

It was a science primer for elementary school students in the Wasteland, explaining how to extract nuclear fuel in the wild using simple tools. Of course, the "Coke bottles" in the Wasteland were made of special materials; those on Earth certainly wouldn't work.

But that didn't matter.

What mattered was that the formulas inside were correct.

As long as the scientists over at Eagle Sauce really believed this theory and went to buy a bunch of Coke bottles to put in the microwave...

That scene—just imagining it felt "nuke"-ly harmonious.

"Keep it up, Miss Zhang."

Jiang Chen silently cheered her on in his heart, "Every extra word you type brings the Eagle Sauce lab one step closer to an explosion."

Time ticked by, second by second.

The sky outside the window gradually turned a pale fish-belly white.

For five whole hours, Alice didn't even drink a sip of water, and she forced herself to finish inputting this 30,000-word "madman's diary."

When she typed the final period, she felt as if her hands were no longer her own; her ten fingers had cramped into chicken claws.

"Phew..."

Alice slumped in the chair. Although she was exhausted to death, seeing the transmission progress bar on the screen reach 100%, that huge sense of achievement made her want to scream.

Mission accomplished!

The secret to Controlled Nuclear Fusion was in her hands!

She turned her head and looked at the sofa.

Jiang Chen was lying there sprawled out, snoring loudly, with drool even running from the corner of his mouth—a completely defenseless, pig-like appearance.

"Idiot."

Alice sneered in her heart, her eyes full of contempt, "Possessing such a treasure, yet having no vigilance. A person like you deserves to be used by me."

She stood up, rubbed her sore shoulders, and prepared to leave quietly, taking the "Coke bottle" formula back to claim her reward.

Just then, Jiang Chen on the sofa suddenly rolled over and muttered a line in his sleep:

"Mmm... don't stop... keep going... this one is finished... there's another one... about using a pressure cooker to create a black hole..."

Alice stumbled, almost falling flat on her face.

Pressure cooker... creating a black hole?

Just how much more of this ridiculous inventory do you have?!