652: Chapter 647 Monopolizing an Era

The Arena.

This word was like a stone thrown into a deep pond, stirring ripples in the hearts of Hoffmann and the other three that would not subside for a long time.

The deathly silence was broken.

The first to move was Leo Garcia.

He sat back at his workstation, hands returning to the keyboard. The anger in his eyes was gone, replaced by an ignited light—a mixture of excitement and trembling.

"Boss, what are the data interface standards for the Plan B production line? I want to modularize all the processes to ensure that data flows seamlessly from the lab to the factory with zero loss."

Dr. Hoffmann gave Shen Yan a deep look, then turned back to face the massive whiteboard.

He picked up a marker and erased half of the deductions he had just written.

"No, that direction is too conservative."

His voice regained its previous fervor, becoming even more intense.

"Since Plan B has cleared the obstacles for us, Plan A cannot settle for just a single order of magnitude improvement."

"Eva, we need a brand-new topological insulator material as the substrate for the bonding layer. I want to reduce the impact of the quantum tunneling effect to the theoretical minimum!"

Ava Chen nodded. She placed her silver briefcase on the workbench, unlocked it, and a ghostly blue light scanned her iris.

"Give me three hours. I'll provide you with the molecular formulas for three alternative solutions."

Marcus Rodriguez walked back to his machine shop, and a roar of clashing metal echoed out.

"The new reaction chamber needs to account for structural creep under ultra-high pressure. Abel, send me your new theoretical model. I'm going to build a furnace that can last until the end of the world!"

Chen Guangke stood beside Shen Yan, feeling like a mortal who had accidentally wandered into a divine temple.

He quietly tugged at Shen Yan's sleeve.

"Yan Zi, are they... are they on some kind of adrenaline high?"

Shen Yan withdrew his gaze from the four frenzied figures.

"No."

"I've simply replaced their cage with the entire sky."

He was right.

Previously, the goal of the icarus team was to fly higher.

But now, Shen Yan told them that flying high was only for the sake of a better dive.

The end of science is the battlefield of application.

This transformed their research from a pure academic pursuit into a part of an impending global industrial war.

They were no longer artists in an ivory tower.

They were the top-tier weapon smiths in an arsenal.

The thrill brought by this realization was far more intense than any bonus or honor.

No one mentioned resting again.

New streams of data began to surge wildly through the servers.

The formulas on the whiteboard were overturned and reconstructed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the material analysis lab, the lights and shadows of molecular simulations flickered unsteadily.

The sparks in the machine shop were more brilliant than the stars in the night sky.

...

The hour hand of the clock quietly passed three in the morning.

Inside the massive dockyard laboratory, there was only the hum of operating equipment and the crisp clicking of keyboards.

After a day of extreme brainstorming, even this group of scientific madmen needed a brief rest.

"Alright, that's enough for today."

Shen Yan's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly interrupted everyone's work.

"Apartments have been prepared for everyone. They're inside the base, just a five-minute walk. Guang Ke, take them there."

Leo yawned and stretched, his joints making a series of pops and cracks.

"Finally, I can get some sleep. I feel like my brain is about to burn out."

Marcus also emerged from the workshop, smelling of a mixture of engine oil and metal.

Dr. Hoffmann was half-persuaded and half-ushered back to his specially designated lounge by Shen Yan; at his age, he couldn't handle such exhaustion.

Chen Guangke led Leo and Marcus out, but Ava Chen stayed behind.

She turned off the screen in front of her and encrypted the core data for backup once more.

Just as Shen Yan thought she was about to leave, she turned and looked at him.

"President Shen, a moment."

Her voice, like her persona, was calm, precise, and devoid of unnecessary emotion.

Shen Yan stopped.

"Dr. Eva, is there a problem? Equipment, or personnel?"

Eva crossed her arms and walked slowly toward him.

The shadowless lights of the laboratory cast a clear outline around her. Her phoenix eyes looked exceptionally sharp behind her lenses, as if they could pierce through any disguise.

"President Shen, you've already prepared all the follow-up arrangements for the 'icarus' project, haven't you?"

Shen Yan smiled, intending to brush it off with standard pleasantries.

"Of course. The site selection for Plan B's production line and the supply chain are proceeding simultaneously..."

"There's no need to play dumb with me, President Shen."

Eva interrupted him directly, her tone unchanging.

"What I'm saying is, even if we develop that one-hundred-percent 'perfect version,' you already have plans for the final use of this technology, don't you?"

Her question was like a scalpel, precisely slicing through all of Shen Yan's commercial rhetoric to strike at the core.

The air seemed to go still for a moment.

The smile on Shen Yan's face slowly faded. Looking at the woman before him, he felt for the first time that this group of scientists might be harder to deal with than he had imagined.

Or rather, more interesting.

"Sigh..."

He let out a soft sigh with a hint of a self-deprecating smile.

"This is why I dislike talking to smart people like you the most."

"There's no sense of mystery at all."

This was a tacit admission.

Eva didn't press further; she just watched him quietly, waiting for him to continue.

"Correct."

Shen Yan no longer hid it. He walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the pitch-black waters of Jingluo Bay.

"Before you set foot on this land, another team of mine, the 'Dawn' project group, had already completed the architectural designs for two generations of semiconductor chips."

"What they lack isn't design or ideas, but the process that can perfectly turn those designs from blueprints into reality."

"What they lack is icarus."

He turned around, his gaze meeting Eva's scrutiny candidly.

"A portion of the chips produced by Plan B will be delivered to Vance to fulfill our contract and disrupt the market. The other portion—the more advanced part—will be supplied directly to 'Dawn'."

"While the rest of the world is still fighting tooth and nail over the 99% version we throw out, my company will use the 'perfect version' you create in the future to manufacture next-generation chips that don't even exist on this planet yet."

"That's not being five years ahead."

Shen Yan held up one finger.

"It's monopolizing an era."

He finished speaking.

He had revealed the final and most central piece of his grand plan.

He expected to see an expression of shock, anger, or wariness on Eva's face.

After all, this was an act of total exploitation.