Chapter 74 Mastering Space Jump

"The dragon king lord... took it away?"

When this half-joking, half-threatening remark from the Great Xia Country Foreign Ministry spokesperson was broadcast across the world via live feed,

everyone who heard it was stunned.

What kind of answer is that?

The dragon king lord?

You are a staunchly atheist country, yet in such a serious diplomatic setting, you are telling us fairy tales?

The reporter from Little Sun Country who asked the question was left completely dumbfounded. He had prepared a bellyful of questions intended to challenge and embarrass them, only for the other side to shut down all his preparations with a single sentence.

I'm talking science with you, and you're talking metaphysics with me?

How is this conversation even supposed to continue?!

"Absurd! This is simply an absurd excuse!" the reporter shouted in exasperation after coming to his senses. "This is an insult to the intelligence of the entire world! We demand that the Chinese side provide a direct response!"

However, the spokesperson merely smiled, shrugged, made a "be my guest" gesture, and then turned his gaze to the next reporter.

That calm and breezy attitude seemed to say: Believe it or not, I've said my piece.

This press conference ended very quickly.

But the waves it stirred up were far from settling.

Media outlets and intelligence agencies around the world went crazy.

"The dragon king lord? What exactly is Great Xia Country trying to express?"

"Is this a new type of diplomatic rhetoric? A kind of 'metaphysical deterrence'?"

"Or is it possible they have truly mastered some kind of power beyond our understanding, something that could be called 'magic'?"

Eagle Sauce, The Pentagon.

The four-star old general watched the calm and breezy smile of the Great Xia Country spokesperson on the screen, feeling as if he were about to grind his back molars to dust.

"The dragon king lord..." He squeezed these three words through his teeth. "They are mocking us! They are using a way we cannot refute to tell us that they were the ones who did it! And yet, we have absolutely no way to deal with them!"

"General, our technical analysis team has reached some preliminary conclusions regarding that signal." The intelligence director beside him handed over a file, his expression unusually grave.

"Speak!"

"They believe... the most reasonable explanation for that signal is... a small-scale, controllable, instantaneous... space jump."

"Space jump?!" The old general's pupils shrank sharply.

"Yes, General." The intelligence director's voice was trembling. "Just like in sci-fi movies. An object instantaneously moved from point A to point B. When it disappeared at point A, it caused a spatial collapse, and when it appeared at point B, it caused spatial ripples. We just happened to capture the signal when it disappeared at point A."

"In other words..." The old general felt his throat go dry. "Something we don't know about appeared next to Little Sun's submersible, snatched their flag, and then... teleported away?"

"Theoretically... yes."

The entire combat Command Center fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads.

If this is true...

Then it means that Great Xia Country has already mastered space technology that is at least a century, or even longer, ahead of them.

How can they possibly fight this?

They are still researching faster aircraft and stronger aircraft carriers.

While they have already started playing with "teleportation."

This is simply not a war on the same dimension.

...

As for the uproar outside, the "scavenger" project team didn't care in the slightest.

At this moment, all the scientific research forces in the entire base had entered an unprecedented, adrenaline-fueled, crazy state of work.

They had only one core focus—that "void crystal core" sealed in the "absolute zero magnetic field prison"!

In the core laboratory, Academician Wang and the top physicists and energy scientists he led had not closed their eyes for three days and three nights.

Every one of them had a crazy expression on their face, mixed with exhaustion, excitement, and obsession.

"No! The energy model is still wrong!"

"Its space curvature parameters keep jumping irregularly within a tiny range! We simply cannot build a stable mathematical model!"

"The computing power of the pangu system is already at its limit! If this continues, the system will overload!"

The experts argued endlessly around the huge holographic model, all of them looking troubled.

The "void crystal core" was like a beautiful woman who had stripped off her clothes but was shrouded in an impenetrable mist; they could see her existence, but they could never grasp her essence.

"Stop arguing, everyone!"

Academician Wang slammed the table, his bloodshot eyes sweeping across the room.

"Conventional thinking won't work! This thing is a product of a higher-dimensional universe! We can no longer force our three-dimensional universe physics onto it!"

"We need... a 'translator'!"

As he spoke, his gaze turned to the other side of the laboratory.

There, Lin Yuan was sitting on a comfortable sofa, drinking goji berry tea that Li Na had brewed for him, while boredly flipping through a book... "Quantum Physics: From Beginner to Quitter."

These past few days, he had truly been living the life of a deity.

No classes, no adventures, just eating and drinking well every day, and then being kept here like a mascot.

"Lin Yuan! You kid, stop reading that rubbish book! Come over here and get to work!" Academician Wang beckoned to him.

"Alright, coming, coming." Lin Yuan put down the book, stretched, and strolled over slowly.

"Academician Wang, how's it going? Have you figured it out?" He pointed to the huge "refrigerator" and asked curiously.

"Figured out my foot! We don't understand anything right now!" Academician Wang said irritably, then shoved a data report filled with scribbles into his hands.

"Use that 'alien USB drive' of yours to help us see what the principle of this thing is. Especially, what is going on with this 'space curvature jump'?"

"Alrighty."

Lin Yuan took the report and took one look, his head spinning.

But he didn't say anything more; he just closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his mind.

This time, he was no longer simply asking "ashilya" questions.

Instead, he took the initiative to connect his own mental power, boosted by the "Void Affinity" skill, with all the data on "space technology" in the "ashilya" database.

Instantly, that knowledge about dimensions, curvature, and singularities, which had originally seemed like gibberish to him, seemed to become... familiar.

He was no longer "reading," but "understanding."

"Oh... I get it!"

A few minutes later, Lin Yuan opened his eyes, a look of sudden realization on his face.

He walked to the huge holographic model, pointed at the constantly jumping "void crystal core," and began his "explanation" using his unique "junkyard theory."

"Academician Wang, experts, your approach has been wrong from the very beginning."

"You keep thinking about how to 'control' it, how to build a 'stable' model for it. But the essence of this thing is that it is 'unstable'!"

"It's like... like a drunkard who is always at a rave! If you insist on making him walk in a straight line, isn't that just nonsense?"

"A drunkard?" The experts listened, completely baffled.

"Yes! A drunkard!" Lin Yuan slapped his thigh. "Its 'space curvature jump' isn't a bug, it's its 'talent'! It is interacting with higher-dimensional space through this kind of irregular jumping to draw energy from it!"

"We shouldn't try to 'control' it; we should 'guide' it!"

"Just like you can't stop a drunkard from drinking, but you can put up more streetlights on his way home so he doesn't fall into a ditch!"

Lin Yuan's vulgar but essential metaphor was like a bolt of lightning that instantly cleared the fog in all the scientists' minds!

"Guide... not control..." Academician Wang muttered to himself, his eyes growing brighter and brighter. "I understand! I completely understand!"

He rushed back to the console, his hands moving so fast on the virtual keyboard that they almost left afterimages!

"Rebuild the model! Abandon the 'stable state' hypothesis! Introduce 'chaos algorithms' and 'fuzzy guidance' logic!"

"We aren't building a 'cage'! We are building it a... 'highway'!"

Under Academician Wang's new line of thinking, the pangu system began its frantic calculations once again.

This time, a miracle happened.

The model, which had been chaotic, actually began to show a trace of... regularity.

Half an hour later.

Academician Wang looked up. His young face was flushed with a sickly crimson due to extreme excitement.

He looked at Chen Weiguo, his voice hoarse from excitement.

"Chief! We... succeeded!"

"We have mastered the key to controlling 'space'!"

He projected the two newly generated design plans onto the main screen.

"First, codename 'Kunpeng'! We will use the 'void crystal core' as the core to build the first generation of true space jump engines! It will allow our spacecraft to achieve arbitrary folded-space travel within the Solar System!"

"Second," his gaze became even more fanatical as he pointed to another, even more magnificent and massive design drawing, "codename—'Heaven's Gate'!"

"We will build an unprecedented, huge, ring-shaped 'stargate' in Earth's synchronous orbit!"

"Once built, we will be able to instantly reach any corner of the universe as if opening a door!"

"The interstellar era... will be opened by our own hands!"