295: Chapter 295 Mid-air Melting, Turning Enemies into Resources

Lu Chen grabbed the pack of double happiness on the table, pulled one out, and bit it between his teeth.

"I intend to take this chassis to the far side of the moon and have a look."

As soon as these words were spoken, no one in the control room made a sound.

Lu Chen bit down on the cigarette, flicked the lighter open, and brought the flame to the tip until the tobacco glowed red. He took a drag, and smoke billowed out from his nostrils.

It was so quiet that even the sound of breathing could be heard.

Wei Jianguo's jaw was still hanging open, Old Zhou's eyes were wide and his legs were trembling, and on the other end of the channel, Da Biao had also gone silent.

"Boss, to the moon?"

Old Zhou swallowed hard.

"That is outer space. We haven't even broken through the atmosphere yet, and there are three hundred thousand nuclear bombs up there. Isn't this… just going to our deaths?"

Lu Chen tossed the lighter onto the table with a crisp snap.

"In half a year, when the nuclear bombs hit Jiangcheng and we are just waiting to die in this underground air-raid shelter, that is what I call suffocating."

Lu Chen leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the big screen.

"Since they are speeding up to come here, I will go up and intercept them. As long as the chassis can hold up, I will chew up those three hundred thousand nuclear bombs and swallow them whole."

Wei Jianguo suddenly snapped back to reality and slammed his palm onto the control console.

"The boss is right! This chassis even withstood a Mach 20 space-based weapon. Extreme Pressure Soft Gold can ignore the laws of physics, so what the hell are we afraid of!"

Wei Jianguo shouted at the top of his lungs.

"At worst, we just fight it out!"

Da Biao's voice came through the comms, laced with a fierce determination.

"Boss, take me with you. I will tie up these brainy guys in lab coats right now and be ready to board the ship at any time. Even if we go to the moon, I have to teach those foreigners a lesson."

Lu Chen tapped on the tabletop.

"Boarding can wait. Let's finish the work at hand first."

Lu Chen looked up at the screen.

"Old Wei, what is the array temperature?"

On the screen, the edges of the black inverted triangular chassis hovering two thousand meters in the air were glowing with a blinding red light that illuminated half the night sky.

"Reporting, Boss. The high-temperature magnetic confinement array is at full power."

Wei Jianguo stared at the data panel, his fingers flying across the keys.

"The core temperature has exceeded ten thousand degrees. Those twelve tungsten rods are firmly sucked onto the bottom surface. They can't hold up anymore and are liquefying."

Lu Chen exhaled a smoke ring.

"Adjust the gravitational field. Haven't we been lacking high-purity, radiation-resistant special steel for the reinforcement layer around Base Pit No. 1? Is the mold dug out yet?"

Wei Jianguo grinned.

"It's dug! We are just waiting for the raw material to go into the pot."

"Then pour in this batch of top-grade tungsten steel sent by the foreigners."

Lu Chen's tone was calm.

"Old Zhou, notify the people in the pit below to retreat behind the safety line. Wu Dong, cut the global live stream back in. It cut out earlier. These leaders probably aren't convinced yet; let them see the final resting place of these twelve pillars."

"Understood!"

Wu Dong hit the Enter key.

The dozen or so encrypted video windows that had been forcibly cut off popped back up on the large screen in the control room. The leaders of the fourteen countries, having just been disconnected, were sweating profusely as they discussed countermeasures. When the feed suddenly restored, they were all caught off guard.

Lu Chen didn't even lift an eyelid.

"Honored leaders, I apologize; the signal wasn't very good just now."

Lu Chen spoke into the microphone.

"Since we have this opportunity, I will put on a show for you all as a token of gratitude for the hundreds of tons of special construction materials you provided for free."

In the video, the superior of the United States acting Secretary of Defense Michael—that President—was bright red in the face.

"Lu Chen! What do you want to do! Don't be too arrogant!"

Lu Chen ignored him entirely and turned his head.

"Old Wei, release the water."

The order was given.

Two thousand meters above the night sky of Jiangcheng, at the bottom of the three-million-ton Aerospace Carrier chassis, the red light of the high-temperature magnetic array flashed violently. The twelve twisted, scrapped tungsten rods had been completely melted by the ten-thousand-degree heat into hundreds of tons of white-hot liquid steel.

Wei Jianguo pulled down the control lever with both hands.

The gravitational field at the edge of the chassis underwent a subtle distortion instantly. The hundreds of tons of crimson molten steel in mid-air did not scatter; instead, under the powerful restraint of the gravitational field, they converged into a straight, crimson line of fire, plummeting directly toward Base Pit No. 1 below with terrifying heat.

Viewed from a great distance, a blinding crimson river of iron fell through the night sky.

At the bottom of the pit.

The Senior Colonel led three thousand soldiers, staring intently upward.

The crimson molten steel fell with pinpoint accuracy into the giant mold grooves already dug around the perimeter of the pit. With a hiss, the searing steel contacted the mold, and a towering burst of white steam erupted, the high heat baking the surrounding air until it was severely distorted.

Not a single drop of steel spilled outside.

Hundreds of tons of the highest-purity tungsten steel for space-based kinetic weapons—the crystallization of decades of Western Cold War efforts—turned into a ring of dead material filling the foundation of the Jiangcheng air-raid shelter in these three seconds.

A perfect pour.

Old Zhou rubbed his hands together vigorously in the control room, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh my, the quality of this molten steel is really good. All the impurities were burned away. The foundation poured from this can withstand an magnitude-8 earthquake."

Wei Jianguo stared at the data on the strength tester.

"Boss, the hardness is off the charts!"

Wei Jianguo slapped his thigh in excitement.

"Using tungsten steel of this purity for the foundation has tripled the load-bearing strength of the pit's perimeter. Even if we add another ten heavy-duty machine tools, this base will absolutely not collapse!"

On the big screen.

The top leaders in the fourteen video windows had clearly seen the entire process. Those tungsten rods, which they regarded as the ultimate trump card of their civilization, had been melted into glowing red molten steel and poured into a dirt pit in Jiangcheng to serve as a footrest.

In the video, the President clutched his chest with both hands, gasping for air, unable to speak a complete sentence. Beside him, the British leader's legs went weak, and he slid right off his chair onto the carpet.

Lu Chen stubbed out his cigarette butt in the ashtray.

"You have all seen it."

Lu Chen spoke into the microphone, his tone devoid of emotion.

"This batch of goods is of good quality. Three days, one thousand tons of special rare earth elements. If even an ounce is missing, I will drive this chassis to your respective capital squares and put on a live demonstration of how to cast statues."

"Hang up."

Wu Dong decisively cut the connection, leaving only the gradually fading red glow in the night sky on the screen.

Just then.

The long-absent electronic sound of the system suddenly exploded in Lu Chen's mind.

[Ding, detected that the host has completed the physical reconstruction and extreme utilization of top-tier foreign military force.]

[Congratulations to the host for triggering the epic hidden achievement: Cleaned Out.]

[Calculating achievement rewards...]

[Reward 1: Critical hit of 1 billion tech points, now credited to your account.]

[Reward 2: Loyalty of all 4 million factory employees and their families locked into an extreme fanatical state, never to decay.]

[Reward 3: Global production line efficiency of the twelve major heavy industrial bases receives a permanent 20% production bonus.]

Lu Chen sat in his swivel chair, his eyelid twitching.

One billion tech points, plus the previously remaining funds—his current balance was terrifyingly abundant.

Furthermore, with the loyalty of all personnel locked and production permanently increased by 20%, this meant that the entire twelve major heavy industrial bases of Huaxia would completely transform into an indefatigable super production machine.

The ticket price to go to the moon was now covered.

Lu Chen sneered in his heart and turned to look at everyone in the control room.

Old Zhou ran over with a statistical table.

"Boss, the workers below report that the pouring was very successful. The outer shield slots fit perfectly. Once it cools and solidifies, Base Pit No. 1 will be considered a complete success."

Lu Chen nodded.

"Notify them below: distribute money to everyone."

Lu Chen's voice was not loud, but it carried absolute authority.

"For everyone who exerted effort pulling the winches just now, whether workers or military personnel, deposit a bonus of 500,000 into each of their accounts immediately. It must be credited within ten minutes. Whoever dares to withhold a single cent, I will have their entire family fed to the fish in the sea."

Old Zhou's eyes lit up.

"Alright! The boys down there will probably blow the roof off when they hear this. Boss, wait a moment, I'll go do it right now."

Old Zhou turned and ran toward the communication console.

Lu Chen looked at Wei Jianguo.

"Old Wei, the Aerospace Carrier chassis took a hit just now. Is the Extreme Pressure Soft Gold shell damaged?"

Wei Jianguo immediately pulled up the chassis self-test data.

"There is absolutely no damage."

Wei Jianguo pointed at the green line on the screen.

"The density of the Soft Gold actually became higher after being compressed. The chassis's anti-gravity magnetic field is running very steadily. This iron plate of ours can absolutely walk sideways on Earth."

"What is the point of just walking sideways on Earth?"

Lu Chen stood up and walked to the main control console.

"Wu Dong, pull the deep-space radar detection map to the main screen. I want to see where those three hundred thousand death warrants have reached."

Wu Dong tapped the keyboard.

The image of the Jiangcheng night sky on the big screen was cut, replaced by a deep black starry grid map. In the upper right corner of the grid, a dense cluster of red light points gathered, moving at a constant speed toward Earth.

"Half a year…"

Lu Chen stared at the red cloud.

"I have calculated the mass of the Extreme Pressure Soft Gold and the overload limit of the anti-gravity engines. If we were to pull the chassis out of the atmosphere and into deep space now, how much energy would it consume?"

Wei Jianguo was stunned and grabbed a handful of his messy hair.

"Boss, we only have a bare chassis right now."

Wei Jianguo's voice was distorted with anxiety.

"There is no pressurized cabin, no life support system, let alone a weapons system. The chassis can ignore gravity and rush out of the atmosphere directly, but the gravitational environment on top is completely unstable. If a person stands on it, they would just float into outer space and become a dried corpse."

Lu Chen turned to look at him.

"I told you to calculate how much energy it would consume, not to teach me how to survive."

Lu Chen's tone turned cold.

Wei Jianguo swallowed, quickly grabbed the calculator next to him, and started furiously pressing buttons.

"Reporting, Boss."

Wei Jianguo broke into a sweat.

"If we activate the magnetohydrodynamic overload at full power, plus the anti-gravity thrusters, to forcibly break through the atmosphere and reach lunar orbit, we would need… about 500 megawatts of continuous high-energy surge. And the chassis cannot stop; once the power is cut, it would just become scrap metal in space."

Lu Chen smiled.

500 megawatts—all the nuclear power plants in the country combined would struggle to provide that. But with one billion tech points in his hand, this energy gap was nothing compared to the system store.

Da Biao's voice came through the earpiece.

"Boss, that old thing Michael is awake and is clamoring to see you."

"See me?"

Lu Chen let out a cold snort.

"Take him to the edge of Base Pit No. 1. Let him look at the tungsten steel foundation that was just poured. Tell him that once he finishes moving the rest of that garbage, I will consider speaking with him."

"Alright."

Da Biao agreed, then his tone shifted.

"Boss, what you said earlier about going to the moon—is it true? The Death Squad Soldiers heard every word clearly. They are all fired up, saying they want to pave the way for you to go and wipe out the foreigners' nest."

Lu Chen looked at the red cloud on the screen, the ruthlessness in his eyes growing heavier.

"Tell the brothers to get their affairs at home in order. Tomorrow morning, come to the control room to find Old Wei and collect their new equipment."

Lu Chen reached out and gripped the red communication microphone on the main console.

"Old Wei."

"Here!"

Wei Jianguo stood at attention.

"Go to the system library and pull out all the remaining blueprints for the Great Wall Dome base."

A cold light flashed in Lu Chen's eyes.

"The foundation is poured; it's time to build the cage on top."

Wei Jianguo's eyes widened, and just as he was about to speak, Wu Dong suddenly jumped up from his chair.

"Boss! We have a situation!"

Wu Dong pointed to a corner of the screen, his voice completely distorted.

Lu Chen looked over immediately.

On the deep black starry grid map, very close to the red cloud of three hundred thousand nuclear bombs, a blindingly bright blue light signal suddenly exploded out of thin air. This signal did not belong to Earth, nor did it belong to any known frequency band.

"What is that thing?"

Old Zhou gasped.

Lu Chen stared at the blue light, his fingers tightening bit by bit.

"Find out where the target coordinates of this signal are."

Lu Chen stared at Wu Dong.

Wu Dong was covered in sweat, his hands almost striking sparks against the keyboard.

Ten seconds later, Wu Dong looked up, his face pale.

"Boss… the target for this signal…"

Wu Dong's voice was trembling violently.

"Is under our Jiangcheng ground, right below the No. 1 radiation mine."

Lu Chen slammed the cigarette pack onto the table.