Chapter 1: The rocket will explode in three days.

"Hey, you, Intern!"

"What are you dazed for?"

"Hurry up and get the cable to Platform 3!"

A gruff roar suddenly blasted into his ears.

Lin Xi jolted awake.

He looked down at his coarse, pilling army-green coat and his oil-stained work gloves.

Two minutes ago.

He was a 2025 graduate student from the University of Aeronautics.

Now.

He was a maintenance team Intern at Northwest Launch Base No. 1 in 1980.

The memories of the transmigrator and the original host merged instantly.

Looking up, a milk-white giant rocket stood before his eyes—

red star no. 2.

Seeing the four large vermilion characters on the rocket's body, Lin Xi's fingers couldn't help but tremble.

The calendar and the large clock on the wall clearly marked the current time:

January 20, 1980, 16:00

Three days later, January 23, 14:00

This rocket would explode in mid-air 26 seconds after liftoff.

Five years of hard work by thousands of researchers, an aerospace dream squeezed out of hundreds of millions of yuan by tightening belts,

Would explode into a ball of desperate fire on that cold afternoon.

History would call it the "1·23 Accident."

The reason was even more blood-vomitingly simple:

A few days before the launch, the temperature plummeted to minus 28 degrees Celsius,

The rubber seals of the first-stage engine froze and became brittle, leading to a fuel leak.

"Damn it."

"What can I do as an Intern?"

Lin Xi looked at the gantry and cursed in his heart.

Just then, a pale blue light screen suddenly popped up in the bottom-left corner of his vision.

【Trans-dimensional Livestream Room Activated】

【Anchored Target Space-Time: 2025】

【Note: You must not reveal the existence of this system to anyone in the 1980s】

System-bro?

Before Lin Xi could even react.

The bullet-chat on the light screen flooded the display instantly.

【Holy crap? Where is this? The picture quality is insane, it's gotta be beyond 8K, right?】

【The Streamer's outfit—an army coat and work shoes? Doing some vintage cosplay?】

【Wait... that big baby in the background looks familiar! Isn't that red star no. 2? That thing was retired over forty years ago, wasn't it?】

【What kind of god-tier production crew is this? These wind and sand effects, this metallic texture—they're really burning through the budget!】

【Say something, Streamer! Why are you just standing there? Did the wind blow your brains out?】

Lin Xi glanced at it, his heart racing.

This livestream room was connected to the online world of 2025!

I'll try it!

He froze for a moment.

He tried to think silently:

"This isn't an act, everyone. I've transmigrated."

"The year is 1980, three days before the launch of red star no. 2."

The bullet-chat exploded.

【Transmigration? Streamer, are you taking us for fools?】

【Good script, but that rocket model is so realistic. Here's a 666 for you!】

【Gotta say, this Streamer is actually quite handsome. Followed!】

Lin Xi didn't continue to argue with the internet trolls.

He decided to take action.

If he couldn't solve the problem with that damned seal.

In three days, this place would be a sea of fire.

Out of duty and reason, he had to try and prevent this tragedy from happening.

And the most direct method was, of course...

To report it directly!

Lin Xi looked around.

This was the 93-meter-high vertical assembly and test building, which belonged to the technical zone.

To report it, he had to go to the command zone next door.

The main command room was right there.

Separated by a fence, with armed guards standing watch.

As a unit with the highest level of secrecy, the entry and exit regulations of the launch base were extremely strict.

An Intern, without special circumstances, was not allowed to go to the command zone.

However, Lin Xi wanted to try.

...

"Xiao Lin! I told you to deliver the cable, what are you dawdling over there for?"

In the distance, Lin Xi's master—the maintenance team leader Li Jianguo—was roaring in this direction.

Lin Xi took a deep breath.

Pretending to have taken the wrong direction, he shouldered the cable and rushed toward the command zone.

"Step back!"

"Any closer and you'll cross the security red line!"

The sentry's shout was slightly distorted in the cold wind.

The dark muzzle of a Type 56 submachine gun was already pointed at Lin Xi.

The young soldier's face was turned purple from the cold, but his gaze was firm.

Lin Xi raised his hands to show he had no ill intent,

Holding only a bundle of cable.

This was reality.

If Lin Xi took another step forward, the soldier really would fire!

If only the people in the main command room knew there was a problem with the seal, they could stop this disaster.

It was only the distance of a fence away.

But this fence was like a natural chasm! Impossible to cross!

...

He turned around helplessly, dragging the cable to the outer work area.

If the rubber seal problem of the first-stage engine wasn't solved.

In three days, this place would become a sea of fire.

"Xiao Lin! What are you dazed for? It took so long just to deliver a cable."

Li Jianguo looked at him with disdain.

He was wearing a deep blue jumpsuit covered in oil stains.

Holding a vernier caliper, he was lecturing a group of technicians.

Lin Xi had a thought.

【Maybe I should tell my master and let him report it up?】

Lin Xi walked over quickly and set down the cable.

Taking advantage of the gap while his master was drinking water, he steeled himself and approached.

"Master," Lin Xi lowered his voice,

"The temperature last night dropped to minus thirty degrees."

"The rubber seal we use for the first-stage engine, its low-temperature cold brittleness index..."

"Stop."

Engineer Zhao closed the lid of his enamel tea mug.

He didn't even look him in the eye, just gave a sideways glance:

"You haven't studied much, but you sure think far ahead."

"That's a standardized product that has undergone dozens of cold-resistance tests."

"But static testing is different from the ignition vibration environment..." Lin Xi said.

"The airtightness check was just finished!"

Engineer Zhao pointed to a pressure gauge in the distance, his tone becoming stern,

"The pressure needle hasn't moved an inch, it's right in the middle of the red line!"

"In our aerospace work, we go by data."

"Go, go, go, move that liquid nitrogen tank over there."

Lin Xi opened his mouth but eventually swallowed his words.

In this freezing cold where water turned to ice instantly, that seal already had micro-cracks invisible to the naked eye.

But in 1980, conventional inspections simply couldn't detect them.

The needle wouldn't lie, but the needle could deceive.

Lin Xi shouldered the heavy liquid nitrogen tank and walked to a corner out of the wind.

He focused his mind on the system.

The pale blue light screen emerged again.

The popularity of the livestream room was even higher than before, with the number of online viewers actually breaking ten thousand.

"Everyone," Lin Xi whispered,

"The situation is very bad."

"Three days from now, the rocket will explode."

"I know the cause is a faulty seal, but I have no way to prove it's faulty."

"I'm just an Intern, no one listens to me."

The bullet-chat scrolled frantically.

【The Streamer's acting is top-notch. That look of helplessness, I give it a perfect score.】

【Stop acting, hurry up and show us some talent! Hand-craft a nuclear bomb!】

【Shut up, you guys. This is a hardcore tech channel. The Streamer is talking about the O-ring effect, right? That's how the Challenger exploded back then too.】

Suddenly, a bullet-chat message appeared.

【Long Five Screw - Retired Version:】

【Comrade Xiao Lin, stay calm. I am Old Hai.】

【Don't panic, there are always more solutions than problems.】

【Are the sensors there using analog signals?】

Lin Xi's heart skipped a beat.

This surname was very rare, but the Chief Designer of the Long March 5 had this exact surname!

Looking at this tone, could it be...

He immediately replied: "It's an analog signal. Why?"

【Long Five Screw - Retired Version:】

【Since you're an Intern in 1980, you should know that sensors in that era all used analog signal outputs.】

【Analog signals have a characteristic: their airtightness detection only looks at the average value on the pressure gauge.】

【Long Five Screw - Retired Version: Tiny leaks will be filtered out as current noise or mechanical jitter.】

Another bullet-chat message followed immediately.

【Signal Processing Demon:】

【Exactly! As long as you get the waveform graph of the raw data, just a segment will do!】

【Using today's algorithms for extreme noise reduction and a Fourier transform, the characteristic wave of that leak will show up!】

Lin Xi's eyes lit up.

Dimensional reduction strike.

This was a dimensional reduction strike from the future.

Tiny jitters that human eyes in 1980 couldn't see would have nowhere to hide in the face of 2025 technology.