Chapter 60 The "Honeycomb of God" Under the Microscope

Wang Dapao hauled over a large piece of equipment—

A Zeiss industrial microscope.

This was the treasure of Factory 702, usually kept locked in a constant-temperature room.

"Master Niu, don't just watch the show."

Lin Xi stepped aside and made a gesturing motion of "after you."

"You're the expert, why don't you take a look?"

Niu Aiguo curled his lip and muttered about "mysticism" as he pressed his eye to the eyepiece.

One second.

Two seconds.

The old man's body suddenly froze.

"This... how is this possible?"

Niu Aiguo's voice was trembling.

Under the lens, it was no longer the silver film visible to the naked eye.

It was an incredibly grand, breathtakingly precise microscopic world.

Countless perfect hexagonal holes, like a honeycomb built by the hand of God, were arranged together seamlessly.

The edges of every hole were incomparably smooth, without any burrs, tears, or stress patterns left by mechanical processing.

They were uniform in size and equally spaced, looking like a piece of art.

Niu Aiguo jerked his head up, his face covered in cold sweat.

"This is almost like... like it grew naturally!"

"That's because it is 'growth'."

Lin Xi's tone was flat.

"Accumulation at the micron level."

"Without violent stamping, there is no internal stress."

"Without mechanical cutting, there are no burrs."

Lin Xi picked up the thin mesh and shook it against the light.

Light passed through those micron-sized holes, diffracting and reflecting a blurry rainbow halo.

"This is 2025... oh no, this is Red Star Technology's 'electrochemical deposition'."

In the livestream room, the bullet screen had already gone crazy.

【Micro-OCD: Satisfying! So satisfying! This hexagonal arrangement has cured my mental exhaustion!】

【Materials Nerd: This is a dimensional strike! Using technology meant for making chip masks to make razor mesh is simply insane!】

【Bystander: Master Niu's worldview has shattered into pieces and is currently being reconstructed...】

The way Niu Aiguo looked at Lin Xi changed.

He tremblingly reached out his large, calloused hand, wanting to touch the mesh.

He pulled back halfway, fearing his rough fingerprints would desecrate this industrial work of art.

"Don't be in a hurry to worship it."

Lin Xi threw the nickel mesh to Wang Yu, who had been eager for a while. "Assemble it."

Wang Yu moved quickly.

He took out a cylinder only the size of a thumb—

That was the motor they had made earlier.

He then pulled a crude plastic bracket from his pocket and assembled the motor with the freshly made nickel mesh.

It had no outer shell, still maintaining that rough 'battle-damaged' style.

The battery was connected.

"Buzz—"

It was an extremely high-frequency hum, like the vibration of a bee's wings.

Lin Xi casually grabbed a ripe honey peach from the fruit bowl on the table.

This peach had thin skin and lots of juice; a little force would break the skin and let the juice flow.

He then pulled a silk handkerchief used by women from his pocket and gently draped it over the peach.

"Watch closely."

Without any hesitation, Lin Xi pressed the skeletal razor in his hand directly onto the silk-wrapped peach.

"Hey! Don't!" Niu Aiguo instinctively tried to shout for him to stop.

With such high rotation speed and such thin mesh, wouldn't it shred the silk and turn the peach into mush?

"Zzz—"

An extremely faint sound slipped past.

Lin Xi raised his hand.

The silk was perfectly intact.

The peach didn't even have a single indentation on its skin.

Niu Aiguo leaned in, and when he lifted the silk to look, his eyes nearly popped out.

The fine fuzz and dust that had been on the surface of the silk were now completely gone.

Yet the fragile peach skin remained bright red and succulent, completely unharmed.

"How... how was this done?" Niu Aiguo murmured to himself.

"A strong enough heart, and sharp enough teeth." Lin Xi pointed to the motor and the blade mesh.

"When the cutting speed reaches a certain point, the object is cut before it even has time to deform."

"This is called—only speed is unbreakable."

Niu Aiguo swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He instinctively touched his own chin.

He was of the older generation of workers; his beard was as stiff as a steel brush. He usually used an old-fashioned razor, which always left a burning pain and sometimes even bloody nicks.

"Can I try too?"

Niu Aiguo was somewhat eager to try.

"Try it." Lin Xi handed over the crude device.

Niu Aiguo took a deep breath and pressed the blade head against his chin.

"Zzz..."

There was no tugging sensation.

There was no stinging pain of a blade scraping across the skin.

In fact...

Aside from a slight coolness from the metal mesh surface, he felt almost nothing.

"Manager Lin, is it out of power?"

"Or is the blade head stuck?"

Niu Aiguo took the razor away in confusion and turned off the switch. "I didn't feel like it was shaving anything..."

As he spoke, he reached out to touch his chin.

The moment his rough hand touched his skin, Niu Aiguo seemed to freeze in place.

Smooth.

Unbelievably smooth.

The prickly stubble that had been there was now completely gone; it felt like touching a peeled egg.

The bullet screen in the livestream room also began to float up cheerfully.

【Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter, look at that expression!】

【A 12,000 RPM maglev motor paired with 0.04mm electroformed nickel mesh—forget shaving, this is a miniature pulverizer!】

【Hurry and pour out the stubble! That's the highlight!】

【Right, right, right! Pour it out! Give these 80s natives a little 2025 shock! At this speed, it's not stubble being cut, it's dust! It's smoke!】

He opened his palm and tapped the razor's stubble compartment.

"Poof."

A puff of extremely fine beard powder, like black gunpowder, spilled out.

It wasn't stubble.

It was powder.

This meant that the moment every hair entered the mesh hole, it was cut countless times by the high-speed rotating blade and completely pulverized.

"Oh my goodness..."

Niu Aiguo held that pile of powder as if he were holding gold dust.

He looked up at the device that was so crude it was almost ugly, his eyes full of awe.

How was this a razor?

This was clearly a miniature meat grinder!

"Manager Lin..."

Niu Aiguo tossed his steamed bun onto the table. "This formula... this electrolyte formula, you must keep it well-hidden."

"If anyone dares to take a peek, I, Old Niu, will poke their eyes out with these calipers!"

Lin Xi smiled, neither confirming nor denying.

The formula was important, of course, but what was more important was the industrial thinking that transcended the era.

"The heart is ready, and the teeth are ready too."

Lin Xi looked at the pile of scattered parts on the table.

The neodymium iron boron motor glinted coldly in the sunlight, and the electroformed nickel mesh looked like a pool of solidified mercury.

Taking either of these things out would be enough to cause an earthquake in the industrial world of 1980.

"Alright, the most important components are settled."

"Now all that's missing is a good-looking shell!"

Lin Xi smiled slightly, thinking to himself.

"I hope this design doesn't surprise them too much."