3: Chapter 3: Futuristic Armor Arrives on Earth! The Graduation Thesis Defense is Imminent!

Lin Mo locked eyes with Professor Ai Chongfeng and firmly stated, "Mentor, I need your full support!"

"What China lacks right now is independent innovation. Anyone who dares to pioneer should not be stifled, right?!"

"You!..." Professor Ai Chongfeng had intended to criticize his reckless student further.

But upon hearing the last sentence, he was rendered speechless.

Ultimately, Professor Ai Chongfeng sighed helplessly, "Lin Mo, which nerve of yours is misfiring that you insist on drilling into this dead end?"

"Exoskeleton Armor is full of technical barriers everywhere!"

"This is not something you can overcome alone, because this is an issue of the entire country's industrialization process!"

Lin Mo remained unconvinced.

He chuckled and said, "There's no point in saying more. Once I bring the design plan in two days, you will naturally understand!"

Professor Ai Chongfeng couldn't help but roll his eyes.

A design plan, indeed?

Only in dreams!

"As long as you guarantee there are no issues with your previous graduation project, I will agree to let you do it!"

Professor Ai Chongfeng snorted coldly, "Tell me, what do you need?"

Lin Mo replied, "A laboratory, a testing ground, and project funding!"

"How much funding?"

This question stumped Lin Mo for a moment.

Previously, as the chief designer of the Nantianmen Project, the project funds he could utilize were counted in the hundreds of millions.

But now, he was merely an undergraduate, so the project funding wouldn't be very high.

Lin Mo calculated silently in his heart, cutting the budget to the absolute minimum, and finally gritted his teeth, "At least five million!"

"How much?!?"

Professor Ai Chongfeng was once again angered into laughter.

"Do you think project funding is something I can just print out with a printer?!?..."

Among the many doctoral student projects under his guidance, none had initial funding reaching five million!

Professor Ai Chongfeng waved his hand directly:

"I will arrange a separate laboratory for you!"

"I will also designate a specific area for your research and testing ground, but you can only use the supporting automated production lines from 4:00 AM to 10:00 AM!"

"As for project funds, at most two hundred thousand. One hundred thousand for the first phase, and more will be added after initial results are produced!"

Two hundred thousand?

Lin Mo became anxious immediately upon hearing this. What could two hundred thousand do?

It wouldn't even be enough to buy basic materials!

"Mentor..."

"It's just two hundred thousand! Not a penny more! Get out of here!"

...

Exiting the office.

Looking at the blue sky and white clouds above, Lin Mo smiled bitterly to himself.

What could two hundred thousand do? It wasn't even enough for the materials to make an armored helmet!

Should he go around borrowing money?

But as a college student, no matter how grand the excuse, it was impossible to borrow millions for scientific research!

"Is the only option to sell technology? But organizing my memories is extremely time-consuming..."

Lin Mo did indeed have many cutting-edge scientific and technological ideas in his mind, but organizing these chaotic and fragmented memories was extremely difficult!

A sense of frustration welled up in his heart.

At this moment, a curious, delicate female voice came from behind.

"Lin Mo, is that Individual Exoskeleton Armor you just mentioned very powerful?"

Ren Xueyi chased after him, her bright, watery eyes flickering as she asked.

Lin Mo turned to look at the soft and cute girl beside him.

In his memories, Ren Xueyi had always been fond of him, but it wasn't quite like romantic feelings; one could only say that the emotional concepts of researchers were indeed different from ordinary people.

Lin Mo said absentmindedly, "Of course."

Ren Xueyi asked curiously, "Are you that confident?"

Lin Mo gave a perfunctory reply, "As long as the funding is sufficient, developing the Individual Exoskeleton Armor is a breeze for me. The main issue is just the lack of money..."

"Alright, Senior Sister, I have to go..."

He had to get busy raising money; he didn't have time for idle chatter.

Just as Lin Mo was about to step forward,

Suddenly, a small hand reached out and forcefully stuffed a black bank card into his white shirt.

"What are you doing?!?"

Feeling the touch on his chest, Lin Mo cursed internally.

In broad daylight, what was the meaning of this?

He quickly pulled out the bank card and discovered it was actually a black-gold diamond card from the Bank of China.

"Little Junior Brother, aren't you short on money?"

"Here, this is the living expenses I've saved over the past few months, I'm giving it all to you~"

Lin Mo stood frozen in place.

To support him, Ren Xueyi was actually willing to give him all her living expenses!

This Senior Sister Xueyi, is she perhaps a romantic fool?

But honestly, it was hard to dislike her...

Lin Mo handed the bank card back and said.

"Senior Sister, that little bit of money isn't enough. Take it back; I appreciate your kind intentions."

Looking at the 1.6-meter-tall girl in front of him, Lin Mo recalled her labels—top scorer in Shanghai, genius girl, competition fanatic...

Aside from her somewhat strange personality, she had almost no flaws, including her physique!

"It's a pity, I won't have any energy to consider romantic relationships for the next two years..."

Lin Mo thought to himself, "I can only say I'm sorry..."

China is currently facing internal and external troubles,

He must devote 100% of his energy to promoting the rise of China,

Other matters,

Must be placed in second priority!

Lin Mo handed the bank card over, his hand hanging in the air for a long time,

But Ren Xueyi on the other side didn't take it.

"Does Little Junior Brother really not want it?"

"Really don't want it..."

"It's five million!"

"Pfft!..." Lin Mo almost choked on his saliva.

"H-how much?!?"

The petite girl blinked innocently.

"Five million!"

Lin Mo's right hand, holding the bank card, continued to hang in mid-air.

After contemplating life for a few seconds.

He gritted his teeth fiercely and quickly tucked the bank card into his shirt pocket.

He tried to overcome the awkwardness and said matter-of-factly.

"Senior Sister Xueyi, thank you for your support!"

He couldn't care less if this Senior Sister had taken a fancy to his looks; he activated the "True Fragrance Law" on the spot.

"Senior Sister, believe me, the Chinese people will definitely thank you for this contribution!"

...

Three days later.

Lin Mo brought his complete graduation project on Rocket Guidance,

As well as some design schemes and rough blueprints for the Individual Exoskeleton Armor, and placed them in front of Professor Ai Chongfeng.

After checking the Rocket Guidance project twice,

Professor Ai Chongfeng nodded with satisfaction.

The student he was mentoring,

Was very smart, and had learned very solidly during his four years of university,

Based on this graduation project alone,

Getting an A-grade evaluation should be no problem!

But when Professor Ai Chongfeng picked up the design manual and overall plan for the Individual Exoskeleton Armor,

He only took a rough look,

And was thoroughly shocked by Lin Mo's plan!

"This!..."

"What kind of wild and imaginative idea is this! This high-energy condensed plasma power engine, and this intelligent behavior adaptation system..."

"And yet... these key supporting sub-technologies have very high feasibility!"

Professor Ai Chongfeng looked at Lin Mo in shock,

Completely unable to believe,

That this kid actually had ideas!

And regarding some technical difficulties and barriers,

He also had very concrete solutions!

"Perhaps, he really might be able to research something!"

Professor Ai Chongfeng suddenly harbored some hope for Lin Mo's new project.

If he could really overcome a few key supporting technologies, he might even be able to offer advice for the national-level project that had already been declared terminated!

From that day on,

Professor Ai Chongfeng's attitude did a 180-degree turn,

And he began to vigorously support Lin Mo's research.

The initial project funding granted to Lin Mo was also directly increased to one million!

Lin Mo, through his actions,

Proved that he was indeed a scientific genius!

...

4:00 AM.

Military Science and Technology Testing Ground of the University of Science and Technology of China.

"Six million in funding is still not enough; I have to cut out most of the firepower systems..."

Lin Mo, in the factory building within the testing ground,

Looked at the automated production line in front of him and muttered to himself.

The research and testing ground of the Military Science and Technology Academy of the University of Science and Technology of China,

Was built according to the standards of a top national research base.

Here,

There were not only various high-end research equipment,

But also smelting, forging, electronic, and other automated machine tools.

This was also the purpose of Lin Mo's request to come here.

Thinking of some things that happened at the military lecture a few days ago,

Lin Mo thought to himself.

"Not even ten minutes after mentioning the aircraft carrier news, the CIA actually obtained the intelligence!"

"Some of these students at the University of Science and Technology of China are really quite traitorous..."

"It's comparable to the '500,000' from my past life!"

"And this strategic intimidation system, it even affected the CIA, yet the prestige value only gave 200!"

"And one needs to reach 10,000 prestige to claim the system upgrade mission..."

Could it be, he had to go catch spies?

Lin Mo immediately shook his head.

Not to mention that collecting evidence on spies was extremely difficult, and there was no reward policy for '500,000' now,

Furthermore, there were only 2 months left until the graduation project defense.

Spending energy to catch spies was putting the cart before the horse.

"You have to eat one bite at a time. The most critical thing is to build the Individual Exoskeleton Armor as soon as possible!..."

Create cross-era cutting-edge technology, complete strategic intimidation, then upgrade the system to acquire new technology, and climb the technology tree for China,

That was the righteous path!

Time waits for no one; he must seize every moment!

Besides, keeping these traitors and informants around might have miraculous effects for future strategic intimidation!

Just like that,

Over these two-plus months,

Lin Mo was "two points and one line" between the laboratory and the testing ground every day.

He relied on Ren Xueyi to bring meals for his daily sustenance.

He ate and lived in the laboratory.

Every day at 4:00 AM, Lin Mo arrived at the testing ground on time, braving the stars, to develop alloy materials and process core parts.

His life could only be described as exceptionally dull.

If it were a normal person, they probably would have gone crazy long ago, but Lin Mo enjoyed it.

Additionally, don't look at how hard Lin Mo was working.

There were quite a few students in the University of Science and Technology of China who were just as diligent and hardworking as him!

These people were the future of China.

...

Two months later.

The next day was the day of the graduation project defense.

After two months of arduous and painstaking work,

The Kunlun Individual Exoskeleton Armor was basically completed.

Looking at the sci-fi, matte black Individual Exoskeleton Armor in front of him.

In Lin Mo's eyes,

A joy that could not be controlled was revealed!