Chapter 1 An Unexpected Arrival
At eleven o'clock at night, only a few windows in the Huaqing University Physics Experiment Building remained lit.
Lin Mo rubbed his aching eyes, staring at the jumping data on the screen. Quantum physics experiments were like this: ninety percent of the time was spent waiting, nine percent processing noise, and only one percent seeing meaningful results. And tonight, that one percent seemed reluctant to appear.
He shifted his body in his chair, his cervical spine letting out a faint click. This was an old ailment from his fourth year as a Ph.D. Student; it greeted him every time he stayed up late. The coffee on the desk had long since gone cold, a ring of brown stains condensed around the edge of the paper cup.
“One more time,” Lin Mo muttered to himself, reaching out to adjust the experimental parameters.
The equipment in front of him was an optical system for studying quantum entanglement states that he had spent three months building. Lasers, lenses, polarizers, single-photon detectors—various instruments crowded the entire optical platform, with intricate optical fibers connecting them like a spider web. To others, it was a maze; to him, it was a second home.
Footsteps came from outside the laboratory; it was Master Zhang, the security guard, on patrol. Lin Mo glanced at the time: 11:40. Master Zhang would knock on his door punctually at midnight to ask, “Xiao Lin, not leaving yet?” and he would reply, “In a moment,” then stay for another two hours. This was their unspoken understanding.
Lin Mo continued tapping on the keyboard, starting a new round of data collection.
The laser started up with a faint hum. Photons passed through a series of optical components into the entanglement source, producing pairs of entangled photons. The detector began counting, and rows of data popped up on the screen.
Everything was as usual.
Suddenly, the laboratory lights flickered.
Lin Mo looked up, thinking it was a voltage instability. But immediately after, the instruments in front of him began to malfunction—the data stream on the screen became chaotic, the laser's hum turned into a sharp screech, and the smell of ozone filled the air.
“What's going on?” Lin Mo stood up, reaching out to press the emergency stop button.
Just as his hand was about to touch the switch, a visible blue light exploded from the center of the optical platform. The light came without warning, stinging Lin Mo's eyes so that he subconsciously closed them. He felt a powerful force hit his chest, throwing him backward where he slammed heavily against the wall before sliding to the ground.
His consciousness began to blur.
In his last sliver of awareness, Lin Mo saw the scene in the laboratory—all the instruments had stopped working, but those entangled photons seemed to still be moving, tracing eerie light tracks in the air and converging into a constantly rotating halo.
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Mo felt someone patting his face.
“Xiao Lin! Xiao Lin! Wake up!”
It was Master Zhang's voice. Lin Mo opened his eyes with difficulty; Master Zhang's wrinkled face was close to his, eyes filled with terror.
“What happened? I was patrolling downstairs and heard a loud bang from up here...” Master Zhang helped him sit up.
Lin Mo shook his head, his brain still buzzing. He looked at the optical platform—all the instruments were dark, and a faint scorched smell lingered in the air.
“I... I don't know...” Lin Mo said. He tried to stand up, but his legs felt weak. Master Zhang supported him as he sat on a chair.
“Should I call an ambulance? Your face is terrifyingly pale.” Master Zhang pulled out his phone.
“No need, no need, I'm probably just tired.” Lin Mo waved his hand hurriedly. “Master Zhang, please go back to your work; I'll leave after I rest for a while.”
Master Zhang looked at him suspiciously but finally nodded. “Then be careful, call me if anything happens.” He walked to the door, took one last look back, and then left.
The laboratory fell silent again. Lin Mo sat with his eyes closed for a while, waiting for his heartbeat to slowly calm down. He opened his eyes and looked at the optical platform—
Wait.
He blinked. In the upper right corner of his vision, a strange icon had appeared. It was a silver spiral pattern, like some kind of badge, floating translucently in the air.
Lin Mo thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and rubbed them hard. The icon was still there.
He turned to look elsewhere—the icon disappeared. He turned back—it reappeared.
“What the hell...” Lin Mo reached out to touch the icon. Of course, his fingers touched nothing. But the moment his finger swiped across the icon, the spiral suddenly expanded, turning into a translucent light screen floating in front of him.
The light screen displayed several lines of text:
【civilization climber system Activated】
【Host: Lin Mo】
【Binding Status: Permanently Bound, Cannot be Unbound】
【Current Tech Points: 100】
【Unlockable Technology: Preparation Process for Room-Temperature Superconductivity Materials (Requires 100 points)】
【Unlock?】
Lin Mo stared intently at the light screen before him. It just floated there in the air, translucent, with a faint blue glow at the edges, clearly displaying every character. He stood up abruptly and reached out to grab it—his fingers passed through the light screen, but the screen remained motionless.
“Hallucination, it must be a hallucination,” Lin Mo muttered to himself. “I hit my head and I'm hallucinating. I need to go to the hospital...”
He turned to leave, but the light screen moved with him, always staying in the upper right corner of his vision. He walked to the door, and the screen was still there. He closed his eyes and opened them again—still there.
Lin Mo took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. As a physics Ph.D. Student, he had seen many incredible phenomena—quantum entanglement, wave-particle duality, Schrödinger's cat. But these only existed in theory and experiments; they had never... appeared directly before his eyes like this.
He sat back down in his chair and stared at the light screen.
【Unlock the Preparation Process for Room-Temperature Superconductivity Materials?】
Room-Temperature Superconductivity. These words hit Lin Mo's heart like a heavy hammer. This was the Holy Grail of condensed matter physics, a goal countless scientists spent their entire lives pursuing. If it could truly be realized, it would completely transform human civilization—energy, transportation, computing, everything would be reshaped.
“Impossible,” Lin Mo said to himself. It had to be a hallucination. Or maybe someone's prank. A holographic projection? Yes, maybe a holographic projection. With technology so advanced now, it wasn't impossible for someone to play a joke on him with a holographic projection.
He reached around the light screen, trying to find a projection device. There was nothing.
【Unlock?】 the light screen asked again, as if urging him.
Lin Mo hesitated for a few seconds and, as if possessed, said, “Unlock.”
The light screen flickered:
【Unlock successful, 100 Tech Points consumed, 0 points remaining】
【Blueprints transmitted, please check】
As soon as the words fell, Lin Mo felt a wave of dizziness. Countless pieces of information flooded into his mind—molecular structural formulas, preparation process flows, temperature control parameters, catalyst ratios... That knowledge was so clear and complete, as if he had memorized it ten thousand times. He knew how to prepare room-temperature superconducting materials now; from raw material preparation to final testing, every step was vivid in his mind.
He snapped his eyes open, gasping for breath. His forehead was covered in cold sweat.
This was not a hallucination.
Lin Mo stood up and walked to the laboratory bench. The "blueprints" in his mind told him that preparing this material didn't require expensive equipment, just a few common chemical reagents and a constant-temperature reaction kettle. And his laboratory had all these things.
He stood there, staring at the bottles and jars on the laboratory bench, a fierce struggle raging within him.
If this was true—if he really had obtained the preparation method for Room-Temperature Superconductivity—what would that mean? A Nobel Prize? Surely more than that. It would change the entire world. But if this was a hallucination, if he was just going mad, then what he was about to do would only make him a laughingstock.
Lin Mo stood for a long time.
Finally, he reached out and picked up the first reagent bottle.
“Just to verify,” he said to himself. “Just once.”
In the laboratory at two o'clock in the morning, a Ph.D. Student began the most important experiment of his life.