Chapter 112 Blueprint Unfolds
It was already late at night when he returned to the base.
Lin Mo didn't go back to the dormitory; he went straight into his own Prefabricated Building. Closing the door, the world fell silent, leaving only the distant low hum of the operating equipment.
He sat in his chair for a long time, his mind still full of that Gobi Desert—the endless gravel, the distant snow-capped mountains, the camel thorns swaying in the wind, and Captain Zhao's words: "impregnable."
Then he closed his eyes and focused his thoughts.
The system interface lit up in the darkness.
A blue light screen floated before his eyes, clearer than ever before. Several lines of text flickered upon it:
[New Project Launch Detected: Controlled Nuclear Fusion 'tokamak-3']
[Project Status: Approved]
[Current research points: 8730]
[Unlockable Content: tokamak-3 Holographic Blueprint]
Lin Mo took a deep breath and selected "Unlock."
The light screen flashed, illuminating the entire Prefabricated Building.
A massive device floated before him, rotating slowly.
tokamak-3.
It was even more magnificent than he had imagined. A toroidal vacuum chamber was surrounded by a complex and precise Magnet System. Blue magnetic field lines flowed around the device like tamed lightning. Plasma glowed faintly in the center of the torus; the light wasn't real, only a simulation, yet it was already impossible to look away from.
Lin Mo stood up and walked around it once.
The hologram automatically adjusted its display details as his perspective changed. He reached out and tapped lightly, and a layer of the device's surface faded away, revealing the internal structure—the vacuum chamber wall, the Tritium Breeding Blanket, the First Wall Material, the Divertor, the heating system, the diagnostic system...
Densely packed and layered upon layer.
He tapped again, and the image switched to another angle—the layout of the Magnet System. Room-Temperature Superconductivity coils were like silver dragons coiled around the device. Data on magnetic field strength flickered beside them: reaching up to 8 Tesla, nearly three times that of traditional devices.
One more tap—the simulation interface for the Plasma Control Algorithm. The code that Li Xiao would develop in the future would run here, adjusting the magnetic field in real-time to maintain the stable combustion of plasma at hundreds of millions of degrees.
Lin Mo watched all of this, remaining silent for a long time.
He had seen many blueprints. For Room-Temperature Superconductivity, Lithium-Sulfur Battery, Lithium Extraction from Seawater, and Tritium Extraction. Every time he received a new set of drawings, he would be excited and awestruck.
But never once had it been like today.
Because this was too big.
So big it required ten years, twenty-six billion, and hundreds or even thousands of people fighting day and night.
So big it could change the country, change the world, and change the course of human civilization.
He slowly sat down, looking at the device suspended in the air.
Its light reflected off his face, flickering.
"Artificial Sun," he said softly.
This was the name people gave to Nuclear Fusion devices. Because once successful, it would be like the sun, releasing almost infinite clean energy.
But he knew this name had another layer of meaning.
The sun is the source of life.
And the Artificial Sun is the symbol of humanity mastering its own destiny.
He thought of what Wang Zhenguo said: You've come at a good time; you must seize it.
He thought of what Chen Xueming said: We're going to do something big.
He thought of what Zhao Gang said: I guarantee, that place is impregnable.
He thought of Li Xiao and Zhang Zhe, of Captain Zhou and those soldiers, of Fang Lin, and of that elderly man with graying temples.
So many people were placing their hopes on him.
Placing them on this device.
Placing them on that distant goal ten years away.
Lin Mo stood up, reached out, and lightly touched the hologram.
Blue light danced at his fingertips.
"The next goal," he said, his voice soft but firm.
"Ignite the Artificial Sun."
As soon as he spoke, the system interface suddenly flickered.
A new line of text emerged:
[Goal Recorded: Ignite the Artificial Sun]
[Estimated Completion Time: 10 Years]
[Current Progress: 0.1%]
Lin Mo looked at that "0.1%," and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
0.1%.
Very little.
But it had already begun.
With a thought, he closed the system.
The hologram disappeared, and the Prefabricated Building grew dark again.
Outside the window, the moon over the Gobi Desert was very bright, shining on the operating devices with a silvery-white light.
Lin Mo walked to the window and looked outside.
In the distance, the lights were still on in Chen Xueming's Prefabricated Building. Li Xiao and Zhang Zhe's windows were also lit. Zhao Gang should still be on patrol, his flashlight beam swinging back and forth in the darkness.
He knew these people would all accompany him.
Ten years.
Step by step, they would walk on.
He took a deep breath, turned, and lay down on the bed.
Before closing his eyes, he took one last look out the window.
The moon was bright.
The stars were many.
Tomorrow would be another new day.