Chapter 286 Improvement Plan

At 3 AM, Lin Mo's office light was still on.

On the desk lay Chen Xueming's new proposal, which he had rushed to complete overnight, and next to it was a cup of long-cold tea. Lin Mo sat in front of his computer, the screen displaying not ordinary engineering drawings, but the system interface—the “Civilization Climber” that had accompanied him for seven years.

[Current research points balance: 3550 points]

[Detecting user is analyzing “Kuafu” mech power system malfunction]

[Do you want to start the simulation deduction function? This deduction will consume 500 research points]

Lin Mo didn't hesitate and clicked confirm.

The screen switched, and a 3D mech model appeared in the virtual space. This was a unique system function—10,000x accelerated simulation, capable of deducing the performance of a design under extreme working conditions in a short period.

Lin Mo input Chen Xueming's new proposal into the system and set the simulation conditions: continuous extreme working conditions, ambient temperature from -20°C to 50°C, continuous operation time of 12 hours.

The simulation began.

The mech model started moving in the virtual space—climbing, jumping, running, carrying loads. Data streamed down the screen like a waterfall, and Lin Mo stared intently at the flickering numbers.

Three minutes later, the system popped up the first warning.

[Power distribution module temperature abnormal]

[Current temperature: 87°C (Threshold: 85°C)]

[Estimated remaining stable operation time: 47 minutes]

Lin Mo frowned. Chen Xueming's new proposal did solve the single-chip overload problem, but it only treated the symptoms, not the root cause—the chip was replaced with a high-temperature resistant one, but the heat still accumulated there and couldn't dissipate.

The simulation continued.

At the 52nd minute, the second warning popped up.

[Power distribution module temperature: 102°C]

[System automatically begins frequency reduction]

[Output power reduced to 83%]

At the 78th minute, the mech's movements began to deform.

At the 112th minute, the power system performed a protective shutdown.

The simulation ended.

Lin Mo leaned back in his chair, staring at the final assessment report: [Improved solution has limited enhancement, maximum continuous combat time under extreme conditions: 1 hour 52 minutes]

It was still far from the “4 hours” he wanted.

He closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the entire power system structure. From the energy core to power distribution, from drive units to joint actuators, he deduced the heat generation and dissipation paths for each link one by one.

Ten minutes later, he opened his eyes and accessed the system's drawing editing interface.

“The problem isn't the chip itself,” he muttered to himself, “it's the heat dissipation.”

Chen Xueming's solution was just minor modifications to the original structure, but the design of Kuafu had not fully considered heat accumulation under extreme conditions from the beginning. This wasn't Chen Xueming's fault—time was too tight, and no one expected the training intensity to approach its limit so quickly.

But now that the problem was exposed, it had to be fundamentally resolved.

Lin Mo began to modify the virtual drawing.

First, increase the heat dissipation area. Originally, there were only passive heat sinks on the back; now, active heat dissipation structures were added to the chest, abdomen, and all limb joints. Each heat sink fin was redesigned in shape and angle to maximize heat dissipation efficiency while ensuring protective strength.

Second, introduce liquid cooling circulation. An independent coolant pipeline was added inside the mech, starting from the power core, flowing through all high-heat modules, and finally reaching the radiator on the back. The coolant used a special formula provided by the system, with a thermal conductivity 3.7 times that of ordinary coolant.

Finally, optimize the control logic. When the system detects that heat accumulation is approaching the threshold, instead of simply reducing the frequency, it intelligently adjusts the load of each module, allowing heat generation to be more evenly distributed across multiple heat dissipation paths.

At 5 AM, the first draft of the new proposal was completed.

Lin Mo glanced at his research points balance: 3050 points. This modification did not consume any points—the system only charged for “exchanging technology,” not for “independent design.”

He clicked save and sent a message to Chen Xueming: “8 AM, bring your team to my office.”

After sending it, he fell asleep on the desk.

At 7:55 AM, when Chen Xueming pushed the door open, Lin Mo was washing his face.

He came out of the restroom, water droplets still on his face, and saw four or five people following Chen Xueming—structural engineers, thermal control experts, hydraulic system designers, all present.

“Have a seat, everyone.” Lin Mo dried his face and directly turned on the projector, “Last night, I simulated your proposal.”

The simulation playback appeared on the screen. Everyone stared at the flickering data, and when the power shut down at the 112th minute, the office fell silent.

Chen Xueming's face was a little pale.

“Your proposal wasn't wrong,” Lin Mo said, “you just didn't find the fundamental problem.”

He switched to the new drawing: “The problem isn't the chip; it's the heat dissipation.”

Lin Mo's overnight modified proposal appeared on the projection. The 3D model slowly rotated, with the newly added heat dissipation structure and liquid cooling circulation highlighted in red.

The thermal control expert was the first to react, leaning closer to the screen: “This is... full-body distributed heat dissipation?”

“Yes.” Lin Mo pointed at the model, “The back heat sink is retained, but only as an auxiliary. The main heat dissipation relies on this liquid cooling circulation—it takes heat away from the power core, flows through the limb joints, and finally returns to the back radiator. Use this formula for the coolant.”

He wrote a string of chemical formulas on the whiteboard.

The thermal control expert stared at the characters, his eyes widening: “This thermal conductivity... where did it come from?”

“From the system,” Lin Mo did not hide it, “but the design concept was my own.”

Chen Xueming had been silent, staring intently at the structural diagram of the liquid cooling circulation. Ten minutes later, he suddenly spoke: “What if this pipeline is breached?”

Lin Mo looked at him.

“On the battlefield, the mech might get hit,” Chen Xueming looked up, “If the coolant leaks and the heat dissipation system fails, what then?”

Lin Mo nodded and brought up another drawing: “Redundant design. The liquid cooling circulation operates independently in two paths, left and right. If either path is breached, the other automatically increases flow to maintain basic heat dissipation. At the same time, the system will limit output power to ensure the pilot has enough time to evacuate.”

Chen Xueming was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled: “I thought about it all night, and you did it in three hours.”

Lin Mo looked at him: “It's not that I'm smarter than you. It's that I have a tool, and you don't.”

Chen Xueming was stunned.

Lin Mo didn't explain further, turning to everyone: “Can this proposal be completed as engineering drawings today?”

The structural engineer and thermal control expert exchanged glances and nodded simultaneously: “Yes.”

“Good.” Lin Mo checked his watch, “It's 8:20 AM now. By 5 PM, I want to see the complete modification plan. Tonight, we'll produce new heat dissipation modules overnight, and tomorrow morning, we'll modify one for testing first—Wang Lei's unit.”

“Understood!”

For the next nine hours, Lin Mo's office became a temporary command center.

Structural engineers optimized the pipeline routing segment by segment against the 3D model, ensuring no conflicts with other systems. Thermal control experts calculated heat exchange efficiency at every point, repeatedly adjusting heat sink fin density. Hydraulic system designers checked the interfaces between the liquid cooling circulation and the original hydraulic system, ensuring they wouldn't interfere with each other.

Chen Xueming was responsible for overall coordination, shuttling between various specialties, his voice hoarse from shouting.

Li Xiao also came over in the afternoon with her AI team. The new heat dissipation system required more complex control logic, and the original thermal management algorithm needed to be rewritten.

“The sensor layout needs to be adjusted,” she pointed at the drawing, “Originally, there were only three temperature monitoring points; now, at least fifteen are needed—the power core, power distribution, and the hydraulic unit of each joint all need separate monitoring.”

“Can the algorithm handle data fusion from fifteen points?” Chen Xueming asked.

“Yes,” Li Xiao said confidently, “My AI was originally designed with redundant fault tolerance; adding a few more sensors just increases the input dimensions, the logical framework doesn't need to change.”

Lin Mo leaned by the window, watching the group bustling with activity, a slight smile on his lips.

At 4:53 PM, the complete modification plan was released.

The structural engineer placed a thick stack of drawings in front of Lin Mo: “Commander, it's done.”

Lin Mo took them, flipping through page by page. The drawings were very detailed, every modification annotated, every dimension with tolerance requirements. He turned to the last page and looked up: “Notify the factory to produce them overnight. Prioritize one set for production; tomorrow morning, we'll modify Unit 3 first—Wang Lei's unit.”

“Understood.”

At 2 PM the next day, the modified Unit 3 mech was towed into the test field.

For this test, Zhao Gang personally commanded from the console, and all the pilots stood by watching. Wang Lei stood at the very front, staring at the familiar mech with complex emotions.

“Nervous?” someone beside him asked.

Wang Lei shook his head: “Not nervous, it's... indescribable.”

The test began.

Unit 3 mech performed conventional movements first—walking, turning, jogging—everything was normal.

Then came medium intensity—climbing slopes, overcoming obstacles, loaded movement—still stable.

An hour later, it entered extreme working conditions. The pilot was replaced by an experienced member of the test team, who controlled the mech to continuously climb almost vertical steep slopes, performing high-intensity maneuvers immediately after each climb, giving the system no chance to rest.

On the screen, the temperature curve began to rise slowly.

70°C... 75°C... 80°C...

Everyone held their breath.

85°C.

This was yesterday's shutdown line.

But this time, there was no warning.

The heat dissipation system operated at full capacity, the fan speed of the back radiator increased, and the coolant circulated rapidly through the pipelines. The temperature continued to rise, but the slope clearly slowed down.

88°C... 90°C... 92°C...

Then, it stopped.

92.3°C, the temperature curve became a horizontal straight line.

“Thermal equilibrium achieved,” the thermal control expert shouted excitedly, “Heat dissipation efficiency equals heat generation efficiency, the temperature is stable!”

A cheer erupted from the command console.

The test continued.

Two hours... three hours... three and a half hours...

The temperature fluctuated around 92°C, neither rising nor falling.

At three hours and fifty-eight minutes, the test team actively called for a stop.

“Continuous extreme working conditions, running time 3 hours 58 minutes,” the test team leader reported, “System is completely normal, power output is stable, pilot fatigue is the only limiting factor.”

The command console was silent.

Then, Zhao Gang was the first to applaud.

Thunderous applause.

Wang Lei stood in the crowd, looking at the silver-gray mech, his eyes suddenly a little moist. Yesterday it was lying in a pile of rubble; today it could run for four continuous hours.

“Wang Lei!”

Zhao Gang called him.

“Here!”

“You'll drive it tomorrow,” Zhao Gang walked over and patted his shoulder, “Dare to?”

Wang Lei puffed out his chest: “I dare!”

Zhao Gang smiled and turned to everyone: “See that? Don't be afraid of problems; solving them is progress. From now on, your ‘Kuafu’ can fight continuously for four hours. What can four hours do? Enough to fight from Earth orbit to the surface of Mars!”

Cheers erupted again.

After the crowd dispersed, Lin Mo walked alone to Unit 3 mech.

He reached out and pressed the mech's leg armor; the metal was slightly warm, the residual heat from the normal operation of the heat dissipation system.

“Four hours,” he murmured, “Is that enough?”

Footsteps came from behind him.

Chen Xueming walked over and stood beside him.

“Old Lin,” he suddenly said.

Lin Mo turned around.

“I have a question,” Chen Xueming looked at the mech, “You have that system, so logically you could directly exchange for the most perfect design. Why did you modify it yourself?”

Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds, then said: “Because the system isn't omnipotent.”

Chen Xueming didn't understand.

Lin Mo continued: “The system can give me drawings, but it can't give me understanding. If I only know how to exchange and not how to design, then I'll always be a ‘user’ and never a ‘creator’.”

He looked at Chen Xueming: “Moreover, do you think what the system gives is perfect? The Room-Temperature Superconductivity drawings, it took me three months to digest before I dared to do Pilot-scale production; the Carbon Nanotubes process package, we adjusted it more than twenty times before mass production; the space elevator proposal, Li Xiao ran 23 types of fault simulations before it passed.”

He patted the mech: “Technology is never a one-step process. What's truly reliable is iterated through countless trials and errors.”

Chen Xueming fell silent.

After a long time, he suddenly smiled: “Old Lin, sometimes you really sound like a philosopher.”

Lin Mo also smiled: “Not a philosopher, an engineer.”

The two stood in the setting sun, looking at the mech.

The silver-gray paint was dyed golden by the sunset, as if it had donned a layer of armor.

In the distance, Master Liu from the Canteen was ringing the bell: “Dinner's ready—”

“Let's go,” Lin Mo turned, “Master Liu's braised pork will get cold if we don't go now.”

Chen Xueming followed his steps.

After walking a dozen steps, he suddenly turned back and glanced at the mech.

“Four hours,” he repeated silently in his heart, “When we get to Mars, we might have to run even longer.”

The mech stood silently, as if saying: I'm waiting.