258: Chapter 258 shows another small breakthrough.

Lin Yuan's voice was not loud, and his tone could even be described as casual.

But these few light words, falling into the ears of everyone in the control room, were like the ringing of a great bell, instantly smoothing over the anxiety and unease in everyone's hearts.

"In terms of design positioning, the White Emperor is a manned heavy escort for the Aerospace Carrier."

"However, in terms of its underlying system architecture, it also reserves a Hidden Dragon AI takeover interface, which shares the same origin as the Xuan Nü."

Lin Yuan looked around at everyone with a smile, his tone carrying an unquestionable certainty.

"In other words, the White Emperor can seamlessly switch to unmanned mode with a single click."

"Even if we can't gather enough top-tier pilots in the short term, it will absolutely not affect the scheduled launch of the White Emperor, nor will it delay the formation of its preliminary combat effectiveness."

"Worst case scenario, we'll just use it as an ultra-large drone in the early stages."

As his voice fell.

In the control room, the suffocating gloom and anxiety that had just been pressing down on everyone dissipated without a trace, like a haze blown away by a gale.

Shen Changhe's furrowed brows smoothed out, the stale air he had been holding in his chest was finally exhaled, and his heavy breathing returned to a normal rhythm.

Several gray-haired old experts looked at each other and nodded slightly in unison, their tense shoulders completely relaxing.

Yang Tongan, standing at the very front, moved his half-closed eyes slightly, his gaze lingering on Lin Yuan for two seconds.

He didn't speak, but simply gave a slight nod.

The atmosphere in the entire control room shifted from the heavy tension of a moment ago back to one of relaxation and excitement.

However.

The very next second after everyone had just put their racing hearts back in their chests—the next second after a few people had even picked up their thermos flasks to take a sip of water—

Lin Yuan did not stop.

He withdrew his gaze from the large screen and slowly scanned everyone present.

"But."

Just two words, plus a deliberate pause.

The atmosphere in the control room, which had just relaxed, tightened once again.

Several old experts who had just brought their thermos flasks to their lips stopped mid-motion.

Everyone's eyes converged on Lin Yuan once more.

Lin Yuan's tone remained calm, even carrying a relaxed sense of small talk, but his next words went straight to the core.

"Even if we can rely on AI unmanned flight, we cannot permanently avoid the pilot issue mentioned earlier."

"After all, in extremely complex tactical maneuvers, human spirituality and intuition are things that even the most massive data algorithms cannot fully replace."

"Everyone might want to broaden their thinking and look past the surface to think deeper."

"What is the fundamental reason why the situation of insufficient pilots exists?"

When Lin Yuan's voice fell, the scene was silent for a moment.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to answer for a time.

Then, seeing that no one answered, Lin Yuan directly asked and answered himself to continue the deduction.

"In the final analysis, it is actually because the physiological limits of humans themselves are too low!"

He spread his hands, his tone carrying a sense of matter-of-fact helplessness.

"An extreme overload of fifteen Gs—those who can stubbornly endure it and remain conscious are one in ten thousand globally."

"And then there's human bone density, the tear resistance of muscle fibers, the pressure-bearing capacity of the cardiovascular system, and even the reaction speed of neural synapses..."

"These hardware indicators indirectly determine the upper limit of what we can withstand."

"And for a normal person, this upper limit does not quite meet the combat requirements of an Aerospace Fighter."

In the control room, everyone listened to Lin Yuan's layer-by-layer analysis and nodded with sighs one after another.

This was an objective fact, indisputable.

And at this moment, Lin Yuan's tone took an extremely smooth turn.

"Actually, this problem is exactly the same as the dilemma we just discussed regarding the interstellar era."

"The body's inability to withstand the extreme radiation and weightlessness of deep space, and its inability to withstand the extreme overload of a fighter—"

"In essence, it's the same problem."

"It's that the human physical quality is too weak."

As Lin Yuan's voice fell, the expressions in everyone's eyes changed.

The words Lin Yuan had spoken about the spaceship earlier were perfectly linked with the current reality of the shortage of White Emperor pilots.

A look of sudden realization appeared on everyone's face.

Lin Yuan looked at everyone's reaction, the corners of his lips curling up slightly.

"Since the problem faced is the same."

"Then the solution, naturally, is also the same."

In the control room, it was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

Everyone held their breath, even their heartbeats subconsciously slowed down, as they stared intently at Lin Yuan, afraid of missing a single word.

Lin Yuan shrugged and said in a relaxed tone.

"We just need to improve human physical quality along with it, wouldn't that work?"

Hearing this, the corner of Shen Changhe's mouth twitched violently and uncontrollably.

Several old experts looked at each other, their cloudy eyes filled with the same sense of absurdity.

Improve human physical quality?

Just like that, in one light sentence?

It was as relaxed as saying, "Since the computer is lagging, let's just go to the computer mall and buy a stick of RAM to add," as if it were a matter of course.

But this is the damn human body!

It is a carbon-based life form that has evolved into its current state over countless long years.

This isn't a metal machine in a workshop that can be upgraded by hammering away and welding a pipe.

However.

This world-shattering sense of absurdity only stayed in everyone's minds for less than three seconds.

Because when they looked back at Lin Yuan's face, which was so calm it was almost matter-of-fact.

That sense of absurdity completely vanished, replaced by an almost instinctive, knee-jerk fanatical expectation.

After all, the person saying this was Lin Yuan!

When had anything that came out of his mouth ever failed to materialize?!

In front of this man, scientific common sense existed to be broken!

Shen Changhe's Adam's apple bobbed violently, making a clear swallowing sound.

He stared at Lin Yuan, his voice dry and carrying an irrepressible tremor.

"Academician... Academician Lin."

Shen Changhe swallowed hard and spoke tentatively.

"For you to say that... could it be that regarding the matter of improving human physical quality..."

"You already have a plan?!"

In the control room, everyone's hearts skipped a beat at the same instant.

Countless gazes were nailed firmly onto Lin Yuan.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan smiled.

He nodded calmly, his tone relaxed, even carrying a bit of nonchalant leisure.

"Recently, in the intervals of advancing the south heaven gate, I have also been researching technical knowledge related to Life Sciences."

"Currently, there has already been a tiny breakthrough."