323: Chapter 323 The show is about to begin!

"Academician Lin, I'll head in first."

Lin Jixian nodded at Lin Yuan, his voice lowered.

After speaking, he turned around and walked quickly toward the half-open office door.

His footsteps were crisp and short, carrying a certain urgent rhythm.

Lin Yuan stood in the corridor, watching Lin Jixian's back disappear behind that heavy wooden door, the extremely faint "click" of the door latching shut reaching his ears.

He knew that from the next moment on, that massive and precise state machine would begin to run at an unprecedented speed.

And the grand blueprint in his mind, encompassing the "second world" and the "Four Great Ascension Systems,"

would step by step transform from ink on paper into a reality capable of overturning the entire world order and shattering the cognition of the old era.

"The show... is about to begin."

Lin Yuan murmured in his heart, the faint curve at the corner of his lips never fading.

He was looking forward to seeing the wonderful expressions on the faces of people around the world when they saw things that should only exist in fantasy descend into reality.

He was also looking forward to the improvements that the realization of these two blueprints would bring him!

Subsequently, he strode forward with his long legs, unhurriedly, and walked toward the security checkpoint at the end of the corridor.

...

Inside the office.

Lin Jixian walked quickly to a spot two meters in front of the desk and stood still, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, even his breathing deliberately quieted, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

Elder Long was still sitting in his original position, his posture unchanged.

"Xiao Lin."

"I am here."

"Go immediately and greet the liaisons for Lao Zhang, Lao Li, and the others."

Elder Long's voice was not loud, and his speaking speed was even half a beat slower than usual.

But every word that fell into Lin Jixian's ears weighed more than a thousand jun, making his eardrums buzz.

"Tell them to cancel all remaining scheduled events for today."

"Whether it's meeting foreign guests or conducting grassroots inspections, cancel everything!"

"Tell them there is something extremely important, and they must come over at twelve o'clock noon to meet and hold a closed-door meeting!"

As the words fell.

Lin Jixian's pupils suddenly constricted for a moment.

Cancel all schedules?

Everyone must be present by noon?

Lin Jixian, who had been by Elder Long's side for many years, knew all too well what it meant for these two conditions to be combined.

The last time Elder Long used such an irrefutable tone and issued such a time requirement was more than half a year ago, when Lin Yuan proposed the Fifth-Generation Communication Technology and Brain-like Intelligence projects.

And after that closed-door meeting, what happened?

The entire world's technological landscape was completely overturned, and the barriers that the West had painstakingly built for decades were crushed by the Xia Kingdom like dry weeds and rotten wood!

Now... Elder Long has issued the same order again?

And judging by Elder Long's tone, the level of importance this time is even greater!

A series of thoughts popped into Lin Jixian's mind, but his body reacted faster than his consciousness.

"Understood."

He didn't ask a single extra word, nor did he hesitate in the slightest.

Upon hearing this, Elder Long nodded slightly, his gaze falling back to the document that had just been opened on the desk, and said no more.

Lin Jixian understood, bowed slightly, and turned to walk toward the door.

He pulled the door open and stepped out quickly.

In the corridor, his pace was twice as fast as when he came in; he was practically jogging.

As he walked, Lin Jixian took out the dark gray encrypted communication device from his inner pocket, his thumb sliding rapidly across the screen to call up the first number.

He dialed.

"Beep—beep—"

During the two busy tones while waiting for the connection, Lin Jixian's brain was spinning rapidly.

He didn't know exactly what Lin Yuan had discussed with Elder Long just now.

But from those extremely brief instructions from Elder Long, he could precisely smell a certain scent.

That was... the scent that the world was about to change again!

"Hello, Old Lin, is there something wrong with calling at this time?"

A steady male voice with a hint of surprise came from the other end of the phone.

Lin Jixian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his surging emotions, and his voice returned to its usual smooth and proper tone.

"Old Chen!"

"There is an urgent notification that I need you to pass on for me immediately..."

...

Meanwhile.

At the other end of the corridor.

Lin Yuan had already passed the final security checkpoint and walked out of the main building of Ziguang Pavilion.

The afternoon sun was just right, and the temperature was pleasant.

Qin Meng was already waiting by the car. Seeing him come out, she walked up quickly and deftly opened the rear car door.

Lin Yuan bent down to sit inside, leaned against the seat, and took his phone out of his pocket.

The screen was clean, with no new messages.

He was in no hurry to contact anyone, just placing the phone casually on his knees, his gaze looking through the car window at the courtyard outside, which was plated with a warm golden color by the sunlight.

The car started smoothly and drove silently out of the courtyard.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes, his brain beginning to operate with a terrifying efficiency that ordinary people could hardly reach.

In his mind, he straightened out the following timeline, one by one, like plucking strings.

Elder Long would convene a meeting later. With the decisive decision-making style of those old men, combined with Elder Long's tough attitude and the credibility accumulated from previous collaborations...

If it's fast, there could be a preliminary conclusion by this evening.

If it's slow, it won't exceed tomorrow noon at the latest.

And once the conclusion is reached... it would mean the full launch of a new round of the whole-nation system.

The second world, national life evolution...

These two grand concepts, which are extremely sci-fi and even carry strong fantasy colors, would be perfectly unfolded in reality, driven by this terrifying state machine!

Lin Yuan's fingers tapped unconsciously on his knees twice.

However, before that.

He still had things that needed to be arranged in advance.

He had caught and remembered Elder Long's words, "You can make preparations in advance."

That was a blank check with words written on it.

He would not waste it.

"Since I want to harvest the world's confidence, this fire must burn brightly enough, and the suspense must be built up enough..."

His brain was running at high speed, summarizing, arranging, and integrating countless technical routes, time nodes, resource requirement lists, and even the layout of subsequent lies.

...

That evening, at six o'clock sharp.

Lin Yuan's encrypted phone vibrated abruptly.

A text message from Elder Long, containing only a few brief words—

"It's settled!"

Lin Yuan looked at those two words on the screen and chuckled softly.

As expected.

He casually turned off the phone screen and leaned back against the seat.

Outside the window, the setting sun was sinking, dyeing half the sky a deep orange-red, like a prairie fire about to sweep across the globe.

Everything was moving forward steadily, according to the rhythm he had expected.

...

Just one hour later, at seven o'clock that evening.

On the homepage of the Xia Kingdom's official news portal, the regular news that had been scrolling was suddenly cleared.

Replacing it was a teaser message without any images, consisting of only a short sentence, which had occupied the most prominent position on the entire network without any warning—

[The Xia Kingdom will hold a press conference on major issues at 10:00 AM the day after tomorrow!]