351: Chapter 351 Signals

The other end of the line suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

Zhou Ping's breathing came through the receiver, clearly audible, yet so rapid that it seemed he was desperately suppressing the tumultuous emotions surging within his chest.

In fact, even before making this call, he already had a vague, bold guess in his heart.

After all, having dealt with Lin Yuan for so long, he had already grasped seven or eight tenths of this young Academician's working style.

It was always tightly interlocked, never without a specific purpose.

By the time you look at the first step, he is already standing at the finish line waiting for you.

But a guess is just a guess; when Lin Yuan's nonchalant words truly fell into his ears, the hand Zhou Ping was using to hold his phone still tightened abruptly.

"Academician Lin."

Zhou Ping's voice was a bit dry, even trembling.

"You mean..."

"The full-immersion access devices for the second world are also already..."

"All ready?"

On this end of the call, inside the underground control room of Xishan Base.

Lin Yuan leaned casually against the ergonomic floating chair, legs crossed, his posture relaxed to the extreme.

He raised his eyes, looking at the endless jungle of steel before him.

Countless massive multi-axis intelligent robotic arms were precisely carrying out a series of assemblies under the dim blue cold light, at a terrifying frequency that exceeded the limits of human operation.

"Director Zhou, this past month, millions of engineering teams across the country have been braving the wind and snow, charging into the fray on the ground."

Lin Yuan's tone was extremely relaxed, as natural as chatting with an old friend about what to eat for dinner.

"I couldn't just sit in the rear, drinking tea and watching the show, could I?"

Zhou Ping froze for a moment.

Immediately after, his tense nerves completely relaxed, turning into a burst of hearty laughter filled with relief and admiration.

"Haha... Good! A good 'couldn't just drink tea and watch the show'!"

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging emotions in his chest.

"Academician Lin, since you say we are going to launch the second world now, may I venture to ask, how many first-batch devices... have you prepared?"

When asking this question, Zhou Ping's heart jumped straight into his throat.

He secretly calculated in his heart that in one month, as long as they could produce a few million sets, they could satisfy pilot programs in some first-tier cities first.

"Not many."

Lin Yuan said nonchalantly.

"Just barely enough for one-tenth of the total national population."

One-tenth...

Zhou Ping's brain raced, mentally calculating that number.

The next second, he was struck as if by lightning, jumping up from his office chair so violently that he didn't even notice he had knocked over his teacup.

"H-hundreds of millions of sets?!"

Zhou Ping's voice shot up suddenly, filled with an unbelievable sense of seeing a ghost.

In just one short month, producing hundreds of millions of epoch-making access devices?!

What kind of concept is this?!

You have to understand, these aren't plastic toys or small commodities from Yiwu!

These are epoch-spanning precision instruments involving neural connections, virtual reality rendering, and high-frequency signal transmission!

Zhou Ping knew very well that once this first batch of one hundred million devices hit the market, it would bring about such a shock to the whole world.

After a long while, he let out a long breath, as if wanting to exhale all the cognition and common sense he had accumulated over half his life.

He spoke in a tone bordering on a dream, enunciating every word, biting down hard.

"Academician Lin."

"To be able to personally participate in and witness this great project that drives the leap of the entire human civilization in my lifetime..."

"I, Zhou Ping, have not lived in vain!"

Hearing these four words filled with weight, a gentle warmth also surfaced in the depths of Lin Yuan's eyes.

"Director Zhou, you are exaggerating; the road ahead of us is still long."

Lin Yuan's voice was steady, yet it carried a powerful strength that made one feel incredibly reassured.

"The launch of the second world is just a beginning."

"There will be many areas in the future that require your cooperation; I will contact you then, please don't find me annoying."

"Just give the order!"

Zhou Ping's reply was crisp and clear, blurted out immediately.

"As long as it's something you, Academician Lin, have asked for, let alone cooperate, even if you asked me, Old Zhou, to personally go to the construction site to move bricks or go to the assembly line to tighten screws, I would not say a word and would have absolutely no complaints!"

Lin Yuan smiled, said nothing more, and hung up the phone.

...

Meanwhile.

In this era of highly developed information, major events that can truly change the world landscape can never be kept hidden.

Especially a major move like the full completion of communication base station upgrades, which involves millions of engineering personnel and concerns the future of 1.4 billion people.

That afternoon, some sporadic posts began to appear on the internet.

"Coordinates: Chaoyang District, Jingzhou. The communication base station downstairs from my house that had been fenced off for days—the construction team suddenly withdrew completely this afternoon. They even dismantled the green construction sheet metal hoarding completely. What's going on?"

"The one downstairs from my company is the same. It was still fenced off during lunch break today, but by the time I got off work in the afternoon, I found it standing there, looking brand new."

"Same here! Coordinates: The Bund, Shanghai! Several base stations had their hoardings removed at the same time, and the engineering vehicles were driving away in a line. The scene was incredibly spectacular!"

At first, these posts did not attract much attention.

But as more and more netizens from all over the country began to share what they had seen around them, an unusual atmosphere began to ferment rapidly on major social platforms.

Something is wrong!

One or two could be a coincidence, but hundreds and thousands of places all over the country, on the same afternoon, all removing construction hoardings at the same time?

There must be something big happening behind this!

Very quickly, a tech expert organized the on-site photos uploaded by netizens from all over the country, marked them using mapping software, and drew up a terrifying timeline.

"Brothers, I have compiled feedback from over 20,000 netizens across 34 administrative regions nationwide and reached a startling conclusion—"

"Starting from 2:00 PM this afternoon, nationwide, the external construction of all seventh-generation communication base stations undergoing upgrades basically finished and withdrew at the same time node!"

"This is not a coincidence; this is a unified action! It was planned!"

This technical analysis post acted like a depth charge detonated on the internet.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! So you mean... the base station upgrades are all finished?!"

"Hahaha, this is the infrastructure maniac! I have finally witnessed with my own eyes today what is called national will!"

"A month ago, God Lin drew a big pie at the press conference; a month later, the country used actions to tell us that the pie is almost baked!"

"Sob sob sob, my hands are shaking with excitement! Since the base stations are done, does that mean the second world is about to go online?!"

The public opinion across the entire network, after experiencing a brief shock, quickly turned into a fanatical tsunami.

All expectations, longings, and firm beliefs turned into an invisible torrent, crazily surging towards that one single focus.

1.4 billion people are holding their breath, waiting for a signal.

A signal that will open a new era.