45: Chapter 45 Could he really be a genius?

To many, Lin Yuan was a stranger, but to others, he was familiar.

After all, not long ago, this name had stirred the nerves of the entire Xia country's internet—

The youngest Distinguished Young Researcher in the history of the Xia Academy of Sciences.

He was hired exceptionally before even graduating from his undergraduate studies, setting a historic record since the founding of the Xia Academy of Sciences.

And what made people's imaginations run wild even more was the timeline.

Not long after the news of Lin Yuan's special appointment broke, the nation officially announced a "major theoretical breakthrough" in the field of the Photolithography Machine.

These two events colliding was a coincidence that felt too deliberate.

Back then, countless people on the internet were wildly speculating...

Was there some kind of unspeakable connection between this young man and that theoretical breakthrough?

However, no official channel had ever come forward to confirm it.

This meant that speculation ultimately remained just speculation.

Until today.

In the front row of the press section, several veteran reporters who specialized in the technology beat almost simultaneously gasped the second they saw Lin Yuan's face.

"It's actually him..."

"Lin Yuan! That youngest Distinguished Young Researcher from the Xia Academy of Sciences!?"

"I guessed it had something to do with him! Sure enough, look at his entry position, following right behind Dean Chen. This order..."

The reporter didn't finish the second half of the sentence.

But most people understood the implication.

In Xia country, the order of entry, in a sense, represented the hierarchy of status.

Chen Jingshan was the head of the Xia Academy of Sciences and the main person in charge of this press conference.

And the person in the number two spot right behind him was not some venerable old academician, nor was it the director of any research institute, but rather a...

Twenty-year-old young man?

What did this mean?

The answer was self-evident.

Inside the press hall, those foreign reporters who didn't recognize Lin Yuan had already started frantically lowering their heads to check their phones.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the globally synchronized live stream, the bullet comments had completely exploded.

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! It's Lin Yuan!!!"

"Are you crazy? Look at his entry position, right behind Dean Chen, he's the second one to enter!!!"

"It's over, it's over, I have goosebumps, what kind of lineup is this!"

"So that theoretical breakthrough from before, was it really him???"

The speed of the scrolling bullet comments was too fast to read, with dense text covering the entire screen.

Lin Yuan could probably guess the cause of this clamor.

But he just followed behind Chen Jingshan, his pace unhurried, his back straight, with no visible excess emotional fluctuation on his face.

Letting hundreds of lenses lock onto him, countless flashes exploded and extinguished on his face.

Everyone took their seats on the podium in sequence.

Chen Jingshan sat in the center, and Lin Yuan was in the first position to his right.

Offstage, the attention of over a hundred reporters was pinned to the podium, and the clamor in the press hall gradually subsided.

Chen Jingshan picked up the microphone in front of him and tapped it twice.

"Good morning, friends from the press."

"Welcome to the press conference for the phased major achievements of the Lithography Machine Special Task Force."

"We specifically convened this press conference today mainly to announce a series of breakthrough achievements from our Lithography Machine Special Task Force."

His opening was extremely brief, without too much pleasantry or buildup.

The next second, he turned his head and looked at Lin Yuan beside him.

"In order not to waste your valuable time."

"Next, our Chief Technical Engineer of the Lithography Core Technology Breakthrough Task Force, Comrade Lin Yuan, will introduce the phased achievements of the task force and answer your questions."

"Let's welcome him!"

As his voice fell.

The entire press hall went quiet for 0.5 seconds.

Then—

"Buzz—"

A massive wave of sound, formed by countless gasps, low exclamations, and the friction of chairs, suddenly exploded within the press hall!

Chief Technical Engineer?

The Chief Technical Engineer of the Lithography Core Technology Breakthrough Task Force?!

In the press section, the hands of several veteran technology reporters froze, their pen tips hovering over their notebooks, unable to write a single word.

They knew too well what those five words, "Chief Technical Engineer," meant.

This was not some nominal position, nor was it an honorary title.

It meant that in this project, which utilized the entire nation's resources, all final decisions regarding technology were determined by him alone.

Simply put, in this task force, at the purely technical level, he had the final say.

And this person was a young man only twenty years old?

On the live stream, the bullet comments weren't just "exploding" anymore; the screen was completely white with text.

"Chief Technical Engineer!!!!!"

"Did I hear that right?? Did Dean Chen say Chief Technical Engineer???"

"A person in their twenties is the Chief Technical Engineer for the entire Photolithography Machine project?? What kind of concept is this???"

"I am completely stunned right now."

On the podium, Lin Yuan had already taken the microphone.

He didn't rush to speak, but first adjusted the angle of the microphone, then raised his head and swept his gaze across the audience.

Over a hundred reporters, hundreds of eyes, a dense phalanx of camera lenses.

Lin Yuan's movements were very natural.

The angle at which he looked at the lenses was neither deliberately avoidant nor pretending to be deep; he just swept across them casually.

"Good morning, friends from the press."

"I am Lin Yuan, and I am very honored to be here to introduce a series of breakthrough achievements in the field of the Photolithography Machine."

"It is also thanks to the trust of the nation and the Xia Academy of Sciences that a young person like me can serve as the Chief Technical Engineer of the Lithography Core Technology Breakthrough Task Force."

Lin Yuan said this calmly, but as it fell into everyone's ears, it made their hearts numb with shock.

And Lin Yuan didn't linger on this topic for too long.

He turned his body slightly, placed one hand on the table, and tapped his finger lightly on the cover of the documents.

"But before formally introducing the phased achievements, I would like to first respond to some voices from the international community in recent times."

He enunciated the two words "voices" neither too lightly nor too heavily, but many people's heartbeats accelerated instantly.

It was coming.

Everyone held their breath.

"Some overseas experts have assessed and speculated through our procurement equipment that we are following the old path of the Synchrotron Radiation Light Source."

After Lin Yuan's words came out, in the press hall, several reporters from overseas news agencies pricked up their ears, their pen tips recording rapidly.

"Regarding this, I can give a clear answer."

He raised one finger.

"Yes, we do plan to use an accelerator to create the Light Source for the Photolithography Machine."

On the other side of Blue Star, a smile appeared on Dr. Harrison's face.

He turned his head to look at the blonde man, the smug "I told you so" expression impossible to hide.

However, Lin Yuan's next sentence froze the smile on his face.

"But, this is completely not the same thing as what those foreign experts are saying."

Lin Yuan's voice had no fluctuations, every word clearly transmitted through the microphone across the entire hall, and across the entire world.

"The core defect of traditional Synchrotron Radiation Light Sources lies in the inability to achieve long-term, continuous, and stable output."

"This point was already confirmed thirty years ago, and our team would certainly not waste time on a known dead end."

He paused for a second, his gaze seemingly piercing through the lens, looking directly at certain people The Other Side of the Ocean.

"The path we are taking is one that no one has ever walked before."

"I have named it—"

"Steady-state Micro-focused Light Source."

This strange, sci-fi sounding name caused the brains of all the technology reporters offstage to crash for a moment.

Without waiting for them to digest it, Lin Yuan immediately followed up by throwing out the explosive news that was enough to detonate the world.

"And, as of now—"

"Our task force's Light Source team has already successfully achieved continuous, stable high-energy light beam output."