49: Chapter 49: An Epic Front-Page Headline!

Everyone's mind went blank for a split second.

Half a year? To build a domestic Photolithography Machine?

This silence lasted for nearly three seconds, then was broken by a series of irrepressible gasps.

"He said... half a year?"

"Is there something wrong with my ears?"

In the back row of the press section, two domestic media reporters looked at each other, both seeing an almost absurd bewilderment in the other's pupils.

On the live stream screen, after a brief moment of blankness, the comments exploded with unprecedented density.

"Half a year?????"

"No, man, are you for real? That's a Photolithography Machine! Not a desktop computer you assemble at an electronics store!"

"It's over, he blew this out of proportion... I support the country 100%, but building a Photolithography Machine in half a year is just too..."

Unlike the one-sided celebration when the three core components were broken through just now, the emotions in the comments section now showed a clear division.

There was excitement, but even more hesitation, worry, and even a faint sense of unease.

Build the complete machine in half a year?

This timeline had already exceeded the cognitive boundaries of the vast majority of people.

No matter how much they longed to believe it, their reason was desperately sounding the alarm—

This is unscientific!

However, it was precisely this subtle mindset of "wanting to believe, yet not daring to believe completely".

That Lin Yuan needed.

On the podium, Lin Yuan leaned back, resting gently against the chair, his posture relaxed.

Deep within his consciousness, the progress bar that had been silent for nearly half a month finally regained its vitality.

[confidence: 15%... 15.1%... 15.2%...]

The increase was minimal, so slow that it was almost negligible.

But this was completely within Lin Yuan's expectations!

Building a Photolithography Machine in half a year—the first reaction of the vast majority of people would never be to believe it.

But even if only one person out of ten thousand quietly had the words "what if" pop up in their heart.

Multiplied by the terrifying base of viewers watching the global live stream, that was a massive number capable of shaking reality.

The progress bar was climbing slowly, but with absolute stability.

That was enough.

The real big part was still to come.

"Ha—"

In the front row of the press section, the blonde, blue-eyed foreign reporter was the first to recover from the extreme shock.

He did not hide his smile, even letting out a short, sharp laugh.

He had originally just wanted to dig a hole, forcing the other side to stammer about the timeline, so he could leave a handle of "guilt" for his follow-up report.

Who could have expected that not only did the other side not dodge it, but he actively dove right in, diving a hundred times deeper than the hole he had dug.

Half a year?

This was simply handing a sharpened blade directly into his palm.

He couldn't wait to raise his microphone, his voice carrying a kind of deliberately suppressed excitement, like a hunter locking onto prey.

"Chief Engineer Lin, please allow me to confirm once more."

His phrasing was extremely polite, but every syllable was enunciated with absolute clarity, for fear that the other side might have any room to back out.

"What you just said was half a year, right?"

"Is it half a year, starting from today's press conference?"

Every camera in the venue focused on Lin Yuan at this moment.

Lin Yuan looked at the unconcealable glee on the foreign reporter's face, and the smile in his heart deepened.

"That's right."

His reply was crisp and clean, without the slightest bit of evasion or embellishment.

"It is half a year."

He paused for a beat, and under the breathless gaze of the entire venue, suddenly changed the subject.

"However, I need to correct a small cognitive error of yours."

The foreign reporter was stunned.

"Half a year was the overall planning cycle our special team set at the very beginning when the project officially launched."

Lin Yuan's fingers tapped rhythmically and lightly on the tabletop.

"And from the project launch until today, some time has already passed."

His gaze pierced through countless cameras, carrying a hint of playfulness.

"So to be precise, it should be—"

"Less than half a year."

The moment these words fell, the atmosphere in the entire press conference hall completely exploded.

"Whoa—"

A wave of sound, ten times more intense than before, erupted from the press section.

Less than half a year?!

Not only did he not take back what he just said, he actually pushed the timeline forward by a significant margin!

He's crazy! This young man is completely crazy!

The foreign reporter was also stunned, and then, the curve of his mouth almost reached his ears.

He scribbled these words in his notebook at lightning speed, and when he looked up, a radiance like that of someone who had found a peerless treasure shone in his eyes.

Great!

This is simply god-sent material!

No matter the final result, just the title "Xia Country's twenty-year-old Chief Engineer, in front of the whole world, promises to build a Photolithography Machine in less than half a year" is enough to blow up the servers of all media worldwide!

If it succeeds, it will be a miracle of the century that rewrites human history.

If it fails, it will be a laughable joke of the century.

No matter which result it is, it's an epic front-page headline!

He couldn't wait to send this news back to headquarters immediately.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of Blue Star.

The blonde man stared at that young face on the screen, his pupils contracting violently.

"Half a year?"

He rolled these two words repeatedly on the tip of his tongue, then suddenly turned his head, staring fixedly at Harrison beside him.

"He said, half a year."

Harrison did not answer immediately.

He took off his gold-rimmed glasses and wiped the lenses with the hem of his shirt, his movements very slow.

"Harrison."

The blonde man's tone dropped by half a degree.

"I need your judgment."

Harrison put his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and took a breath.

"Impossible."

His voice was hoarse.

"From the laboratory prototype to the off-line engineering machine, the system integration, process debugging, and yield ramp-up involved in between... every single step requires a massive amount of time for trial and error and iteration!"

"Half a year?"

He shook his head vigorously, as if to convince himself.

"With Xia Country's technical level, even if they pushed forward twenty-four hours a day without sleep or rest, they would never complete it within half a year!"

"Are you sure?"

Harrison opened his mouth.

The word "sure" rolled around in his throat twice, and finally, it was spat out.

"...Sure."

The blonde man stared at him for a full three seconds, nodded slowly, and turned his gaze back to the screen.

The discomfort that had suppressed the entire press conference finally dissipated a little.

...

At the press conference venue.

Just as the foreign reporter sat down with satisfaction, and the whole venue was still immersed in the terrifying shockwave of "less than half a year"—

The progress bar in Lin Yuan's mind suddenly jumped violently, without any warning.

[confidence: 16.3%... 20.3%...]

It wasn't the turtle-speed climb from before.

But rather, like sitting on a rocket, it shot up several percentage points directly!

Seeing this scene, Lin Yuan's fingers paused slightly under the table.