71: Chapter 71 A Complete Transformation

That evening.

Lin Yuan had just finished his on-site guidance for the Workpiece Stage Group. Several core members were still gathered around the test bench, racing against time to digest the pointers he had given in just a few words, while cross-checking sets of complex parameters.

He stood at the back of the laboratory, in no hurry to leave.

Just then, the pale blue light screen deep within his consciousness lit up without warning.

[Current Lie: I am a genius with peerless intelligence and a photographic memory.]

[Total confidence: 100%]

Lin Yuan’s gaze lingered on the light screen for a moment.

One day.

From the moment he put out this lie to the confidence level reaching its limit, it had taken less than a day.

It was even faster than he had estimated.

But on second thought, it was reasonable.

The foundation of trust laid by the first two lies was simply too solid.

Furthermore, with over a hundred researchers in the entire special task force witnessing his performance firsthand, this third lie didn't even need any deliberate push; it was naturally accepted as an established fact.

After all, the facts themselves were the best advertisement.

Facing the system prompt, Lin Yuan did not choose to manifest it on the spot.

He composed himself, took another lap around the lab as if nothing had happened, gave a few instructions to the core members, and then got up to leave.

...

Back at his residence.

The door closed behind him, completely cutting off all sounds from the hallway.

Lin Yuan didn't turn on the lights; he walked straight to the bedside and sat down.

In the room, only a sliver of twilight leaked through the gap in the curtains, casting a long, thin streak of light across the floor.

It was time.

Lin Yuan delved deep into his consciousness, and with a single thought...

[confidence level full. The lie has officially come true and is being converted into reality...]

[Conversion Method: Directly acting upon the neural structure of the host's brain.]

[Conversion beginning...]

This time, there was no frantic influx of information, no sense of fulfillment from rushing data.

Instead, it was an extremely subtle structural transformation that spread silently outward from the inner side of his skull.

This feeling was completely different from before.

If one had to describe it, it was like an old machine having its core processor replaced with a brand-new one from the inside out.

The shell was still the same shell.

But the inside had completely changed.

An indescribable sense of clarity filled his entire brain.

Lin Yuan sat on the edge of the bed, immersed in this qualitative change that felt like being reborn.

Photographic memory.

These words were no longer just an adjective, but a tangible physiological instinct.

He tried to recall the information he had seen in his previous life.

Those memories that were once blurry and buried deep, judged as "useless information" by his brain, all surged forth with incredible clarity.

A technical discussion post he had glanced at in some corner of a forum in his previous life.

A formula derivation he had only skimmed through once in a college textbook.

Even a certain piece of tech news he had aimlessly scrolled through while waiting in line at the cafeteria...

Now, everything surfaced with precision as complete images.

Not scattered fragments, but complete images.

He even remembered clearly that there was a typo in the second line of the third paragraph on the phone screen at the time.

But that wasn't even the part that shocked Lin Yuan the most.

What truly made him feel the weight of the phrase "earth-shattering" was the leap in his logical dimension.

Many problems he couldn't figure out before unfolded themselves in his mind; the chains of cause and effect were linked one by one, and the solutions were clear to the point of being transparent.

The partial differential equation his mentor had written on the blackboard during grad school, which had troubled him for an entire semester, was now just like a blank page he could flip through at will.

The speed of his thoughts was ridiculously fast.

This feeling...

Lin Yuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and stared at that sliver of twilight in the dim room, remaining motionless for a long time.

For the first time, he truly understood what was meant by the "gap between a genius and a mortal."

It wasn't a quantitative gap.

It was a dimensional crushing.

He suddenly remembered a classic saying from his previous life:

"No matter how slow a person is, could they really not learn calculus by the age of 14?"

He used to think it was a joke, but looking back now, it was a genius's heartfelt confusion.

Calculus—what's so hard about that?

The third lie had come true!

By now, he not only possessed the complete set of photolithography technology bestowed by the system, but he also had a brain truly worthy of the word "genius."

Lin Yuan closed his eyes and leaned back, lying down on the soft bed.

Countless bolder and crazier ideas flashed through his brand-new cerebral cortex at high speed, only to be pressed back down one by one.

No rush.

Right now, there was only one thing that was most important.

And that was to build the complete Photolithography Machine.

This was the military pledge he had made before the whole world, and the foundation for all his subsequent earth-shaking plans.

As long as the Photolithography Machine didn't materialize, the subsequent moves on the chessboard couldn't be made.

Only by winning this first battle and making the whole world speechless could he talk about fighting the second battle.

...

In the following days, the entire Lithography Machine Special Task Force entered a state of high-speed sprinting.

Reports of success were refreshed almost every day.

On the third day, the Light Source Group completed the first cold test of the Electron Injector, with all parameters meeting standards in one go.

On the fifth day, the yield rate of the first batch of Nano-imprint Masters for metalenses broke 99%.

On the seventh day, the Workpiece Stage began full-system joint debugging, with magnetic levitation precision stabilizing at the sub-nanometer level.

Any single piece of progress, if taken alone, would be enough to publish a paper in a top-tier academic journal.

But in this heavily guarded Research Building No. 7, they were just one to-do item after another being crossed off the whiteboard in the operations command room.

At the same time, the industrial chain layout for upstream materials was also rolling out at full speed.

The preparation processes provided by Lin Yuan were dismantled into dozens of sub-projects, which were then assigned to the top material companies and research institutions in the country; production line modifications proceeded day and night.

These movements, naturally, could not be completely hidden from eyes abroad.

However, those high-and-mighty vested interests who held technological hegemony reacted with surprising consistency after obtaining this vague intelligence.

They didn't care.

Some even carried a hint of mockery, as if watching a clown's performance.

Federal Frontier was the first to publish an article, with a headline as glaring as ever—

“Sanctions in Effect! Cathay's Material Industry Chain Enters 'Panic Self-Rescue' Mode”

The article characterized all of Cathay's recent movements in the materials field as “reflexive struggles after being struck by the big stick of sanctions.”

The writing was full of condescending superiority and asserted that the technological chasm Cathay faced in high-end material preparation could not be filled simply by throwing money and people at it.

The concluding paragraph of the article was particularly biting and arrogant:

“They might be able to dig up more ore, but they will never be able to forge our blades.”

After this article was translated and reposted on major domestic platforms, the domestic reaction was also swift and intense.

“Great! Just as our Photolithography Machine shows some movement, the big stick of sanctions comes down. Some people are just too insecure, aren't they?”

“Exactly! They were the ones mocking us for not being able to build it before, and now they're the ones rushing to sanction us. So, they get to decide who wins and loses?”

“Embargoes, controls, technical reviews—it's been the same three tricks for decades. Can't they come up with something new?”

“LMAO, shouting about free trade one moment and turning around to impose tech blockades the next. If that's not a double standard, I don't know what is!”

In the comment sections, the flames of anger burned brighter and brighter.

But beyond the anger, there was more of an excitement—the kind that comes from seeing the dawn of a counterattack after being suppressed for too long.

Because those people were getting anxious!

Being anxious meant they were hitting the right spots.

Lin Yuan naturally saw these public opinions as well.

Returning to his residence in the evening, he casually scrolled through a few screens of comments, browsing with interest before finally locking his phone.

In his mind, a crystal-clear Gantt chart automatically unfolded, with the progress bars of all the sub-projects of the Lithography Machine Special Task Force ticking accurately on it.

Light Source, Objective Lens, and Workpiece Stage—the three main lines were advancing side by side, without a single link in the chain failing.

At this rate...

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze seemingly piercing through time.

Ten days!

In ten days at most, all core components will be completed.

A very faint curve appeared at the corners of his lips.

Very well.

Let those people The Other Side of the Ocean enjoy this final revelry for a little while longer.