101: Chapter 101 Embargo? I'll flip the table and usher in a new era of computing power!

The east side locomotive workshop of the "Opening Heaven" base.

The temperature inside the workshop was five or six degrees higher than outside, and the air was filled with the dry scent of metal being excited by high energy.

Su Che pushed his goggles up onto his forehead, his eyes bloodshot.

He had been standing in front of the console for six consecutive hours.

In front of him, the machine named "Candle Dragon" was emitting a faint blue light.

Inside the quantum force field, the final set of optical path compensation systems was performing atomic-level adaptive alignment.

There was no sound of gears meshing as in traditional mechanical assembly, only a near-hallucinatory humming caused by high-frequency oscillation.

"Engineer Su, energy supply is at ninety-nine percent, approaching saturation."

President Liu Qianghua stared at the instruments on the sub-console, his voice trembling noticeably, his palms rubbing repeatedly against his knees.

Academician Qian Zhenhua stood three meters away, leaning on his cane, his body tilted forward. His eyes, clouded from years of long-term strain, were locked tightly onto the center of the force field.

Su Che did not respond; his right index finger made a light swipe on the virtual panel, injecting the final set of parameters.

"Assemble."

As he uttered this word, the thousands of scattered parts in the force field collapsed violently toward the center.

It was as if an invisible hand of God had kneaded them together at a microscopic level.

The originally silver-gray shell instantly lit up with rings of purple light, which then quickly faded away.

A device shaped like a deep-sea submersible from a sci-fi movie landed steadily on the specially made anti-vibration base.

It was pitch black, with no screw holes on its surface, so smooth that it could reflect a person's shadow.

Quantum Lithography Machine.

Dragon Country's first, and the world's first god-making machine that skipped the EUV process and entered the era of quantum tunneling directly.

"Initiate self-check."

Su Che pressed a key, then leaned back in his chair, fished a crushed compressed biscuit from his pocket, and stuffed it into his mouth.

On the screen, a green progress bar jumped frantically.

10%... 50%... 100%.

[Self-check passed.]

[Quantum light source stable, vacuum environment achieved, mask alignment accuracy: 0.001 nanometers.]

The entire workshop fell into a deathly silence.

Academician Qian Zhenhua moved his feet tremblingly, wanting to reach out and touch the black machine, but pulled back a second before his fingertips touched the shell.

He was afraid it was just a dream that would shatter at a touch.

"Is it... done?"

President Liu Qianghua's throat felt dry, and his hand, which was supporting the countertop, felt weak.

Su Che swallowed the biscuit and pointed to the wafer inlet on the side.

"Put a wafer in, and you'll know if you test it."

Half an hour later.

A fingernail-sized chip was sent into the testing platform by a robotic arm.

The image from the high-magnification electron microscope was projected onto the big screen.

It was a maze-like, yet extremely regular, nanometer-scale channel.

No burrs, no diffraction errors; the arrangement of every transistor was as perfect as a concept diagram in a textbook.

"3-nanometer quantum chip... full power operation test beginning."

The experimenter's voice was trembling.

As the power was turned on, the performance curve on the screen climbed upward at an almost vertical angle.

Computing speed, power efficiency, thermal stability... every piece of data was crazily refreshing the worldview of all the experts present.

"Clatter."

Academician Qian Zhenhua's cane fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.

He didn't notice, only staring at the red line representing computing power, tears streaming down his face.

"Embargo... to hell with the embargo!"

The old man suddenly cursed, his voice filled with a wildness suppressed for decades.

"Let them embargo! Let them blockade! From today on, the whole world will have to look to Dragon Country!"

Lieutenant General Peng pushed the door open and entered, creating a gust of wind due to his long strides.

He looked around, his gaze finally settling on Su Che.

Su Che was curled up in his chair, pouring the last bit of biscuit crumbs into his mouth.

[Ding! Detected that the host has developed and assembled the [Quantum Lithography Machine], main mission completed!]

[Mission evaluation: Miracle! You have personally ended humanity's half-century-long semiconductor hegemony and ushered in the great age of computing power!]

[Mission reward: 5000 skill points.]

The mechanical voice in his mind made Su Che feel a bit more energetic.

Five thousand points.

This was enough to redeem quite a few good things from the system.

"Chief Engineer Su."

Lieutenant General Peng walked up to him and raised his right hand in a standard military salute.

This was the highest respect for him personally.

"The celebration banquet is already prepared, and the Chief wants to speak with you personally."

Su Che yawned, waved his hand, and stuffed his tablet into his bag.

"General, I won't go to the celebration banquet; it's all old men, it's boring."

He stood up and patted the dust off his pants, his movements somewhat sluggish.

"Please thank the Chief for me, and just say that my brain cells are overdrawn recently, and I need to go recharge."

Lieutenant General Peng was stunned for a moment, not having reacted yet.

"Recharge? Where are you going to recharge?"

Su Che had already reached the door, waving his hand without looking back.

"To pick up my wife. She's still holed up in the school dormitory; if I don't pick her up, this chief engineer will become a lonely bachelor."

Lieutenant General Peng watched Su Che's figure disappear at the end of the corridor, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"This kid... he really hasn't changed a bit."

...

Downstairs at the Jinghua University girls' dormitory.

A black sedan with military license plates and slightly chipped paint parked silently by the curb.

Su Che sat in the driver's seat, rolling the window down a crack to let the cool evening breeze dissipate the smell of smoke.

He wasn't wearing his white lab coat, having changed into a washed-out gray hoodie.

Passing college students were in pairs, occasionally glancing curiously at this unassuming car with intimidating license plates.

Su Che took out his phone, his finger hovering over the screen for a long time before he sent a WeChat message.

"Come downstairs, I'm taking you home."

Less than three minutes later.

A slender figure appeared at the entrance of the dormitory building.

Lin Waner was wearing a light cyan dress with a knitted cardigan over it, clutching the strap of her bag tightly.

She stood on the steps, looking around anxiously.

Su Che opened the car door and got out. He didn't speak, just stood in the circle of light from the street lamp and smiled at her.

The moment Lin Waner saw that face, her pace quickened, and she ran over.

She braked hard when she was half a meter away from Su Che.

She looked at Su Che's bloodshot eyes and the blue stubble on his chin, her lips pressed tightly together.

"Why have you lost so much weight?"

Su Che reached out to take her bag and took her hand.

Her palm was very cool, and slightly sweaty.

"The chef at the cafeteria doesn't have the skills; it doesn't taste as good as your braised pork."

He pulled Lin Waner into the passenger seat, his movements very gentle.

After Lin Waner sat down, she turned to the side and looked at Su Che carefully.

"Is the danger all over?"

Su Che started the car, shifted gears, and turned the steering wheel.

"It's over."

"Do I not have to live in the dormitory anymore?"

"Not anymore. The security at the Expert Apartment has been upgraded; it's safer than here."

Su Che held the steering wheel with one hand, and squeezed the back of Lin Waner's hand with the other.

"I've wronged you during this time."

Lin Waner shook her head, leaned her head against the back of the seat, and watched the campus scenery receding outside the window.

"It's not a wrong. It's just... I always feel that what you're doing is getting further and further away from me."

Su Che didn't reply, just slowed the car down a bit.

...

Expert Apartment at the Military Science Commission Compound.

The room was very quiet, with only the faint sound of water mist from the humidifier.

Lin Waner was busy in the kitchen, the sound of chopping vegetables crisp and rhythmic.

Su Che lay horizontally on the sofa, half his head hanging off, already in a half-dreaming, half-waking state.

"Go take a shower before you sleep; I've drawn the water for you."

Lin Waner walked over and kicked Su Che's leg.

Su Che hummed, turned over, and instinctively wrapped his arms around Lin Waner's waist.

His cheek pressed against the slightly cool knitted cardigan, and he smelled a faint scent of jasmine.

This was ten thousand times better than that metallic smell at the base.

"Stop fooling around, you smell like smoke."

Lin Waner pushed him, but her hand couldn't help but stroke his hair.

Su Che closed his eyes, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Waner, what if we have no rice to eat in the future?"

Lin Waner was stunned for a moment, thinking he was talking nonsense.

"If we have no rice, we'll eat noodles. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to school to apply for a research assistant subsidy to support you, this great scientist."

Su Che laughed out loud and finally pushed himself up from the sofa.

"That won't be necessary."

He stood up and walked toward the bathroom, stopping for a moment as he passed the dining table.

"Starting tomorrow, I plan to grow something on the balcony."

Lin Waner poured the washed pork ribs into the pot, accompanied by a sizzling sound.

"Grow what? Scallions or garlic?"

Su Che looked at the pitch-black night sky outside the window, his eyes becoming sharp again in an instant.

That was the direction where the Yankees were initiating the "scorched earth protocol," preparing to cut off Dragon Country's grain imports.

"Grow something... that can feed the whole world, but only we can grow."

He walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

In his mind, the system interface slowly appeared.

[Detected that the host's original intention of "people's livelihood and inclusive benefit" has been triggered.]

[Mission Name: Mother Earth's Gift — All-weather High-yield Grain Factory.]

[Mission Content: Since they want to make Dragon Country starve, please develop future agricultural technology that is not restricted by the natural environment and increases yield per mu by tenfold, completely erasing the word "hunger" from Dragon Country's dictionary.]

[Mission reward: 6000 skill points, unlock photosynthesis amplification technology, soil in-situ utilization technology, 3000 exchange points.]

Su Che let the warm water wash over his tired muscles.

He leaned against the tile wall and silently calculated the math in his heart.

Five thousand points in savings.

Plus the new mission about to start.

Yankees, your "scorched earth" seems to have burned the wrong place.

Outside the bathroom, Lin Waner called out.

"Su Che, the ribs are ready, hurry up!"

"Coming!"

Su Che turned off the faucet, pulled a bath towel around his waist, and pushed the door open to walk out.

At this moment, on the other side of the ocean.

Adam was facing a top-secret briefing on the first batch of chips produced by the "Quantum Lithography Machine," snapping his fountain pen worth tens of thousands of dollars in two.

On his desk lay a new project proposal.

The title had only two words: [Grain Embargo].

And what he didn't know was that in an apartment in the capital of Dragon Country.

Su Che was holding ribs in one hand and searching on his phone with the other:

"How to 'grow' super rice on the balcony using purified water and scrap iron?"