125: Chapter 125 Returning to the Capital! Pangu Laboratory: Building a Skeleton for the Luan Bird!

Bunker No. 3, 2:44 PM.

"Ding! Consumed 7000 Skill Points, redeemed [High-Strength Lightweight Structural Topology Optimization Technology] + [Space Anti-Radiation Structural Reinforcement Technology] + [Anti-gravity - Structural Synergistic Load-Bearing Technology]."

"Current Host accumulated Skill Points: 4500 points."

Panoramic information on the three core technologies exploded in his mind—not as text, but as structures.

The topological configuration of the truss, the molecular arrangement of the radiation-strengthening coating, and the coupling method of the Anti-gravity nodes and the load-bearing skeleton—massive amounts of engineering parameters spread out in his consciousness like a three-dimensional web.

Su Che closed his eyes and digested about thirty percent.

Then he opened them.

Not enough.

It wasn't that the technology was insufficient; it was that the space was insufficient.

The minimum verification section length for the core load-bearing truss was forty-two meters.

The clearance of Bunker No. 3 was only twenty meters.

The maximum span of the "Candle Dragon" quantum field workspace was eight meters, and metal stress testing for a ten-thousand-ton class truss required a hydraulic loading platform of at least 200 tons.

The Shennong Base was an agricultural research base; building the bones of the luan bird here was the same as building an aircraft carrier in a barbershop.

Su Che grabbed the encrypted phone.

"General."

"I hear you. What do you need?"

"It's not about what I need; it's that I have to leave."

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"The Shennong Base cannot support the next level of research. The verification section of the core load-bearing truss is forty-two meters long, stress testing requires a 200-ton hydraulic platform, and material synthesis requires an atomic layer deposition equipment cluster. There is only one place in the entire Dragon Kingdom that can handle this work."

"Pangu."

"Correct, the capital, Pangu Laboratory."

Lieutenant General Peng didn't hesitate. "When does the special plane take off?"

"The sooner, the better. One hundred and seventy-eight warships are still approaching the territorial sea line, and the twelve-hour window waits for no one."

"Who will keep an eye on things here if you leave?"

Su Che glanced at the flight control terminal.

On the flight path map of the Yiren-01, the black triangle marker was drawing a huge figure-8 patrol trajectory over the waters southeast of the Dragon Kingdom.

The Yiren AI reasoning core status bar: Blue, standby, computing load 11%.

It was taking a walk.

"It's watching," Su Che said.

"... That AI?"

"It intercepted all one thousand one hundred missiles; watching a few ships is not a problem. Just feed it the real-time location, speed, and course of the one hundred and seventy-eight warships via the Sky-Breaking Bow's quantum state scanning network. If any ship enters the 200-nautical-mile warning zone outside the Dragon Kingdom's territorial sea baseline, it will automatically intercept."

Su Che entered a new patrol instruction on the flight control terminal.

"Yiren-01, autonomous patrol mode activated. Patrol range: East China Sea, South China Sea, Yellow Sea. Warning radius: 200 nautical miles outside the Dragon Kingdom's territorial sea baseline. Rules: If a non-Dragon Kingdom warship enters the 200-nautical-mile warning zone outside the territorial sea baseline, intercept immediately. Automatically return to base for recharging if energy drops below 20%."

The reasoning core's response was still those two words.

"Ready."

Su Che locked the terminal.

"General, I have one more request."

"Speak."

"Director Qin Lan, Gao Jian, and Jiang Yingxue are flying to the capital with me. Intelligence integration and outreach channels cannot be broken; we will continue working once we reach Pangu."

"Anything else?"

Su Che paused.

"Lin Waner."

Lieutenant General Peng didn't ask why he was taking his girlfriend to a military scientific research core base.

"Forty minutes from now, base runway, special plane standing by."

He hung up.

Su Che stood up, and his lumbar spine emitted a series of protests; he had to steady himself against the console for two seconds before he could stand properly.

He hadn't slept properly for nearly forty hours.

He walked to the force field workbench, copied the silver-white engine and the full technical backup of the Yiren-01 onto an encrypted mobile hard drive, and tucked it into his pocket.

The "Candle Dragon" terminal shut down, and the force field retracted.

The bunker went quiet.

He picked up the inverted enamel mug, turned it right side up; there was a shallow scratch on the bottom, he didn't know when it had been bumped.

He shoved it into the toolbox.

The blast door pushed open, and the heatwave of the Taklamakan Desert slapped him in the face.

The golden rice fields in the distance swayed in the afternoon sun, the solar panels of the Shennong Base reflected light, and a few logistics soldiers in camouflage were moving supply boxes.

Zhou Qihang was already waiting at the entrance.

"Chief Engineer Su, Lieutenant General Peng's order has arrived, the special plane..."

"I know," Su Che interrupted him. "Help me find Teacher Lin, tell her to pack up, and meet at the runway in forty minutes."

"It has already been notified."

"... You notified her?"

"Lieutenant General Peng notified her, thirty seconds earlier than you."

Su Che ground his back teeth, but said nothing.

Twenty minutes later.

Base runway.

A Y-20B military transport aircraft was parked at the end of the runway, its rear cargo door wide open.

By the time Su Che arrived, Qin Lan and Gao Jian were already there.

Both had changed into casual clothes, but the "don't mess with me" aura they radiated couldn't be covered by any clothing.

Jiang Yingxue arrived last.

She had changed out of her camouflage combat uniform back into that gray hoodie, a new bandage was wrapped around her left wrist, and she was carrying a canvas bag in her right hand, which contained several encrypted tablets and memory cards.

"Everyone here?" Su Che counted heads.

"Missing one." Qin Lan nudged her chin toward the other end of the runway.

Su Che turned his head.

Lin Waner was running over from the direction of the logistics tents, holding an insulated lunch box in her arms, with a thin blanket tucked under her arm.

The sneakers on her feet, which had three layers of tape on them, went pat-pat-pat on the runway.

"I went to get something to eat on the way!" She ran up to him, panting twice.

Su Che glanced at the insulated lunch box.

"What is it?"

"Porridge, steamed buns, and scrambled eggs with chopped chili."

"... Where did you conjure that from?"

"Uncle Wang from the logistics cafeteria heated it up for me."

Su Che took the insulated lunch box; it was heavy, stuffed with at least four steamed buns.

"What about the blanket?"

"For you to cover yourself with when you sleep."

Su Che handed the insulated lunch box to Zhou Qihang, not taking the blanket.

"There are blankets on the plane."

"The ones on the plane are military wool blankets, they're scratchy." Lin Waner stuffed the thin blanket into his hands. "This one I brought from the dormitory, it's pure cotton."

Su Che held the thin blanket, which was folded into a perfect square, and weighed it in his hands.

"Get on the plane."

3:00 PM sharp.

The Y-20B taxied off the runway, climbed, and turned northeast.

The Taklamakan Desert turned into a gray-yellow blanket beneath the wings, shrinking smaller and smaller.

There were no seats in the cabin, only two rows of folding benches and a few secured equipment crates.

Su Che threw the encrypted hard drive and tactical tablet onto a crate and pulled over a bench to sit down.

Qin Lan and Gao Jian sat opposite him, the two of them whispering as they cross-checked intelligence on their tablets.

Jiang Yingxue leaned against an equipment crate, eyes closed, not knowing if she was asleep or lost in thought.

Lin Waner opened the insulated lunch box and placed a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge in front of Su Che.

"Eat first."

Su Che took the bun but didn't bite into it.

He picked up the tactical tablet and took a look at the real-time status of the Yiren-01.

The black triangle marker was cruising at Mach 12 over the East China Sea, its figure-8 trajectory steady.

On the situational awareness panel of the Yiren AI reasoning core, one hundred and seventy-eight red icons were arranged in an arc three hundred to four hundred kilometers outside the territorial sea line.

The closest formation to the warning zone: three hundred and twelve kilometers.

The speed hadn't changed, eighteen knots.

Nine and a half hours left.

Su Che locked the tablet screen and set it aside.

He took a bite of the bun.

"Chief Engineer Su." The walkie-talkie crackled, and Lieutenant General Peng's voice came from the direction of the cockpit, transmitted via the airborne quantum encrypted relay.

"Mm."

"Four hours to the capital, Pangu Laboratory has already been notified, you can enter as soon as you land."

"What about the equipment?"

"The 200-ton hydraulic platform, atomic layer deposition cluster, and large-scale space stress testing platform are all preheated and standing by."

"Good."

"One more thing."

Su Che chewed on the bun.

"It's an order, not a discussion."

Su Che stopped chewing.

"You are to sleep on the plane, at least three hours. No touching tablets, no writing code, no drawing blueprints. I'll block anyone who calls."

Su Che opened his mouth to say something.

"This is the original wording from Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan, not mine. He said, if Su Che collapses in front of the console at Pangu Laboratory, the Nantianmen Project is completely finished."

Su Che swallowed the bun in his mouth.

"... Fine."

He finished the bun, drank half a bowl of porridge, and pushed the insulated lunch box back to Lin Waner.

Lin Waner said nothing, unfolded the pure cotton thin blanket, and draped it over the bench.

Su Che leaned over, resting the back of his head on the edge of the equipment crate, his neck bent at an extremely uncomfortable angle.

Lin Waner placed her folded hoodie under his head.

Su Che shifted positions and closed his eyes.

"Don't wake me up, anyone."

Thirty seconds later, snoring began.

Jiang Yingxue opened one eye and looked at the person leaning on the bench, wrapped in a thin blanket, his mouth slightly open.

She closed her eyes again.

The Y-20B flew at a constant speed at an altitude of thirty-five thousand feet, the engine noise constant and dull.

Below was the snow line of the Kunlun Mountains, blindingly white.

There were no mountains in Su Che's dreams, no snow, just pitch black.

Quiet.

Don't know how much time passed.

The temperature in the cabin dropped a little, and Lin Waner tucked in the corner of the blanket that had slipped.

The tactical tablet on the equipment crate lit up.

A new data push.

Not from Lieutenant General Peng.

It was the patrol log automatically sent back by the Yiren AI reasoning core of the Yiren-01.

"Patrol Report: Three of the one hundred and seventy-eight warships have changed course and are breaking away from the formation to the south."

"Flag signal identification: ROK Navy 'Sejong the Great' class destroyer × 2, 'Dokdo' class amphibious assault ship × 1."

"Behavior analysis: Non-aggressive turn, speed reduced to eight knots, presumed to be actively withdrawing from the coalition formation."

The tablet lit up for thirty seconds and then the screen turned off automatically.

Su Che didn't see it.

He turned over and buried his face in the hoodie tucked under his head.

He mumbled something.

Lin Waner leaned in to listen.

"... Auxiliary technology hasn't been redeemed yet... talk about it when we get back to the capital..."

Sleep talking.

Lin Waner retreated, sat on the opposite bench, and hugged the insulated lunch box.

The plane continued to fly northeast.

The capital, two and a half hours away.