128: Chapter 128 You build a megaphone, I'll build noise-canceling headphones, and I'll take you down in three hours!

11:25 PM.

Beijing, Pangu Laboratory, Level B2.

Su Che stood before the control console, his hands resting on the control levers.

In the center of the hall, six giant hydraulic robotic arms were in operation.

The exhaust valves emitted a rhythmic "hissing" sound.

Three-meter-long aluminum-lithium alloy pipes were precisely grabbed by the robotic grippers and delivered to the preset 3D coordinates.

The spatial self-repairing structural modules snapped together under cold pressure; there were no sparks, only the dull, grinding sound of metal under stress.

Jiang Yingxue pushed an encrypted tablet toward Su Che.

"Grid data from Nevada," she said, pointing to a red line on the screen that had spiked sharply. "Yiren AI has been pulling real-time load data from three substations around Yucca Plain. Ten minutes ago, the curve surged by 400 megawatts."

Su Che glanced at the red line, his hands never leaving the levers.

"They are preheating the superconducting coils."

Qin Lan pulled out a chair and sat down as her tactical terminal vibrated on the desk.

She answered, listened for ten seconds, and hung up.

"A briefing from Lieutenant General Peng," Qin Lan said, looking at Su Che. "The East Sea Fleet's weather ship sent back data; waves are appearing off the coast of Zhoushan despite the lack of wind. The sea level has risen by 40 centimeters overall, and the National Seismological Bureau hasn't received any signals of undersea fault activity."

Su Che pushed the left lever up by half an inch.

The assembly speed of the robotic arms increased.

"The gravitational waves have arrived," Su Che said, staring at the configuration diagram on the screen. "This is just the ripple leaking from the equipment's test power. Once the countdown ends and they output at full power, the foundations of coastal cities will be shaken apart directly."

"Can we defend against it?" Qin Lan asked.

Su Che let go of the levers and pulled over the keyboard.

"Sound waves can be canceled out by anti-phase sound waves; the same applies to gravitational waves," he said, typing a string of commands into the terminal. "They built a big megaphone, so I'm building noise-canceling headphones."

In the center of the hall, the first fourteen meters of the 42-meter verification section had already been assembled.

One hundred and twenty Anti-gravity coupling nodes were embedded at the intersections of the hexagonal honeycomb structure.

Su Che pulled up the control bus for the nodes.

"Engage power supply."

He pressed the Enter key.

The metal protrusions on the 14-meter skeleton simultaneously emitted a blue light.

The floor of Pangu Laboratory did not shake, but the air was filled with an extremely low-frequency hum.

It was the sound of the gravitational field distorting space at a microscopic scale.

"Anti-phase interference grid, activate."

Su Che fed the waveform data transmitted back by the East Sea weather ship directly into the control system.

The 120 nodes automatically adjusted their frequencies, generating an invisible force field grid that extended along the Earth's crust toward the East Sea.

12:15 AM.

Qin Lan's terminal lit up again.

"The abnormal tide off the coast of Zhoushan has subsided," Qin Lan said, looking at the brief she had received. "The sea level has returned to normal elevation."

Jiang Yingxue stared at the screen in front of Su Che.

"You used a 14-meter frame to block gravitational wave tremors from the other side of the Earth?"

"That was just the preheating power," Su Che said, picking up the water cup beside him and taking a big gulp. "When they ramp up to full power, these nodes won't be enough; I'll have to keep assembling more."

He put down the water cup and took hold of the robotic arm levers again.

Lin Waner walked over and collected Su Che's empty noodle bowl onto a tray.

She took out a clean rag and wiped away a bit of soup that had splashed onto the edge of the console.

"Are you still hungry?" Lin Waner asked, holding the tray.

"Not hungry. Just fill my water," Su Che said.

Lin Waner took the empty water cup and walked toward the water dispenser.

1:40 AM.

Across the ocean, in Nevada, Eagle Country, 300 meters beneath Yucca Plain.

The "Oppenheimer" facility control center.

Adam stood in front of the bulletproof glass.

Below was a giant circular superconducting magnet over 200 meters in diameter.

Thick white frost covered the liquid helium cooling pipes.

In front of the console, the chief physicist stared intently at the interferometer screen.

"Sir, the test beam has encountered unknown resistance in the area of coordinates E122, N30," the physicist said, pointing to a chaotic mass of ripples on the screen. "Echo data shows that our gravitational waves have been canceled out by an anti-phase force field of the same frequency."

Adam looked at the behemoth below the glass.

"Does the Dragon Nation have the capability to intercept gravitational waves?"

"Theoretically, it's impossible," the physicist shook his head. "Unless they have mastered precise gravitational field manipulation technology on a macroscopic scale. But that would require astronomical amounts of energy and unimaginable material structures."

Adam turned around.

"Increase the preheating power to 30 percent and focus the test beam on the East Sea Fleet's home port."

"The coils haven't fully cooled down yet; forcing an increase in power will increase metal fatigue."

"Execute." Adam dropped those two words and walked out of the control center.

2:20 AM, Pangu Laboratory, Level B2.

The last six aluminum-lithium alloy pipes were pushed into the preset slots by the robotic arms.

"Click."

A crisp sound of metal locking echoed through the hall.

The 42-meter-long core load-bearing truss verification section for the aerospace carrier was fully assembled.

The silver-gray skeleton spanned the 2,000-square-meter underground space, with 360 Anti-gravity nodes distributed evenly throughout the honeycomb structure like the nerve clusters of some giant beast.

Su Che let go of the levers and leaned back in his chair.

In his mind, the blue-and-white system panel lit up right on time.

[Ding! Main R&D task [Aerospace Carrier Core Load-Bearing Truss] detected as complete!]

[10,000-ton configuration verified, Anti-gravity-structural collaborative load-bearing efficiency met! Spatial anti-radiation reinforced coating adhesion complete!]

[Task Reward: 12,000 Skill Points!]

[Current host has accumulated a total of 14,500 Skill Points.]

Su Che looked at the number—14,500 points, the highest accumulated total yet.

A prompt popped up immediately below the panel.

[Host detected facing directed gravitational wave threat. Based on the existing Anti-gravity node array, derivative technical solution can be unlocked: Gravitational Wave Interference and Reverse Resonance Matrix. Redemption Cost: 1,500]

[Redeem?]

Su Che clicked confirm in his consciousness.

[Ding! 1,500 Skill Points consumed, redeemed.]

[Current host has accumulated a total of 13,000 Skill Points.]

A massive amount of data flooded his mind. This wasn't building something new; it was connecting the existing 360 nodes into a single whole.

It was turning the 42-meter truss into a giant "gravitational resonance cavity."

It could not only defend but also strike back.

Qin Lan stood up from the desk.

"Su Che, there's another alarm from the East Sea. The intensity this time is three times that of before; the breakwater at the fleet's home port is showing structural cracks."

Jiang Yingxue tapped on her tablet. "The load at the Yucca Plain substations has surged to 800 megawatts; they are ramping it up."

Su Che sat up straight.

"Robotic arms, retreat." He entered commands on the console.

The six giant robotic arms slowly retracted, retreating to the edges of the hall.

The 42-meter truss was fully exposed under the lights.

"Divert all of the laboratory's independent nuclear fusion power lines to the truss nodes," Su Che said, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "Ramp up the power to the max."

The overhead lights in the hall dimmed instantly, leaving only the emergency lighting.

The 360 nodes on the truss erupted with blinding blue light.

The light merged into one, forming a layer of visible air distortion around the skeleton.

Su Che pulled up the control interface for the Gravitational Wave Interference and Reverse Resonance Matrix.

"If they ramp it up, we'll push it right back at them."

He inputted the frequency of the gravitational waves hitting the East Sea breakwater into the system and then clicked "Phase Inversion."

"Activate."

The 360 nodes emitted a high-frequency hum simultaneously.

A dull, rumbling sound came from the rock strata beneath Pangu Laboratory.

This was not passive defense.

Utilizing the Anti-gravity nodes, the truss forcibly carved a gravitational wave channel through the interior of the Earth, pushing the received vibrational energy, along with the resonance energy generated by the system itself, back along the crust along the original path.

2:45 AM.

300 meters beneath Yucca Plain.

The "Oppenheimer" facility control center alarms blared.

Red warning lights bathed the physicist's face in a crimson glow.

"Echo anomaly! Echo anomaly!" he shouted into the comms. "A stronger gravitational wave is crashing back along our transmission channel!"

"Cut the power!" Adam rushed into the control center.

"We can't! The superconducting coils are in a self-excited state!" The physicist's hands operated the console frantically. "The opponent's wave frequency matches ours perfectly; they are using our own equipment to amplify the vibrations!"

Below the glass, the 200-meter-diameter circular superconducting magnet began to shake violently.

The special steel supports fixing the magnet emitted a teeth-grinding sound of distortion.

"Boom!"

A support snapped and crashed into the liquid helium cooling pipe.

White cryogenic gas sprayed out instantly, submerging half of the underground chamber.

"Evacuate! Everyone evacuate!" Adam grabbed the physicist by the collar and dragged him toward the door.

The entire underground facility was shaking, and chunks of concrete were falling from the walls.

The other side of the Earth. Pangu Laboratory.

Su Che watched the waveform data on the screen gradually subside.

"The load on the Yucca Plain substations has dropped to zero," Jiang Yingxue said, turning the tablet around. "It's not a shutdown; it's a physical disconnection."

Su Che hit Enter and turned off the Reverse Resonance Matrix.

The blue light on the truss dimmed, and the lighting in the hall returned to normal.

"The megaphone blew up," Su Che said, leaning back in his chair.

Qin Lan looked at the latest briefing on her tactical terminal.

"A 5.2-magnitude local earthquake occurred in Nevada, Eagle Country; the epicenter was at Yucca Plain."

She looked up at the young man in the hoodie sitting before the console.

"A trump card meant for 48 hours, and you dismantled it in just three hours of R&D."

Su Che didn't respond.

He reached out, took the water cup Lin Waner had just filled, and took a sip.

"The skeleton is done," Su Che said, looking at the 42-meter metal behemoth lying in the center of the hall. "Next, it's time to add the meat."