174: Chapter 174 Three Million, One Gram of Isolation Medium for a New Era!

Alien civilization navigation timer, day 68.

Pangu Laboratory, B2 floor, 2:00 PM.

Su Che had written up to the 17th page of the framework document for the "Sub-nanometer lithography all-in-one machine · In-orbit assembly plan".

Three empty mineral water bottles stood in a row beside his hand.

Zhao Mingyuan was at the adjacent workstation, struggling with the multi-atom scheduling code for deposition arrangement.

The 64-atom parallel module for frequency domain isolation had been finalized, but there were still three data formats between the scheduling interface and Su Che's upper-level framework that needed to be unified.

He had fixed two, but got stuck on the third.

"Your scheduling queue uses First-In-First-Out, but my deposition path is based on shortest spatial distance priority."

Zhao Mingyuan turned the screen to show Su Che, "The two priority sets are clashing; there are always a few atoms out of the 64 that can't get in line."

Su Che glanced at it.

"Add an arbiter layer. Spatial distance priority should be higher than timing, but within the same distance, arrange by timing."

Zhao Mingyuan scratched his head, turned back to the screen, and started writing again.

On the east side of the hall, Liu Huaqiang's team had switched to the fourth task of lunar development: lunar civilian resource processing equipment.

This task had the lowest technical difficulty in the entire lunar development project.

The core was to miniaturize the industrial-grade assembly line of the previous lunar soil resource processing system for civilian adaptation, reducing power consumption, simplifying the structure, and shrinking the volume.

Wen Bo disassembled a sample piece of a stainless steel reactor in the materials area and measured the inner wall thickness with a vernier caliper.

"Three millimeters of wall thickness is too extravagant." He closed the caliper, "Lunar gravity is one-sixth, the pressure bearing requirement is low. 1.5 millimeters is enough, saving half the material."

Liu Huaqiang was flipping through design drawings nearby, "Also, switch to a smaller vacuum pump. The lunar surface itself is a vacuum environment; the pump only needs to handle residual gas inside the equipment. Cut the power to one-tenth of the original."

Academician Li Zhengyang chimed in as he passed by.

"Simplify the spectrometer as well. There are only those few types of lunar soil components; full-spectrum scanning isn't necessary. Locking onto the three characteristic peaks of ilmenite, pyroxene, and plagioclase is enough."

"How do you know everything?" Wen Bo pointed at him with an enamel mug.

"I took spectroscopy as an elective in undergraduate."

"What score did you get?"

"Eighty-seven."

"Lower than me." Wen Bo picked up the mug and took a sip of water, "Don't compare with me on elective courses."

Academician Li Zhengyang walked away with his thermos, the latch clicking.

Su Che didn't intervene in the east side's affairs.

The difficulty of the lunar civilian resource processing equipment wasn't high; three days were enough. Liu Huaqiang's team could handle it entirely on their own.

His attention was locked on two things.

The first was the in-orbit assembly plan.

The Sub-nanometer lithography all-in-one machine could not be built on the ground.

Temperature fluctuations, ground vibrations, atmospheric molecular interference—any one of these would scrap equipment with picometer-level precision.

The only place that could meet the manufacturing conditions was in the Dry Dock 400 kilometers overhead.

The core of the plan was to dismantle the all-in-one machine into seven independent modules, transport them to orbit in batches, and complete the final assembly in the manufacturing cabin of the Dry Dock.

Light source cavity module, 12-sided mirror optical path module, deposition chamber module, quantum field generator module, auxiliary field source array module, anti-vibration temperature control module, and control system module.

The list of ground prefabricated parts for the seven modules had already been sent to Zhou Dehai at the Kaitian Base.

In the production queue of the Candle Dragon, the last batch of beryllium-copper alloy vacuum chambers for the lunar energy station had just finished, and the freed-up capacity was just right to take over.

The second was the points.

Su Che pulled up the virtual ecosystem independent point pool in his consciousness and glanced at it.

Two million nine hundred and seventy-one thousand.

It had increased by twenty-eight thousand since yesterday.

The daily active users of the Mirror World remained stable at over 1.8 billion, but the output efficiency of emotional value was decaying.

The fading of freshness was an objective law; users wouldn't get excited about the same thing every day.

Almost thirty thousand short.

Tomorrow.

Su Che closed the panel.

The space footage in the center of the monitoring wall refreshed by one frame.

Inside the Dry Dock, the power cabin section of the first 100,000-ton-class luan bird was being pushed into the predetermined slot of the keel truss by a robotic arm.

On the sixth day after the Dry Dock was capped, the final assembly of the luan bird had entered the first core stage.

In the small window at the bottom right, the main framework of the Near-Earth Orbit Base was also progressing steadily.

The energy cabin shell was closed, and the internal wiring of the control cabin had begun to be laid; the outline of the base could already be roughly discerned.

Lin Waner came in from the side door.

She didn't walk to Su Che's workstation but went straight to the public dining table, setting down an insulated lunch box and a bag of oranges.

The lunch box was opened: braised beef over rice.

The bag of oranges was tied with a butterfly knot.

Su Che smelled the food and got up to get his meal.

He grabbed two oranges and stuffed them into his pocket on the way.

"What about Zhao Mingyuan's?"

"I brought him noodles." Lin Waner pushed another lunch box to the edge of the table, "Beef noodles, with extra chili."

Su Che carried the rice bowl back to his workstation and ate a few bites.

His handheld device vibrated.

Academician Zhang Weide sent a message from Wenchang Launch Base.

"The full set of prefabricated parts for the lunar energy station has been loaded. The luan bird verification ship will take off from Jiuquan Launch Base at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning and transfer after arriving at the Near-Earth Orbit Base."

Su Che replied "Received" and continued eating.

The beef was cooked soft and tender, the sauce coated the rice, and the saltiness was just right.

Alien civilization navigation timer, day 69.

3:00 PM.

Su Che sat in front of the main console, his right hand resting on the edge of the keyboard without moving.

He was waiting for a number.

The virtual ecosystem independent point pool panel in his consciousness hung in the corner of his field of vision, the numbers jumping every few minutes.

Two million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand four hundred.

Two million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand seven hundred.

Two million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred.

In the Mirror World, 1.8 billion users were eating breakfast, commuting, browsing the virtual store, and chatting with AI assistants.

The emotional value generated by each of their interactions, converted into independent points, flowed into the pool at a rate of dozens of points per minute.

Zhao Mingyuan finalized the arbiter code and pushed it into the encryption warehouse. He tilted his head and looked at Su Che.

"You've been staring at the air for half an hour."

Su Che didn't reply.

Two million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty.

Nine thousand nine hundred and eighty.

Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety.

Three million and ten.

Su Che pulled the panel to the center.

"Redeem, Quantum Ultimate Isolation Medium."

[Ding! 3,000,000 independent points consumed, Quantum Ultimate Isolation Medium (dosage required for a single all-in-one machine) has been redeemed!]

[Item has been stored in the Interstellar Material Library, awaiting extraction.]

A marker appeared in the consciousness space, labeled "Quantum Ultimate Isolation Medium · 1 unit".

Three million.

From the launch of the Mirror World to today, the number fed by 1.8 billion users globally with their curiosity, freshness, and daily interactions.

Su Che closed the material library panel.

In his mind, mechanical sounds followed one after another.

[Ding! Detected that the R&D of all core technologies for the Sub-nanometer Global Atomic Quantum Lithography Deposition All-in-One Machine is complete, and supporting materials are ready!]

[Main R&D task "Break the hard wall of physical limits!" has been completed!]

[Sub-nanometer atomic lithography, single-atom directional deposition, quantum state in-situ calibration, global ultra-precision anti-vibration temperature control, nano-scale quantum field precise regulation, atomic-level precision real-time calibration—all six core technologies have been finalized!]

[Underlying architecture 6091 lines of code, 12-sided main mirror optical path system, 64-atom parallel deposition module, 5-stage static compensation + 8 sets of asymmetric auxiliary field source optimization schemes are all ready! Quantum Ultimate Isolation Medium has been redeemed and is in place!]

[Task reward: 600,000 skill points!]

600,000 poured in.

Su Che felt the number in the main skill point pool in his consciousness jump by a large margin.

But he didn't linger on the reward because the next system prompt popped up almost simultaneously.

[Ding! Detected that the Sub-nanometer Global Atomic Quantum Lithography Deposition All-in-One Machine is ready, and the prerequisites for computing power breakthrough have been met! Main R&D task triggered!]

[Task Name: Change a real brain for the 100,000-ton mothership!]

[Task Content: The 3nm old chip has already been sentenced to death by physical limits! Please use the Sub-nanometer lithography deposition all-in-one machine to develop a Sub-nanometer Quantum Chip, realizing sub-nanometer quantum etching, sub-nanometer quantum dot arrangement, and ultra-precise quantum state regulation, providing a truly unlimited computing core for the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar and the 100,000-ton mothership!]

[Task reward: 400,000 skill points, unlock redemption permissions for Sub-nanometer quantum etching technology, Sub-nanometer quantum dot arrangement technology, and ultra-precise quantum state regulation technology, requiring 200,000 redemption points.]

[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient. Do you want to redeem?]

The lithography machine is built; the next step is to use it to produce chips.

"Redeem."

[Ding! 200,000 main skill points consumed, core technologies unlocked!]

[System prompt: Supporting auxiliary technologies have not yet been redeemed, including: Sub-nanometer chip architecture blueprints (30,000 redemption points), ultra-precision processing schemes (20,000 redemption points), total redemption points: 50,000.]

"Redeem all, deduct from the main pool."

[Ding! 50,000 main skill points consumed.]

The technical framework of the Sub-nanometer Quantum Chip flooded into his consciousness space.

Su Che quickly browsed through it.

The manufacturing process of this chip relied entirely on the lithography all-in-one machine that had just been completed.

The lithography machine in-orbit assembly, debugging, and first ignition to create the first chip—this chain takes seven days.

But the lithography machine itself must be moved to the sky first.

Su Che stood up and walked to the console.

"Zhao Mingyuan."

Zhao Mingyuan looked up with half a bun in his mouth.

"The in-orbit assembly plan is finalized. The processing list for the seven modules of ground prefabricated parts has been sent out. After the lithography machine goes to the sky, the process debugging of the Sub-nanometer Quantum Chip is up to you to monitor."

Zhao Mingyuan swallowed the bun.

"To the sky?"

Su Che picked up the encrypted handheld device and dialed Jiuquan Launch Base.

"Academician Sun, the prefabricated parts for the seven modules of the lithography all-in-one machine, put them into the transport list of the next batch of verification ships, highest priority."

"Received." Academician Sun Qiwen's side was windy, "Has Zhou Dehai finished the parts?"

"Ask him." Su Che hung up and dialed the Kaitian Base.

"Academician Zhou, when will the prefabricated parts for the lithography machine modules be ready?"

"The core parts of the light source cavity and quantum field generator are running on the Candle Dragon, done in one day."

Zhou Dehai's voice sounded like he had just run out of the workshop, and the background noise was loud.

"The mirror assembly doesn't go on the Candle Dragon; the twelve base plates will be packaged and shipped directly, then assembled on orbit."

"OK." Su Che noted it down.

He hung up the communication.

On his way back to the main console, he passed the monitoring wall.

In the space footage, the luan bird verification ship was docked at the outer interface of the Dry Dock.

After being modified for load, this verification ship had completely changed from an aerospace fighter to an aerospace cargo plane, and it was extremely busy.

The verification ship's cabin door was open, and a batch of silver-gray structural parts were being slowly dragged out of the cargo hold by a robotic arm and sent into the Dry Dock.

The final assembly of the luan bird was progressing.

The parts for the lithography machine were about to go up with it.

Once the lithography machine in-orbit assembly was completed and the Sub-nanometer Quantum Chip was put into production, the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar could be revived.

Su Che sat back in his chair, pulled up the chip's architecture blueprints, and started reading from the first page.

He didn't know how many times the white medical tape on his right index finger joint had been replaced; the edges were curled up a little.

He didn't care.

His fingers fell back onto the keyboard.