205: Chapter 205 Production capacity hits a bottleneck, let's build another Candle Dragon!
sentry ship arrival countdown, day 87.
Kaitian Base, Zhulong Production Line.
The Xuan-nü Unit 0 had just been dragged away by the transport platform; the output port of Processing Zone 3 hadn't even cooled down yet, and the next batch of raw material rods had already been inserted into the feed port.
Zhou Dehai stood before the production line's main console, scrolling the production schedule to the bottom; the entire table was as densely packed as ants on the move.
The holographic projection connected to Pangu Laboratory level B2.
"Chief Engineer Su, I've drafted a schedule for the mass production components of the Xuan-nü."
Zhou Dehai pushed the table over.
"Based on the current capacity of a single Zhulong, we produce one and a half sets of core components per day. Behind that, we still have to schedule the assembly of the White Emperor, Mingdi Interceptor, and Mecha, plus the spare parts replenishment for the luan bird..."
He didn't finish.
On this end of the main console, Su Che enlarged the production schedule and scanned it from top to bottom.
Since the Zhulong was built, it hasn't stopped for a single day.
The atomic growth machine's processing chamber has been running continuously for several months; it's a single-chamber, single-line setup, capable of growing only one set of components at a time.
Mass producing the Xuan-nü requires hundreds of units.
The White Emperor, Mingdi Interceptor, and Mecha are still waiting in line behind it.
Plus the daily maintenance spare parts for the luan bird, equipment upgrades for the Near-Earth Orbit Base, and the follow-up construction needs for the Moon Base...
One Zhulong is not enough.
"Engineer Zhou, what is the current utilization rate of the Zhulong's processing chamber?"
"Ninety-seven percent. There's basically no downtime; the remaining three percent is for material changing and chamber cleaning."
Su Che closed the production schedule.
"Build another one."
Zhou Dehai in the holographic projection paused for a beat.
"Build another Zhulong?"
"An upgraded version."
Su Che stood up from his chair and walked to the monitor wall.
"The current one is single-chamber, single-line, growing one set of components at a time. The new one will be dual-chamber parallel, with both processing chambers running simultaneously, sharing one quantum field constraint system, which will directly double the production capacity."
"How do we handle field interference with dual-chamber parallel operation? If two force fields are deployed simultaneously, the atomic arrangement precision will affect each other."
"Add a layer of quantum field isolation membrane."
Su Che pulled up the original architectural diagram of the Zhulong on the main screen, drawing a line between the processing chamber and the force field generator with his finger.
"We use anti-phase signals in a quantum entangled state between the two chambers for active interference cancellation. The force field fluctuations of Chamber A are transmitted to Chamber B in real-time for reverse compensation. The principle is the same as noise-canceling headphones, just at an atomic level."
Zhou Dehai on the other end at Kaitian Base didn't make a sound, staring at the architectural diagram for nearly ten seconds.
"Atomic-level active interference cancellation... What kind of precision can this thing achieve?"
"Theoretically, it's even higher than the current single-chamber setup because the reverse compensation itself acts as an additional precision calibration. It's equivalent to every atom being calibrated twice as it settles into place."
"Where are the blueprints?"
"Give me two days."
Zhou Dehai closed the production schedule and stuffed it into his work uniform pocket.
"I'll tighten the production schedule of the existing Zhulong on my end to clear space for the new machine. The spare factory building next to Processing Zone 3 is big enough; I'll go measure it."
The projection cut off.
Su Che sat back at the main console.
In his mind, a blue and white panel popped up.
[Ding! Detected that the mass production demand for the Xuan-nü Solar System version has triggered a gap in core swarm tactical capabilities, Main R&D Task triggered!]
[Task Name: Three hundred iron birds must learn to bite together!]
[Task Content: The body of the Xuan-nü Solar System version has been built, but the coordinated combat algorithm for the three hundred-unit swarm is still stuck in the simulation phase!]
[Please develop swarm coordination and anti-AI interception algorithms to achieve distributed swarm coordinated combat, AI counter-interception, and cluster damage self-healing, so that the swarm can not only fly on its own but also cooperate to bite the enemy to death!]
[Task Reward: 350,000 skill points, unlock exchange permissions for Distributed Swarm Coordination Technology, AI Counter-Interception Algorithm, and Cluster Damage Self-Healing Technology; requires 180,000 exchange points.]
[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient, exchange now?]
Su Che scanned the task description.
Academician Qian Zhenhua has already finished the underlying communication for swarm coordination, and the layered networking protocol is running.
But that is just the communication pipe; what runs inside the pipe—coordinated tactics, anti-AI interception, damage self-healing—these are the true combat capabilities of the swarm.
"Exchange."
[Ding! Consumed 180,000 main skill points, core technology unlocked!]
[System Prompt: Supporting auxiliary technologies have not yet been exchanged, including: Swarm Communication Protocol Upgrade, Anti-AI Recognition Algorithm Library, Cluster Scheduler Blueprints, total exchange points: 30,000.]
[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient, exchange now?]
"Exchange."
[Ding! Consumed 30,000 main skill points.]
Three sets of technical frameworks were injected into his consciousness space.
Distributed swarm coordination is not just simple formation flying.
Three hundred Xuan-nü are scattered across different orbits in the Solar System; if any one of them is destroyed.
The surrounding wingmen must reassign its tasks within 0.01 seconds to fill the gap and keep the overall tactic from collapsing.
Anti-AI interception is even more ruthless.
If the opponent also has a drone swarm or an AI-controlled weapon platform.
The Xuan-nü's Cognitive Graph must be able to recognize the opponent AI's decision-making pattern, predict its next move, and then turn around and use that prediction to set a trap.
Cluster damage self-healing is the last line of defense.
When swarm losses reach thirty percent, the remaining fighters automatically reorganize their formation, downgrading tactics but not collapsing.
When losses reach fifty percent, they switch to guerrilla mode.
When losses exceed seventy percent, the surviving airframes execute the final attack command.
Su Che digested these three frameworks and expanded the technical documents on the main screen.
R&D cycle: four days.
"Zhao Mingyuan."
The sound of someone turning over came from the corner.
Zhao Mingyuan climbed out of his swivel chair, his hair flattened in three different directions.
"Done?"
"New job." Su Che pushed the swarm coordination technical framework onto the public big screen.
Zhao Mingyuan walked over, rubbing the back of his neck, and stopped after scanning two lines.
"Anti-AI interception... is this to teach the Xuan-nü how to trick other AIs?"
"Not just trick, but lure. After figuring out the opponent AI's decision-making pattern, deliberately expose a weakness to entice the opponent to make your preset reaction, and then ambush them on that path."
Zhao Mingyuan pulled a bag of goji berries from his pocket, poured out a handful, and chewed them directly.
"I like this job."
"Academician Qian, the communication protocol needs to be upgraded accordingly. The damage self-healing reorganization commands will run through your layered networking."
Academician Qian Zhenhua leaned out from his workstation on the east side, "The reorganization commands must have a higher priority than regular tactical commands; I'll add an emergency channel to the protocol stack."
Su Che listed the task assignments on the main screen.
Zhao Mingyuan is responsible for the anti-AI interception algorithm and cluster damage self-healing logic.
Academician Qian Zhenhua is responsible for the emergency channel upgrade of the communication protocol.
He himself will write the core scheduling engine for distributed swarm coordination.
"Four days."
Zhao Mingyuan had already dragged his chair back to his workstation, and four code windows lit up again.
Su Che turned to another screen and opened the design file for the upgraded Zhulong.
Dual-chamber parallel architecture, quantum field isolation membrane, anti-phase active interference cancellation.
Pushing two lines simultaneously: swarm algorithms and the upgraded Zhulong.
He pulled over the keyboard, with the swarm coordination scheduling engine framework on his left and the processing chamber topology of the Zhulong II on his right.
Two engineering files, two screens, typing simultaneously.
The air conditioning vents on level B2 blew a constant stream of air, making the draft paper on the desk rustle.
...
sentry ship arrival countdown, day 85.
Zhao Mingyuan got the first version of the anti-AI interception algorithm framework running at 4:00 AM.
He used the main god ai to generate a simulated enemy AI, set the intelligence level to "above average," and put it into a simulated battlefield to fight against three hundred virtual Xuan-nü.
In the first round, the Xuan-nü swarm used conventional tactics for a frontal confrontation. The enemy AI found the swarm's formation pattern in the seventh minute and concentrated fire to break through the left flank.
In the second round, the anti-AI interception module was activated.
The Xuan-nü swarm identified the enemy AI's decision-making preference in the third minute.
It prioritizes attacking dense formations, so they deliberately created the illusion of a "dense formation" on the left flank, when in reality, there were only twelve decoy units there.
The moment the enemy AI pounced, two hundred Xuan-nü on the right flank completed the encirclement.
Zhao Mingyuan posted a screenshot of the battle report on the public big screen.
"Enemy AI wiped out, time elapsed: 4 minutes and 11 seconds."
Su Che looked up from the Zhulong II design drawings.
"Crank the enemy AI's intelligence level to the maximum and run it again."
Zhao Mingyuan adjusted the parameters.
The maximum-level simulated enemy AI didn't fall for the bait; it saw through the fake formation in the first minute and instead split its forces into two paths for simultaneous suppression.
The Xuan-nü swarm's damage self-healing module intervened; the tasks of the thirty lost fighters were instantly assigned to the surrounding wingmen, the formation reorganized, and tactics were switched.
But the maximum-level AI's adaptation speed was also accelerating, and both sides were locked in a high-speed game.
Final result: The Xuan-nü swarm won, but lost twenty-two percent.
"Twenty-two percent." Zhao Mingyuan sucked his teeth, "Needs optimization."
Su Che switched the code window for the swarm coordination scheduling engine.
"The problem isn't the interception algorithm; it's the scheduling. The reorganization speed of the damage self-healing is fast enough, but the new formation after reorganization doesn't inherit the previous tactical memory."
Su Che moved the mouse, "Every reorganization is equivalent to starting the simulation from zero, wasting two to three seconds of decision-making time."
"Tactical memory inheritance?" Zhao Mingyuan leaned over to look at the code.
"The tactical experience accumulated by each Xuan-nü during combat is written in real-time to a distributed memory pool shared by the swarm. When reorganizing, the new formation directly pulls the last thirty seconds of tactical context from the memory pool, without needing to re-simulate."
Su Che added a distributed memory pool module to the scheduling engine and reserved an interface for Zhao Mingyuan's damage self-healing logic.
"Connect this interface on your end."
Zhao Mingyuan dragged his chair back; the two were three meters apart, each typing on their own.
Academician Qian Zhenhua silently expanded the emergency channel bandwidth of the communication protocol by another five percent on the east side, leaving enough margin for the memory pool's data synchronization.
...
sentry ship arrival countdown, day 85.
Afternoon.
Su Che finalized the complete design blueprints for the Zhulong II and pushed them to Kaitian Base via an encrypted link.
Dual-chamber parallel, quantum field isolation membrane, anti-phase active interference cancellation; processing precision is fifteen percent higher than the first generation.
Daily production capacity per unit is doubled.
With the first-generation Zhulong continuing to operate, the two units running in parallel will directly cut the production scheduling pressure for Xuan-nü mass-produced components by two-thirds.
Zhou Dehai was silent for nearly a minute after receiving the blueprints.
"Chief Engineer Su, the processing chamber size of this new machine is forty percent larger than the first generation; I have to recast the base."
"Use the first-generation Zhulong to grow the base components; build and assemble simultaneously."
"... Use a Zhulong to build a Zhulong?"
"Is there a problem?"
Zhou Dehai closed the blueprints.
"No, I'm going to measure the factory."
Su Che switched back to the swarm algorithm's scheduling engine.
The distributed memory pool module and Zhao Mingyuan's damage self-healing logic have been successfully connected.
Running another round with the maximum-level simulated enemy AI.
The Xuan-nü swarm's loss rate dropped from twenty-two percent to nine percent.
Zhao Mingyuan posted the battle report on the public big screen and drew a circle next to the loss rate number.
"Nine percent."
Su Che stared at that number.
"Keep refining it; we still have two days."
In the corner of the main screen, the countdown number for the sentry ship arrival hung silently.
Eighty-five days.