230: Chapter 230 Ten-ton Mech Warrior, First You Need to Learn to Dodge!

sentry ship arrival countdown, Day 25.

Pangu Laboratory, Level B2, early morning.

Zhao Mingyuan's third version of the mapping algorithm had been running all night.

When Su Che arrived at the main console.

In the simulation environment, the Mecha was performing a set of continuous tactical maneuvers: left arm block, right hand punch, body turn, and a half-step backward retreat.

With all thirty-two degrees of freedom in the joints moving, and a twenty-millisecond intention confirmation window added to the Brain-Computer Interface's predictive capabilities, the startup latency for each action was kept under seventy milliseconds.

Zhao Mingyuan was slumped over the workstation desk.

His left cheek was pressed against the edge of the keyboard, the left sleeve of his new work uniform pulled up, with dense numbers and arrows extending from the cuff to his forearm.

Su Che didn't wake him; he exported the simulation data to review it himself.

The fluidity score for the movements was ninety-one.

What did a score of ninety-one mean? It meant the alignment between the actions the pilot wanted to perform and the actions the Mecha actually executed reached ninety-one percent in both time and space.

The remaining nine percent of deviation was concentrated in two areas.

One was the fingers.

The Mecha had five fingers on each hand, each with three joints, totaling thirty degrees of freedom for both hands.

However, after Academician Chen Shian cut the redundancy, the fingers were limited to three preset postures: fist, open, and pinch, without individual finger mapping.

This meant the pilot couldn't use the Mecha's hands to tighten a screw.

But on the battlefield, there was no need to tighten screws; gripping a gun and swinging a blade was enough.

The other was torso rotation.

When the ten-ton Mecha performed a horizontal torso rotation, the torque response of the waist drive motor was forty milliseconds slower than the human lumbar spine rotation.

The pilot would turn their waist, and the Mecha would follow, but it would be a beat behind.

Su Che marked this data in red, waiting for Zhao Mingyuan to wake up.

Academician Zhang Weide was already sitting in front of the supercomputer terminal, wearing a new anti-static work uniform today—presumably because the old one had become wrinkled from being soaked in simulation data.

"Su Che, the second round of structural runs for the upper limb joints is complete."

He projected the stress cloud map of the shoulder joint onto the large public screen.

"The shoulder joint is the most complex joint on the entire Mecha, with three rotational degrees of freedom plus one translational degree of freedom for forward extension and backward retraction. All four drive motors are crammed into the shoulder armor, making the space extremely tight."

Su Che walked to the large screen.

"The heat dissipation channel for motor number three is blocked by forty percent of its cross-sectional area by the casing of motor number one. After running at full power for fifteen minutes, the temperature rise exceeds the limit."

"Can we change the shape of motor number one's casing?"

"If we change it, it will interfere with the armor shell."

Academician Sun Qiwen didn't bring his thermos today; his hands were empty, but his pockets were bulging, likely stuffed with snacks.

"Change the heat dissipation for motor number three to a heat pipe export. Don't use the convection channel; conduct the heat directly to the outer wall of the shoulder armor and let the armor act as a heat sink."

Wen Bo happened to turn in from the corridor.

"If we use the armor as a heat sink, the surface temperature of the shoulder armor will rise, increasing the infrared signature."

"By how much?"

"After fifteen minutes at full power, the surface temperature of the shoulder armor will be about twelve degrees higher than the ambient temperature."

Su Che did a quick calculation.

"The deep space background temperature is negative two hundred seventy degrees; twelve degrees higher is still negative two hundred fifty-eight degrees. Infrared detectors won't be able to distinguish it at that temperature. The ground ambient temperature is thirty degrees; twelve degrees higher is forty-two degrees. The infrared signature will indeed increase."

"When fighting on the ground, the Mecha doesn't rely on infrared stealth anyway," Academician Zhang Weide added. "A ten-ton iron man running on the ground can be detected by seismographs; you expect infrared stealth?"

"Add the heat pipe, approved."

sentry ship arrival countdown, Day 24.

Level B2, afternoon.

After Zhao Mingyuan woke up and saw the red-marked data on the waist rotation delay, he didn't say anything and went straight to fixing it.

He added a layer of feed-forward compensation to the motor drive instructions—once the Brain-Computer Interface captured the intention of torso rotation, it would provide a thirty percent pre-activation pulse to the waist motor before the twenty-millisecond confirmation window even finished.

Once the confirmation signal arrived, the motor would jump directly from the thirty percent pre-activation to full torque, shortening the response time by thirty-five milliseconds.

The deviation was compressed from forty milliseconds to five milliseconds.

The human body cannot perceive a five-millisecond delay.

The movement fluidity score was boosted to ninety-four.

Academician Chen Shian finished reviewing this set of data next to the test bench and took off his silver-rimmed glasses to wipe them with the hem of his lab coat.

"Little Zhao, there is a hidden danger in this feed-forward compensation of yours."

Zhao Mingyuan turned around.

"What if the pilot performs a feint? In combat, if they feint a waist turn to bluff an attack and then suddenly stop, the Brain-Computer Interface captures the rotation intention, and the feed-forward compensation provides thirty percent pre-activation, but the pilot's waist doesn't actually turn."

"After twenty milliseconds, the confirmation window determines it to be a cancellation, but the motor has already moved by thirty percent."

"The thirty percent pre-activation torque acting for twenty milliseconds will only turn the Mecha's waist by a fraction of a degree."

"Can the pilot feel a fraction of a degree?"

Zhao Mingyuan thought for two seconds.

"They can feel it. When wearing something, a shift of a fraction of a degree will make the pilot think the Mecha has malfunctioned."

Su Che walked over from the main console.

"The feed-forward compensation will only apply to instructions after the confirmation window passes. Feints won't trigger it, and the waist rotation will retain the original forty-millisecond delay."

Zhao Mingyuan removed the feed-forward compensation from the waist channel.

"Then what about that forty-millisecond delay?"

"Nothing. The delay for the limbs is within ten milliseconds; for the waist, it's forty milliseconds. The pilot will be able to adapt after three days of training. The human cerebellum has adaptive compensation capabilities; after a few fights, they will know to exert force with their waist a little bit earlier."

Academician Chen Shian put his glasses back on.

"Biological systems compensating for mechanical system delays—this approach is correct."

sentry ship arrival countdown, Day 22.

Morning.

Two days had passed.

The layout of Level B2 had changed.

Academician Li Zhengyang had returned to the weapon adaptation area. Spread out on the workbench were no longer sniper cannon blueprints, but design plans for individual directed-energy rifles and high-energy melee cutting blades.

Academician Qian Zhenhua began setting up the communication adaptation scheme for the micro quantum protective shield at the east workstation.

The energy regulation of the shield needed to be linked with the pilot's Brain-Computer Interface, automatically strengthening the shielding intensity in the direction of the impact when under attack.

The five original lines were mostly wrapped up.

Academician Zhang Weide had completed the third round of full-machine verification for the Mecha's structure; all joint drive motors were installed, and the force transmission path of the exoskeleton linkage rods was cleared.

Academician Chen Shian's human-machine adaptation was finalized; the gel cervical pillow, contoured seat, and life support system parameters were all locked.

Wen Bo's armor plan was sealed.

Academician Sun Qiwen's power distribution table was sealed.

Zhao Mingyuan's mapping algorithm was fixed at version four, with a fluidity score of ninety-four.

But one line hadn't moved yet.

The micro-spatial displacement evasion module.

Su Che officially launched this line today.

Micro-spatial displacement, simply put, was teleportation.

It wasn't the kind of disappearing and appearing somewhere else seen in science fiction movies.

It utilized micro-superconducting components to create a spatial wrinkle within a tiny range, "sliding" the Mecha from Point A to Point B, with a distance of no more than three meters and a time consumption of no more than 0.1 seconds.

Three meters sounded like it wasn't far.

But on the battlefield, three meters was the line between life and death.

A particle beam would be fired, and the Mecha would "slide" three meters to the left; the particle beam would pass through the original position, missing its target.

Su Che projected the technical framework of the micro-spatial displacement module onto the large public screen.

Everyone on Level B2 stopped what they were doing.

Academician Zhang Weide looked at the parameters on the large screen and pushed the supercomputer terminal's keyboard away by half.

"Spatial wrinkle."

"Correct. Micro-superconducting components create local spatial curvature changes within a five-meter radius around the Mecha. The Mecha 'slides' toward the low potential energy zone along the curvature gradient, completing the displacement."

"It's not a displacement driven by force; it's the deformation of space itself carrying the Mecha along."

Academician Li Zhengyang stood up from the weapon adaptation area and walked to the front of the large screen.

"What is the energy consumption of this thing?"

Academician Sun Qiwen was already calculating, pulling a pencil stub out of his pocket, though he didn't pull out the salted peanuts.

"A single three-meter displacement consumes eight percent of the fusion battery's full capacity. Three consecutive evasions consume twenty-four percent."

"What about adding the power consumption of the shield and rifle?"

"In ground mode, the shield plus the rifle takes seventy percent power, plus three evasions—total power consumption is fifty-nine percent, leaving a six percent margin. In flight mode..."

Academician Sun Qiwen's pencil stub paused on the draft paper.

"In flight mode, the Anti-gravity module eats up seventy-two percent, plus the shield and rifle at seventy percent load, plus one evasion—that's one hundred and three percent. It exceeds the limit."

"Disable evasion in flight mode." Su Che didn't hesitate. "In flight state, the Mecha itself has high maneuverability and relies on the Anti-gravity module for direction changes to evade; it doesn't need spatial displacement. The evasion module will only be activated in ground mode."

Academician Sun Qiwen tucked the pencil stub back into his pocket.

Academician Zhang Weide had already started calculating the installation position and structural load of the evasion module.

"Where should the superconducting components be installed? There isn't much space left on the Mecha."

Su Che pointed to the area below the Anti-gravity module on the Mecha's back in the cross-section diagram.

"Below the Anti-gravity module, there is a structural cavity forty centimeters long, thirty centimeters wide, and fifteen centimeters high, which is just enough to fit the micro-superconducting components."

"The advantage of back installation is that it is far from the pilot's chest cavity, minimizing the impact of the strong magnetic field generated when the superconducting components are working."

Academician Chen Shian immediately took over.

"What is the threshold for the impact of a strong magnetic field on the human body?"

"When the component is working, the magnetic field strength at the pilot's chest cavity position does not exceed 0.05 Tesla, which is the same magnitude as the ambient magnetic field of a hospital MRI."

Academician Chen Shian noted down the number.

"0.05 Tesla. A single exposure has no effect, but if there are more than twenty evasions in one battle, the cumulative effect needs to be evaluated. I will produce a biological safety report later."

Academician Qian Zhenhua spoke up from the east workstation.

"Who will set the trigger logic for the evasion module? Manual trigger by the pilot or automatic trigger by the AI?"

Zhao Mingyuan raised his head from the corner workstation.

"Dual trigger. The pilot can actively trigger it through the Brain-Computer Interface, or it can be set to automatic AI trigger. When the main god ai detects a high-threat incoming and the pilot cannot react in time, the AI will directly take over the evasion."

"What is the response time for AI taking over evasion?"

"From threat detection to completion of evasion, the total latency does not exceed fifty milliseconds. The fastest human reaction time is two hundred milliseconds; the AI is four times faster than a human."

Academician Qian Zhenhua closed his pen cap and didn't ask further.

Su Che distributed the six sub-lines of the evasion module.

Academician Zhang Weide was in charge of structural installation, Academician Sun Qiwen in charge of energy consumption and thermal management, Zhao Mingyuan in charge of trigger algorithms, and Academician Chen Shian in charge of biological safety.

Academician Qian Zhenhua was in charge of communication interruption recovery during evasion; spatial wrinkles would cause a 0.1-second instantaneous interruption of Quantum Communication, and communication had to be restored immediately after exiting the wrinkle.

Academician Li Zhengyang continued with the weapon line; the design of the rifle and blade would not wait for the evasion module.

Seven people, eight lines.

On the large public screen, the model of the Mecha was slowly rotating.

On the seven-and-a-half-meter-tall humanoid iron shell, below the slightly bulging Anti-gravity module on the back, a new blue area marked "Micro-spatial Displacement Module" had been added.

The lights on Level B2 stayed on from day into night.

In the corner of the main screen, the sentry ship arrival countdown.

Twenty-two days.