270: Chapter 270 A Thousand-Year Lifespan Defies Heaven, the Mothership Can Finally Fly!

The amber light streak neither turned green nor red.

It just "stared" at the mortals before the door silently and indifferently, as if conducting a soundless trial.

"Kaira?" Su Che asked in a low voice without turning his head.

"The system... is performing a final judgment. The operation involves exceeding limits, the judgment logic is ten times more complex than standard unlocking, and the panel display module is experiencing data throughput overload."

No sooner had Kaira finished speaking than the amber light streak on the panel flickered violently.

Patrick's knees went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground, but was caught by Automation Expert Jiang Yi beside him.

In that half-second, the light was no longer stagnant.

Starting from the center, it flowed and seeped toward the edges of the entire door panel in a gentle yet unstoppable manner.

Wherever it passed, the amber color was completely replaced by an emerald green representing life.

[Final Judgment: Crisis averted. Operator behavior complies with the highest priority "Protect Civilization's Spark" regulation. Judgment passed.]

[Unlocking complete.]

"Whew—"

Someone let out a long breath, and soon, the entire corridor was filled with the sound of heavy, rhythmic breathing.

Automation Expert Jiang Yi let go, and Patrick slid down the wall to the floor, gasping for air as if he had just been fished out of the water.

Su Che withdrew his hand, shoved it into his pocket, and turned to look at Patrick, who was slumped on the floor.

The green light on the door panel swirled, and the heavy metal door slid open silently to both sides.

Behind the door was a space wider and brighter than the ones before.

Just then, rapid footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor; it was the other experts arriving upon hearing the commotion.

Su Che was the first to step inside.

When Lin Yanqiu, Friedman, and the others rushed to the door, everyone was stunned by the scene inside.

The layout here was completely different from the basic medical pod unlocked by the second door.

The basic medical pod was a circular treatment area with one sleep pod and a dozen auxiliary devices.

This was a full-fledged medical center.

In the center sat a giant pod three times larger than the basic sleep pod, translucent and pale gold, with countless nano-scale conduits densely packed inside.

It was surrounded by twelve independent functional chambers, each with an indicator light of a different color shining at its entrance.

A functional description panel on the wall popped up automatically.

[Ship-borne Life Source Intervention Medical Center]

Full-genome rewriting with no blind spots, root-cause eradication of all genetic diseases, infinite telomere extension.

Repair of irreversible damage such as DNA double-strand breaks caused by cosmic radiation.

Extreme life resuscitation for brain-dead states and severe physical trauma.

Cross-species organ compatibility adaptation.

Life form fine-tuning and optimization.

Su Che stared at the line "Infinite telomere extension."

The medical pod from the second door had an "anti-aging and life-extension" function that allowed one to live for three hundred years.

This door said "Infinite extension."

He turned his head to look at Kaira.

"How long can this thing let a person live?"

Kaira walked to the functional panel and brought up the detailed parameters.

"The base lifespan of a Kairos Civilization citizen starts at one thousand Earth years."

She pointed at the golden pod.

"This system is the core of our Kairos Civilization's medical technology. Life forms that undergo its intervention have a theoretical maximum lifespan of one thousand years."

The scientists who had just rushed in immediately erupted in an uproar.

"One thousand years?" Lin Yanqiu's voice cracked.

"Are you kidding?" Friedman took off his reading glasses and put them back on, repeating the action twice.

"Standard data of the Kairos Civilization does not contain jokes," Kaira answered flatly.

Liu Nanshan squeezed to the front and stared at the functional panel for a full two minutes.

His hands were shaking.

"Full-genome rewriting with no blind spots... DNA double-strand break repair... extreme resuscitation from brain death..."

He read them out one by one, his voice growing lower.

"In our Earth's medical community, we can't even build theoretical models for these things."

Chen Junhong stood next to Liu Nanshan, swiped his fingers across the panel a few times, and brought up the operation interface.

The parameters on the interface were densely packed, at least twenty times more numerous than those of the basic medical pod.

"Su Che," Chen Junhong looked up, "it took us a long time to become proficient in operating the basic medical pod."

He pointed at the golden pod.

"The complexity of this system is dozens of times that of the basic pod. Full-genome rewriting, cross-species organ adaptation, life form fine-tuning—each item is an independent operation system."

"How long will it take to learn?" Su Che asked.

Liu Nanshan and Chen Junhong exchanged a glance.

Lillian Brown poked her head out from a functional chamber nearby, holding a data tablet.

"Mr. Su, I just scanned the table of contents of the operation manual."

She turned the tablet around to show Su Che.

"The operation manual for the basic medical pod was three hundred pages; this system's is twelve thousand pages."

Su Che glanced at the number.

"So, how long?"

Liu Nanshan rubbed his hands.

"If we're fast, we can get the hang of a few basic functions in a few months, but to fully master it..." He paused. "It might take several years, or even longer."

"Alright, no rush," Su Che gave Liu Nanshan a thumbs-up.

"You're already proficient with the three-hundred-year life-extension function of the basic medical pod, so finish processing everyone on the ship who is lining up for that first."

His gaze swept across everyone present.

"The things behind this door are indeed heaven-defying, but you have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. This thing isn't going anywhere, so take your time to chew through it."

Liu Nanshan nodded heavily.

"Don't worry, Su Che, even if I have to risk my old life, I will master it."

Su Che stepped out, pausing when he passed Patrick.

"Patrick, you were lucky today."

Patrick touched his chest.

"Thanks to you."

Su Che left the medical center and stopped in the corridor.

He pondered in his heart.

The forty-third door had a punishment mechanism; Li Guang had an accident, but it only took over an hour to unlock.

The fifty-second door had a punishment mechanism; Patrick was almost crippled, but it only took a few hours to solve the four questions in total.

Except for the very first few doors, the subsequent doors without punishment mechanisms took at least a few days to unlock, and up to a month for the slow ones.

The doors with punishment mechanisms never exceeded a day.

The risk was high, but the efficiency was many times greater.

He noted this pattern in his mind and walked toward the office cabin.

...

Over the next two months, Su Che poured all his energy into unlocking the mothership.

The three major projects in the Su Family Village Interstellar Development Zone progressed steadily.

The second phase of the Dyson Cloud, the research and development of dark matter detection for the Nantianmen Fleet, and the construction of the million-ton luan bird hull at the lunar Dry Dock all proceeded in an orderly manner according to the ninety-day total project schedule.

Su Che listened to reports via holographic communication every two or three weeks, and the progress was within expectations.

The progress on the Genesis was astonishingly fast.

The fifty-third door was the responsibility of Academician Zhong's Group 5.

After about half a month, it was successfully unlocked.

Inside the door were rows of quantum entanglement arrays emitting a faint blue light.

"Ship-borne intra-stellar system quantum encrypted communication system," Kaira brought up the parameters.

Pan Jianwei looked at the arrays, his hands tapping rapidly on the console.

"Su Che, this system can achieve zero-latency, absolute encrypted communication within the entire Solar System and neighboring star systems."

Pan Jianwei brought up comparative data with basic communications. "Technology below a Level 3 Civilization cannot decipher it at all."

Cheng Shuo added from the side, "If we add the previously unlocked interstellar communication relay and signal amplification system, the distance for zero-latency communication can be extended even further."

Immediately following, Ye Zhiqiu's group took over the fifty-fourth door.

Ten days, done.

The moment the door opened, an aura of slaughter rushed toward them.

Inside the huge circular chamber, multiple rotatable heavy turret mounts were arranged.

"Ship-borne particle beam weapon system," Kaira displayed a shooting simulation animation on the holographic screen.

"For mid-to-long-range attacks, it can destroy enemy large ships and ground fortifications, and can penetrate most energy shields."

Wang Haoyu and Hans Frick were transferred to take over.

Frick circled the turret mount.

"This thing is much stronger than the quantum laser cannon array, right?" Wang Haoyu asked.

"The quantum laser cannon focuses on ignoring conventional electromagnetic shielding and armor protection, leaning toward precision point kills."

Frick patted the gun barrel. "Particle beam weapons rely on the physical kinetic energy and thermal energy of high-energy particle streams. They are specifically designed to deal with all kinds of heavy shields; this is heavy firepower for head-on confrontations."

"It's at least several generations stronger than the long-range precision particle beam sniper cannon, which is the main weapon of the second-generation Mingdi Interceptor; both its power and range are on a completely different level."

After reading the weapon parameters, Su Che compared them with the Mingdi Interceptor main weapon he had developed himself.

For the fifty-fifth door, Su Wanxing's Group 2 took over.

It took fifteen days.

The cabin door opened to reveal a huge space filled with robotic arms, calibration platforms, and a live-fire shooting range.

It was a ship-borne weapon maintenance and upgrade workshop.

Su Che directly sent Greg Miller and Qin Feng over.

Qin Feng looked at the fully automatic modification stations and rubbed his chin.

"This workshop can repair and modify; in the future, if those turrets are broken or need upgrading, we can just bring them here for fully automated processing."

The next one, the fifty-sixth door, was Friedman's Group 3's turn to tackle.

Another twenty days passed.

Su Che sat in the backup command center, reviewing the latest progress reports on the three major projects.

Rapid footsteps came from outside the corridor.

Kaira didn't even knock and rushed straight in.

Her usually calm, blue-skinned face was now filled with uncontrollable excitement.

"Chief, sir!"

Su Che put down the report.

"What happened?"

Kaira stood straight and took a deep breath.

"The fifty-sixth door, the short-range space jump system, has been successfully unlocked."

Her eyes were astonishingly bright.

"The mothership can finally fly!"

Su Che stood up from his chair and walked quickly out of the backup command center.

He went to the fifty-sixth door with Kaira.

In the chamber behind the door, Friedman and Jiang Tingbai and the others were surrounding a huge spherical device.

The surface of the device was covered with complex silver circuits, and at the core, a ball of faint blue energy was slowly rotating, causing extremely subtle wrinkles to appear in the surrounding space.

Kaira followed behind Su Che and brought up the functional description.

"Ship-borne short-range space jump system, originally used to achieve short-distance space jumps within a range of ten to one hundred light-years; jump preparation time is five minutes."

She paused and added, "With the activation of this system, the mothership's basic conventional cruising propulsion system has also been fully activated and can set sail at any time."

Friedman turned around, saw Su Che, and his face still held excitement that hadn't faded.

"Su Che, this thing can let us jump directly to another star system!"

Su Che withdrew his gaze from the spherical device, and the stone in his heart finally landed.

He took out his communicator and connected directly to the public channel of the pilot training center.

"Lu Zheng, Jiang Lin, Zhao Heng, Zhou Chuyue, Han Qiao, you five, come to the fifty-sixth chamber now."

In less than ten minutes, five pilots in training uniforms ran over and stood in a row.

"Su Che!"

"From today on, the five of you are the navigation team for the Genesis."

Su Che pointed at the jump system inside.

"This system, including the navigation, piloting, and attitude control of the entire mothership, is all handed over to you."

He scanned the five people.

"I want you to use the fastest speed to engrave every operation of this ship into your bones."

Lu Zheng stepped forward, his voice loud and clear.

"Guarantee to complete the mission!"

Su Che said nothing more, turned around, and left the chamber.