96: Chapter 96 The Scorched Earth Agreement! Chief Engineer Su's Next Task!

Inside the monitoring center, that line of Chinese characters burned silently on the screen, like a brand etched onto everyone's retinas.

["Heard you wanted to conduct a digital massacre?"]

Deputy Director Qin turned his head to look at Su Che, feeling his breath hitch.

"This... counts as... an international incident, right?"

Su Che withdrew his gaze, fished a new lollipop out of his pocket, unwrapped it, popped it into his mouth, and answered indistinctly.

"They threw the first punch; I call this self-defense."

He said it with breezy indifference.

Lieutenant General Peng, however, slowly clenched his fist. The hand that had just been resting on the communicator was now gripping a deformed thermos cup.

He stared at that line on the screen, his chest heaving violently.

How many years has it been?

From the Yinhe incident to the South China Sea collision, and then to the endless technological blockades and trade suppression.

The Dragon Country has been holding back its rage for too long!

And today, this young man in his early twenties, with one line of code and a string of data, returned that pent-up anger with interest!

"Good!"

Lieutenant General Peng squeezed the word out through his teeth, his eyes actually becoming a little moist.

He turned around, no longer looking at the screen, but at Su Che.

"Kid, do you know you're about to poke a hole in the sky again? But I like it!"

"If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up." Su Che wiggled the lollipop in his mouth. "General, aren't you that tall one?"

...

Half an hour later. Beijing, a top-secret conference room.

An emergency video conference was held, the atmosphere solemn to the extreme.

In the main seat, the elderly man who often appeared on the news broadcast was silently reading the briefing on the "Fuxi" incident transmitted back on the screen.

Everyone attending sat up straight, even slowing their breathing.

After a long while, the old man looked up, his gaze sweeping over Lieutenant General Peng on the video screen.

He didn't ask about the process, nor the consequences; he only asked one thing.

"Has that little guy named Su Che gone to sleep yet?"

Lieutenant General Peng stood at attention and answered loudly, "Report, Chief! He said he was going back to catch up on sleep!"

In the conference room, everyone was choked up by this answer.

After causing such an earth-shattering event, the perpetrator actually ran off to sleep?

A trace of a smile, however, appeared on the old man's face.

He nodded slowly, and into the microphone, said only one word: "Good."

...

Across the ocean, at the Pan-Pacific Technology Alliance intelligence center.

The ear-piercing alarms had stopped, replaced by a deathly silence.

Thousands of the world's top programmers and cybersecurity experts, like puppets with their souls sucked out, stared blankly at the piles of bricked servers in front of them.

Adam stood before the data wall. At his feet were the remains of a shattered coffee cup.

In front of him was a data wall worth tens of billions of dollars, now displaying nothing but mosaics.

A technical director, hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot, walked over like a walking corpse.

"Mr. Adam..." His voice was hoarse, filled with despair.

"Our core database... has been formatted. It wasn't deleted; the underlying logic was overwritten."

"All backups, including offline backups, were assimilated and infected the moment they connected to the network."

"'Fuxi'... it's not a virus, it's a kind of... rule."

"A rule from a higher dimension that we cannot understand and cannot resist."

After finishing, the technical director collapsed to the floor and wailed. It was over.

The global intelligence network that the Pan-Pacific Technology Alliance had spent twenty years and countless resources to build, known as the "Eye of God," had turned into electronic trash in under a minute.

Adam ignored him. He slowly turned around and walked out of this graveyard of data, his face devoid of any expression.

He returned to his office, closed the door, and dialed an encrypted communication. The call connected.

"It's me."

"Sir, the 'Ghost' and 'Pendulum' missions have failed. 'Fuxi'... has destroyed everything."

An aged and calm voice came from the other end of the line.

"As expected."

"You... knew?"

"From the moment the name Su Che appeared, any conventional means lost their meaning."

The aged voice paused.

"Adam, the chessboard has been overturned. Now, it's time to change the way we play."

"Activate the 'Scorched Earth' protocol."

Adam's eyes tightened abruptly. "But sir, once the 'Scorched Earth' protocol is activated, the cost is..."

"There are no 'buts'." The aged voice carried not a hint of emotion.

"Since we cannot have it, then no one else should be able to either."

"Let the whole world be buried along with the rise of the Dragon Country."

...

"Kaitian" Base. Su Che slept until noon the next day.

He stretched and walked out of the lounge, discovering that Lieutenant General Peng was actually guarding the door.

"General, are you acting as my door god?"

"You brat!" Lieutenant General Peng scolded with a laugh, handing him a breakfast. "Eat quickly, there's serious business after you finish."

Su Che asked indistinctly while gnawing on a bun, "What business? Did the Eagle attack?"

"Not that." Lieutenant General Peng's expression turned serious. "However, they will definitely have a backup plan. We must manufacture the Quantum Lithography Machine before they can react!"

He handed an encrypted tablet to Su Che.

"This is the progress report for each subsystem of the lithography machine, compiled overnight by Old Wu and his team."

"Now, everything is ready, except for one thing... the master blueprint that can perfectly assemble all the parts."

Su Che finished his breakfast in a few bites and took the tablet.

He knew that this anti-hegemony struggle was far from over; there were still tough battles to be fought.

Just as he was about to dive into work, the long-absent system notification sound rang in his mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host has completed the hidden condition: "National-level Technological Countermeasure." Crushed the Eagle intelligence network with overwhelming advantage, greatly enhancing the Dragon Country's international technological prestige.]

[The path of universal benefits for the people requires a powerful nation as a backer!]

[Special Reward: Skill Points +1000! Current accumulated skill points for the host: 2000 points]

[Permanent 50% discount on exchange points for technical blueprints related to the "Kaitian" project!]

[Unlocked exchange permissions for the full set of auxiliary technical blueprints for the [Quantum Lithography Machine]!]

Su Che's eyes lit up. A pillow just when he was getting sleepy!

With these auxiliary blueprints, his efficiency in compiling the master assembly blueprint could at least double!

He was just about to enter the system panel to check when Lieutenant General Peng's phone suddenly rang.

Lieutenant General Peng answered the phone, and after hearing just one sentence, his expression changed.

He hung up the phone, looked at Su Che, and his voice became incomparably grave.

"Something happened."

"Just received news: Germany's Carl Zeiss, Sakura Country's Nikon, and even the Eagle's own Applied Materials company..."

"All the world's top precision instrument manufacturers have, at the same time, announced the formation of the 'Global Precision Industry Alliance' under the name of 'maintaining the security of the global technology supply chain'."

"Their first resolution is..."

Lieutenant General Peng stared at Su Che, speaking in a grave tone.

"To implement the highest level of industrial embargo against the Dragon Country."

"From a single specialized screw to a five-axis linkage machine tool, a total supply cutoff."