Defend Namsan Park

Chapter 112: Do Every Ending Have Fireworks?

Tang Di watched from afar. The "Da Yi" mech, adorned with a bright red flower on its chest, resembled a new recruit about to enlist. However, this wasn't a service ceremony, but rather a completion ceremony. Most of the time, the giant machine "Da Yi," suspended in Workshop 110, remained in a semi-finished state. As the latest fourth-generation mech developed by Tang Di, "Da Yi" was the first giant machine with long-range attack capabilities. It possessed a 90-meter gun with a range of 1,000 meters. In essence, the entire mech was built around this gun; its body and limbs were, in effect, stable gun mounts and servo mechanisms.

But the gun has been missing for the past year because Dondy is not satisfied.

He believed that a range of one thousand meters would not meet the needs in future battles against the angels. Therefore, taking advantage of the opportunity presented by Old Man Ji's mobilization of the entire human society to build the Super Bharat Brahma Temple, Longdi Stangang, Tangdi spearheaded the upgrade of the "Da Yi" weapon system. This work was the core task of the Planning Office over the past few months. Old Man Ji mobilized and collected a massive amount of manpower and resources; even a tiny bit of what he managed to squeeze out was enough for the Planning Office to extend the "Da Yi's" range from one thousand meters to thirty thousand meters.

Even the Planning and Construction Office had never fought such a well-funded battle. As the deputy chief engineer of the 151st Bureau, Tang Di had the authority to mobilize the resources that were currently concentrated in Chongqing and the 151st Bureau. Old Man Ji didn't care and turned a blind eye. Tang Di could just send a letter to coordinate whatever he wanted. This was what Wang Xiangbing was most dissatisfied with about Tang Di. The Planning and Construction Office was clearly rolling in money and had everything it could want, but this guy still made things difficult for the Construction Office at every turn, keeping all sorts of waste and junk in his hands and refusing to let any of it slip by.

Today, the gun that Tang Di can be satisfied with is finally completed. It is the core and half of the body of "Da Yi". The total length is 40 meters when folded and 90 meters when unfolded, with a range of 30,000 meters.

Old Ji made big guns, Tang Di made small guns, and Shang Lu robbed them everywhere.

"New for three years, old for three years, patched up for another three years," Tang Di said. "Don't be fooled by the fact that Da Yi is a fourth-generation mecha. From top to bottom, from left to right, from inside to outside, I'm afraid only the gun and the big red flower are brand new."

"The gun isn't actually brand new." The engineers from the Engineering Office gathered around, wearing red hard hats, watching the "Dayi" rocket close. "The outer shell is still old; only the accelerator inside is new."

"The hibiscus isn't actually brand new," the engineers continued. "It's an heirloom; Honglian has worn it before."

How far can it shoot now?

"Theoretically, the effective range can reach 30,000 meters, but we haven't tried it yet. The movement characteristics of insecticides are similar to those of electrons, and we extrapolate this from the results of electron simulations."

The new gun still uses the basic structure of a linear accelerator, only the capacitors, magnets, and track materials have been replaced, and the manufacturing process has been improved. Tang Di is quite a capable person, managing both Wei Mao's training and the improvement of "Da Yi" (the rocket), working non-stop like Foucault's pendulum, yet still having the energy and time to keep a close eye on the operations office.

The double-girder bridge crane in Workshop 110 can lift up to 4000 tons. It was manufactured by Taiyuan Heavy Industry and spans the workshop like a bridge. Standing underneath, you can see two huge white letters "TZ" when you look up. The new gun of "Da Yi" weighs 400 tons, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 10 train carriages. When folded, it is a huge iron-gray trapezoidal block. When unfolded, it reveals a black, slender barrel. It looks like a sniper rifle or a lance of a medieval European knight. You can imagine what kind of opponent "Da Yi" would face on the battlefield with this gun.

Only at times like these did Tang Di feel a profound sorrow, a sorrow only heroes possess, as if witnessing towering mountains sinking into abysses, the fiery sun plummeting from the horizon, and pale giants dying on the black coast. It was an era when both gods and humans had come to an end.

Many years later, if humanity still exists, there will be elderly people recounting the ancient stories they heard from their grandfathers. In the distant past, people built steel giants, wielding long spears, crossing lush mountains, with the mighty river flowing from west to east at their feet.

"Perhaps I am someone who lives in a prehistoric world," Tangdi thought to himself.

"When do you think this gun will come in handy?" Tang Di asked his men.

“The next angel will be able to use it.” Someone answered, “Da Yi is the most technologically advanced and powerful giant machine so far. We have reason to believe that it can deal with all the angels that will appear next.”

"If it had been born five years earlier, many angels wouldn't have been so difficult to deal with."

"Can it take down the Angel?" Tang Di suddenly asked.

Everyone was speechless.

“I think it’s difficult,” Dondy said. “The weapons of ordinary people cannot destroy the wave angels.”

"Chief Engineer, General Manager Ji has sent a notice to our office." The new assistant in the Planning and Engineering Office hurriedly squeezed into the crowd, a folder tucked under his arm, and leaned under Tang Di's hard hat. "The topping-out celebration ceremony of the Super Bharat Brahma Temple is on Monday afternoon at 2 pm. We all have to be there. No leave is allowed."

This young assistant just joined this year and graduated from university. For some reason, he has developed a strong admiration for Tang Di.

Tang Di took the notification, glanced at it, and then looked around.

Everyone averted their gazes as if they had seen dog shit. The dog shit wasn't Tang Di, but Old Man Ji's notice. No one in the office wanted to attend the meeting called by Old Man Ji. You could imagine what kind of scene it was: a grumpy white-haired old baboon on the podium, speaking in a Chongqing accent, pounding the table with a deafening roar.

"No one is allowed to take leave," Tang Di said.

The engineers looked as if they had just swallowed the dog poop they had seen.
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"Do you know about Diaoyu City in Hechuan, Chongqing?" Shang Lu suddenly asked.

Wei Mao nodded.

"Many years ago, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Möngke Khan of the Mongol Empire led his army to invade the Central Plains. His army was invincible wherever it went, but when it came to Diaoyu City, it could not be captured for a long time," Shang Lu said. "In the end, Möngke Khan himself was killed by Yang Guo under the city walls, and Diaoyu City has been known as 'the place where God broke his whip' ever since."

Wei Mao frowned slightly. He vaguely felt that something was wrong with Shang Lu's description, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

“I’ve been to Diaoyucheng. It’s a fortress built of stones. It used to be a tourist attraction, but now it’s an observation and communication station. The hilltop is high and adjacent to the Jialing River. The Joint Command Center has piled up a lot of giant antennas on the hilltop, like radio telescopes. It’s really spectacular,” Shang Lu said. “When intercepting 093 Knife Angel, many of the antennas were removed to avoid interference.”

"I...I...I...I...I...I've heard about it."

What do you mean by "having heard of it"?

"Blade after blade," Wei Mao replied. "A truly brilliant interception operation, showcasing unparalleled on-the-spot adaptability and decision-making skills."

Shanglu paused for a moment:
"It was her own decision."

“I didn’t say it was your decision,” Wei Mao said slowly. “But I think what you thought was an unexpected situation was actually within her expectations. Apart from eating and sleeping, the giant machine pilots basically spend all their time calculating various unexpected situations. For us, eliminating the angel is like solving a problem. Different people have different areas of expertise. You have studied some general morphology and Riemannian geometry, so you should be able to understand that studying Calabi-Yau manifolds and noncommutative geometry are different branches.”

"So what are you calculating right now?" Shang Lu asked. "Beauty of the Academy, tell me about the unexpected situation you're thinking about."

“If we misjudged the mass of Angel 095, the Earth would be destroyed the instant I hit it,” Wei Mao said. “That would be an unexpected situation.”

How should we respond?

Wei Mao shook his head:
"There was nothing we could do. Within thirty seconds of the gun being fired, the Earth was torn into strips by the powerful tidal forces. There was no time to do anything."

What can you do in thirty seconds? Shang Lu thought to himself, most people in this world wouldn't know that the world's survival hangs in the balance. Look at the myriad lights, everything running as usual, joys and sorrows, partings and reunions—it seems like just another ordinary day. An air raid siren sounds somewhere, startling white pigeons fluttering on rooftops. The elderly go out for a stroll, night owls are just getting up, children sit by the classroom window lost in thought, some are making noise, some are falling in love. Thirty seconds later, everything comes to an abrupt halt.

Shang Lu was determined to tell Chen Yu this news.

When Wei Mao is on a mission, his advisor should not go anywhere. During those thirty seconds, he should close his eyes and kiss Dingxiang tightly. If they can still see each other after thirty seconds, they should slap each other.

"That's cruel. Why can't you give me a little more time?" Shang Lu said. "You're cruel too, campus belle."

“Thirty seconds is already a mercy from the universe.” Wei Mao smiled, a rare occurrence. His smile was so radiant that it stunned Shang Lu. “If the model we are using is wrong, then within 0.01 seconds after I fire the gun, the Earth will be shattered into plasma, even the atoms themselves will be broken, and all the information that humanity has built upon at the atomic level will be erased.”

"Besides you, who else knows these things?"

“I wrote a report to the Central Military Commission,” Wei Mao said. “I’m not sure if they really understood me.”

"Garden flower."

"Ok?"

In every ending you predict, will there be fireworks?

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(Author's note: Thank you all so much for your support. The autographed copy of "We Live in Nanjing" in my Taobao shop sold out quickly after it was listed. Currently, the bookstore still has some autographed copies of the new edition of "Dying on Mars" and "Titan's Silent Voice (Comic)" in stock. Interested readers are welcome to purchase them.)

P.S. Recommendation: Xia Sang, an old friend of the author, senior editor, and science fiction writer, has a new novel, "The Beast Doctor," now available on Qidian!