The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 659 Are you setting off fireworks here?
Soon, the engineers' concerns came true.

After the rocket ascended to an altitude of 6 meters, the most crucial moment arrived—

The first and second stage rockets began to separate.

At the very moment this phase began, an unsettling change occurred with the easternmost rocket, number 11:

For some unknown reason, a crack appeared in the external structure and quickly extended downwards.

Then, the attitude of the No. 6 rocket, which was near the center, became severely skewed, and the flame jets from the thrusters became unstable.

But the first to explode was not one of those two rockets, but the No. 9 rocket on the west side!
There was no warning whatsoever, and no time for anyone to prepare.

At the moment the first and second stages separated, the first stage, which was supposed to be recovered, suddenly exploded!
After the violent explosion, Xu Mengcai and the engineers in the hall turned to look at the neglected Rocket No. 9.

But all that could be seen were blazing flames and white metal fragments scattered like flowers from a fairy's shower.

The engineers were on high alert, their faces grim.

Xu Meng, however, remained calm.

He even praised it without changing his expression:

"Wow."

"it's beautiful."

This hushed praise drew puzzled looks from the surrounding engineers.

However, they soon had no time to care about Xu Meng's attitude.

Because more and more rockets are starting to malfunction!
One red error message after another appeared.

Before you've even finished reading the previous one, another one pops up, so many that it's overwhelming.

Correspondingly, the spectacular rocket array in the sky also began to explode one after another!

……

The spectacular scene of dozens of rockets being launched simultaneously has attracted the attention of almost all players in the virtual world.

Whether they were players from the original South City Launch Site or players from the Mansheng Metropolis, they were all eagerly watching this spectacular launch.

People inside the building either crowded around the windows or rushed onto the rooftop and onto the street, afraid of missing this scene.

After the rockets reached an altitude of 20 kilometers, even the players in Cliff Town and those searching for an unknown city in the rainforest to the northwest stopped what they were doing and looked in amazement at the increasing number of rockets in the sky.

Upon receiving the news, players in various games logged out and returned to the public world to watch—some even willing to die in order to get back to town as quickly as possible.

It can be said without any hesitation:

These rockets have already attracted the attention of at least 80% of online players!

But right under everyone's noses.

The rocket suddenly exploded.

And it was one explosion after another!

Everyone was completely dumbfounded.

Below the lion dance stage in the central square, the players stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Wait, what happened? Did the launch fail?"

"Isn't this the rocket that Boss Xu launched? How could it explode?? I didn't see anyone interfering!"

"This, this... this is too ominous! Is the rocket launch in two weeks really okay?"

"I was initially very confident, but now I'm starting to panic!"

"Damn it, I just placed a 3 yuan bet on Betwin, betting that Mr. Xu's rocket launch would be successful! Don't mess with me like this!"

"Mr. Xu! What are you doing? Setting off fireworks here???"

……

Today, the virtual world is no longer just a simple gaming space.

The number of Dream Machine users has exceeded 96 million, and the number of holographic users has reached 312 million. Even if the host is still a PC, as long as you use a holographic display device and can immerse yourself in the virtual world, you will be counted as a [holographic user] by Dream Machine.

In addition, there are more than 4 million players who are still using traditional devices to log in to the virtual world due to reasons such as being short of money, failing to buy in bulk, or having to wait in line to pre-order.

These users will eventually become virtual users.

At the same time, because the production capacity of Dream Building is so amazing, the player base will continue to create game content on its own once it becomes large enough. This has led to an astonishing level of user activity in the virtual world, with the average daily number of online users not falling below 3 million for several months.

Such a community has an unprecedented influence.

Every major event that happens inside will quickly spill over to the external internet and then further affect reality.

Ibrahimovic's transformation of the Bajau people's fate is a prime example.

This time, Xu Meng will be no exception as she blows up a rocket in front of players all over the world.

However, due to a strange mechanism where "good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast," many netizens saw videos of rockets exploding in mid-air before they even had a chance to see the spectacular sight of rows of rockets taking off in formation.

So netizens were a bit confused.

The scene was so similar to the actual display that it led many people to misunderstand, thinking that the most devastating space failure in human history had just occurred, leaving them speechless.

However, this misunderstanding did not last long.

Because the astute media have already acted swiftly!
[A virtual rocket launch simulation goes wrong, resulting in a massive explosion!]
[Dream Simulation of Reusable Rocket Launch Suffers Major Failure, Suspected Overly Aggressive Technological Approach!]
[Breaking News! Prodigy Xu Meng's First Failure? Live Broadcast of Reusable Rocket Simulation Launch!]
……

The global internet was abuzz with this.

In the financial market, the company, which had been on the verge of collapse and whose stock price had fallen by 40% since Xu Meng announced the establishment of an orbital satellite communication network, has suddenly become a promising investment again.

Even though the US financial markets are not open right now, peripheral industries are still being wildly bullish!
After all, the peripheral industries have recently suffered a severe decline!

The market value dropped so much just because Xu Meng only said one sentence, and not even a single rocket was launched or a single satellite was put into orbit.

This is completely irrational.

This is an excessive mythologizing of Xu Meng.

Institutions and retail investors who believe in the return of value to its intrinsic worth have long been eager to enter the market and buy at the bottom!
Xu Meng's current setback is just a well-timed trigger that has completely ignited their bullish enthusiasm!

At that moment, they had only one thought:
That rocket exploded perfectly, brilliantly!

It would be best to fry more!
Their expectations will soon be met.
-
In the ground control center, the red fault warnings continued to update, and the aerospace engineers of Xia Kingdom still looked grim.

But this seriousness stems more from professional inertia.

Contrary to outside speculation that they were extremely anxious and on high alert.

Xu Meng remained remarkably calm.

The reason is also very simple——

This is just the first round of simulation testing.

During this test, the command center barely interfered with the rocket, and the most critical intelligent control program was not loaded.

Xu Meng's artificial intelligence technology is ahead of the rest of the world. Now that she's working on rocket recovery, how could she possibly not use it?

It just wasn't used in the first round of launches.

After discussion among the technical team, they decided to take this opportunity to test all the projects that could be tested in the virtual world!
It appears that several rounds of launches have been conducted, but in the entire testing process outlined in the plan, they all belong to the first test item.

This refers to the first round of testing.

In other words-

The testing has only just begun.

Whether you're excited or frustrated, it's too early to say.

Besides... there's some good news too!
Even if the ground control center is completely uninvolved and the rocket relies on automated programs to perform launch, separation, and recovery, there is still a success rate of nearly 50%!
This is much better than the expected figures before the test began!
Netizens only saw that 42 out of 77 rockets exploded.

Xu Meng and the aerospace engineers at the control center saw that 35 rockets completed their launch and separation entirely through the autonomous control system during their first test.

Each rocket restarts its engine after descending in altitude to decelerate and adjust its trajectory.

After wobbling as it approached the ground, the engine ignited for the third time, allowing it to hover and adjust its posture to regain balance.

Finally, it landed smoothly on the ground and was successfully recovered in the designated area. While the scene wasn't as dramatic as the launch, the precise balance control achieved by dozens of rockets hovering at low altitude simultaneously was equally exhilarating!
It’s just a pity—

This stage is already too low in scale.

The vast majority of players will never witness this spectacular scene.

Only players who have gone full speed ahead from the very beginning and rushed here have the chance to see even a glimpse of it.

Many of these explosions and flames occurred due to malfunctions during the hovering phase, or because the landing angle was inaccurate and the aircraft tilted and fell after contact with the ground.

……

……

After the first round of testing was completed, human voices finally rang out in the control center—

"Summarize the issues! First, identify the most frequently occurring problems!"

"There were 6 propellant management malfunctions! The most frequent problem was liquid oxygen vortex! During the vertical descent phase, the fuel pumps drew in too much liquid oxygen, causing cavitation vortices in the tanks, which led to a sharp reduction in engine thrust!"

"The landing supports of the three rockets were damaged after they touched down, causing them to be unstable. The strength or structure of the landing supports needs to be optimized!"

……

At this stage, Xu Meng could still understand what they were saying.

But soon, they began to complain that this kind of communication was too inefficient, and they all condensed the problems they found into short words, which Xu Meng could no longer understand.

"Grid rudder vibration," "arrow body folding effect," "thrust vector overshoot," "supercritical helium injection detonating liquid oxygen"...

Xu Meng was a little confused after hearing this.

Finally, he simply shook his head and shook those words out of his mind.

Once this is over, there will be plenty of time to analyze it.

As for now...

Just trust them!

……

After waiting for 30 minutes, the details that needed to be adjusted in the first round were submitted to Xu Meng.

Xu Meng then summoned Xiao Meng, who had already completed her advanced training in aerospace technology—the little one didn't want to stay indoors and ran outside to watch the rocket launch and explosion.

After receiving the adjustment list, Xiaomeng quickly glanced through it.

Then a mini rocket appeared in his left hand and a small hammer appeared in his right hand.

They stood still and started banging away.

The mini rocket, which she hammered so hard that screws flew everywhere and it even produced sparks and smoke effects, didn't look serious at all.

But nobody thought she was being ridiculous.

Throughout the control center, aerospace engineers of all ages have come to fully appreciate Xiaomeng's incredible abilities over the past month.

Now everyone looks at her as if she were a precious treasure, their faces full of kindness.

Previously, several old men tried to lure Xiaomeng into working part-time at the aerospace institute.

However, Xiaomeng dismissed them all with a simple "It's not fun, I'm not going."

After a short while, Xiaomeng stopped hammering and handed the small rocket she had finished hammering to Xumeng.

"It's done!"

"Is it outside too?" Xu Meng confirmed.

"Of course!" Xiao Meng proudly raised her chin, her pair of cat ears swaying happily.

Upon hearing this, the aerospace engineers who had been watching Xiaomeng tap the rocket with great interest quickly looked away and went to the control panel.

They immediately discovered:

Just moments ago, the vast launch site was a mess of wreckage; in reality, it would take at least a week to clean up the mess. Now, it's spotless.

Not to mention the still-burning rocket debris, even the charred marks on the ground have disappeared.

The adjusted rockets are neatly arranged on the launch pad.

Artificial intelligence control programs have also been implemented.

All pre-launch preparations were completed in just over ten seconds.

Even the data from the previous round of testing has been categorized and packaged, and thousands of pages of data analysis and summary reports have been written.

Now all they need to do is go through the motions of a countdown before they can begin the second round of launches!

This discovery left them speechless once again.

Just when they thought they understood how amazing Xu Meng and Xiao Meng were, these two managed to redefine their understanding once again…

However, this idea soon changed into—

Having a colleague like that is so great!!

Everyone quickly adjusted their mindset and enthusiastically began the second round of testing.

At the same time, the fastest players had already crossed the narrow forest between the peninsula and the wasteland, running out from the dense trees.

Within seconds, one head after another emerged from the woods.

They happened to witness the second round of testing—

77 rockets ignited in succession, slowly rising into the air under powerful thrust!
This scene is far more impactful than the launch of a lone rocket at the Chengnan launch site!
Soon, players in the Sprawling Metropolis, Silver City, Cliff Town, and various corners of the Wasteland and Rainforest once again witnessed rockets rising into the sky.

Everyone was stunned on the spot.

They haven't even reached a conclusion on whether the previous launch was a success or a failure, and Xu Meng's second batch of rockets has already gone into space?!
"This is too fast!"

On the stage in the central square, a young performer took off the lion head from his head and murmured to himself as he looked at the rockets in the distant sky.

From the audience, gasps of surprise rose and fell.
"Is this the efficiency of building dreams?!"

"I knew it! Anything that gets involved with Xu Meng will immediately become distorted!"

"Great! We don't need to do anything else today. Let's enjoy watching the rocket launch!"

"Wow! The progress this time is so obvious! The speed of this optimization and iteration is incredible!"

……

This is not blind praise.

With the full support of the control center and globally leading intelligent control, this round of rocket recovery has made significant progress.

The number of rockets that malfunctioned dropped from 42 to 18!
Furthermore, seven of them only developed problems after landing, and did not explode in the air.

Players who arrived at the scene were also fortunate enough to witness the spectacular sight of dozens of first-stage rockets hovering in the air and adjusting their attitudes little by little.

Everyone stared intently, then pulled out their cameras and started filming non-stop.

……

Xu Meng didn't care if they filmed her, as long as they didn't go crazy and rush into the launch site.

Inside the control center, the same process began again.

Organize the issues—provide adjustment solutions—Xiaomeng modifies and tests immediately.

The process became smoother and smoother over time.

The success rate is also getting higher and higher!

Players and netizens around the world witnessed the entire process.

The shock I felt goes without saying.

But what's even more impressive are the aerospace engineers overseas.

The more I watched, the more dumbfounded I became; towards the end, my defenses were breached in large and large areas.

The research concepts formed over half a lifetime underwent a complete transformation in just half a day!
(End of this chapter)