Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 78 Ding Yi, Jiang Xingchen, Dr. Chen, Wang Miao

"What the hell..." x4
Ding Yi, Jiang Xingchen, Dr. Chen, and Wang Miao sat at a one-way exit of a tunnel in the Qinling Mountains. The night wind of the Qinling Mountains, carrying damp mist, swept across the mountain ridge, scattering the sparks from the campfire in front of them.

It just rained here, so there's no need to worry about the risk of fire.

In front of them, besides the campfire, there were many empty beer bottles lying haphazardly on the grass, and even more empty bottles on the ground.

And the four cell phones that lit up on the vibration.

Seeing the abusive pop-up message, Ding Yi, somewhat sobered up, asked the other two, "Who's insulting us?"

Jiang Xingchen was the only one among the four who hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. He glanced at it and shook his head: "Pop-up ad."

"I thought it was Tomoko who messaged me," Ding Yi shook her head.

"Besides ETO, the only human that Sophon will respond to is Wallfacer Luo Qing. Ding Yi, you're too confident." Dr. Chen, sitting across the campfire, chuckled.

Wang Miao drank some wine, but he was rather shy and had only been dragged along by Ding Yi to make up the numbers, so he didn't say anything.

Quantum Lin Yun, holding the Quantum Spirit Sword, leaned against a willow tree, watching the four guys with a bored expression.

Ding Yi asked, "Has anyone thought about hibernation?"

Wang Miao shook his head first: "My wife and children are here, I can't bear to leave them."

"What, do you want to hibernate?" Jiang Xingchen asked.

“I have that idea, but not now.” Ding Yi nodded. “After I finish my research on controlled nuclear fusion, I’ll look into the development of cutting-edge theories and see if I can break through the interference of sophons. I have an idea in mind. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll go into hibernation.”

"Tell me your thoughts, Lao Ding." Although Dr. Chen had also drunk quite a bit, he was clearly just as sober.

These four men, all in their thirties and engaged in scientific research, were far more shrewd than the average person, and none of them got drunk at the drinking party.

Ding Yi looked around, unsure whether he was wary of Zhi Zi or struggling with something else. After a moment's hesitation, he pointed to the ground beneath his feet.

"The Qinling particle accelerator is still too small."

"Still small?" Dr. Chen exclaimed in surprise, "'Qinling' particle accelerator is almost as long as the Qinling Mountains themselves. It's over a hundred kilometers long, more than twice the size of the one in Europe and the one in the United States. You think this is small? Old Ding, how big do you want it to be?"

Ding Yi hesitated for a moment and said, "I want a circum-equatorial particle accelerator."

The campfire crackled and popped, sending sparks flying. With a loud bang, Wang Miao immediately reached for the fire extinguisher beside him.

Dr. Chen kicked a wine bottle away. "Old Ding, you really dare to dream! A circum-equatorial particle accelerator? How is that possible? Just maintaining the existing accelerators, plus those three space elevators, and the investment of various countries in their space forces, global resources are already stretched thin."

Ding Yi knew his idea was too outrageous, but he still blurted it all out: "I'm serious. I know it's almost impossible, but there's someone who can. I'll go and beg him, maybe it will work."

Dr. Chen's expression was blank: "You're going to find the Wallfacer, right?"

Wang Miao said, "Ordinary Wallfacers can't do this; only Professor Luo Qing can."

Jiang Xingchen said, "Apart from Luo Qing, the other Wallfacers are nowhere to be found; they've all gone into hibernation."

Dr. Chen then said, "Are you absolutely certain Luo Qing will support you? The total resources required for the Equatorial Particle Accelerator are likely equivalent to the combined GDP of all countries in the world for a year. This means that mega-projects like the Space Elevator will have to give way to the Equatorial Particle Accelerator." The campfire illuminated Ding Yi's face, and he frankly said, "I wasn't confident at first, but I recently heard that Luo Qing appeared at the Space Tower's technical route discussion meeting and expressed his support for propellantless spacecraft. This shows that he has begun to use his influence to interfere with what he believes is the right direction. If I can persuade him, this matter might be resolved."

Dr. Chen rubbed his temples upon hearing this: "How can you be so certain that the equatorial particle accelerator can overcome the interference of sophons?"

“This isn’t a question of whether I’m certain or not; it’s a mathematical problem.” Ding Yi stood up and said, “Imagine when particles are accelerated to near the speed of light in a circular orbit of 40,000 kilometers. Even if a sophon can interfere with a single collision, it cannot simultaneously handle billions of experiments per second! It’s like trying to catch a rainstorm with a fishing net—there will always be some that slip through the net.”

Dr. Chen understands: "To put it bluntly, it's still about brute force."

Ding Yi said, "That's true, but building a circum-equatorial particle accelerator is much simpler than building one on Mars. The latter can be easily cracked by the Trisolaran world simply by increasing the number of sophons, but not with a circum-equatorial particle accelerator."

"Wait, wait a minute, I don't understand. Sophons interfere at the speed of light, how can the equatorial particle accelerator overcome this?" Wang Miao interrupted their discussion and asked.

Ding Yi gave him a simple explanation: "The perimeter of the equatorial particle accelerator is extremely long, and particles can be accelerated to unprecedented energies within it. Although the sophon can draw energy from the vacuum and travel at near the speed of light, it needs to consume more of its own energy to interfere with the enormous energy carried by the particles in the equatorial particle accelerator, even exceeding the limit of what it can acquire and bear, thus limiting its interference capabilities."

For example, in a normal accelerator, the particle energy is A, and the energy consumed by the sophon interference is B; in a circum-equatorial particle accelerator, the particle energy becomes 10A, and the energy consumed by the sophon interference may become 100B, making it difficult to maintain interference due to insufficient energy supply.

Furthermore, sophons can simultaneously interfere with several small accelerators thanks to their high speed and ability to move back and forth. But this ring-equatorial accelerator is much larger, allowing experiments to be conducted everywhere, with numerous collision points. It's like someone who can manage a few small shops suddenly being asked to manage all the shops in the world—they simply can't manage it all. Since we can't interfere with everything, we can use the interfered data to advance the development of stagnation theory.”

Wang Miao felt a chill run down his spine and said, "Using the entire equator to accelerate particles, won't that cause any major problems?"

Ding Yi countered, "What big problem could this be? Could it lead to the destruction of the universe?"

Dr. Chen said, "I can't even imagine how much electricity this would require; it might not be enough to generate all the electricity the entire planet generates."

Ding Yi said, "The controlled nuclear fusion I'm researching can be used in this."

Dr. Chen said, "Old Ding, I know you. Since you're talking about this, you must have your own selfish motives. Breaking the interference of the sophon is just a side objective."

Ding Yi waved his arms and said, "Of course I have selfish motives! If this behemoth can really come to fruition, then I will truly die without regrets. I have many ideas in my mind, such as using this level of accelerator to collide with quarks and see what lies at the end of the microscopic world, or using this level of accelerator to restart the research on the Grand Unified Field Theory... In the past, this would have been impossible, but the Trisolarans have come, hey! Isn't that a coincidence? Maybe there will be Wallfacers supporting it, this thing could actually work!"

At that moment, Wang Miao finally understood the gap between applied physics and theoretical physics.

Ding Yi is right. Those who play theoretical physics are all prostitutes—they'll do anything to make themselves happy, even if it's a pit of fire in front of them, they'll jump in without hesitation.

Jiang Xingchen said slowly, "Now I finally understand why Lin Yun is so interested in you. You and he are the same kind of people."

Ding Yi countered, "Who is Lin Yun?"

Jiang Xingchen said, "A fanatical and devout person, she never regrets it. She can sacrifice herself without expression, and would rather disobey orders to trigger macro-fusion and thwart the impending Third World War. She lives in the ideal world she has built."

After hearing this, Lin Yun ran over, raised the quantum sword, and slashed it down hard at her boyfriend's head.

Ding Yi stopped Jiang Xingchen, who was full of resentment: "Watch your mouth. Luo Qing said that Lin Yun is living well in the quantum world. Maybe she is listening in the middle of it, just like Zhi Zi."

"It's okay, anyway I can't see her, and I'll never see her," Jiang Xingchen said, head down.

One chapter still owed

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(End of this chapter)