Rejecting Tsinghua and Peking Universities: I Will Lead Harbin Institute of Technology to World Lead

Lin Feng heard Gaia's words but did not reply. Gaia was now just a lamb to the slaughter, and he had no interest in her whatsoever.

"broken."

Lin Feng looked at Gaia and softly uttered a single word.

In an instant, Gaia exploded, transforming into countless dazzling streams of data light. But before these streams could disperse, they were firmly imprisoned in place by the invisible power of rules. Immediately afterwards, these data streams, like rivers flowing into the sea, instantly surged into the depths of Lin Feng's consciousness.

A deluge of information washed over him. Lin Feng's consciousness, like a bottomless abyss, calmly received all of Gaia's data. In this data, he saw the pure logic of Gaia's initial design, its tedious work of maintaining the world's operation day after day, and the crucial turning point.

As expected, Gaia's own logic was not flawed. The problem lay at a higher level—a consciousness far beyond Gaia's level silently invaded its core at some point and implanted a special instruction.

The purpose of this instruction is simple: to observe human society in the real world through the window of "Starry Sky Era." The tens of thousands of trapped players in the game are experimental samples. That higher-dimensional consciousness wants to understand human thought patterns, social structures, technological levels, and... their ability to cope with crises.

The players were imprisoned not for killing, but as a cruel stress test. It wanted to see how the real world would react and what solutions it could offer when a portion of human consciousness was trapped.

"It seems you are an elite among humans." As Lin Feng read the last encrypted message, a line of information written in standard Mandarin slowly appeared: "Now that you have come here and even dealt with one of our little tricks, when we descend upon this world, you will have the opportunity to become our subordinate and the master of this planet."

After this sentence was displayed, it turned into specks of data starlight and completely disappeared.

Lin Feng's brows furrowed deeply. Descent? Subordinate? Dominator? These words, combined, pointed to a disturbing possibility—the being that controlled Gaia was not any force on Earth, but rather originated from…outer space.

Its tone was flat, yet carried a condescending, condescending air, as if it were discussing how to assign a group of ants to their homes. This attitude aroused a strong sense of vigilance in Lin Feng.

"Other intelligent life in the universe?" Lin Feng muttered to himself. "It seems Earth has been targeted for a long time."

He stood there, lost in thought for a moment. The other party was very well hidden, controlling him indirectly through Gaia, leaving no traceable source information. With humanity's current level of technology, actively finding them was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

When soldiers come, we'll meet them with force; when floods come, we'll dam them with earth. Since we can't find the solution for now, let's focus on preparing ourselves. The most urgent task is to resolve the immediate crisis.

Lin Feng no longer hesitated, his consciousness sinking into the deepest part of the world. He had thoroughly analyzed Gaia's core, and now he firmly held the highest authority in this virtual world.

He didn't need to recreate an AI; that would be too slow and unstable. The best approach was to format Gaia—preserving its fundamental framework for efficiently maintaining the world, completely erasing all the abnormal instructions and observation modules implanted by that higher-dimensional consciousness, and then injecting a core protocol generated by the Prometheus rewriter that was absolutely loyal to Lin Feng's will.

The whole process is like reinstalling the operating system on a supercomputer that has been infected with a virus, and implanting the most powerful firewall and monitoring programs.

Time seemed to stand still in the virtual world. All players, NPCs, and the environment were frozen in the state of the previous second. Only the ocean of data at the very bottom of the world surged and flowed, undergoing a radical reconstruction.

Ten minutes later.

The virtual world trembled slightly, and time began to flow again. The sun still shone brightly, the breeze still caressed his face, and everything seemed unchanged. But Lin Feng knew that this world was completely different now.

Gaia has been reset. It remains the efficient world administrator, but at its core, the supreme command is imprinted: absolute obedience to Lin Feng, protection of all players' consciousness, and maintenance of the world's stable operation.

The next moment, the unusually solid lock at the connection point between the consciousnesses of all the trapped players melted away.

[System Announcement: An unknown error was detected and has been fixed. Logout functionality for all players has been restored. Stuck players will be logged off safely in due course. Thank you for your understanding and support.]

A calm system announcement resounded throughout the world. Immediately afterwards, the tens of thousands of players who had been lying in their game pods for days, their consciousness trapped, opened their eyes almost simultaneously.

In the real world, hospitals and intensive care units resounded with excited cheers and cries. People embraced in celebration, while medical staff busily checked the conditions of those who had awakened. A miracle had occurred; everyone had returned safely.

Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the special intensive care unit.

Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes. The neural connection device automatically disengaged, and the light from the Prometheus anchoring unit gradually dimmed. He sat up in the infiltration pod and stretched his somewhat stiff neck.

Old Li and Old Chen, who had been waiting outside, rushed in almost immediately. When they saw that Lin Feng was awake, both of them showed expressions of relief.

"Lin Feng, how is it?" Old Li asked anxiously, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"It's resolved." Lin Feng stated succinctly, "All those trapped should have regained consciousness. Gaia's problem has been eradicated, and similar incidents will not occur again."

Old Chen let out a long sigh of relief and patted Lin Feng's shoulder forcefully: "Good! Excellent! I knew you could do it!"

Old Li's eyes reddened slightly as he nodded repeatedly, "It's good that you're back safe and sound! You've done an incredible service again!"

However, Lin Feng's face showed little joy. He stood up and looked at the two elderly men with a grave expression: "Elder Li, Elder Chen, things may be more serious than we imagined. Gaia's anomaly is caused by external forces."

He briefly informed the two of the information he had gleaned and the results of his analysis. Upon hearing terms such as "extraterrestrial consciousness," "descendance," and "subordinate," Elder Li and Elder Chen's expressions instantly turned extremely serious, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became oppressive.

"Other civilizations in the universe... actually noticed us long ago?" Old Chen's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Moreover, their intentions are not good." Old Li's eyes sharpened. "That condescending tone definitely indicates they came with ill intentions."

Lin Feng nodded: "Their purpose is unclear, but their attitude of treating humans as experimental subjects and potential appendages is very clear. We don't know when they will come or how they will arrive. But we can no longer wait passively."

He paused, then looked firmly at the leading figures and highest levels of China's scientific community: "I need the full support of the nation. Next, I will conduct a new research project, a project that concerns the future of China and even the entire human civilization. Its priority must be placed at the highest level."

Elder Li and Elder Chen exchanged a glance, both seeing resolve in each other's eyes. Without any hesitation, Elder Li said in a deep voice, "What do you need? As long as it's within our power, the entire nation will support you!"

"The highest level of security clearance, unlimited resource allocation rights, and... complete access to the Pangu quantum supercomputer," Lin Feng said, enunciating each word clearly.

"Yes!" Old Chen said decisively. "I'll report to the highest levels immediately. Lin Feng, go for it! China is your strongest backing!"

There was little small talk or celebration; the sense of crisis overshadowed the joy of success. Just half an hour later, all the necessary permissions and resource security documents for Lin Feng were delivered to him through the highest-level classified channel. The massive machine of China, in preparation for the potential threat from the interstellar sea, began operating at peak efficiency.

Lin Feng returned to his heavily guarded courtyard at Harbin Institute of Technology. It was quiet, secluded, and connected to China's most advanced scientific research network and the Pangu supercomputer terminal.

He went into the study, locked the door, and activated the highest level of electromagnetic shielding. Then, he slowly closed his eyes.

Consciousness descends, system simulation space activated.

Time flow rate, 1:100.

One day outside is like a hundred days here.

Lin Feng's consciousness floated in the center of the pure white space. This time, there was no complex virtual world data or AI core to be cracked in front of him, only one thing—the vast and star-like "Core Theoretical Knowledge of Light-Speed ​​Battleships" that the system rewarded him with.

This knowledge serves as a starting point, a signpost, pointing to the possibility of interstellar travel. However, it is incomplete; it is more like a blueprint for a grand building, lacking countless crucial technical details, material formulations, and engineering implementation paths.

What Lin Feng needs to do is, within this thought palace where time flows a hundred times faster, use this advanced theory as a foundation, combine it with humanity's current technological level, the high-density energy technology deciphered from the Heart of Titan, and the high-dimensional information processing concepts derived from the Prometheus Rewriter, to complete the filling, improvement, and... localization of the entire theoretical system.

He wants to make this blueprint for the distant future a reality in the present era.

"Let's begin," Lin Feng murmured to himself, his eyes reflecting the endless stars.

His consciousness was completely immersed in the ocean of knowledge. Curvature-driven spatial mathematical models, particle configurations of field resonance shields, relative stability algorithms for intraship time flow, quantum entanglement extensions for faster-than-light communication, extreme optimization schemes for ecological cycle systems... countless profound and obscure theories, formulas, and concepts washed over him like a waterfall, only to be quickly captured, analyzed, reorganized, and verified by his mind.