In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

Time: Day 20 of the apocalypse countdown.

Jiuquan, Dongfeng Aerospace City.

This is deep in the Gobi Desert, the cradle of the Great Xia aerospace industry. At this time, the entire base is under complete military control.

"Advisor Su, the 7th assembly workshop of the 'South Heaven Gate' project is just ahead."

Li Guodong jumped out of the passenger seat and handed an encrypted document to Su Ran, speaking rapidly: "This is the current supplies list for the 'South Heaven Gate Project'."

This includes the prototype of the "Mysterious Maiden" aerospace fighter and the "Luan Bird" aerospace carrier, which is not yet fully assembled.

Su Ran took the list, her gaze sweeping over the code names, each one priceless in the apocalypse, but her expression remained calm.

Su Ran nodded, her tactical boots crunching on the gravel.

More than those cold, impersonal pieces of equipment, the main reason he came here was for one person.

"Let's go take a look over there."

The group quickly walked through the outer equipment maintenance area.

"Are you brain-dead?! Huh?!"

With a loud "thud" as the blueprints were slammed to the ground, a middle-aged man roared from inside the maintenance hangar.

"How many times have I told you! The threshold for the hydraulic transmission system is 1200! You changed it to 1500, who's responsible if the machine crashes? Do you think you're the chief engineer?!"

Su Ran suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Li Guodong frowned, and was about to wave his hand to have the guards deal with the "noise" when he saw Su Ran turn around and stride towards the hangar.

The hangar was filled with the smell of engine oil and metal cutting fluid.

A young man wearing work clothes covered in oil stains was looking down, his fists clenched tightly.

Several blueprints with footprints were scattered at his feet.

In front of him, a middle-aged man with a beer belly and a "Technical Section Chief" nameplate hanging on his chest was pointing at him and spitting everywhere.

"Section Chief Wang, according to fluid mechanics formulas, if the threshold is not increased, the knee joint of the 'Chengying' power armor will definitely get stuck when performing high-mobility evasion."

The young man's voice was soft, but it carried a stubbornness, and his body was trembling slightly.

Physics doesn't lie.

"Physics? You're a contract worker with a junior college degree, and you're talking to me about physics?"

Section Chief Wang sneered, his fleshy face trembling. "This is a national-level base! Not your backyard where you fix tractors! Don't bother coming in tomorrow, get lost!"

The young man suddenly raised his head, his eyes red-rimmed, but he gritted his teeth to keep the tears from falling.

He bent down, ready to pick up the blueprints from the ground.

One hand reached out before him and picked up the dirty blueprint.

Long, slender fingers with distinct knuckles.

"Who let you in? Which department are you from? Don't you know the rules...?"

Section Chief Wang was in the middle of a tirade when he turned around and saw a stranger holding blueprints, which made him even angrier.

But the next second, he stopped speaking abruptly, like a duck being choked.

Because behind this young man stood Li Guodong, the head of the special operations team of the Ministry of State Security who frequently appeared on the evening news.

At this moment, Li Guodong was half a step behind the young man, his face grim.

"Did you draw this picture?"

Su Ran patted the dust off the blueprints and looked at the young man covered in oil stains.

The young man paused for a moment, then nodded subconsciously: "Yes... I calculated it privately."

"name."

"Lu...Lu Yuan."

Upon hearing those two words, Su Ran's eyes widened in shock.

Lu Yuan.

The only "Machine God" at the human survivor base.

In his previous life, he was discovered in the fifth year of the apocalypse, by which time three fingers on his right hand had been lost in an accident.

The human underground fortress "Firewood City" is facing an attack by millions of zombies. Its walls are broken and it is running out of ammunition and food.

Just when everyone was in despair, a giant mech made up of abandoned mining trucks, tank wreckage and helicopter engines burst out from underground.

It was like an iron god of war, carving a bloody path through the horde of zombies and escorting the last survivors to safety.

The pilot and creator of that mecha was Lu Yuan, who was later revered as the "God of Machines".

At this very moment, the future "God of Machines" is squatting on the ground, crying like a child over a few resistance parameters.

Great, there's still time.

"The calculation was very accurate."

Su Ran folded the blueprint and put it in her pocket. "From now on, this standard will be called the 'Lu Yuan Threshold'."

"ha?"

Section Chief Wang snapped out of his daze. Although he was wary of Li Guodong, he couldn't help but interrupt.

"Comrade, this kid doesn't even know the rules of the trade; these parameters are clearly against regulations..."

"Violation of regulations?"

Su Ran turned her head, her gaze as calm as if she were looking at a dead person.

He didn't argue, but just looked at Li Guodong: "Team Leader Li, check the authority of this Section Chief Wang."

Li Guodong didn't need to check at all. He whispered something into his earpiece and replied two seconds later: "Wang Defa, head of the technical department, responsible for the maintenance of peripheral equipment, security level C."

"From now on, his security classification is reduced to zero."

Su Ran pointed at Supervisor Wang, "This person has seriously neglected his duties and obstructed a major national scientific research project. Investigate his background, and if it's not clean, let him rot in jail."

"Who...who are you?!"

Section Chief Wang's face turned deathly pale instantly. He roared, his voice trembling with fear, "I'm a full-fledged employee! I have an administrative rank! What gives you the right to...?"

"Because I am Su Ran."

Su Ran didn't even glance at him, and simply waved her hand.

Two heavily armed special forces soldiers dragged Wang Defa out like a dead dog.

Before the cries for mercy and screams could travel more than two meters, they were abruptly silenced.

The entire hangar was deathly silent.

Lu Yuan stared blankly at the scene, his mind completely blank.

That arrogant Section Chief Wang, just like that... gone?

Su Ran walked up to Lu Yuan and reached out to straighten his crooked collar.

"You're quite skillful."

Su Ran looked at Lu Yuan's hands, which were covered with calluses and tiny wounds.

"It's...it's alright."

Lu Yuan stammered.

"Would you like to come with me?" Su Ran asked.

"Where...where to?"

"Go save the world."

Su Ran grabbed Lu Yuan's hand, which was covered in engine oil, and squeezed it tightly.

"From today onwards, you don't need to take orders from any idiots. Whatever materials you need, the country will provide them; whatever you want to build, the country will let you build it."

"Even if you want to build mechs, I'll provide you with nuclear fusion batteries!"

Lu Yuan stood there dumbfounded, feeling as if a ball of fire was burning in his chest, and with a bang, it spread throughout his entire body.

The gears of fate have undergone a remarkable change at this moment.

……

The 7th assembly workshop at Nantianmen.

The elevator shaft was bottomless, and the feeling of weightlessness caused by the car's rapid descent made Lu Yuan grip the handrail tightly, his face turning deathly pale.

The depth here exceeds 500 meters underground.

"Advisor Su, this place was originally a top-secret underground nuclear bunker used for 'preparing for war and famine,' but it was later converted into the incubation nest of 'South Heaven Gate.'"

Looking at the constantly changing numbers, Li Guodong said in a low voice, "This is the first time I've been to a place of this caliber."

Su Ran didn't say anything, but took out a strip of highly concentrated glucose from her pocket and crushed it with a "crunch".

The sweet taste exploded in my mouth, slightly relieving the needle-like pricking pain deep in my brain.

After ten consecutive days of high-intensity containment, his mental strength had been stretched to its limit, like a taut, creaking string that could snap at any moment.

In a past life, this was the last tombstone of human civilization.

In the first year of the apocalypse, this place was breached by mutated underground worms.

When the survivor army arrived, they found only ruins and the remains of countless scientists.

Those ahead-of-its-time blueprints and prototypes were thus buried under the yellow sand.

This was the most devastating time that the Great Xia's technology tree experienced a generational gap.

"bite."

The elevator came to a stop, and the heavy alloy doors slid open to both sides.

A chilling blast of air hit me, carrying with it the distinctive smell of ozone and high-grade engine oil.

At the end of the corridor, an elderly man in a wheelchair was waiting, accompanied by several medical staff.

The old man had an IV drip in the back of his hand and was very thin, but his eyes were surprisingly bright.

"Ahem... Comrade Xiao Su, you're here?"