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

Kunlun Base, ground-based helipad.

The tires of the heavy transport plane screeched violently against the runway, leaving a trail of piercing white smoke.

The cabin door had barely opened a crack when a gust of cold wind, accompanied by Li Guodong's booming voice, rushed in.

"Get down! Get down now!"

Li Guodong was completely disheveled at this moment, his eyes were bloodshot and terrifying. He grabbed Su Ran's sleeve, which was covered in gunpowder, and dragged her into the car.

"Old Li? Are you trying to cultivate immortality? You haven't rested for days?"

Su Ran stumbled as she was pulled, and frowned as she looked at Li Guodong beside her.

This National Security Bureau director, who has always been as calm and composed as a mountain...

Two buttons on his police uniform collar had popped off, and there was a dark bruise under his eye, as if he had been punched twice.

"Rest? Rest my ass!"

Li Guodong's voice was hoarse, spittle flying everywhere, "Do you know what happened in the last three days? That socially awkward tech guy you mentioned has pulled something!"

Su Ran's heart skipped a beat.

"Did it work?"

"Nonsense! It was only half an hour ago. Let's hurry up and leave; Academician Chen is still waiting for us there!"

……

Three minutes later, 500 meters underground at the Kunlun base, in the top-secret area "Room 0".

The heavy explosion-proof door slid open slowly, and a smell mixed with ozone, high-grade solder and liquid nitrogen condensate wafted out.

Su Ran walked into the laboratory, then suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Even with ten years of memories from his previous life, his pupils still contracted slightly as he looked at the object in the center of the experimental table, which was covered by a special bulletproof glass cover.

A device only the size of a basketball.

Its core is a blood-red, first-order fire-elemental crystal core, surrounded by hundreds of silver-gray mutated biological nerve bundles.

It presents an extremely distorted yet mathematically beautiful "Klein bottle" structure.

The raging fire energy was locked in place by this strange structure. After countless cycles of swirling, colliding, and buffering, it finally transformed into an extremely stable dark blue halo at the output port.

It was breathtakingly beautiful, and terrifyingly dangerous.

"It really worked..."

Through the glass, Su Ran gently touched the cool surface with her fingertips and murmured to herself, "Heart of Crystal Energy".

This technology was perfected in the fifth year of the previous apocalypse, and now, in just the second week after the cataclysm broke out, it was right in front of him.

It was the product of the ultimate combination of industrial violence and biological aesthetics.

"This is... the key to the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

Academician Chen Changhe stood in front of the explosion-proof cabinet, staring intently at the ball of blue light.

"Little Su... no, Consultant Su."

Chen Changhe's voice choked with emotion, "A conversion rate of 98%! You provided the sketch, but it was Lu Yuan who turned it into reality."

Chen Changhe took a deep breath, his voice filled with amazement: "I originally thought this would take at least a month of research. But that kid... he's a madman born for machinery!"

He treated those three days like three years! He didn't even need to calculate the structural parameters; he could tell if they were correct at a glance. It was all based on intuition! A beast-like intuition!

Su Ran took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in her heart.

They really did it.

Where is Lu Yuan?

Su Ran looked around. "I want to give him the credit."

"I'm gone."

Chen Changhe gave a wry smile and pointed to the enclosed passageway next door that led to the 7th General Assembly Workshop.

"After he finished this thing, he took the data and ran off. He said that now that the energy problem was solved, the previous power transmission layout of the 'Luan Bird' was garbage, and he wanted to scrap it and start over."

Upon hearing this, Su Ran's previously relaxed brows furrowed slightly.

Looking at the deep passage, he felt no relief as he had expected; instead, a strong sense of unease rose within him.

In this life, Lu Yuan has been protected too well.

Lu Yuan is now a national treasure-level engineer, protected by the state apparatus at every level.

But awakening is often accompanied by extreme emotional fluctuations and the fear of facing death.

"If my intervention causes him to lose the opportunity to awaken..." Su Ran's heart sank.

If Lu Yuan cannot awaken, he will forever remain just a top-tier engineer.

The battlefields of the future belong to gods and demons.

They lacked the terrifying combat power to tear apart mechs with their bare hands and withstand electromagnetic cannons with their bare bodies.

Lu Yuan could never become the "God of Machines" who stood atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

"It would be such a waste to just be a behind-the-scenes designer."

Su Ran pinched the bridge of her nose; this was indeed a difficult problem.

The butterfly effect, huh...?

He couldn't possibly throw the kid into a pile of zombies and push him just to force Lu Yuan to awaken, could he?

If things go wrong, the Great Xia's technological tree will be cut off on the spot.

"Xiao Su, stop spacing out!"

Li Guodong glanced at the tactical watch on his wrist and said urgently, "They're already urging us in Strategic Conference Room 1. The commander, the military region commander, and the chief of staff are all online. We need to take this with us."

Su Ran instantly regained her composure.

Lu Yuan's matter cannot be rushed; it must be dealt with gradually.

……

Kunlun Base, Core Area, Strategic Conference Room No. 1.

The heavy door was pushed open, and a chilling atmosphere swept over us.

The huge round table was filled with generals whose shoulders were adorned with gold stars.

Without any pleasantries or formalities, a dozen pairs of eyes, like searchlights, instantly focused on Su Ran as she walked in.

To be precise, the focus was on the specially made briefcase he was carrying.

On the holographically projected map, the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty was densely covered with red dots.

Although the previous cleanup operations were successful, the results were still a drop in the ocean compared to the vast territory.

Su Ran walked to the end of the long table but did not sit down.

He placed the suitcase directly on the table, and with a "click," the clasp popped open, revealing the dark blue "heart."

"My lords."

Su Ran surveyed the entire room, her voice calm yet powerful, "This is the 'unlimited ammunition' you wanted."

As the technical representative, Chen Changhe strode to the projector and projected a set of data onto the large screen, his voice trembling.

"Ω-9 Crystal Energy Converter, codenamed 'Heart of Crystal Energy'."

Chen Changhe reported attentively, "Its volume is one-hundredth that of a traditional nuclear battery of the same power, and its output power is ten times greater. Most importantly..."

Academician Chen paused for a moment, then threw out a concept that was enough to drive all soldiers crazy:

"As long as there is a crystal core, its energy is limitless. In other words, our ammunition is limitless."

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

That was a brief blank after cognition was shattered.

"The Fourth Industrial Revolution..."

The leader slowly reached out his hand, wanting to touch the ball of light, but stopped in mid-air and finally slammed it heavily on the table.

"This is a turning point in the fate of our Great Xia nation! It is also very likely a turning point in our war!"

The commander abruptly looked up at Chen Changhe, his eyes sharp as knives, a resolute determination that suggested he was willing to risk everything.

"With this, those massive machines that could only gather dust on blueprints due to insufficient energy... can finally come to life?"

Academician Chen straightened his back and answered decisively:

"Yes! Yes, we can!"