Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

6:40 a.m.

When Li Yichen got out of bed, his pillowcase was still half-wet. The aftereffects of opening the gift package last night—he was drenched in sweat; his T-shirt was soaked through.

He changed into clean clothes and rushed out the door without even eating breakfast.

Looking up, I watched as the U8 sped out of the Tomson Riviera basement and headed straight for the Future Technology headquarters.

The 66th floor.

The freight elevator doors opened, revealing three five-axis industrial machine tools humming and spinning, their silver robotic arms moving nimbly through the cleanroom. The final five sets of Celestial Warrior armor were scattered in the assembly area, indicating approximately 70% completion.

Li Yichen walked to the open space on the east side.

Close your eyes.

Five brand-new five-axis industrial machine tools were materialized from the system space.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Five dull, metallic thuds echoed in succession, making the entire floor vibrate.

Ling'er popped out of the watch, flew around the five gleaming new machines twice, and opened her mouth into an "O" shape.

"Brother! Are you planning to put all five of these five-axis industrial machine tools here?"

"Enough with the nonsense." Li Yichen patted non-existent dust off his hands. "Open all eight motherships and get the last five sets of Heavenly Soldier Armor out. The four major war zones have been urging us several times."

Ling'er counted on her fingers for three seconds. "If all eight are connected in parallel at full power... delivery will be completed before 3 PM tomorrow, no problem."

"Okay. You keep an eye on it, I'm going to the aerospace department."

Ling'er gave him a crooked military salute. "Yes, sir! Mothership tycoon!"

Li Yichen ignored her and turned to enter the elevator.

Looking up, we see the U8 driving onto the elevated road, heading towards the future aerospace group.

His mind was racing the whole way.

Miniaturization schemes for cold fusion reactors. Mass production processes for super fuel. The carrying capacity of lunar rockets... Every link is interconnected; missing any one will prevent the process from working.

But he had all the technology.

The only differences are time and production capacity.

Forty minutes later, the car pulled into the Future Aerospace Group's campus.

When Li Yichen pushed open the door, Liu Ruyan was giving a PowerPoint presentation to a group of engineers in the conference room. Seeing him through the glass wall, she paused for a moment, then waved to the people in the conference room.

That's all for today, meeting adjourned.

The engineers filed out, nodding and greeting Li Yichen as they passed by. Some of the younger ones were so nervous they could barely walk.

Liu Ruyan hurried over, dressed in a white lab coat, her hair casually tied in a ponytail.

"Boss, what brings you here so suddenly? You should have let me know so I could have prepared."

"No need to prepare." Li Yichen pushed open the door to her office, walked straight to the sofa, and plopped down. He took a USB drive out of his pocket, twirled it a couple of times on his fingertips, and placed it on the coffee table.

"Ruyan, this contains a super fuel formula that I recently developed."

Liu Ruyan sat down opposite her, her gaze falling on the palm-sized USB drive.

"Super fuel? What level is that?"

"The energy release per volume is five times that of traditional liquid oxygen and kerosene."

Liu Ruyan paused, her hand holding the water glass still.

The water rippled twice.

She slowly placed the cup back on the table, looked up, and the look in her eyes changed.

"Five times? Boss, are you serious?"

"When have I ever joked with you?" Li Yichen crossed his legs. "I want you to mass-produce this fuel immediately, and replace it with the entire Lingxiao series rockets. Also—"

He paused for a moment.

"Build two large launch vehicles. The larger the payload, the better."

Liu Ruyan picked up the USB drive and held it in her hand, her knuckles tightening slightly.

"A large launch vehicle...is it for launching a new generation of satellites?"

"no."

Li Yichen looked into her eyes.

"This time, we're going to go to the moon."

The office was silent for a full three seconds.

Liu Ruyan's lips moved twice, but she couldn't squeeze out a complete sentence for a long time.

"...Moon landing?"

"right."

"For passengers or for cargo?"

"Carrying cargo. I need to transport about two thousand tons of goods up there."

Liu Ruyan gasped. The chair back creaked as she leaned against it.

"Two thousand tons? Boss, are you planning to build a factory on the moon?"

Li Yichen's lips curled slightly. "Pretty much. You don't need to worry about what it will carry, just build the rocket to lunar landing standards."

Liu Ruyan rested her hands on her knees, leaning forward. The shock on her face was quickly transforming into the excitement typical of an engineer.

"How much time do you need? How long will you give me?"

"The launch must be completed no later than New Year's Eve."

Liu Ruyan glanced at the calendar on her phone. There was less than a month until Lunar New Year's Eve.

"Boss..." She stood up, took a few steps around the office, then turned back. "Do you know how long it normally takes to build a rocket for a lunar mission?"

"What does 'normal' have to do with me?" Li Yichen shrugged. "The thrust of superfuel is five times that of traditional rockets, and the rocket structure can be greatly simplified. Besides, aren't all your engineers workaholics?"

Liu Ruyan bit her lower lip.

The technical solutions were flashing through my mind—fuel with five times the energy density meant that the total amount of propellant could be halved, the weight of the rocket body could be reduced, and the structural stress could be decreased... This could indeed significantly shorten the research and development cycle.

She took a deep breath and gripped the USB drive tightly.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"I knew you could do it." Li Yichen stood up from the sofa and patted her on the shoulder. "If you don't have enough manpower, hire more; if you don't have enough money, apply for more. Don't skimp on anything. If you get this job done, your year-end bonus will triple."

Liu Ruyan chuckled. "Boss, all you do is make empty promises."

"When have I ever failed to deliver on a promise I made?"

Liu Ruyan thought about it and realized she really didn't have any.

She tugged at the collar of her white coat, instantly switching into battle mode. "I'm going to hold an emergency mobilization meeting right now. The fuel formula needs to be put into testing today."

"Go."

Liu Ruyan rushed out of the office. Her shouts echoed down the corridor, sounding like a battle.

Li Yichen stood alone in his office for a few seconds. Looking at the distant launch tower through the floor-to-ceiling window, the smile on his lips slowly faded.

Landing on the moon is only the first step.

The ultimate goal is to find helium-3 and rare earth minerals associated with it on the moon. With that, vibranium can be synthesized. With vibranium, everything will be different.

He picked up his car keys and left Liu Ruyan's office.

I didn't go back to headquarters.

Looking up, the U8 turned a corner and drove into the precision laboratory building deep inside the aerospace group's park.

This building is his private property. The entire building is physically disconnected from the internet, and five Terminator drones are on guard at the entrance around the clock. Even if the CIA and NSA team up, they can't get in an inch.

The airtight door hissed open.

Li Yichen walked to the center of the venue and closed his eyes.

Nine ten-axis industrial machine tools were summoned one by one from the system space.

Each machine occupies nearly 200 square meters, and the giant, silver-gray mechanical array gleams with a subtle metallic sheen under the cool white lights. Automated conveyor belts, multi-axis processing arms, and high-precision detection modules—nine machines are arranged in three rows, neatly stacked.

Ling'er's holographic projection jumped onto the crane in the center of the factory. The little girl stood there, hands on her hips, looking down.

"Bro, nine 10-axis machines! Plus those eight 5-axis machines on the 66th floor! You're now the individual with the highest production density on the entire planet!"

"Stop joking." Li Yichen had already walked to the control panel and started typing away on the keyboard with his ten fingers.

A line of design parameters for the lunar-landing Terminator appears on the screen.

The gravity on the moon's surface is one-sixth that of Earth. Temperatures range from +120 degrees Celsius to -170 degrees Celsius. Without an atmosphere or magnetic field, cosmic rays strike directly at the face.

A regular Terminator wouldn't withstand the attack. The joint lubrication system would freeze into ice crystals at low temperatures, and the bionic skin would sublimate directly in a vacuum.

It needs to be specially designed.

He pulled out the Terminator underlying architecture he had previously developed for the military region and made major changes to it.

The joints were redesigned with dry-type solid-state lubricated bearings, which can still rotate even at minus 200 degrees Celsius.

The outer shell has been replaced with a radiation-resistant composite coating, so there's no need for bionic skin anymore, since nobody on the moon will be watching anyway.

The power system has two hydrogen fuel cells, so the range is not a major issue. Even if the energy is insufficient later, the Terminator can replace the hydrogen fuel cells itself.

The end-effector interface has been changed to a universal type, which can directly connect to mining drill bits and handling jigs.

The whole afternoon.

The keyboard never stopped.

After he finished typing the last line of parameters, he looked up and saw that it was already pitch black outside the window.

"Ling'er, please compile a list of materials for me. List all five hundred lunar-type Terminators, plus the construction modules for the lunar base."

Ling'er's data stream ran for more than ten seconds.

"Got it, bro. The list is fourteen pages long. Rare metals, special alloys, superconducting components... 173 categories."

She flipped through the virtual files, her little face scrunched up in a frown.

"But bro, most of these are military-controlled materials. You can't buy them through civilian channels at all."

"I know."

Li Yichen took out his phone, compiled the list into a PDF, and sent it directly to Gu Shounian.

The postscript was just one sentence: Old Gu, see how much of these things the military region can gather.

After sending the message, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and waited for a reply.

Less than half an hour.

The phone rang.

"Brother Li..." Gu Shounian's voice came through the receiver, his tone conveying a sense of helplessness, as if saying, "Here we go again."

"I've looked at your list."

"Hmm, can you handle it?"

"I can't handle it." Gu Shounian's answer was as crisp as a knife cut. "The materials inventory is almost empty. The order for one hundred energy shields and five hundred Terminators that our military region placed with you before has depleted our stock by about 70-80%. Adding this to your order... it's far from enough."

Li Yichen frowned. "What should we do? These are all controlled products; we can't exactly buy them on Taobao."

There was silence for a few seconds on the other end of the phone.

Then Gu Shounian coughed lightly and tentatively began to speak.

"Brother, don't you still owe each of the four war zones ten sets of Heavenly Soldier Armor?"

Li Yichen's eyelids twitched. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is—" Gu Shounian's voice lowered by half an octave, taking on that "old fox giving advice" tone. "You build them the armor, they provide the materials, that was agreed upon beforehand, right? You make a call and add the materials needed for the moon landing to the order. The temptation of ten sets of armor is there for them, how could they refuse?"

Li Yichen leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers twice on the table.

That old man is quick-witted.

The four war zones were willing to agree to any conditions for those ten sets of Heavenly Soldier Armor. Last time he needed materials, they practically emptied their warehouses to give them to him. Now that he needs materials, he believes the four war zones will sell them to him!

"Old Gu, you're the smartest one." Li Yichen gave a thumbs up, even though the person opposite couldn't see him.

"That's right," Gu Shounian smugly hummed on the phone. "You'd better contact them quickly and get everything ready before the New Year. Otherwise, who will you ask after the holiday?"

"Okay, I'll start right away."

I hung up the phone.

Li Yichen flipped through his contacts and found those four names.

Zhang Weiguo, Deputy Commander of the Eastern Theater Command.

Zhao Guangming, Deputy Commander of the Western Theater Command.

Li Tiezhu, Deputy Commander of the Northern Theater Command.

Sun Haotian, Deputy Commander of the Southern Theater Command.

After the joint military exercise in the northwestern desert, these old men kept asking to add him on WeChat, afraid he might change his mind and not sell the armor anymore. Now it's come in handy.

He looked at the four avatars, and the corners of his mouth slowly turned up.

The night was deep outside the window. Inside the precision laboratory building, the indicator lights of nine ten-axis industrial machine tools flashed neatly, their cold white lights forming a galaxy in the darkness.

Li Yichen held the phone to his ear and dialed the first call.