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

As Ji Yanran's car drove past the gate of Future Aerospace Group, two heads popped out from the security booth.

After the documents were verified, the barrier was raised.

As soon as Chu Feng turned the car onto the inner ring road, Ji Yanran sensed that something was wrong.

Everyone in the base was running.

It wasn't the usual shuffling steps of someone rushing to finish a task; it was a real run—technicians in white overalls rushed towards the launch tower carrying folders, security personnel stood guard at intersections in pairs, and even the electric scooters that usually drove slowly were going at their maximum speed.

Ji Yanran frowned.

She checked her phone—Li Yichen's WeChat message was still the same one from eight hours ago: "Arrived at the base," and he hadn't replied since.

"Chu Feng, go to the command center."

"Yes, Mr. Ji."

The car came to a stop in front of the administration building. Ji Yanran got out of the car, wrapped her coat tighter around herself, and quickly walked across the connecting corridor.

The elevator goes straight up to the fifth floor.

The door to the command center was open.

She stepped inside and froze.

A giant floor-to-ceiling screen occupied the entire wall, its blue-white light casting a bluish glow on everyone's faces. On the screen—real-time status data for three rockets was flashing, with a line of large red text hanging in the upper right corner.

Launch countdown: 00:47:12.

Forty-seven minutes.

Li Yichen stood in the center of the control panel. Beside him were Liu Ruyan and a dozen core engineers, each of whose face was so tense it could trap a fly.

He was wearing a black polo shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, his right hand resting on the edge of the table. His posture was relaxed, but there was a bright light in his eyes.

Ji Yanran has known him for almost a year.

She'd seen that look in his eyes before. He always had that expression before he was about to do something big—acting nonchalant on the surface, but practically bursting with excitement inside.

Li Yichen caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye and gestured with his chin in her direction.

"You've come at the perfect time. I'll show you something interesting in a bit."

Ji Yanran quickly took two steps to his side and lowered her voice: "You're launching today? Right now?"

Li Yichen glanced at the countdown numbers.

"Yes, today. All three together."

Ji Yanran's breath hitched for a second.

Three. Together.

Ji Yanran was shocked just thinking about that scene.

Liu Ruyan turned around at this moment, her tablet pressed against her chest. When she saw Ji Yanran arrive, she nodded to her as a greeting, and then turned her attention back to the screen.

Li Yichen turned his wrist.

"Ling'er".

The watch glowed faintly. Ling'er's holographic panel unfolded in the air, and data streams flowed from top to bottom.

"Finally, the entire system performs a self-check, and all subsystems report their results one by one."

Ling'er's little figure crouched in the upper left corner of the panel, her legs dangling and swinging for a moment before standing up straight. Her voice switched to the battle mode without any trailing notes.

"Structural integrity of the No. 1 rocket body – passed."

"The second avionics system integration test has been completed."

"Third propulsion system in standby mode - Pass."

"Fuel filling and sealing - passed."

"Load fixed state - pass".

"Communication link - successful".

One after another, more than a dozen sets of data were processed. The panel was filled with green lights, without a single red one.

Ling'er blurted out one last thing: "Brother, all 637 tests passed, zero abnormalities. We can fly now."

Liu Ruyan took over the conversation, flipped the tablet over, and handed it to her.

"The manual verification is also complete. The twelve members of the launch team manually confirmed each item and signed off on all of them."

Twelve signatures were neatly arranged on the confirmation form, the last one being Liu Ruyan's own. Li Yichen glanced at it and nodded.

He didn't rush to move on to the next step. He turned his head to look at Liu Ruyan and asked a seemingly casual but extremely weighty question.

"Ruyan, after the rocket reaches the moon, will the fuel be enough to support its return journey?"

He paused.

"Those three will be on the moon for a month. Once the Terminators have collected enough materials, they'll have to bring them back. Have you considered that?"

Liu Ruyan had clearly been waiting for this question. Her answer was as fluent as reciting a text.

"I've calculated it. After the three spacecraft land on the moon, each will have about one-third of its fuel remaining. We'll have the Terminator transfer all the fuel from the other two spacecraft into one—once it's full, this spacecraft will have enough fuel to carry a payload of up to one thousand tons back to Earth."

Li Yichen ran the numbers through his mind.

The first batch of vibranium ore needed will be at most a few hundred tons.

"That's enough. More than enough."

He added, "The other two will remain on the moon. We'll send fuel up later, and they'll fly back on their own."

Liu Ruyan nodded: "This is the plan."

Ji Yanran stood to the side and listened to every word of their conversation.

The Moon. The Terminator. Mining. Flying back.

She recognized every single word. Putting them together, she felt like she was listening to a scene from a science fiction movie rehearsing lines.

She pursed her lips, but finally couldn't help but speak.

"Are you... really going to go to the moon?"

Li Yichen turned his head to look at her, his expression as if he were asking, "What should we eat for lunch?"

"What else? Just posting it for fun?"

Ji Yanran rolled her eyes at him and remained silent.

Just then, Li Yichen's phone rang. He took it out and glanced at the screen—Chen Jianjun.

connected.

"Brother Li!" Chen Jianjun's voice was a note brighter than usual. "I'd like to congratulate you in advance on the complete success of this lunar landing mission! The higher-ups are paying close attention to this matter and are waiting for good news. Don't worry about it, we've got you covered."

Li Yichen smiled and said, "Thank you for your kind words, General Chen. Let's wait for good news."

It's over.

The phone rang again less than ten seconds after I put it down.

Liu Guoliang.

Before Li Yichen could even speak, a loud voice boomed from the other end.

"Brother Li! Today is a big day! A few of us old guys are keeping a close eye on things, just waiting for your good news!"

Li Yichen's lips twitched slightly: "Commander Liu, your information network is quite impressive."

"Nonsense! Who in the entire military region doesn't know you're up to something big today?"

"Then please don't tell anyone outside."

"Don't worry! It's top secret! My mouth is as tight as an iron barrel!"

Li Yichen recalled the glorious incident of Liu the Iron Rooster getting drunk and accidentally revealing the words "heavenly soldier" on the eve of the last joint military exercise.

He didn't mention it.

"Okay, wait for my good news."

It's over.

Ji Yanran, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "If the whole military region knows, how can it be called top secret?"

Li Yichen shrugged and ignored him.

The countdown is ticking.

00:05:00.

five minutes.

The atmosphere in the command center froze instantly. About three hundred people sat at their workstations, hands resting beside their keyboards, and no one moved.

They even suppressed their breathing.

00:03:00.

Liu Ruyan's voice came through the radio.

"Final confirmation for each system."

"Power is ready."

"Flight control system - ready."

"Telemetry - Ready."

"Weather conditions meet launch requirements."

They came down one by one, clean and efficient.

00:01:00.

Sixty seconds.

Li Yichen stood in front of the control panel, his right hand resting on the protective cover of the red button.

The cool touch of the metal cap against my fingertips.

Ji Yanran stood two steps to his right and behind, her hands unconsciously gripping her phone tightly in her coat pocket. Her palms were sweaty.

She wasn't nervous.

Who are you kidding? She was so nervous she almost crushed her phone.

ten seconds.

Five seconds.

three.

two.

One.

"ignition."

He flipped open the protective cover and pressed down with his index finger.

far away.

On the sea.

The first rocket's twenty-four Aurora engines at the bottom emitted a white-blue exhaust plume.

That light was even more dazzling than the sun.

The seawater vaporized in a fraction of a second, and a massive amount of steam engulfed the entire launch platform. Looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the command center, a huge white mushroom cloud rose from the sea a kilometer away.

Ten seconds later. The second one is ignited.

Ten seconds later. The third one.

Three white pillars of fire shot into the sky in succession.

The ground is shaking.

It wasn't a slight tremor. It was the kind of vibration that shot from the soles of your feet all the way to the back of your head, making your bones hum.

The ceiling lights in the command center swayed. Someone's water glass on the table was knocked over, spilling water everywhere, but no one paid any attention.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen.

All three trajectory lines climb simultaneously.

The numbers are soaring.

Speed ​​figures are skyrocketing.

Liu Ruyan's voice came from the radio. She lowered her voice, but the last syllable trembled.

"The No. 1 rocket is flying normally. Its speed is Mach 3.2 and it is continuing to climb."

"Number two is normal."

"Number 3 is normal."

On the big screen, three white lines stretched straight upwards, like three steel needles piercing the sky.

Li Yichen stood in front of the screen.

Hands in pockets.

There was no cheering. There were no clenched fists.

It's still early.

Launching is just the first step. There are still 380,000 kilometers to go.

Ji Yanran stood next to him, her gaze shifting from the soaring numbers on the screen to his profile.

The cold, white screen light reflected off his features, his jawline taut. His lips were flat, without a smile. But there was something about him—it was hard to describe, but it was certainty, control, a calm confidence that said, "I know this will succeed."

She suddenly realized that she had only truly seen what the man she had known for so long was doing today.

Private moon landing.

It was not a national act. It was not a national effort.

It's one person. One company. Three rockets. Over four hundred robots. One cold fusion reactor.

Target: The permanently shadowed region at the lunar south pole.

Purpose—Mining.

Bring back something that doesn't exist on Earth.

Ji Yanran took a deep breath, turned her gaze away from Li Yichen's face, and looked back at the screen.

The three trajectory lines are still moving upwards.

Higher and higher. Further and further away.

Ling'er's voice drifted from the watch, softly, just loud enough for Li Yichen and the people around her to hear.

"Brother, thirty seconds left in the first-level separation countdown. Everything is normal."

Li Yichen nodded slightly.

He didn't speak. He just stared at the three lines, at the three white arrows representing human ambition, soaring higher and higher, faster and faster through the atmosphere.

Outside the window, the steam cloud over the sea is dissipating.

The winter sun shines down again, cutting the sea surface into pieces of gold.

The exhaust plumes of the three rockets had shrunk to three faint dots of light on the horizon.

It is flying towards the moon.