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

Li Yichen's finger slammed down on the Enter key, typing the first line of underlying parameters.

Code scrolled like a waterfall on the holographic screen. Ling'er accessed the lunar mineral database, and detailed parameters of an unknown mineral were projected into the air above the laboratory.

Li Yichen leaned closer and looked for three seconds.

The crystal structure of this mineral exhibits a rare six-fold symmetry. Under the magnification of a holographic projection, the arrangement of the atoms resembles a series of interlocking hexagonal gears.

The distribution of the electron cloud inside is completely consistent with the theoretical predictions of color-charged superconductors. This is a substance that could not possibly form naturally on Earth; it could only possibly be formed in the environment of the Moon, which has been bombarded by cosmic rays for billions of years and subjected to extreme temperature differences.

"Ling'er, how much is the reserve of this batch of ore?" Li Yichen asked.

Ling'er retrieved the mining data: "When the first base at the lunar south pole was mining rare earth veins, this mineral was discovered in the deepest layer. At the time, its specific use was unclear, and only about 300 kilograms were mined before stopping. According to geological scans, the total reserves of the entire vein are estimated to be no more than two tons."

Two tons.

Li Yichen's mind raced with calculations. The core of the color charge confinement trap was the superconducting color charge coil, which required approximately eighty kilograms of high-purity color charge superconductors. Optimistically, the purification rate from the raw ore to the finished product was only about thirty percent.

Three hundred kilograms of raw ore can be refined into a maximum of ninety kilograms of finished product, just enough to build one machine.

"That's enough. There's no room left." Li Yichen turned to look at Ling'er.

"Ling'er, dispatch fifty Terminators to the coordinates of the deep Antarctic mineral vein and extract all the unknown minerals, numbered MX-0073."

Note that this batch of ore is very fragile, and its crystal lattice is extremely easily damaged. Explosive methods are not allowed; only low-power laser cutting can be used, and not a single gram can be wasted. After mining, it will be placed in a vacuum-sealed container and brought back on the next return voyage of the Xuanwu.

Upon hearing Li Yichen's words, Ling'er immediately remotely deployed the Terminators on the moon to begin their mission.

After making the arrangements, Ling'er pulled up the interstellar logistics schedule and did some quick calculations: "The next Xuanwu ship will return in twelve days. Add the time for purification and processing of the minerals after they arrive... Brother, your one-month deadline is extremely tight; not a single day can be wasted. If there's even the slightest mistake, this equipment will have to be delayed."

During the twelve days of waiting for the minerals to be transported back, Li Yichen did not rest.

During the day, he stays in the precision testing building, designing the other three modules of the color charge confinement trap: a high-energy generation module, a quantum monitoring array, and an energy security system. In the evenings, he returns to Tomson Riviera to have dinner with his family, maintaining a facade of calm.

During the design process, Ling'er ran round after round of simulation tests, and each time the red light came on in the same place.

"Brother, I ran it again." Ling'er pointed to a glaring red warning on the screen. "The stability of the color charge force field is extremely sensitive to the coil precision. If the error exceeds 0.01 nanometers, microscopic eddies will appear in the force field."

These eddies act like saw teeth, directly shredding the rubber ball within the force field, causing it to decay prematurely. Our existing ten-axis industrial machine tool has a maximum machining accuracy of 0.05 nanometers.

"That's a five-fold difference. This is already the physical limit of Earth's industry; even the mechanical arm's own atomic thermal motion exceeds this error value during operation."

Li Yichen stared at the simulation data for a long time. He rested his hands on the control panel, his fingers rhythmically tapping the metal surface.

"Hand-rubbed," Li Yichen uttered.

Ling'er was stunned.

"What?"

"Use your hands." Li Yichen raised his hands, moved his ten fingers, and his knuckles made a crisp sound.

"With the enhanced finger dexterity from the gene evolution serum, combined with the increased precision of neural control after brain development, I can suppress the slightest muscle tremors to the atomic level. Theoretically, I can perform operations within 0.01 nanometers. What machines can't do, I do with my hands."

Ling'er opened her mouth, looked at Li Yichen's seemingly ordinary hands, then at the abnormally demanding precision requirements on the screen, and after a long while, she managed to utter a single word: "...I'm impressed."

On the thirteenth day, the Xuanwu returned to port.

Three hundred kilograms of deep lunar minerals were transported from an offshore recovery platform to the heavy industrial technology park by the Terminator.

Li Yichen personally operated the atomic forging station for purification. The purification process was more difficult than expected.

The crystal lattice of this mineral is extremely prone to disintegration at high temperatures, and the phase transition must be completed within a very narrow temperature window. The positive and negative temperature difference cannot exceed 0.3 degrees Celsius, otherwise the entire batch of material will turn into a pile of waste slag.

He stood before the forging table, his eyes fixed on the temperature curve. His enhanced perception allowed him to keenly detect every subtle change in heat within the furnace.

He worked continuously for sixteen hours, his hands constantly fine-tuning the parameters on the control panel. Ling'er had to remind him to drink water three times and eat two compressed biscuits during the session.

With a buzzer from the forging platform, 87 kilograms of high-purity color charge superconductor were successfully produced.

After testing, Ling'er reported the data: "Purity 99.97%, lattice integrity 99.8%. Perfect."

Li Yichen let out a long sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He carefully placed this batch of precious superconductors into a constant-temperature vacuum container, transferred it to the precision experimental building, and began the most crucial process: manually winding color-charge superconducting coils.

Inside the laboratory, Li Yichen sat at the control panel. In front of him was a cylindrical skeleton with a diameter of only thirty centimeters.

He put on nanoscale manipulation gloves, pinched a superconducting wire ten times thinner than a human hair between his fingers, and began to wind it round and round. The spacing, tension, and angle of each turn had to be precise to within 0.01 nanometers.

Ling'er monitors the data in real time and reports the accuracy once a lap is completed.

"First lap, error 0.008 nanometers."

"Second lap, error 0.006 nanometers."

"Third lap, error 0.009 nanometers."

Li Yichen's breathing was extremely steady, and his heart rate was forcibly suppressed to below fifty beats per minute. His world shrank to the thin, spider-web-like superconducting wire at his fingertip, and all external sounds were blocked out.

His fingers were as steady as steel bars cast in concrete, each pull and twist carrying a mechanical precision.

This state lasted for a full seven hours.

When the last coil perfectly conformed to the skeleton, Li Yichen's fingers trembled slightly. Not from nervousness, but from muscle fatigue caused by prolonged, extremely precise operation.

"All 1280 laps completed." Ling'er's voice trembled. "Average error... 0.007 nanometers. Brother, are you even human?"

Li Yichen took off his gloves, his ten fingers spread out, and his knuckles cracked. He looked at the unassuming little cylinder in front of him and smiled.

"It's not a person. It's your brother."

After the coil winding was completed, Li Yichen immediately moved on to the final assembly stage.

Over the next ten days, he assembled the four subsystems one by one: the high-energy generation module, the quantum monitoring array, the cold fusion power supply unit, and the emergency release chamber.

He personally oversaw the connection of each module to ensure that there was no resistance loss in the energy loop.

The final form of the color charge confinement trap is a silver-white cylinder about two meters high and one and a half meters in diameter. The outer shell is made of vibranium and its surface is covered with a dense array of monitoring probes and energy interfaces.

It looks unremarkable, even somewhat plain, but Li Yichen knows that the technological density contained inside this cylinder surpasses that of any man-made object on Earth.

Ling'er completed the final round of system-wide self-check, and all indicators were green.

But she didn't relax.

"Brother, I must remind you of something." Ling'er stood on top of the color-restraint trap, looking down at the machine.

"Once this equipment is started, it must never be turned off. The cold fusion reactor must be powered 24 hours a day without interruption."

If, for any reason, even a power outage of a millisecond, the force field collapses, the locked-in rubber spheres inside will prematurely decay and release energy. Based on the current design power, the explosive yield would be equivalent to…”

She paused for a moment.

"Half a block," Li Yichen replied calmly.

He walked to the control panel of the safety system and checked the triple redundancy mechanism of the emergency release chamber one by one.

"So I installed three safety measures. The first is that if the main power supply circuit breaks, the backup supercapacitor bank will take over the power supply within 0.001 seconds and maintain the force field stability for at least thirty seconds."

The second step is that if the backup capacitor also fails, the emergency release chamber will automatically open, guiding the rubber ball to a specially designed decay channel, allowing it to release energy in a controlled manner instead of exploding randomly. The third step—”

He patted the cylindrical shell, which produced a dull metallic echo.

"The vibranium shell can withstand all the energy released by controlled decay. Even if the first two safety mechanisms fail, this shell can contain the explosion inside and prevent it from spreading to the outside."

Ling'er nodded.

"That's true in theory. But bro, I still suggest that the device be placed in a location far away from densely populated areas, just in case."

I know what I'm doing.

Li Yichen picked up his phone and dialed Old Zhou's number.

"Professor Zhou, the machine is finished. Two days ahead of schedule. Is your collider ready?"

On the other end of the phone, Old Zhou's voice nearly shattered the receiver: "What did you say?! It's finished?! Are you sure you're not kidding me?!"

Li Yichen moved the phone an inch away: "Mr. Zhou, could you please speak a little softer? I want to keep my eardrums for a few more years."

"I... okay, okay, I'll speak softly!" Old Zhou lowered his voice, but his speech was still as fast as a machine gun.

"Our collider has been upgraded and modified, with a space specifically reserved according to the interface parameters you provided. Old Zhang and the others have been so anxious these past few days they haven't been sleeping well, constantly pacing around the lab. Where are you now? I'll send someone to pick you up!"

"No need to answer, I'll transport it directly. Just have your people clear the area around the collider." Li Yichen hung up the phone.

He turned to look at the silvery-white color-charge confinement trap. This was not merely a device, but a key for human civilization to transcend the fundamental physical barriers. Once activated, the secrets of the strong interaction would be fully revealed to humanity.

"Ling'er, get two Terminator drones over to move things." Li Yichen walked to the clothes rack next to him, picked up a dark gray casual suit jacket and put it on. "Let's go to the Chinese Academy of Sciences."

He pushed open the laboratory door and strode out. The lights in the corridor turned on one by one, illuminating his path.