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

Li Yichen sat in his swivel chair, tapping his fingers on the table: "Old Zhou, just watching the projection isn't interesting. Since it can stay stable for over ten seconds, how about we... give a live performance of some 'magic' today?"

Even breathing stopped in the control room. The old men exchanged glances.

"What kind of magic?" Old Zhou wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Turning stone into gold." Li Yichen leaned back, crossing his arms. "Literal meaning. Forcibly altering atomic structure using the strong interaction force. Don't you always talk about the conservation of matter and the fixity of elements? Today, let's change those rules."

Old Zhang waved his hands repeatedly, almost knocking his reading glasses off: "Nonsense! Elemental transmutation is something that happens through nuclear fusion inside a star, or a supernova explosion."

You think you can turn a rock into gold in a few seconds with a machine? That defies the laws of physics! Do you think this is alchemy? Or do you think quark confinement is just a decoration you can play with at will?

"Common sense is meant to be broken." Li Yichen pointed to the remaining data on the screen. "If the machine can lock the rubber ball, then we can use its strong field to forcibly crush the silicon and oxygen nuclei in the stone and reassemble them into the 79 protons of the gold atom. Theoretically, it's entirely feasible."

Academician Chen shook his head repeatedly, muttering absurdity: "Academician Li, the binding energy of microscopic particles is terrifyingly high. To break an atomic nucleus, the energy required is equivalent to detonating a small nuclear bomb. The power supply of our equipment simply can't handle it!"

"No need for brute force dismantling; use powerful penetration to deconstruct it." Li Yichen tapped the keyboard of the modified laptop. "Use their strength against them."

Several young researchers nearby whispered among themselves, thinking that Academician Li might have lost his mind.

Old Zhou didn't say a word. The old man turned around and dashed out of the control room. Two minutes later, he came running back, panting, clutching a fist-sized, dusty stone covered in yellow mud from the tunnel entrance.

"Put it in!" Old Zhou slammed the rock heavily on the control panel, pointing to the color charge confinement trap below. "This old man wants to see how you turn this broken rock into a gold nugget! If you can really turn stone into gold, I'll eat this collider!"

"Forget about eating the collider, it's too expensive, and your teeth can't handle it," Li Yichen grinned. He gestured to the two Terminator machines in the corner.

The Terminator walked down the stairs, opened the side hatch of the confinement trap, and placed the muddy rock in the center of the vacuum chamber.

The hatch is closed. The vacuuming process is initiated.

"Recharge, crash again." Li Yichen placed his hands back on the keyboard.

The atmosphere in the control room had changed. Before, it was a frenzy of searching for unknown particles; now it felt like watching a madman put on a show.

But every researcher obediently returned to their post, their fingers gripping the control panel.

The giant steel python roared once more. The proton beams collided wildly within the pipe.

Time passes little by little.

One hour, two hours.

Old Zhang paced around the room, his shoes creaking as they scraped against the anti-static floor.

Academician Chen drank four glasses of plain water and went to the toilet repeatedly.

Several young researchers whispered among themselves, thinking that today's show was likely to end in farce.

Halfway through the third hour.

A piercing buzzing sound suddenly rang out without warning. The waveform on the large screen spiked dramatically.

"They're here!" a young researcher shouted, his voice cracking.

Li Yichen's ten fingers flew like afterimages as he pounded the Enter key repeatedly.

"Firewall overwrite. Pulse boot enabled. Powering on!" Ling'er's announcement rang out simultaneously.

The blue light from the device below intensified. The artificial color charge field closed again, firmly gripping the second newly formed gel ball particle.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, a red countdown timer appeared: 14.9 seconds.

"Ling'er, max out the auxiliary computing power!" Li Yichen stared intently at the screen, his eyes bloodshot.

"The supercomputing cluster has been connected, with 95% of the computing power allocated! The micro-topology model is being built!" Ling'er's clear voice came from the computer speakers.

Li Yichen's brain was like an overloaded engine, the neural reaction speed brought about by the gene serum was pushed to its limit. The keyboard switches emitted a continuous series of popping sounds.

He ignored the shape of the stone and instead focused on the microscopic level by controlling the parameters of the force field.

The holographic projection on the screen changed. The internal structure of the gray stone was magnified, and the lattice arrangement of countless silicon and oxygen atoms was clearly visible.

11 seconds.

Li Yichen typed out a series of commands. The strong interaction field within the color charge confinement trap deformed. The cluster of dark blue gel-like particles was squeezed by invisible pincers and directly crashed into the atomic nucleus of the gray stone.

"Warning! The energy reading inside the cavity has skyrocketed, and the temperature has exceeded 100,000 degrees!" Ling'er announced.

"Stabilize the magnetic mirror and don't let the heat escape!" Li Yichen's fingers flew across the screen.

7 seconds.

"Powerful penetration!" Li Yichen gritted his teeth.

Inside the force field, the nuclei of silicon and oxygen atoms were brutally torn apart. Protons and neutrons scattered like a hot soup at a microscopic level. At this moment, nuclear force was forcibly taken over by the outside.

"The atomic nucleus has disintegrated, and the number of free nucleons has been confirmed."

4 seconds.

"Reorganize!"

He typed the number of protons in a gold atom onto the keyboard: 79.

Scattered protons and neutrons, kneaded by the strong field, are like building blocks glued together with superglue, frantically piecing themselves together according to entirely new rules.

Excess particles were repelled by the force field and transformed into high-energy rays that struck the vibranium shell, producing a dull thud. The entire underground space trembled slightly.

2 seconds.

1 seconds.

0.

A blinding burst of light erupted from inside the color charge confinement trap. Even through the half-meter-thick explosion-proof glass, the people in the control room instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes.

With a muffled "bang," the exhaust valve spewed out a large plume of hot white mist. The rubber particles had exhausted their last bit of stability and completely dissipated.

The force field collapsed.

Li Yichen released the keyboard, slumped back in his chair, and let out a long breath.

"It's done." He shook his sore wrist.

No one spoke in the control room. All eyes were fixed on the high-definition crystal probe image on the large screen, past him.

The white mist dissipated. The vacuum chamber was now in its very center.

The gray stone covered in yellow mud has disappeared.

What remained was a piece of metal, nearly half its original size, radiating a captivating golden hue. It lay quietly on the tray, its surface still retaining the original stone's uneven texture.

Old Zhang's legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground.

"Quick! Take it out!" Old Zhou scrambled up the stairs, not even bothering to tear off two buttons from his white coat.

Two Terminators stepped forward, opened the hatch, took out the bright yellow metal block, and carried it directly into the control room, placing it on the long conference table.

The light shone on the metal surface, refracting a heavy reflection.

A dozen or so senior scientists swarmed around it like hungry wolves pouncing on their prey. Some used calipers to measure, while others brought magnifying glasses to examine it closely.

"Could this be surface gold plating? A magic trick?" a young researcher boldly questioned.

Old Zhang had a fiery temper. He pulled out a pair of hydraulic pliers from his toolbox, gripped the edge of the metal block, and pressed down hard.

With a snap, a notch was cut into the metal block.

At the cross-section, it still retains that captivating golden hue. The texture of gold that has melted and then solidified is unmistakable.

Old Zhang even grabbed the gold nugget, put it in his mouth and bit down hard, almost breaking his teeth, leaving a shallow tooth mark on the nugget.

Academician Chen pulled a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer from a cabinet in the corner, and with trembling hands, he placed the probe on the surface of the metal block.

"drop--"

A row of data appeared on the instrument screen.

Academician Chen stared at the screen, his mouth agape, but he remained silent for a long time.

"Read it! You're mute!" Old Zhou slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

"Density... 19.32 grams per cubic centimeter..." Academician Chen's voice cracked, as if it were being sawed in a broken bellows. "Composition... Au. Purity... 99.99%. Not a single impurity was detected."

"Clang." The magnifying glass in Old Zhang's hand fell onto the table, and a crack appeared on the lens.

"Real gold. Pure gold." Academician Chen slumped into a chair, clutching his head in his hands. "The atomic structure has truly been rewritten. Just a few minutes ago it was a piece of silicate rock."

Old Zhou held the gold in his hands. The heavy weight of it came through his palms. Tears welled up in his eyes and streamed down his face.

"Oh, our ancestor..." Old Zhou cried out, "The edifice of physics has been ripped apart today."

The group of luminaries turned to look at Li Yichen, who was sitting in a swivel chair. Their gazes were no longer that of a genius scholar, but rather that of a living Yama, a true god, who had fallen from the sky.

Li Yichen ignored the fervent gazes. He stared at the gold on the table, but his mind was preoccupied with another matter.

"Alright, it's just a piece of gold, is it really necessary to cry like this?" Li Yichen clapped his hands, interrupting the strange atmosphere in the control room.

Old Zhou looked up, his face streaked with snot and tears: "Academician Li, you don't understand! This isn't just gold! It's the authority of the Creator! We humans have grasped the authority of the Creator!"

"Stop with the fancy stuff." Li Yichen stood up, picked up his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. "Turning stone into gold is just a gimmick. This gold itself isn't worth anything. Think about it carefully, if you can turn stone into gold, what does that even mean?"

Old Zhang paused, his hand holding the magnifying glass hovering in mid-air: "Does this mean... gold is going to depreciate?"

"Elder Zhang, why has your vision shrunk?" Li Yichen walked to the door, turned around and looked at the group of titans. "This means that we no longer need to search the world for those rare minerals. As long as there are enough stones and mud, I can conjure up titanium, tungsten, and all the materials needed to build interstellar warships for you."

A collective gasp filled the control room.

The old men finally realized what was happening.

What Li Yichen was thinking at that moment was that once this technology matured and could be put into large-scale use, then the interstellar warship base on the far side of the moon, which was like a money-devouring beast, would no longer be limited by the pitiful rare mineral reserves of the blue planet.

The material crisis of the Great Xia might be completely resolved from the ground up in physics.

"This piece of gold is for you to keep as a souvenir." Li Yichen pulled the doorknob. "Quickly disassemble the equipment and pack it up. You have three days to thoroughly understand the principles of this machine."

Old Zhou wiped the tears from his face and hugged the gold tightly: "Why bother understanding it thoroughly?"

Li Yichen pointed to the ceiling above his head.

"Build an assembly line. With this technology, the first step is definitely to expand production capacity, collect rubber ball particles like crazy, and at the same time, continuously innovate to try to make the rubber ball particles last longer."

Under the incandescent light of the control room, the gold piece shone brightly. Old Zhou held it tightly, while Old Zhang and Academician Chen stood around it, their bloodshot eyes fixed on Li Yichen's departing figure, as if watching a god who had cleaved the universe in two with his bare hands.

What Li Yichen was thinking at the moment was that once the technology matured, he would replace the armor of the entire interstellar fleet with condensed spheres of gel.

At that time, Starfleet will truly be invincible.