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

He Zhenchuan's hand, holding the secure phone, froze in mid-air, with only a dial tone coming from the receiver.

He swallowed hard, put his phone back in his pocket, and looked up at the massive steel behemoth that completely blocked out the sun, sweat streaming down his face.

Less than two hours later, the roar of engines echoed over the Shanghai Military Region. Three military special planes painted with the highest-level markings landed one after another on the remaining runway.

As soon as the hatch opened and the gangway was not yet fully lowered, Lu Lao, Zhou Weiguo, Zhang Mingyuan and other core high-ranking officials of Daxia rushed down.

Several elderly men, whose combined age exceeded two hundred, took strides even larger than the guards. As they rounded the control tower, they looked up and came to a complete stop.

They all became wooden stakes.

A 500-meter-long, dark blue ship hovered silently above the parade ground. Its enormous shadow covered the entire military compound. The anti-gravity engines at the bottom of the ship emitted halos of light, without even a whisper of wind.

Old Lu clung to the guard's arm with both hands, his eyes wide and gleaming with a green light. He made several quick, hesitant sounds before finally managing to speak clearly: "The existence of Yichen in Great Xia is truly a blessing for Great Xia, a boon for humanity!"

Zhang Mingyuan, loosening his tie and panting heavily, pointed at the twelve high-frequency plasma main cannons, each thicker than a water tower: "With this firepower, one shot could probably dry up the Pacific Ocean, right? If Te Kaopu saw this thing, he'd probably find a block of tofu and smash his head against it on the spot."

Li Yichen, hands in his pockets, strolled over to greet them. He patted the outer shell of a tractor beam launcher hanging down from the spaceship, grinning like a used car dealer: "Old Lu, don't stand in the cold wind outside. This car just rolled off the production line, the interior's still warm. Shall I take you all up for a spin?"

Zhou Weiguo rubbed his sore neck, looking at the massive hull, his heart pounding: "Yichen, how loud will this thing be when it flies? We old bones haven't been trained as astronauts. Should we do a centrifuge anti-motion sickness test first? Don't let it give us heart attacks when it accelerates."

"You're overthinking it," Li Yichen chuckled. "Even if you're inside holding a bowl overflowing with tofu pudding and floor the gas pedal, not a single drop will spill. Let's go, get in the car."

Li Yichen snapped his fingers. A hatch slid open from the bottom of the ship, and a soft blue beam of light shone directly at everyone's feet.

"Just stand on it." Li Yichen stepped into the pillar of light first.

Old Lu and the others exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and stepped inside. There was no feeling of weightlessness or pulling; the beam of light, like a smooth elevator, lifted them directly into the ship's interior.

After passing through the transition cabin, the view suddenly opened up before me.

There were no densely packed dials, no tangled cables, and no flashing red alarm lights as I had imagined.

The bridge hall was as spacious as a luxurious banquet hall, covering more than 2,000 square meters. The silver-white alloy walls gleamed with a cold, hard luster, while soft, realistic natural light shone from the ceiling, making people feel warm and comfortable.

Beneath his feet was a smooth metal deck. Zhou Weiguo stomped his feet twice, then jumped a few times, his face full of astonishment: "This gravity... it's no different from stepping on the asphalt road of Chang'an Avenue!"

"The ship has an independent gravity simulation system, a fully enclosed internal circulation system." Li Yichen walked to the center of the hall. There, a holographic star map of the solar system with a diameter of ten meters was suspended, with the eight planets slowly moving in their orbits.

Several rows of genuine leather sofas and solid wood coffee tables lined the edge of the hall, along with a bar counter. Several large screens were embedded in the walls, displaying real-time operational data for various parts of the ship.

"Please make yourself at home, leaders," Li Yichen said, gesturing to the sofa.

Old Lu and his companions were like country bumpkins visiting a grand garden, touching the cabin walls and squeezing the sofa leather. He Zhenchuan and Liu Guoliang also joined in, and the group huddled in front of the holographic star map, pointing and discussing it.

Li Yichen walked to the main control console. It was a semi-circular command chair with a futuristic feel. He sat down and swiped his fingers across the holographic keyboard that popped up out of thin air.

"Ling'er, ignite the sub-light speed engine. Target: Mars orbit."

"Received, Captain. Course planning complete. Anti-gravity engines switching to sublight speed propulsion mode." Ling'er's clear voice rang out in the bridge.

Just as Old Lu picked up a cup of hot tea that his guard had prepared, he heard the word "light the fire." Startled, he gripped the edge of the coffee table tightly with both hands and pressed his back against the sofa, bracing himself for a violent push. Zhou Weiguo closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

One second, two seconds, five seconds.

Nothing happened.

There was no roar of engines, no tremors of the cabin, not even a sway.

"That's it?" Zhang Mingyuan opened his eyes, somewhat bewildered.

"Commander, look out the window." Li Yichen leaned against the command seat and pointed to the 50-meter-long holographic porthole at the front of the hall.

Old Lu turned his head.

The view outside the porthole had changed. The buildings that once represented the Shanghai Military Region were long gone. A massive, light blue sphere filled the entire field of vision and was shrinking rapidly at a visible speed. Clouds, ocean, and continental plates were all left behind.

Old Lu looked down at the teacup in his hand. The surface of the tea was as smooth as a mirror, without even the slightest ripple.

"This...this is already outside the atmosphere?" Old Lu's hand trembled, and he almost spilled the tea on his crotch.

"Current speed: one-tenth the speed of light." Li Yichen tapped the armrest. "Due to the inertial dampers, the physical environment inside the ship is completely isolated from the outside world. Let alone traveling at one-tenth the speed of light, even if you were to directly teleport, you wouldn't feel it inside."

The bigwigs were completely dumbfounded. Humanity's millennia-old fear of space travel, the common sense of strapping people to rockets to endure terrifying gravitational acceleration, was utterly shattered in that moment.

The spacecraft glided smoothly through deep space. As it passed the moon, a dense army of machines could be clearly seen through the porthole, carving out craters on the far side of the moon.

"What's that?" He Zhenchuan pointed to a giant metal base on the far side of the moon with a diameter of several thousand meters, his eyes almost touching the glass.

"The base for the planet-destroying cannon," Li Yichen replied casually. "It'll probably be another year or so. Once it's fully charged, a single shot will be enough to blast through a celestial body as large as Earth."

The command center was filled with the sound of people gasping for air.

Zhang Mingyuan rubbed his hands together, his face flushed with excitement: "Wow, with this thing, we can roam freely in the solar system! Forget America, forget Europe, we'll send them all to mine in the asteroid belt!"

"Even mining is too slow for them." Liu Guoliang pulled up a chair, sat down, and crossed his legs. "Yichen, how many people can your spaceship carry? If this can be mass-produced, it wouldn't be a dream for our Great Xia to move all 1.4 billion people off the Blue Star."

"This is just a frigate, carrying two thousand people. The main battleship is still laying its keel on the far side of the moon. That thing is six kilometers long and can carry one hundred thousand people." Li Yichen walked to the bar, poured himself a glass of ice water, and carried the glass back to the sofa area.

The bigwigs completely relaxed. This wasn't interstellar travel; it was practically a five-star hotel space sightseeing tour.

"Old Lu, pinch me." Zhou Weiguo leaned back on the sofa, looking at the magnificent nebula outside the porthole.

"I always feel like I'm dreaming. A few years ago, we were worried about being held back by the lithography machine shortage, and now we're drinking tea in space in a sub-light-speed spaceship. The leap is too big, and my old heart can't really take it."

Old Master Lu took a sip of his tea, his face glowing: "This is what you call national destiny! Even if aliens really do attack one day, with Yichen here, the backbone of our Great Xia is made of titanium alloy, it can't be broken!"

Several old men started chatting and boasting in the bridge, discussing how to divide the resources of the solar system in the future.

Zhang Mingyuan even started planning to carve out some land on Mars to grow Chinese cabbage, saying that the soil there was rich in iron oxide and that the cabbage grown there would definitely be good for replenishing blood.

Zhou Weiguo waved his hand and pointed to Jupiter on the star map: "Mars is too small. If you want to do it, go to Jupiter's moons. Europa is covered in ice. Just drill a hole and you'll find liquid water. You can build a large underwater base there and raise fish there without any problem."

"You old folks, all you think about is growing vegetables and raising fish," Old Lu chuckled, then turned to Li Yichen, "Yichen, be honest. How big do you plan to expand this fleet?"

Li Yichen finished his ice water and slammed the glass on the coffee table: "Based on the current production capacity, the first phase will be to build a fully-equipped star fleet."

A six-kilometer-range light-speed capital ship as the flagship, accompanied by four two-kilometer-range destroyers and twelve escort ships of this class. In addition, three thousand Xuan Niao fighters and one hundred thousand Terminator missiles.

He Zhenchuan slapped his thigh in exhilaration: "That's so inspiring! Should we establish a space force in the future? How should we organize it? My elite soldiers are getting wrecked in the simulator every day, and they're all itching to get on a real spaceship."

"We can start setting up the framework for the Space Force," Li Yichen said, leaning back on the sofa. "However, the selection of personnel will be rigorous. Interstellar warfare is different from ground warfare; those who are slow-witted won't even be able to accurately lock onto a fire control radar."

Gene evolution serums should also be prioritized for allocation to space force commanders, otherwise their lifespans wouldn't be enough for the long interstellar journeys. Furthermore, gene evolution serums can enhance the development of the human brain, making them more intelligent.

Old Master Lu nodded in agreement: "Let Guoliang and Lao He handle this. They'll use the entire nation's resources to select the best talents for you. The future of Great Xia rests entirely on this fleet."

Several hours passed.

As the spaceship passed through the asteroid belt, the massive floating meteorites bounced off the escort ship's deflector shields like eggs hitting a metal plate, without even a tremor reaching the ship's cabin.

"Captain, we are about to reach the target orbit. Reverse thrusters activated, deceleration initiation," Ling'er announced.

The view of the starry sky outside the porthole began to slow down. A huge, crimson planet burst into view, taking up the entire screen.

The surface is covered with dried-up riverbeds and countless impact craters. Two irregularly shaped Martian moons orbit in the distance.

The spacecraft hovered steadily above the Martian equator.

Old Lu put his teacup on the table, walked quickly to the porthole, and pressed himself against the glass.

He looked down at the desolate yet alluring red land below, his voice hoarse with barely concealed excitement.

"This...this is Mars?" Old Lu's fingers traced across the glass as if he were caressing a rare treasure. "I've lived most of my life and never dreamed that I would be able to come to Mars to drink tea and enjoy the scenery in my lifetime."

Zhou Weiguo and Zhang Mingyuan also joined in, and the group squeezed together in front of the window, pointing at Mount Olympus below and arguing about just how big that tallest volcano in the entire solar system really is.

He Zhenchuan even took out his phone and snapped several photos out the window, muttering, "If I posted this on WeChat Moments, my old comrades would probably think I went to the Gobi Desert to film a movie."

Li Yichen walked behind the group of big shots, looked at the red planet outside the window, and grinned.

"Comrades, it's no fun just looking at the scenery through the glass inside the spaceship." Li Yichen pointed to the crater below. "Come on, I'll take you down for a stroll, let you step on the Martian mud, and see how it differs from the yellow soil of our Blue Planet."