Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

That evening.

As major media outlets compiled their press releases, social media across Xia Kingdom exploded in an instant!

On Weibo's trending topics list, ten trending terms, one red and one black, appeared in unison.

Project Lunar Palace

Project Nantianmen

The Heavenly Court Project

Professor Lü is awesome!!!

"..."

These ten trending topics directly caused Weibo's servers to crash!

Countless netizens flooded the comments section, expressing their excitement.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!"

"What happened? What happened? What happened!?"

"As long as I accept my own weakness, I am invincible... cough cough, sorry, wrong scene."

"Editors these days are getting more and more outrageous; they're even publishing news articles based on sci-fi content?"

"...Everyone upstairs, please look carefully. This is a meeting just held by the Xia Guo Space Agency. These things were proposed by Professor Lü, the first director of the agency!"

"Can anyone tell me what year it is? I suspect I've time-traveled!"

"I can almost smell the scent of the US-Soviet rivalry back then..."

A well-known military forum in China was no exception, and this news caused an uproar!

……

After dinner, Zhao Zijie sat in front of the computer in his room and opened the browser, as usual.

He skillfully typed a domain name into the browser's address bar.

Gently press the Enter key.

The webpage quickly redirected to a military forum.

Unlike in the past, this time the homepage of the military forum featured a line of large red text.

Major findings from the NASA meeting revealed!

Zhao Zijie frowned slightly.

During this period, NASA's name has become widely known throughout the country.

It's no exaggeration to say that wherever there's internet and a signal, almost everyone knows about this newly established department.

But... how did this NASA meeting get involved with a military forum?

A hint of doubt appeared in Zhao Zijie's eyes. He dragged the mouse and subconsciously clicked on the highlighted title in red and bold.

"Project Lunar Palace...an automated lunar mining project?"

"ah???"

"Production will begin at the end of this year?!"

"WTF?!"

Zhao Zijie released the mouse and rubbed his eyes.

He even doubted himself, wondering if he had seen it wrong!

Why did Xia Guo suddenly propose a lunar mining plan out of the blue?!

Putting aside everything else, Xia Kingdom hasn't even truly achieved a manned lunar landing yet, has it?

So, isn't it a pipe dream to put a lunar mining project into production by the end of the year?

"Has Professor Lü gone mad...?"

Zhao Zijie muttered to himself, then opened the QQ group, took a screenshot of the news in front of him, and sent it out.

"Did everyone see this news? It can't be April Fool's Day today, right?"

"Beep beep beep!"

Soon, a series of urgent message notifications rang out.

Zhao Zijie quickly opened the QQ group again to check.

"Old Zhao, you didn't just find out now, did you?"

"Friendly reminder: the Moon Palace Project is the easiest of the three projects to implement."

"Old Zhao, you should read the news first before you speak!"

Looking at the messages in the QQ group, Zhao Zijie's pupils contracted slightly.

Three major plans?

Or the simplest one?

Zhao Zijie quickly closed the QQ group interface and dragged the mouse to examine it carefully.

Gradually, Zhao Zijie's gaze began to turn strange.

The Nantianmen Project, which includes the Xuan Nu series of space fighters and the Luan Niao series of space carrier platforms, is actually aimed at resisting alien invasion?

WTF?!

It's supposed to be finished by the end of next year?!

As he scrolled the mouse wheel, specific information about the Nantianmen Project appeared before his eyes.

Xuan Nu series aerospace fighters.

Fuselage length: 30-50 meters.

Maximum takeoff weight: 80-100 tons.

Cruise speed within the atmosphere: 11.2 km/s (second cosmic velocity)

Maximum speed outside the atmosphere: 16.7 km/s (third cosmic velocity)

It employs dual fusion engines, with an electric propulsion system as its power source...

The main weaponry includes small laser rapid-fire cannons and ultra-high-speed medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles (which can be equipped with nuclear warheads)...

The later Luan bird series was even more outrageous!

The fuselage is 500 meters long, has a wingspan of 1300 meters, a maximum takeoff weight of 30 tons, a cruising speed of Mach 2 within the atmosphere, and a speed that can reach the third cosmic velocity outside the atmosphere!

As for weapon systems, high-energy pulse laser cannons, high-power particle diffusion cannons, large missile silos...

This thing... is it really technology we'll have next year?!

Realizing this was only the second plan, Zhao Zijie quickly scrolled down the page.

hiss!

The Heavenly Court Project!

Good guy!

Just by looking at the name, Zhao Zijie could imagine how outrageous this thing must be!

First, he glanced at the project's estimated completion time.

Within 15 years...

He suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

Having experienced the stimulation of the first two projects, he suddenly felt that the fifteen-year Heavenly Court Plan seemed to be the most reliable.

But soon, he decided to take back his youthful and ignorant words.

Human Deep Space Expedition Fleet Program.

The plan envisions the entire Celestial Fleet consisting of 1000 survival quasars, 500 supply quasars, and 1000 combat quasars.

Among them, 1000 survivability starships can carry nearly 10 billion people of Xia Kingdom, with an average of 100 million people per starship.

The entire Heavenly Fleet will reach a maximum flight speed of one-tenth the speed of light.

As for the destination of the Heavenly Court fleet, it was Proxima Centauri, 4.22 light-years away.

Zhao Zijie took a deep breath.

With trembling hands, he reopened the QQ group and typed three exclamation marks in the chat box.

"!!!"

"Hahaha! Another child is scared out of their wits!"

Seeing the replies from other group members, Zhao Zijie gave a wry smile and started typing: "What the heck is this?!"

"This thing is clearly something from science fiction novels, isn't it?"

"How can you say something like this in the Great Hall of the Xia Kingdom?!"

No sooner had Zhao Zijie posted his complaint than someone replied, "Old Zhao, you're still too young!"

"Do you remember the Star Wars program that the United States originally proposed?"

Zhao Zijie's pupils contracted sharply, and his fingers tapped faster in an instant.

"You mean... this is something the Strategic Deception Bureau came up with?"

The next second, a screenshot was sent to the QQ group.

The screenshot shows Weibo's trending topics list.

Congratulations to Professor Lü Yongchang on succeeding the "Director" as the head of the "Strategic Deception Bureau"!

Zhao Zijie: "..."

He shook his head with a wry smile.

That's true. Any normal person with a modicum of intelligence wouldn't believe something like that!

However, the magnificent scene of the aurora borealis that filled the sky a few days ago suddenly flashed through his mind.

Considering that the two events were separated by less than a day, Zhao Zijie's heart stirred slightly.

There won't be any contact, right?

But soon, he shook his head, shaking off his wild thoughts.

That's impossible!

It's likely just as netizens have said, that it's nothing more than a "lie" from the Strategic Deception Bureau.