Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

"Knock knock knock!"

No sooner had the councilor finished speaking than a series of urgent knocks sounded at the door.

"Enter!"

The councilor frowned slightly and spoke in a short but forceful tone.

The next moment, the office door was pushed open.

Outside the door, Hong Qiming's face was slightly flushed, and his eyes were filled with excitement!

"Minister Hung? What happened?" The councilor asked, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

In his memory, Hong Qiming had never lost his composure like this before!

"Speaker! Great news! Great news!"

Hong Qiming shouted loudly, "News just came from Fang Xu's side: the small fusion reactor project has been a success!"

The councilor's body jolted violently!

Before he could fully react, Hong Qiming blurted out, "Not only that, Professor Lü has already successfully developed the first generation of Hall thrusters!"

Even the Speaker of the Council couldn't hold back anymore!

"What?!"

"So fast!?"

Representative Li jumped up from his chair, looking at Hong Qiming with excited eyes: "When will the experiment begin?!"

Hong Qiming swallowed hard: "The military is currently transporting a small fusion reactor towards the aerospace research institute."

"I estimate... Professor Lü will begin his first experiment in about two hours!"

……

Entrance to a highway in Xia State.

"What's going on... Why is the highway closed for no reason?"

Inside a Haval car, a man frowned as he looked ahead: "Could there have been a car accident?"

Beside the man was a gentle woman with long, flowing hair.

The woman rolled down her car window, leaned out, and glanced ahead: "It shouldn't be a car accident."

"There isn't a single car on the highway; it must just be that the entrance is closed."

Upon hearing this, a hint of anxiety flashed in the man's eyes.

He reached out and unbuckled his seatbelt, then yanked open the car door.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" The woman's expression changed slightly, and she quickly shouted a warning, "This is a highway, don't do anything reckless!"

The man paused slightly, then turned to the woman with a helpless expression: "I'll go to the tollbooth to ask about the situation, I'll be right back."

A few minutes later.

The man walked to the highway toll booth window.

Looking at the staff inside, the man hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and asked, "Hey buddy, what's going on with this highway?"

"What happened inside?"

Upon hearing the man's voice, the staff member looked up at him, then shook his head helplessly: "I don't know either."

"I just received orders from my superiors to close this section of the highway for half an hour."

The man nodded thoughtfully.

Orders from superiors?

Could it be that they're transporting some important supplies?!

The next moment, the sound of sirens and roaring engines drew the man's attention.

The man quickly turned his head to look in the direction from which the sound came.

The next moment, his pupils suddenly contracted!

Five armed helicopters roared across the sky!

He could even see the air-to-ground missiles hanging below the armed helicopters!

At the same time, three police cars with sirens blaring came into his line of sight.

Three police cars led the way in a V-formation, followed closely by six military vehicles painted in military green!

Several heavy machine guns, gleaming with a cold light, were mounted on the roof of the military vehicle!

In the center of the military vehicle convoy was a heavy truck.

With his 5.0 vision, the man could barely make out what was being loaded on the heavy truck.

A cylindrical object that is entirely black.

Taking advantage of the tollbooth staff's inattention, he quickly took out his phone and snapped a picture of the truck.

……

"What happened?"

Seeing the man's hurried expression, the gentle woman frowned slightly and asked softly, "Did the staff say what the reason was?"

A hint of excitement flashed in the man's eyes. He put his hand to his mouth and made a shushing gesture.

The woman's expression suddenly froze.

Although she didn't know what had happened, she immediately shut her mouth.

The man jumped into the car quickly.

He breathed a sigh of relief after closing the car door.

After calming himself down, he said to the woman with a mysterious look, "You'll never guess what happened!"

"What exactly happened?" The woman's brows furrowed even deeper.

"The country is transporting military supplies!" the man said, pulling out his phone from his pocket and showing off the photos he had taken.

"See that? Police cars leading the way, military vehicles escorting!"

"This is definitely a shipment of military supplies!"

Seeing the man's confident expression, the woman leaned closer to look at the photos on his phone with a suspicious look.

A cylindrical object with a dark black hue.

"What...what is this?"

The man frowned and slowly shook his head: "I don't know either..."

"Could it be some new type of weapon?"

As he spoke, the man opened his phone's Weibo account.

"Hey! Don't spread this photo around!" The woman's expression changed slightly, and her voice became shrill.

The man ignored the woman's words and just stared blankly at his phone screen.

"I don't need to upload it anymore, the official channels have already debunked the rumor..."

The woman instinctively looked at her phone screen.

The latest Weibo post from the official Xia Guo News account.

"Urgent clarification!"

"Today, several sections of highways in Xia Kingdom are closed, and rumors on the internet are that this is to transport military supplies."

"Xia Kingdom News hereby refutes this rumor: This is not military supplies!"

"The photo of the dark, cylindrical object circulating online is a prototype of China's latest small-scale fusion reactor, not some kind of military equipment!"

The woman instinctively took the phone and dragged her finger to the comments section below the scarf.

"Holy crap!"

"I would call this the most hardcore debunking of rumors in history!"

"Zhao, you might as well call this military supplies! How can you spread such a rumor?"

"What did I tell you? The rabbit's traditional skill has indeed reappeared!"

"Hahaha! I feel sorry for Western countries for a second. They just bought the first-generation technology, and in the blink of an eye, China has pulled out a second-generation prototype."

"Are you sure it's a prototype? It looks like a finished product to me."

"Don't believe or spread rumors. If the official statement says it's a prototype, then it's a prototype!"

"Rabbit: Guess if I still have any third-generation products?"

……

Xia Guo National Space Research Institute.

The basic principles and construction of Hall thrusters are not difficult; in fact, they can be described as quite simple.

The main factors limiting its effectiveness are power and loss issues.

Therefore, after Lü Yongchang solved the two major problems, the research progress of the Hall thruster instantly advanced by a large margin!

With the strong collaboration of Cao Liangcai and a group of top engineers, the prototype of the first-generation Hall thruster appeared before everyone in just over ten days.