I accidentally joined a group of charlatans, so I immediately called the police and handed it over t

Langley, Virginia, USA.

CIA Headquarters Underground Command Center.

The lights here maintain a somber, cold tone year-round, and the air is filled with the mixed smells of coffee and anxiety.

The huge circular conference table was filled with bigwigs from the US intelligence community.

The man sitting at the head of the table was dressed in a black suit, with eyes as sinister as a venomous snake.

He is the newly appointed CIA director, codenamed "Black Snake".

A hardliner known for his cold-bloodedness, suspicion, and ruthlessness.

At this moment, he was staring intently at a top-secret report in his hand, his face, which had been expressionless before, now twisted into a somewhat ferocious shape.

"Snapped!"

He slammed the report on the table, sending papers flying and scattering in front of everyone.

"Can anyone tell me what this is?"

The black snake's voice carried a chilling aura.

"These are all the abnormal data we've collected from China this week."

"Can someone explain this to me?"

The conference room was deathly silent.

No one dared to speak.

Because those data are simply an insult to their intelligence.

"What? Have you all become mute?"

Black Snake sneered and tapped the table heavily with his finger.

"Okay, then I'll read it for you."

"China's national industrial electricity consumption decreased by 30% this quarter. However! Their industrial output value soared by 50%!"

Does this comply with the law of conservation of energy?

"Unless they're generating electricity with love! Or each of them has installed a perpetual motion machine in their home!"

Black Snake's gaze swept over everyone present like a knife.

"Look at this one too."

He pointed to a blurry satellite image on the big screen.

That was a new type of Chinese fighter jet, performing an incredible maneuver.

"A right-angle turn at Mach 10".

"Our physicists told me that at that instant, the fuselage experienced an overload of more than fifty Gs."

"Fifty gigabytes!"

The black snake roared, and the veins on its neck bulged.

"Is that something a human could withstand? Is that something the materials on Earth could withstand?"

"Even if you cast our F-22 in titanium alloy, it would still disintegrate into pieces to perform this maneuver!"

"But they did it! And they were completely unharmed!"

An intelligence chief in charge of the Asian region wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stood up shakily.

"Chief...could it be that super yeast Michael Chen brought back that caused the problem?"

"Shut up!"

Black Snake grabbed the coffee cup in front of him and smashed it hard at the manager's feet.

The porcelain shards shattered, and coffee spilled all over the floor.

"Don't mention that damn Michael Chen to me! And don't mention that piece of shit super yeast!"

"That was a scam! A complete and utter scam!"

"Our lab cost 30 billion US dollars, and we've been cultivating a bunch of moldy bacteria! It's been completely useless except for making the lab look like a bakery!"

Black Snake was panting heavily, his hands on the table, his eyes revealing a deep sense of powerlessness.

"This is not technology."

He muttered to himself, his voice tinged with a fear he had never felt before.

"This is witchcraft."

"We are not facing a country, but a wizard who has mastered some kind of dark magic from the East that we cannot understand."

The atmosphere in the meeting room was extremely tense.

Fear spread like a virus.

For the elites of the United States, who are used to controlling everything and looking down on all living beings from the high ground of technology, the greatest fear is not that their opponents are powerful.

Rather, it is because the opponent is unknown.

They didn't know what cards China still had up its sleeve.

I don't know where that kind of energy that doesn't require electricity comes from.

I have no idea how that metal, which is as hard as a ghost, is made.

This uncertainty made them restless and unable to eat or sleep.

"We must stop them."

An elderly man with white hair, sitting in the corner, slowly spoke.

He is the president’s chief science advisor and a staunch defender of the United States’ technological hegemony.

"No matter what kind of witchcraft they have mastered, whether they are cultivating immortality or working with alien technology."

The old man's eyes were cloudy and sinister.

"As long as you develop technology on Earth, there is one thing you can't avoid."

All eyes were on him.

The old man stretched out a withered finger and gently tapped his head.

"calculate."

"Computing power".

"That is, chips."

The black snake's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Go on."

"No matter how fast their fighter jets fly, no matter how strange their energy sources are, modern industrial products all require chips for control."

The old man smiled sinisterly, revealing a set of gleaming white false teeth.

"That's the lifeblood of modern industry, and also their Achilles' heel."

"Although they have made some breakthroughs, they still have no presence in the field of high-end chip manufacturing, especially in EUV lithography machines."

"As long as we can get past this hurdle..."

The old man made a throat-slitting gesture.

"Their cutting-edge technologies can only be toys in the laboratory and can never be mass-produced."

"A giant without a brain is nothing but a bunch of walking corpses."

The black snake remained silent for a moment.

His mind was racing, weighing the pros and cons.

This is a risky move.

Taking this step would mean a complete breakdown in relations and a full-blown technological cold war.

But he had no other choice.

The rise of China was too fast, so fast that it suffocated him.

If we don't take action now, in a few years, the US might be left only able to follow China around and eat its dust.

"Contact the White House."

Black Snake suddenly stood up straight, straightened his tie, and resumed his cold and ruthless demeanor.

"I need to request the highest-level presidential decree."

"Join forces with our allies, ASML, TSMC, Samsung..."

"Implement a comprehensive and thorough chip embargo against China."

"Even a single screw, anything related to lithography machines, is strictly prohibited from entering China!"

"I'll kill their technology tree from the roots!"

……

Twenty-four hours later.

Washington.

A single ban, like a black iron curtain, slowly descended.