The Wallfacer: Everyone wants to break through my wall.

"..."

Chang Weisi chose to remain silent.

Lin Feng looked at the high-ranking officers of the Space Force and experts in the aerospace field.

"Actually, the solution is very simple: have SG Company simulate a virtual space war using a game. Both sides will have the same number of fleets and the same weapons. The only difference will be the engine. Whichever side wins will use that side's engine."

This statement caused a stir in the virtual meeting. The Space Force side did not make any move, but the people from the Aerospace Engineering side could not sit still. They all signaled to Lin Feng that they wanted to speak.

Lin Feng gestured for the people from the aerospace engineering faction to quiet down and let him finish speaking.

"Please hold your opinions for now. Let me ask you a few questions first. If we can't even defeat a fleet that is also made up of humans, then what makes us think we can defeat the Trisolaran fleet that will eventually reach our solar system? By relying on their mercy? In human history, which naval battle has ever been won by mercy?"

A few questions immediately silenced the aerospace engineers who had just been eager to speak.

They couldn't refute what Lin Feng said; warships were built to fight and win wars.

An elderly aerospace worker gestured to Lin Feng that he wanted to speak, and Lin Feng nodded in agreement.

“We are well aware of what you are saying, but we cannot guarantee the success of radiation propulsion.”

"In comparison, we have been using propellant propulsion for so long, so we are more familiar with it and have more development experience. Therefore, it is easier to develop and the success rate is higher."

"If we fail to achieve anything by developing radiation propulsion, or if this path is simply not feasible, we will waste a lot of time and resources, which is a loss for humanity. As you said at the PDC conference, every minute gained now will give us an extra minute of development time in the future."

After the veteran astronaut finished speaking, the Space Force also expressed their intention to speak.

After receiving Lin Feng's permission, senior officers of the Space Force spoke.

"The Space Force needs mobility, and the fleet needs to push the battle lines as far as possible. Locking the fleet in the solar system... I mean no harm, but please forgive my bluntness, this is simply suicidal."

People on the aerospace engineering side kept shaking their heads.

"No, that's too risky. If we fail, we'll bear historical responsibility..."

"That's right, young people need to be more mature. Humanity's resources are running out..."

Lin Feng sighed. Neither side could accept the other's argument; they both believed they were right.

"So why don't you just use the method I gave you to resolve the dispute? It's a virtual war, whoever wins gets to decide," Lin Feng said.

"This is too childish!"

An old aerospace engineer frowned and expressed his dissatisfaction.

"This is part of my plan! Keep your complaints to yourself!"

Lin Feng glared back at the other party without fear.

Why is it considered a detector in Chapter 94?

Lin Feng's involvement in the Space Force has attracted the attention of the PDC.

The people who leaked the news of Lin Feng's involvement in the Space Force to the PDC included members from both the Aerospace Engineering Department and the Space Force, with the Aerospace Engineering Department making up the majority and the Space Force making up the minority.

Ultimately, it's because Lin Feng wields too much power. With a simple "This is part of the plan," he can drown out everyone else's voices and silence them.

The only entity capable of suppressing the power of the Wallfacers is the PDC. Perhaps fearing the situation would spiral out of control, or perhaps worried about the serious consequences of Lin Feng's autocratic actions, someone secretly leaked the information.

Lin Feng wasn't afraid of the PDC; it would be even better if they could intervene in this matter.

After a brief negotiation, PDC, like Lin Feng, requested that both factions resolve the issue through virtual warfare, using whichever engine was more effective in the space war.

Just as Lin Feng said, if we can't even defeat the human fleet, then we certainly can't defeat the Trisolaran fleet that will eventually reach the solar system. In space warfare, we can't rely on the mercy of our opponents.

With the PDC holding the highest authority making the statement, the people in the aerospace engineering department naturally had no objections, and the Space Force could not voice any objections either.

In order to avoid wasting time, the virtual war was scheduled to take place a month later. The player fleet and the space force were broken up and divided into two groups to fight against each other. One side used propellant nuclear fusion propulsion, while the other side used nuclear fusion radiation propulsion.

With the PDC acting as oversight, if the propellant nuclear fusion propulsion side is not putting in the effort and intentionally letting the nuclear fusion radiation propulsion side win, the PDC has the right to declare the space engineering side the winner. This rule has reassured the propellant nuclear fusion propulsion supporters who were originally worried that the Space Force was orchestrating the event.

After the meeting ended, a text message appeared in Zhang Beihai's mobile phone inbox.

The plan has been terminated.

At this moment, Zhang Beihai had just finished polishing the meteorite bullet, and his forehead was covered with fine sweat.

Looking at the text message, Zhang Beihai didn't say anything, but simply put away the meteorite bullets.

……

Virtual warfare doesn't require the preparation of strategic materials like conventional exercises. Programmers can simply stay up all night typing away to visualize everything needed for a virtual war.

This month is mainly for the two participating fleets to plan their strategies.

The propellant propulsion faction's strategy is mainly focused on defending the planets of the solar system. Since their fleets cannot carry more physical cannonballs, they rely primarily on lasers to assist in the defense of the planetary bases. They emphasize strengthening the defenses of the various space cities on the planets and deploying various fixed artillery positions.

It's fair to say that, aside from their inability to move, calling these space cities space motherships wouldn't be an exaggeration.

In a sense, the propellant propulsion faction exploited a loophole in the rules of this virtual war.

Since the competition is about fleets, both sides have the same number of warships and the same weapons, only using different propulsion engines.

However, propellant-driven warships must be paired with planetary bases in various planetary orbits to maintain their combat effectiveness, so the propellant-driven faction allows the design of these heavily armed planetary bases.

To the surprise of the propellant propulsion faction, the radiation propulsion faction did not raise any objections to this somewhat unscrupulous behavior, as if they had not noticed it at all.

The battle began quickly. The propellant propulsion faction was clearly stronger than the radiation propulsion faction. Their warships relied on the powerful firepower of the planetary base, and the radiation propulsion faction's fleet had no way to get close.

However, the propellant-driven fleet was also unable to leave the planetary base.

Without the firepower of the planetary base, and with far fewer physical warheads than the enemy's propellant-driven fleet, they would be quickly annihilated by the enemy.

It's important to understand that warships propelled by propellant primarily use lasers because they must use more than two-thirds of their propellant for propulsion. While physical warheads can be carried, their numbers are extremely limited. Humans, on the other hand, need to breathe and eat, which also involve mass. Therefore, the main body can only use lasers, which have no mass limitations.

However, lasers have a problem: their power decreases with distance. The radiation propulsion faction only needs to attach a layer of easily sublimated material to the outer armor of the warship, and the power of the laser will be reduced to negligible levels.

If the easily sublimated material of the outer armor is consumed, smoke bombs can be used to defend against lasers using smog.

The radiation propulsion faction, on the other hand, does not need to worry about the weakening of their electromagnetic cannon shells; their accuracy can be improved by sheer numbers.

In a long-range crossfire contest, the propellant-based fleet would suffer heavy losses. From the very beginning of the virtual war, the propellant-based fleet was trapped at the planetary base.

The Radiation Propulsion faction's fleet couldn't take down the planetary base because it was designed too aggressively. If they were to forcefully charge and capture one, the Radiation Propulsion faction's fleet would inevitably suffer significant losses. Therefore, their fleet lingered outside the effective range of the planetary base's electromagnetic cannons.

However, for those who advocate using propellants, the situation remains far from optimistic.

The radiation propulsion faction doesn't launch a direct assault on the planetary base, but instead uses attrition tactics, engaging in firefights with the base from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. Since the planetary base is much larger and cannot be moved, the probability of being hit increases.

As time went on, the planetary bases became increasingly damaged, eventually losing all their defensive capabilities. One planetary base after another, including the fleets trapped inside, were thus destroyed.

The result of the virtual war was a one-sided massacre by the radiation propulsion faction's fleet. Even though the propellant propulsion faction exploited loopholes in the rules of the virtual war to greatly increase their own combat power, they still lost the virtual war.

"Why does your fleet possess such a large number of shells? The combined volume of these shells is hundreds of times greater than that of a planetary base."

The outcome of the virtual war has been questioned by some, mainly those in the propellant propulsion faction, because the details of the virtual war have not yet been released, leading many to suspect that the radiation propulsion faction also exploited loopholes in the rules.

"Because of industrial fleets, space warfare cannot be without logistics. From the very beginning, fleets using radiation propulsion have organized all their engineering ships into branch engineering fleets, dispatched to the asteroid belt, where they continuously mine meteorite resources, increase the number of engineering ships, and replenish the fleet's ammunition," PDC explained.

Throughout the entire space battle, the bigwigs of the PDC witnessed it all. It was clear who was superior and who was inferior. Even if some people stubbornly insisted that they shouldn't be too reckless, as long as these bigwigs expressed their support, their opposition would be meaningless, because that was the highest authority.

All countries have said it's okay, so who can say no?

Individual opposition is too insignificant in the face of such a collective, and not everyone is a Wallfacer.

After the virtual war concluded and it was confirmed that radiation propulsion was the main attack method, Zhang Beihai quietly put his gun and meteorite bullets into his safe.

……

A few weeks after the virtual war ended, Lin Feng obtained an observation map, which showed the tracks left by the Trisolaran fleet as it passed through the interstellar dust cloud.

As a Wallfacer, Lin Feng would not be prevented from accessing such military intelligence.

Because interstellar dust clouds look like brushes, these types of observation images are also called 'brushes'.

This is the second interstellar dust cloud that the Trisolaran fleet passed through. After nine years of acceleration, the Trisolaran fleet's speed has increased many times over, making its impact on the interstellar dust cloud even stronger and leaving a more obvious trail.

Although Lin Feng changed some things in the original work, some things remain unchanged. Now it is the twelfth year of the Crisis Era, and the Trisolaran fleet is 4.18 light-years away from the solar system.

Because of the speed of light limit, Lin Feng's observation map was actually intelligence from four years ago.

"I heard that the Trisolaran fleet has ten more tracks. What did the Space Force say?" Lin Feng asked Edith.

“They believe it’s a probe sent to us by the Trisolarans,” Edith replied.

Lin Feng frowned.

"What's the reason?"

Edith replied, "By comparing the flight paths, we can determine that these ten extra objects are much smaller than the trimaran warship, about one hundred thousandth the size of each warship, which is equivalent to the size of a truck."

"Moreover, their speed is much higher than that of the entire Trisolaran fleet, which is why they are still clearly visible when passing through the interstellar dust cloud. They will arrive in the solar system earlier than the Trisolaran fleet."

Lin Feng shook his head and asked again, "What I'm asking is, why are these things understood as detectors rather than weapons? What's the basis for that?"

Lin Feng couldn't understand this part of the original story. Why would humans assume that the water droplet was a detector, and not something else?

Indeed, the water droplets are so small that it's hard to associate them with weapons.

The question is, why would we assume it's a detector?

It's important to understand that the solar system is now completely transparent under the surveillance of the Sophons.

The only thing that the Trisolarans don't understand is human thought.

Sending another detector would only be for reading human thoughts, right?

However, the Trisolarans certainly did not possess such technology. If they had, would they have been so utterly deceived by humanity? The Wallfacer Project would have collapsed entirely.

Lin Feng was filled with questions. Were the high-ranking officers of the Space Force all idiots? Otherwise, why would they be so sure that ten things they had never seen before were ten probes?

Edith gave her reasons: "It's too small. Considering the engine, fuel, and other factors, the space for ammunition is very small. If it's offensive, it can only be a laser, but if it's a laser, it's easy to defend against."

Lin Feng rolled his eyes and asked sarcastically, "Couldn't it be an attack platform filled with antimatter? A single antimatter particle the size of a fingernail can turn a human warship into space scrap metal. Ten trucks would be enough to hold antimatter bullets that could wipe out the entire human fleet. A fingernail-sized object is undetectable by radar, and radar waves have their limits of precision. If the human fleet is still clustered together, a single surprise attack would wipe out all of humanity's warships."

"I don't know where their basis for cerebral palsy comes from, but don't forget, the Trisolarans already have sophons, so they don't need to send any more probes into the solar system. The entire solar system is transparent to them."

"You think that's a weapon?" Edith asked Lin Feng questioningly.

Lin Feng answered matter-of-factly, "I think these things are weapons. The Trisolaran fleet isn't here to play house. Remember the first virtual war? The players were hiding in the asteroid belt and directly fired electromagnetic cannons at the light-scale level at the space force. Although the hit rate was very low, it did cause losses to the space force. If the players' shooting accuracy was high enough and the speed of the electromagnetic cannon projectiles was fast enough, the space force would have been wiped out long ago if they hadn't been caught off guard."

Edith nodded, although she disagreed with some of Lin Feng's statements, such as the idea that detectors could also act as jamming units in addition to detecting battlefield intelligence.

Even if they are jamming units, they shouldn't stray too far from the fleet. Therefore, it's rather untenable to say that these ten objects are Trisolaran detectors.

Like Lin Feng, she believed it was an attack by the Trisolaran fleet.