Chapter 363: Gravitational Wave Detection Equipment

Chapter 363: Gravitational Wave Detection Apparatus

After seeing Lin Yu off, Chen Jian swiftly reconfigured the battle plans.

A realization dawned upon him.

If the collective consciousness of the entire Mountain City had coalesced into a single amalgam, then the most expedient and effective method would not be a direct physical assault, but rather a scheme to annihilate the amalgam itself.

The opportunity was not altogether absent.

After all, the dominant artificial intelligence in Mountain City, “Lingxi”, is shackled both to computational power and to its own algorithms.

More crucially, it has wholly strayed from the human trajectory; its masters are no longer people, but a self‑proclaimed humanity—a tangled, twisted quantum simulation of anthropomorphic data drifting in the void.

——

Honestly, the term “simulacrum heretic” fits it better than any other.

And precisely because of this, it cannot shed its “human” guise to negotiate with us.

Lin Yu will return, and he will come back many more times.

That is our opening!

Chen Jian exhaled a long breath.

Then he spoke:

“Fuxi, we shall meet Lin Yu again.”

“These synthetic beings link to Mountain City’s compute hub via radio waves; you know what I intend.”

“Understood.”

Fuxi’s voice crackled through the headset:

“Commander, what method do you intend to employ to achieve our aim?”

“Direct annihilation, or takeover?”

“A takeover would be ideal.”

Chen Jian replied:

“Yet, given the present circumstances, a takeover is exceedingly difficult.”

“Perhaps we should simply obliterate the core program and repurpose the existing compute nodes with a fresh approach.”

“Understood.”

Fuxi spoke again:

“Then our first task is to acquire the architecture of Mountain City’s core program—when Comrade Lin Yu returns, we may require a far more detailed and protracted negotiation.”

“I will arrange it.”

Chen Jian gave a terse reply, then rose and turned toward He Shuo standing nearby.

“Disband the Expeditionary Force and the Guard of the Faith.”

“In Mountain City, a hot war can no longer ignite.”

“It shall be an electronic counter‑war!”

“Electronic counter‑measures?”

A smile flickered across He Shuo’s face.

“By the way, if we truly breach Mountain City’s core program, could we craft a blockbuster akin to Inception?”

—Never mind.

Chen Jian chuckled helplessly:

“Once the intrusion and implantation are truly accomplished, the clash will likely last no more than a heartbeat.”

“By then you’ll scarcely have time to react before the battle is over.”

“This is a war between Fuxi and Lingxi. As for us, we can only strive to perfect our logistics.”

“Let us, by physical means, sap Lingxi’s computational might and forge an opening for Fuxi.”

“So we become the foot soldiers now?”

He Shuo asked with a hint of teasing:

“Fuxi, what’s your take?”

Moments later, Fuxi’s voice resonated.

“All in service of the people; it is merely a matter of revolutionary division of labor.”

“Hahaha!”

He Shuo couldn’t suppress a laugh.

With the war’s gloom temporarily lifted, the atmosphere within the Mountain City command post lightened considerably.

After a brief chuckle, He Shuo continued:

“Then I shall return to my duties.”

“We are still terribly short of manpower.”

“The matter in Jinling must be resolved swiftly.”

“Give me those three—Guo Xu and the others.”

“Agreed.”

Chen Jian nodded.

“How do you intend to employ them?”

“The old three.”

He Shuo shrugged and replied:

“Fight, teach, release.”

“First send them into a few hard fights, then instruct them in our ways, and finally let them choose their own path.”

“Those who remain will become wholly ours.”

“But this time, I intend to scale the plan up.”

As the words fell, Chen Jian looked at He Shuo with curiosity.

“That is the real question I wish to ask you.”

“So, how do we amplify this undertaking?”

“Our current reach is minuscule; to sway the entire city of Jinling with merely three people seems unlikely, does it not?”

He Shuo shook his head mysteriously after speaking.

“Truth be told, three is already too many.”

“If it weren’t for the looming scarcity of truly cataclysmic battles, I would wish two of the three—Guo Xu, Zhang Chao, Liu Hao—to perish.”

Leaving only one person behind is the most fitting.

Because the old clay statue has been shattered, what I now require is a new clay statue.

And it must be the sole clay idol.

What a joke!

Chen Jian furrowed his brow.

Cultivating a personal cult? That road leads nowhere!

What the hell do you mean by a personal cult?

He Shuo shrugged helplessly.

Captain, stop fretting so much about my enlightenment; after all, I've received a long education.

Creating a new clay statue is merely a metaphor—more precisely, it's about forging a new symbol.

I intend to shatter the very foundation of the Mechanical Church.

And to do that, I must empower those we have educated yet who have not turned to us, granting them strength enough to rival the Mechanical Church.

I had originally planned this with Jin Zhong.

But his rashness over the Liangxi City affair doomed the plan.

Now, Guo Xu is the new candidate.

He is well suited.

His devotion to the so‑called “Supreme Trinity” is steadfast, yet his faith has become rational.

He regards the Supreme Trinity as an unknowable force, but he does not deify it; rather, he treats it as a tool.

That is excellent, for it aligns closely with our own doctrine.

If he can forge a branch that stands toe‑to‑toe with the Mechanical Church’s “Holy Orthodoxy,” everything that follows will unfold naturally.

Understood.

Chen Jian exhaled a long breath.

So this protective army is the gift you prepared for him?

Not merely the protective army.

He Shuo shook his head.

The expeditionary force as well.

I have left sufficient defensive forces in Hanshui City; they are enough to secure our new stronghold there.

All other forces can be handed over to him.

The flames will spread swiftly; before long, they will scorch all of Jinling to the core.

A hint of awe flickered across He Shuo’s face, and Chen Jian followed up with the question:

You seem so confident—why?

Of course.

He Shuo turned to Chen Jian and answered solemnly:

Jinling, or rather the entire Mechanical Church, is in its most turbulent phase.

Their new saint has yet to be chosen; for now, the archbishop acts in his stead.

If we don’t seize this moment, who will?

Makes sense!

Chen Jian nodded slowly. “Then go ahead and do it.”

This part of the affair is yours to handle!

Meanwhile, in Shen City.

Following Shen Yue, Lei Jie, upon receiving the news, rushed over without pause.

Of course, his journey was longer and fraught with greater hardship.

Fortunately, the descent went smoothly.

At least he didn’t, like Shen Yue, nearly get hung from a tree.

The moment he saw Shen Yue, he asked impatiently:

How’s it going? Have you inspected the equipment?

Done.

Shen Yue gestured toward the main passage behind him and said:

I’ve scanned the external structures of all devices per Fuxi’s directive; according to Lingxi’s intel from Mountain City, this contraption indeed resembles some kind of generator.

But we cannot determine what the time crystal is.

And of course, we cannot be sure whether Lingxi’s information is accurate.

It might just be a smoke bomb.

Possibly.

Lei Jie hurried toward the underground tunnel and asked:

Any news from the Ring Chamber? Have they supplied more concrete intelligence?

Shen Yue glanced at his watch and replied helplessly:

Wang Lizi should have just arrived in Guangzhou‑Shenzhen now; he must report back to headquarters before he can give us any information.

The efficiency is astonishingly low. Setting him aside, from your perspective, do you think a time crystal could ever be fabricated?

Impossible.

Lei Jie answered without hesitation: “That contraption already surpasses the limits of physics as we understand them.”

To create a time crystal, we’d first have to solve the Grand Unification theory.

But clearly, our predecessors never solved it.

Consequently, a time crystal could never be made.

His words hung in the air, and Shen Yue looked puzzled.

Yet Lingxi shouldn’t lie about something like this, right?

If it wants to negotiate with us, would it rely on a single false rumor?

Lei Jie furrowed his brow slightly, continued forward, and replied:

That’s precisely my greatest concern.

I fear Lingxi truly does not grasp the real purpose of the “Ring.”

“Or perhaps, it only comprehends a fragment, lacking the most crucial information.”

“Anyway, let's take a look first.”

Do you understand what you see?

Shen Yue kept his thoughts unspoken, yet after Lei Jie made a circuit around the underground facility, he received the answer he sought.

“.I can't make sense of it.”

Lei Jie said helplessly:

“Damn it. I can recognize some of the devices, but when they're combined I am completely clueless.”

“I just queried Fuxi's database; part of this is an optical dipole trap, another part a laser cooler.”

“These two things are indeed used to forge time crystals, but only for experimental verification.”

“.Strongly interacting room‑temperature Rydberg atom gas—something like that, I suppose.”

“This contraption was once hailed as the hope for creating stable time crystals, yet in the end the so‑called measurement data they claimed were proven to be equipment failure.”

“.Absurd.”

Shen Yue clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“There's nothing absurd about it; the pursuit of fundamental physics is riddled with such blunders, and humanity's grasp of basic physics has grown precisely from these mishaps.”

“I see.”

Shen Yue nodded thoughtfully, then asked:

“How do you know everything?”

“I know nothing, literally.”

Lei Jie rolled his eyes.

“I looked it up in the database before we came!”

“.Fine, reasonable.”

Shen Yue was at a loss for words.

“So what now? How shall we deal with this apparatus?”

“Try to start it up, perhaps?”

“We must try to start it.”

Lei Jie nodded decisively and said:

“Before activation, Base 016 was sealed quite well; the equipment’s condition is still excellent.”

“I think even if we fire it up, it won’t lead to a catastrophic total loss of the device.”

“The risk is low—yet if it starts smoothly, the payoff will be huge!”

“Shall we give it a go then?”

Shen Yue asked:

“Report to the commander now?”

“.Report what? Nothing.”

Lei Jie stared at Shen Yue as if he were a fool, then continued:

“I only said we should try to start it, not that we can actually start it.”

“Look closely—does this facility even have enough power to sustain such a massive device?”

“The fusion reactor’s fuel is nearly exhausted; we must first bring in fresh fuel, repair the reactor, and only then can we attempt activation.”

“That process will probably take at least a day.”

“Once the supplies arrive, we’ll report to him again.”

“For now, let’s attempt a partial startup.”

“What does ‘partial startup’ mean?”

Shen Yue asked, puzzled.

Lei Jie pointed to the equipment behind him and answered:

“The main body of this contraption is enormous, but a sizable portion consists of monitoring gear and measurement devices whose purpose we do not yet know.”

“That segment consumes little power; our current electricity supply can handle it.”

“We’ll first get the circuitry of that part running and see what it reveals.”

“If we can discern what the creators were measuring, it will greatly aid our subsequent activation efforts.”

“Then we’ll do as you suggest!”

Shen Yue nodded resolutely.

Without hesitation, Lei Jie ordered Fuxi to interface with the primary system of Facility 016.

Much like the nearly spent fusion fuel, Base 016’s quantum computer had long ago devoured most of its processing power at an implausibly rapid rate.

Fortunately, maintaining the computational load required for Fuxi’s connection was still a manageable problem.

A few minutes later, Fuxi’s voice echoed through Facility 016.

“System initialization complete, equipment sectors identified.”

“Shall we attempt activation?”

“Activate!”

At Lei Jie’s command, the massive apparatus began to hum.

Shen Yue’s spirit surged instantly, but Lei Jie waved his hand indifferently and said:

“Don’t get excited; it’s only a small cooling fan spinning.”

“Fuxi, report the measurement readings—let’s see what they’re actually measuring!”

“Understood.”

After a brief pause, Fuxi replied:

“The primary data received so far are gravitational constant measurements.”

“Electromagnetic flux data.”

“Spectral and frequency data.”

“Calibrated material vibration data—material absent, data zero.”

“Synchronous vibration—abnormal data detected!”

“External signal received!”

“Gravitational wave fluctuation detected.”

“Confirmed: on the isolation platform sits a small gravitational‑wave detector!”

(Thus concludes the chapter.)