Chapter 1258: Magnetic Slingshot

The purpose of Director Carson’s visit to China was very clear.

The first objective was to strengthen the cooperation relationship with China in the aerospace field. Such as renting the lunar mass driver for use. The second objective was to buy time for the US aerospace industry.

However, the Chinese side did not seem to leave him much room for negotiation. Even though the White House had great expectations for his visit, they did not provide him with much support.

The White House was silent on the issue of Guanghan City.

Even though they were extremely reluctant, they still had to compromise on many issues.

The controllable fusion power station in California had drawn the entire west to bow down toward China. Even if the people of California didn’t like the culture and products of China, they still hoped that the American authorities did not offend China.

After all, the citizens of Los Angeles were enjoying clean and cheap fusion energy. The social development of the entire western region had once again entered the highway.

Most people did not want to go back to the terrible and expensive thermal power and chemical energy.

This was what society was like.

Everyone wanted continuous improvement.

If they had to go backward... Even a small step back would cause very serious problems.

If the relationship between the two sides deteriorated and the Chinese withdrew their experts and equipment, the resulting consequences would be unbearable to the people of California and the people of the entire west coast. Politicians would lose their jobs...

Generally speaking, the meeting in Beijing went smoothly.

No matter how furious Director Carson was on the inside, he stood here calmly like a rabbit. His behavior was humble and full of politeness. He acted like a politician from a developed country.

This situation was actually very rare.

People only showed modesty when facing the strong; when facing the weak, even if they abided by the principles of politeness, the arrogance in their eyes could still be seen.

After the meeting, Director Li brought the meeting notes to the higher-ups and reported the meeting to the president.

After the president heard the report, he tapped his finger on the table as he spoke.

“Let me give you some guidelines.”

Director Li said, “Sir, please go ahead.”

“Economic cooperations are welcomed, but no political compromises.”

Director Li nodded seriously. “I understand.”

Although the sentence was short, the amount of information was large.

Economic cooperation meant that the leasing of the lunar mass driver could be negotiated. As long as they met their own transportation needs first, the excess capacity could be sold to international customers.

There was also the construction of public facilities in Guanghan City, as well as the supply of daily necessities and consumer goods for Guanghan residents. China had no plans to close off all of these markets. If they could provide better services at a lower price, they could make a huge profit.

As for the political compromises...

Basically, the president did not want to make irresponsible decisions about the Guanghan Zone.

President: “Is there anything else?”

Director Li: “One more thing.”

“Go ahead.”

“Carson wants to take some lunar soil from us... Or a lunar meteorite, as a symbol of our friendship.”

The President smiled. After thinking for a while, he spoke.

“We should respect our foreign friends.

“They gave us 1g of lunar soil specimen before. We have no reason to refuse such a request. Talk with the Lunar Orbit Committee. Ask them to pack one kilogram of lunar soil and give it to Carson.

“Also, ask Carson to bring back some words.

“The resources of the moon belong to all of mankind, not just China. No country has the right to own it alone. Everyone has the right to develop and use it. We welcome any country and organization to join our exploration of the future of all mankind.

“As long as everything is within the framework of peacefulness...

“Then we will seek common ground while reserving our differences.”

...

Jinling.

Inside a Zhongshan International mansion.

Lu Zhou sat in his study room while playing with the new toy he got from the previous system mission.

It was a black bracelet. The shape was similar to most sports watches; even the design of the LED screen embedded on the surface was exactly the same as sports watches.

However, Lu Zhou’s intuition told him that the materials and technology used on the screen were probably not available on Earth. Also, there were five grooves on the side of this bracelet.

When his finger touched the screen lightly, five black metal balls less than 10mm in diameter popped out from the grooves. Under the traction of the magnetic field, these little balls moved slowly around the bracelet. It looked quite amazing.

Lu Zhou tried turning his hand over and waving his arm. The five black metal balls seemed to be locked on the bracelet.

“Interesting...”

Lu Zhou pinched one of the small balls with his left hand and pulled it away from the magnetic force above the bracelet. When he let the ball go, the small ball seemed to be tied by an invisible string; it instantly flew back to the bracelet.

“Is this an alien toy?”

Lu Zhou looked at the black metal balls floating above his wrist. He started to get more and more interested.

The system’s description for this item was vague. It didn’t even give a specific name. He was able to discover some of the functions of this bracelet on his own.

For example, the most basic feature, just like other sports bracelets, was that it could measure heart rate and record time.

In addition, the most important feature was to form a constantly changing electromagnetic field around the bracelet that could control the movements of the metal balls.

There also seemed to be a special brain wave recognition device built into this bracelet. It could receive neural signals, convert them into electrical signals, and process them through the built-in chip. It then fed the data into the magnetic field control unit in the bracelet. It used this data to manipulate the trajectory of the five black metal balls.

The effect of this was very strange; it was almost like magic. Lu Zhou didn’t quite understand its use.

If an alien didn’t have legs, they wouldn’t know what to do with shoes.

The only thing Lu Zhou could conclude right now was that the core materials, electromagnet design, and magnetic field control technology used in this bracelet were far above the current level of technology on Earth.

Lu Zhou, who was playing around with the bracelet, suddenly noticed a familiar logo on the inside.

He vaguely remembered this logo in a certain dream...

“Xiao Ai.”

The drone floating on the side displayed a line of text on the drone screen.

[What’s wrong? Master.(??▽?)]

Lu Zhou stared at the five metal balls floating in his hands. He thought for a moment and asked, “Is there any information about this thing in your database?”

Lu Zhou didn’t have any hope in his mind.

After all, he had asked similar questions countless times, but he never received any valuable answers.

The only thing he could conclude right now was that Xiao Ai was probably the intelligent navigation program on the spacecraft last sent by the Calan civilization to the center of the galaxy.

Unfortunately, the memory of the previous universe seemed to have been deleted from its database, leaving no valuable clues.

[Xiao Ai has found some information in the database.]

Lu Zhou: “...?!”

Lu Zhou thought he had read the words wrong.

After reading the text on the screen again, he snapped back to reality and immediately said, “Retrieve all information about it, everything!”

[Let Xiao Ai go look... (??????)??]

Xiao Ai disappeared for a long time.

Lu Zhou began to wonder if it had crashed when the light blue text finally appeared on the small display.

[Strange... There are obvious traces in the cache, but the data seems to have been deleted...Σ(°△°|||)]

[All in all, this seems to be a weapon. It once belonged to an officer who seemed to be very powerful. (@;)]

Lu Zhou: “...?”

What does that mean?!

Lu Zhou was shocked.

Xiao Ai seemed to have discovered that in its “memory”, there was a trace of something being deleted.

But then again, was there such a thing as artificial intelligence “memory”? Could this kind of memory exist without the hardware?

Lu Zhou was thinking about this problem when another line of text appeared on the screen.

[Master, maybe give it a try, use your imagination or something... And launch it in a certain direction? (°ー°〃)]

Imagination? historical

Weapon?

Launch?

Lu Zhou stared at the five metal balls floating above his palm. He began to think.

Suddenly, he thought of something. He quickly looked toward the vase on the wall.

“If this is a weapon...”

He focused his attention on the flowerpot. Even though he looked kind of ridiculous, he didn’t care as there was no one else in his study room.

His heart rate began to increase. Lu Zhou felt the five metal balls floating above his palm begin to tremble.

It was like a trigger was pulled.

Lu Zhou felt a huge force on his wrists and forearms. Before he could figure out what was going on, the vase he was staring at instantly shattered.

Like...

It was hit by a bullet.

There was one less metal ball floating above his palm.

Lu Zhou looked at the deep bullet hole left in the wall. He had a solemn look in his eyes.

“Magnetic slingshot?”

Or something like that.

He didn’t know what to call this thing. The only thing he could tell was that there was probably some special controlled electromagnet installed inside the metal ball. When he “issues an attack command”, the electric energy in the ball was released in an instant, transforming into a magnetic field that repelled itself from the bracelet.

The ball was like a projectile placed on a slingshot, ejecting in an instant.

Even though the principle was simple, it was actually quite nutty.

What kind of electromagnet can launch a 10 mm metal ball like a bullet? Not to mention, being able to integrate the electromagnet and the control chip into a small ball with a diameter of only 10 mm is extremely difficult.

Lu Zhou could tell from the recoil force that the magnetic field was strong.

He stared at the glass shards in the corner and began to think. After a while, Lu Zhou said, “Clean this up...”

Xiao Ai: [Okay, Master!]

I’ll study the structure inside when I have time.

This kind of [sample] exceeded the level of Earth’s science and technology too much. Lu Zhou did not expect to be able to reverse engineer much of the technology. He wouldn’t be able to produce a replica.

However, he could use some of the designs as his reference and inspire science innovation on Earth.

For example, a more advanced magnetic field control technology.

Or magnetic levitation technology and so forth.

The drone flew over slowly. It cleared the broken glass on the ground. Xiao Ai also helped Lu Zhou recover the metal ball embedded in the wall. It even used repair foam to repair the bullet marks on the wall.

Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Ai controlling several drones and sweeping robots to clean up the scene. He took off the bracelet from his right hand and put the five metal balls back in sequence.

He was about to put this matter aside and continue to read some papers when he heard a knock on the door.

Lu Zhou closed his laptop and opened the door downstairs.

He first thought Wang Peng might have heard the noise in the study room and knocked on the door to see if he was okay. He did not expect to see Luo Wenxuan there.

Lu Zhou looked at Luo Wenxuan and asked, “Why did you leave Shanghai?”

“What is that supposed to mean, I’m a Jin Ling University professor, isn’t it very normal for me to be here?”

Lu Zhou restrained the urge to roll his eyes. He sighed and said, “Go ahead, what do you need?”

“Looks like you don’t know yet.” Luo Wenxuan smirked and said, “Someone called your office.”

“Called my office?”

“Yeah, guess who?”

“Who...”

“The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences!”

Lu Zhou paused for a second.

He suddenly remembered which day it was.

“Wait...”

“Haha! Yes!”

Luo Wenxuan laughed out loud. He was more excited than if he had won the prize himself. He stretched out his arm and grabbed Lu Zhou’s shoulders. He then patted Lu Zhou’s shoulder and said,

“Impressive!

“Congratulations!

“You won the award again!”