Chapter 90: 10 Million
Looking at the Blutuk who had taken the initiative to approach him, Li Qingsong had the clone respond calmly, "Oh?"
The Blutuk’s face was filled with reverence, but heaven only knew what he was truly thinking.
However, Li Qingsong didn’t care whether they were truly obedient in their hearts. ’All I need is for you to contribute to my technological progress. As for what you’re thinking, I couldn’t be bothered to care.’
’Reward contributions and punish mistakes. It’s a very simple matter.’
The Blutuk said nervously, "To be specific, material performance and processing precision have to be improved to a certain level.
These are the two main reasons why it can’t be made smaller and its power output can’t be increased further.
But both of these reasons are clearly tied to the advancement of our entire technological framework.
Only when the entire technological framework advances can material performance and processing precision improve, and only then can the miniaturization of the nuclear fission plant be achieved. Otherwise, it’s impossible.
Really, it’s impossible at our current technological level. Your Excellency from the Blue Star, I’m truly not deceiving you, it’s the truth..."
Li Qingsong’s millions of brains thought for a moment.
He sighed inwardly, forced to admit that the Blutuk was telling the truth.
’I’ve been too impatient.’
’In that case, I’ll have to take it slow.’
Lightly patting the Blutuk’s shoulder, the clone said coldly, "You will receive four extra rest days per month."
The Blutuk stood frozen in place, overcome with irrepressible ecstasy.
Having decided to take things slow, develop the various foundational technologies, and wait for the technology to miniaturize nuclear fission plants to emerge naturally, Li Qingsong withdrew all the extra Clones from this location. He left only the original number of Clones behind to conduct routine optimization research.
Time slowly passed. As he watched the mines on Enemy God Star begin to show signs of depletion and the number of containers transported to Ceres start to decline, Li Qingsong grew more and more anxious. Still, he could only remain patient, focus his mind, and continue to push the comprehensive development of his technology forward, bit by bit.
Under these circumstances, Li Qingsong finally received some good news.
The research in the biology lab had made another breakthrough. A new gene optimization plan was complete, which meant he could now create higher-quality Clones!
Without hesitation, Li Qingsong immediately put it into practical application. Six months later, the first batch of higher-quality Clones was born.
After comparing them, Li Qingsong ultimately selected the clone with the highest consciousness connection count.
Its maximum consciousness connection count was 10.025 million!
Compared to the previous 5.1 million, this was nearly a twofold increase!
Li Qingsong’s heart soared with excitement.
’If the maximum consciousness connection count doubles, the research power I can invest in every discipline will also double!
Material science and processing precision research are indeed tied to the advancement of the foundational technological framework, and there are no shortcuts for that. It can only be improved bit by bit through a slow grind.
In that case, I’ll just increase the number of grindstones! It used to be one grindstone, now it will be two! Two grindstones will definitely speed things up!’
Under Li Qingsong’s control, about 5 million of the reserve Clones were immediately connected and added to the foundational research forces across various disciplines.
At this moment, Li Qingsong commanded a total of about 15 million Clones.
Considering his current maximum consciousness connection count of about 10 million and factoring in the rest time the Clones required, managing 15 million Clones was still a tight affair.
But with the resources on Enemy God Star and Ceres on the verge of depletion, Li Qingsong had no plans to increase the number of Clones.
Any more would be useless for now; first, nurturing and sustaining the Clones consumed vast resources, and second, there was no immediate need for them.
At this stage, Li Qingsong had already halted all non-urgent research projects, such as preliminary research into controlled nuclear fusion, the previously established work on ion thrusters, and preliminary quantum chip research. He even temporarily paused the Wukong AI’s training and combat simulations, funneling all his scientific power and resources into the task of advancing the foundational scientific framework.
Everything was focused on achieving the miniaturization of the nuclear fission reactor and mastering secondary pressurized propulsion technology as soon as possible.
Under these conditions, all research facilities were already at full capacity, and Li Qingsong didn’t intend to build new ones. Thus, any additional Clones would be useless for the time being.
And so, on Ceres and Enemy God Star, the Clones’ long rest period came to an end. After enjoying an average of about 16 hours of rest per day, they returned to a new routine: an average of only 9 hours of rest, with the remaining 15 hours spent entirely on work or thought.
With the addition of the Clones’ physical and mental labor, the progress of the foundational scientific framework experienced a tangible and rapid acceleration.
Then, five years later, the two key disciplines that Li Qingsong had long and eagerly awaited—material science and mechanical processing—finally achieved a breakthrough.
’I can finally manufacture materials with higher performance that meet the requirements with less volume and mass!’
’I can also finally increase processing precision enough to create the necessary components!’
And so, after only three months, the latest modular nuclear fission reactor was finally presented before Li Qingsong.
This new modular reactor was only 28 meters long and 28 meters wide, with a height of 9 meters. Its external appearance was roughly similar to the first modular reactor, resembling an engine.
Its total volume was just over 6,000 cubic meters, with a total mass of only around 1,600 tons!
Both its volume and mass had been reduced to less than half their previous values!
But its power output had increased to 25,000 kilowatts, 1.5 times more powerful than the previous generation!
It was now fully qualified to serve as a ship’s engine.
Of course, only for large cargo ships.
A Venus-class Warship had a total mass of only a few hundred tons; it wasn’t as big or as heavy as this reactor.
Compared to the ship-borne reactor on the Deep Space Spaceship, its performance was undoubtedly extremely primitive.
But this was something he had built with his own hands! He understood every single one of its technical details and possessed the complete technological foundation!
In the future, he could continue to iterate and optimize it, making it smaller and smaller while its power grew higher and higher. Once it was small enough to be installed in a Warship, his combat effectiveness would surely take another giant leap forward.
’But that’s a matter for the future.’
’For now, having mastered the manufacturing technology for a ship-borne reactor, the next critical step is to research and master secondary pressurized propulsion technology. Then, I can escape the increasingly barren Ceres and Enemy God Star and migrate to the resource-rich, almost infinitely abundant Inner Solar System!’