Chapter 235: and translation of title, then ===GLOSSARY=== with list of named entities appearing in these lines

Brother Hao, the eighth batch of test shells is ready. Assistant Xiao Liu walked in carrying a rectangular metal box, with the words "Heaven-punishing-8" scrawled on it.

Wang Hao was squatting on the ground, using a welding torch to repair a thruster nozzle, without looking up he said:

Just put it there. By the way, did the unit cost you calculated last time come out?

It's out. Using a simplified fusion battery, recyclable arrow body, plus mass-produced prefabricated fragmentation warhead… the unit cost is just 0.97% of a traditional cruise missile. Xiao Liu pulled up a tablet.

Less than one percent?! Wang Hao shut off the welding torch and grinned.

Xingtian

Xiao Liu pushed up his glasses: "But the precondition is that the recovery rate must be over 80%; if the rocket stage gets damaged, maintenance costs will increase."

Then just make it unbreakable." Wang Hao stood up and brushed off the dust on his hands.

Come on, let's go to the test range. Today let those army brothers open their eyes to what firepower democratization means!

Half an hour later, the long-range fire zone of the northwestern test range.

Twenty specially made launch vehicles were neatly lined up, each resembling a multi-tube rocket launcher, but with thicker and shorter launch tubes.

The vehicles carried not missiles, but 'Heaven-punishing' rocket-assisted bombs, a new type of weapon lying between a missile and an artillery shell.

Several senior officials from the Army Artillery Command personally arrived, standing on the observation platform, holding binoculars.

Engineer Wang, can your Heaven-punishing really fire a thousand rounds in one go?" a major general asked.

It's not a matter of can or cannot; it's already installed. Wang Hao pointed at those launch vehicles.

Each vehicle carries fifty rounds; twenty vehicles make exactly one thousand. Range 150 kilometers, coverage area 100 square kilometers, error radius 30 meters—enough to plow the target area once.

What about the cost?

Unit cost…… Wang Hao deliberately paused, then announced the figure, "Eight thousand."

Eight thousand?! The deputy general's binoculars almost fell to the ground, "RMB?"

Otherwise? I still think US dollars are too expensive. Wang Hao gave a hehe laugh.

Chief, calculate: how much does a traditional rocket round cost? How much does a cruise missile cost? My Celestial Stem, firing it doesn't hurt, after exploding I can pick it up, repair it, and reuse it.

Chen Guang's voice came through the comms channel: "Wang Hao, test procedure."

Got it, got it! Wang Hao said into the microphone.

All vehicles, attention: target area coordinates have been sent, loading mode: full salvo. Countdown ten seconds!

Dust rose from the rear of the launch vehicles.

One thousand Celestial Stem bombs launched simultaneously; the scene was ten thousand times more spectacular than fireworks at New Year.

The sky was covered with dense trails of exhaust, like a reverse meteor shower.

No complex guidance system, only simple inertial navigation and terminal attitude adjustment; it's cheap, can't ask for too much.

But quantity makes up for quality.

One hundred seconds later, the target area one hundred li outside began to explode.

Explosions rang out in sheets, firelight merged into a sheet, dust rose hundreds of meters high, the whole ground trembled.

The glass of the observation platform seemed to hum, the bombardment lasted a full three minutes.

After the dust cleared somewhat, the satellite image was transmitted back.

In the area simulating enemy positions, no intact buildings, vehicles, or fortifications could be found.

Everything was reduced to fragments.

Coverage rate 100%. Chen Guang reported the data.

Within the effective kill radius, target clearance rate is 99.3%. Missed targets were all simulated infantry shelters in the edge areas, but the blast wave and fragments were sufficient to incapacitate.

Wang Hao rubbed his hands: "How about it, Chief? Is this firepower density enough?"

The deputy general opened his mouth, took a while before saying: "Enough…… too enough. But this recovery part……"

Let's demonstrate right away! Wang Hao switched to the recovery screen.

Only saw after the bombardment ended, white blossoms began to bloom in the sky—those were the parachutes of the rocket's final stage.

One thousand parachutes drifted down slowly, the scene was dreamlike, not like a battlefield but like some kind of artistic performance.

The rocket stage has built-in airbags and positioning beacons. Wang Hao explained.

After landing, the recovery troops just need to use trucks to pick them up. Minor damage repaired on site, severe damage sent back to factory; repair cost is only one-third of new manufacture.

In the screen, several recovery squads had already driven trucks into the drop zone.

Soldiers loaded the rocket ends onto trucks like picking mushrooms, movements so practiced they seemed to have done it hundreds of times.

Trained for half a month. Wang Hao proudly.

Now a platoon can recover two hundred rounds per hour. The thousand rounds fired today can be repaired tomorrow and be ready to fire again the day after.

The deputy general stared at the screen, muttering: "This should be assigned to the group army artillery brigade…… firepower will at least increase tenfold or more."

Wang Hao pulled up comparative data: "It's not just tenfold; a traditional rocket artillery battalion's full salvo is only a few hundred rounds, and after firing they need half a day to resupply."

My Celestial Stem system: twenty vehicles make a mobile ammo dump; fire, then collect, collect then resupply, resupply and can fire again immediately; as long as the drivers aren't tired, we can keep going indefinitely.

Low laughter sounded on the observation platform.

At that moment, a staff officer hurried over and whispered a few words into the deputy general's ear.

The deputy general's expression shifted slightly, turning to Wang Hao: "Chief Engineer Wang, just received news. Eagle Country's Ministry of Defense today in the early hours urgently passed a budget for a low-cost firepower plan, amounting to twelve billion US dollars."

Twelve billion? Wang Hao raised his eyebrows, "What are they up to?"

According to intelligence, they plan to develop within a year a low-cost coverage-type weapon system similar to this Celestial Stem. The staff officer added.

Moreover, they have already been lobbying NATO member states for joint procurement.

Wang Hao stared for two seconds, then burst out laughing loudly.

He laughed until tears came out.

Hao Ge? Xiao Liu asked cautiously.

I'm laughing at them! 120 billion? Dollars? They just want to copy my work? Do you know how much total investment I've put into this project? Wang Hao wiped the corner of his eye.

- Names: Wang Hao (Wang Hao). Also maybe "I" not a name. So Wang Hao.

He held up three fingers: "Thirty million. Renminbi."

- No name.

The hall fell silent.

- No.

"Thirty million..." the major general repeated the number, his expression complicated.

- 'Major General' is a rank that must be included. Per the instructions, we list every character, place, sect/clan/faction/people, official & sect rank/title, technique, item/artifact, beast, and realm appearing in these lines. Therefore we include the rank 'Major General' in the list.

"They have 120 billion, while you have only 30 million..." - no names.

The technical approach is different. They pile money and materials; I pile ideas. Wang Hao shrugged.

- Wang Hao again.

They still haven't figured out fusion battery technology, and they also have to write the rocket recovery algorithm from scratch; by the time they manage it, our Xingtian-2 will already be in mass production.

Chen Guang's voice came again: "Haizi, there's major progress on the deep-space signal side."

His tone was unusually solemn.

Wang Hao restrained his smile: "What's up, Guangzi?"

"Torch Dragon-3 has pieced together a relatively complete message." Chen Guang paused, then said, "I've sent it to your tablet."

Wang Hao opened the file.

It is a piece of text that has undergone multiple translations and semantic reconstructions, still fragmentary, but the core meaning is now clear:

"To the civilization receiving this signal: We share what we know, for the Harvesters are coming."

"They devour stars, annihilate civilizations, cannot be communicated with, cannot be resisted."

"Only by becoming strong enough or sufficiently hidden before they arrive can there be a sliver of hope. Good luck."

Below are a few lines of small print, like supplementary notes:

"Signal source: Seventh Civilization Union of the γ-star region (now silent)."

"Last known coordinates: (data missing)."

"Estimated time of Harvester arrival in this star region: 187 standard cycles later."

"Recommendation: Develop distributed survival capabilities, avoid large-scale energy concentration."

Wang Hao stared at the screen, his fingers somewhat stiff.

Although he had been mentally prepared, actually seeing the name "Harvesters" written out clearly still felt different.

Before, it was merely speculation, inference, and probability analysis.

Now, it is an official announcement.

"Guangzi," Wang Hao said into the microphone, his voice dropping.

"This news... does Brother Feng know about it?"

"He's looking at it. All core members, emergency meeting in one hour. Wang Hao, finish the test wrap-up work as soon as possible." Feng Yan's voice cut into the channel.

"Understood."

The test was still ongoing, but Wang Hao no longer had the mood to explain.

He handed over the subsequent procedures to Xiao Liu, then walked to the corner of the observation deck and reopened that message.

"Cannot be communicated with, cannot be resisted..." he muttered, "Then what's the point of playing ball? We should just try to run."

"You can't get away." Li Yang had approached at some point, also holding a tablet.

"The signal said, become strong enough or sufficiently hidden. Running is not an option, at least not for the civilization that sent the signal."

"Because they can't run?" Wang Hao asked.

"Or rather..." Li Yang paused.

"Fleeing would expose more positions; that line in the signal about avoiding large-scale energy concentration might be hinting: once you start large-scale interstellar travel, the energy signal you produce is like a lighthouse in the dark."

Wang Hao understood: "So those advanced interstellar travel technologies, they deliberately didn't give us."

"Not because they're afraid we'll run to find them, but because they're afraid we'll get ourselves killed when we run?"

"Maybe both." Li Yang gazed at the distant test field.

"Now the question is, what should we do? Continue frantic militarization, or... shift to stealth?"

Wang Hao said without hesitation: "I choose militarization; hiding isn't my style."

"Besides, does our low-cost firepower Xingtian count as large-scale energy concentration? I don't think so; this thing is actually very energy-efficient!"

Li Yang laughed: "You're optimistic, huh."

"Otherwise? If we wear grim faces, will the Harvesters not come?"

"We should eat what we should eat, drink what we should drink, build weapons, build weapons. If the day comes and we still can't win, at least we'll have gone out in a blaze of glory." Wang Hao put away his tablet.

One hour later, the emergency meeting room of Dragon Chant headquarters.

The core team was all present, with Zhao Gong, who was far away on the Moon, participating via holographic projection.

Feng Yan got straight to the point: "Everyone has seen the signal's content. Now we need to decide on two things: first, whether to make this public; second, what our strategic direction should be going forward."

Chen Guang spoke first: "I suggest limited disclosure—inform the high-level officials of all countries, but not spread it to the public to avoid panic."

"We still have time—if the standard cycle refers to years, then we have another 187 years."

"But what if the cycle means months? Or days?" Wang Hao asked.

The meeting room fell silent.

"Let's plan for the worst case. Suppose the cycle is a month—then we only have about fifteen years. If it's days..." Feng Yan said.

He didn't finish, but everyone's faces turned pale.

"Torch Dragon-3 is trying to decipher the definition of the standard cycle." Chen Guang said.

"Based on the mathematical constants and physical parameters in the signal, it's likely referring to their home planet's orbital period, but we don't know their home planet's mass or orbital radius."

"So it's still like blind men feeling an elephant. All we can do is advance all defense plans according to the most urgent timetable." Li Yang concluded.

Zhao Kaiyuan pulled up a document: "The miniaturization of Xuanwu fusion has reached its fourth generation. Volume is down 75% compared to the first generation, and energy density is up 300%."

"If we go all-out production, we can re-equip all the military's main combat gear within a year."

"Still not fast enough." Feng Yan shook his head. "What we need is not a change of equipment, but excess production capacity. We need to be able to spawn troops, spawn equipment, spawn anything that can be spawned at any time."

Wang Hao raised his hand: "I have a plan! Open-license the Heaven Punisher production line, so all qualified arsenals nationwide can build it."

"Unified standards, unified quality control, we only collect patent fees—this way output can at least increase a hundredfold."

"What about the risk of technology spreading?" Chen Guang frowned.

"We only give them a simplified version; we keep the core fusion battery and recycling algorithm, and they only build the shell and load the ammunition."

"After the fight, we haul the rocket stages back here for maintenance, and the maintenance fees can earn us another profit—a win-win!" Wang Hao had this prepared.

Feng Yan thought for a few seconds: "Feasible. But we need strict controls. Chen Guang, design a set of anti-dissemination hardware locks and a remote monitoring system."

Chen Youbiao took out a sketch: "No problem, each Heaven Punisher has an independent ID code and a self-destruct module. Unauthorized use or attempt to disassemble will trigger the meltdown protocol."

The meeting lasted until late at night.

When the meeting adjourned, Wang Hao was the last to leave.

He walked to the rooftop terrace, lit a cigarette—though he had quit long ago, tonight he made an exception.

The starry sky was bright, and the city lights were also bright.

I don't know what the starry sky looks like in the eyes of the Harvesters.

I don't know what those already "silent" civilizations were thinking in their final moments.

The communicator buzzed—it was Xiao Liu.

"Brother Hao, the Foreign Ministry just sent a procurement inquiry, saying other countries are asking whether the Heaven Punisher can be exported."

"Which country is asking?"

"... Eagle Country."

Wang Hao froze for a moment, then smiled: "Tell them our technology is temporarily open only to friendly countries. Let's talk again after they lift their blockade on our tech."

"Understood."

After hanging up, Wang Hao stubbed out his cigarette.

He took one last look at the starry sky, then turned and went downstairs.

Never mind the Harvesters.

Let's take care of the business at hand first.

Once the weapons are built, someone will always buy them.

Once bought, someone will always use them.

Once used, there's an added chance of survival.

This is Wang Hao's logic—simple, direct, effective.