Chapter 276

Wang Hao wailed on the missile production line side: "I want it too! If my missiles are painted with this stuff, the stealth performance will be maxed out!"

"Wait in line, wait in line!"

Amidst the laughter, the tension eased slightly.

But real data soon poured cold water on them.

In the first week of global industrial conversion, GDP fell by 15% month-on-month.

The unemployment rate soared from 6% to 25%, but these people were quickly incorporated into the retraining system, learning how to operate new equipment and how to produce purple materials.

Price control was initiated, and basic living materials were distributed per person.

Supermarket shelves were empty, but the central canteen provided three nutritional meals a day, although the taste was average, it was enough to fill you up.

On social media, the hashtag #LastGeneration# was trending.

Young people posted their retraining certificates from programmers to material welders: "Who would have thought that my hands that typed code would now have to learn welding guns?"

Housewives posted their rationed meals: "The taste is okay, just missing chili. After the war, I want to open a hot pot restaurant, the kind that makes you cry."

There were also complaints:

"Why should my company close?"

"What about my mortgage?"

"When will this day end?"

But under every complaint, someone replied with the same picture, the scene of the Harvester probe exploding into a fireball.

Caption: "Either endure, or die."

Most people chose to endure.

A month later, the data began to improve.

Global daily production of purple material: climbed in a straight line from zero to 100,000 tons.

Number of Heaven's Punishment platforms deployed: increased from 12 to 48.

Energy efficiency threshold monitoring value: 0.49.

"It rose by 0.01!" Chen Guang reported at the monthly summary meeting, "Although it's still far from the goal, the trend is good. At this speed, we can reach about 0.55 in a year."

"Still not fast enough." Feng Yan shook his head.

"The Harvester fleet arrives in one year and eleven months, but their advance units might arrive early."

"We need to raise the efficiency to above 0.6 within a year, so that when they look from far away, they think this civilization is very efficient, don't mess with it."

"Then we have to accelerate." Zhao Kaiyuan pulled up the production capacity chart.

"What restricts production now are two things: the mining speed of Lunar Soil-7 isotopes, and the number of high-pressure reactors. I can let robots work three shifts for lunar mining, but the reactors..."

"How many are needed?" Li Yang asks.

"At least three thousand more. Each one costs as much as a destroyer."

Feng Yan was silent for three seconds, then said: "Build. Use war reparations, use national treasury reserves, use everything we can use. Tell all member states, this is the highest priority project, no exceptions."

Order issued.

The next day, Sakura Province, White Elephant Province, and Washington Province announced that all heavy machinery manufacturing plants in their countries would shift to reactor production.

The Bear Country opened all five secret military factories in Siberia.

The Saudi Crown Prince was even more direct, donating 30 billion Long coins: "Money is a lot, but you have to be alive to spend it."

The production capacity curve began to rise steeply.

Two months later, in the evening, Longyin cafeteria.

Wang Hao sat down with a nutritional meal tray, now it's a ration system, but the meal standard for the Longyin team is still a bit higher, at least with some meat.

"Guess what I saw today?" He said mysteriously.

"I went to Kyoto to deliver missile samples, passed by the central square, and saw a group of old men and women doing Tai Chi."

"This is very normal, right, but they were wearing exoskeletons! They said it was a basic auxiliary exoskeleton issued by the community, which can enhance physical strength and allow the elderly to participate in productive labor."

Li Yang nodded: "Kaiyuan mass-produced the simplified version of the Xuanwu battery, and the cost dropped to one-tenth of the original."

"Now all elderly people over sixty in the country, as long as they are healthy, have to participate in light physical labor, pasting purple material films, assembling Heaven's Punishment parts, etc."

"Rolling to the elderly?" Wang Hao grinned, "But it's good, my grandma used to complain about being bored all day, now she goes to the community factory to paste films every day, and comes back saying she met a few old sisters."

Chen Guang said: "Social mobilization is to let everyone play a role in the system."

"According to Torch Dragon-3 statistics, labor productivity has increased by 40% in the past two months, but average working hours have decreased because tools have been upgraded."

"What about the unemployment rate?"

"Dropped from 25% to 8%, and this 8% is mainly the old, weak, sick, and disabled, who are being arranged for light work." Chen Guang pulled up the chart, "The most critical thing is energy efficiency—it's 0.51."

"Passed?!" Wang Hao stared.

"This just passed the passing line." Chen Guang pushed his glasses, "But it's still not enough. What we want is not passing, but excellence."

Feng Yan walked over with a tray and sat down: "Heaven's Punishment No. 2 and No. 3 bases will be launched tomorrow. If it goes well, we will have 108 laser platforms in low Earth orbit in a month, covering the entire Earth."

"So fast?"

"Factories around the world are giving way to this goal." Feng Yan drank the soup.

"Now every minute, one hundred tons of purple material are produced and pasted on the roof of some factory."

"Every hour, a Heaven's Punishment part rolls off the line. Every day, ten thousand people complete retraining and join the production army."

"At this speed, in a year, we will have a defense network that even the Harvesters will have to weigh carefully." Feng Yan said softly.

"But in reality?" Li Yang asks.

"In reality..." Feng Yan smiled, "We are still cheating. But competing fairly with a program that wants your life is truly looking for death."

Everyone laughed.

At this time, the alarm went off.

Chen Guang's face changed: "Torch Dragon-3 monitored deep space anomalies, no, this is not the Harvesters, it is... ourselves?"

"What's the situation?"

"When the Heaven's Punishment No. 2 base was deployed in low Earth orbit, the purple material coating on the surface triggered energy resonance." Chen Guang pulled up the data.

"This material is absorbing cosmic background radiation, and it is also converting this radiation. The conversion efficiency is ridiculously high, exceeding our design expectations."

Zhao Kaiyuan's eyes lit up: "Exceeding expectations is a good thing!"

"The problem is it exceeds too much." Chen Guang pulled up the energy flow chart.

"According to this conversion rate, the Heaven's Punishment platform not only doesn't need to be charged, but can also transmit power to Blue Star. This will cause our overall energy efficiency threshold... to be passively improved."

"Raised to how much?"

Chen Guang calculated, then looked up, his expression complex:

"If all Heaven's Punishment platforms are painted with purple material, and all are deployed..."

"Within three months, the energy efficiency threshold of human civilization will be passively pulled to above 0.7."

"When the Harvesters come, they will think—"

He paused:

"Will think that a monster civilization lives in the solar system."

The cafeteria went quiet.

Then Wang Hao was the first to laugh: "So we are not only going to cheat, but also cheat to the point of scaring the examiner?"

"Pretty much." Feng Yan also smiled, "Notify them, Heaven's Punishment platforms all rush to paint purple material. Also..."

He looked at the starry sky outside the window:

"Send a trailer to the Harvester fleet, let them see what kind of monster lives in the place they are coming to."