Chapter 592 - 580

"I guess Lin is here too."

Musk pointed to the yachts surrounding his, the sea teeming with large and small cruise ships that were so packed with passengers on their decks that it appeared exceptionally crowded.

He only brought Tom and his two sons, steering the yacht far away from the other large vessels.

In the calm sea, the risk of a large ship might even be higher than a small one; in case of sinking, it could create a vortex with a massive pull, which would drag in even those who jump overboard.

Tom Muller: "No, he’s probably on a military ship. I’m sure they’ve installed bombs under every boat here, and once they confirm Lin is on any of them, they will detonate it. Those guys would definitely do that."

Musk nodded in agreement, well aware of those dirty tricks.

Virtual currency rose in the original world line a few years later, creating a plethora of billionaires, but most of them met with untimely deaths. Musk himself even had to frequently declare on Twitter that he would never "suicide." Although all this had not yet happened, he had already seen enough of it.

"Lin is a genius; the longer he lives, the more beneficial he is to humanity.

Like the CZ-18... I prefer to call it the X4B, we now know the fuel flow problem can be overcome. He has pointed the way for SpaceX."

After NACA received the first Super Heavy Booster and assembled it into the SL-X for launch, Robert placed a long-term order with SpaceX, demanding a booster be delivered each month for the next 12 months. The fourth one, B14, had already been shipped out.

NACA was very satisfied with these cheap and effective first stages and no longer cared whether they could be reused, but Musk never stopped improving them and never gave up the idea of recovery.

A significant problem with recovering giant rockets was that changes in posture during descent could lead to uneven pressure and shock in the pipelines due to residual fuel flow. The larger the rocket, the more fuel needed for recovery, and the more severe the problem. The Starship Booster still had no reliable solution to this issue.

However, the CZ-18 had to reserve over 100 tons of very dangerous liquid hydrogen fuel for its recovery, and they still overcame the problem.

NACA’s new order injected another 3 billion US Dollars into SpaceX’s funds, and Musk, greatly encouraged, was ready for another launch test at the end of December and attempted to recover the first stage booster to an altitude of 10 kilometers.

To him, XAP was a competitor but also a power partner that continuously inspired his faith.

Ma was born in South Africa and only became an American citizen in 2002; he did not care about being America first.

Tom: "I think..."

"Dad, look at the sky!"

Sachs, the younger son, interrupted their conversation with his voice; the two children were leaning over the railing, craning their necks, and staring unblinkingly at the occasional meteor in the sky.

The distance here from the epicenter is 25 kilometers, which is quite close for a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 340 kilotons.

But the previous two bombs were Ground Drilling Bombs detonated over a hundred meters deep, and most of their power would be absorbed by the soil and seawater. In fact, the hazardous area radius defined by IAEA is only 7 kilometers, and although some impact remains, it can be withstood by the protective facilities of warships.

The airburst bomb that will explode in a few days is different, however—the safe distance will double directly to 50 kilometers, and the electrical circuits of the entire land control area will be affected.

There’s no need to worry about visibility issues; the mushroom cloud from a 200 kiloton hydrogen bomb can reach tens of kilometers in height, and it can be seen even 100 kilometers away, so there’s absolutely no reason to doubt the worth of the ticket price.

The East Wind 15C has now completed the separation of its first and second stages. The warhead begins to plunge from the highest point of the parabola, and due to the intense friction with the atmosphere, it produces a bright light, which can be clearly seen even in daylight.

This is the first time nearly everyone on-site has witnessed the actual sight of a ballistic missile strike. The once noisy crowds on the ships eerily fell silent, opening their mouths but unable to make a sound.

Because they all understand that if World War III really comes, then the people in all the major cities around the world will see the same spectacle—the grim reaper descending from the sky, bringing mankind’s most cruel intentions, the dark conical body no larger than a human, packed with the terrifying power to annihilate hundreds of thousands of people.

This is not imagination or a science fiction movie, but a real ballistic missile warhead armed with a hydrogen bomb. The moment it took off, all military bases along the route instinctively went into the highest alert, and countless radars locked onto this target, as any deviation might result in the most tragic loss in human history.

The tourists who purchased package tickets to observe were mostly filled with excitement, but when the grim reaper truly approached from space, even a distance of hundreds of kilometers couldn’t suppress the terrifying oppression.

"Jesus,"

Musk’s eyes began to glaze over, the increasingly bright point in the sky taking up his entire field of vision. In that instant, his mind went blank, not knowing how to react.

In the gaze of nearly a hundred thousand people, the brightness of the East Wind 15C’s conical warhead, not even half the size of a human body, intensified, striking the land directly from the north like a blazing meteor.

The meteor vanished the moment it touched the distant black line, but just over a second later, people saw the sun rise from the ground.

Although detonated deep underground, the warhead’s path followed the core descent route, and the surrounding soil was negligible compared to the energy released by the atom. A rapidly expanding space formed just meters above the No. 1 core, where the accumulated pressure was devastatingly unleashed within this narrow area, squeezing the surrounding space while gushing out along the crevices it entered, the erupting pressure far exceeding that of an airburst.

The shockwave that first traveled through the soil instantly shattered all buildings and ground within a 2-kilometer radius, followed by superheated expanding air that ejected soil and rocks into the sky, like ignited gas surging from the barrel of a gun.

The superheated airflow and materials, now at temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, which is far higher than the sun’s core at 15 million degrees Celsius, formed a bright fireball. The observed brightness at this moment would completely outshine the sun.

For the tourists on the ship, everything in their view was replaced by the high-intensity glow, and the white-hot fireball emerged as a new sun, as if what they had seen before was the actual sky.

Then, this high-temperature, high-pressure hot air mass swiftly rose until it reached a height of nearly 20 kilometers, where it met cold air and spread horizontally, forming a cloud of smoke with a slender middle and a mushroom-like umbrella spreading out at the top.

This was the mushroom cloud most commonly seen in doomsday movies; as the temperature quickly dropped, the brightness also rapidly decayed. It no longer was the piercing white light from before, but like flowing magma from hell, painting the entire sky fiery red.