Dawn City Nuclear Power Plant, power room.

The console's screen alternates between blue and green signals, and muffled white noise echoes through the large space.

An elderly reactor sits in the middle of the building, surrounded by a group of blackened people.

The faded logo and production serial number give the reactor an antique look, but the sleek casing and ingenious design are remarkable.

It's not just the coalition itself that thinks so.

Even the engineers from Ideal City think so.

It is precisely for this reason that the residents of the self-shelter fished out this [spare reactor] from the deepest part of the subway line in Xizhou City and built a power station for it, and this reactor has been working as the heart of the alliance industry.

Not only that, but the reactor also serves as a model teaching material for the researchers at Camp 101 to learn and reference.

It is precisely because of these many halos that Wang Zhengyi, the nuclear fusion engineer at the Dawn City Power Station, will show off this fruitful achievement.

Although the administrators let them learn from the academy, they can't be looked down upon, right?

Besides, the students' things are good enough, so that the teachers can show more real skills to teach!

Of course, Master Wang's true inner thoughts are not that complicated, he just wants to pretend to be forced in front of the academy on behalf of the alliance.

However, what he didn't expect was that the hairy boy in his twenties just curled the corners of his mouth as if he didn't give face after seeing this "civilization crystallization of the prosperous era".

Master Wang's face had turned red into a lantern, and the colleagues next to him were all looking at him worriedly, for fear that this guy would not be able to hold down his blood pressure.

However, the young man named Zhong Jingchu didn't mean to stop at all, and even made up a knife at the end without being salty.

"It's too primitive."

"You're so primitive!" Wang Zhengyi choked back and said angrily, "You are awesome! You guys are amazing! What kind of ignition is used for ignition without laser? ”

Zhong Jingchu smiled faintly and said slowly.

"We don't light the fire, we start cold."

Wang Zhengyi was stunned for a moment, like a basin of cold water poured on his head.

“…… Cold boot? ”

He had heard the word from people in the company, including experts at Camp 101, but neither side recommended this technical route, even if it was more energy-efficient and efficient.

The reason is simple.

While controlled fusion is a non-renewable resource until the Earth-Moon flight is restored, there are plenty of Epochs of Prosperity that can be found in the wasteland.

And with the scale of industrial production activity on the surface of the earth at present, it is still insufficient compared to the economic crisis of the old era, and there is no need to think about frugality at all.

It doesn't need to be considered for at least fifty years.

Looking at the old engineer with a confused face, Zhong Jingchu did not answer immediately, but took a bottle of mineral water from the bionic assistant on the side, unscrewed the cap and splashed it on the ground twice.

This time, not only the old engineer had a confused expression, but the other engineers at the Dawn City nuclear power plant also showed confused expressions, not knowing what this guy wanted to do.

Facing those confused eyes, Zhong Jingchu continued in an easy-to-understand manner.

“…… The most efficient way to fuse two metal balls into one is not to put them on the press, but to melt them. ”

"It's the same with atoms, whether it's laser ignition, inertial collision, or indirect ignition...... It was the early era of prosperity, and even the methods of the old era. ”

"There's nothing wrong with that."

"After all, in an age when we still knew nothing about the nature of the four fundamental forces, we could only imagine in our minds a conceptual 'forge' and a skilled 'blacksmith' smelting, hammering and destroying the nucleus in the most brutal and inefficient way, forcing it to release the energy hidden in the nucleus."

"When our professor discovered the existence of gravitons, it all changed dramatically. At first, we used laser technology, but instead of ignition, we polarized the atoms to form a special bonded state and pulled the distance between the two atoms. Later, we found a way to directly use gravitons to interfere with the force field, and then we tried to weaken the repulsive force between atoms, breaking the balance between repulsion and attraction...... And then there was a miracle that we all didn't expect. ”

"Atoms are like water, fused together."

Hearing this, one of the engineers muttered.

"Isn't it just graviton, so many circles...... But even if it's a graviton, doesn't it have to be energy input first? ”

Several other engineers were similarly interested.

The energy consumed to drive the graviton is not low, and it may not necessarily be cheaper than laser ignition.

"Yes, there is something to give, and the energy of ignition is inevitable," Zhong Jingchu nodded, and suddenly changed his words again, "But by interfering with the force field, we can further reduce the energy of ignition and maintaining the reaction." ”

"We're not interfering with an airship the size of the Iron Heart, just a few reacting atoms, which consume more than an order of magnitude less energy than heating plasma with a laser...... And it is more stable and efficient. ”

"Going back to the miracle I said earlier, we found that the graviton method of combining atoms led to an otherwise intense fusion reaction under mild conditions...... At least for the first moment, it was incomparably gentle. ”

"And that's called a cold start."

Looking at the attentive engineers who listened one by one, Zhong Jingchu smiled faintly and continued in a slow voice.

"Based on similar technical principles, the researchers of Renlian have also discovered a series of more convenient and efficient methods such as how to keep the fusion reaction at room temperature and pressure, and how to make the fusion reaction more gentle."

"Including the portable reactor that you got out of the black box, in fact, it was born in this process."

Wonderful!

With the exception of a few nuclear engineers, the staff and unrelated people who gathered in front of the reactor to watch the excitement couldn't help but applaud.

And the nuclear engineers of those alliances, although they did not applaud, also had expressions of admiration on their faces.

Although they learned some techniques for maintaining the reactor from Camp 101, they really don't know how these techniques came from as wasters.

Even their teacher, the professor at Camp 101, doesn't necessarily know.

After all, the teachers at Vault 101 don't teach everything.

The young man filled in their blind spots, and in a few words, he was able to tell the story of a history that almost all the wastelanders had forgotten.

From the principle of technology.

To the origin that is closer to the essence than the principle!

Although he admired this kid's profound knowledge, Master Wang was not completely convinced, and could only be regarded as half-convinced.

Admiration is admiration, no matter how much those clichés are said, they are just things that happened before.

These memories cannot be used either as fuel for the reactor or as the outer shell of the reactor.

He cares more about practical things.

"These experiments are like what you do." Wang Zhengyi held back for a long time, and finally held back a sentence from his mouth.

Zhong Jingchu said with a slight smile.

"I didn't do the experiments, but we did every experiment ourselves, and I not only remember every detail clearly, but I also know 'why it was like that.'"

Wang Zhengyi held his breath, and his eyes gradually became feverish.

"Is that true?"

Zhong Jingchu nodded with a smile and said in a gentle tone.

"Of course it's true, and my mentor says it's time to give you these legacies."

"It's about how these technologies came about, how they were used, and how they were experimented and improved on the basis of their predecessors."

Hearing this, Master Wang lost his temper anymore and was completely convinced.

And his face, which was originally the color of pig liver, also regained his smiling expression.

Mr. Manager is not kidding, those guys from the academy have two brushes!

If an expert of the same rank pretended to be forced with him, of course he would not be happy.

Besides, let him, a middle-aged man in his forties and fifties, bow his head to a young man in his early twenties, and he can't accept it psychologically.

However, after this conversation, he can already confirm that this guy is much stronger than him, and even stands in the atmosphere...... The two sides are simply not comparable.

If he could learn some real skills from the academy, he wouldn't mind lowering his head.

It's a big deal to learn to pretend to be with the people in the company.

Just as Wang Zhengyi was thinking this, the faces of the other engineers were already full of eager expressions, and they were completely happy to surrender.

"Brother, that cold ignition...... Phew, you can teach us how not to light a fire! ”

"Alas, I didn't think of it!"

"Please also give me advice!"

"Big brother, if you don't dislike it, I'll call you Master!"

Looking at these knowledge-hungry wasteland guests, Zhong Jingchu smiled quietly.

Although the corners of his mouth were almost unable to suppress the gun, he still maintained the expression of a master in the world.

"You're welcome."

"I'll tell you everything I know!"

In addition to the employees of the nuclear power plant, the melon-eating crowd around the reactor was mixed with a few players who were idle and had nothing to fish.

While under normal circumstances, this kind of backdrop-like facility would not have players running here, but this has clearly not been the case lately.

The academy sent a team of experts to the Alliance, and the incident made the headlines of Dawning City's Daily Survivor!

Although the academy has sent researchers and prospectors to Dawning City a long time ago, the number is scarce after all, and it is always elusive, and it is difficult to encounter unless you take on the mission of the scientific expedition team.

That's why when they heard that the researchers were haunting the nuclear power plant, they ran over one by one.

It's much more interesting than the mammoths in the zoo!

In fact, it is.

watched a big drama of pretending, [Stand-alone Stream Jungler] couldn't help but applaud with the NPCs.

"Damn, these people from the academy can pretend!"

The beaten shooter looked at him.

"You mean nuclear fusion?"

Single-machine stream jungler: "What kind of nuclear fusion, I'm talking about pretending to be forced." ”

Beaten Stray Shooter: "Poof-"

[Hunger Strike Stream], who had not spoken, only smirked, and suddenly interjected.

"I found the academy quite a lot of tsundere."

"Like that...... Jiang Xuezhou? "I thought about it for a long time, and the academy researcher who remembered the name seemed to be the only one, and I heard about it by chance on the forum.

The hunger striker was embarrassed and hehe.

"And Yin Fang."

Beaten stray shooter: "? ”

Single-player stream jungler: "? ”

Hunger strike: "Hehe, don't you think? Although the mouth is hard, the body is honest. ”

Single-player stream jungler: "No, I just think there's something wrong with you......"

Hunger Strike: "......? ”

On the other side, the android engineers from Vault 100 were talking to each other.

They are not experts in nuclear fusion, but they are familiar with the various models of fusion reactors, and you can tell that the researcher surnamed Zhong does have two brushes.

At this moment, the young man named Zhong Jingchu has already talked about the core difficulties of fusion reactor cold start technology from the part of the history of science, as well as the main ideas to solve the problem.

Not only the nuclear engineers of the alliance listened with bright eyes, but the [lone wolf of the end times], who knew nothing about nuclear fusion, was also fascinated by the hearing and drooled.

It's a pity, though.

The former can finally touch the door, and the latter is completely just listening to the excitement, and after coming back to his senses, he found that listening to it is almost the same as not listening, and those who don't know anything still don't know anything.

Retracting his gaze from a distance, the lone wolf in the last days said with emotion.

“MMP！ It's a pity that Lao Tzu learned automation...... By the way, Professor Yan, you're in physics, tell me about the cold fusion reactor...... Is it reliable? ”

Feeling the heat in his sight, Tempest sighed and said.

"I'm just a physicist, not a god...... Don't think too much, let alone think about eating a prosperous era in one bite, lay the foundation first. ”

Not to mention anything advanced like cold start and cold fusion reactor, if according to the standards of the game world, the real fusion technology does not even achieve the concept of "controllable".

Neither is even the same thing, and the technical principles they rely on are completely different.

The lone wolf in the last days still had an expression of reluctance to give up, and looked at the wind shaking his head and couldn't help but say.

"It's always good to be a little inspiring, right? For example, the technical route or something......"

"Do you mean the technical route of cold start of nuclear fusion," Hurricane couldn't help but laugh for a while, looked at his colleague and said, "Let me put it this way, in the high-energy physics community, there has always been a conjecture about the unification of the four fundamental forces, and many mathematicians and physicists have struggled for it, even for a lifetime. ”

The lone wolf in the last days looked at him stunned, and when he saw that there was no follow-up for a long time, he couldn't help but ask.

“…… And then what? ”

Tempest was silent for a moment, then turned his gaze to the researcher not far away.

"That's just a guess for us."

"And in the game world...... That is, here, the 'graviton' that conforms to the grand unified theory can be 'touched'. ”

"Do you know what that means?"

The lone wolf of the last days looked at him blankly.

“…… I don't know. ”

Tempest stared at him for a moment, sighed, and looked away.

“…… When I didn't say. ”

Lone wolf in the last days: "??? ”

His good brother Fang Chang always felt that "Wasteland Online" was not like a simple game world, but more like a living world, but as a physicist, he had a different opinion.

Just from the perspective of a physicist, he feels that this is more like another universe.

The laws of physics in reality are not fully applicable here, or only to a limited extent.

And the more you enter the microscopic realm, the greater the probability of this phenomenon appearing.

For example, the most classic double-slit interference experiment, in the game world of "Wasteland Online", the requirements for instrument accuracy will be higher than in reality, and this also means that the microscopic world here is less "uncertain".

By reverse, the Planck constant in the world of "Wasteland Online" is smaller than the Planck constant in reality, even if the amount of offset is so small that it is almost impossible to calculate, or infinitesimal in a mathematical sense.

But even if it's infinitesimal, different is different.

This is actually a very scary thing to think about.

A smaller Planck constant means that the quantum is smaller in size, the probability of quantum effects occurring is less, the universe is more stable, and there are fewer things that cannot be measured.

Let's give an easy-to-understand example.

If the God who generates everything in the world is compared to a computer, or a graphics card with limited computing power but a large number of graphics cards, then there are now two gods AB, each calling their own computing power, generating two different worlds of AB.

A can only generate a model of the city and citizens, while the pores on the citizens are blurred, and the pores are generated immediately when the camera zooms in on the citizens' faces, and there are no pixels belonging to the pores before the observation occurs.

Even in places that cannot be observed by the camera, the "villains" generated in World A will occasionally pass through the walls...... It is also commonly known as "molding".

Unlike the B graphics card, it can not only generate pores on a city and citizens at the same time, but also detail textures that can only be seen under a microscope...... Regardless of whether the observer brings their eyes so close together, the texture that belongs to those pixels is there, or its existence is independent of the behavior of the observation.

In the world generated by the B graphics card, it is impossible for people to pass through walls, at least not through the "villain" walking in the city, whether it is in the player's sight or out of sight.

And if you want to find the BUG of "molding" in the world generated by the B graphics card, you have to be on the microscopic scale that is invisible to the microscope.

For example, nano.

When the chip is small enough to a certain extent, microscopic particles such as electrons will cross the geopotential barrier, which is the so-called "quantum tunneling" effect.

To make an inappropriate but graphic analogy, if the world generated by graphics card B is called "Earth OL", then the world generated by graphics card A is "Night City".

Moreover, it is a night city in countless parallel universes that is not affected by the continuous interference and observation of "Earth OL" players.

In particular, "not being affected by continuous interference" is extremely important, after all, any interference can iteratively fission N different parallel worlds in "frame rate", and in fact, different players' saves are indeed different.

At the same time, for the game world where thermodynamic experiments are not possible, "frame rate" is one of the important parameters for calculating Planck's constant.

And the Planck constant calculated based on the frame rate must be less than 1 and greater than the Planck constant in reality!

And it's much greater!

"Wasteland OL" does not have the concept of frame rate, and the refinement of both the graphics and the physics engine is much higher than that of traditional triple-A masterpieces.

Not to mention thermodynamic experiments here, even nuclear tests can be done, and the Planck constant can be calculated directly by applying the methods in reality, and the wind does so.

In the beginning, he actually did the experiment with a playful mentality.

After all, he also knew in his heart that this kind of behavior was to pinch his nose and deceive his eyes, and the game server would either ignore him after observing his behavior, or it could directly call up the encyclopedia data to give him a result he wanted.

However, the results of the experiment were beyond his expectations, such as when he first came into contact with quantum mechanics.

God is gone.

Or maybe hidden.

Theoretically, the Planck constant of "Wasteland OL" should be greater than that of "Earth OL", just like the Los Santos of Gta5, the Night City of Cyberpunk, and the Skyrim Province of Maiden Scrolls......

However, the result of the calculation is the opposite-

The value of the former is infinitely close to the latter, and less than that of the latter!

No matter how many times he calculated, or even how many times he repeated the experiment, the result was the same.

This means that "God B" lives in the house of "God A", and a graphics card with higher computing power runs on top of the graphics card with low computing power...... And can the latter run programs that the former can't run?

He has lived for more than 30 years, and it is the first time he has seen such an outrageous thing!

Either Ah Guang is targeting him!

Or the aliens behind Ah Guang, that is, the extraterrestrial civilization speculated by the mainstream media, targeted him and deliberately induced him to calculate such a result through a specially designed algorithm......

For a while, he was confused and self-doubting because of his discovery, and even asked for a long leave from his work unit for this purpose, and traveled with his bags on his back, and adjusted his mentality for a long time before he came out of the confusion of self-doubt.

Actually, there is nothing to be confused about.

The existence or absence of matter is an objective phenomenon, but "existence" itself is determined by subjective consciousness.

Glancing at the lone wolf of the last days who was still drilling on the horns of gravitons and nuclear fusion, Tempest said calmly.

“…… The game world is the game world, you can't expect to find a physical theorem in a game or film or television work that is not found in reality, and it is not difficult to make up a conjecture that cannot be proved or falsified. ”

After a pause, he habitually stretched out his index finger and touched the bridge of his nose.

The copy of the height glasses that rested on the bridge of the nose did not exist in the game world.

In this world, "Tempest" is his name, and Iwakaze is just another person who lives in another world and has nothing to do with "Tempest".

"Of course, due to the proximity of Planck's constant...... Their theories did give me some inspiration, and maybe we could find something similar to the graviton. ”

The lone wolf of the last days looked at Professor Iwafeng in a daze, and said with a wry smile.

"You're getting harder and harder to understand......"

……

(PS: It's finished next year, and it's not a spoiler to say two sentences, the wind just fell into his own "well", and what he saw doesn't represent my outline.) The two different worlds are real in a corner of the universe, but in different dimensions, not computer simulations, although not much mysterious. In addition, the world of Vault 101 is simulated, and the computing power can roughly simulate a planet, which is almost the limit of Age of Prosperity technology. Vault 404 is different from Vault 101, the former is the real "singularity". ）