Chapter Sixty-Six: The Flower of Sin

After the meeting concluded, Wang Jing began traveling frequently between the Prime Plane and the Terminator Plane, mainly to transport various supplies, gather survivors, and oversee the dismantling and repurposing of Skynet’s former bases.

He was also responsible for moving scientists and equipment. The time machine invented by Skynet had drawn the attention of a large number of scientists.

However, when dismantling the factories left behind by Skynet within the United States, they encountered opposition from the Resistance. Of course, this opposition was merely verbal; no one actually dared to open fire.

No matter how foolish the Resistance commanders might be, their soldiers were not. Especially those under John Connor—after fighting alongside the Expeditionary Army from the Prime Plane and experiencing the full meaning of overwhelming firepower and immense resources, not even the boldest among them would dare point their guns at such an ally.

The Resistance commanders argued that since these factories were built on American soil, they should rightfully belong to America.

Though America as a nation no longer existed, leaving only a sparse Resistance behind, the Joint Government of the Prime Plane and the Wandering Earth Plane was generous enough to cede the factories to them. The condition was that the Expeditionary Army must first inspect all engineering machinery to ensure no Skynet data remained before handing the factories over.

The Resistance readily agreed to these terms.

Thus, the Prime Plane was spared the task of dismantling these factories, needing only to delete any Skynet backup data from the factory databases—a task handled entirely by Moos, with staff from the Prime Plane performing only final checks for confirmation.

Yet, this work was not as easy as it seemed. Every scrapped Terminator chip might contain Skynet data, and just within the United States, there were over a hundred million Terminators, many buried underground or abandoned in remote mountains.

The Joint Government of the Prime Plane and the Wandering Earth Plane persisted with this approach mainly to slow the potential revival of Skynet.

The high echelons of the Joint Government and experts in social analysis understood that, in the face of absolute profit, Skynet was an immortal death god—forever lurking in the hearts of greedy capitalists willing to bargain with the devil.

Once the flower of evil bloomed, greed would offer the sweetness of Skynet to all, only for them to die of its poison in the streets, unburied, becoming mere nourishment for the flower of corruption to flourish.

The Joint Government already had countermeasures in place, though they sincerely hoped such events would never transpire—after all, countless lives would be lost.

Three months passed swiftly. During this period, Wang Jing was especially busy, but progress on all fronts was rapid.

Through the collaborative effort of top scientists from all planes, the quantum chip technology of the Terminators was thoroughly researched in just three months. The next step was to modify existing chip production lines.

Meanwhile, in the Resident Evil Plane, the first batch of weather control satellites was successfully placed into orbit with the help of Heaven’s Nemesis. However, since the main control space station was not yet established, these satellites could not be formally activated.

City construction on the Resident Evil Plane was nearing completion, and the fields, restored after a year’s recovery, were being sown once again. In the future, the Resident Evil Plane would serve as the main granary for both the Prime Plane and the Wandering Earth Plane.

But what concerned Wang Jing most was that the basic principles of Skynet’s time machine had been largely deciphered.

“Does that time machine truly enable time travel?” Wang Jing asked.

“As you guessed before, the time machine can only traverse to parallel worlds on different timelines. According to our investigations, the world barrier between these parallels is much thinner than in other planes. That’s why Skynet was able to create a machine capable of crossing into parallel worlds so easily,” Jiang Ning replied.

“When will the time machine be completed?”

“It should be soon, but subsequent experiments will likely take some time.”

Wang Jing nodded in understanding, then asked, “By the way, are there any upgrades for my armor? I saw some impressive weapons in Skynet’s database.”

“We’ve been busy lately, but now that the main work is done, your armor’s modifications will be scheduled soon,” Jiang Ning answered a bit apologetically.

“Do you have any specific requests or suggestions for the modifications?” Jiang Ning asked.

“If possible, I’d like the armor to have radar stealth capability. Its flight speed also needs to be improved, and the noise level is too high—it would be better if that could be reduced,” Wang Jing replied.

Jiang Ning nodded, then asked, “Would you accept installing a Terminator hydrogen fuel cell in the armor?”

“As long as it doesn’t explode, that’s acceptable,” Wang Jing considered for a moment before replying.

“That I can’t guarantee. Hydrogen fuel cells become extremely unstable under heavy impact, as you know. I can only promise you’ll have enough time to jettison the cell before it explodes.”

“In that case, never mind.”

“If we don’t use hydrogen fuel cells, the power of the flight pack can’t be increased,” Jiang Ning reminded him.

“Is there any other solution?”

“It’s not impossible. Once the time machine is finished, we could travel to a parallel world with more advanced technology. Perhaps we’ll find a new energy source,” Jiang Ning said.

“How is the progress with miniaturized nuclear fusion? It’s been almost a year now.”

“It’s the same as before—we’re stuck on the materials. Large-scale fusion reactors can still use the Tokamak design, but for miniature reactors, either new methods or cold fusion are required,” Jiang Ning said with a helpless shrug.

“Energy again. It really is true that energy determines combat power,” Wang Jing sighed.

“What about plasma weapons? I saw prototypes in Skynet’s database.”

“That can be installed, but it needs to charge for about three to four seconds before firing,” Jiang Ning estimated.

Hearing the long charge time, Wang Jing clicked his tongue. “Three seconds it is—just treat it as a countdown.”

“Now you’ll have radar stealth, reduced noise for the flight pack engine, and plasma weapons.”

“Anything else you want to add?” Jiang Ning asked.

Wang Jing thought for a moment and, feeling there was nothing more to change, shook his head. “Just these three. For the rest, use your judgment.”

“Alright, I’ll head back to the lab then,” Jiang Ning said, turning and leaving.

Another three months passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, the first domestically produced quantum chip was successfully tested, and Moos ran perfectly on it.

However, its size and energy consumption were much greater than those of the quantum chips developed by Skynet.

This was not an issue, since these chips were intended for use in ordinary household robots, which didn’t require the high performance and rigorous standards of military chips.

Of course, these quantum chips could also be installed in supercomputing servers. After all, the war with Skynet had forced the Prime Plane to borrow many supercomputers from other planes. Although nothing extra was owed, at the very least, they should repay others with new supercomputers.