Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

Chapter 149 Circumsolar Accelerator

"That's how it is. Our focus going forward should remain on solving the energy problem."

Inside the meeting room, Lin Xuan tapped on the table.

This is a temporary base of the Earth Alliance in New York City. Because the Trisolarans' droplets destroyed Lin Xuan's Reach and Red Coast bases, Lin Xuan doesn't even have a place to hold meetings. This meeting room was borrowed from Luo Congmin.

On either side of the conference table sat a group of core members of Lin Xuan's faction.

Wang Miao, Ding Yi, Bai Bing, Cao Bin, Bi Yunfeng, Wei Cheng, and Radiaz.

This is all the manpower Lin Xuan can currently mobilize.

Cao Bin previously stated that he had been working with Ding Yi on the applications of cold fusion, and that the cold fusion battery he developed was one of his creations. He also contributed to the development of nanorobots by Wang Miao.

Bi Yunfeng is a character that Lin Xuan later obtained by drawing cards and thawing in the hibernation center. He is also one of the six candidates for the Swordholder in the original work. Lin Xuan has a deep impression of this guy. In the original plot, he was the one who saved Cheng Xin from being assassinated by Wade.

Without Lin Xuan, they would probably have hibernated all the way into the future to establish the Star Ring Group with Wade. However, based on the principle of "I can use it but I won't give it to outsiders", Lin Xuan brought out almost all six candidates for Swordholder from the hibernation center.

It's just like opening a blind box.

The main problem is that Lin Xuan currently has too few talented people at her disposal.

Shi Qiang and Liu Chang followed Zhang Beihai to Centaurus, taking with them the artificial intelligence Cheng Xing created by Yun Tianming, and of course, Lin Xuan's shock value of nearly tens of billions.

As for Luo Ji, Zhang Xiang needed to assist with security work, and Luo Congmin, being the president of the Earth Alliance, was simply too busy to handle everything.

Therefore, Lin Xuan had to recruit all the talented people he could find and use to his cause.

"The Sophon's technological blockade against humanity is no longer in place, but the threat has not disappeared. As long as we fail to surpass the Trisolarans in technology, the Trisolarans will remain humanity's greatest enemy. Am I right?"

As Lin Xuan spoke, she looked up at the ceiling of the conference hall. The bright white lights made the walls appear stark white, but there was nothing on them at all.

But everyone present knew that Tomoko was right beside them, constantly monitoring their every move.

The Trisolarans were too lazy to answer Lin Xuan's question.

"She's a real genius." That was Cao Bin's assessment of Lin Xuan.

He had never seen anyone who could chat so easily with the Trisolarans while being monitored by the Sophon. Normal people would not dare to say a word when monitored by the Sophon, for fear that the Trisolarans behind the Sophon would hear them.

But Lin Xuan, on the other hand, gave the impression of chatting casually with the Trisolarans, as if he didn't feel awkward at all about being monitored by them.

Lin Xuan certainly didn't feel awkward. As long as he wasn't embarrassed, the one who would be embarrassed was the Trisolaran monitoring him from the Sophon side. In just one meeting, he had already received more than a dozen shock points from the Trisolarans.

It's clear that the Trisolarans don't seem to like monitoring Lin Xuan, but due to work requirements, they have no choice but to monitor her constantly.

"The energy problem is the most critical issue that limits the limits of technology. We should make full use of the time that the Sophon is lifting the technological blockade to improve the level of human technology. The first thing to solve is the problem of boiling water."

Human energy development, in essence, is all about the process of boiling water.

From the steam age to the electric age, from the nuclear age to the cold nuclear age, boiling water was the first step in humankind's invention of new energy sources.

"I have two directions here. I called you all here today to discuss their feasibility. It's alright, we're all acquaintances, so feel free to share your opinions."

"The first option is the old tradition: we'll start working on antimatter energy and develop the annihilation thruster as soon as possible."

"Well, let's get straight to the second one," Ding Yi said directly.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan couldn't help but purse her lips.

"Old Ding, that's not very nice of you. Although I know you've worked hard these past few years, think about it. Which of your inventions over the years hasn't been groundbreaking? People's lives are changing so rapidly now, and that's all thanks to you."

Ding Yi was clearly not buying Lin Xuan's act; he adjusted his glasses and said...

"Let's try a different excuse. You used this excuse when you fooled me last time."

Lin Xuan: ...

After a long while, Lin Xuan tentatively asked, somewhat uncertainly.

"I don't think the Trisolarans had much trouble making this thing. Old Ding, you can't possibly be unable to make one, can you?"

"You fart!"

Ding Yi's competitive spirit was immediately ignited by Lin Xuan's words, and he banged on the table loudly.

"I'd like to try but I can't, we just don't have the tools right now."

"what would you like?"

“A particle accelerator, a super-large particle accelerator,” Ding Yi said.

"You need to understand that creating a particle accelerator for antimatter requires something very large; it will be an unprecedentedly large investment project."

"The production of antimatter itself is not very difficult. Like controlled nuclear fusion, the basic theory of antimatter has been around since the 20th century. However, so far, only a few nanograms have been produced. 1 gram = 1 billion nanograms. We need a much larger particle accelerator to speed up the production process."

Lin Xuan nodded slightly; Ding Yi's answer was exactly what he had expected.

"This is the second direction I want to talk about: the Sun-circling accelerator."

As Lin Xuan spoke, she casually picked up a paper cup from in front of Wang Miao and placed it face down on the table.

Without him saying anything, just from the name, everyone already knew that this thing revolves around the star Sun, and this paper cup should be the sun that Lin Xuan wanted to represent.

"It's quite difficult. It's similar to building a Dyson Belt. The amount of work involved might be 340,000 times that of building Reach." Wei Cheng did a simple calculation in his mind and gave his estimated answer.

"That's equivalent to building twenty Earths," Bai Bing added.

Ding Yi simply shrugged, indicating that he was powerless to help.

"Well, this is the difficulty I was talking about. This thing is too big. Whether it can be built is one thing, and how much antimatter energy it can produce is another. You can't expect that by the time I die, the amount of antimatter produced won't even weigh as much as my coffin, can you?"

"I think it's best to start with the simplest thing. For example, we can build a super-large particle acceleration ring around the Earth. I've already thought of a name for it: Einstein Equator."

However, only Bi Yunfeng seemed to be deep in thought.

At this moment, Lin Xuan clapped her hands, drawing the attention of everyone who was engaged in a heated discussion back to her.

"Everyone, are you all falling into some kind of misconception? Do you all think we're going to build a huge pipeline around the sun?" Lin Xuan said, drawing a large circle around the water glass with a marker, enclosing the "sun" within it.

"Holy crap!" Ding Yi suddenly slapped his thigh, startling everyone present.

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten. Vacuum, vacuum, hehehehe!" Ding Yi let out a strange laugh.

"We always forget that we are in space. In a vacuum, accelerating particles does not require a conduit."

Ding Yi's reminder brought everyone present back to their senses.

"Damn it, I always said that staying on Earth for too long would affect your IQ. I subconsciously ignore the vacuum environment every time I make something."

Ding Yi dipped her hand in the water glass and erased part of the line Lin Xuan had drawn, turning the entire loop from a complete circle into a discontinuous line segment.

"That solves it, hehehe, we only need to build this part, which can save a lot of money."

The circum-heliospheric accelerator is not a large circular ring, but rather a series of accelerating coils.

Building a Dyson Belt that encircles the sun might be extremely expensive, but making just acceleration coils wouldn't be such a big problem.

After everyone understood Lin Xuan's proposed plan, Bi Yunfeng was probably the most shocked.

The solution Lin Xuan provided was similar to what he had just imagined in his mind; it's just that Lin Xuan was a step ahead of him and spoke it out first.

He had just joined Lin Xuan's team and wasn't very familiar with everyone yet, which was why he hadn't spoken earlier; he was repeatedly analyzing the feasibility of the plan in his mind.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xuan had the same idea as him, as if the other party knew his thoughts in advance.

It seems I didn't follow the wrong boss this time; Lin Xuan is quite something to become the strongest Wallfacer.

If the deceased Hines knew about Bi Yunfeng's idea, he would definitely give Bi Yunfeng a thumbs up.

That's right, that's the feeling Lin Xuan gave him when he attended that hearing for the wall-worn victims.

Can they be different?

In the original storyline, Bi Yunfeng was the chief designer of the Sun-Circling Accelerator. It would be a miracle if their ideas differed.

Ultimately, Lin Xuan handed the task over to Bi Yunfeng and Cao Bin. If it were just about building these acceleration coils, it wouldn't take long, at most two years, to complete.

Ding Yi, on the other hand, mainly focused his energy on optimizing antimatter energy, even though he claimed he was going to slack off. In reality, however, whenever Lin Xuan needed his help, Ding Yi would always do his utmost to complete the tasks Lin Xuan assigned him.

Even though Lin Xuan is no longer a Wallfacer, he actually has more people around him now.

"We've been on Earth for too long, and it's really easy to fall into this kind of simple thinking trap. Problems that are simple to solve are complicated by us. It seems I need to learn from Wang Miao and go to space more often," Ding Yi said with a helpless sigh.

Wang Miao, who had been daydreaming throughout the meeting, suddenly snapped back to reality when he heard someone calling his name.

"Uh... Oh? Are you off work yet?!"