Chapter 176: Nanobots and Energy

The United States has become the only superpower on Blue Star because it has a profound foundation. What we see is just the tip of the iceberg.

If Du Qiu had known this information earlier, he might have delayed making Dream Technology and Wisdom Technology the focus of widespread attention.

However, if it hadn’t been for the exceptional performance of Dream Technology and Wisdom Technology, this information would not have surfaced, allowing Star Ocean to capture it.

Fate is such an interesting thing. Without cause, where would the effect come from?

Who is the cause, and who is the effect, it is destined by heaven.

The only thing Du Qiu could do was to finish the R&D work in his hands as soon as possible.

One technology he was confident in completing was related to nanotechnology.

In fact, he had already completed a portion of nanotechnology, but it was far from being nanotechnology in the true sense.

As for the existing nanotechnology on Blue Star, it was even further off the mark.

What Du Qiu could now guarantee to bring to the table was precisely the nanotechnology demonstrated during the maintenance and repair of the maintainers.

Currently, Du Qiu was developing a type of nanobot, with carbon as its fundamental element.

Once the technology is fully successful, as long as there is carbon, the nanobots would be able to replicate infinitely.

Where on Blue Star is there not carbon?

Therefore, the success of Du Qiu’s nanobots also meant that they could spread throughout the world.

Precisely because of this feature, Du Qiu wanted the nanobots to be able to transmit information, and that too of large volumes.

In this way, paired with nanobots, Star Ocean would likely let nothing escape its surveillance on this world.

With the nanobots, Du Qiu could also further uncover the secrets of the United States.

The most crucial part is that he could verify one of his conjectures, a conjecture to make the world peaceful.

Another technology is energy technology.

In his most recent dream, with the help of the Maintainer AI’s calculations, Du Qiu finally found an opportunity and successfully reversed the energy supplier.

Now, the entire collection and production base of an extraterrestrial civilization has completely fallen into Du Qiu’s hands, and this breakthrough is also the reason why he delayed his return to his home country.

From the energy supplier, he finally figured out what the bright yellow substance he thought was an energy block was.

It turned out to be metallic hydrogen!

Upon learning that it was metallic hydrogen, Du Qiu was so excited that he was restless all day.

This material is not just an energy source; it is also the most powerful explosive discovered on Blue Star to date, with 50 times the power of TNT!

It’s important to note that the N2 explosive he had previously developed only had 25 times the power of TNT.

In other words, this is currently the strongest explosive on Blue Star in theory!

Key to note, metallic hydrogen can not only serve as an explosive; it is also a room-temperature superconductor, meaning that it can bring revolutionary changes to electric power transmission and motors.

It could even usher in revolutionary changes in the fields of superconducting electromagnetism, superconducting particle weapons, high-powered engines, and superconducting computers.

With it, human exploration of space will become easier, at least freely entering and exiting the solar system would not be problematic.

The other energy source, which Du Qiu had speculated might be fusion technology, was indeed confirmed to be so.

It’s a type of nuclear fusion reaction different from the ones designed on Blue Star.

However, this mode of nuclear fusion requires a high-energy material that Du Qiu cannot yet synthesize and produce.

Therefore, the available energy technology before Du Qiu now is metallic hydrogen technology.

But that’s not something that can easily be developed and produced, much like ancient people acquiring the complete process of producing TNT; they couldn’t instantly produce TNT.

So what Du Qiu lacks now is time.

What puzzles Du Qiu a bit is; for such a high-level civilization, why is their energy technology still only metallic hydrogen and nuclear fusion?

He quickly realized that energy technology used for mining and production wouldn’t possibly be the best technology.

After all, where on Blue Star is the strongest technology used? Definitely in military applications.

If Du Qiu could enter and control a warship, perhaps many higher-level technologies would present themselves.

Maybe it would even be antimatter energy technology, like those mentioned in Blue Star’s science fiction novels.

However, Du Qiu didn’t dwell on this thought; he was overwhelmed by the technologies of civilizations at level four and below, to the point that if given the tech from higher-level civilizations, he wouldn’t be able to learn it in time.

Therefore, the nuclear fission reactor technology from the maintainers’ database, which he replicated and remains in storage, serves as the energy source for his base and also as a learning and reserve for nuclear technology.

It would definitely benefit him in mastering nuclear fusion technology in the future.

At the very least, he didn’t have to worry about energy problems now; this type of nuclear reactor is much safer and more efficient than those currently on Blue Star.

However, the source of uranium is a big problem, so Du Qiu is still preparing to research and develop metallic hydrogen technology as soon as possible to replace nuclear fission technology.

Du Qiu has already obtained approval from Mu Weini to acquire an island 300 kilometers southeast of the coast of Dar es Salaam.

There, he is establishing a desalination plant, from which he will obtain a large amount of hydrogen during the process.

Du Qiu has conducted geological exploration, and the island is located above a seabed mountain range in the Indian Ocean.

The part that emerges above the water is only 6 square kilometers, mostly granite, and because there are no permanent residents on this island, only fishermen occasionally take shelter from the wind.

But just over ten meters below the water, there is a plateau area of the seabed mountain range, about 30 square kilometers in size.

This means that if sand-filled reclamation is carried out, it’s easy to create a large island.

What satisfies Du Qiu the most is that this spot is quite close to several important mineral locations that Star Ocean has explored in the Indian Ocean.

If this place is turned into a new industrial park, with ports and airports, then the minerals from the Indian Ocean seabed will continuously become products.

Du Qiu’s current industrial blueprint includes companies like Fengxing Logistics, which can ensure that many of his raw material transports aren’t easily tracked to their true details.

Thus, Du Qiu’s exploitation of resources from the vast international waters will be concealed.

Doing business that is almost costless is definitely something Du Qiu wouldn’t miss out on.

With the support of vast seabed resources, Du Qiu plans to initiate a space program, which of course, must first solve the energy problem.

If he still used Blue Star’s existing rocket technology, with its pitiful capabilities, achieving genuine interstellar exploration would be incredibly time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Another crucial point is that within this stretch of continuous seabed mountains, Du Qiu can construct another underground base capable of withstanding a nuclear strike.

There’s an ancient saying in Tang Country, “a cunning rabbit has three burrows,” so of course, he cannot only have one base, especially since the Indian Ocean also has rich minerals.

Du Qiu has developed a kind of robot that can carry out large-scale mining beneath the seabed.

Without this technology, he wouldn’t have let Star Ocean explore the mineral distribution under the Indian Ocean seabed.

On Blue Star today, besides him, there likely isn’t another country capable of collecting seabed minerals at such a low cost.

The island industrial park plan has accelerated since Mu Weini was elected president.

Mu Weini knows that once Du Qiu’s industrial park plan is complete, it will add a significant income to the Tanga Federation while also helping to build some basic industries for the Tanga Federation.

Although he doesn’t understand why Du Qiu would choose an island in the Indian Ocean, instead of the vast inland area, and go to the trouble of sand-filling and reclaiming the island himself.

But thinking of the future large island becoming an important southern territory of the Tanga Federation, he felt quite pleased.

After all, it’s somewhat considered expanding territory.

Of course, this also stems from Du Qiu’s promise to build a shipyard in Dar es Salaam for him, helping the Tanga Federation to establish a shipbuilding industry and implement the strategy of developing towards the ocean.

Mu Weini has taken it upon himself to include this part as an important component of his governance platform; an ocean strategy that the Tanga Union has never had before.

Interestingly, the neighboring country, the Seychelles, having heard about the desalination plant project, actually approached and expressed their willingness to provide the greatest convenience, hoping that Divine Technology could cooperate with Seychelles to establish a desalination plant for them.

The Seychelles is an Indian Ocean island country, with just over a hundred thousand people spread across multiple archipelagos.

With the steady increase of the population over the years, coupled with some of human’s polluting activities, their islands’ freshwater resources have started to become insufficient.

Du Qiu checked the information and found out that this small country has a close relationship with the Asan country, and considering that Asan country has also been frequently causing trouble at the Tang-Asan border, he didn’t want to get involved.

But then he found out that the current president of the Seychelles, Danfor, is actually a person who outwardly supports Asan but privately wants to turn against them.

The Seychelles has once again expressed its hope that Tang Country would establish a military base in Seychelles.

Given this, Du Qiu simply promoted it, and if it could help Tang Country gain another friend, then that would also be pretty good.