At nine-thirty, Chen Yi ate breakfast.
He hauled the fully charged drone and its related antenna accessories into the car, preparing to head to the seaside for a test flight.
He Yu called, her voice unable to suppress her excited cry.
"President Chen, is this silicon-carbon battery real?"
"You'll know once you run a production test at the factory. Remember to apply for patents."
Chen Yi calmly issued his instructions. "This battery is the same as the previous drone engine and low-temperature thermal reinforcement material.
Arrange the laboratories and research staff to conduct follow-up development and in-depth research on the battery.
1,400 Wh/kg is still far from the limit of silicon-carbon lithium batteries. Yifei's annual research investment must be guaranteed."
Just like the earlier drone engines and materials, Chen Yi had only given Yifei the first-generation technology.
He would leave the second and third generations entirely alone.
Because Chen Yi understood something clearly.
Although he possessed a system and could create all sorts of cutting-edge technology,
a civilization's complete technological tree involved countless fields and innumerable technical branches.
Even with the Shadow Clone Technique, he alone would never be able to handle it all.
If one person insisted on carrying the entire burden, it would only lead to a distorted civilization, an imbalanced technological landscape, and the destruction of future development potential.
To preserve humanity's potential and ensure that humanity became a true interstellar civilization,
Chen Yi planned to introduce only improvements that were not overly astonishing, all built upon technologies humanity had already mastered.
As for future development and technological upgrades, he had no intention of interfering. He would leave them to the market to compete and develop on their own.
Be a pioneer of the industry, not its final producer.
As for the truly cutting-edge technology, he could keep it for tinkering with his own machines.
There was no end to the money one could make.
There was no need to turn himself into a slave of capital and money, or turn reality into Cyberpunk.
"President Chen, I understand. Core technology is the primary productive force."
He Yu took a deep breath and promised seriously, "I'll maintain Yifei's funding for scientific research. It will never fall below 30 percent."
"Good. Once the battery enters production, remember to invite me to the launch event. I'll host it."
Chen Yi checked his consciousness waves, gave one final instruction, and hung up.
He drove to a seaside park and completed the filing for the drone test flight.
Chen Yi found an empty corner, unloaded the drone and set it aside, then took out the antennas, laptop, control pedals, and other equipment to put on a show.
He put on the brainwave-sensing motion headband and immersive AR Glasses. With a thought, his brainwaves flickered.
With a hiss!
Violent airflow and blue radiance burst from beneath the drone's belly.
Pushed by the reverse thrust of that jet stream, the drone rose into the air and reached an altitude of dozens of meters.
Then airflow blasted from the engine nozzle at its tail, and the drone flew steadily toward the ocean.
Vertical takeoff!
Chen Yi had designed vertical takeoff and landing capabilities into this latest carbon-fiber ion-propulsion drone.
In the future, it would no longer need a runway. Test flights and landings could be carried out from rooftops or even balconies.
At the same time, if the drone entered the boundary space of a planet with thin air, or simply entered the vacuum of space,
then in such places, where air resistance was weak or nonexistent,
the controllable rudders on its wings and tail would be unable to use the atmosphere to adjust the drone's direction and posture.
The vertical takeoff and landing function it carried would also become the drone's most precise attitude-control system.
"The coastal scenery looks so much better during the day than at night."
"Especially now that summer is here, the scenery along the beach is obviously different."
"Wait, that's the Prince Bay cruise ship. A cruise liner is heading out to sea. Damn! Is this how the rich live?"
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... That cruise ship is so huge, there's no hiding it."
The drone's super-radar imaging combined with the immersive AR Glasses.
For a moment, the sight made Chen Yi's eyes swim.
"I feel like I've wasted all these years of my life."
"We're both human, so why is the gap between an ordinary person like me and the rich so huge... Wait, I seem to be rich too."
"Oh, then it's fine."
What one could not obtain was what seemed beautiful; what was within easy reach was never cherished.
Different worlds looked beautiful from afar, but once one entered them, one would find them dull and uninteresting.
Once he realized that he was also rich and could throw a cruise party whenever he wanted, Chen Yi immediately lost interest in the dazzling scene.
"I'm still that same young man, yearning for pure and beautiful love."
Humming a song, Chen Yi pulled the drone higher.
It shot up to an altitude of eight hundred meters, accelerated, broke the sound barrier, and left behind a cloud of sonic boom.
The rolling thunder in the sky startled the people on the cruise ship below awake, after which he controlled the drone and flew eastward.
"Ha..."
After setting the automatic flight program and having it collect flight data from the ion thruster,
Chen Yi went inside the car to escape the summer sun.
A gentle stream of cool air-conditioning blew toward him. Half reclined in his seat, Chen Yi could not help yawning.
"My stamina has declined quite a bit these past two years."
"Back when I first started my business, I could pull three all-nighters in a row and still negotiate with suppliers on the fourth day. Now one all-nighter leaves me unbearably sleepy."
Chen Yi touched the Primal Unity abs he had cultivated through three years of effort, feeling a touch of melancholy over how time spared no one.
"I'll let the drone fly automatically and take a nap first."
Feeling sleepy, Chen Yi had no intention of forcing himself to stay awake.
After setting a flight range for the drone and letting it continue collecting ion-thruster data, Chen Yi lay back in his seat, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.
With a fully electric new-energy vehicle bearing green plates, there was no need to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping in the car.
As a boss, what Chen Yi wanted was freedom over his time, freedom over his interests, and freedom to sleep.
He did not have to be like an employee.
Giving up his own interests for work.
Even after pulling an all-nighter, he would still have to grit his teeth, risk sudden death, and continue working.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
He had no idea how long he had slept.
Then suddenly, a shrill radar alarm
rang in Chen Yi's mind through the bone-conduction headphones of the AR Glasses.
"What the hell is this?"
Chen Yi groggily opened his eyes and turned off the sleep blackout mode of his AR Glasses.
The drone's radar image was projected onto his retinas.
When he saw the image displayed before him, Chen Yi froze.
Where had this giant black bird come from?
Oh, no. It was a Big Black Eagle.
As a drone enthusiast,
Chen Yi recognized at a glance the identity of the eighteen-meter Big Black Eagle flying toward him.
Had the drone's automatic flight program bugged out and flown beyond its boundary?
Chen Yi looked at the map beside him.
It was still in domestic waters and had not left the flight range he had set.
Holy shit!
That Big Black Eagle wanted to cross the boundary!
Realizing that he had not crossed the line and that the other side intended to do so,
Chen Yi jolted fully awake.
His first instinct was to control the drone and give that eighteen-meter Big Black Eagle a vicious hit.
But the next moment,
he realized that what he was flying now was not the Lunar Lander Drone.
It was an ion-propulsion drone that he had designed and built himself, still in the test-flight and data-gathering stage.
This drone was still in its test-flight phase. In a head-on clash, it could not give that Big Black Eagle a vicious hit.
"Damn it, call for backup!"
Looking at the radar image, where the Big Black Eagle had already crossed the boundary at supersonic cruising speed and was flying toward domestic territory, while there was not a single signal of an aircraft taking off on his side,
Chen Yi did not hesitate. He took out his phone and dialed Professor Zhang.
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