Must Break Through the Fourth Generation

Inside the confined space.

Looking at the illusory images of the three items before him, Xu Yun's expression was somewhat subtle.

Putting aside the Easter egg for now, judging by its description, it was likely something that needed to be combined with a specific real-world situation to trigger. There were no clues to make a judgment at the moment.

In fact, Xu Yun felt that given his recent experience of hitting 5 times with a 0% critical hit rate while playing a barbarian with an 80% critical hit rate, he wasn't even sure if he'd ever have a chance to activate the Easter egg in his lifetime.

The pain of being unlucky, those who understand, understand.

After temporarily setting aside the Easter egg, only two items remained.

First was Little Ox's thought experience card.

How to put it, this thing...

Undoubtedly, it was a good item!

As a founder of modern physics, Little Ox's intellect was undoubtedly a peak in human history, conservatively speaking, he was definitely in the top ten.

Especially Little Ox at 22 years old, in 1665, there was probably no one in history who could match him.

Therefore, the quality of this thought card was beyond doubt. The only concern was its usage time.

Half an hour. For Dong Ge, that was enough for 15 rounds of combat. However, in terms of problem-solving, half an hour wasn't a lot, but it certainly wasn't a lot either.

Especially when facing difficult problems, two to three hours was common, and on some math forums, spending four to five hours on a single problem was standard practice.

Therefore, once this thought card was used, it had to be used on the most critical tasks, and timing was paramount.

Afterward, Xu Yun shifted his gaze to the piece of cowhide paper, which was the reward containing the formula for the fifth-generation Imidacloprid.

Considering there were no tables or pens in the space, making it unsuitable for research and calculation, Xu Yun thought for a moment and silently chanted "Return" in his mind.

Swish--

The space vanished in an instant, and his consciousness returned to his own room.

After regaining his senses, Xu Yun didn't rush to summon the Imidacloprid formula. Instead, he lowered his head and first looked at...

his own feet.

At this very moment, his feet were smooth, bare without shoes or socks.

That's right.

Neither the Anta shoes he was wearing nor the Brogues Little Ox had given him had returned with him.

Seeing this, Xu Yun couldn't help but stroke his chin:

"So, things that meet the conditions on me will travel with me to the instance, but things from the instance can't be brought back?"

Then he thought of something and looked at his ankle again:

The first time he went to William's house, Little Ox had taken him to chop firewood. At that time, Xu Yun's left ankle had become red and swollen from compression, and it hadn't subsided in the following days, instead forming a broken skin.

But at this moment, the skin on Xu Yun's left ankle was smooth, with no trace of the compressed wound.

In addition, over the past two weeks, due to the living standards in the 17th century, Xu Yun had accumulated some strange smells and his clothes were not very clean.

But at this moment, these smells had all disappeared.

Xu Yun glanced at the alarm clock on the table. It was 4:27 PM, exactly the same time as when he entered the space.

"So..."

"I soul-traveled to the 17th century, but the things I brought with me selectively materialized in the instance?"

"For example, modern-style items like glasses, clothes, and shoes, but technology that already existed at that time, would travel with me, while phones, earphones, and the like would be automatically blocked?"

Xu Yun thoughtfully stroked his chin. With this comparison, the mapping relationship between the instance and reality became much clearer.

It was a pity that he hadn't considered it thoroughly enough before and hadn't tried getting a haircut at Little Ox's house to see if his hairstyle would change upon return.

Afterward, he walked to the desk, reached out, and concentrated his attention to sense.

Whoosh--

The next second, a piece of cowhide paper gently landed in his hand.

The cowhide paper was covered with densely packed chemical symbols and Chinese characters, some of which made one feel dizzy just by looking at their chemical structures.

However, as a biology doctoral candidate about to obtain his degree, Xu Yun could easily make out the initial part of the chemical structure.

C9H10ClN5O2, which is 1-(6-chloropyridin-3-ylmethyl)-N-nitroimidazolidin-2-ylideneamine, its scientific name.

Imidacloprid.

It is a nitroguanidine-based systemic insecticide, belonging to the class of chloronicotinyl insecticides, also known as neonicotinoids, and was formally proposed at the Brighton Crop Protection Conference in England in 1991.

It acts as an agonist of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, disrupting the insect's nervous system and causing neurotransmission failure. It is mainly used to control sucking insects and their resistant strains.

In agriculture, it is mainly used for the control of aphids and planthoppers, while its greatest use in daily life is to kill various household pests.

Since its launch in 1991, it has been rapidly promoted, spreading to over forty countries worldwide within just three years.

Today, it can be said that wherever there is plant protection, there is Imidacloprid. Currently, Imidacloprid has become the world's number one insecticide, with global sales reaching $1.14 billion in 2014.

However, such a product that has reached the pinnacle has had a difficult time in recent years.

First, there's the issue of pest resistance from long-term use. With the widespread use of Imidacloprid, a large number of greenhouse pests have developed resistance to it – much like with antibiotics, it's an inevitable result of extensive application.

Secondly, because Imidacloprid targets nAchR, it has a defect where its effectiveness severely diminishes after multiple transmission cycles, leading to reduced efficacy.

Therefore, the effect of Imidacloprid is becoming less potent. It's like a once-famous courtesan gradually aging, eventually becoming a madam.

Among neonicotinoid insecticides, Imidacloprid is considered the first-generation. Thiamethoxam is the second-generation, and Dinotefuran is the third-generation.

However, within the specific field of Imidacloprid, the current Imidacloprid is an optimized version of the third-generation.

That's right, just the third-generation.

And the Imidacloprid obtained from the novice quest reward is advertised as fifth-generation, which means...

There's an entire generation of technological barrier between it and the existing Imidacloprid.

There's a rule in drug development: there's always progression between 'generations'; leapfrogging generations is not possible.

It's like the gap between feature phones and foldable screen phones, with the virtual button smartphones in between. Without an intermediate product, the chasm between generations is almost impossible to cross.

In other words...

If Xu Yun wants to turn the fifth-generation Imidacloprid into a new product that can be put into production, he must first break through the fourth-generation technological barrier.

Afterward, Xu Yun spread out the kraft paper further, hoping to gain some inspiration.

"ClC1N=CC(=CC=1)CN2C"

"Exact Molecular Weight 255.05200"

Soon, Xu Yun's gaze locked onto a line with the Mol formula:

70 0.0000 N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

10.1936 4.2021 0.0000 N 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

11.3603 3.1516 0.0000 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

10.5200 5.7378 0.0000 O 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

8.2153 2.2238 0.0000 C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

6.6453 2.2238 0.0000 C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.

At the same time, a large stream of information flashed through his mind at lightning speed.

After about two minutes, Xu Yun slapped his forehead:

"Good heavens, it's this thing?"