"Spaceship engine?" Cheng Wanli opened his mouth upon hearing this speculation, and it took him a while to close it again.
In that short time, Xu Chi's thoughts had already circled around that "spaceship," and he felt that his speculation was relatively reasonable.
He was just being too stubborn before.
Even aliens wouldn't be so extravagant as to use a fusion reactor to supply a plasma cannon, because it's simply unnecessary.
Using plasma cannons as weapons is too inefficient and has a very narrow range of applications.
Even if it can fly hundreds of kilometers, so what?
A missile could fly tens of thousands of kilometers, although its destructive power might not be as great as that massive plasma cannon.
But whether you blast someone to smithereens or kill them outright, the result is the same: death.
So even if they were aliens, they probably wouldn't need to use something like this.
However, if this "plasma cannon" is actually an engine, or a plasma thruster, then that would be a different story.
In the aerospace field, the advantages and disadvantages of traditional chemical fuels are very clear: they have high thrust and low barriers to entry, but unfortunately, they are not truly reliable.
The fuel was being injected too quickly.
If you don't control it well, you'll spray it all out in just a few minutes.
He's a complete shotgunner, and one that can't be reloaded once it's fired all its bullets.
After all, the rocket, along with its engine, was sent into outer space.
Therefore, the prevailing view is that chemical fuels have limited potential, and only electric propulsion systems, represented by plasma propulsion, can help humanity reach deeper into space.
Now it seems that this path was actually the right one?!
Just last night, a stealth spaceship equipped with a plasma engine propelled itself forward over a city, which explains its continuous appearances over various countries around the world.
Xu Chi excitedly took out his pen and paper and, based on the currently known data, deduced exactly how much thrust the engine capable of ejecting massive amounts of plasma had.
Cheng Wanli glanced at the formula and roughly knew what he was doing, so he didn't disturb him. Instead, he picked up the documents and looked at them again.
Xu Chi quickly obtained the results.
"How is it?" Cheng Wanli also came over.
Xu Chi swallowed hard. "I don't think I miscalculated, did I?"
Cheng Wanli glanced at the last number on the paper, and his brow twitched.
15 billion tons?
!"
Is this really not a calculation error?
Is this thrust really used to propel the spacecraft?
Faced with Cheng Wanli's skepticism, Xu Chi didn't recalculate. Instead, he said confidently, "I'm certain I didn't make a mistake, and I've already used very conservative data to extrapolate..."
Only Xu Chi himself knew that the parameters he had chosen were already very conservative; he had tried to minimize both the expected total amount of plasma and the ejection velocity.
It's so small it couldn't be smaller.
After all, they had observed the plasma flow last night and obtained some basic data.
Going any smaller would be disrespectful to reality.
However, Xu Chi did not expect that he would still calculate this terrifying number in the end.
This suddenly shook his previous beliefs.
Could it be that the plasma is really just a weather weapon, or simply used to heat the atmosphere?
Cheng Wanli knew that he wouldn't see any results today.
After Xu Chi left, he immediately called his assistant and began to inquire about the on-site investigation, wanting to see if he had noticed anything strange when the anomaly occurred.
The assistant briefly summarized the local reports, highlighting a few key points. "Around 10 PM last night, a stranded rescue team encountered a strange convoy in the Typhoon..."
The assistant uploaded the surveillance footage that had been retrieved afterward.
As you can see, there is indeed a strange black convoy driving on the road amidst the Typhoon.
"The strangest thing for them was that the rescue team leader saw a male member getting out of the convoy wearing a strange armored suit..."
"Then, shortly after he got out of the car, the plasma flow appeared, but the man showed no surprise and quickly returned to his car."
Although the Typhoon blocked most of the surveillance footage, Wang Lei's movements could still be roughly seen.
Cheng Wanli nodded and asked, "Anything else?"
The assistant quickly pulled up more surveillance footage after a few clicks on the computer. "Furthermore, according to the surveillance camera footage, these people appeared and disappeared completely suddenly. Their car models, license plates, and other markings—there wasn't a single trace of them ever being there before."
It's like they only exist in these few surveillance clips!
Cheng Wanli unconsciously clenched his fists. "Did the captain notice anything different about the man who got off the bus?"
"No," the assistant knew what his boss wanted to ask, and he shook his head, "I asked, and he felt the other person was just a somewhat quiet person."
"Is anyone there?"
"I see."
"Pass this message on to the other countries that have also experienced plasma flow phenomena, and tell them to investigate and see if similar cases exist."
Snowflakes danced outside the window, pattering onto the train's glass.
The buildings on both sides of the railway were covered in a blanket of silver.
The only downside was the chaotic crowd on the street.
Sensing their impending death, people lost their reason and began to disregard all order. Scrambling and killing bloomed like flowers of death in this snow-white silence.
Wilford admired the beautiful scenery all by himself.
He knew that the reason those people outside had become like this was somewhat related to the advertisements he had placed on television.
If it weren't for his advertisements, these people would still be in the dark, not even knowing how they died until their last breath.
But as someone who wanted to create a new order, Wilford didn't want that to happen.
He brought many supporters with him; these people stayed in business class, but the economy class on the train, in the last carriage, was still empty...
Therefore, he needs a group of people to fill the remaining space on the train.
This also allows for the circulation of people inside the train.
Wilford silently devised various plans that might be useful in the future, a smile still on his face.
Although not exactly the same as advertised, he does enjoy spending time on trains, which was one of the reasons he agreed to join the global cooling initiative.
Suddenly, Claude came in and reminded him that the station he had advertised as a stop for picking up passengers was just ten kilometers ahead.
According to the plan, many people desperate to survive would frantically board the Snowpiercer.
Once the population is replenished there, his train can finally set sail!
"This will be a journey that never ends, a perpetual cycle."
------Aside------
Today is Crazy Thursday, everyone burn some reflection coupons!
Xxs-2