Humanity Is Gone, but I Have Billions of Clones

This kind of research method would be absolutely impossible in the Human World.

It wasn't even a question of finding enough materials science experts with the necessary knowledge and experience for the experiments. Even if such a team could be assembled, the sheer cost of materials consumed in the process would be unsustainable.

Every experiment requires the involvement of extremely precise equipment and consumes vast amounts of electricity and precious raw materials.

But for Li Qingsong, none of this was a problem.

'Materials science experts?'

'I have them. Lots of them. If a million isn't enough, I can even provide a hundred million.'

'Every single Clone, even those who farm, raise pigs, work as drivers, or collect trash, can be transformed into a materials science expert at a moment's notice if necessary.'

'Material consumption? That's no issue either. All those factories running at full power day in and day out—what do you think all those products they manufacture are for?'

'To let every Clone live a wonderful life?'

'Of course not. They exist to support the consumption of scientific experiments.'

These two major obstacles simply didn't exist for Li Qingsong. Thus, he launched an offensive on the materials science front with what was, in theory, the highest possible efficiency. In just over a decade, through constant experimentation, iteration, and optimization, he finally found a suitable material.

A type of steel produced through high-pressure forging, with the metal niobium as an additive element.

Having finally achieved a breakthrough in materials science, there were no longer any obstacles for Li Qingsong to manufacture a qualified high-speed traverse mount.

Now, after decades of continuous research and development, a qualified high-speed traverse mount finally sat before Li Qingsong.

Its overall structure resembled a hemisphere, with several brackets extending from the top, making it look somewhat like an antenna.

Li Qingsong had placed this "antenna" on a test platform that was shaking violently and constantly swaying.

Although the test platform was constantly shaking, no matter how it moved, its special shock absorption and stabilization systems ensured that only the inner hemisphere moved. The outer shell remained perfectly stable, not moving in the slightest.

Not only that, but the brackets on top were also turning rapidly, pointing one way one moment and another way the next.

It looked like branches swaying erratically in a strong wind, but the indicator lights emitted from the brackets showed that this was not random movement. It was conscious, controlled manipulation.

The light beams always pointed precisely at the corresponding numbers on a massive screen up ahead, even though the numbers were so small they were invisible to the naked eye up close, and despite the hundred-meter distance between them.

Dozens of brackets aimed quickly and simultaneously, without the slightest confusion or error.

Watching its performance, Li Qingsong finally nodded in satisfaction.

"Everything else is fine, but it uses a bit too much niobium."

"This stuff is a rare element. Back on Earth, the largest niobium mine had reserves of only a few million tons, and there's even less of it here in the Jupiter System."

"To manufacture it on a large scale, I'll have to look toward the rocky planets and the Asteroid Belt."

"But that's okay. I'll just build a few mining bases within the Solar System in the future."

With the successful development of the high-speed traverse mount, the entire Interception System was now only missing its final component.

The data processing system.

The data processing system was the brain of the entire Interception System.

When the radar captures a target signal, the data processing system must first perform calculations. It processes the target's orbit and heading, combining that with the ship's own trajectory and current attitude. It also factors in data on the status and orientation of all available defensive weapons. After synthesizing all this information to make a decision, it issues a command to the traverse mount. Only then can the mount aim the appropriate weapon in the right direction, allowing the Electromagnetic Cannon and Laser Cannon to fire.

Although the data processing system was important, it was, in the end, just a high-performance computer.

And by now, Li Qingsong had already conquered the manufacturing process for 2-nanometer chips and could mass-produce them.

Chips made with a 2-nanometer process were more than capable of handling the computational load required.

Thus, with the successful development of the high-speed traverse mount, the final obstacle to building a truly "modern" Warship was finally eliminated by Li Qingsong.

The long, large-scale scientific offensive, which had lasted for decades, had finally yielded a milestone achievement, allowing Li Qingsong to breathe a small sigh of relief.

But it was only a small sigh.

Li Qingsong hadn't forgotten that the Wukong AI was still waiting, constantly craving real, effective battlefield data as its food.

At its current stage, Wukong could only feed on virtual data within simulated virtual spaces run on a supercomputer.

'Then...'

Li Qingsong made his decision instantly.

'Build a real, modern Warship!'

Because the related technologies had only just broken through, the corresponding production lines weren't ready yet.

But that didn't matter. Under the existing industrial system, custom manufacturing could still produce all the necessary components for this one Warship.

So, the hull factory, the engine factory, the secondary pressurization module factory, the traverse mount factory, and so on—a total of 16,000 component factories involved—produced all the parts within five days and shipped them to the vacuum assembly workshop.

The assembly workshop maintained an extremely high vacuum, with a material density even lower than that of actual interstellar space.

For example, at a distance of about five thousand kilometers from Ganymede, even in space that sparse, there were about 10 Particles per cubic centimeter on average. But in the vacuum assembly chamber Li Qingsong had built, the average number of Particles per cubic centimeter was only 3.

In such a pure environment, the precision assembly of all the various components began.

Through his numerous past production and construction projects, Li Qingsong had come to deeply understand one principle.

For an industrial product like a spacecraft, with its vast number of components—sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions—manufacturing a single part wasn't the hardest task. The most difficult part was assembling them all.

It was an extremely complex, systemic task. The slightest imperfection could affect the spacecraft's overall performance. A single poorly routed wire could lead to a malfunction.

But thankfully, Li Qingsong was already a seasoned expert at this.

Aided by the "Divine Craft" AI, hundreds of Clones operated high-precision robotic arms, fitting the components into the spacecraft's frame piece by piece inside the vacuum chamber.

After more than ten days of nonstop welding, bonding, fastening, and connecting, they finally assembled the very first truly modern Mercury-class Warship in history.

Gazing at the ship—a saucer-shaped vessel about 16 meters in diameter with a dark gray exterior—Li Qingsong's heart filled with joy.

The birth of this Warship meant that, at least in terms of warship-related technology, he had completely surpassed the old Human Civilization!