Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 190 Interstellar Branches

Zuo Cheng and Yu Ying had dinner at a private restaurant by the lake in Hangzhou. When Yu Ying arrived, Zuo Cheng had already been sitting by the window for a while, with two cups of warmed Shaoxing wine on the table.

"What are we celebrating?" Yu Ying sat down and put her bag down beside her.

"There's something else about the Standards Committee." Zuo Cheng poured her a glass.

Yu Ying picked up her glass, smelled it, and said, "You rarely suggest celebrating."

Zuo Cheng said, "Because today is worthwhile. The completion of the standard setting means that the entire commercial spaceflight pipeline is now complete. From the maiden flight of Cangqiong-1 to becoming the world's number one in market share, and then to becoming a standard setter, every step is connected."

Yu Ying said, "The next step is platformization?"

Zuo Cheng agreed. After platformization, 402's output is no longer just a single launch service, but a complete industry infrastructure. Other companies launch rockets using our standards, our interfaces, and our certification system. That's the real barrier to entry.

Yu Ying asked, "Will our competitors catch up?"

Zuo Cheng said that catching up takes time, but time is on our side. Every time a standard is adopted, our niche becomes more secure. By the time others react, the landscape has already been set.

Yu Ying nodded and said, "You thought about this three years ago?"

Zuo Cheng smiled but didn't answer. He couldn't possibly tell her that when he was reborn three years ago, he already had a complete roadmap in his mind. The existence of the technology tree system was a secret he kept to himself.

After dinner, Zuo Cheng escorted Yu Ying back to her apartment. Downstairs, Yu Ying said, "Get some rest. You've been working too hard lately."

Zuo Cheng said there was one more thing to take care of, and he would go to sleep after he finished.

He returned to headquarters 402, where the entire building was almost empty. The security guard greeted him, and he swiped his card to enter the elevator, going straight to his top-floor office.

He locked the door, sat down at his desk, took a deep breath, and opened the system panel.

On the panel, all nodes in the commercial space mission chain are lit up in green. The last node, the standard setter, is shown as completed. The mission chain name has changed from "In Progress" to "Available".

Click to claim in Zuocheng.

A soft light burst forth from the center of the panel, spreading outwards like ripples on water. He squinted, watching as new characters emerged from the light.

"Mission Chain Completed: Commercial Space Dominator"

Reward: Seventh branch activated, points +150

Current score: 517 + 150 = 667

"Technology increase: 1.3 → 1.4"

As the light faded, the tech tree graphic on the panel began to change. A seventh branch slowly grew from the main trunk, thicker and darker in color than the previous six. Eight leaves appeared one after another on the branch, each shimmering with a faint light.

Zuo Cheng opened and checked them one by one.

The first aspect is reusable rocket technology. The entire process of rocket recovery and reuse has been optimized, and combined with the existing capabilities of the Sky Dome-2, the maximum number of reuses can be further increased.

The second part is the rapid inspection and maintenance system. This system enables rapid inspection and maintenance of recovered rockets, aiming to reduce maintenance time from six hours to two hours.

The third blade represents the integrated spacecraft and rocket design. The overall recovery and reuse technology has been successfully verified by the Cangqiong-2 rocket; this blade provides a direction for next-generation optimization.

The fourth aspect is optimizing launch density. Multi-launch site coordinated scheduling, with twelve launches per month not being the limit, theoretically could be extended to twenty.

The fifth element is the frequency and orbit optimization algorithm. Optimal satellite orbit allocation is crucial for the satellite network plan.

The sixth aspect is low-cost manufacturing. The goal of mass-producing rockets at low cost is to halve the cost per rocket.

The seventh feature is precise vertical recovery control. High-precision vertical landing technology reduces landing deviation from 0.3 meters to 0.1 meters.

The eighth step is rapid launch preparation. Launch preparation time has been significantly reduced, from the start of the countdown to ignition, to less than two hours.

Eight blades, covering every core aspect of commercial spaceflight. Zuo Cheng finished reading, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh.

Seven branches have been established. These include communications engineering, aerospace communications, the Internet of Things, AI, unmanned systems, new energy vehicles, space photovoltaics, and now commercial spaceflight. More than half of the twelve-branch goal has been achieved.

He recalled the first day of his rebirth, when the system panel first appeared before him, consisting of only a solitary branch of a communications engineering tree with two leaves hanging from it. At that time, he thought it was just an auxiliary tool, never imagining that five years later it would grow into such a towering tree.

Zuo Cheng noticed a new icon flashing in the lower right corner of the panel. He clicked on it and saw a message: "Seven branches achieved, unlocking advanced cross-branch fusion permissions."

He read the instructions carefully. Ordinary fusion can only simply superimpose the technologies of two branches, while advanced fusion can deeply integrate the capabilities of three or even four branches, creating entirely new technological directions. For example, combining aerospace communications with AI and unmanned systems could potentially give rise to autonomous navigation deep space probes.

Zuo Cheng immediately understood the value of this permission. No matter how advanced the technology of a single branch is, it has its limits. But when multiple branches are merged, the limits disappear, allowing the creation of things never before seen.

Zuo Cheng turned off the control panel, stood up, and walked to the window.

At 2 a.m. in Hangzhou, the streets were still sparsely populated with traffic. In the distance, in the science park, a few lights were on in several office buildings (Building 402), where engineers were on night shift. At the Northwest Launch Center, it should be daytime, and the maintenance team for the Cangqiong-2 rocket was probably busy at work. On the launch pad at the Hainan base, the next rocket was likely already erected.

All of this is real. The system gave him a map, but he was the one walking, along with the people around him.

He recalled what Yu Ying had said that night: "You thought about this three years ago?"

He didn't answer, because the answer couldn't be spoken. What he had planned wasn't three years, but a full ten years from his previous life. All those failures, those regrets, all those things he didn't have time to do, were being made up for little by little in this life.

Zuo Cheng returned to his desk, opened his laptop, created a new document, and titled it "Brain-Computer Interface Research".

He already had a premonition about the direction of the eighth branch. Zhao Wenbo of Xingchen Technology had mentioned it several times; their neural interface technology had made a new breakthrough. The cooperative relationship between 402 and Xingchen had been established, and the next step was to deepen it.

He typed the first line: Brain-computer interface, the next battlefield.

Outside the window, dawn was approaching. Zuo Cheng saved the document, shut down his computer, and got up to leave the office. The automatic sensor lights in the corridor turned on and off one by one with his footsteps.

The elevator went down to the first floor, where the security guard was still on duty. Zuo Cheng nodded to him and walked out of the building.

The morning air was cool; he took a deep breath and felt much more awake.

The seventh branch has lit up, but this is not the end. Of the twelve branches, five remain. After brain-computer interfaces, there are quantum computing, controlled nuclear fusion, and deep space exploration—technologies that existed only in science fiction novels in the previous life will all be illuminated in this one.

Zuo Cheng walked towards the parking lot with firm steps.

The sun rises in the east, casting golden rays upon the streets of Hangzhou. A new day begins, and a new journey commences.