Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

Across the ocean, the United States.

Inside the Oval Office in the White House.

A Chinese newspaper lay quietly on the president's desk.

The large red characters on the newspaper stood out vividly against the black and white background!

Great news! The nuclear fusion experiment at the Sandaokou University Nuclear Physics Laboratory has successfully ignited!

"Bang!"

A sound of slamming the table rang out.

The president's desk, made of mahogany, suddenly trembled.

"fxxk!"

A fat, middle-aged man with blond hair sat behind a desk, his face flushed, and roared, "Damn it!"

"Anthony, can you explain this to me?"

Hearing the middle-aged man's angry rebuke, the man called Anthony stepped forward, shrugging and saying nonchalantly, "Sir Albert, I don't think there's anything to explain."

"What? There's nothing to explain? Is this your reply as Minister of Defense?!" The muscles on both sides of the blond middle-aged man's cheeks trembled slightly, and even his blond bangs trembled twice.

"Tell me, Anthony, what did you say to me back then?"

"As long as we drive Xia Country out of the ITER project, we can maintain our leading position in controlled nuclear fusion forever." Albert perfectly imitated Anthony's tone of voice. "If I remember correctly, that's what you said, right?"

Anthony watched this scene with a grim expression.

"And now, Anthony, tell me what's written in the newspaper?!"

Albert angrily grabbed the newspaper from the table and slammed it onto the floor in front of Anthony!

Anthony's lips twitched slightly.

He lowered his head and carefully examined the newspaper.

He then said in a deep voice, "Your Excellency, I cannot read Chinese!"

Clearly, Anthony's reply was completely unexpected by Albert.

Albert's mouth gaped open as he stared at Anthony in disbelief: "Anthony, you...?"

"Fine! Very well!" Albert was even amused by his own anger. "If you can't read Chinese, then let me tell you what's written here!"

"The newspaper says that Xia Kingdom has successfully conducted a controlled nuclear fusion ignition experiment! Do you understand?"

Anthony nodded slightly, expressionless. "Mm."

"So?" Albert sneered. "Is this your reply?"

Anthony took a deep breath: "Your Excellency, I hope you will read this report carefully before you speak, instead of immediately starting to complain to me."

"As one of the ITER member countries, China naturally also possesses some controlled nuclear fusion technology."

"In my opinion, there's basically no need to worry about this so-called ignition experiment. They're still a long way from truly mastering controlled nuclear fusion!"

Albert's expression softened slightly.

After calming down, a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes, and he asked again.

"you mean……"

Anthony gestured behind him and said, "Your Excellency, let the professionals explain these technical details to you."

As he spoke, Anthony turned to the side and said to his back, "Professor Collins, it's your time now."

An elderly man with gray hair, leaning on a cane, slowly walked forward and respectfully bowed to Albert: "Your Excellency, Mr. President, hello."

Albert frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and then asked softly, "If I remember correctly, you should be the professor who was sent to ITER a few years ago as the team leader, right?"

A flicker of excitement crossed Professor Collins' eyes: "Yes, Your Excellency, I didn't expect you to remember me!"

Albert nodded slightly, his expression slightly arrogant, and said, "What, do you want to explain something to me?"

Professor Collins nodded quickly, then said somewhat hurriedly, "Your Excellency, I believe you have absolutely no need to worry about this news from Xia Country."

Albert's eyes flickered slightly, and he gestured for him to continue, while he adjusted himself into a more comfortable sitting position.

"I've read the reports from Xia Guo. The controlled nuclear fusion device they used this time is a stellarator, not a traditional tokamak device."

Upon hearing this, Albert frowned deeply.

He did have some recollection of the tokamak device.

After all, a large part of the tokamak device in the ITER project was funded and manufactured by the United States.

But what exactly is that stellarator...?

He looked at Professor Collins with some confusion: "Professor, the stellarator you mentioned earlier..."

Seeing the confusion in Albert's eyes, Professor Collins suddenly realized and said, "Your Excellency, you don't need to know what a stellarator is. You only need to know one thing: a stellarator device is a piece of equipment that we have phased out."

"The reason for its elimination is simple: it is too expensive to manufacture and too difficult to produce, which could easily lead to the failure of nuclear fusion."

"I can roughly guess the origin of that stellarator at Sandaokou University in Xia Country. It should be a stellarator from Country D that was almost scrapped a few years ago."

Albert stared at Professor Collins in disbelief: "Are you sure? A defunct stellarator can successfully ignite nuclear fusion?!"

Clearly, Albert didn't quite believe Professor Collins's words.

Professor Collins nodded vigorously: "Your Excellency, you should know that products from Country D have always been of good quality."

"I estimate that this is also the reason why the Xia Kingdom was able to succeed."

"But this outdated technology is definitely unreliable. Therefore, as you can see, the controlled nuclear fusion in Xia Country can only be maintained for a short two minutes."

"You may not know this, but the ITER tokamak device can now extend the duration of controlled nuclear fusion to 26 minutes!"

Professor Collins' words softened Albert's stiff expression considerably.

"So... in your opinion, what about the research on controlled nuclear fusion in Xia Country...?"

"Impossible! There's absolutely no way Xia Guo could complete its research on controlled nuclear fusion using a stellarator!" Professor Collins said decisively without the slightest hesitation. "The stellarator has long been proven to be a thankless and arduous path!"

Upon hearing this, a smile finally appeared on Albert's face.

As long as China cannot master controlled nuclear fusion, the United States' position will not be shaken!

"But... Your Excellency, there's something I'd like to discuss with you." A hint of hesitation flashed in Professor Collins' eyes.

"Speak!" Perhaps because he had just received some good news, Albert had a faint smile on his lips and nodded slightly.

"Your Excellency, the United States should also build its own controlled nuclear fusion device," Professor Collins said nervously. "We can't keep sharing our experimental results with ITER forever!"

"In the next experiment, ITER plans to extend the controlled nuclear fusion time to more than 30 minutes. If successful... perhaps the era of humankind mastering controlled nuclear fusion is just around the corner. We, the United States, should prepare in advance."