Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"No, you should ask how to build it - because I want to build more than one ball. In fact, I plan to build an orbital Great Wall, and then string the balls on it like a necklace. The initial plan is to weave a 1-kilometer-wide ring belt, and the spherical station on it must have a diameter of at least 10 kilometers."

"Hey, hey, hey, this is a bit scary!" Phaethon's prediction came true. "Will this permanently change the appearance of the earth's sky?"

"That's how we can improve perception and reach." Shangluo replied, "Since we have plasticine that can be rolled into a round or flat shape, we should make it as big as possible, so that it can be used to create wonders. And the Romans thought it was dangerous if the moon was smashed, right? I think it's not impossible to use the moon mirage to repair the moon when the time comes."

"It's not like a broken tooth filling can be repaired, right?"

"Well, we are the heavenly court, so repairing the stars is certainly within our scope of business."

Phaethon didn't know where Shangluo's plan would stop. She only knew that the landscape of the earth would probably be changed forever from now on.

With the addition of mirages, the speed of this change may exceed the imagination of everyone on Earth. The sky may change every day, faster than blowing up a balloon. The new Great Wall will stretch across the unchanging starry sky, and all this may happen within a month.

The next day, the second Shuilong arrived at the dock. All work was proceeding step by step. The gas tank transport ship carrying the mirage gas had already stopped at the berth, ready to use the "printing" method to directly inject the mirage gas into the solid metal frame. However, the specific operation still had to be mastered by the technicians of the Dragon Palace.

The hatch opened and a familiar person walked out.

It was Otohime. According to Shangluo and Ao Zang's plan, Otohime was released from the imperial prison and joined the project directly. She was the only one who was not a volunteer.

"How come you were exiled to a place farther away right after you got out of the imperial prison? Hmm? Shangluo?" She looked up and said, "Why is it you?"

"Didn't you know you were going to work for me before you came?"

"Ah, my father said that my exile would end once I finished this job, but I didn't expect you to send me here to work. How long do you plan to keep me locked up?"

"It's hard to say. At least we have to wait until the plan to attack the moon is completed."

"Alas." Otohime sighed, "Okay, okay, this is the price I pay for defying my father. I don't think I can go back anytime soon. I only have one request. Please arrange an independent bedroom for me - or a cell."

"There is no private dormitory. But I can build one for you and hang it outside?"

"Okay, okay." Yiji replied helplessly, "Who said I am guilty? With your help, my father has won many victories. Now the whole Dragon Palace belongs to him. He even gave you his precious mirage energy. Tsk tsk tsk tsk."

She looked around and said, "It seems that this space station is my new prison."

Chapter 1345 Mirage Spray Gun

"So, how do you use this thing?"

Yiji put a thing that looked like a spray gun into Shangluo's hand.

This was the first time that Ryugu had uncovered the details of the mirage-making process—the spray gun and the gas tank connected to the other end of the gun.

For a moment, Shangluo thought he was going to turn into a squid, spraying paint everywhere with a spray gun and a mop.

“Just spray it on.”

"That's it?" Shang Luo asked in surprise, "That's it?"

He pulled the trigger at the empty space, and a cloud of colorless and tasteless colored mist sprayed out from it. The colors were colorful, like the inner shell of an abalone or a conch. Or to put it more directly, this was the mirage itself.

The mirage before our eyes showed no image because it was not given any meaning.

"Yes, that's how it's used." Otohime nodded, "But some modules need to be added to make it really work - Mirage can simulate everything in the world, but it's just a shadow after all. A shadow cannot exist alone and must have a body. So, please use this."

She pulled out a heavily locked box from under the table, where the most important instruments were.

At first glance, Shangluo felt that the box was like a precision optical instrument that needed to be kept separately to ensure its normal function.

After entering the password, Yiji opened the box manually, and two rows of spheres appeared in front of Shangluo, 5 in each row, 10 in total.

Shangluo knew this sphere. When they first met, Ao Zang gave him a sphere for storing information. It was a treasure from the East China Sea. According to the principle that "everything that sinks to the bottom of the sea belongs to the Dragon King", Ao Zang gave Shangluo a treasure from one of the bottoms of the sea. However, because the bead itself was very beautiful and Zheng Shijie generously provided funds, he just regarded the bead as a collection.

In fact, the Dragon King also collects this thing. Just like a dog peeing under a telephone pole when it goes out for a walk, the Dragon Palace may not necessarily salvage all the treasures, but it must mark them. As for whether to salvage them again after marking, that is a question of how to display the furnishings in your home. The sunken ship is sunk on the seabed as a reef, which is also a kind of landscape. Unless it is necessary, the Dragon Palace will not salvage the sunken ship on the seabed.

And now, 10 identical beads appeared in front of Shangluo - you couldn't tell what was inside just by looking at the appearance.

"Is this a dragon ball?"

"This is the 'body' that gives meaning to the mirage that is ejected." Otohime replied, "As long as these dragon balls are loaded into the spray gun, the mirage that is ejected will change into the shape contained in the dragon ball according to the meaning contained in it."

"So what shapes do the dragon balls in this box represent?"

"Well," Otohime replied, "because you mentioned building a space station, so this time we brought out the basic modeling kit—mainly 1x1 blocks, platform plates, ramps of various slopes, and corner blocks. This box of 10 is for outdoor structures. I brought five sets in total, so I can start work in five locations at the same time."

"Ah! Now I understand, now I understand." Shangluo understood completely. Past experiences of pulling production lines on various blocks resurfaced in his mind. It was like a time skipper. Once he started playing, he couldn't stop. Because the joy of creation satisfied the human psyche's instinctive desire for production and creation.

"You seem very skilled at it?" Otohime asked in surprise, "Have you used it before?"

"I guess I have used it before - can I ask, when these blocks are placed, will their relative positions be attached to nearby blocks?"

When this question was asked, Otohime's eyes began to light up: "You really have used it before! You can actually ask such a professional question."

[Ah, this guy is a hardcore Steam player, especially likes to play various production line games. He has driven various light and heavy industrial mechas, lived a happy life on the surfaces of various planets, built a Dyson sphere upwards, and dug into the center of the earth downwards. Hey, hey, don't pull conveyor belts everywhere on the space station. ]

"Oh my." Shangluo couldn't stop smiling. "So Princess Yiji, does this have cube absorption?"

Yiji nodded: "Yes, it can be adjusted on this gun. If you don't plan to use these blocks to make sculptures, it is recommended to keep it open, so that all the constructed structural parts are aligned to the same coordinate system. By the way, Shangluo, if you know this, then you can teach others later, right?"

"You don't need to teach me the basics. Just tell me the intermediate techniques."

[Ding, you have selected the 'Experienced Player' mode. You have skipped the beginner tutorial and entered the advanced tutorial.]

"Let me explain first," Yiji replied. "Since Shangluo knows everything, I will only say one thing - the most important point is that you must not build it in a residential environment. You must also ensure that the structural parts are connected to each other. Because once they are disconnected, they can no longer be aligned."

"What does it mean?"

"Hmm," Otohime thought for a moment, "This question is not easy to answer, because after using it too much, it is not easy to explain. In short, the parts made with this thing are all regarded as a complete whole, and every molecule is aligned. The parts fit together perfectly, almost like an infinite rigid body. But if you accidentally cut the structural parts, the alignment between them will be permanently interrupted, and you will not be able to reconnect them. The entire project may be delayed because of this."

"Is there any way to remedy this?"

"Yes." Otohime picked up the dragon ball in the corner: "This is a docking piece. When two structures cannot be aligned due to disconnection, they can only be reconnected with a docking piece. However, once the crack is created, the gap is permanent, and the docking piece is just a way to remedy it." She walked around Shangluo and pointed to the knob next to the trigger:

"The situation I just described usually occurs in [Demolition Mode]. By changing the mode, you can let the mirage fill up, or retract it. You just need to be extra careful when retracting it."

"Oh, right." Shangluo suddenly asked, "Does your construction mode have a blueprint? Just build a big one at a time."

"Did you jump to advanced mode so quickly?! You really know everything!"

Chapter 1346 Blueprint Burning

After the construction started, a long strip extending far out of the space station immediately took shape.

Shangluo personally took charge of the project. He wore a space suit and personally expanded the plank road at the dock.

The part close to the main body of the space station is still built with frames. After extending 20 grids, it is completely made of mirage.

The oxygen tank on the back is surprisingly durable. Each pigeon is a medium-sized block of 2 meters x 2 meters, and 20 grids are a 40-meter-long structure. After building so many, less than half of the tank has been used. If all of it is used up, roughly 50 grids can be built. If it is a slope or other parts, the amount used will be even smaller.

"Wow" Wen Yuan and Han Xingzhi followed behind, also wearing space suits and holding two other sets of spray guns. Unlike Shangluo, they had never played similar [sandbox games], and these block constructions were the first time for them.

This thing, although it was just a dustpan, was damn interesting. Although Shangluo asked them to watch him demonstrate for a while, the two were already eager to try it.

"Okay, let's do this for now." Shangluo waved at the two of them, motioning them to come closer.

The two moved to Shangluo's side: "I want to test the effect of the collision, you help me watch."

After starting to build with these blocks, Shangluo planned to first test the structural strength of these blocks.

Although Otohime did say that these things are set to be "rigid", meaning they will not bend no matter how long they are stretched.

However, it should be a relatively rigid body, not an absolutely rigid body. Because according to the definition of an absolutely rigid body, this thing that will never deform is like a spherical chicken in a vacuum, and will show many counterintuitive characteristics. For example, because it has no elasticity, all its internal structures are locked in their original positions, and you may pass through it directly if you hit it with your hand.

If such a thing exists, it is a miracle in itself. So it is unlikely that what Ryugu created is an absolutely rigid body, but should only be relatively extremely rigid.

But even though they are very rigid, these blocks themselves have structural strength - that is, temperature.

As mentioned before, the blocks made of these mirages will begin to collapse at the temperature of bath water, which is about 40 degrees Celsius. And to reach this temperature, it is not only through heating, but also through direct collision.

Shangluo wanted to know what would happen if two blocks collided with each other. If they would collapse, how much force would be needed to make them collapse, and would there be any residue left after the collapse?

It's a bit troublesome for Yi Yiji to talk about these, so why not just bump into one and try it. Anyway, there are still plenty of mirages.

Simple experiments only require simple steps. After the 20-square-long block was formed, Shangluo came to the third block on the outside.

He asked Wen Yuan to spray out an ordinary 2x2 block in the void, and then he grabbed the block and "knocked" it against the pier.

There was a bang from a distance - strangely, there was no sound. Even the part that was in contact with the pier did not transmit any sound to Shangluo's ears through bone conduction.

[Interesting, although this block is not an absolutely rigid body, its rigidity is quite high. There is no sound when it collides - because sound is transmitted through vibration. With such high rigidity, it seems that there is no way to produce perceptible vibration. ]

"If we use instruments to detect it, we should be able to find it out." Shangluo said in a deep voice, "But we can treat it as a relatively rigid body for the time being."

In other words, this thing is very strong and will not break no matter what it hits. The only thing that limits its existence is the nature of the mirage itself.

He called Wen Yuan and Han Xingzhi to help him "catch up" because the next step was a collision test, and he was afraid that the blocks would fly everywhere and hit any structural parts.

10 meters away, Shangluo summoned another cube, and then slammed it down hard -

This time, even though it was a rigid body, Shangluo's punch produced a sharp buzzing sound. This buzzing sound was transmitted to Shangluo's ears through bone conduction.

The entire block didn't fly forward—the energy injected by the punch had already heated it up. In a moment, the entire block crumbled and scattering like the embers of burning paper.

Shangluo tried to recover it with a spray gun, but it was already gone.

[I see. The collapsed mirage cannot be taken back.]

"After all, it's just a mirror. A broken mirror can't be put back together, and once it's broken it's completely useless."

He sprayed out another one, this time in the form of investment. At a slightly faster speed of 40 kilometers per hour, Shangluo threw the cube from the outside to the inside, the third cube.

The two cubes buzzed together and then disappeared together - this collapse was over as soon as it started, with no in-between state.

After the third block was broken, the two outer blocks flew outwards. Shangluo used a spray gun to recover them separately - although it is difficult to restore them after they have flown out, which also reflects the characteristic of a broken mirror that is difficult to mend, but they can still be dismantled and rebuilt.

[This thing is quite interesting.] Apollonia agreed. At least, this seems to be very interesting.

"After all, it is a block constructed using an imaginary 'rigid body'. Its physical properties are quite good."

He looked at Wen Yuan and Han Xingzhi: "Okay, then the rest is up to you two to do. I mean, I'll leave the work to you."

"Okay!" Both of them raised their hands. "Then can we use our creativity to make a small sculpture or something?"

"I will make it after the work is finished. Also, don't make it too big or too strange, and the shape should not violate relevant laws and regulations and platform requirements."

“What are the platform requirements?”

"That's my request!" Shangluo pointed to the ground, "Aren't you building this on the platform of the space station? My request is that you can play around, but I don't want to wake up to see a sky full of messy blocks flying everywhere."

"Understood!" The two raised their hands again, "We promise not to mess around."

With that, they began their creative mode.

Floating back into the cabin, Shangluo took off his helmet.

Otohime, who was waiting nearby, asked, "How is it?"

"Very good, quite fun! By the way!" Shangluo quickly grabbed the intercom and said to the two people outside: "Use the spray paint mode to change the structural parts I just built into mirror paint, quickly! And you don't use colors other than mirror."

"Huh? Why?" Han Xingzhi asked.

"Because the sun is out, it will heat up! Idiot. Only the mirror surface won't heat up. Otherwise, no matter what you build, when the space station is turned to the sun side, it will all melt when it hits the sun."

Chapter 1347 Otohime's Service

"Shangluo Shangluo, how do you feel?"

After returning from the outside world, Zhu Ling was the first to greet him: "Do you want to rest? Do you want me to give you some water? I see you are sweating. This helmet is very stuffy!"

"Why are you sweating? Celestial beings don't sweat at all. Haven't you noticed that?" Shangluo took off his helmet. "I'll be fine even if I don't wear a helmet. I just wear a helmet for more comfort. Your Highness, do you have any requests?"

"It's my turn to play now! Go and have a rest, and give me the spray gun."

“So you’re thinking about this.”

Shangluo had noticed Zhu Ling standing at the window looking out since a while ago. He had previously thought that Zhu Ling's "feeding desire" had kicked in, and that she was observing his behavior like a panda.

After all this time she wanted to do it herself.

"Then I'll change you into a space suit." He took off his space suit while reaching behind him to unzip it.

"No need, I'll take it!" Zhu Ling ran away holding the helmet and space suit, and took the spray gun from his hand.

[Why are there still people rushing to do the work?]

"If I have to play with this while working, I'll have to work every day. Yeah, that's fine." He stretched, "I'll go take a rest for a while."