Then let the witch offer her loyalty

Why didn't Chen Moxin have it?

The answer is simple: because he is a person of faith.

His faith sustained him through countless dark nights in that enclosed iron shell; the long hours were but a fleeting moment in the face of unwavering will.

At this moment, Anies felt very fortunate to have met such a like-minded person.

"Would you like to visit the Stargate Base?" Anies suddenly asked.

Chen Moxin was taken aback at first, staring blankly at her: "Is it okay? I heard that it's a restricted area and outsiders aren't allowed to go in and visit."

Anies smiled slightly: "Of course, you are my companion now, not an outsider."

Chen Moxin was overjoyed and immediately nodded to Anies, saying, "It is my honor."

Anies beckoned to him: "I'm going to the Stargate base to give a report today, let's call those two along too, we'll go together after breakfast."

The environment on Cicero is not as good as its home planet Gaia. There is little arable land here, and people usually eat factory-synthesized food. Every bite is full of technology and hard work.

Chen Moxin originally thought that Anies, as a high-ranking noble on this planet, must eat all kinds of specially supplied natural ingredients.

To his surprise, the food here was similar to what he had outside, mainly consisting of cheap factory food. Vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and dairy products were available, but only as supplementary ingredients.

After breakfast, Annie led a civilian team, including Wilson, along with Chen Moxin and others, on a hovercar to the Stargate Base.

The convoy had barely flown a short distance from the mansion when Alexander, who was in the same car as Chen Moxin, suddenly noticed something and pointed down through the window: "Brother Chen, look over there."

Chen Moxin turned her head and saw a group of protesters gathered outside the mansion, holding up colorful signs and confronting the guards.

Chen Moxin tapped the window a few times, and the holographic window automatically focused, making the details of the protesters' crowd clearly visible. Even their voices were transmitted into the car through the high-precision recognition system.

"Stop the Stargate Project! Abandon this pointless investment!"

“We demand that the oversight department investigate Annies Craig, who is squandering the planet’s resources!”

"The Stargate Project is a scam; you are using it to seek personal gain!"

Previously, Chen Moxin had already learned about the so-called "Star Gate Faction" and "Spaceship Faction" while in the library.

Strictly speaking, the Stargate faction and the Spaceship faction share the same goal: to lead humanity into the boundless universe.

However, the core ideas and development directions of the two factions are completely different.

The Star Sect's philosophy is quite bold. They hope to tear through the veil of reality with ultra-high energy levels, allowing interstellar spaceships to briefly enter another dimension, thereby achieving spatial leap and directly ignoring the limitations imposed by the speed of light.

The spaceship proponents, on the other hand, are more "pragmatic." They advocate developing traditional space travel technologies, building larger, faster, and more durable interstellar spaceships, and combining these with further breakthroughs in areas such as ecological recycling and hibernation technologies to continuously extend the range of interstellar spaceships.

So what if we can't surpass the speed of light?

They turned the spaceship into a colonial fortress, filling it with the youth of generations.

Trading time for space—that's the core concept of the spaceship faction.

In recent years, whether on Gaia's home planet or on alien colonies like Cicero, the spaceship faction has dominated public opinion.

The reason is simple: the Stargate Project has been around for over a hundred years, consuming the youth and energy of countless people and investing immeasurable resources, yet it still has no substantial results.

Meanwhile, the spaceship faction has been making new discoveries in fields such as materials science, ecological recycling technology, and hibernation technology, and one after another, more and more advanced interstellar spaceships are being produced from the dock, with results that can be seen directly.

In contrast, the Stargate Project is like a bottomless pit, devouring vast amounts of resources and research funding, yet it is itself like a mirage, invisible and intangible.

Against this backdrop, the Star Sect has become an anomaly.

There are even rumors that the Supreme Government of the Gaia Mother Planet Alliance is considering whether to completely halt the Stargate Project and make a policy shift.

Whether the rumors are true or false, the pressure faced by Anies, as the leader of the Cicero Planetary Sect, is unimaginable.

...

Anies's convoy crossed the city, flew over the restricted zone boundary, headed north, and finally landed at the Stargate Base.

Previously, Chen Moxin and the others had only gazed at the Star Gate from afar, but only when they actually stood before it could they truly feel its magnificence and vastness.

This colossal ring, thousands of meters high, obscures the entire sky. It lies there like a stairway to the stars, and all language seems pale and powerless before it.

Knowing that Anise was coming today, several researchers dressed in white were waiting at the entrance of the Stargate Base to greet her.

The leader was a short, hunched old man with very little hair left on his bald head. He wore thick reading glasses and kept biting the dead skin on his fingers while muttering something to himself.

"The direction is correct... the data errors are simply because we haven't mastered the correct method yet... Yes... we should conduct another experiment to tear the veil of reality..."

Anies approached the old man and smiled at Chen Moxin, saying, "Chen, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Deng Xuemin, the chief engineer of the current Stargate Project. Like you, he comes from the east of our home planet Gaia."

"Chief Engineer Deng, this is Chen Moxin, a recipient of the gift from Gaia, and our new companion."

Deng Xuemin then came to her senses, somewhat awkwardly wiped her hands on her clothes, and extended her hand to Chen Moxin, saying, "Hello, hello, it's an honor."

From his flustered demeanor, Chen Moxin astutely discerned the other party's background: "Is Chief Engineer Deng an ordinary person?"

This differs from Chen Moxin's understanding.

Based on his understanding of the world, mortals are incapable of receiving higher education.

Scientists are typically psionicists or of psionic lineage.

Anies seemed to see Chen Moxin's doubts and explained with a smile, "I told you when we first met that I don't look at a person's background when I hire them, I only look at their talent and ability."

"Chief Engineer Deng is indeed a mortal, but he is quite lucky. He was adopted by a spirit descendant when he was young, received a complete higher education, and has outstanding scientific research capabilities."

“My father originally disliked him, thinking that ordinary people were not good enough for great things, but I think that was a very outdated idea.”

"After my father died, I inherited his business and directly promoted Chief Engineer Deng to the Stargate Base."

Deng Xuemin seemed to be a bit neurotic. After greeting Chen Moxin, he went back to his absent-minded state, muttering about work.

"Stargate is humanity's future... our hope for conquering the stars..."

"I must produce results...at all costs..."

Next, Annies talked to Deng Xuemin about the Stargate Project.

Although Chen Moxin claimed to be from the Star Sect, he didn't understand the technical principles behind it at all.

Firstly, this is not a technology that has ever existed in reality, and secondly, he is not a scientist. Even if he goes to the library to find information and study hard, those obscure principles and terms are like reading a book written in heaven.

To Chen Moxin, the conversation between Annie and Deng Xuemin was like this: she recognized each word, but couldn't understand it at all when put together.

At this moment, Chen Moxin's eyes lit up, and she interjected during the pause in their conversation: "Miss Annie, Chief Engineer Deng, Ai Zhongguo said that he didn't study hard before and doesn't quite understand what you're saying."

"Could you please explain the basic principles of the Stargate Project to him in layman's terms?"

Alexander was immediately puzzled.

When did I say that?

But the two were indeed teammates during the special training camp. When he saw the look Chen Moxin gave him, he immediately understood and gave Annie Yis an awkward smile: "I was too busy playing at school, haha."

Anies shrugged: "Then let the chief engineer talk to him."

Deng Xuemin pushed up her thick reading glasses: "Then I'll use some simple analogies to explain."

He took out paper and a pen, drew two dots at the top and bottom of the paper respectively, and labeled them A and B.

"Let's assume that this piece of paper represents outer space, A is our starting point, and B is our destination."

He took a pen and drew a line connecting the two points.

“Normal space travel involves using traditional interstellar spacecraft to select a suitable route between A and B and fly there. The farther the distance, the longer it takes.”

He then folded the paper in half and made points A and B fit together.

"The Stargate Project involves folding space using an ultra-high-level energy source, and then—"

He poked the paper with his pen, the tip going in at point A and out at point B.

"Tear open the veil of the real universe, allowing the interstellar spaceship at starting point A to briefly enter another spatial dimension, and through the folded space, ignore distance and directly jump to destination B."

"Traditional space travel is limited by the speed of light. Even if a true light-speed spaceship is developed one day, the time limitation imposed by distance will still exist."

"But the Stargate project is different. Once it is successfully developed, no matter how far the journey is, for a spaceship that can use space jump, it may only take a few months or even a few days to arrive."

Although Chen Moxin wasn't a science major, she understood basic scientific concepts, so she asked, "Then, how is the ultra-high energy level required for the Stargate Project achieved?"

Deng Xuemin and Annie both gave Chen Moxin a strange look.

The look in his eyes meant—Dude, it seems like you've been playing around a lot at school.

"Of course it's psionic energy. The entire Stargate project is powered by psionic energy."

Chapter 140 Charles was born mentally disabled

Psychic power?!

This answer was quite unexpected for Chen Moxin and the others.

In the real world, large machinery is generally driven by the conversion of chemical energy, and the main energy sources are resources such as oil and coal.

Psychic power is merely a supernatural force that awakens within humans. While humans can use psychic power, they know nothing about its true nature.

According to Deng Xuemin, humans in the Resonance World can convert psionic energy into pure energy and use it as an energy source.

At this moment, Chen Moxin remembered the Calamity Weapon that had been seized from members of the Demon Alliance during the last operation.

Chen Moxin's mind raced, and he asked casually, "Oh, if I remember correctly, some of the weapons in our army are also powered by psionic energy."

Deng Xuemin nodded: "Yes, standard weapons are powered by conventional energy, but space-based weapons used for orbital bombardment, or certain high-precision individual weapons, are basically powered by psionic energy."

"This should be taught in high school; it involves using a specific device to extract the psychic energy of a psychic and then converting it into a substance called a 'psychic core,' which can then be used for power generation."

"Compared to traditional fusion reactors, psionic cores have very poor sustainability, but their instantaneous output power is several orders of magnitude higher. Only this kind of instantaneous burst of ultra-high-level energy can meet the requirements of the Stargate Project."

Chen Moxin and the others suddenly understood why psychics held such a prestigious position in this world, to the point that if a witch was born, her relatives could benefit from this and become so-called spiritual descendants.

It's not just because psionicists possess extraordinary power and are stronger than ordinary people.

Furthermore, because the Human Alliance possesses the technology to convert psionic energy into pure energy, and devices powered by psionic cores are ubiquitous across various fields, the proliferation of psionic beings signifies the prosperity of technology.

Without psionicists and the psionic cores obtained by drawing energy from them, many advanced technologies would not exist today, and human technology would not have developed to its current state.

In a sense, psionicists do enjoy unfair privileges, but they have also made contributions that ordinary people cannot match.

The treatment psionicists enjoy today is what they deserve.

"Zhongguo, I think the chief engineer explained it quite clearly. What else do you, a mediocre student, want to ask?"

Chen Moxin looked at Alexander and silently mouthed the word "madman".

Alexander quickly understood, and after a moment's thought, he pretended to be ignorant and casually asked, "I was wondering if there are any hidden dangers when using these psionic cores?"

Deng Xuemin asked with some confusion, "Hidden danger? Do you mean something like an energy runaway explosion? Such a hidden danger certainly exists in theory, but compared to traditional energy reactors, psionic cores are very stable, and the probability of runaway is almost negligible."

Alexander waved his hand: "No, no, no, I didn't mean an explosion, uh... I just used to like to sneak peeks at extracurricular books when I was in school."

"I read a novel that had a premise that said if a psychic overuses their psychic powers, it will create a kind of mental pollution field that drives the people around them insane... I was quite scared when I read it, haha."

Deng Xuemin scratched the back of his head, bewildered: "Um...sorry, I don't read novels much. The setting you mentioned, well...I can only say, it's quite interesting, the author has a very rich imagination."

"But in reality, psionic energy doesn't involve any mental pollution that drives people crazy. Since the first psionicist appeared in ancient times, there has never been the situation you described."

At this moment, Chen Moxin and the others had a definite answer in their hearts.

The psychic energy in this world is pure.

The reason why "Kuangyi" cannot be found in the library materials is not because of different nouns, nor is it because the Human Union government deliberately concealed it.

Rather, this world is different from the real world; there is no such thing as "madness" here.

Having asked a few too many questions, Chen Moxin changed the subject to avoid arousing suspicion from Annie and the others: "Speaking of which, how is the Stargate Project progressing?"

At this point, Deng Xuemin became lost in his own world again. He paced back and forth, biting the calluses on his fingers and muttering to himself, "The experiment we conducted last week failed... all three Alpha-level psionic cores were rendered useless..."

"But it's not a problem with the model...it definitely isn't a problem with the model...our overall direction is correct...it's just that some conditions within it need to be modified and optimized..."

"For the future of humanity... for the stars and the sea... I must deduce the correct data... I must tear down the veil between reality and the other side... at all costs..."

His eccentric demeanor was somewhat unsettling, but Anies seemed to be used to it, and smiled helplessly at Chen Moxin: "That's just how he is, his mind is full of research, nothing else. That's one of the reasons I value him."

"Chief Engineer Deng, is the stockpile of psionic cores here insufficient? Can you draw some more psionic energy from me?"

Deng Xuemin lowered her head, somewhat ashamed, and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you..."

Led by Deng Xuemin, the group arrived at a room specifically for absorbing psionic energy.

It is said that only the spiritual energy of the one who bestows the blessing can be used to draw upon it, while the spiritual energy of the recipient who obtains it through a spiritual pact is in a slightly different form and cannot be used to draw upon it.

This is why, among psionic beings, the Blessed are considered more noble than the Blessed, not only because they are the true masters of psionic power, but also because they are irreplaceable in the absorption of psionic power.