At 9:00 a.m. sharp, a small team of soldiers arrived at the conference room's main entrance to secure the area. Several reporters hurried over as well.

Just then, Jason and Austin walked over from down the hall.

Jason glanced at the scientists waiting eagerly at the door. Frowning slightly, he said, "Let's head inside first. We'll start the meeting right away. The preparations for the planetary landing are critical, and I can't make these decisions alone. We can discuss everything in there."

The science team leaders were taken aback. They exchanged glances, realizing their plan to intercept Jason had failed. As staunch supporters of the Super Hadron Collider project, they had hoped to personally persuade Jason. Instead, they were shut down before they could even start.

One of the scientists hurried after Jason, whispering urgently, "Captain, we can't delay the work on the Super Hadron Collider. Without it, particle physics will stagnate. We need to move forward! Fundamental physics has been stuck in a bottleneck for far too long."

Jason had anticipated this argument; he'd been hearing variations of it for days.

Logically, there was no room for negotiation. The Super Hadron Collider required a massive workforce, six thousand designers alone! Add in the support staff, and the total reached fifteen thousand personnel. It wasn't that the project lacked importance, but there were far more critical tasks at hand. Allocating such a large portion of their population to a single project was simply impossible right now.

What troubled Jason was that the project had already been finalized during a major assembly. Canceling it outright would severely damage the Federation's credibility. Moreover, he knew deep down that these obsessively driven physicists were the true spiritual leaders of the scientific community. They relied entirely on human ingenuity, completely independent of any extraterrestrial technology, to challenge the mysteries of the boundless universe.

Jason didn't want to crush their spirits unless it was absolutely necessary.

Over time, modern human society had grown increasingly streamlined. Their primary focus was simply to keep advancing and unlocking new technological breakthroughs. Everyone enjoyed the process and threw themselves into it wholeheartedly. Stripped of conflicting interests, people had become friendlier with one another, and their communication had grown much more direct.

These scientists were brilliant, but sometimes they acted just like kids.

The Super Hadron Collider was what they had been eagerly anticipating for ages; to every physicist, it was the ultimate "big toy." Building such a massive machine was incredibly expensive, practically impossible in their past society on Earth. Only with the dawn of their modern civilization had it finally become a real possibility.

It was hard to describe how they felt right now. To put it simply: imagine the Federation finally agreeing to buy an expensive toy after the child had begged and pleaded for it. But right after the promise was made, the family suddenly faced an unexpected crisis that drained their finances, forcing them to cancel the purchase.

You could imagine the child's crushing disappointment.

Many scientists were dealing with exactly this kind of anxiety and uncertainty. They knew perfectly well that survival took priority right now, but they were still deeply reluctant to give up on the Super Hadron Collider.

Jason had considered this issue at length. Brilliant as they were, these scientists were still human beings with regular emotions and desires; they couldn't be purely rational machines. Especially for the high-energy and particle physicists, the collider project was the core of their research. Seeing it shelved felt like having their most prized possession snatched away, a tough pill to swallow. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

This issue could be brushed aside, or it could blow up into a massive problem. At best, it would result in a bunch of complaints; at worst, it could fracture the Federation's entire scientific community. After all, the physics department wasn't just a handful of people. It included top Senior Scientists like Professor Hao Yu and Felix, who were undoubtedly just as disappointed.

Jason was just stepping into the conference room. Hearing the scientist's desperate plea, he paused, turning to deliver a response he had prepared long in advance.

"Nick, I can't promise you much right now, but I guarantee that the two thousand core designers will remain assigned to the Super Hadron Collider. This project is not being canceled!" Jason said firmly. "Furthermore, shouldn't the previous engineering plans be revised anyway? Think about it, if we secure nearly unlimited resources in the near future, shouldn't we scrap the old blueprints and make the collider even bigger and more powerful?"

"Once we have the resources, we can build whatever we want. There's no need to rush. Scientific and technological advancement will always be the Federation's top priority."

Nick paused, processing the words. Securing only two thousand core designers wasn't the ideal outcome they had dreamed of, but it ensured the project wouldn't be entirely shelved. They would have to make do with what they had for now. He knew perfectly well that landing on a new planet was a massive undertaking; the future of humanity depended on it.

But when he absorbed the second half of Jason's statement, his face lit up with excitement. He finally understood Jason's implication: once humanity landed on that planet and harvested its abundant resources, the Federation would throw its full weight behind scientific research!

After all, what were resources for? They were meant to be poured into science, of course! With a total population of less than sixty thousand, how much could they possibly consume, even if they lived in extreme luxury? What else was there to spend it on besides research?

Though Jason's statement was essentially an empty promise for now, Nick accepted it with deep satisfaction.

Looking at it that way changes everything, Nick thought. "We need to design an even bigger, more powerful collider..."

Nick hurried back to his seat and immediately shared Jason's verbal promise with his colleagues. Within seconds, he was engaged in a heated, enthusiastic debate with his team about how they should overhaul the Super Hadron Collider's blueprints. They were completely lost in a fantasy world of unlimited resources.

Having smoothed over that minor conflict, Jason walked straight up to the podium, while Austin took a seat in the front row below.

He looked out over the crowd and announced solemnly, "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe you've all heard the good news. We have detected a terrestrial planet, roughly eight times the mass of Earth, situated about fourteen light-years from our current position. If the Noah maintains its current trajectory, our closest approach will bring us within 120 million kilometers of it."

"We expect to hit that closest point in two years and seven months. If we utilize our nuclear arsenals or ion engines to adjust our trajectory, we can make landfall within three years. However, due to the limits of our current long-range sensors, we still can't conduct a comprehensive observation of this world."

"We have no idea what's waiting for us down there. We don't know if it has a breathable atmosphere or if it harbors extraterrestrial life. Aside from its basic size and mass, we are flying blind! But make no mistake—we must land on this planet and secure the resources we so desperately need to survive."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I need you to put your brilliant minds to work. We have two to three years to finalize our preparations!"

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in, before continuing. "I am officially announcing that we will be allocating seventy to eighty percent of the Noah's entire resource reserves to fund this operation. We must take this planet!"

"...Whether we encounter hostile life, a barren wasteland, a glorious ecosystem, or a dead rock... we need contingency plans for every scenario. The more detailed, the better. I expect the most comprehensive proposals possible from all of you!"

Jason took his seat and waited quietly.