White House.

Presidents office.

After FBI director Mueller entered the office, the presidents assistant sitting outside the door could hear the president yelling.

You bunch of idiots!

Mueller stood in front of the president and took a deep breath. He then said, This is our fault We expected them to act, but we didnt expect things to move this fast.

Even though the White House was happy to see China suffer losses, they didnt want it to happen this way.

The negotiations on the Lunar Hadron Collider were still underway. They were finally able to recruit some allies through diplomatic means and wanted to put pressure on China in regard to the budget committee.

However, their plan was ruined.

Because of the cyberattacks, most of their allies began doubting them. Many nations began to express their doubts on whether or not America wanted to participate in this project at all.

Maybe the Americans were only here to disrupt this meeting?

After all, China was Americas biggest space competitor

Suddenly, the phone on the desk began to ring.

The president took a deep breath and picked up the call.

Director Carsons voice traveled through the phone.

Its me.

President: I know its you, speak!

Carson knew the President was in a bad mood, but he didnt dare to ask why.

Carson cleared his throat and spoke.

The Chinese are putting pressure on us, those f*cking idiots. I drafted a plan for the budget committee last night, and as soon as I took it out at the conference today, the Chinese began questioning me about the cyber attacks. They are using this as a tactic for negotiation.

He took a deep breath and continued in a stern tone, Now that were at a negotiation disadvantage, even the neutral countries have expressed serious concerns regarding our domestic cybersecurity and terrorist issues.

The president couldnt help but say, Didnt you tell them that the attacks and the hadron collider are two completely different things?

I said that, but they said that the Eagle Hunter was supported by the federal government and that theyve already obtained enough evidence Director Carson paused for a second and said, Just wondering, is that a possibility

The president said, Of course not! Why would I approve such a stupid plan! What could we possibly gain from destroying some Chinese servers? What do you think, Mr. Mueller?

Mueller nodded quickly and said, Of course! I would never approve of such a stupid thing But just in case, we should contact the CIA and make sure they didnt do anything.

Now is not the time to blame others. Director Carson said in a tired voice, The situation is not good for us, so my suggestion is that we should lie low. Otherwise, China might reconsider our participation in the project

The office became quiet.

One could hear a pin drop.

Reconsider our participation in the project

A hint of bitterness appeared in the presidents eyes.

If this were ten years ago, this would have been a joke.

Back then, the United States was a nation of industry. It was impossible for any country to organize such a large scientific research project without help from the United States.

But now

China was thinking about kicking them out of the group?

The tables had turned.

The president went silent for a while and sat down at his desk.

He tapped his finger on the desk and said, We can forgo our other requests, but you must ensure that we have at least three voting seats on the budget committee. That is not up for debate.

He didnt want to risk China kicking them out of the project.

China needed Americas cooperation, but America needed China more

Director Carson sighed in relief.

Ill try my best

The president slammed his fist on the table and cursed, These f*cknig idiots!

Director Mueller looked at the president and held his breath.

Because of the Eagle Hunter group, the United States was now at a huge negotiation disadvantage.

If the Russians couldnt stand their ground, China would have total control of the budget committee

The Chinese could easily take over Russias voting seats; after all, the Russians only invested a small amount of money in the project

In Lu Zhous opinion, what happened online was only a minor disturbance.

Whether or not Eagle Hunter was backed by the White House didnt matter to him at all.

The source of the attack came from American soil. China could easily use this to gain an advantage over the budget committee negotiations.

Of course, the Lunar Orbit Committee had ultimate control over this matter.

The Americans had to prove themselves.

Otherwise, the Americans would just label this as an accident.

Over the past few days, Lu Zhou had been working on the Lunar Hadron Collider Research Center, as well as helping Director Li find a list of experts to demonstrate the technical feasibility of quantum computing.

Lu Zhou realized that it was quite difficult to keep this quiet.

Jin Ling University was one of the top five software engineering universities. They had two big names in the field of quantum computingone was even an academician.

It would be a bit unfair to exclude these quantum computing experts just to avoid suspicion. Therefore, Lu Zhou wrote both of their names down.

Some of the other experts were from Shuimu and Yan Universities, and there were ten people in total. It wasnt after Lu Zhou finished compiling the list did he realize that he was caring about things outside of academia.

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head. He made up his mind to never do something like this again. After that, he sent this list to Director Lis email.

Im finally done!

Lu Zhou stretched his back and was about to make some coffee.

However, suddenly an email arrived in his inbox.

Lu Zhou looked at the name and paused for a second.

Professor Wu Tianqun?

Speak of the devil?

Lu Zhou curiously opened the email.

The email was short.

There was only one sentence.

[Theres progress on the research of the carbon-based chip!]