Cultivation is just so scientific! Chapter 3 Electricity Generation

"Si Qin, you stay at the door!" Li Shiming commanded the girl, who was peering in with a look of intense curiosity.

Individual components could be brushed off as mere hobbies, but the situation would become impossible to explain if he actually constructed a functioning generator in front of her.

Consequently, despite Si Qin's inquisitiveness, he could not permit her to witness the process.

Obeying his orders, Si Qin left the study, though her curiosity remained unsatisfied.

Left alone, Li Shiming began the assembly of the generator based on his personal blueprints.

Two hours later, a peculiar box sat upon the desk. It appeared to be nothing more than a wooden casing equipped with a hand crank and three copper wires protruding from one side, lacking any other remarkable features.

Because the generator's internal mechanisms were hidden within the wooden box, it would not draw much suspicion even if a stranger happened to see it.

Li Shiming attempted to rotate the crank, only to realize he had overestimated his physical power.

High voltage required the generator's rotor to spin at high velocities. His design utilized a system of large gears driving smaller ones to amplify the rotation, but this mechanical advantage meant the crank required significant force to turn.

For a moment, he considered summoning Mo Yan to assist with the labor, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

Exerting all his strength, he forced the crank to turn. While he couldn't reach top speed, the sight of flickering sparks at the ends of the copper wires proved his success.

Having managed to build this primitive generator, he was confident that failure was impossible as long as he possessed the correct components.

The device was fundamentally simple; once the underlying principles were mastered, replication was easy for someone with his professional background.

However, Li Shiming's primary obstacle was maintaining a consistent rotation speed and finding a way to transfer the electrical output into the server room's uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

He stared at the crude machine, pondering how to integrate it with the server room.

With a thought, the desk was cleared; the generator vanished from the room and reappeared inside the internal server space.

Recalling how he could manipulate objects within that space at will, he attempted to spin the generator's rotor using only his mind.

He sensed that his level of authority and control over the server room was extraordinary.

While this defied all scientific logic, the fact that he had transmigrated with an entire server room was already beyond the realm of scientific explanation.

Under his mental influence, the rotor began to whirl, rapidly gaining momentum.

Due to the primitive manufacturing techniques available, the rotor's bearings consisted of two pieces of softened leather clamped together and lubricated with grease.

Such a crude method would inevitably produce friction heat if the rotation became too intense.

He hadn't accounted for excessive speeds during the design phase, as achieving such velocity would have been impossible through manual labor in this era.

Yet, by placing the generator inside the server room and utilizing his mental faculties, the rotor quickly reached its structural limits.

Fortunately, because the device was within his mental space, his perception was fused with it, allowing him to monitor every mechanical change instantly.

Li Shiming carefully regulated the speed, keeping it just within the design's safety margins.

Using his mental tools to gauge the output, he found that the mentally-driven rotor was producing a steady 230 volts.

Such power was nowhere near enough to run a massive server, which required far more energy than this single unit could provide.

However, his current objective wasn't to power the server directly, but rather to trickle-charge the UPS.

He connected the three copper wires to the input terminals of the UPS. Maintaining his mental focus, he kept the generator spinning, feeding a constant stream of current into the system.

The moment the status light on the UPS flickered to green, he knew the first hurdle had been cleared.

The UPS roared to life. Even though the incoming current was modest, the device's converter unit would stabilize it and store the energy into the battery banks at a standard rate, provided the input remained within functional limits.

As the UPS activated, he realized he could interface with it directly through his mind, bypassing the need for its physical display panel.

Li Shiming maintained the rotor's rotation for half an hour until a sharp ache began to throb in his skull.

He immediately ceased the mental exertion. It appeared that using his mind to drive the generator came at a physical price.

His previous interactions with the server room had been too brief to notice any drain, but this sustained effort revealed that he was consuming a vital resource.

He couldn't quite define what was being depleted, but it felt very much like his Spirit.

"I can't afford to generate power during the daylight hours anymore," he mused, nursing the pulsing pain in his head.

"Young Master, what has happened?" As Li Shiming exited the study, Si Qin gasped in shock at his pale complexion and unsteady gait.

"Si Qin, stay calm and don't tell the others. Just help me rest," Li Shiming commanded, forcing a faint, comforting smile.

"Young Master, we must call for a doctor! Your health cannot be ignored!" Si Qin urged, rushing to support him as they walked toward the bedchamber.

"It is nothing grave, I am simply feeling a bit drained," Li Shiming replied, fully aware of his own state.

Despite the exhaustion of his Spirit, the knowledge that the UPS had successfully stored energy filled him with a renewed sense of excitement.

As he lay in bed, his consciousness drifted back into the server room, his mind racing.

He was still uncertain if the massive IBM z15 server could actually be powered on, or if he could retrieve the mountain of data stored within. Everything remained a mystery.

This IBM z15 enterprise server had been a donation to his university from prestigious alumni in his past life, worth over 100 million.

Though located in the library, it served as the backbone for both the library's systems and various high-level research computations across the university.

The IBM z15 was a pinnacle of engineering, boasting 190 CPUs and a staggering 40 TB of memory, packed with 12.2 billion transistors—the absolute height of modern technology.

The sheer volume of knowledge stored there was immense, featuring over ten million e-books spanning philosophy, law, science, medicine, military studies, and more—covering 13 major disciplines and hundreds of specialized majors.

Furthermore, it contained countless international research papers and active university project data.

With this server, he possessed the potential to elevate this primitive world to the technological standards of his previous life.

The success or failure of starting this server would dictate two completely different fates for him. If the server remained dead, he would have only one viable path.

He would have to follow the traditional route laid out by his father, Li Wenyuan, climbing the ranks of the bureaucracy through the imperial civil examinations.

With his ability to store and check items within the server room at any time, passing those examinations would be a trivial task for Li Shiming.