Bo Li’s proposal baffled and befuddled Yao Yuan and the government officials. Everyone thought her plan was a bit too out there. Based on the Hope’s current condition, the most they should do was add a few weapons, not something so drastic.

However, Bo Li’s single sentence made everyone speechless. "You people really think the Hope is so invaluable?"

Bo Li glanced at Yao Yuan before turning to face the higher officials and engineers that eyed her with doubt. "The Hope is a 3rd revolution product. To put it simply, it is a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p used to travel within the solar system. Its size, s.p.a.ce, and structure are all at the 3rd revolution stage and suitable only for travelling within the solar system. s.p.a.ce catastrophes and s.p.a.ce wars weren’t part of the concern when the Hope was designed, or perhaps they were, but it couldn’t be done with only 3rd revolution technology."

The engineers nodded along to her words.

It was worth noting that even though the Hope had just entered the 4th revolution a few years, the party that benefitted the most was definitely the Academy. Like sponges, the scientists learnt everything they could from the new technology. Next would be the engineers. They too had learned a lot from the new technology, stuff like structural integrity and construction knowledge. In fact, when they landed on new planet, the engineers had approached Yao Yuan with the same concern, the Hope wasn’t suitable for long-distance travel through the cosmos. However, due to the arrival of the neutron star fragment, they didn’t have time to build a new main s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Therefore, they settled with three smaller s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps to earn some experience. According to these engineers, from the perspective of performance, the Observer as well as the Defenders 1 and 2 were much better than the Hope.

Bo Li continued, "Now that we have the nan.o.bot technology, albeit it’ll still be years before we can completely understand it, after we do so, with enough energy and materials, we can create the perfect main s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in a short amount of time. Therefore, before that, this upgrade proposal I’m giving you is practically the last upgrade for the Hope. This fourth upgrade will be the last upgrade on the Hope; it will be best thing we will have at least for an extended period of time…"

Yao Yuan understood the underlying meaning. He quickly asked, "Wait, do you mean we won’t understand the nan.o.bot technology anytime soon?"

Bo Li replied firmly, "That’s right. The 4 fifth revolution technologies, after several months of trial and error, we’ve come up with a conclusion: they will remain a mystery without us stepping into the peak of 4th revolution first. We are unable to understand anything. Of course, copying them according to the blueprints available is still technically possible. This is doable for the other three technologies, but it will be difficult for the nan.o.bots because it involves too many other technologies. One is electromagnetic wave energy converter, another is nan.o.bot’s creation manual, and lastly is the nan.o.bot’s AI. These three technologies alone are not replicable from blueprints only. We have to have complete understanding of the theories behind them first. Therefore, nan.o.bots are impossible at least for the next 20, 30 years."

Since Bo Li had said so, Yao Yuan had come to a decision. Spending five to ten years in that empty part of the cosmos was already stretching things thin. Adding another 10 years to that would not only lower the morale but also exhaust the storage of food and energy. They also had to take into consideration the issue of increased population. Therefore, the idling period had been set at 5 to 10 years.

In other words, this fourth upgrade would possibly be the last upgrade on the Hope until they could use the nan.o.bot technology to build themselves a brand new s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Therefore, spending ten years to upgrade the Hope might not be a bad investment because the Hope would have to last them for another 20 to 30 years.

Just like that, a few days after the universities were completed, the Hope’s fourth upgrade was entered into the schedule…