In 1769, James Watt invented the first modern steam engine.

In 1816, Robert Stirling invented the first external combustion engine.

In 1867, Nikolaus August Otto designed a new gas engine, and in 1878 unveiled the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine.

In 1886, Karl Friedrich Benz invented the first practical automobile.

On December 18th, 2022, Shen Cong invented the first totem engine. (Whether it was the first in the world during the post-apocalyptic era remains to be confirmed.)

And he was already preparing to go further — to develop a totem engine meeting the specifications required for direct installation in a vehicle, replacing the combustion-based engines of the old civilization with something entirely new. A new source of motive power for the new world.

Strictly speaking, the totem engine was closer to a biological engine. Its working components were Activity cores grown from jin beasts.

To develop proper engineering parameters, he would need to run extensive trials and record the power functions across a full range of variables: the relationship between totem quality — Activity Value — and rotational speed under repulsion; the relationship between totem separation distance and rotational speed; the effects of totem diameter, size, and geometry on output; operating efficiency versus core degradation rates; energy consumption at maximum versus minimum RPM.

All of these functions would feed into the final design specifications. The cores would wear down — potentially requiring replacement every month or two to maintain peak output — so the design had to account for that maintenance cycle from the start.

"I'll need a lot of time to work through this properly. From finalizing specifications to practical deployment — at minimum a week."

The twelve-hour yogurt suspension window ended. Shen Cong started drinking banyan yogurt in large quantities while simultaneously resuming the dual-core interlocking experiments, logging data on every run.

For experimental work, his patience was essentially unlimited.

The night passed in experiment. He worked until well past midnight, ate a late meal, and slept.

The following morning, he was up immediately and in front of the mirror.

The results were staggering.

Yesterday, without yogurt,…