Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Inside the virtual reality technology research and development laboratory.

When the signal light turned red, Ma Teng, who was lying quietly on the virtual reality experimental device, suddenly kicked his legs forward and sat up from the chair.

When he took off his helmet, his chest was pounding. He ignored his assistant, who was asking if he was okay. He looked at the helmet in his hands and spoke.

“This…”

His lips trembled as he tried to articulate. A staff member gave him a cup of water, which he quickly finished drinking. He then took a deep breath and spoke.

“… This is amazing!”

A Cerulean planet.

A forest filled with plants he had never seen before.

The violent Swarm Host creatures.

It was a completely new world!

He did feel a little uncomfortable when he first landed on the planet.

In his opinion, they should give the player an option for a more comfortable gaming experience. One that was without pain and discomfort.

While Ma Teng was pondering in his mind, Professor Lumiere, who was in charge of the virtual reality project, as well as Chen Yushan, the CEO of Star Sky Technology, walked over.

“How are you feeling?”

“It’s perfect…” Ma Teng gave the helmet to a staff member and took off his glasses. His eyes were still flashing with amazement as he said, “It’s like I was in a dream, but it feels much more real than a dream.”

He spoke in a determined voice, as if he had just made a major decision.

“I have made up my mind!

“Let’s develop a StarCraft-themed virtual reality game! The virtual reality will be able to display the glory of the stars and the planets! This will fulfill the dreams of countless teenagers!”

He paused for a second and looked at Chen Yushan with begging eyes. He smiled awkwardly and asked, “Can we buy… that planet?”

Chen Yushan smiled and said, “That’s a free open-source model in the virtual reality development system. You can use it if you want, but—”

“A hundred million yuan,” CEO Ma said. “We will buy it, and you guys will teach our developers on how to use it. What do you think?”

Chen Yushan nearly laughed out loud as she nodded.

“Done.”

…

Ma Teng’s idea was actually very simple.

Developing the game was not the important part, the important part was to get the license for the first virtual reality online game. Using premade game engines and templates to create an online game as soon as possible, attracting players from all over the globe.

It wouldn’t matter even if the first game were to flop, they could always release a second game.

Not to mention, there was no way the game would flop.

Even though the first PC games were objectively horrible, they were miles ahead of the previous-generation handheld Nintendo gaming consoles. Once gamers saw the fascinating planet with their own eyes, they would be shocked by its beauty.

However, Ma Teng did not know that this planet was not an “investment demonstration” software made by Star Sky Technology. Instead, it was a “mini-game” compiled to test the stability of the system.

Even though Lumiere and Lu Zhou spent a few days compiling the software, it was nowhere near a hundred million yuan.

Chen Yushan felt like CEO Ma was making an impulsive investment. However, seeing how eager he was, she felt like she should just be a “kind” seller and let him spend his money…

While the two parties were ecstatic over their hundred million yuan sale, people were gathered inside an office at the Jin Ling University mathematics department building.

Because Lu Zhou rarely came to this office, other than his assistants, most of his students chose to study and work at the library instead.

The library had a better academic atmosphere; even Lu Zhou himself recommended his students to study there.

He never wanted his students to think of themselves as employees, clocking in for work. Even though this further enabled students that did not have self-control, it gave disciplined students more freedom.

The only thing Lu Zhou cared about was his students completing their tasks on time; everything else did not matter to him.

However, over the past few days, everyone had been clocking into the office every day despite Lu Zhou’s absence.

Li Mo opened the door, walking into the quiet office. He was about to say hello but quickly closed his mouth.

Ever since Lu Zhou first gave him an office tour, this was the first time he saw everyone sitting here. Normally, he would see them at the library.

Li Mo walked up to He Changwen, who was agonizing over a problem. He looked around and whispered, “Hey, bro, what’s going on today?”

He Changwen was so frustrated he wanted to pull the hair out of his head. He casually said, “The professor assigned us tasks, so I don’t have time to help you today. Go read through the textbook or find Dean Qin.”

Li Mo was perplexed. He never even asked He Changwen for help.

He looked at the draft paper on the table and spoke with a curious look on his face.

“What kind of research are you doing?”

He Changwen: “You won’t understand.”

“Bro, just tell me, I’m so curious!”

He Changwen looked at this persistent undergraduate student and smiled. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and said, “Forget about it, your balls haven’t even dropped yet, there’s no way you’ll understand.”

After that, he took out a piece of draft paper and wrote down two lines of equations. He gave the draft paper to Li Mo.

“Go ahead, if you can solve this question, I’ll explain it to you.”

Li Mo stared at the question, he was dumbfounded.

The f*ck, I’ve never seen this type of question before.

But…

It looks pretty interesting.

His eyebrows began to furrow as he bit his thumb. He picked up the piece of draft paper.

“I’ll try my best… Looks a bit hard.”

A bit hard?

Haha.

He Changwen smiled and didn’t say anything. He continued to stare at the draft paper on his desk as he rubbed his receding hairline.

Around an hour had passed by.

He leaned back in his chair and was about to get some water. He suddenly saw a piece of draft paper appear on his table.

He looked up and saw the kid standing there again. The kid spoke with an agonizing look on his face.

“Bro, this question is too hard… I don’t know if I’m right, but this is all I could manage.”

“The f*ck!”

He Changwen bounced up from his chair and stared at Li Mo in disbelief. He gulped as he spoke to the teenager, “Undergrads learn about Riemann surfaces and n-dimensional complex manifolds? Did you take a graduate course?”

Isn’t this guy a freshman?!

“It’s not like I only learn from lectures.” Li Mo awkwardly smiled as he scratched the back of his head. “Professor Lu has a recommended reading list on his Weibo, right? I’ve been reading it since high school.”

He Changwen: “…”

Without saying anything, he picked up the draft paper and glanced at it with a sharp gaze.

“Let me see your workings.”

He could just be writing nonsense.

With some doubt in his mind, He Changwen began to read the workings on the paper.

However, the more he read, the more shocked he was.

Look at this proof!

Look at the theorems he used!

This doesn’t look like something done by an undergraduate student.

Is this the strength of an IMO gold medalist?

He began to sweat from his forehead.

Looks like the professor recruited another freak.

Han Mengqi noticed the ruckus as she walked over with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“What are you guys doing?”

He Changwen put down the draft paper on the table.

He did not need to say anything, his facial expression told the whole story.

He shook his head and gently sighed.

“I’m going for a smoke,” he said as he walked out of the office.

Han Mengqi: “…”

Li Mo watched him walk away. He awkwardly looked at Han Mengqi and asked, “Did I do something wrong?”

Han Mengqi did not reply. Instead, she picked up the draft paper on the table.

She also had an astounded look on her face.

“You wrote this?”

Li Mo nodded and said, “Yeah, just now.”

“Knew it!” Han Mengqi nodded and said, “There’s no way He Changwen could have written this…”

Li Mo said, “That’s not nice.”

“It’s fine, he’s used to it,” Han Mengqi said as she put down the draft paper. She looked at the teenager and contemplated for a second before she said, “So you’ve finished studying your undergrad material?”

Li Mo nodded and said, “Yeah… I’ve read all the textbooks in my courses.”

“Are you interested in joining our research project?”

Faced with the sudden invitation, Li Mo froze, followed by a delighted look on his face.

“Pro-Professor Lu’s research project?”

Even though Han Mengqi despised the fact that this kid had a weird obsession with Professor Lu, she still reluctantly nodded her head. As Professor Lu’s amazing, generous, and kind student, this was her responsibility.

“Uh, yeah.”

Li Mo couldn’t believe his eyes, and he spoke in an insecure tone.

“But I’m just an undergrad, are you sure? What if I become a nuisance to God Lu?”

Han Mengqi said bluntly, “Don’t worry, most people never even get to talk to him, you won’t get the chance to become a nuisance.”

Li Mo scratched his head and said, “Oh, right…”

Han Mengqi then said, “Research isn’t something only graduate students can do. If you want to go down the path in academia, it would be wise to practice your research abilities, as opposed to doing textbook problems.”

This was from her personal experience.

When she was still an undergraduate student, Jin University and the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had a research talent training program. This gave her the opportunity to participate in many research projects.

Including the lithium-sulfur battery project.

Despite being a rookie researcher, she made a non-trivial contribution to the materials used in the battery.

In the end, she left the world of chemistry and followed Lu Zhou’s footsteps into pure mathematics. However, the research experience she gained was still helpful to her to this day.

“Oh yeah, about this draft paper,” Han Mengqi said as she handed the draft paper to the teenager. She continued, “Your task for the next few days is to research the process of a journal submission, organize this into a paper, and publish it.”

Even though this wasn’t a particularly important mathematical proof, it was good enough to submit to a subpar journal.

Li Mo hesitated and said, “Are… are you sure?”

“Of course, this is an in-progress result, not to mention you did it yourself,” Han Mengqi said. She paused for a second and said, “Plus, if you don’t publish this, He Changwen would want to quit research forever.”