What use do I have for this iron rod?

Lin Yuan was quite conflicted, he really wanted to ask his mentor what he should do.

After all, it was a new era now, not like the impoverished times before; could he keep some of the spoils as an incentive?

But Lin Yuan really couldn't bring himself to ask, fearing his mentor would scold him.

However, he recalled his mentor's instructions, and he had not emphasized to him that "spoils must be turned over to the public."

So it seemed there was a glimmer of hope.

With a nervous heart, Lin Yuan called his mentor late at night.

"Hello, Teacher, you haven't slept yet, have you?"

"I'm about to go to sleep. What do you need?"

"I'm reporting on my work. I've already started mining on the OCR computing power equipment, and the current mining time ratio is set at 10%."

His mentor on the other end of the phone yawned, "I trust you to handle things; just manage the details yourself. It's late, go to sleep."

"Wait, I want to ask. In the future, you, Teacher, and Dean Li should be writing a report, right?"

"Of course, that's necessary, but the specific details are hard to say."

"Then, in the details of the report, will my various operational specifics be meticulously recorded, such as my current mining activities?"

"You want to ask if the mining proceeds will be confiscated, right?"

"Uh, ..., I still can't hide anything from Teacher."

"Ah~~, we also went through similar considerations back in our day. American dollars from that era were..., oh, they were worth more than gold..."

His mentor's words hinted at many stories, Lin Yuan wanted to ask but felt awkward opening his mouth.

"This is fine then. Just record some things roughly, that's enough."

"That's all it takes?"

"Otherwise, what? We didn't even give you a single grain of military ration. It's always been the rule to turn a blind eye to spoils you acquire on your own. The organization is very reasonable."

"Alright, with your words, I'm relieved."

"Remember! Being muddled, not even remembering clearly yourself, is the best. Don't let your own crimes be written by yourself, understand?"

Lin Yuan said firmly, "I understand."

Professor Zhang was still a bit uneasy, "I'm also getting old and forgetful; I should have reminded you about this earlier. Tell me exactly how you'll do it."

"Because the ledger for digital currency is public data. Although accounts can be made anonymous, since the ledger is visible to everyone, if my account is ever discovered, all digital currency transaction records can be traced.

Therefore, I plan to set up a transit springboard..."

"Stop, stop!" Professor Zhang quickly interrupted Lin Yuan, "I didn't hear anything."

Lin Yuan also wisely shut up.

Professor Zhang continued, "It seems you're very good at this kind of thing; you've figured out the entire digital currency network so quickly. You must have already thought about how to sell it, right?"

"Uh, ..., yes."

"It shouldn't be a method of selling that leaves a record, right?"

"Naturally not."

"Good, very good. Who taught you all this?"

"I, ..., I only have one teacher, you."

"How come I don't remember teaching you any of this?"

"Teaching someone how to fish, you know."

"Are you praising me? Do you want me, at my age, to be looking at your wife through iron bars?"

Professor Zhang was naturally joking.

"I just, I just looked up some information casually."

Strictly speaking, what Professor Zhang taught Lin Yuan was an unconventional way of doing things.

"Alright. As long as you don't overdo it, Li Youcai and I can clean up this matter for you. I can't tell you too much, otherwise, it will backfire."

"Okay."

Lin Yuan knew very well that if his teacher said too much, it would inevitably leave traces, making it harder to help him later, because his teacher would also become involved.

Ultimately, it was still his inability to resist the profits from mining. Because the computing power equipment for OCR might continue to increase, it wouldn't be just a few hundred yuan a day anymore.

At this moment, Lin Yuan was like Professor Zhang when he saw American dollars back in the day.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Yuan's heart finally settled. He could finally sleep peacefully.

What he didn't know was that on Professor Zhang's end, Mrs. Zhang angrily chided her husband, "How could you teach your student such things? Have you forgotten the losses you incurred yourself back then?"

"Afraid of what? The first pair of high heels I bought you back then came exactly from this. If I hadn't gone all out, with my salary back then, could I have afforded to marry you?"

"Times are different now; it's inevitable there's a risk for him to do this."

"Serving the country loyally and keeping a bit of spoils for oneself aren't contradictory. If he truly had no selfish desires at all, and wasn't like a normal person, that would be truly terrifying. Being able to control one's desires and not cross the red line, that's a good comrade. If I had been timid back then, your father wouldn't have agreed to you being with me."

"Alas," Mrs. Zhang shook her head helplessly, "If the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam will be crooked. What kind of teacher brings out what kind of student."

—

Lin Yuan had just laid down for a short while when sleepiness gradually crept over him.

Just as he was in a daze, the system panel suddenly glowed with golden light, as if an extraordinary treasure was about to appear.

Lin Yuan sat up with a whoosh.

["Task: Enroll in Zijin Aviation School, Complete!"]

["Reward Computing Power: 2000P."]

["Current Accumulated Computing Power: 2100P."]

"What the hell!" Lin Yuan couldn't help but curse.

It turned out the enrollment task had settled; Lin Yuan had completely forgotten about it.

Tonight was just after the enrollment ceremony, and strictly speaking, the task was indeed truly completed.

["System, tell me. Why are you making such a big fuss when I'm about to fall asleep?"]

Lin Yuan felt almost nothing about the 2000P computing power arriving, because he was now accustomed to sacrificing his essence as fuel for the system; he had become used to this routine, much like paying rent regularly in a married life.

The system's sudden action meant that Lin Yuan wouldn't need to make submissions for a long time.

A song lyric suddenly came to Lin Yuan's mind—"What use is this iron rod to me?"

But the good news was that the iteration speed of the food delivery algorithm could be accelerated.

The system's task list feature popped up again just as Lin Yuan had almost forgotten about it.

As usual, Lin Yuan awaited the system's next task.

["Hurry up, what's next? Move it, I'm going to sleep."]

The system seemed to deliberate for a moment before hesitantly updating the task list.

["Task - Publish one SCI paper. Computing power value will be rewarded based on the paper's achievement."]

After reading it, Lin Yuan's first reaction was a "Damn it."

["Aren't you vulgar? Aren't you effing vulgar? You want to highlight that you're a scholar system, right? You just have to make me publish SCI?"]

["Don't you know I'm not interested in academics? My mentor doesn't approve of rushing to publish papers in the first year of graduate school."]

["SCI, my ass. Go ask Musk how many SCI papers he's published. He's awesome, and he still gets to be a NAE academician."]

...

...

Despite Lin Yuan complaining a lot to the system, he still decided to complete the task given by the system, as the computing power reward was substantial.

However, Lin Yuan clearly didn't want to genuinely write an SCI paper from scratch by himself.

'Right, isn't Gu Xuan clamoring to publish an SCI paper? Hehe!'

["System, does this task have requirements for the author order? Is second or third author acceptable?"]

Fortunately, the system would respond promptly to task queries.

["Rewards will be settled based on author order."]

'Got it! That means the higher the ranking, the higher the reward.'

'Gu Xuan probably won't agree to give up the first author spot, right? Forget it, getting a second author for free isn't bad either.'

Alright, Lin Yuan now had one more thing to be busy with.