Chapter 45 Crazy Tutoring

"Comrade Lin Yuan, are... are you sure?"

Chen Weiguo looked at Lin Yuan and asked, confirming the decision.

He knew what those 1,500 access points meant to Lin Yuan. That was the most direct reward given to him by the system, a "medal of honor" he had earned by risking his life.

Now, to build a new drone, asking him to "donate" them all was, emotionally speaking, a bit unreasonable.

"I am sure, Chief." Lin Yuan's answer was without any hesitation. "This thing was given by the system in the first place. Now, using it to build an even more awesome tool to go back in and scavenge more treasures—that's a good deal!"

He had thought it through very clearly.

Access points are things that can't be eaten as food if you just hold onto them. But if they could be exchanged for a super drone, that would be like a hen that lays golden eggs continuously.

He knew which was more important.

"Good!" Seeing the lack of even a hint of reluctance in Lin Yuan's eyes, Chen Weiguo nodded with gratification, his estimation of this young man rising a few notches in his heart.

He had a broad perspective, wasn't greedy for small gains, and knew what was important at critical moments.

Such a person was worth the country betting everything on him.

"Then it's settled!" Chen Weiguo slammed the table and announced to the whole room, "The construction plan for 'scavenger three' is officially launched! Codename—'Ghost'!"

"From now on, all departments and all resources are to be tilted toward the 'Ghost' project! I want to see it built in the shortest possible time!"

"Yes!"

The entire Command Center erupted once again with earth-shaking shouts of agreement.

An unprecedented "super project," gathering the nation's top strength, had thus begun.

...

In the deepest part of the base, inside a newly built, massive construction workshop the size of ten football fields.

The atmosphere was as solemn as if some sacred ritual were being held.

That last remaining, palm-sized fragment of "oracle-grade armor" was carefully placed by a giant mechanical arm into a "lattice cultivation chamber" in the very center of the workshop, which looked like an inverted glass bowl.

This black fragment was the "seed" of "scavenger three," the starting point of everything.

"Environmental inspection complete, absolutely sterile."

"Energy transmission pipeline connection complete."

"'Crystal seed' status stable."

Technicians were reporting data nervously.

Academician Wang personally served as the chief engineer for this construction plan. His face, which looked thirty years younger, was filled with seriousness and focus at this moment.

"All personnel, evacuate to the Safe Zone."

"Prepare to inject the first batch of energy!"

At his command, apart from the humming mechanical arms, there was no one left in the entire workshop.

In the huge warehouse, thousands of "ark reactor" units emitting blue light were transported row by row into the energy conversion matrix next to the cultivation chamber.

"Energy injection, countdown!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Inject!"

"Hum—!"

Accompanied by a dull roar.

The first "ark reactor" was activated instantly!

A massive, azure torrent of energy was forcefully poured into the bottom of the cultivation chamber through a "room-temperature superconducting ceramic" pipeline thicker than a bucket!

The entire cultivation chamber was instantly enveloped in dazzling blue light!

In the very center of the cultivation chamber, the moment that black "oracle-grade armor" fragment made contact with this massive surge of energy, it began to undergo astonishing changes.

Its surface, the edges and corners that were originally as sharp as if carved by a knife or axe, actually began to slowly "melt" and become rounded.

A faint, crystal-like halo seeped out from within it.

Then, with this "crystal seed" as the center, a brand-new structure, extremely tiny and composed of countless hexagonal lattices, began to appear out of thin air and slowly spread and grow outward!

"It's a success! The lattice has started to grow!"

"Energy absorption rate is one hundred percent! Not a single bit wasted!"

"Lattice structure is stable! It is completely consistent with the model in the 'ashilya' database!"

In the observation room, all the scientists cheered excitedly.

They were witnessing with their own eyes a technology of "creation" from a higher civilization that was like a miracle.

This was not "manufacturing" in the traditional sense.

This was "growth"!

It was as if they had planted a seed from the celestial realm and were using fertilizer called "energy" to force it to grow into the shape they wanted.

Lin Yuan also stood in the observation room watching this spectacular scene, marveling to himself.

He finally understood why building such a thing required so much energy and so many access points.

This wasn't building a drone; it was practically creating a "mechanical life"!

The construction of "scavenger three" was a long and delicate process.

It wasn't like assembling cars on an assembly line in a factory where you just need to put parts together.

Every single part of it needed to be "grown" under precise control.

First, the complete "Adaptive Lattice Armor" shell had to be cultivated.

Then, inside this shell, complex energy pipelines, data neurons, and the bases for various functional modules had to be "grown."

Finally, the key components that required precision manufacturing, such as the "Miniature Curvature Gravity Engine" core and the "Spatial Lens Force Field" generator, would be installed.

The entire process was expected to take... three months.

During these three months, Lin Yuan was not idle either.

His super learning plan had also officially begun.

...

"Lin Yuan, look at this formula."

In a spacious and bright classroom—built specifically for Lin Yuan alone—Academician Wang stood in front of a massive, free-writing holographic screen, pointing at a line of symbols that looked like a heavenly book.

"This is Maxwell's equations. It uses four perfect formulas to unify electricity, magnetism, and light. It is the cornerstone of all our modern electromagnetic theories. You must carve it into your bones for me!"

Lin Yuan looked at that mess of squiggles, his head spinning.

"Academician Wang... this thing has integrals and partial derivatives... I didn't even pass middle school math. Isn't it a bit too much to expect me to look at this?" he said with a bitter face.

"If you don't understand it, then memorize it for me!" Academician Wang's teaching method was simple and brutal. "I don't care what method you use; if you can't memorize it within three days, don't even think about eating!"

Lin Yuan: "..."

He felt as if he had returned to his high school days, trapped in the fear of being dominated by that fierce math teacher.

Only now, the teacher was a national treasure-level physics expert.

And the punishment had changed from calling his parents to not being fed.

The morning was Academician Wang's "devilish physics class."

The afternoon was the materials science academician's "heavenly book materials science."

In the evening, there was a computer expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences explaining "Quantum Information and AI Ethics" to him.

Lin Yuan felt that he lived every day in the fear of being dominated by knowledge.

As a scrap yard owner, he hadn't seen as many words in his entire life as the formulas he'd seen in these past few days.

His brain was in a state of overload every day, on the verge of smoking.

There were several times when he wanted to quit.

"Whoever wants to learn it, let them! I'm done!"

But whenever he wanted to give up, he would think of that "scrap vehicle"—the most expensive in history—currently under construction.

That thing had cost him his entire fortune (access points) and half of the country's energy reserves to build.

If he didn't learn well and couldn't understand the advanced blueprints in the "ashilya" database later, he wouldn't be able to recoup his investment, and he would lose everything!

At the thought of losing money, Lin Yuan's fighting spirit reignited.

Learn!

Learn until you die!

Isn't it just formulas? Isn't it just theory?

Back in the day, just to collect a batch of good copper, I could drink three jin of white liquor with someone in the middle of winter!

This bit of difficulty is nothing!

That unyielding, ruthless drive he had honed while collecting scrap was completely ignited.

He began to use his own set of "scrap yard theories" to understand those profound pieces of knowledge.

"Oh... I get it! This 'law of entropy increase,' doesn't it just mean that if you leave things for too long, they get broken, rotten, and messier? Just like my scrap yard; if I don't clean it for a day, it gets as messy as a dog kennel!"

"This 'quantum tunneling effect' is also easy to understand! It means an electron has a tiny probability of passing directly through a wall. Isn't that just like... a thief picking a lock? Although most of the time they can't open it, there are always those few times where a blind cat runs into a dead mouse, and you manage to poke it open!"

His messy, vulgar metaphors often made the old professors teaching him blow their beards and stare in anger, leaving them both amused and exasperated.

But they had to admit that although this kid wasn't well-educated, his brain was truly sharp.

He could always grasp the essence of a problem in the simplest, most straightforward way.

And as his knowledge accumulated, Lin Yuan was pleasantly surprised to find that when he went to "read" that "ashilya" database again, it was no longer as strenuous as before.

Before, that knowledge was a "heavenly book" to him.

Now, although it was still difficult, it had become... a "heavenly book with pinyin."

He could understand more and more things.

He was growing at a terrifying speed.

Meanwhile, in that massive construction workshop.

The outline of "scavenger three" was also gradually becoming clear...