94: Chapter 94: Art Meets Assembly Line
As soon as Jiang Ning finished speaking, the entire square fell into a deathly silence once again.
The excitement on the faces of the hundreds of people who were just clamoring to join the "Genius Special Training Class" instantly froze.
"Wh... what?"
"Did I hear that right? Making one class do the work of ten?"
"How is that possible! An Ordinary Class has three hundred people; ten classes is three thousand! There are less than two hundred of us in total!"
"Less than two hundred people doing the work of three thousand? This isn't an assessment; this is a deliberate attempt to screw us over!"
Voices of complaint and doubt erupted among the "geniuses." It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over their heads, chilling them to the bone.
Lin Yuan was also stunned.
For the first time, a crack appeared in the smugness and confidence on his face.
He had considered many possibilities, such as Jiang Ning posing a particularly difficult technical problem to make things hard for them. But he never dreamed that she would use such a simple and crude method—piling on the workload.
What was this supposed to be?
This wasn't testing talent; this was a fucking competition to see who could be a better beast of burden!
"I refuse to accept this!" a hot-tempered scion of a prominent family shouted on the spot. "This is unfair! We demand the same standards as the Ordinary Class!"
"Right! It's unfair!"
"We are geniuses, not coolies!"
The waves of protest grew louder and louder.
Jiang Ning just watched them quietly, waiting until they had finished arguing before she spoke leisurely.
"Unfair?"
Her voice wasn't loud, but it instantly suppressed all the noise.
"Didn't you say you were geniuses?"
"Didn't you say your efficiency was much higher than those ordinary people?"
"In that case, isn't it only natural for you 'geniuses' to use one-tenth of the manpower to do the same work?"
"Or is it..."
Jiang Ning's gaze swept over every person protesting.
"That 'talent' you talk about, that so-called 'efficiency'—it can't even reach a tenfold difference?"
"If that's the case, then what right do you have to look down on those students who are honestly building their foundations? What right do you have to demand special treatment?"
The string of questions left all the "geniuses" speechless.
Their faces turned red, one by one, unable to utter a single word in rebuttal.
Indeed, they were the ones who had bragged, saying they weren't ordinary mortals and that their efficiency was terrifying. Now that someone had set a tenfold target based on their own boasting, they were getting cold feet?
If word of this got out, where would they hide their faces?
Lin Yuan's face turned pale and then flushed.
He knew he had fallen into a trap.
From the moment he stood up to stir up trouble, he had been played. Now, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
If he backed down now and admitted he couldn't do it, his newly established persona as the "leader of the geniuses" would completely collapse, and he would become the laughingstock of the entire academy.
But if he bit the bullet and accepted... he had no confidence at all in handling ten times the work.
Just as he was hesitating, Jiang Ning added more fuel to the fire.
"Of course, I'm not an unreasonable person."
"There are rewards for this assessment."
"If your 'Genius Class' can complete it within the specified time with quality and quantity assured, then all the top-tier resources of the academy, including that mid-grade artifact seized from the otherworld, the 'space-splitting ruler' which can warp space, will be prioritized for your use."
"Furthermore, each of you will be rewarded with ten thousand academy points."
"space-splitting ruler!"
"Ten thousand points!"
As soon as these two terms were mentioned, the eyes of all the "geniuses" instantly turned red with greed.
They weren't sure what the space-splitting ruler was, but the words "mid-grade artifact" were the stuff of legends—treasures used by immortals!
And ten thousand points, according to the student handbook, was enough to exchange for a top-tier cultivation technique plus a whole year's worth of pills!
The massive benefits immediately suppressed their fear of the workload.
"Damn it, let's do it!"
"Let's go! We're geniuses; ten times the work is nothing!"
"Exactly! We're two hundred geniuses; can't we beat three thousand idiots?"
The students who were full of complaints just a moment ago were now like they'd been injected with chicken blood, each one rubbing their hands together with high morale.
Seeing the fanatical looks on his companions' faces, Lin Yuan also made up his mind.
He couldn't retreat!
He had to win!
He would use this opportunity to firmly secure his position as the top dog in the academy!
"Fine!" He responded loudly to Instructor Jiang on the stage. "Instructor Jiang! Our Genius Class accepts this task!"
"Very well." Jiang Ning nodded, her face devoid of expression.
"Assessment time: twenty-four hours."
"Assessment location: Xishan No. 3 Abandoned Industrial Zone."
"Now, depart."
...
Half an hour later, all the students were taken to the designated assessment location by maglev train.
Xishan No. 3 Abandoned Industrial Zone.
This place used to be a large steel mill, but it was abandoned because the pollution was too severe. Looking around, there were rusted blast furnaces, broken pipes, and half-collapsed workshops everywhere—it was terrifyingly desolate.
The task required them to use basic materials provided by the academy to set up a defensive formation covering the entire area on these ruins.
The three thousand Ordinary Class students were divided into ten large groups, each responsible for a section of land. As soon as they arrived, they began working methodically under the direction of their instructors.
First, they took out surveying and mapping instruments provided by the academy to collect detailed data on the terrain, geology, and metal residues of their respective areas.
Then, they transmitted the data back to the main control computer, where the academy's simulation system generated the most suitable layout for the formation's foundation.
The entire process was like a well-trained modern construction crew—rigorous and orderly.
On the other side, the atmosphere of the "Genius Class" was a completely different story.
They were assigned the largest and most central area.
As the leader, Lin Yuan stood atop a massive, rusted reactor, high-spiritedly addressing the hundred or so "geniuses" below.
"Everyone! We don't have time to measure and calculate step-by-step like those idiots!"
His voice was full of passion and disdain.
"We are geniuses! Our intuition and inspiration are the best instruments! The best computers!"
"Now, everyone follow my lead!"
"We won't use those poorly made modular formation disks! We're going to use the oldest and most badass method—setting up the formation by hand!"
"Everyone, spread out with me as the center! Feel the pulse of this land with your hearts, and use your spiritual power to draw the most perfect formation lines!"
"We're going to show those commoners what true 'formation art' really is!"
"We're going to build a miracle that will make them look up in awe and tremble!"
Under his incitement, all the "geniuses" got fired up. They spread out and began using their intuition to channel spiritual power, drawing various complex and beautiful runes on the ruins.
For a time, the entire area was filled with colorful lights and surging spiritual power. It was a grand sight, looking countless times more impressive than the ten Ordinary Classes working honestly nearby.
In the temporary command center far away, Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo stomped his feet in anxiety while watching the surveillance footage.
"Nonsense! This is absolute nonsense! How rigorous is setting up a formation? By intuition? By art? Does he think he's painting? If they keep this up, they'll be lucky if they don't blow themselves up, let alone build a defensive formation!"
Director Zhao Lixin also shook his head at the sight. "These kids are too arrogant; they really need a good lesson."
Only Jiang Ning continued to watch the screen with a calm expression.
She pointed at the energy fluctuation chart of Lin Yuan's area and spoke to Professor Chen beside her:
"Professor Chen, look."
"Their spiritual power output is a mess, interfering with each other. Eighty percent of their effort is being wasted."
"Furthermore, those formation lines they're drawing are all style and no substance. They're just aiming for aesthetics, completely failing to consider integration with the terrain or subsequent energy supply issues."
"Going by this method..."
Jiang Ning paused and gave her conclusion.
"In three hours at most, they'll all collapse from spiritual exhaustion."
"And that so-called 'work of art' they're building will likely have a defensive strength... not even one-tenth of a single standard formation node from the Ordinary Class next door."