107: Chapter 107 Do you want a Magic Card Master or not?

"I only changed the coupling coefficient to 9.7, and the expansion efficiency of the fourth-layer circuit immediately jumped to 91%. From 47 to 91, I only changed one parameter... The bottleneck I've been stuck on for months—"

She looked up. A tear suddenly rolled down from her bloodshot eyes, clearly showing she had been hit by a massive shock.

"It's not sadness—it's just—I didn't expect it to happen so fast—" She wiped her face with the back of her hand, only to smear graphite powder all over it. "It just suddenly unlocked—"

Su Bai pulled a pack of tissues from his pocket and handed it to her.

"The graphite powder on your face is mixed with your tears. Wipe it off first."

Researcher Yun Zhi took the tissues and wiped her face haphazardly. Then, she looked up and stared at Su Bai's face for several seconds, with the look of someone verifying whether she was hallucinating.

"You looked at my blueprints for only a few seconds, pointed out the purification issue, demonstrated a forging technique I'd never seen before, rewrote my coupling coefficient calculation model, and pushed my project progress from 47% to 91%—Su Bai, are you really Rank 2?"

"Level 20. Just leveled up."

"Level 20. Corrected a Rank 7 researcher's project error in a few minutes."

"It doesn't count as correcting, really." Su Bai thought about it. "Your design framework itself doesn't have any issues; it's just that the parameters were chosen incorrectly."

Researcher Yun Zhi stared at him for a full three seconds. Then, she crumpled the tissues in her hand and said in an extremely calm tone, as if stating experimental results: "That casual guidance ability of yours has already exceeded the scope of a normal genius."

Ding.

[Detected that the host has completed a high-quality teaching act.]

[Student: Researcher Yun Zhi—Rank 7 Senior Researcher, Sanctuary Core Material Research Institute.]

[Teaching Achievement: Corrected the Space Folding circuit coupling coefficient calculation model, resolved project bottleneck.]

[Title Unlocked: Teaching Master.]

[Title Effect: In teaching scenarios, the host's analytical ability regarding conceptual laws increases by 30%, and the student's comprehension temporarily increases by 20%.]

[Note: This title also applies to self-improvement—when you tell yourself "I have learned it," you have truly learned it.]

Su Bai looked at that last line of small text, the corner of his mouth twitching. So, the system also knew that half the time he said "I am gradually understanding everything," he was just bluffing.

"Su Bai, your heart rate just spiked." Kyubey tilted its head. "Is there some good news?"

"Nothing much. Just got a new title."

"What title?"

"Teaching Master. The effect is that when I teach others, I can also become stronger."

Kyubey's tail swished.

"That means you can level yourself up while teaching others in the future."

"Pretty much."

"Then Zhao Dahai will probably have it rough."

"Why bring him up all of a sudden?"

"Because he said he wanted to learn card creation from you at the exhibition last time, and you agreed. Now that you actually have an ability that makes teaching efficient, it means you'll be assigning him more homework with even higher efficiency in the future."

Su Bai paused for a beat.

"...You sure think far ahead."

At this moment, Researcher Yun Zhi's voice came from the side: "Su Bai! I just thought of a question—if we apply this corrected coupling coefficient to the Mental Power mapping of the new concept—you just said you needed nano-level purification of formless spirit sand. Does your new system use this parameter too?"

Su Bai turned his head. On the scratch paper in front of Researcher Yun Zhi was an entire page of newly written calculations. She had extended the coupling coefficient Su Bai just gave her to the dimension of Mental Power mapping—that derivation direction happened to be a blank area Su Bai hadn't managed to cover yet while designing the Substitute Module.

"Are you helping me work on my module?"

"Helping each other." Researcher Yun Zhi said seriously. "You helped me clear the fourth-layer nodes of my project. In exchange, I'll help you with the nano-level purification for all circuit nodes in your new system involving formless spirit sand. I'm from the Material Research Institute; I don't need to queue to book equipment."

"Didn't you just say that the nano-level equipment reservations were booked out for two months?"

"That's the standard application process." Researcher Yun Zhi pushed up her glasses, which had slid to the tip of her nose. "I have emergency access privileges at the institute. As long as the project rating reaches SS-rank or above—what rank is your new system, roughly?"

"It hasn't been officially appraised yet." Su Bai thought about it. "But I reckon it's about the same as a Magical Girl."

"A Rainbow Card-rank system." Researcher Yun Zhi nodded, her tone as flat as if she were talking about the weather today. "That's enough. I'll help you purify the first batch of samples tomorrow. How many grams do you need?"

Su Bai looked at the fanatical light reigniting in her eyes and suddenly felt that this Rank 7 researcher and Li Qingyue would probably have a lot in common—both were the type of people who could go without sleep for days once they encountered a project they were interested in. He pulled out his phone and flipped to the design sketches of the Substitute Module.

"Let's start with five grams for the first batch to test compatibility."

"Is five grams enough? The node density of this twelve-axis causality framework of yours requires at least twelve grams to cover all phase interfaces. I suggest making it in a standard batch of fifteen grams; keep the extra for the second round of debugging."

"Your estimation of my circuit density is quite accurate."

"The coupling coefficient you wrote on the scratch paper was 9.7." Researcher Yun Zhi pushed up her glasses, and a faint curve—carrying a hint of academic pride—appeared on her face, which was stained with graphite powder. "Someone who can write that parameter won't leave any margin in their circuit design. The safety thresholds of all nodes must be pushed to the theoretical limit, so actual material consumption will be about thirty percent higher than the theoretical value—rounding up, that's fifteen grams. I'm just quite good at parameter estimation."

The auroral sky outside the window had shifted to late-night mode. The air conditioner in the database was still emitting a low white noise. Between two rows of bookshelves, a Rank 2 Card Creator and a Rank 7 researcher were squatting on the floor, with the circuit sketches and material parameter tables for the Substitute Module spread out before them.

Kyubey squatted on top of the bookshelf, its red glass eyes quietly reflecting the figures of the two people below.

The two were busy for a while.

Su Bai discovered that Researcher Yun Zhi really couldn't be underestimated; her insights in certain areas were indeed unique. With this, the theoretical aspects of the Stand would likely be completed very soon. The only thing he needed to worry about was: where would he find a Magic Card Master for himself?

Seemingly seeing through Su Bai's goal, Researcher Yun Zhi asked: "Su Bai, have you found a Magic Card Master?"

"No."

Su Bai sighed and said helplessly: "Generally speaking, this thing is hard to find, right?"

"What's so hard about it?"

Researcher Yun Zhi said mysteriously: "The Rank 9 [War Emperor] War Emperor Wei Potian, who is number one on the global warrior leaderboard—his daughter doesn't have a teammate either. Do you want me to introduce you?"