Chapter 1289: Empire Interests, Yilisi's Visit

Xia Duo sees this point very clearly; it is not in the interest of the Empire for Researchers to suppress the promotion of Assistant Researchers.

The current Empire is not in its prime, but in a state of remnants playing hide-and-seek after its collapse; even if the upper echelons are rotten, surely they cannot all be rotten.

Under such circumstances, anyone in the upper echelons with a brain would hope to consume resources to advance Magic development as quickly as possible, rather than getting bogged down in internal involution.

As for the development of Magic, the Research Institute is of paramount importance; while it may seem that Assistant Researchers not being promoted does not affect the normal operation of the Research Institute, in reality, it makes the interior of the Research Institute lifeless.

Take Luo Zi, Hake, and the others, for example; they can accumulate projects in their hands, yet because of identity restrictions, they cannot initiate projects independently. Perhaps among these projects lies the key technology to change the fate of the Empire Remnants!

Once they can be successfully promoted, a large number of new projects will immediately emerge; even if it is just to try their luck, the probability of hitting on a candidate project will be higher.

Xia Duo's current existence is simply an anomaly; he does not care at all whether the interior of the Research Institute is involuting or not, he only cares about whether his own research projects can be successfully outsourced.

As for what price he gives others, he cares even less; in any case, it is all a void of "you can't bring it with you when you are born, and you can't take it with you when you die."

Perhaps the higher-ups will even give him some support to let him stir up this stagnant pool of the Research Institute!

……

Two days later, five newcomers joined Xia Duo's Laboratory again, so Xia Duo took the opportunity to launch the project: "Resurrection — The Perfect Restoration of the Link Between Body and Soul."

Being related to Resurrection, it is not very convenient to experiment in the Main Plane; after all, they are all living people, how could they be as useful as the virtual people in the Projection Plane, with no psychological burden.

Anyway, once this Projection Plane dissipates in the Astral Plane, everything will vanish into thin air.

With some existing research data from the Empire Remnants as a foundation, Xia Duo believes that even at its worst, this project can help him rule out some misunderstandings in direction, making it easier for him to conduct further research in the future.

However, after this project was established, Xia Duo also received a notification from the Research Institute Management Center: the newcomer benefits have ended, and future projects will come with requirements, and their completion status will be included in the review and assessment for the establishment of new projects in the future.

Regarding this, Xia Duo feels deeply regretful; the benefits for only three projects are truly too few, and he even regrets giving the first project to Luo Zi.

……

Two days later, five more newcomers joined Xia Duo's Laboratory; at this time, the laboratory, including Xia Duo, already had 15 Advanced Rank Mages.

Such quality, if placed in Netheril of the Main Plane, would be a quite strong Mage Tower organization; for the Tower of Time to accumulate 15 Advanced Rank Mages, it would likely take about ten years.

But ten years is just the normal upgrade time for an ordinary Mage; with the academic training mechanism of the Tower of Time at that time, by then, there would definitely not be only 15 Advanced Rank Mages, but batch after batch, perhaps hundreds!

In fact, looking at this Judgment Division base of the Empire Remnants, one can calculate the future development status of the Tower of Time; the total number of people in the Judgment Division base is about the same as the Savile Territory, about forty or fifty thousand people.

But the proportion of Advanced Rank Mages is simply ridiculously high, even higher than in the Empire's prime; just the ones Xia Duo has seen with his own eyes number over a hundred, and there are even more he hasn't seen.

If there could be such a high proportion of Advanced Rank Mages with a population of nearly ten million at that time, then the Empire might not have collapsed.

Advanced Rank Mages were still able to survive during the collapse disaster of that time; as long as they could dodge the first wave of the most tragic impact of the Magic Net structure almost completely collapsing (those who were not Arcanists could not cast spells and could not protect themselves), everything after that was not a problem.

And in reality, when the proportion of Advanced Rank Mages is high, the proportion of Arcanists and Great Arcanists will inevitably increase as well; this is a major change that can alter the strategic landscape.

If the current Empire Remnants could still produce over forty Great Arcanists like in the Empire's prime, then even if they returned to the surface, Keman would likely not dare to force them too much.

How could it be like now, determined to completely annihilate the Empire Remnants.

……

Of course.

Whether it was during the Empire period or the current Remnant period, the policies of compulsory childbirth and Compulsory Education were too harsh; it was only because of the huge external crisis pressing down that internal collapse did not occur.

In the relatively peaceful environment of the Main Plane, this cannot be done.

Compulsory Education is fine; Xia Duo's hometown did exactly that, it is not hard to accept, and he is very willing to accept it.

But compulsory childbirth is too contrary to human nature; even if Xia Duo very much wants the Territory's population to develop rapidly, it is very hard for him to accept using such a method to achieve it.

He is more inclined to encourage childbirth rather than force it.

……

The addition of newcomers made Xia Duo's Laboratory crowded for a time, especially the Measurement Equipment used for precise measurement of specific parameters, which must be used in turns by several project groups.

Of the four project groups, except for Luo Zi who is a one-person group, the other three groups average four or five people; Luo Zi was affected the most and almost started arguing over competing for equipment.

On the contrary, those that cannot be moved, such as Alchemy Arrays, Suppression Fields, and other fixed facilities, have not yet had any usage disputes because the space is spacious.

After learning about this situation, Xia Duo was also glad that he only accepted a dozen or so people; if he had accepted a few more, the laboratory would not need to work, just arguing over equipment would be enough to be noisy for a whole day.

After dinner, after the leaders of the four project groups reported the day's progress to Xia Duo respectively, Luo Zi put forward an expected request:

"I want to apply for a batch of materials to exchange for a batch of Measurement Equipment from the 'Kashier Laboratory'!"

"You can, go get as much as you need, just make sure to keep an outgoing record," Xia Duo said generously.

In fact, the current laboratory material warehouse is managed by Luo Zi, and adding laboratory equipment is already within his Permission Level, so there is no need to apply specifically.

But human respect is mutual, after all, not to mention that Luo Zi's major matter of promotion is still in Xia Duo's hands.

As for the Kashier Laboratory, it is actually that they are good at making Measurement Equipment; rather than making it yourself and wasting time, energy, and materials, it is better to go and exchange for it directly.

Of course, if you use points, you can exchange for better performance and higher precision, but Luo Zi clearly would not make such a request.

The laboratory's materials have a certain quota every month, which is public property, and it is a waste if not used; instead, points are more like private property and will not be wasted easily.

……

There is no sun or moon in the laboratory.

This day, after Xia Duo finished breakfast, he was checking the project proposal brought over by Hake, and after a simple check, he prepared to let him go to the Management Center to apply for project establishment.

Just at this moment, he received a Sending from his old superior Yilisi, asking to meet him at the Academy Square on the negative fourth floor.