Chapter 1588: Study Companions, Difficult Problems

"The day after tomorrow?!"

Hearing such a timeframe, Niya could not help but raise her voice an octave; the new test paper Xia Duo had produced was nearly half the length of a baseline assessment.

But having already gained experience, she was well aware of how much content a test paper contained and how much time it took to complete one.

This timeframe occupied almost every moment outside of sleep!

"Xia Duo—" Niya looked at Xia Duo pitifully, "Can you add some more time? I'm afraid I won't be able to finish."

"No!"

Xia Duo decisively rejected Niya, "If you want to complete studies that ordinary people cannot complete in a short time, you naturally need to put in more effort and hardship than ordinary people."

After saying this, Xia Duo felt that perhaps he had been too harsh on Niya, so his tone softened significantly, "I will stay with you during this time. Except when you are taking the test, you can ask me any questions you have."

"Then... alright."

Niya knew that to gain something, one must pay a price; she did not truly resist Xia Duo's teaching method, she just hadn't adapted to this high-intensity state of study yet.

But if Xia Duo were accompanying her, it wasn't entirely unbearable.

Next, Xia Duo changed the image on the Projection Window to a clear blue sky, and Niya began to correct her test paper in front of the bright window.

During this period, whenever Niya had a difficult question, she would ask Xia Duo, and Xia Duo showed no impatience at all; one studied earnestly, the other explained earnestly, and time flew by in this fulfilling process.

Of course, besides accompanying Niya in her studies, Xia Duo's main energy was still focused on the subsequent design of the Floating City; currently, he had only completed the designs for the Flight Control System and the Repair and Maintenance System.

There were still more functional system Spell designs that needed to be completed bit by bit; this was difficult to delegate to others and could only be done slowly by himself.

It wasn't that Xia Duo was unwilling to delegate, but there was truly no one available to use.

But fortunately, as long as he completed the main system designs for this experimental Floating City, it would be much more convenient to hand over the subsequent improvement work to others.

Two years later, perhaps the first batch of Advanced Mages under the new system would have been born, and this group might also become the first batch of full-time Researchers for the Floating City.

"Being just the founder isn't bad either!" Xia Duo thought with some self-satisfaction.

Meanwhile, on the other side, at the Horst Research Lab.

A group of people was crowded into the not-so-spacious Spell Laboratory, and in the center was a set of Mithril Components specifically designed to verify related problems.

At this moment, this complex set of Mithril Components, which roughly formed a hollow spherical structure, was emitting a gentle glow and looked quite extraordinary.

But the expressions on the faces of the onlookers did not seem satisfied, especially the leader of the research lab, Mage Horst, whose face was pitch black.

After observing for a moment, Horst paused the energy flow of the Mithril Components, turned to look at one of the onlookers, and asked:

"How is the situation? Is the interference between Area 14 and Area 16 still as severe as before?"

"It's even worse than before! After accurate measurement, the energy fluctuation after the interference between these two areas has exceeded the mission limit by at least 5 times; it was only 3 times before."

The respondent glanced at another person, and seeing no reaction from them, continued: "Besides the energy interference in Areas 14 and 16, energy resonance between circuits has appeared in at least sixteen other areas, such as 25, 25, 42, and 41, directly causing the loss of function in this large section."

As they spoke, the respondent pointed to a certain spot in the hollow sphere in the center of the Laboratory, their expression becoming serious, "This improvement not only failed to solve the problems discovered last time, but instead added quite a few new ones."

Upon hearing this, although Horst's expression was somewhat ugly, it could not be called too dejected; after all, such a task, which they had never encountered before, was indeed quite difficult for them.

After thinking for a moment, he asked the group again: "Then do you think there is a problem with our current approach?"

The group was silent, but Horst was not angry; instead, he squeezed out a smile, "Don't be silent! No matter what, this task must continue. Everyone think of a way and share your thoughts!"

"Then I'll be blunt!"

Another person stood up, "I don't think there's any problem with the current approach. I believe everyone can see that although the tasks given from above are separate, if nothing goes wrong, they should be within the same system. Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with us conducting an overall simulation. Now that so many irreconcilable problems have appeared, either these problems are indeed beyond our capabilities, or—"

"Say no more!"

Horst immediately interrupted the other person, "Since the higher-ups have given such a task, what we can do is try every possible way to complete it, rather than finding other excuses."

Horst's words caused the Laboratory to fall into silence once again, and it was a long time before someone proposed a new suggestion:

"Then can we do it like before, taking it one task at a time? After all, that's how the higher-ups issued the tasks!"

"No!" Horst expressed his opposition again, "The few proposals that were submitted separately before were all sent back. If we do that now, don't you want next quarter's funding?!"

"Uh—"

"Forget it, you all think about it again, I'm going to go probe Mark and the others."

After saying this, Horst left the Laboratory.

Seeing this, the others could not help but let out a long sigh; the task that their research lab couldn't complete would likely not go well for the other two Independent Research Labs either.

"Don't be dejected. I have a new idea. Miqi, Peiqi, you come help me process the Mithril Components. Everyone else go rest for a while! Qiaonasen, you tidy up this place for the next test."

The person speaking was an Intermediate Mage from the Horst Research Lab who usually held prestige; when they stood up, others were largely convinced and began to take action.

Mark Research Lab.

Horst came here as his first stop, but he didn't expect to see Sidier—the person in charge of another Mass Production Design Research Lab—in addition to Mark.

"Horst, you're here. We were just about to go find you! I didn't expect you to come find us first!" Sidier said with a look of surprise.

Compared to Horst, who was already an Intermediate Mage under the old system of the Tower of Time, Sidier and Mark were both Intermediate Mages born from the Low-level Mage Study Class under the new system.

Although the two of them considered themselves not inferior to "old-school" Intermediate Mages like Horst in all aspects, after all, he was older and had more seniority than them. Now that a difficult problem was at hand, if there was an old senior leading or standing in front, it would make them feel more at ease.

What Sidier and Horst said about going to find each other was not entirely polite talk; he had indeed just suggested to Mark that they probe Horst, but he didn't expect Horst to be less patient than them.

On the other side, when he saw that both Sidier and Mark were there, Horst knew that the other party had likely encountered a difficult problem as well, so he didn't want to say any more vague, probing words and went straight to the point:

"I won't waste time with small talk. I assume you have guessed my intention. Regarding this series of tasks, I want to cooperate with you to complete them together!"