Chapter 2403: Five Years Later, Terminating the Project Midway

Time flies like a shuttle, years pass like a stream.

Xia Duo never expected that a single Mythic Lock Node Transformation Project would take years to work on, and with the Alliance's Second Maze Defense Competition fast approaching, their project still showed no signs of completion.

Fortunately, the School's support remained, otherwise, relying solely on Xia Duo's dwindling patent income would have been completely insufficient to sustain the high-frequency experiments required in the later stages of the project.

Currently, thanks to the existence of the Spirit Thought Network, Mythallar Design Class 4—and indeed many other classes in the same grade—had finished their professional courses ahead of schedule, leaving all the remaining time before graduation for independent projects.

However, the Mythallar Design Class 4 to which Xia Duo belonged was not on the same track as other classes; the project they were currently working on had not only gained the attention and support of the School but also the support of the Alliance Technical Committee.

As long as it could be completed before graduation, every student in the class was guaranteed at least the status of Official Researcher.

But that was precisely where the problem lay: the project was progressing slowly, and even Xia Duo, who had the most confidence, was unsure if it could be completed before graduation; he was not even certain if a universal law for Mythallar node transformation (transformation with or without material nodes) even existed.

And as far as he knew, the Alliance Technical Committee was simultaneously supporting several professional teams to engage in research in this area, but unfortunately, those teams had not yet reported any results.

They hadn't even made their lines of thought public.

Currently, the approach Xia Duo's team was taking was what should be considered the most orthodox: starting from the formation and evolutionary laws of Mythallar nodes, exploring the essence of the nodes, and deducing the transformation laws for those without material nodes.

That was, of course, permitted; although Red Heart Primary School was a top-tier primary school, the school authorities did not necessarily believe that their students could perfectly meet expectations regardless of what project they were working on.

Unconsciously, he walked over to Mentor Tuto's private laboratory; ever since Class 4 finished all their professional courses, he had never seen Mentor Tuto's true form again, as he usually only answered students' questions "online."

"This matter concerns you, and it also concerns the other students in Class 4," Mentor Tuto said.

One could imagine the difficulty of the research; perhaps other teams could find a different path and directly discover the transformation laws for Mythallars without material nodes.

Mentor Tuto did not beat around the bush and directly stated his concerns.

He himself did not care about his employment destination, because he had already obtained the qualification of Official Researcher, and only needed to join an official research institution after graduation to activate the corresponding Permission Level.

As for damaging confidence, Xia Shao had already experienced it; as for it being unfavorable to future development, it was more about the other students—if they were dragged down by this bottomless pit of a project, it might truly change their career trajectories after graduation.

For Xia Shao, this was actually not a bad thing; at the very least, he could directly utilize this part of the conclusion and then continue to research the essence of Mythallar nodes.

There were too many projects that ended midway, and as long as the summary was thorough, apart from a discount on Research Sequence Points, it would not affect subsequent new project applications.

It was just that if this happened, their dream of the entire class becoming Official Researchers upon graduation would likely be shattered, and because they had delayed too much time on this project, it might also affect the progress of other people's Research Sequence Points acquisition, thereby affecting their subsequent employment destinations.

But Xia Shao was sensitive at this moment; he subconsciously felt that Mentor Tuto might want to talk about his project, but he didn't know what Mentor Tuto's meaning really was.

Seeing those juniors, Xia Shao suddenly realized that he had been at Red Heart Primary School for so many years, yet he seemed to have not even walked through every part of the school.

"Yes, this project itself is indeed very meaningful and has received the attention and support of the school and the Alliance, but for you students who are still in the learning stage, being exposed to such a project too early is easy to damage your confidence, and it is also unfavorable for your future development."

Everyone felt quite depressed after walking out of the practice base; although no one mentioned giving up, Xia Shao himself wanted to back out.

But the other students couldn't; perhaps this project had very significant meaning for the development of Alliance Magic, but for these students themselves, it was truly a not-so-small burden.

……

However, considering that Mentor Tuto's private laboratory actually had other members, it was not good to disturb them, so Xia Shao temporarily dismissed the idea of visiting and instead contacted his mentor directly.

After lunch, Xia Shao did not return to the practice base with his classmates but wandered around the campus; on the way, he encountered four or five groups of freshmen, each of them scurrying around the campus with excitement.

Why hadn't he thought of coming to visit before?

Having spent so many years with these classmates, although he was under the identity of Maruente, they had all started getting along from scratch; their perceptions were real and not false, and their emotions were naturally real and not false.

Generally speaking, the end of a project is either because the expected goal has been achieved, or it has been proven that the goal can never be achieved, or it is terminated midway due to various reasons.

Thinking of Mentor Tuto's research direction—variable control of Mythallar communication rules—he suddenly developed a strong curiosity about Mentor Tuto's laboratory.

Thinking of this, Xia Shao finally stated his intention, "Mentor, I have also discovered this problem. I actually came here this time to seek your opinion; I want to terminate this project."

Xia Shao was currently the latter—terminating midway.

"If the nerves are stretched too tight, they will collapse sooner or later!"

In fact, the laws of the latter, compared to the essence of Mythallar nodes, could only be considered a very tiny part.

"Maruente, you came just in time; I happen to have something I want to tell you!"

"What is it?"

Appropriately recognizing reality is actually a fact that the school hopes students will understand.

Because he wanted to back out, the words were on the tip of his tongue, but Xia Shao still couldn't say them; it was just right to use Mentor Tuto's matter to ease his emotions.

Burdened with worries, Xia Shao didn't eat his lunch with much appetite; his classmates thought he was in a bad mood due to the morning's experimental results, so they comforted and encouraged him one after another, and suggested fighting again in the afternoon.

In reality, Xia Shao understood that he had entered the Projection Plane twice, without any rest in between; his spirit might have long been unable to support it, but in order to obtain the Wisdom of the Red Heart Alliance as much as possible, he still had to persist.

A moment later, the two met in the Reception Room of the laboratory.

As long as it is not a sloppy ending, giving a decent end to a project that is difficult to complete or impossible to complete is, in a sense, a test for students. That noon, Xia Shao and his team members were busy with experiments at the practice base all morning, but the results were a hundred and eight thousand miles away from expectations; this morning's experiments basically declared that the inferences from the previous period were wrong.

This made him even more determined to quickly terminate this project.

However, since Mentor Tuto had already brought it up, Xia Shao no longer hesitated and said directly, "Mentor, do you mean that the project we are currently conducting is very difficult to see the end of?"