Chapter 767: The Consequences of Half-Assing a Thesis (Part 1)

The dusk around five or six in the afternoon is the best time for Cat Getan's weather. Occasionally, one can even see the sunset on the sea.

The afterglow of the setting sun can penetrate layers of rain clouds and shine into this dark city. Therefore, calling this the City of Night is inaccurate; it is more like a City of Dusk.

At sunset, the hour of the demon, the sunlight always manages to drape a mysterious and dreamy veil over everything it shines upon. White paper, under the light, turns into a beautiful gold, and even the black text on it begins to shimmer.

Although the appearance of the text became very beautiful, it couldn't affect the content, which was headache-inducing. Schiller held a stack of theses in his hand, his brows furrowed tightly.

Victor, who was walking past him with a stack of documents, paused his steps and tilted his head to look at the stack of theses. He saw that the signature on the thesis was Bruce Wei En's name, so Victor curiously leaned over.

"Is this Bruce's thesis? It's written quite well, isn't it? The introduction part is quite organized, but... is there a problem with this symbol? And the citation format here seems wrong..."

Schiller shook his head and said, "There are more problems than that. You only saw his introduction. The only part he wrote seriously was the introduction. Look here—at first glance, it seems there's no problem, but it completely contradicts the opening report he handed to me. It's clear that his thoughts were flowing, but he went off-topic."

"And here, the logical relationship between the front and back is a mess. This place shouldn't cite Jung's theory; it conflicts with one of his previous conclusions. And here... this thesis is clearly the result of working through the night."

Victor reached out and patted Schiller on the shoulder, saying, "Don't be so strict. After all, he hasn't studied much for the first three years. It's not bad that he can write it now. These are all minor problems. As long as the general research direction is fine, he can still graduate."

Schiller snorted coldly and said, "If an undergraduate thesis is written like this, what about a graduate student?"

"He still wants to study as a graduate student?" Victor asked with some surprise, "Doesn't he not like attending class? And does he really have time to specialize in research topics?"

"He doesn't want to research, but he has to. In the entire Cat Getan University, there are only a few graduate students, and they are all from other schools. Their academic level isn't good either. If I work here for a few years and can't bring out a graduate student, that will become a stain on my resume."

Schiller looked at the stack of theses and sighed. He felt genuinely worried. Victor thought for a while and said, "I think people who have read your resume probably won't care whether you brought out a graduate student or not."

Schiller rubbed his temples, put down the stack of theses, picked up the phone at hand, and said, "Hello? This is Rodriguez. Yes, that's right, I'm looking for Wei En. What? He's not there? At this time, if he's not in the library, where else would he be?"

Schiller glanced at his watch. It was already close to seven in the evening. He knew that the dinner time at Wei En Manor was generally controlled between five and six in the evening. Bruce was also very accustomed to a regular life and wouldn't easily change his meal time.

Then now, he should have finished dinner and returned to the library to continue studying. If he wasn't in the library now, it meant he wasn't studying.

Schiller glanced at the thesis in his hand again, his brows furrowing once more.

If it were normal for a thesis to have various problems—after all, he was only an undergraduate—but not chasing progress while owing a thesis and having problems with basic formatting, and then disappearing after dinner, that was an issue of attitude.

Schiller stood up, put on his coat, picked up his umbrella, and went to the library first. Determining that Bruce really wasn't there, he went to the dorms and the cafeteria, and then he discovered that there was no sign of Bruce in the entire Cat Getan University. In other words, Bruce wasn't in school at all.

Recalling Bruce saying that Alfred was sick, Schiller guessed he might have returned to Wei En Manor to visit his butler. After all, he had been staying at school for the past few days, and perhaps he was also very worried about Alfred's condition, which was understandable.

Schiller also wanted to visit Alfred, so he drove to Wei En Manor again. He saw Alfred, but Bruce wasn't there.

"Oh, Professor Schiller, why did you come at this time?" Alfred hurried over, wanting to help Schiller with his coat, but Schiller didn't intend to stay. He said, "Nothing much, Bruce's thesis formatting has some problems, I wanted to discuss it with him. Is he not here?"

Alfred was stunned for a moment and said, "I was just about to call the school and have him come back this weekend. Aisha has reached the age for kindergarten. Whether to hire a private tutor or send her to a community kindergarten needs to be arranged..."

Schiller thought for a moment and then said, "If he's not at school or at the manor, it's very likely he's at Wei En Tower or his base."

Alfred also nodded, agreeing with his statement, and then said to Schiller, "Thank you for your trouble during this time, Professor. I hope Bruce can graduate with excellent grades..."

Looking at the old man in front of him, Schiller smiled and said, "He will."

After leaving Wei En Manor, Schiller rushed to Wei En Tower. This was where most of Wei En Group's clerical staff worked. Schiller hadn't been here before, so because he didn't have an appointment, he asked the front desk, but the front desk said they hadn't seen Wei En.

Just as Schiller intended to head to the Batcave to find Bruce, he saw a familiar black shadow in a small alley near Wei En Tower. Schiller looked down at his watch; it was not even eight o'clock, and the sky had just darkened. Why was Batman out so early?

Schiller arrived at the entrance of the small alley. Batman had just jumped down from the wall. Seeing Schiller blocking the entrance, he was stunned.

Before Schiller could speak, Batman spoke first: "Professor, if you want me to finish the thesis as soon as possible, you can call me at the library directly. There's no need to enter Wei En Tower; it might scare the employees..."

Schiller was also stunned. He asked, "When did I enter Wei En Tower? The front desk staff doesn't even know me. I just called the library to find you, and the librarian told me you weren't there, so that's why I found you here."

Both of them were silent for a moment, discovering that there might be some misunderstanding. Schiller spoke first: "Batman, I don't necessarily want to stop your heroic career, but shouldn't you also look at the current situation?"

Schiller pulled a stack of theses from somewhere and waved them in his hand. The paper collided, making a "rustling" sound. Schiller looked at Batman and said: "Your current thesis has problems even with basic formatting. There are many incorrect symbols, and the citation format is also wrong..."

"If you want to continue fighting crime in Cat Getan, at least you have to solve these basic problems first, right? Is this request really too much?"

"Uh, no..." Batman replied, but then he hesitated and said: "But I have an urgent problem to deal with right now."

"What problem?" Schiller asked, looking at him.

Perhaps Batman himself felt it was absurd. He wore a hesitant expression but still opened his mouth: "... Wei En Tower has been broken into."

"Broken into??" Schiller raised his tone and said, "Batman, do you have to test my bottom line again and again? If you really don't want to write the thesis at all, then delay your graduation—a few years is fine. There's no need to tell such a lie that even a three-year-old could see through, just to avoid studying..."

Then, Schiller lowered his head, took a deep breath, and said, "Fine, I can assume that your mental condition hasn't been treated in time, resulting in a series of consequences that make you unable to integrate into normal life. My requirements aren't high: finish modifying the symbol problems tonight. Is that hard?"

Schiller felt he had shown the greatest patience, but Batman showed no sign of leaving. He repeated again: "I'm not joking. Someone broke into Wei En Tower and took away a lot of important data. I originally thought it was..."

"You thought it was me?" Schiller took two steps forward, looking at Batman. He raised the thesis in his hand and said: "I'm not interested in any data of Wei En Group. I just want you to get back to school immediately and fix your punctuation marks!"

Batman also sighed and said: "I'm not worried about the data theft. There are no secrets in Wei En Tower, but the problem is that many employees have been frightened. They claim that when they got off work, a figure suddenly appeared in the office..."

"Many people say it's a ghost, but some people's reactions are a bit extreme. For the past few days, the windows of Wei En Tower have been shattered by bullets more than a dozen times, but that guy is still appearing..."

Schiller sighed and said: "I don't have time to play such detective games with you. You are responsible for whatever problems your group has, but tomorrow morning, I hope to see that you have corrected all the punctuation marks, okay?"

After speaking, he turned and left. Batman behind him took a deep breath and touched his forehead with his fingers. He felt a sense of anxiety spreading in his heart. For the past two weeks, he had deeply understood what academic pressure was.

The next morning, Schiller was sitting in his office again, holding a stack of theses, frowning and sighing.

Anna and Victor were leaning together, whispering to each other. Victor stared at Schiller and said: "Seriously, I can understand his mood very well. Whenever a student's thesis has some points that just won't get better no matter how they are changed, I really have the urge to take a freeze gun and give them a shot."

Anna snorted coldly and said: "Then you haven't seen a genius who can calculate a dozen different results from the same set of data, or that kind of genius where the same result appears in the thesis, but even the position of the decimal point is wrong!"

Both of them sighed in unison. Having stayed at Cat Getan University for a long time, when they encountered students whose formatting and punctuation were correct and whose logic and argumentation were relatively rigorous, they couldn't wait to go to church to thank God.

Schiller didn't hear their low discussion, just focusing on the stack of theses in his hand.

The punctuation marks in the thesis were corrected, but only the punctuation marks were corrected. Schiller didn't think Bruce would be someone who only moved when pushed. Besides the bad attitude, there was no other reason to explain this.

After all, the matter of Wei En Tower being broken into—as long as it wasn't Catwoman, the thief of hearts—sounded like a fantasy.

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And things were far from that simple. Today, when Schiller called the library, the librarian said that Bruce Wei En wasn't there again and hadn't come all day.

Calling the dorm, the roommate also said he hadn't seen him at all. Calling Wei En Manor again, Alfred still said Bruce wasn't there.

For three whole days, Schiller couldn't get through on the phone, couldn't get the thesis, and couldn't find the person.

It could be said that now, Schiller could barely suppress his anger, all because Batman had no parents. ===== CHAPTER 768 =====