“He died for me. You... don’t need to blame yourself!”

“When we entered the Academy, we all swore an oath to defend its honor and safety to the death. If he dies for the Academy, his family will receive ample compensation, and what those of us who survived can do is to personally take...”

“Revenge!”

Spitting out those two words viciously, Hou Congwen lifted his hand and drew the white cloth over Qiu Hong.

“Let’s go. The Dean wants to see you. It seems he has something very important to tell you.”

“Oh, right. I’ve already reported your earlier result to the Dean, but because of the sudden power outage, the specific model couldn’t be saved in full and was automatically filtered out and deleted by the system. Right now the Deification Ranking only has a record hanging there, so you may need to enter the virtual realm and verify it once more before it can be counted on your own results list.”

“And also...” Hou Congwen hesitated, but in the end chose to go on. “Dean Ji has entered a super-computing state. The sooner you can provide your complete model data and the original ideas behind your design, the greater the chance he can refine it a second time for you. And if you could break through a thousand times...”

“The Architecture Institute has only one head dean and one vice dean, and unlike the other institutes, a seat is always left vacant.”

Hou Congwen’s meaning was already obvious by this point. Seeing Su Mo give a slight nod, he said no more and started leading the way.

Before long, after the two of them wound back and forth through the auditorium and went up to the third floor, Su Mo suddenly saw familiar figures in the small compartments one after another.

“That is the dean of the Medical Institute and also the chairman of Regeneration Medical, Dean Yan Xiaqing. She is one of the great elders who has been with our Academy of Sciences since its founding,” Hou Congwen said with a smile, pointing at an old woman who was already hunched, her gray hair thin, only half of it left.

“The one across from her is the dean of our Chemistry Institute, Ouyang Guo. His health hasn’t been good these past two years, and since he likes to do his research in quiet, he hasn’t appeared before us for a long time. He probably only came out this time because of Dean Ji,” he continued, pointing at a stiff-faced old man in a wheelchair.

“Dean Ouyang and Dean Yan are both first-generation deans of our Academy. Oh, and there’s also Dean Bai, Bai Yiqi, the dean of our Physics Institute and also the vice dean of the whole Academy. After Dean Ji leaves this time, it will probably come down to him or Dean Zhang Chong of the Ordnance Institute.”

As they walked, Hou Congwen stopped. Through a small transparent window, Su Mo saw Ai Jianqiang sitting inside, talking with a middle-aged man.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Come in!” a voice called out. Hou Congwen stopped and gave him a look. Su Mo nodded, pushed open the door, and walked in.

“Ah, Youzong is here! Come sit, come sit!” Seeing that it was Su Mo, Ai Jianqiang seemed unusually happy and hurriedly stood up to greet him. He warmly took Su Mo’s hand and pulled him down to sit beside him before turning to the middle-aged man to make the introductions.

“Youzong, this is Wen Ziling, vice dean of our Ordnance Institute. He used to be my older brother’s student, so he’s one of us.”

“Ziling, this is the new star who only appeared in our Architecture Institute today, a researcher who made the Deification Ranking on his very first visit.”

“Oh, and don’t be fooled by how thin he looks. Let me tell you, those two or three hundred murlocs couldn’t do anything to Youzong alone. Even the one who took the King’s Medicine was led around by him until it was spinning in circles.”

The more he talked, the more satisfaction showed in Ai Jianqiang’s eyes. Before Hou Congwen had come over to explain the result, he and Vice Dean Ning Yushu had been discussing whether to keep Su Mo in the Architecture Institute as an honorary researcher or send him to the Ordnance Institute to shine. But when Hou Congwen came and explained that the seven-hundred-times result had been achieved by Su Mo on his very first visit...

“I’ve long admired you,” Wen Ziling said, holding out a large, rough hand. The helplessness in his eyes clearly showed how long Ai Jianqiang had been bragging before Su Mo arrived.

“Dean Wen is young and promising indeed,” Su Mo said, extending his hand as well, and the two shook hands.

Of course, what Wen Ziling said was modesty, not flattery. After all, both Wen Ziling and Hou Congwen had been students of Ai Jianfeng. After so many years, Hou Congwen was still just an ordinary researcher, while Wen Ziling had become the vice dean of the Ordnance Institute. That showed how outstanding the latter’s talent was!

“Ah, enough of this nagging, all of you. This old man can’t stand you young people putting on these empty formalities. You never learn to treasure your limited life until you get to my age.”

“Here’s what we’ll do. Youzong, I’ll apply for virtual realm permissions, and we’ll go in together and take a look at your structure. How about that?”

“Dean Ji is still helping the Physics Institute with their deductions. It will take at least two more hours before he gets to our Architecture Institute. That should be enough time for us to add some simple annotations and refinements to your structure first. Then we let Dean Ji refine it a second time, and it might go up by another notch!”

Ai Jianqiang took an empty badge from beside him and handed it over. He had clearly prepared it in advance. “Your identity has been handled as a special case and registered already. We can take care of the rest of the formalities later. This time we’ll open the virtual realm with your identity.”

“Good!” Su Mo took the badge. A distinct sensation like an electric shock came at once, and a phantom panel unfolded in front of him. It was the key to entering virtual reality.

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