Inside the research institute, Sarah maintained her politeness. Except for her own research room and knocking on Professor Sun's door, she hadn't wandered around other places.
Of course, this was partly because Sarah had discovered that some areas had holes under the carpets. The safety zones in this institute were quite mysterious.
Although she hadn't been to other places, Sarah didn't have much expectation when she used the key to open the warehouse door. After all, Professor Sun had told her there weren't many materials inside, mostly discarded instruments.
But when she opened the warehouse, Sarah was stunned by the sight before her.
The institute's warehouse was huge, twice the size of the library in Nova Scrapyard. This massive space was filled with all kinds of discarded instruments.
Piled up one after another, it looked like a giant junk room, giving Sarah an inexplicable sense of familiarity (...).
This warehouse felt even more like a garbage dump than Nova Scrapyard.
Did Inspector Vega really discard so many instruments during her research?
Sarah was shocked, but she quickly assessed the situation of the entire warehouse - it wasn't just waste from Inspector Vega's time as director, but likely discarded instruments from the research institute's long history, including failed products from generations of researchers.
They had all been placed here.
The weathered look of these unmaintained discarded instruments was clearly not something that could have developed in just a few years.
The good news was that not all of them were as damaged as the mental energy detection device. This meant Sarah's chances of finding usable parts had increased.
Of course, there were drawbacks too.
For instance, when Sarah examined some of the older instruments, she found that many parts had already been removed, especially the valuable ones.
— The previous research institute, although not in 37 billion debt like now, wouldn't have completely discarded failed research without recycling anything useful.
Storing them in the warehouse probably stemmed from researchers' thoughts of potential future use or the possibility of continuing and perfecting the research later.
But there were far too many discarded instruments accumulated here.
Sarah recalled Professor Sun saying there weren't many materials, and she suspected this place had never stored raw materials at all.
While internally criticizing this, Sarah didn't stop her actions. She quickly began disassembling all the instruments before her. She even used the casings of these instruments to build several shelves, categorizing the usable parts according to her habits.
It must be said that the integrity of the parts in these warehouse instruments was much better than the mental energy detection device in Sarah's research room. Sarah became increasingly excited as she continued disassembling. It had taken her just over half a month to design her own mental energy detection device, but it took her over half a month to disassemble all the instruments in the warehouse.
When she was in Nova Scrapyard, she had dreamed of being able to freely disassemble such high-end instruments!
This was truly amazing!
Half a month later, rows of shelves filled with usable parts covered half the warehouse. Sarah hadn't calculated their value, but she felt she wouldn't lack basic components for years to come.
What excited Sarah the most was that she had dug out another mental energy-related detector from these instruments.
— A mental energy condensation detector.
This data wasn't particularly important for mental energy detection, at least not for card makers. This value mainly affected the effectiveness of using spirit cards.
The more condensed the mental energy, the less mental energy was required to use spirit cards, and the better the effect when used.
For example, the invisibility card that 'Jake' had used in Nova Scrapyard - if someone with poor condensation used it, the effect might only render them semi-transparent.
But having one more detection item was still good, especially since this detector's interface was similar to the others. With minor modifications to make it modular, it could be directly replaced without much trouble.
Based on the parts available in the warehouse, Sarah adjusted her design again, simplifying it further, and began the mechanical manufacturing work with a clang and a bang.
Usually, card makers would leave this part of the work to mechanical engineers, as it didn't require mental energy and could be done by ordinary people, freeing up a lot of time and energy for card makers.
The same went for maintenance; all the engineers and maintenance staff in the cleaning company were ordinary people.
However, Sarah was more accustomed to doing it herself.
In Nova Scrapyard, finding someone who could do mechanical manufacturing was extremely difficult, and even if you found someone, trust was always an issue.
Moreover, by doing it herself, she could gain much more insight from the problems encountered during the process than waiting for feedback from engineers.
Sarah also really enjoyed the process of creating something new.
Before she knew it, two months had passed on Axiom Prime. Axiom Central University was about to welcome their final exams, and the atmosphere on campus became tense. Many teachers also began to worry about their underperforming students.
Don't fail, don't fail, don't fail.
Failing wasn't just painful for the students; it gave teachers headaches too.
For instance, in Professor Mo's subject, there were previously bright students who had neglected their studies and were now hovering on the edge of passing.
After scolding one such student, Professor Mo rubbed his temples. He happened to see Professor Sun, who rarely came out of her research room, and suddenly remembered a certain child who had been quite obedient in his memory.
Although Professor Sun was responsible for few courses, she also had to keep an eye on grades during the final exam period, informing students about the assessment content. Recently, she had been coming out of her research room more often.
Seeing Professor Sun, Professor Mo felt a bit uncomfortable.
This person had been dressing up quite prettily recently, which looked rather scary.
Fortunately, Professor Mo quickly recalled what had happened two months ago and roughly understood why Professor Sun was dressing up so properly.
However, two months had passed, and Professor Sun still hadn't finished disciplining that person and returned to her true nature? Professor Mo's curiosity was piqued: "Sun, how's that student who was assigned to your research institute doing now?"
With the busy final exam period and her own delayed instrument maintenance to catch up on, Professor Sun indeed hadn't paid much attention to Sarah lately.
Of course, this was also because Sarah was quite well-behaved as long as she didn't come asking questions.
Now being asked about it, Professor Sun thought for a moment and honestly replied, "I gave her that mental energy detection device to repair, and now she's probably still tinkering around on her own." After all, Professor Sun had heard the sound of machinery being used in that research room.
Moreover, every time Professor Sun came out of her own research room, she could hear those machines being used. She suspected that Sarah hadn't rested at all.
Working so hard, it seemed she had encountered some difficulties.
Professor Sun felt quite reassured about this.
Hearing Professor Sun's words, several question marks popped up on Professor Mo's forehead.
Professor Mo was aware of the condition of the mental energy detection device. The damage was so thorough that there was absolutely no need for repair.
In the past, that machine had always been used for rechecking admission standards when new students entered the school. After it was damaged by Inspector Vega, the dean had been forced to borrow from other places for the past few years, each time returning with a black face and cursing Inspector Vega several times in his office.
If that device could be repaired at all, the dean would have definitely demanded the Mental Energy Control Research Institute to handle it immediately.
Recalling the "unforgettable setback" Professor Sun had mentioned at the time, Professor Mo's mouth twitched: "Why don't you just ask her to build a starship instead?"