Professor Sun, hearing Professor Mo's reproachful words, spread her hands regretfully: "Sorry, our institute doesn't have room for a starship."
Professor Mo: "..."
If the space were big enough, you'd really arrange it that way, wouldn't you?
Professor Mo rolled his eyes, then asked Sun: "What do you think of her?"
Sun initially wanted to say that Sarah wasn't very suitable for the Mental Energy Control Research Institute, as the teachers and resources here were too limited. But as she opened her mouth, she realized Mo was actually asking about Sarah's admission assessment.
Sun thought for a moment, then said: "She's quite good. She probably hasn't received systematic education before, so her foundation is average, but her learning ability is very strong. This isn't a big problem; I think given a month or two, she could catch up on the basics."
Mo was startled by Sun's evaluation: "That's quite an exaggeration."
Although he didn't know exactly how Sarah's foundation was, Sun wasn't someone who would lie. If she said it was average, it must be truly average.
Usually, the foundational study for card makers took at least three to five years. Even if this "average" was halved, it still shouldn't be possible to catch up in just a month or two.
Sun chuckled, not explaining further.
Heaven knows how peaceful it felt to face other students after teaching Sarah, not having to worry about being stumped by student questions.
Mo sensed that Sun's laugh held many meanings, but none of them good. So he didn't probe further and started gathering his files to prepare for class. Before leaving, he reminded Sun: "After the finals, it'll be time for school admissions. Remember to prepare her assessment before then; the dean needs to approve it."
Sun, of course, knew all this and gestured to Mo that she understood.
Returning to the institute, Sun habitually headed for her own research room. But remembering her conversation with Mo, she turned to look at Sarah's research room, where the sound of machinery hadn't stopped.
It was indeed getting close to the assessment time. She needed to check on Sarah's repair progress.
Of course, Sun wasn't interested in whether the device was fixed or not. She intended to see how much Sarah had applied and mastered from the questions she had asked during the repair practice.
Asking questions wasn't a great skill; being able to put the answers into practice was truly impressive.
She also needed to draft assessment questions based on Sarah's situation to report.
Of course, the questions couldn't be related to mental energy detection.
For a Mental Energy Control research institute to assess detection-related issues would be too embarrassing!
"Knock, knock, knock!"
Sarah heard the knocking.
At first, Sarah thought she had misheard, but when the knocking sounded a second time, she confirmed that someone was indeed looking for her.
With only herself and Professor Sun in the institute, Sarah knew who was at the door.
What did the director want? Had she finally realized that Sarah had been slacking off in the institute for two months?
These thoughts popped into Sarah's mind, but her hands didn't stop. She called out to the door: "Director, just a moment. I'm finishing up an adjustment here."
Sarah had completed the simplified, modified version of the mental energy detector yesterday.
With the reference of the official version and so many professional tools in the research room, Sarah had never experienced such a comfortable work environment since coming to this world. The efficiency was truly impressive.
After completion, of course, there was still work to be done in checking, debugging, and testing. This was what Sarah was doing now, but she felt it was mostly minor issues at this point.
After reinstalling the parts she had removed during the recent adjustment process, Sarah finally opened her research room door.
By this time, Sun had been waiting for about ten minutes, but she remained calm.
Because that's how it is when doing experiments and research. Unless it was something extremely urgent and important that needed immediate attention, the first priority was always to complete the current stage of work before dealing with other matters.
After Sarah opened the door, Sun didn't rush in. She first looked up at the mental energy detector in the center of the research room, then froze.
Several panels of the device's outer casing were missing, Sarah had put them somewhere. But because of this, Sun could clearly see inside the mental energy detector.
— The parts related to the total detection that Sarah had inquired about earlier had been completely emptied out.
And it wasn't just the total detection parts that were missing. Accurately speaking, it seemed that all the undamaged parts inside had disappeared.
Sun: "?"
She felt she didn't understand.
What kind of repair doesn't require putting parts into the device?
But out of respect for the professional questions Sarah had asked her earlier, Sun didn't raise any doubts. Instead, she calmly asked Sarah: "How's your progress with 'Thirty Billion'?"
Noticing Sun's gaze, Sarah's body tensed for a moment.
Oh, she had apparently taken the outer casing of the mental energy detector and used it for her own device.
After all, once completed, the two had quite a bit in common in terms of casing.
But remembering how Sun had earlier tossed her the warehouse key, indicating she could use anything freely, Sarah relaxed again.
This mental energy detector was no different from the other devices in the warehouse, maybe even more broken.
If she apologized, the director would surely forgive her.
Sarah calmed down and showed no confusion at Sun's inquiry.
Hadn't the director asked her to lay the wiring before? Wiring was part of the repair, wasn't it?
The director finally had time to check on the task she had assigned. It seemed there would be new things to deal with, and she couldn't continue to slack off comfortably.
But it was okay; her simplified version was almost done.
This was Sarah's thought.
Sarah didn't show her regret about not being able to slack off anymore. Upon hearing Sun's words, she quickly went to the mental energy detector and precisely pointed to the wiring she had laid out very neatly, looking not only accurate but also full of industrial beauty.
"I've finished all the wiring! There are absolutely no problems with the layout. Director, please come and check!" Sarah raised her face, looking like she was seeking praise.
Standing at the door, Sun: "..."
Who asked you about that?!
Sun's veins bulged for a moment, then she remembered that she had indeed assigned this task to Sarah at the beginning.
So this girl had asked her so many questions over the past two months, tinkered around in the warehouse and research room for so long, dismantled the mental energy detector like this, just to do these few wires??
Sun fell silent, her hand twitching. She silently took a step into the research room, but as she stepped in, she suddenly felt that something in her peripheral vision seemed off.
There seemed to be something there.
Sun slowly turned her head to look at the suddenly appeared device of considerable size on her left side.
Accurately speaking, it was a 'small' thing that looked like a mini version of the mental energy detector.
But upon closer inspection, Sun found that it didn't really look that similar. The similarity was mainly because its casing was completely stripped from 'Thirty Billion'.
Feeling that something beyond her understanding had happened, Sun: "..."
"What is this?" Sun asked very calmly.
Caught red-handed, Sarah giggled and sidled up to Sun: "I made it in my spare time. It's also for mental energy detection, but it can only measure one value."
"It's not fully calibrated yet, but it should work now," Sarah said as she pulled out a purple card she had already drawn from her pocket and inserted it into the card slot. The mini mental energy detector immediately lit up.
Sarah confidently placed her hand on the detection position, channeling her mental energy into it. Soon, a value appeared in front of the two.
137 points.
Seeing this number, Sarah paused.
This was the first time the screen had displayed normal content since she had built the device. Before, it had always shown gibberish.
But... this was clearly still problematic.
"Looks like it's not calibrated properly yet," Sarah, who had initially wanted to show off to Sun, laughed awkwardly.
Normally, the total mental energy value for a card maker of Sarah's age should be in the range of 300-1000.
How embarrassing!! Sarah rarely felt this flustered.
She thought she had it mostly figured out.