"Looks like it still needs some work," Sarah said sheepishly.
Professor Sun didn't pay attention to Sarah's words at all. She instinctively checked the time, confirming that it was only Sarah's 64th day in the research room.
Why did she feel like it should have been 640 days? Had it really only been two months? Or was Sarah living on some 240-hour day cycle?
Regardless of whether the results from this device were accurate or not, from Sarah's series of reactions during operation, the machine was clearly functioning without any issues.
Being able to achieve this alone was already beyond the level of an ordinary person.
To be precise, it was a level that many three-star card makers didn't possess.
The standard for three stars was just being able to create yellow cards, which was a very broad category and didn't include aspects of innovation and creation.
Sun, who had spent nearly half a year trying to repair her own device, felt a world-weary urge to light a cigarette.
Even though she didn't smoke.
Feeling that she had many questions to ask, but not knowing where to start due to their sheer number, Sun finally asked Sarah her first question after a long pause.
"How old are you?"
Sarah didn't understand why she was suddenly being asked this, but she answered honestly, "Eighteen." Then, Sarah puffed out her chest slightly proudly, "I'm already an adult."
When she had left Nova Port, Sarah had still been seventeen. After going through so many experiences, almost a year had passed, and Sarah had finally become a legal adult.
An adult! It had been so long since she'd been an adult!
Sun recalled hazily what she had been doing at eighteen. She seemed to remember assisting a group of researchers in this very lab, doing some material manufacturing work, at most creating some small portable tools for her own use.
Even that had already surpassed many of her peers by a considerable margin.
The first time she had designed something that could be called a formal instrument was at twenty-two, and that was a development project done together with several senior students.
— And at that time, the Mental Energy Control Research Institute wasn't like it was now; it had had all the resources one could need.
Sun looked at the various components on the device before her, clearly of different styles. She had given Sarah the warehouse key herself, so of course, she knew what this was about.
But knowing was one thing; understanding how it was done was another. Sun felt she couldn't comprehend it.
She couldn't comprehend it at all.
At this moment, Sun recalled her earlier words to Professor Mo about giving Sarah an "unforgettable lesson."
Whether Sarah would remember this forever was unknown, but Sun felt that she herself would certainly not forget how she felt right now.
The feeling that in two years, someone else might be taking over as director.
But it was still okay. When she first saw this device, it wasn't fully calibrated yet, so at least she could still save some face. Sun took a deep breath and said calmly to Sarah, "Let me see the design drawings for this thing."
"Sure," Sarah agreed quickly, pulling out her design drawings from a nearby drawer.
When Sarah first started designing the mental energy total detection device, the drawings were only about a dozen pages. Now, they had become a thick book, only about a third thinner than the blueprints for 'Thirty Billion' next to it.
As Sun took the drawings in hand, she fell silent for a moment, unable to resist looking up at the mini version again.
Did this thing really need so many drawings?
Fortunately, when Sun opened it, she realized she had misunderstood. Indeed, it didn't need this many.
The reason these drawings were so thick was that, rather than finished blueprints, they were more like unorganized rough drafts.
Many parts were crossed out or discarded, clearly showing every modification process Sarah had gone through while making this device.
After turning to the first page, Sun could clearly see how several modifications corresponded to the questions Sarah had asked her before.
The feeling of seeing her teachings put into practice by a student was quite good, and Sun felt a sense of satisfaction spreading in her heart.
— It hadn't been in vain that she had worked so hard to self-study so much material to answer Sarah's questions.
However, Sun quickly came across parts she couldn't understand.
Pointing at a certain design modification on the drawings, Sun asked in confusion, "Wasn't it good to use a stabilizer here originally? Why did you change it to three bends for balance?"
Sarah peered at where Sun was pointing, quickly remembering the reason for her modification. "Oh, because I only found seven usable stabilizers, so I used them first in other places that couldn't be adjusted. There were plenty of adjustable bends anyway."
Once again reminded that apart from the tools on the workbench in the research room, the only things Sarah had used were discarded instruments from the warehouse, Sun wisely closed her mouth on related questions.
This answer was truly practical, and also quite a tale of blood and tears.
Looking and asking as she went along, and with most of the drawings being drafts, Sun went through the drawings quite quickly. Three hours later, she had gone through the entire book of drawings with Sarah. Sun had only made a few optimization suggestions, and in the end, just from looking at the drawings, Sun's conclusion was similar to Sarah's.
There might be some minor issues, but as long as it could display, the results should only have slight deviations, and there shouldn't be any major problems.
Could it be that the core card was drawn incorrectly? Or was there some wiring inside that didn't match the drawings, connected wrongly? These two thoughts popped into Sun's mind as she stood up curiously, activated the device, and placed her hand where Sarah had placed hers earlier.
3722 points.
Sun looked at the number before her, blinked, and then turned to look at Sarah.
Sarah had also seen this value, and her expression froze.
She didn't know what the normal mental energy total should be for someone of Sun's age and level, but she estimated it should be roughly this value, not too far off.
Could it be that her own mental energy total really was 137 points?? Sarah suddenly felt what it meant to be struck by a bolt from the blue.
What level was 137 points... The standard for the card-making department at Changyang Comprehensive University was 500, and those who could enroll each year basically had over 600.
And the highest value in the standard range for people of her age was noted as 1000, but every year there were some geniuses entering the academy with totals far above 1000 or even 1500.
Sarah's value might not even reach a tenth of these geniuses'.
"Test again, use the mental energy feeling you have when practicing card making, input it into the sensing area," Sun stepped back from the detection position and said to Sarah.
Sarah followed Sun's words and reached out her hand again, solemnly starting the detection once more. This time, Sarah put in all her effort, using the same intensity she had when trying to create a yellow card, using her mental energy to impact the sensor.
Soon, new data appeared on the display of the total detection device.
193 points.
... It had increased quite a bit.
That was all that could be said.
Sarah looked at this value speechlessly, her expression uncontrollably turning ugly.
She had felt that her mental energy might be a bit low, but she never imagined it could be this low.
How was this possible?
According to the standards, with this mental energy total, forget about drawing purple cards, it was barely at the level of being able to draw white cards.
She might not even be able to make several white cards.
However, Sarah instantly realized that there was another key factor in card drawing: the deviation value.
If her total really was this low, her deviation value must be very low.
At this moment, it wasn't just Sarah who was lost in thought looking at this value; even Sun was deep in contemplation as she saw the number.
She hadn't seen Sarah make cards and didn't know that the purple card in this device was drawn by Sarah herself. She just didn't believe Sarah's mental energy could be only at this level.
Although there was no research to prove it, it was widely believed in the industry that mental energy was also related to a person's vitality.
For the past two months, Sarah had been living and eating in the research institute just like her, spending almost all her time outside of basic living needs working hard in her research room.
With such will and energy, Sun had never imagined this person's mental energy total could be just over a hundred points.
This was definitely problematic.
"Has your mental energy been injured before?" Sun suddenly turned her head and asked Sarah.