Pedestrians hurried along. Though it was only eight in the morning, the California weather already seemed scorching enough to be unbearable.
LLNL Laboratory employee cafeteria.
Since it was Monday, more than half again as many people had come for breakfast as usual, making the place unusually crowded.
Everyone's eyes inevitably turned toward the two people currently feasting away, as well as the mountain of food piled beside them.
Lucy and Lu Ze had long since grown accustomed to being the center of attention.
"I didn't expect there to be Chinese food for breakfast today. And it even seems to be preprocessed semi-finished dishes. This really is..."
Lu Ze wiped his mouth and said with lingering satisfaction, "It's so damn good!"
If this kind of preprocessed Chinese food had been served back home, even the most mild-tempered diners would have cursed the chef's ancestors for eight generations.
But this was Eagle Sauce. Lu Ze could only describe the dish as a delicacy.
Even Hangbang cuisine from Lin'an, known in Great Xia as a culinary wasteland, would count as an overwhelming advantage in Eagle Sauce.
"Lu Ze, aren't you eating anymore?" Lucy was still fully immersed in eating mode. "These dumplings are delicious. You should have some more."
"You go ahead. I'm already full."
Black lines covered Lu Ze's forehead.
He could tolerate the other prepackaged dishes, but these dumplings were absolutely unacceptable.
Who could tell him why the dumplings made in Eagle Sauce had cream and strawberries for filling? Was this even fit for human consumption?
Lu Ze was too kindhearted to bear such a sight. These heretics should all be burned at the stake!
More than ten minutes later, several more empty plates had appeared on the table.
Lucy took a few sips of juice, stood up, and stretched. "Lu Ze, are you free later?"
"I'm free. What's up?" Lu Ze nodded.
Wasn't that obvious? As Professor Hasen's two greatest slackers, when had either of them ever not been free?
All they did was sleep and play. Nothing else!
"I'm planning to visit the maintenance center this afternoon." Lucy stretched lazily, showing off her thrilling curves. "Come help me out."
She needed to deliver some materials to the maintenance center later. Even though she was even more laid-back than Lu Ze, Professor Hasen had asked her to do this, so as his student, she did not mind lending a hand.
Still, the materials weighed fifty or sixty pounds altogether. Aside from Lu Ze, she could not find a better candidate.
It was not that Lucy did not know anyone else. She simply got along better with Lu Ze than with anyone else in the laboratory.
"The maintenance center?"
Lu Ze was instantly delighted inside, though his expression remained calm. "Then I'll go with you later."
He had been thinking over breakfast about what excuse he could use to get Lucy to take him there.
After all, no new batch of weapons and equipment had been placed into storage yet. Using his previous excuse again would have been somewhat hard to justify. He had not expected Lucy to take the initiative to visit the maintenance center.
"I'll come find you then."
Lucy walked briskly out of the cafeteria, showing no sign whatsoever of having eaten too much.
Near evening, LLNL Laboratory's weapons and equipment maintenance center.
It was still the same enormous factory building filled with all kinds of weapons and equipment.
"I need half an hour to deliver the materials. Lu Ze, wait here for me first." Lucy smiled and headed toward the internal area at the front of the maintenance center. That was the true core inspection and upgrade zone.
The place here was more like a massive storage warehouse for weapons and equipment.
"Alright." Lu Ze agreed, watching Lucy's graceful figure gradually disappear into the distance.
He looked around at the various technological items.
"The opportunity is here. What should I copy this time?"
Lu Ze muttered softly.
He had only one requirement: the higher the Achievement Point reward, the better. Deliberately chasing an item's rarity would be putting the cart before the horse.
"I don't need ordinary weapons and equipment technology either..."
He thought to himself, Great Xia probably can't even digest all of it yet.
After the F-22 fighter jet and Boeing 777 technologies he had copied previously were submitted to Great Xia, the personnel responsible for coordinating everything would already be busy for quite some time.
Besides, he had to give them some time to catch their breath. He could not rush this.
"F-15 Eagle, no. Too few Achievement Points."
"M1A2 Main Battle Tank, four thousand Achievement Points? Too low. No."
"B-1B bomber, six thousand points. Put that on the shortlist."
"...Two hundred points? Did this thing enter Washington with the old guard? Why keep this piece of junk around?"
Lu Ze wandered through the warehouse, examining and selecting.
He would touch one piece of equipment for five seconds, then touch another for five seconds, constantly comparing them in his mind.
After wandering around for over ten minutes, the best reward he had found was six thousand Achievement Points from that B-1B Lancer bomber.
Then suddenly.
He came to an old friend—the familiar F-22 fighter jet.
Let me take a good look at how you've developed lately.
"Repeated copying reduces the Achievement Points. I wonder how much the F-22 can still provide?" With that question in mind, Lu Ze pressed his hand against it.
As one of the first high-tech items he had copied, he clearly remembered that it had awarded a full ten thousand Achievement Points.
[Current technological item: F22-A model. (Repeated)] [Achievement Point value: 7500.] [This item will no longer reward technology blueprints. Please choose whether to copy it.]
Seven thousand five hundred points? Repeated copying only reduced the reward by twenty-five percent?
"I wonder whether this decrease has a threshold," Lu Ze thought.
This was tremendous news for him. After all, he had one copying opportunity every week—fifty-two copies in an entire year. Repeatedly copying ultra-high-tech items was inevitable, since he could not find that many high-tech items worth copying at the moment.
But if there were no threshold, then after copying something three or four times, even a top-tier fighter jet like the F-22 would become an extremely ordinary item.
The corners of Lu Ze's mouth lifted slightly as he thought, Yes. Copy it.
Since this F-22 fighter jet offered so many Achievement Points, why would he not copy it?
Was he afraid Great Xia would not know how to fly it? Or afraid they would have too many and worry about it? An F-22 fighter jet with such lingering charm could not be passed up.
[Current technological item, F22-A model, copied successfully!] [Reward: 7500 Achievement Points, F22-A model physical item (stored in inventory).] [System Space inventory: F-22 fifth-generation heavy air-superiority fighter jet ×2, Boeing 777-300ER, ...]
At that moment, inside the president's conference room at the Great Xia Academy of Sciences.
Zhang Yuli and Zheng Lixing sat in their chairs, considering the most crucial issue before them.
It was neither the J-20 project nor the fully domestically produced C919 project.
It concerned the mysterious person—or perhaps they could be called the "Mysterious Organization."
"Old Zhang, how far has the construction of those one thousand schools requested by that mysterious person progressed?" Zheng Lixing took a puff of hand-rolled tobacco.
He did not like regular cigarettes. Their kick was far too weak.
It was not as though no doctor had advised him to quit smoking at his age. But after smoking for decades without any apparent health problems, Zheng Lixing had not taken it to heart.
"Building one thousand schools with one billion US Dollars isn't a problem."
Zhang Yuli frowned. "The difficult part is finding that many teachers."
How many teaching staff would one thousand schools require? It was an astronomical number that made one's scalp tingle.
More troubling still, the schools might already be built while the teachers remained unassigned.
This was not only the payment required by that "Mysterious Organization"; it also concerned education and people's livelihoods throughout Northwest Province. There could be no carelessness whatsoever.
If they could not even handle something like this properly, never mind what the "Mysterious Organization" would think of Great Xia—they would not be able to get past their own consciences.
The education issue in Northwest Province was already an urgent matter.
(Please keep reading and add this to your collection! Monthly tickets and recommendation tickets are welcome too!)
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