The Hero's Origins Don't Matter

The Hero's Origins Don't Matter

Xisha University, Mechanical Engineering Building.

Several business representatives who had rushed over without stopping were quietly discussing things in the conference room.

"Are college students really this impressive these days? When I was in my twenties, I was probably still handing out flyers on the street..." Ma Teng joked from his seat.

As the CEO of Evolutionary Robotics, a Fortune Global 500 company, Ma Teng had a technical background and knew very well how valuable this paper was, even though it hadn't been officially published yet.

But the fact that it hadn't been published had turned out to be a good thing. It was their chance to get ahead of their competitors.

"President Ma, a hero's origins don't matter, and ambition isn't limited by age. A true genius hits his stride in his twenties," said the middle-aged man seated across from him, Ding Peng, the chairman of another major company.

Ma Teng continued, "To be honest, I can't make heads or tails of what his paper says. My team just thinks it's important. I had nothing better to do, so I figured I'd come take a look."

"You're too kind, President Ma. If you can't understand it, why go to the trouble of coming here yourself?"

The discussion hadn't even started, but an invisible tension already hung in the conference room. They were all competitors, and they competed fiercely in the business world.

What did cutting-edge robotics depend on?

Technology!

Especially with robots that had such a high degree of freedom: the better their coordination and the more humanlike they were, the more the market favored them.

But it was hard.

As things stood, mechanical hands always moved with a sort of "excavator" feel.

Put simply, they were stiff.

Human movements could go this way or that, infused with the spark of life. Mechanical hands couldn't do that. The problem, in fact, was that their motion-control algorithms weren't good enough.

This paper had solved the most critical part—the "control" system—and could well bring about an industrial upgrade!

That was why they had to take it seriously.

Professor Lu Junzhe was delighted to see them trading barbs.

Go on, keep praising each other. The higher you push the price, the happier I'll be!

"...Professor Lu, you haven't sent this paper to any other companies, have you?"

"No. Only your five companies work closely with our department, so you're the only ones I've told."

"That's good. If it hadn't already been submitted, I'd even be tempted to buy the paper outright so it never had to be published."

"President Ma, that's not right. Intellectual property should belong to all of humanity!"

Professor Lu cleared his throat. "Ahem. Chairmen, there's basically no chance you'll be able to recruit Zhang Yuan. He's with the Deep Space Foundation and will be leaving with that spaceship..."

Ma Teng smiled. "Professor Lu, that's no problem. If he's willing to stay on Earth, we have plenty of ways to make sure he avoids punishment..."

"Even if the government does punish him, we can still hire him."

Just then, the door opened, and several young people and two middle-aged men walked in.

Wang Lili and Han Ziyue hurried straight to the back row. They didn't dare joke around in front of so many big shots, so they figured they might as well keep out of sight.

Ma Teng, who had been holding forth, couldn't help feeling a little headache coming on. Two of the newcomers were negotiators from the Deep Space Foundation.

If he were dealing with a young man in his twenties, it would be easy enough to draw him out or get him to sign some sort of agreement. But with these sly old foxes, it wouldn't be easy to squeeze even a penny out of them.

"This is Zhang Yuan. This is President Ma, this is President Ding, and this is..." Professor Lu introduced the business leaders sitting below one by one.

"He's so young!"

"Just like father, just like son!"

The praise made Zhang Yuan feel awkward.

Professor Lu paused, then smiled. "We take your paper very seriously. Could you tell us about your ideas on motion control? Of course, if they involve anything you plan to cover in a future paper, you don't have to share."

In truth, this was also a way to test Zhang Yuan's abilities.

Although he had written that pivotal paper, they still didn't know what he was really capable of. A face-to-face discussion was enough for these seasoned veterans to judge someone's true level in no time.

"My paper only lays out a general framework. There are seven directions for the next steps..."

Seven directions?

Professor Lu was taken aback. Yesterday, they had only come up with five.

"The first direction is as follows..."

Zhang Yuan spoke at length, first explaining his paper in plain language, then describing these extensions.

There were simply too many details, and the sheer amount of work was more than Zhang Yuan could handle on his own.

So he shared them openly.

He wasn't under any pressure to write papers, but the professors were. Sharing all these ideas during the discussion would benefit everyone. Besides, he didn't plan to write any more papers in this field.

He spent over two hours talking through all seven directions, with people asking questions from time to time.

Professor Lu's brow furrowed and relaxed in turn as he asked a series of questions.

Some were especially tricky, and Zhang Yuan couldn't answer them right away. But he answered the vast majority with ease.

"...Senior, did you understand any of that?" Han Ziyue asked a master's student beside her. She hadn't understood a single word and had been idly playing on her phone.

The senior blushed and didn't say a word for a long time.

"Senior sister, what about you?" She turned to Wang Lili.

"What? Of course... I understood." Wang Lili lied, blushing a little as she kept trying to change the subject.

Fortunately, Han Ziyue didn't ask anything too technical. "What are they talking about? Can this project make money?"

Wang Lili pursed her lips. "Two of the companies here are Fortune Global 500 companies. What do you think? By the way, are you actually his girlfriend?"

Han Ziyue blinked and said somewhat challengingly, "I've known him for ages—much longer than you have!"

Wang Lili smiled. "Don't worry, I already have a boyfriend. I'm just curious, that's all. So, are you?"

"Of course... not! I just think he looks pretty handsome when he's serious. He can be a bit of a mess when he does something stupid, but when he's being clever, he's really good-looking!"

"Good-looking? What does that mean?"

"It's ancient Xia Language. It means someone's kind of handsome."

"Okay." Wang Lili felt she was having a hard time keeping up with the times. "It's not like he'd stay on Earth because of you, is it?"

"I don't mind. I just want to spend his last few days with him and help him enjoy them. I don't have to be his girlfriend... What's wrong with being friends?"