The Attribute Called "Workaholic"

Chapter 5: An Attribute Named "Workaholic"

After being excited for a few minutes, the same question surfaced in his mind.

"7812378*7812378=..."

???

??

He still couldn't do it within a second. What was going on?

As a... ahem, a genius, he shouldn't be stumped by a problem like this!

Zhang Yuan frowned. A multiplication column appeared in his mind, and it took him a stumbling half-minute to finally arrive at the result.

"61033250014884."

Not bad, he had managed to solve it after all.

After thinking it over carefully, a look of realization dawned on his face.

"So that's it... the old me would have just used a calculator for this kind of problem, causing my calculation skills to atrophy significantly. If you don't use your brain, even a genius can't just blurt out the answer..."

"The reason I'm slow now is simply a lack of proficiency and not having mastered the relevant techniques. If I use mental math consistently, I'm sure I'll improve over time."

The next day...

Zhang Yuan woke up bleary-eyed and rubbed his groggy head.

Perhaps it was because he was too excited last night, constantly testing his IQ, that he couldn't fall asleep. By the time he finally drifted off, it was almost dawn.

He checked the time; it was already 10 o'clock.

"Oh no!"

Zhang Yuan rolled out of bed, quickly washed up, and hurried out the door.

"I hope I'm not late, otherwise Auntie will nag me for ages..."

His 30-day vacation was tight, with every day clearly scheduled. Today, he had already promised to go to his aunt's house for lunch.

Donghua City in July was like a furnace, with heat waves rolling through and the roadside plants suffering in the sweltering heat.

Zhang Yuan rushed toward the subway station, which always had comfortable air conditioning.

This era did not lack energy. The power output of every large-scale nuclear fusion power plant was comparable to the former Three Gorges Dam, and the price of electricity in the Xia Kingdom was as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Thanks to this, apart from petroleum derivatives like plastic which remained expensive, high-energy-consumption industrial products like steel and cement had become exceptionally cheap.

In particular, the booming development of nanotechnology had led to constant updates in building materials. To give a simple example, adding 6% of the cement volume in nano-silica could double the compressive strength and comprehensively improve the workability of concrete.

The popularization of cheap new materials allowed urban surface buildings to be built higher and higher, with thousand-meter skyscrapers everywhere.

Two hundred years ago, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa was the tallest building in the world, but nowadays, it would only be the tallest building in a village.

Moreover... for the same cost, you could build at least five of them!

Some transport rails were even placed at heights of over a thousand meters, using skyscrapers as support pillars.

Almost all major cities were fond of this, and aerial rails had become the hallmark of a big city.

"So many people."

Donghua City was one of the five first-tier cities in the Xia Kingdom. Even though the morning rush hour had passed, the subway station was still packed with people.

"Dear passengers, please yield to the elderly and children."

"Please do not smoke or beg inside the carriages."

It was impossible to completely solve the traffic problem.

Critics could always find the most comfortable angle to attack the government. If the transport was too crowded, the government would definitely be criticized; but if there were too many subway cars and many empty seats, it would be considered "wasting taxpayers' money." Either way, they would be criticized, so they just made do with what they had.

Zhang Yuan stood at the back of the line. Hearing people constantly complaining about "not increasing the number of trains" and so on, he smiled to himself. He didn't have many thoughts on it, instead picking up his phone to start solving problems.

This was a very popular Super Brain app that could test a person's memory, arithmetic ability, and reasoning skills. Since he was bored anyway, solving a few problems was a good way to pass the time, and he could test his IQ while he was at it.

IQ was the issue he cared about most right now.

Whenever he tested his IQ and found it to be high, the feeling of satisfaction was simply indescribable.

The subway station was noisy, making it hard to concentrate, but for some reason, solving problems always produced a strange sense of accomplishment, giving him a feeling like eating chocolate beans.

Perhaps after using that serum, he had gained an attribute called "Workaholic"?

"I finally understand why some people are willing to work all day long; it turns out it's incredibly enjoyable. Using my brain has actually become a fun thing to do!"

Ding-dong...

The subway pulled into the station, and the crowd surged in like a tide, clearing the area where they had been queuing.

Zhang Yuan walked into the subway, found a spot to stand, and continued solving one problem after another.

For seven-digit arithmetic operations, as his proficiency increased, the time taken dropped from half a minute per problem to 10 seconds, and his calculation speed was still increasing.

That feeling of the answer being right on the tip of his tongue was finally starting to emerge.

The more he used his brain, the sharper it became. This result left him feeling immensely satisfied.

Soon, he was no longer satisfied with simple arithmetic and moved on to square roots.

"Let's start with a simple one: √7812 (keep four significant figures)."

Zhang Yuan had increased the difficulty for himself.

There are many different ways to manually calculate the square root of an integer. The most conventional method is trial division, which is somewhat similar to long division; as long as one's mental calculation ability is sufficient, it can indeed be solved directly.

There are other, slightly more complicated algorithms, such as continued fraction expansion, the bisection method, and Newton's iteration.

Fifteen seconds later, he arrived at the specific conclusion.

"√7812 = 88.38..."

The answer was correct!

"√444"

"21.07"

The answer was correct!

Haha!

Is this... what it feels like to be a genius?

It's... so satisfying!

The subway car was very quiet; apart from the electronic chimes of the train, everyone was busy immersing themselves in their own worlds.

Occasionally, a few people, whether reading novels or watching videos, would reach a climax and let out involuntary laughter, looking like complete fools...

"Fragmented time on the subway should be used for self-improvement, not entertainment!"

A "public intellectual" who had returned from studying abroad frowned, lamenting this unhealthy social trend.

The phenomenon of "phubbing" was frequently criticized by major media outlets, but the criticism didn't have much effect. People continued to play and keep their heads down; after all, the government couldn't exactly pass a law banning the use of mobile phones in public places, right?

This man's name was Ye Fan. In his perception, people on subways abroad all read newspapers instead of playing on their phones, and the atmosphere was a hundred times better than in the Xia Kingdom (in reality, it was just because there was no internet).

Regardless, in his impression, young people abroad lived much healthier lives than those in the Xia Kingdom!

No wonder this group of people can't make it into space; it's because they spend their study time on entertainment... It would be a miracle if they could go to space! Ye Fan thought to himself.

What was that saying again? I just used the time others spent drinking coffee on my work...

Especially the young man in the short-sleeved shirt sitting next to him, who actually had a mysterious smile on his face.

Tsk tsk, he must be having a romance with some 2D anime girl, right?

How pathetic!

(First, let me explain the title of this book. I originally wanted to name it Deep Space Era, but it was too serious, and the click-through rate would have been very low.)

(It's science fiction, after all, as everyone knows. Although The Wandering Earth was a massive hit, that doesn't mean other sci-fi works will be. Most people would probably not even want to look at a title like Deep Space Era, let alone click on it.)

(After some thought, I decided to change it to this: Deep Space Chief. It sounds a bit rustic, but the click-through rate should be a little higher...)