A Good Project

At the banquet, most of the projects that people were scrambling to participate in were projects that could make money.

The monks showed little interest in the projects that were presented and touted as potentially highly profitable, and didn't even bother to approach them.

At this banquet, the truly popular projects included the Territory Mage Project in Cheske Bay, as well as the traditional finished equipment crafting project, which required funding.

The former can be seen as the future, where it's easy to make a fortune quickly, while the latter is very stable, with almost guaranteed returns for any investment.

In comparison, those previously popular projects now attract little attention.

At this moment, Fran stood in a group of about three people, listening to a mage's explanation in a detached tone.

"The Alliance needs a large number of ships at Ocean, so..."

This is probably a shipbuilding project, and upon closer inspection, it's clear that this project has great potential.

Although the Alliance has Floating City, it cannot rely on Floating City for everything.

Large quantities of supplies travel from the Alliance to the Ocean, requiring continuous transport by ships.

However, most people are more interested in the Territory Mage project now, since nothing is more attractive than selling Profession's Order.

Fran only listened to the other person say a couple of sentences before losing interest and no longer going to the areas in front of the projects where people were lingering.

She turned around and moved to the booths that were rarely visited.

"Optimization of the Radiant Water Refining Device, a second-order alchemical material..."

"Wait... this improvement idea is the same as the one I used to modify the White Star Sand refining device, just adding a sealed, spirit-blocking outer shell..."

"The problem of optimizing the efficiency of the flammable agent... this proof process is directly copied from my Paper on Fireball, just copying and pasting the mathematical formulas, and then adding an equal amount of water to the specific method?"

"A new method for crafting Mental Power replenishment potions... Why do I need to add three extra semi-finished products? Wouldn't it be better to just use the original method?"

Fran reviewed half of the projects and the results made her understand why those mages were willing to crowd into projects that were clearly advertised as profitable, but were unwilling to fund projects that 'might' have any results.

After reading it, she received both good news and bad news.

The good news is that the two Paper she published under the identity of ' Lai ' seem to have a significant influence among the lower-ranking mages of the Alchemy School.

The bad news is that this influence seems to be being used inappropriately.

The improved equipment for refining gold materials has likely been the result of several people making progress, leading to the addition of this process to all related projects now.

Another sorcerer took advantage of the seemingly sophisticated nature of mathematics, copying completely unrelated arguments from her Paper to arrive at absurd answers, hoping to lure others into a trap.

Judging from the current situation, quite a few people still use this method, suggesting that this behavior still has a large market.

Now, Fran won't linger at a booth for even a second. She'll glance at it briefly, spot the keywords, and then immediately move on.

Until she came to the smallest booth, which had only a young mage there and nothing else.

The other booths at least had a Spell Apparatus that needed optimization, but this booth was completely empty.

Despite the simple booth, Fran was captivated by the project introduction.

"Security upgrade for the Mana Communication System."

She read the sentence aloud, then raised her gaze to the slightly younger-looking monk.

The other person seemed to have long been used to being ignored, holding two plates and slowly stuffing food into their mouth.

He sat sideways in the chair, completely absorbed in his food, until three seconds later he noticed Fran staring intently at him.

He quickly wiped his hands with a tissue and then stood up.

"Hello... I'm here on behalf of my mentor... to raise funds. My mentor... is the founder of the Mana Communication System, and for some reason, he needs additional funds for its development..."

The young monk stuttered a little when he spoke, but he became more fluent towards the end, as if he hadn't said those words for a while.

"The Mana Communication System, isn't that something from the Construct School?"

Fran's question was easy to understand: this is the territory of the Alchemy School, so why is someone from the Construct School here?

"We came here because our mentor is negotiating a new Mana Communication System on Ninth Floating Isle..."

"By the way, my name is Asher... Let me tell you about the security aspects of this Mana Communication System..."

Asher spoke slowly and nervously, as if reciting a passage. After listening, Fran felt that if she actually invested money in this thing, it would be like tearing up her money.

Why? Because this project only promises investors 30% profit on a single Mana Communication System... As far as Fran knows, these Mana Communication System are almost impossible to sell recently.

If she invests 10,000 Gold Coin, she would need to sell at least 50 sets to break even. She still remembers that last year, the number of sets she sold was just in the double digits.

There are many reasons for such low sales: insufficient capacity, inconvenient operation, inability to connect remotely, but the biggest factor affecting sales is the lack of security.

Each academic society considers its knowledge to be of paramount importance and confidentiality. They purchased this system to store this knowledge, but if the system is cracked and others can freely access and browse it, none of the academic societies can accept such a situation.

They won't buy a house that's destined to leak and move in.

It is now common knowledge that the Mana Communication System can be cracked. Many School of thought have specific methods for doing so, and even the Transmutation School only needs a First Order mage to crack it.

This led various societies to question the Mana Communication System, believing that there was no need to develop such a system at all.

However, the Northern Lands Society is different. Fran guesses that Iris herself never intended to hide that knowledge. The reason for setting up Contribution Points was to establish a reward mechanism to encourage mages to publish Paper.

Iris won't care as long as methods to crack the code don't become widespread.

Furthermore, the fact that Fran's Paper could be transported to various Floating City in such a short time, making everyone anticipate projects related to Territory Mage, shows that the Northern Lands Society's Paper system itself is a sieve.

Getting back to the main point, since customers have reported that your Magic Element system is unsafe, then as a business owner, you should improve it.

But where will the funding for these improvements come from?

Iris will probably buy a top-of-the-line Mana Communication System, but this problem obviously won't be solved just like that.

"It seems you haven't publicly shared any specific ideas for improvement?"

After listening to Asher's explanation, Fran pointed out the problem with the project incisively. "You've introduced so much, but you haven't come up with any feasible strategies."

They say security is important, and better security leads to higher sales, but how do you improve security?

Asher was speechless, because neither he nor his mentor knew the answer to the question.

So he stood there, his face slightly flushed, unsure how to answer.

"This..."

Fran blinked, then continued:

"However, the Mana Communication System in your project is indeed a very promising system. I can invest 30,000 Gold Coin..."

Asher raised his head in disbelief; Fran's words seemed like a dream to him.

Thirty thousand Gold Coin?

Fran did not confirm, but instead said

"Let your mentor talk to me then... I don't want those profits anymore. Even if you solve the security problem, you might not break even even after ten years of selling."

"I want something more tangible... You can come to the Grey Gold Lane of the Alchemy School... My residence is there."

After saying that, Fran turned and left. Of course, she could pay 30,000 Gold Coin Gold Coin, which were currently piled up in the Radiance Domain.

Gold Coin only become Gold Coin when they are spent; she came to the Floating City to spend money.

She certainly didn't expect the Mana Communication System to bring her any benefits; she hoped to learn about the Mana Communication System through this relationship.

Fran's knowledge of the Mana Communication System and the Construct School was completely lacking, and she wanted to see if she could find a breakthrough this time.

Although this knowledge, in principle, belongs to the Construct School, Asher's mentor was the creator himself.

Although the spell [Elemental Radiance] created by Harbos is not a spell of the Elemental School, it is quite famous, but he can teach it to Fran without any worries.

After that, Fran never encountered any projects that interested her. Perhaps there were a few projects that she felt might be promising, but Fran wasn't in the mood to casually throw money around to sponsor others.

Strictly speaking, this money still belongs to the Radiant Sect. She, as their Proxy, is merely using the money on their behalf; she only has the right to use it, not the ownership.

Therefore, it's best to spend money wisely.

"Hello, sir from the Northern Lands Society."

Just then, a deep voice came from Fran's side.

She turned her head to look and saw a tall man with resolute features and a small scar on his chin.

Seeing Fran turn her gaze towards him, the man gripped the longsword in his hand.

"My name is Harvey Walshel."

Harvey was holding a real sword, not the decorative swords used by most of the mages at the banquet.

A layer of bluish-gray tinge adhered to the pale red blade of the longsword, and faint bloodstains could be seen at the tip.

"A decent weapon."

Fran recognized the material and craftsmanship of the longsword instantly; it was a decent second-tier weapon.

"My name is Lai."

Fran whispered her current name.

Then Harvey paused, stood up straight, drew his sword and pointed it downwards, speaking with a hint of seriousness.

"I am the 493rd pick in the Champion Mage Challenge."

"Mage Lai, would you be willing to have a Magic Duel with me?"

"Ha?!"