They Didn't Qualify...

Seeing Dmitri Mendeleev's plea for help in the group,

Li Dong's heart jolted, and he hurriedly asked in the chat.

[Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems]: @Dmitri Mendeleev, what happened? What's wrong?

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At the same time, the group members who had been lurking were blown out of hiding.

[Isaac Newton]: Russian beard, did that damn internal combustion engine blow you up?

[Albert Einstein]: Oh, God, if there was a lab explosion, remember to protect your head first.

Yet the one who reacted most intensely was Franklin, who was always bickering with Mendeleev.

[Benjamin Franklin]: @Dmitri Mendeleev, hey! Don't scare us! If something happens to you now, who wins the bet? Say something! Hurry up and say something!

Although Franklin's tone was far from friendly, Li Dong could clearly sense the anxiety behind that string of exclamation marks.

It seemed these two had somehow bickered their way into genuine affection.

[Benjamin Franklin]: @Dmitri Mendeleev? I admit you're more adventurous than me. Stop messing around and say something!

But no matter how everyone @'d him, Mendeleev never replied again.

Li Dong's heart sank with him.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of Gauss, who had privately messaged him.

A sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

He immediately opened the group member list and quickly found Mendeleev's avatar.

At that moment, Li Dong sucked in a breath of Franklin.

The once colorful bearded avatar had somehow turned into an eerie half-gray, half-colored image!

This...

Just as Li Dong was wavering in alarm, Mendeleev finally spoke in the group.

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: Water... I need water...

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: In order to cross the ocean and find those two bicycle-repairing brothers to build an airplane, I boarded a merchant ship that struck a reef at sea... I'm now trapped on an unknown deserted island. I haven't eaten or had anything to drink for three days...

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: I can feel my bodily fluids evaporating rapidly, my electrolytes becoming imbalanced, and my proteins starting to break down... I may not be able to hold on.

Li Dong froze for a second as he looked at the messages.

Mendeleev was in mortal danger, so his avatar had turned half-gray and half-colored?

Then what about Gauss? His avatar was completely gray!

But now was not the time to think about that.

If he had not sent Preliminary Exploration of Heavier-than-Air Aircraft Design to Mendeleev, this great chemist would not have ended up stranded on a deserted island!

This was the butterfly effect!

He might really be about to send off the father of the periodic table!

"No! I absolutely can't let him die!"

Setting aside the fact that he had yet to fleece Mendeleev, Li Dong could not stand idly by when a life had been indirectly harmed by him.

[Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems]: @[Dmitri Mendeleev] Hang in there a little longer! I'll think of something!

Li Dong switched out of the group chat and immediately opened his browser.

[Emergency Survival Methods for Being Stranded on a Tropical Deserted Island for Three Days Without Food or Water]

Soon, the webpage filled with densely packed deserted-island survival guides.

"Look what I found? A wild Chinese mitten crab..."

Li Dong skipped over those worthless tutorials and focused only on authoritative ocean survival guides and real self-rescue cases from shipwreck survivors.

Before long, Li Dong compiled an illustrated Desert Island Survival Manual.

[File sent successfully: Desert Island Survival Manual.pdf]

[Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems]: @Dmitri Mendeleev, look at this! Whatever you do, don't drink seawater! It won't quench your thirst; it'll accelerate your electrolyte imbalance and kill you!

Mendeleev accepted the file.

Li Dong silently prayed in his heart.

Bear Grylls, bless him. Survivorman, bless him!

However, just one minute later, another message from Mendeleev arrived.

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: Sir Senior Year, the methods in your material are truly perfect.

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: I understood everything, whether it was the condensation principle behind using solar energy to distill seawater or the biological traits used to capture crustaceans according to tidal patterns.

Li Dong was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when...

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: But...

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: My hands have ideas of their own.

Li Dong: "..."

He stared at his phone screen, utterly speechless.

So his brain understood, but his hands did not?

Brother, you were a chemist! Didn't you have to use your hands for experiments all the time?

But after thinking it over, Li Dong felt relieved again.

Hadn't he heard about Newton boiling his pocket watch like an egg? Hadn't he heard that Einstein often could not find his way home?

These big shots were the brightest stars in their respective fields.

But stars did not have their feet on the ground.

"This is troublesome..."

Theory could not save Mendeleev. He needed someone to teach him hands-on!

Li Dong suddenly recalled the "group invitation function" that the system had mentioned unlocking earlier.

"Should I pull in a survival expert?"

No sooner said than done.

He quickly searched through the group settings and finally found an integrated function button tucked away in an inconspicuous corner.

When he opened it, most of the icons inside were locked and gray. Only the group invitation function was available.

[Invitation slots: 1]

There was only one chance!

Li Dong could not care about whether it was worth it. Saving a life came first.

The first name that came to mind was naturally the man at the top of the food chain—Bear Grylls.

Li Dong quickly entered Bear Grylls's full name.

[Bear Grylls]

[Searching...]

[Invitation failed.]

[System prompt: Within this hall of dazzling stars, conquering nature with one's body alone is not enough to earn admission. Though he is a conqueror of the wilderness, he has never carved an eternal mark upon the foundations of human civilization.]

Hmm, how was he supposed to understand that...

Maybe...

Bear Grylls did not qualify to join the group!

"Damn! This group even checks your academic qualifications and contributions?"

Li Dong was sweating profusely with anxiety, but he soon thought of someone else.

He entered: [Robinson Crusoe]

[Invitation failed.]

[System prompt: Fictional ink cannot bloom in the soil of reality. Only real souls are accepted here, not ghosts on paper.]

"Fuck! Why are there so many damn rules?"

Li Dong could not help cursing.

The person had to be real, had to have made enormous contributions to humanity, and had to be a survival expert?

Where the hell was he supposed to find someone like that?

Watching the gray portion of Mendeleev's avatar grow larger and larger, Li Dong became increasingly frantic.

"Real... great... exploration... survival..."

Then, he suddenly thought of someone.

A man known as "the greatest failure."

On the Antarctic ice fields, after his ship had been trapped and crushed by ice and his entire crew had fallen into a desperate situation, he had piloted a small lifeboat across the most violent seas in the world and miraculously brought every crew member back alive!

If it was him, he definitely qualified!

Li Dong entered a name into the input box.

[Ernest Henry Shackleton]

[Verifying...]

[Verification passed.]

[He is a monument to polar exploration. On the ice fields of despair, he demonstrated the limits of human will.]

[His name represents "fortitude" and "survival."]

[Invitation successful!]

With a crisp notification chime, a message appeared in the group.

[Ernest Henry Shackleton has joined the group chat.]