255: Chapter 255 Aid

"It seems that the favor of fate still cannot compare to a true Scholar."

Watching the points behind Zhang Huaiyuan's name on the Heavenly Ranking be the first to reach double digits, the smile on Mild's face grew increasingly radiant.

In the Tower of Knowledge of the competition, every ten floors is a hurdle. Having passed the tenth floor, reaching the twentieth floor is now merely a matter of time.

He glanced nonchalantly at the two other beings of the same level beside him, sighing with feigned indifference:

"The path of academia, in the end, relies on knowledge gained through hard work; there are no shortcuts to be taken."

"A mortal's perspective."

The Paladin, clad in bright silver armor, had regained his composure. His gaze was incredibly devout as he looked at the elegant woman in the projection.

"Her Highness the Saintess upholds the will of the Holy Light. She needs no favor from fate; fate itself should grovel at her feet. These minor setbacks before her are merely fate's way of giving Her Highness a bit of a gaming experience and some surprises."

"???"

Looking at the composed Paladin, Mild shook his head helplessly, momentarily losing interest in speaking.

Faith is truly terrifying.

This Paladin was a being of the same level as them, yet he held such blind faith in a young girl; it was truly difficult to understand.

Such a thing could never happen in the Association.

Even with his own teacher, though he respected him immensely, it was not blind.

A true Scholar must only believe in the truths they see for themselves.

"Forget it, showing off to a brainwashed lunatic like this is like playing a lute to a cow—there's no sense of achievement at all, hmm..."

Mild pondered, his gaze sweeping toward the Elf Clan Grand Sage nearby. His eyes suddenly lit up, and he leaned in:

"Mr. Sage..."

"I don't want to hear it."

Sensing the ill-intentioned gaze, the Elf Clan Grand Sage, who always valued etiquette above all else, couldn't help but roll his eyes and expressionlessly shifted to the side.

The first stage meant nothing.

This kind of pure academic research was never what Leviathan Laboratory excelled at.

When the formal battles of the second stage began, the Zerg Swarm—representing the peak of biological civilization—would show them who the real king was.

...

The flow of time within the tower was completely different from the outside world.

Amidst bouts of idle chatter, the examination time flew by, reaching the 90th year.

The first tier remained Zhang Huaiyuan and the Saintess of the Holy Light Monastery, leading by a wide margin.

They had reached the 40th floor.

The second tier was led by Talix and others, stuck at the 30th floor.

As for the rest, most were between the 20th and 29th floors.

"It's finally almost finished. The setup of this exam wasn't intended for anyone to pass at all."

At this moment, on the 40th floor.

Zhang Huaiyuan looked with burning eyes at the blueprints he had designed with his own hands.

Starting from the 40th floor, it was no longer about modifying existing products, but designing from scratch according to requirements.

The task he had drawn was to design an offensive weapon.

The requirement was simple: use as few rare materials as possible while making the maximum attack power reach the World-Breaking level.

The so-called World-Breaking meant being able to pierce through low-dimensional worlds and strike into high-dimensional worlds.

To some extent, this already involved the field of a Intermediate Scholar. With their knowledge levels not exceeding Level 45 at most, it would be impossible to complete even if they happened to encounter their most proficient subject.

"Luck is on my side."

Zhang Huaiyuan clicked the submit button, feeling a slight sense of relief in his heart.

In fact, starting from the 40th floor, the tasks had already far exceeded the scope of his mastered knowledge.

However... the specific exam task he drew happened to be related to the round in the "Truth Chess Game" where he first captured a piece from that supreme being.

In that match, he had unexpectedly combined the Knowledge Star into a sniper rifle, shattering one of the opponent's four chess pieces despite their offensive.

Replicating the combination of those two Knowledge Star to recreate that sniper rifle would definitely satisfy the requirements!

However... even with the reference answer, designing from scratch still took him a full fifty years.

"Testing complete. Total materials are 70% below the budget limit, performance exceeds the standard by 172%. Result: Pass."

Zhang Huaiyuan looked at the stairs that appeared, feeling no surprise, and went directly to the 41st floor.

"Examination Goal: Design a blueprint for a combat suit..."

He took one look at the question and gave up.

A combat suit required even more considerations than a weapon. With only ten years left, it was far from enough.

"This is enough. I'll leave the remaining time for my teammates' assistance requests."

He stopped worrying about the mission goal and found a place to sit down. He closed his eyes to rest and relieve the mental pressure from decades of continuous research while waiting for his teammates to ask for help.

His leisurely days lasted until the 93rd year, when a notification sounded in his ear.

"Examinee from the same faction, Fang Qingran, is requesting assistance. Do you agree?"

"Agree."

Zhang Huaiyuan put down a classic text he was reading and nodded.

Soon, the scene shifted, and a layout with a similar style appeared before him.

Zhang Huaiyuan glanced around.

The 30th floor—the gap was not much different from what he had expected.

In fact, the difficulty of the 30th floor was already comparable to the upper-middle level of a Junior Scholar. If not for True Sight and his previous experience in the "Truth Chess Game," he might not have been able to break through the 30th floor either.

He had underestimated her before.

"Junior Brother Zhang, you're here! I knew you would help me!"

On the other side, Fang Qingran, who had been frowning deeply, immediately showed a sweet smile upon seeing who it was.

"It's only right, Senior Sister Qingran."

Zhang Huaiyuan greeted her and said quickly, "Sync the task to me. Others might be requesting help soon."

"Okay."

Hearing this, Fang Qingran also understood that now was not the time to waste, and immediately synced the examination content over.

"Hmm... Virtual world overlaying illusion technology... Huh, isn't this somewhat similar to when I went through the Scholar exam in the Virtual Tower? But it's much simpler; it only requires two layers of virtual illusions to be overlaid."

Zhang Huaiyuan looked up, and as the familiar content came into view, he felt much more at ease.

If he had encountered something he wasn't good at, it might have wasted much more time.

"How is it, Junior Brother? Are you confident?"

Fang Qingran looked at Zhang Huaiyuan somewhat nervously.

Those inside the tower could not see the points ranking, so she didn't know he had already reached the 40th floor.

"No problem."

Zhang Huaiyuan recalled the situation during his own exam while his hands quickly marked the key connection points.

With the help of True Sight, when he had experienced the exam back then, those structures were clearly etched in his mind from the beginning when there weren't many virtual illusion overlays.

Now, he just needed to recreate it with minor modifications.

"Done."

Modifying a semi-finished product was much simpler than starting from scratch. After only a dozen hours, Zhang Huaiyuan typed in the last line of the equation and let out a sigh of relief:

"Try submitting it; it should be fine now."

"Huh? Junior Brother, are you sure it's done just like that?"

Fang Qingran, standing nearby, was already dumbfounded.

She thought he would at least research it first, but she didn't expect him to start right away. Even more unexpected was that he finished in less than a day.

"Yeah, it's been a while since I last did this, otherwise, I could have been even faster."

Zhang Huaiyuan laughed.

"...Junior Brother, alright, stop, say no more."

Fang Qingran clicked the submit button, feeling a sense of defeat in her heart.

She was a genius herself after all, yet after such a short time, the gap had become this large.

But thinking carefully, as a disciple of the two Great Tower Masters, such a performance was only logical, and it further proved her judgment was correct.

Thinking this, a smile reappeared on her face, and she said sweetly:

"Thank you, Junior Brother."

"You're welcome, it's all for the honor of the academy."

Zhang Huaiyuan waved his hand. "Since it's resolved, I'll head back first. Good luck, Senior Sister, try to pass one more floor."

"Okay, then after the exam is over, I'll treat you to a meal at the Time Tower as a thank you."

Fang Qingran nodded, then as if remembering something, she asked curiously:

"By the way, Junior Brother, what floor have you reached?"

"Forty-one."

"Ah?!"

...