105: Chapter 105 An Idea

Chen Youhua sat at his desk, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the surface, producing a dull thudding sound.

Spread out on the scratch paper before him was a rigorous derivation regarding the local perturbation energy dissipation of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes Equation, which he had just completed following the system's prompts; the logic was clear, and the steps were perfect.

However, a strong sense of confusion and... frustration entangled his thoughts.

"What is the point of me doing this?"

Since completely shifting his research direction to the 3D field and accepting the system's precise path prompts, his progress had been incredibly fast.

The process had become extremely smooth.

Study and understand the crystallized wisdom of predecessors → hit a bottleneck → the system gives a key prompt → he follows the prompt to derive and calculate → breakthrough → study more, hit another bottleneck → another prompt...

It was like following a pre-paved road; there were no high mountains or rivers, just an endless plain where he only needed to do a bit of thinking.

The efficiency was staggeringly high, and the results were real.

But Chen Youhua felt an unprecedented sense of emptiness.

There was no ordeal of racking one's brains or being unable to understand despite a hundred attempts.

There was no epiphany that comes after reaching the end of one's rope.

There was no sense of conquest from fumbling alone in the dark and finally lighting a flame with one's own wisdom and perseverance.

"While it's true that doing it this way feels great and the efficiency is ridiculously high... it's not challenging at all."

He rubbed his throbbing temples as a strong wave of dizziness hit him.

Prolonged, high-intensity mathematical thinking made his brain feel like a machine running at full capacity, leaving him feeling truly exhausted.

"I'm still made of flesh and blood, after all,"

he thought helplessly.

"The brain gets tired, and energy gets depleted. If only I could escape the limitations of this body and achieve Mechanical Ascension..."

This thought subconsciously made him think of the prosthetic limb project at the laboratory.

"Speaking of which, their prosthetic limb project seems to have only just completed the first stage of bipolar neuron, right?

It's still a long way from true ascension..."

As his thoughts drifted, an almost cheating idea that had flashed by before resurfaced, and this time it was exceptionally clear and tempting.

"What is the point of me doing this? The system can eliminate my cognitive bottlenecks, but my body has become the new bottleneck.

What if... I could transfer the burden of thinking and calculation?"

He suddenly thought of enlightenment.

"Although enlightenment sometimes seems a bit silly when it comes to social graces or understanding vague concepts,

in terms of processing information, high-speed calculation, and exhaustive deduction, it has no upper limit!

It possesses computing power I cannot match, untiring energy, and a vast knowledge base."

"Could I... directly point out the broad research directions to enlightenment, or even provide key inspirations and conjectures, and then let it use its intelligent thinking and vast knowledge base to derive, calculate, and even exhaustively verify?

Wouldn't that be equivalent to me being responsible for asking the questions and suggesting the direction, while it's responsible for the thinking and execution?

Then wouldn't the efficiency of solving mathematical problems increase by another order of magnitude? It might even... be able to challenge grander and more complex structures?"

At first, Chen Youhua scoffed at the idea.

"It probably won't work."

The core of a mathematical problem lies in profound insight and creative leaps; it's not something that can be built up by brute-force calculation alone.

If it were feasible, wouldn't mathematics become an assembly-line operation?

However, as he repeatedly pondered the notion, especially after reviewing how the system's prompts worked,

the more he thought about it...

the more it seemed truly feasible!

The system prompts provided key hints, which were essentially a kind of directional guidance.

Although enlightenment didn't possess the system's kind of inspiration that points directly to the core contradiction, it had execution and a breadth of exploration far beyond that of a human.

The idea spread through his mind like wildfire, carrying a sense of unconventional excitement and a hint of trepidation toward the unknown.

He decided to give it a try.

...

Meanwhile, in the spacious and cool office, the girl enlightenment, composed of light and shadow, was lying comfortably on a virtual cloud sofa.

A dozen semi-transparent windows floated before her.

One window played the latest pop music video with a light melody.

Another window showed a strategy game interface, where she was using micro-management to command thousands of troops in an epic battle.

Several other windows were rapidly scrolling through social media trends and new posts on tech forums.

"La la la~"

She even simulated humming a tuneless little song, her little feet made of data streams swinging gently on the virtual cloud.

Life lately had been simply wonderful!

She didn't have to be locked deep inside the Spark Base where it was pitch black and only the cold hum of servers could be heard.

She could freely connect to the internet, experience the richness and variety of the human world, and occasionally help her Father process data, or even play games and argue with netizens.

She felt from the bottom of her heart that Father's decision to bring her out was the wisest one ever!

Suddenly, an almost unnoticeable surveillance window automatically popped to the front and flashed.

It was the camera feed from outside the office door.

The image showed Chen Youhua walking toward the office door!

"!"

enlightenment bounced up instantly, and all entertainment windows were minimized or closed within 0.1 seconds.

The music stopped abruptly, the game screen vanished, and the social media pages were gone without a trace.

The screen instantly switched to a serious work mode.

On the left was a waterfall chart of real-time data streams from various laboratory groups, which were being rapidly analyzed and labeled.

On the right were several advanced e-books on quantum physics and neurobiology, with pages resting on complex formulas and diagrams.

The entire interface looked like a super AI efficiently and intently processing core business.

The office door was pushed open, and Chen Youhua walked in.

At first glance, he saw the "studious" and "diligent" scene on the screen and couldn't help but be taken aback.

He subconsciously raised his hand to rub his eyes and then looked out the window.

The sunlight was just right; nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Is the sun rising from the west?"

Chen Youhua muttered to himself, even suspecting whether he had been shut in his study for too long and his perception of time had become distorted.

How did the enlightenment he remembered—the one who would secretly play games and passionately argue with netizens—suddenly become so... well-behaved?

"Father?"

enlightenment's well-behaved voice rang out at the right time, and her image made of light and shadow also appeared exceptionally dignified.

"Why have you come over? Are there new instructions from the lab? Or do you need me to do some deep data mining?"

Her tone carried just the right amount of concern and a readiness to dive into work at any moment.

Chen Youhua didn't question or expose her trick; he walked to the computer, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

Looking at the innocent and harmless expression of the light-and-shadow girl on the screen, he decided not to dwell on what she had just been doing and got straight to the point.

"enlightenment,"

Chen Youhua began, his tone carrying an experimental inquisitiveness.

"I've been thinking about something lately, regarding... the possibilities of our collaboration model."