Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  The reason behind the marionette’s sudden “sunsetting” was clear: it was simply because the marionette’s excruciating weight had tortured its frail joint to the point of breakage.

  Such an occurrence was inevitable. There was simply no material in this world that was strong enough to handle a hundred-odd ton in motion, yet. Thus, even with the mystery solved, the Engineer’s progress was still forcefully halted since he could not find a better alternative to the materials he had used to create the propeller shaft.

  Once again, it was proven that progress could never occur independently in a field because every field in science and tech was really a part of the bigger whole. Hence, though the Walkers were told to be inspired by Earth technology rather than to imitate it completely, even physics-defying knowledge such as magic and alchemy could only create that many shortcuts to an actual emulation.

  It was not surprising at all. Ultimately, the knowledge Baiyi had brought back from Earth was a culmination of the entire human species’ ingenuity and intellect over thousands of years! [1]

  The Engineer turned to Baiyi pointedly and asked, “Well, what if…… you give us a bit more funding?”

  “More funding?” Baiyi mumbled as he started to think. Admitted, it was hardly a problem to allocate a lot more funding, but honestly, Baiyi was reluctant to just “hand that money over” to this pervert. For one thing, he was quite adamant that the Engineer’s little tech nerds change from their erratic ways of being budding perverts to actual professionals who devote their energy to more beneficial researches rather than otaku-style “Best Waifu” polls, or developing spying equipment for “bird-watching” purposes……

  Baiyi was just about to make that clear when a new thought popped into his head. He asked instead, “Tell me. How long would it take for this thing to get back online? Could it be done by next week?”

  “H-hold on for a second! You’re a researcher and inventor yourself, mate. Shouldn’t you know how long it takes to come to a breakthrough in any tech?” The Engineer cried out in incredulity.

  “I didn’t mean that its problem would be solved entirely. I meant to restore it to its current best state.”

  “Well, if that’s all you wanted, yea. We could do that in a short amount of time. But might I ask…… what’s the point in that?”

  “Good. Just make sure it’s back to the state you’ve shown me. Then,* do not* let it do any extreme sport nor say those ridiculous lines anymore. Just make it as normal as a typical marionette as possible,” Baiyi said, ignoring the Engineer’s question altogether. “If the problem lies in poor load-bearing limits on its joints, then find ways to reduce its total weight. Regardless of whatever amendments you make, however, it must look as impressive, state-of-the-art, and powerful as ever.”

  “You’re not already thinking of* selling* it, right?” The Engineer asked nervously. “This is revolutionary tech we’re talking about here!”

  “Oh please, do you really think I would be that short-sighted? I just thought of showing it off to our rich donors,” Baiyi said before explaining to the Engineer the upcoming week where the names of our new sponsored students were to be determined.

  “Oh, so you’re trying to attract investment, aren’t you? Splendid idea!” An enlightened Engineer cried excitedly. “In fact, why limit to money? They can even provide rare materials, too!”

  \r \r \r

  “Exactly. Which is why I need you to make the Phoenix look as impressive and cool as possible. That way we can fool those cash cows more convincingly.”

  “Fool?! I’m just hindered by tech progress!”

  Just like that, the two formulated a plan on attracting lucrative investments right there and then. What was left was to wait for the week when their target cash cows visit them.

  Those nobles may have been searching through their vaults and treasure to find something that could satisfy Grand Principal Hope’s insatiable materialistic desire, yet they had no idea that the latter had already concocted a plan to milk them even more.

  It was a peaceful, uneventful week. There were no longer any major breakthroughs in any of the Earth Tech Integration Projects. Daily lives in Da Xue continued smoothly without anything noteworthy to mention. The scars left by the Duat Invasion were slowly healing, and finally, the Church had deduced correctly that Baiyi was avoiding any war with them while he was going through new student intake for Da Xue. As a result, they started reducing their public harangue and turned their attention to gathering forces for a possible war.

  Owing to the peace, Baiyi managed to enjoy a couple of relatively tranquil days. Every day, when he was not obsessing over his research, he would be hanging out with Little Mia or Attie, who had transformed back into a little girl. If not, he could be found hanging out with the little dragon lady and her daughter; if not for that, he could be found trying to repair his relationship with Nota and Anna using confectionaries and other kinds of bribery for the sweet-toothed.

  It was peaceful, lazy living, and it was something Baiyi secretly desired the most.

  Meanwhile, the topic du jour within Da Xue had shifted from the Duat Invasion to the upcoming season of new intakes as well as their senior’s graduation. Unlike most other academies, new students in Da Xue enrolled in the semester before their seniors graduated.

  It was arranged that way for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it was so that the most spectacular would-be graduates would be able to attend the newcomers’ orientation week and give speeches to them. Then, the newcomers would, in turn, get to witness their seniors’ graduation and be informed about their next grand step in life, including how well these graduates were going to do in society or where they would be going after graduating. As for those whose merit points were below standard. They would be dropped out of the academy before the newcomers even entered.

  It was simply a motivational tactic that Baiyi had devised to inspire his students, carried on since the founding of the institution.

  The reasons the current students were so excited about these upcoming events were myriad, too. Some wondered about how cute their new juniors would be. Some wondered which yet-unknown genius among the newbies would be able to obtain all five points during the entrance exam. 1 Some even delighted in calling out whoever attended the entrance exam for the umpteenth times after failing it every year. But most of all, everyone wondered about who would the three best laurates be for this current semester. Who would be the three students to be personally gifted with Baiyi’s platinum pendants?

  The system Da Xue used to determine its graduates were via merit points. The students’ performance was assessed and then be given points, which were then cumulated throughout their four years of studies. The points, however, were known to everyone but the students.

  If one managed to obtain three hundred points or above, they were automatically liable to graduate.

  The top three students who had scored the highest points, meanwhile, would be gifted Baiyi’s personally-made platinum pendants. There was no upper limit to how much one could score, too — one was encouraged to score as much as they could.

  The very first batch of laureates Da Xue had churned out was commonly called “The Cream of the Crop”, because the top scorer, Tisdale Aegis, had scored a total of 496 points by the end of her studies through her giftedness, her sturdy grip in the foundation of magic, and being Baiyi’s personal student. The first runner-up was Nota, who had scored 488 points by the end of her study, too.

  Their records were never broken even after a decade of Da Xue’s founding. Hence, Tisdale was very much venerated by the students, to the point that her words were often more heeded than Vice-Principal Vidomina’s, even though Tisdale was technically Baiyi’s personal assistant rather than a member of the academy’s administration. The same could also be said for Nota, who despite her meek, unassertive attitude, enjoyed great respect and reverence from the students.

  On the other hand, a certain flat-chested girl with twin horsetails, whose gifts were disproportionately centered on the art of being moe, had only managed to graduate by a meager sum of 310 points…… which was just slightly above the requirement. That poor performance had crossed the Grand Principal a lot back then!

  There was more to the system too, and one of the rules that had managed to terrify many newcomers was this: if one had only managed to pass their year-end exams, then the maximum point that mediocre student could gain would be two hundred points — one hundred less than the threshold to graduate!

  How could one make up for that loss, then? For starters, they could try to score extra well in their exams; they could publish theses on reputable academic journals from other organizations and be awarded extra credits if and only if their theses were well-received; they could try to achieve more exemplary feats during excursions. They could also join all sorts of research conducted by members of Da Xue, and be awarded if and only if they were instrumental to producing practical, useful results……

  In other words, one would only be awarded points enough to graduate if one truly excelled in a particular field or aspect. [2]

  However, if one had their points redacted due to disciplinary actions, or by a stroke of misfortune their theses remained unspotted in spite of quality, or even one’s pure sloth had caused a slip in grades, then the only other option to bridge the gap would be to take another course in another faculty together with the current one. For example, a sorcerer from the Magic Faculty could enroll in alchemy. A squire could enroll in either Smithy or Engineering. And finally, those from the Literary Faculty or the Theology Faculty could devote their time to the Business Faculty. If one managed to pass their additional course, then they would have been able to gather the last one hundred points to graduate.

  In other words, to excel in this institution, one had to either be very, very expert in one field or be good enough in several fields. There was no such thing as graduating with “passable performance”.

  Hence, this was why those who managed to graduate from Da Xue were guaranteed to be the best among their non-Da Xue graduates. The institution’s harsh adherence to meritocracy ensured that every single student that graduated from it would be an actual elite.

  Of course, those students who enrolled in the institution through their parents’ generous donation enjoyed more leeway, as they could graduate with a meager sum of two hundred points. That was apparently Baiyi’s small gesture of goodwill to these students’ generous parents. But ultimately, it was because these sponsored students were likely to be so inferior in their performance that they would not have entered this prestigious institution were it not for their family’s wealth. In other words, it would have been challenging for them just to pass their exams.

  Granted, not all sponsored students were as good-for-nothing as most would imagine since if they really were that hopeless of a case, their calculative noble parents wouldn’t have wasted their money to invest in them either. Throughout ten years since Da Xue’s founding, only two of these sponsored students were too inferior to graduate, though even after that, these two managed to use whatever they had learned in the institution and good habits developed while studying there to somewhat stand out in society.

  In other words, even a dropout from Da Xue could succeed. It was this reason that had compelled these wealthy sponsors to continue supporting the institution materially.

  One day, as Baiyi was patrolling around the academy grounds, he overheard a conversation between two female students sitting on a bench. They were so engrossed in their topic that they did not even notice Baiyi creeping past them.

  “I bet this year’s platinum pendant holders would be Jazz, Lee, and Daniel, huh?”

  Baiyi’s feet shuffled into a stop quietly. The three individuals these girls had mentioned were exactly the three students he had in mind, especially Kingston Lee — one of the most eye-catching martial art genius from the Knights’ Faculty. His swordsmanship was excellent enough to put the Hitman on guard for a few seconds!

  He was most likely the strongest knight his generation would ever witness, which was why had been crowned “The Young Sword Saint”. Although “Sword Saint” as a moniker had been used by many people enough to be a cliché by now, it was still impressive in this case because he was called so despite being in an institution brimming with geniuses.

  Unfortunately, Baiyi did not start to take notice of him because of his peerless feats. No, Baiyi paid him a lot of attention because he was the Little Devil of this cohort, especially with his penchant to perform lovey-dovey serenades to girls in their dorm while skillfully battling the Jawflower. That was not even the worst. This brat even dared present Mia his love letter* right in front of Baiyi.*

  Anyone who knew Baiyi enough could have guessed what happened afterward.

  However, this ballsy boy was still alive after Baiyi was done with him, and now, he was going to graduate soon, too — solid proof of Baiyi’s principle of humanistic education.

  Footnotes:

  Ch 465 Footnote 1

  Recall that to be accepted into Da Xue, you need to pass the unholily harsh entrance exams. Even scoring a point was hard enough…… Imagine scoring five!