Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 893 - 138 Decision

Chapter 893: Chapter 138 Decision

"The things you research here might very well be sealed away for many years due to confidentiality rules. But on the other hand, this isn’t particularly crucial industrial infrastructure or military technology. It can’t directly be translated into merits. It might end up as useless blueprints sealed for decades before gradually being declassified. During this time, your contributions remain unknown. It’s also difficult to leverage it to secure more research funding because its economic significance might not be substantial."

Liu sighed at this point, "Of course, the remaining technologies might have economic or military significance. But this is an international project where all countries are conducting open research. Do you understand what I mean? It isn’t competitive... at least not for those of us overseas, within the Rama Project District, it’s not a competitive task."

"It’s not like, even if we discover something, the credit would go to those research institutes back home..."

Liu sighed again, "The same achievements made here and back home hold different weight—of course, this is limited to engineering fields."

Xiang Shan pondered, "Here, would research in humanities about aliens be more popular?"

"Research through behavior, archaeology, anthropology methods to speculate on the lifestyle of aliens... that sort of research would probably be more meaningful. Given the current big picture, conducting such research carries significant political weight." Liu counted on his fingers, "Moreover, once the information is declassified, the researcher could gain instant fame, easily attracting attention from academia and society. That’s unlike us. I even suspect that the engineering research we do is just a precursor for those studies in humanities and history."

Liu glanced at Xiang Shan again, "I know you’re interested in aliens. But don’t let your interests challenge someone else’s livelihood. No matter how many wild ideas you have, they’re just wild ideas, even nonsense. Compared to professionals, you’re still not up to par."

Xiang Shan scratched his head.

"Moreover, there’s another critical point. For people like us, this project is tasteless to consume, hard to relinquish. But for others, this project might mean an immortal legacy." Liu rubbed his forehead, "Let me see... you seem to get along well with Commissioner Jing. Take him as an example. The rumor is that the old gentleman has an excellent family background, has been devoted to academia for his whole life, and has no other ambitions. If he wanted to achieve a renowned legacy, who could compete with him?"

Xiang Shan said, "Teacher Liu, is there some... kind of bad news?"

"What’s the matter?"

"The moment you came up with this attitude." Xiang Shan said, "I feel like there’s definitely earth-shattering bad news. Can you give me a heads-up?"

Xiang Shan initially came in as an assistant to Liu, so his permissions were certainly not as high as Liu’s own.

Liu shook his head, smiling bitterly, "The majority of the machines outside the core have been damaged beyond repair, and even restoration is difficult."

"Ah... this..."

"Probably when they touched down." Liu sighed, "A lot of things were slammed down without protection. The parts were deformed too severely. Some teams attempted to restore based on the debris data of the parts, but found they couldn’t piece them together."

"What..."

Xiang Shan was left speechless.

Right now, in their hands is a set of alien data, and they need to find an alien machine to run it on to know how this data functions and how to interpret it.

And then they also have a set of alien machines in hand and must find information from the alien data to understand how these machines work and how to repair them.

"The ’key’ is locked inside the ’box’.

No wonder it feels hopeless.

"This..." Xiang Shan found it hard to accept, "Isn’t there still a complete one?"

"But it’s unstartable." Liu gave a bitter smile.

For the moment, Xiang Shan also had nothing to say.

Liu continued, "Leaving just like this would certainly feel unsatisfactory. You gave up your ever-ongoing project, and the plans in my hands were also disrupted. Almost everyone came here in this way. When the country called for it, everyone was duty-bound. At first, upon learning of aliens, I was excited too. But now, we have to face reality properly—our work isn’t essential to this place."

Xiang Shan fell into contemplation for a moment.

"Of course, I can’t make decisions for you. You’re my student, not my son." Liu continued, "This kind of project might also be an opportunity for you. But I can at least assure you that if you return home with me, you won’t have nothing to do."

Saying that, Liu turned and left.

Xiang Shan found his mind a bit cluttered. Interstellar travel calculated in eons, decisions in a few days, aliens, his future, all kinds of seemingly unrelated concepts suddenly became opposed.

He looked at the large white tent, momentarily seeming bewildered.

Suddenly, Xiang Shan thought of something—it was like destiny, or like a white flash in his mind. He turned around and ran after Liu in the direction he departed.

Liu had already been gone for a while. Xiang Shan, panting heavily, caught up with him. Xiang Shan called out to Liu, asking, "Teacher Liu, I have one more question. Of course, if I can’t know it now, that’s fine..."

"What question?"

"That one complete machine, is it similar to... similar to a 3D printing... universal Industrial Mother Machine?" Xiang Shan inquired.

Since those machines can replicate themselves, there must be a process for producing parts. And the research reports Xiang Shan encountered never mentioned anything like that.

Liu was slightly taken aback. He thought Xiang Shan would ask him about arrangements for returning home. But he quickly realized something. He certainly remembered the student’s previous project.

"That’s the prevailing guess right now." Liu said, somewhat helplessly, "The mainstream speculation is indeed that, but there are many designs on that thing that no expert on Earth can understand. It could be something else too."

Xiang Shan said, "I see. Teacher, I think... working here still has meaning for me. Sorry, that..."

"Fine. I know exactly what nonsense you’re going to say." Liu sighed again and helped Xiang Shan stand up, "Stand firm. Do you really think you should pursue this direction?"

"I’ve been wanting to pursue this direction all the time under your tutelage for these years." Xiang Shan took a deep breath, "Let me continue working here, please."

"First of all, I only have advisory rights over whether you stay or leave. The final decision lies with the organization, so if you don’t stay, don’t blame me." Liu shook his head, "And, if you stay here by yourself in the future, you can’t be as dull as you are now."