“It’s probably just a random thought…”
Lu Zhou looked at the golden mission panel. He shook his head and pushed the strange feeling away from his mind. He then focused on the mission again.
He had to complete the manned landing plan on Mars within this year.
This wasn’t a big deal.
The manned landing on Mars was one of China’s space programs this year; it was also a sub-project of the Mars Scientific Research Station.
The reward was determined by the number of successful landings and the mission time taken…
Lu Zhou looked at this strange reward metric silently.
If I put a hundred people on Mars at once, wouldn’t it be possible to get tens of millions of experience points?
Of course, this was just an idea.
Forget about the technical difficulty, risks, and ethical issues, even if so many people were sent at once, the system would probably not give him more than 10 million experience points.
After all, the rewards increased with the number of people, but not necessarily linearly.
“Anyway, I just have to think of a way to send people to Mars as soon as possible… This mission should be quite simple.”
Not long ago, the aerospace launch site sent a spacecraft to cruise around Mars orbit. They just had to think of a way to bring a life-sustaining device, some volunteers, and a landing module.
Lu Zhou closed the holographic panel.
Although the feeling of unease still lingered in his mind, he didn’t like to worry about unknown things. After frowning and thinking for a while, he put the matter aside for the time being.
After exiting the system space, the sky outside the window was completely dark.
He looked at his watch to check the time and saw that it was already ten o’clock in the evening. Lu Zhou was about to close his eyes and go to sleep, only to find that the drone controlled by Xiao Ai was lying on the bedside table next to him.
After hesitating for a second, Lu Zhou asked, “… Is there a problem?”
Xiao Ai: [… Master, you received a call. (☆-v-)]
“Okay.”
After yawning, Lu Zhou reached out and picked up the phone. He looked at the dozen missed calls and wondered who would call a dozen times at night. He called the number back.
The call was quickly connected.
Unsurprisingly, Director Li’s voice appeared on the other end of the phone.
“Hello? Academician Lu, you haven’t slept yet?”
“…”
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but complain in his heart.
With the number of calls you bombarded me with, even if I were asleep, you would have woken me up.
But seeing how he wasn’t asleep anyway, he decided not to care anymore. He put his head back on the pillow and asked casually, “What’s the matter, spit it out.”
“Haha, it’s not a big deal.”
“Then I’m hanging, talk tomorrow.”
“Hey, wait, wait, don’t hang up, I just want to… consult you about one thing, it won’t take long!”
“Then say it…?”
“Have you heard of space elevators—”
Beep—
The phone suddenly hung up, and the voice on the other end of the phone was cut off.
“Ah… I accidentally hung up.”
Lu Zhou turned off the phone and threw it aside. He then turned around and went to bed.
Director Li, who was at his home in Beijing, was bewildered by the beeping tone coming from his mobile phone.
Why did the call suddenly drop?
Did his phone run out of battery…
…
While Lu Zhou was sleeping, chaos was going on at the headquarters of the International Union of Materials Research Societies on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
Chairman Swift was sitting in his office, chatting with the Secretary General, Professor Merri Finch, about the selection of the annual society awards.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the office door. A young assistant walked in quickly with an unopened letter in his hand.
“Chairman, this is a letter from the Max Planck Society.”
Chairman Swift put down the pen in his hand. He looked over with his tired eyes and asked weakly, “What does it say?”
“The letter is from Professor Gerhard Ertl, the director of the Fritz Haber Institute.” The assistant opened the envelope and said hesitantly, “The letter… says to hope for you to nominate Lu Zhou as a candidate for the Annual Union Award.”
Chairman Swift immediately pressed his index finger and thumb on his eyebrow as he dealt with a headache. He muttered, “This again.”
Makes sense.
Lu Zhou and the Max Planck Society always had a good relationship. Not only did he receive the Hoffman Medal awarded by the German Chemical Society, but he also cooperated with the Germans on the Stellarator project.
Professor Merri Finch, who was standing next to him, shrugged. He didn’t seem surprised at all.
After all, this was expected.
Even without considering the relationship, the academic value of that paper was worthy of an award from the German Chemical Society.
They had received at least ten nomination letters from top talents and organizations in materials science, hoping that they could include Lu Zhou’s name in the selection list for this year’s Annual Union Award.
In fact, this wasn’t a big deal.
But for Chairman Swift, this was a headache.
Even though the International Union of Materials Research Societies was a joint organization of various materials science societies, because the center of the world materials science community was in Boston, this organization was somewhat similar in nature to the ILHCRC. Both were technically international, but in reality, it was still an organization that was affected by a single country alone.
Under such circumstances, if they really considered Lu Zhou’s research results, they would have to worry about the diplomatic stance of their own authorities.
Also, they had already negotiated and planned to award the Annual Union Award to Professor Colhart of Stanford University in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of electrochemical corrosion of complex systems.
If Lu Zhou was one of the candidates, then there would be no doubt that he would win.
“You can leave.”
“Oh, okay…” The assistant, who stood at the door hesitated, left the opened letter on the cabinet next to him before leaving the office.
The office door closed. Secretary-General Merri Finch, who had been standing beside him, said thoughtfully, “It seems that our European friends are starting to feel dissatisfied with our actions.”
The unfairness of the annual award was a known secret. Other societies couldn’t do anything about their manipulation of this award.
After all, it was difficult to find evidence for something this vague.
Normally, the candidates they nominated were not weak, but if there were equally strong candidates, they would be more inclined to choose scholars who were in North America or who intended to work in North America.
Therefore, Professor Ertl nominating Lu Zhou in the name of the Max Planck Society was a bit tricky.
After all, for a research institution like the Max Planck Institute, even if the nominations were not domestic scholars, they were generally scholars working in Germany.
The nomination proposed by Professor Ertl did put a lot of pressure on them.
Chairman Swift looked over and asked, “What do we do now?”
“If we reject so many nomination letters, it will definitely arouse dissatisfaction with other societies.” Secretary-General Merri thought for a while and said, “Let’s be more generous and admit that his research is well done.”
“No way!” Chairman Swift said without hesitation, “If it were someone else, it would be fine, but this is Lu Zhou… Stanford University, Professor Colhart, and Congress won’t be happy.”
“Not necessarily.”
Chairman Swift looked at Merri Finch as he waited for an explanation.
Secretary-General Merri Finch paused for a while and explained, “Anyone can see that the United States has lost the space race and has chosen to compromise with China on a series of historical issues due to controllable fusion technology. Even NASA uses the threat of the East as an excuse to ask for funding from Congress. But haven’t you noticed? The confrontation has actually become smaller and smaller.”
“So what?”
“The people are getting tired of this fruitless confrontation. The White House also knows that it is difficult to rely on the short term to gain support for itself. Instead, voters will gradually lose confidence.” Secretary-General Merri Finch looked at Swift and said seriously, “If Lu Zhou visits North America, maybe this can be an opportunity to restore the relationship between the two countries.”
Chairman Swift frowned.
“I don’t want to bring politics into academia.”
“Don’t forget who is supporting our funding.” Secretary-General Merri Finch shrugged and said, “Besides, this is not a matter of bringing politics into academia. Do you think that his paper, a Nobel Prize level achievement, is not worthy of an Annual Union Award?”
“As for Stanford University and Professor Colhart… I don’t think it is a shame to lose to Professor Lu.”
This time, Chairman Swift was silent for a long time, as if he was persuaded.
After half a minute or so, he finally spoke.
“Go to the White House and ask for their opinions.
“If they plan to use this opportunity to repair relations with China…
“I believe Professor Colhart will understand our situation.”
