Study Monster Cultivation System
Chapter 226: Everything can play house

As time ticked away by the minute and second.

Li Zheng and Lin Yujing gradually forgot that this was a competition.

When they inserted numbers into the equations, it was as if they had truly become doomsday scientists.

However, the process was far less smooth than they had imagined.

With every calculation, they were greeted by a chilling result.

Throughout the process, Lin Yujing tried to flatten the Earth, cut it open, change its orbit, and even allow it to brush past the Sun.

But nothing worked, nothing at all.

Let alone talk of escape and wandering, they couldn’t even take the step of halting the Earth’s rotation.

It was akin to a physics problem that asked whether a balloon could accelerate using its own deflation over 200 years to leave the Solar System, and how much air it would need to release every second.

If it were just an exam question, of course, one could mechanically provide an answer.

But now, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing had fully assumed the identity of scientists, considering how large the balloon was, how thin its surface, what pressure and temperature it could withstand, and whether it could reach the desired speed even if it released all its air.

The answer was negative across the board.

Even if the "re-aggregation technology" set in the movie was valid, the answer was still no.

Around 8 o’clock, Lin Yujing’s eyes reddened as she put down her pen.

"The Earth... it’s dead... dead..."

Assistant Li Zheng, who had been calculating throughout, naturally knew what had happened.

In the past hour or so, Lin Yujing was no longer a doomsday scientist but had become a perverse scientist.

She had conceived various extreme scenarios, all to send the Earth out of the Solar System, accelerating it to one-thousandth of the speed of light.

She was like a desperate surgeon, hooking the Earth up to a ventilator, attaching a heart pacemaker, initiating extracorporeal circulation, performing transfusions and surgeries...

But still, it was beyond saving.

Although... all these calculations were hardly even a game, just a fantasy disaster.

But seeing Lin Yujing with tears swirling in her eyes, Li Zheng felt a bit of heartache.

"Do we need to go to such lengths..." Li Zheng wiped his own eyes, "If that’s the case, let’s just forcefully calculate it in a sci-fi way, forget about the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, forget about thrust-to-weight ratio, forget about the thickness of the Earth’s crust and the mantle’s load-bearing limit, just treat it as a hypothetical physics problem."

It was as if Lin Yujing hadn’t heard a word, just silently hanging her head, "The Earth... it’s dead..."

"Don’t be like this... it makes me feel bad as well when you’re upset," said Li Zheng, gritting his teeth and struggling to speak, "Besides, we still have time, let’s just do something... anything."

"What else is there worth doing?"

"Like..."

Li Zheng stretched his imagination to its limits and conveyed some minor ideas to Lin Yujing.

Under Li Zheng’s vivid description, Lin Yujing’s expression gradually softened, and finally, she even squeaked out a laugh, contributing her own thoughts as well.

The two of them thus tossed aside their previous stack of draft papers and embarked on a brand-new plan.

...

Before they knew it, half the lights at McDonald’s were off.

The duty manager stood helplessly in the middle of the aisle, "Guys... we really need to close up... Could you find another place? The fate of the Earth is such a serious matter, it’s not suitable for our store..."

Everyone looked up, only to realize it was nearly 11:30 PM.

"Shall we call it a day?" Wu Shu put down his pen, blew a strand of hair from his forehead, and looked across the room.

Yet, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing looked as if they were playing house, their faces brimming with joy as they nodded in agreement, without a trace of the tragic determination of doomsday scientists.

Wu Shu swallowed and tapped Ou Xingzhuo, who was wrapping up the document, "What level are they on... I can’t see clearly..."

Ou Xingzhuo closed his notebook and lifted his head, letting out a startled "huh," "Could this be..."

"What?"

"You know, before, Jinghua had a physics competition training program, and Qi Yingnan from the group attended. He said that when Li Zheng and Lin Yujing were teaming up for experiments, they would enter a kind of ’playing house’ state… It looks very childish on the surface… but it’s terrifyingly powerful, so much so that even Jinghua’s professors recorded it to use as video teaching material."

Startled, Wu Shu exclaimed, "I remember now… Is this what they call the co-ed ’Jade Girl Heart Sutra’?"

"Yes, the top technique for the physics competitions."

As they were discussing, a few college students with their own plans came over; the crew-cut guy at the forefront chuckled, "Sorry to interrupt, we’re all second-year students from the Department of Physics at Ji University, we found your calculations interesting. Would you mind if we join in?"

Hearing this, Ou Xingzhuo and Wu Shu quickly stood up.

"Hello, senior."

"My apologies, my apologies."

The crew-cut guy was surprised, "You’ve already been recommended for admission?"

"That was last year."

"Lucky break, lucky break."

"No wonder..." The crew-cut man and his classmates then stepped forward to shake hands one by one, "You must all be competition students, right? May I ask your scores?"

Both showed a troubled expression at the same time.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to answer.

It was mainly that they didn’t know where to start.

The crew-cut man thought they were nervous, and, with a cheerful smile, turned around to introduce, "That’s alright, we’ll be classmates in the future. I’m a national gold medalist, these two are national silver, and this blockhead is provincial first place."

Seeing the upperclassmen being so open, Ou Xingzhuo and Wu Shu felt they could no longer hold back, and after exchanging glances, they decided to introduce each other.

First, Wu Shu raised his arm to point at Ou Xingzhuo, "This is a member of the informatics competition training team, provincial first in math, national silver in physics, national gold in chemistry, national silver in biology."

Then it was Ou Xingzhuo who introduced Wu Shu, "This is an IPhO gold medalist, national gold in chemistry, national gold in math, national silver in biology; he didn’t participate in informatics."

The four senior students were dumbfounded for a while, and then the crew-cut guy at the front scratched his head, "Ah, I... I also like... running..."

"Then you should have a common interest with this guy." Wu Shu chimed in to introduce, "He is the champion of the city’s middle school 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash."

"Alright, alright…" The crew-cut guy finally couldn’t take it anymore, stepping forward with the plan in hand, "Let’s talk about a set of data."

"Sure, but…" Wu Shu turned to look at Li Zheng and Lin Yujing, the two were still smiling as they scribbled on the paper, as if they were drawing pictures while playing house, "We’re actually competing with them..."

"Ha, that’s great then." The crew-cut man laughed, "As long as you don’t mind our lower level, we’ll act as the judges for you."

Ou Xingzhuo hurriedly said, "Not at all, it would be our honor to have you, senior."

"No problem," the crew-cut man agreed readily and then looked towards Li Zheng and Lin Yujing, "If I may ask, what’s their story?"

Wu Shu explained, "They’re just preparing to participate in the physics competition this year; they haven’t taken the test yet."

Ou Xingzhuo added, "They just won first place in the national Chem Competitions, that’s all."

"..."

The crew-cut guy turned back to look at his classmates with silent understanding.

Suddenly, they felt like their Ji University degrees weren’t worth much...

...

After assuring the duty manager that they would wrap up before midnight, the four department of physics experts from Ji University took the plans from both sides, studied them earnestly, and decided to use "Wu" and "Lin" as code names for the two teams’ plans.

First, they reviewed the somewhat thinner "Wu" plan.

This plan truly respected the movie’s setup, striving for precision and attention to detail, from solar orbit acceleration to derailment, and then to gravity assist maneuvers—each step included detailed calculations and illustrations. If it wasn’t for the fact that they couldn’t pull up the Solar System’s planetary orbital charts on site, they might have actually made use of it.

Their calculation results also mostly aligned with the physics department bigwigs’ plans, the only difference being some deviations in orbit design, but nothing of major significance.

The subsequent acceleration, deceleration, and docking were also exceptionally steady.

If this were a super competition question, they would basically have scored full points.

"As expected of an IPho big shot," the crew-cut man put down the plan, still impressed, "The two of you have basically done the work of four people."

Another senior student sighed, "Ah, if only Teacher Jie were here to evaluate it."

"What’s the rush? You’ll meet Wu Shu and Xing Zhuo when they start school, won’t you?"

"That’s true, but Teacher Jie would definitely see things we didn’t—he was the world’s number one 20 years ago, and he came up through his own unconventional path without any formal training."

Not only Wu Shu and Ou Xingzhuo, but Li Zheng and Lin Yujing also felt more and more intrigued as they listened.

Indeed, there were others out there with great talent.

Ji University was undoubtedly a super domain that gathered the strongest together.

At the end of his remarks, the crew-cut man simply picked up the plan and asked, "Could I take this with me to show to Teacher Jie? It’d also be like getting to know the new students in advance."

Wu Shu and Ou Xingzhuo immediately agreed.

"However, the competition must go on, haha," said the crew-cut man, taking Li Zheng and Lin Yujing’s plan to read with others, including Wu Shu and Ou Xingzhuo.

But as soon as they began with the first section, they were astounded.

"Within the existing theoretical framework, the Wandering Planet Project is doomed to fail."

"Even with nuclear fusion technology and converting all of Earth’s oceans and crust into energy, it’s still not enough to reach five-thousandths of the speed of light."

"At the same time, the energy produced by the fusion engine will turn the Earth into a sea of fire before it is swallowed by the Sun."

"The following are our initial calculations, proving that each step of the original Wandering Planet Project will destroy Earth more than once."

The content that followed was basically 100 ways Earth would die.

After a moment of evaluation, the crew-cut man was the first to look up, "You two... We are aware of these issues, but only by assuming all this is possible do we have a reason to continue. Look at Wu Shu and Xing Zhuo, they rewrote the engine thrust in order to achieve the target speed."

"Yes, we’ve calculated that number too," Li Zheng nodded, "But if it’s that number, it won’t be long before the entire surface is gone; even burning the whole Earth wouldn’t be enough."

Lin Yujing continued, "In our plan, only tapping into solar energy would make the Wandering Planet feasible. It would require technology similar to a Dyson sphere."

"At that point, it ceases to have practical significance," Li Zheng shook his head, "So, after dismissing five proposals, we went into playing house… oh no, we launched the Enjoying the Remainder of our Lives Plan."

Lin Yujing sweetly smiled and said, "Simply put, it’s about visiting every place in the Solar System we haven’t been to yet, traversing all reachable vistas with our limited lifetime."

"Mercury and Venus are quite boring, fluctuating between too cold and too hot, a glance would suffice."

"Mars has severe dust storms, but beneath its surface dry ice could lie ice, and even water. If possible, it would be worth taking a look."

"Jupiter is a gas giant, likely to have a very dense solid core, but it’s too dangerous to land on, anyway."

"Saturn is interesting with endless storms and diamond rain. Although landing isn’t an option, we should be able to get a close look at the rings, right?"

"..."

"Of course, all this is just for fun, purely for enjoyment."

"The serious plan is at the very end. Based on the total mass of Earth’s fusible materials, we designed an extreme spacecraft capable of carrying 300,000 people on a 2,500-year journey; it’s essentially a miniature version of The Wandering Earth."

"The succeeding generations will need to develop enough theory to have a chance to rebuild a sustainable home near Proxima Centauri."

The two of them spoke back and forth for a full five minutes.

Looking back at their plan, it turned out to be primarily pictorial.

The canyons of Mars, the rings of Venus, the storms of Jupiter, and so on...

There was also a hand-drawn ring-shaped spaceship, with divisions like an ecological zone, oceanic zone, and research zone. Rather than being a serious plan, it seemed like they really were playing house...

The earnest students from the Department of Physics, who had been making an effort to read with a critical eye, initially wanted to offer a little mockery.

But the further they read, the harder it became to speak.

Acid trickled in his stomach.

God damn it...

Be serious...

Are you guys scientists of the apocalypse or stars of an apocalyptic soap opera?!

Wu Shu and Ou Xingzhuo were also torn between laughter and tears.

The feeling was like they had been sharpening their swords for a decade, just to battle it out.

But before they could even clash, the other two had already flown away side by side, roaming the world above the clouds.

A few "examination reviewers" from the Department of Physics discussed for a moment before the crew-cut man lifted his glasses and said, "Our opinion is that the setting of the movie is the axiom for this question, you needn’t concern yourself with whether the axiom stands or not, just derive from it as your basis. You two overturned the axiom and then ran off to Mars... In this case... we can only declare Wu Shu and Xing Zhuo the winners,"

"Go ahead," Li Zheng said indifferently with a nod of his head.

Lin Yujing also immediately picked up her phone, "I’m getting on QQ."

Wu Shu and Ou Xingzhuo exchanged looks and then shook their heads at each other.

Ou Xingzhuo sighed, "If even the axiom can’t stand, why bother solving it."

"Forget it," Wu Shu said, "it’s totally boring now; forget joining the Dragon Pearl Group, but..."

As Wu Shu spoke, he grinned and lunged forward, grabbing and rubbing Lin Yujing’s cheek.

"What are you doing!"

Li Zheng rushed to her defense, but it was too late, leaving only Lin Yujing in shock covering her face.

Wu Shu had already backed off, laughingly holding his right hand, "Haha, tonight was worth it!"

"Um..." Lin Yujing covered her cheek, now getting angry, "You... you... just you wait!"

"Anytime," Wu Shu said with an eyebrow raised and a smile, "see you at Ji University Department of Physics."

"Mmm..." Lin Yujing hummed with dissatisfaction, as if brewing something.

Li Zheng also just realized.

This is really a case of every Jack has his Jill.

Lin Yujing, you’ve got a taste of your own medicine!

Meanwhile, several seniors took the opportunity to take away the plans from Li Zheng and Lin Yujing, still with the excuse of showing them to Teacher Jie.

As everyone was packing up, the crew-cut man couldn’t help asking, "I get all that... but the two of you, weren’t you a bit... too bourgeois? Even if you truly immersed yourselves in the roles of end-of-the-world scientists, surely you wouldn’t go for a Solar System tour, right?"

"Yes, but on this sheet of paper, that’s all we could do," Li Zheng sighed as he packed his bag, "If it really comes to that day, we’d probably throw ourselves into the lab, burning every minute and second, to approach a breakthrough in physics."

Lin Yujing nodded in agreement, "Without a breakthrough, Earth will definitely die... Conversely, only with a breakthrough is there hope."

"That’s why we don’t want to wait until that day to struggle," Li Zheng said, turning to face the seniors with his backpack, "To not be desperate in the future, to resist imminent extinction, to explore deeper laws, isn’t that why we chose physics in the first place?"

With that, the two walked out slowly, discussing the vision of a ring-shaped spaceship.

"Damn... Did I just get schooled by high school students?" the crew-cut man stood there dumbfounded, "What level are they at... exactly?"

"Friends," Ou Xingzhuo came over with a cold smile, "In a few months, you should be able to see them on the TV news."

"That’s... a bit too arrogant, isn’t it..." the crew-cut man swallowed nervously, "You guys are from Ren Da Fu, right?"

"We are, they are not," came the reply.

"Then what school are they from?"

"You’ll know when you watch TV."

"..."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.