Chapter 1133 - Eight Hundred and Eighty-Three: Another Test?

"Is that so, well, one test will tell," Zuo La said.

Zemir hurriedly pulled Lily, who was still seething with anger, away. On the return trip, Lily cursed out Zemir the entire way, mainly ranting about how dare those people provoke her sister.

Finally, Zemir steered the conversation to the test.

"Lord Zuo La has designed a test. If you can pass it, you’ll shut everyone’s mouth immediately," Zemir said.

"Not going, not interested," Lily flatly refused.

"Why? This is a great chance to prove yourself!" Zemir asked in surprise, while Zuo La’s eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Are you joking? Just because a few nobodies doubt me, I have to prove myself to them? Are they even worth my time? Do they think they’re somebody? If I had to prove myself over and over again I wouldn’t have time for anything else!" Lily rolled her eyes at Zemir.

"After all, with the doubts of those around you, it must be hard for you to concentrate on your research," Zemir continued to persuade.

"I now doubt that you’re a man; do you want to run naked around the block to prove it to me?" Lily said.

Zemir was shocked into silence. Lily’s words were explosive, but he had never expected her to reject the offer. He glanced at Zuo La, who was starting to look displeased, and quickly added, "I promise this will be the last test. If you can pass, you will..."

"You will join the core research team," Zuo La continued.

"Stop talking nonsense. Since I arrived here, it’s been one test after another. All those little problems you had me solve before were just broken toys from your past research. Coming here, they said it was to serve the Emperor, but in the end, I’m just living with a bunch of idiots, constantly being tested. And now you want me to test again? No way!" Lily’s tone was adamant.

Lily brought up the Emperor, which reminded Zuo La that Lily and Sasa weren’t brought in by hypnotism but were ’tricked’ into coming; they wouldn’t simply follow orders.

"Ahem, actually, this test will determine your future," Zuo La said.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked brusquely.

"We plan to select the best members among all the researchers to form a new research group to investigate the most confidential subjects for the Emperor. But only the very top can be selected. Zemir recommended you, but you are doubted by those around you, so I must use this method to determine whether you truly are the top scientists we need—after all, you know that what you were working on before was just too simple."

As Zuo La finished speaking, Sasa stepped out from behind Lily.

"Are the Giants the greatest race in this multiverse?" Sasa asked.

"Of course... they are," Zuo La hesitated, then added. In fact, he wanted to say no because in his heart, only the Star Devourers count as great. But he also understood that in the eyes of most people, the Giants must be regarded as the greatest.

"See, just as the greatness of the Giants is unquestionable, so must our strength be! I accept this test!" Sasa declared.

"Sister! Have you lost your mind? What’s the point of wasting time with these fools? We might as well do our own research!" Lily muttered under her breath.

"No worries, I’m actually very curious about that secret research!" Sasa said with a cheerful smile.

"You’ve got to be kidding me! ’Secret research,’ I bet that’s just a ploy to lure you in," Lily said, rolling her eyes at Sasa.

"In that case, please wait patiently. I will deliver the content of the test to you tomorrow!" Zuo La left, satisfied, while Zemir gave an encouraging look to both Lily and Sasa, then followed Zuo La.

"Phew... that went well," Ruosha said.

"Such old fools, wasting our time," Isrile remarked.

"I guess that so-called secret research must be what we’re looking for," Ruosha speculated.

"Lately, I have felt a very regular vibration emanating from inside this planet, the frequency of which is extremely slow. If I hadn’t chanced upon it, I would likely have never noticed it," Isrile said.

"No matter, once we pass the test, they’ll realize our worth. Then they won’t hesitate to place it right in front of us," Ruosha added.

The next day, Ruosha and Isrile arrived at a large, isolated laboratory, as agreed, along with three other groups of researchers. Zuo La personally distributed the research topics to these four groups.

"You have one month. During this month, you will conduct your research here. This facility is fully equipped with everything necessary for life, with only one restriction: no contact with the outside world. You can only rely on yourselves. The topic this time is very difficult, and I don’t recommend you approach this research with the intention of simply solving the problem; I’m more interested in the process. As long as the process meets my expectations, then you’ve passed the test. Do you have any questions?" Zuo La said.

"Yes, yes, I have one!" Ruosha exclaimed, raising her hand eagerly.

"Ruosha?" Zuo La asked.

"Will there be any snacks provided here normally?" Ruosha asked loudly.

"Whatever you need, you can ask for it from your team leader. I’ve said before, as long as you can prove that you are talented, then you can have everything here!"

"Yay! That’s awesome!" Ruosha cheered with excitement.

"You’re supposed to play a delicate sister, not a glutton," Isrile interjected within the contract.

"A gluttonous, delicate sister can flesh out the character more; you don’t understand, this is high-end acting talent," Ruosha retorted.

"Before you think about eating, you’d better take a look at what we’re supposed to research this time. Don’t screw it up, or we’ll really become the laughingstock," Isrile said.

"Don’t worry, even if a thousand of you screw up, I won’t," Ruosha confidently stated.

Zuo La left the laboratory, while Zemir stayed behind. He was the team leader for Isrile and Ruosha, responsible for coordinating their research work.

Ruosha picked up her own research materials and scrutinized them closely, quickly embarking on a discussion with Isrile. However, they spoke so quietly that Zemir couldn’t hear what they were discussing at all. He tried to get closer, but the two girls pushed him away with looks of disdain.

"Stay away from us, or someone will say that we cheated by colluding with you again," Isrile said.

"Exactly, even though you’re so much worse than me," Ruosha added from behind.

"How could that be? The topics were personally chosen by Master Zuo La himself, I haven’t even seen them, so I have no idea what you are researching," Zemir said with a bitter smile.

"It’s better that you don’t know; even if you did, you wouldn’t understand," Ruosha declared.

Feeling helpless, Zemir could only watch from a distance as the two girls whispered secretively, shunning him as if guarding against a thief. He turned to look at the other groups, where intense discussions had already begun, with each team leader actively involved. Poor him; he was excluded from his own team.

"Okay, we’ve discussed enough. Here, take this," Isrile approached, handing over the topic report to Zemir. He thanked her and then opened it, immediately feeling dizzy. It was filled with dense formulas, annotated with various uncertain conjectures, and most importantly, it was obviously not just an intermediate topic—it was already close to the core issue they were researching.

They want them to research this?

Zemir looked up again at the other groups. The three groups were carefully selected, representing the common team, the elite team, and the core team—the three tiers that were most representative of the entire research institute.

The common team was almost entirely clueless, intimidated by the dense formulas and conjectures; they needed to verify various contents before they could actually begin their research.

The elite team, however, was much stronger; they had already touched upon some of the content and seemed more excited, also being the loudest in debates.

The core team was also discussing, but their voices were quiet, rarely arguing, which clearly showed they were on the same wavelength.

Then, Zemir turned back to look at Lily and Sasa. They had stopped their discussion and were now scribbling on paper.

Could it be that they had already figured it out?

As he was thinking this, he caught Sasa lift her paper, revealing a crookedly drawn large spider, lying upside down. Lily also held up her paper, on which she drew a fish ashore with a ship’s anchor hooked to its tail.

Zemir lost his patience, thinking that they were just playing!

At that moment, although Isrile and Ruosha were not writing anything, they already had some understanding of the magic in their minds.

"We’re in luck this time; to test our strength, they even brought out this kind of topic. I believe that even if it’s not at the core issue, it must be close to it," Ruosha said.

"How about it, can you solve it?" Isrile asked.

"For now, it seems a bit challenging because it involves too many issues; I need to experiment several times. But I estimate that at most, in seven days, I will have reached a conclusion," Ruosha said.

"What I mean is, do you plan to tell them the answer to this problem?" Isrile added.

"No, I don’t think it’s necessary... Hmm, at that time we can see how far the other teams have gotten. If they manage to solve a considerable part, I can fully solve it as well. If they haven’t made much progress, then I will hold back some—just enough to win," Ruosha stated.

And so, right under Zemir’s nose, Ruosha and Isrile alternated between giggling about something and conducting experiments using the equipment, then recorded a series of data. However, they quickly destroyed the data, not letting Zemir see a thing. The dejected Zemir was left completely in the dark, clueless about what the two girls were actually doing.

Perhaps out of sheer boredom, Zemir left the laboratory to get some fresh air outside. Coincidentally, there were two other team leaders chatting. Spotting Zemir, they came over. "Young man, you don’t really think those two girls of yours are geniuses, do you?"

"Yeah, yeah, just now I saw them drawing childish doodles! Hahaha!"

"Just to let you know, young man, if you guys concede early, we definitely won’t mock you, after all, the gap in strength between our teams is a bit big."

"Don’t worry, I definitely won’t mock you either! Haha!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote, recommend, and support the monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)