Chapter 61: Wha... What the Heck?

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Wha... What the Heck?

Rian Sinclair struggled for a bit to no avail, ultimately resigning herself to getting up for work.

Bandage, who was running carefree on the lawn, remained entirely oblivious to the situation and continued to frolic.

After changing into casual clothes, Rian left the villa with Quentin Sinclair. Her head throbbed at the thought of their destination today—a place heavily tied to technology.

*(This is an alternate universe! Alternate universe!! Alternate universe!!! Do not connect it to reality or bring reality into it!)*

Initially, her secondary brain evolution hadn’t felt like much. But later, after looking into the current state of emerging technologies and seeing what the company’s researchers were working on, her mind suddenly began to wander. Various scientific experiments played out in her mind as simulations, but not a single one succeeded.

However, she had majored in finance in college!

Not systems science and engineering in the physics department, not advanced algebra and mathematical analysis in the mathematics department, and certainly not biotechnology and engineering!

She had originally chosen finance simply because she didn’t want to study anything overly taxing on the brain. She never expected to stumble into these fields now. She had to forcefully suppress the urgent thirst for knowledge radiating from her brain.

Once she relaxed, a deep wave of exhaustion washed over her for a long time. Even her mental points had dropped by fifteen.

The system had explained it to her: engaging in scientific research was extremely mentally draining. The brain worked almost continuously, and researchers often worked around the clock, so a decrease in mental points was a natural phenomenon. After a good rest, the value would recover to a certain extent. Only if irreversible damage was caused could attribute points be used to increase it.

Upon hearing this, Rian realized that just thinking about these experiment details caused her mental points to plummet. What would happen if she actually put them into practice later on?

At this thought, profound respect welled up in Rian for those great researchers. They devoted themselves wholeheartedly to scientific research, making outstanding contributions to Veridia.

On the way.

Leaning back against her seat, Rian asked, "Quentin, are things at Radiant Entertainment handled?"

"For the most part, yes. The massive layoffs and internal contract terminations of artists have attracted the attention of many entertainment companies," Quentin replied. "Among those who terminated their contracts were A-list and even top-tier superstars. Their fans have been flooding our official social media accounts with comments, reprimanding the company for acting inhumanely.

"The public relations department is also dealing with this matter. We laid off 635 employees and terminated contracts with 296 artists. We let go of one top director and one gold-medal talent agent. In total, 36 directors and agents were dismissed, leaving us with 25."

Hearing these numbers, Rian was a bit surprised. She hadn’t expected the final tally to be so high. "Go on."

"Some informed entertainment companies have banded together to boycott Radiant Entertainment. As a result, the resources currently available to Radiant Entertainment have dwindled. Fortunately, since most of our big-name artists have been let go, the remaining resources are more than enough to feed the small fry still with us."

Rian took the resource portfolio Quentin handed her. After flipping through it, she frowned. "Many of our company’s artists won’t be able to take on these opportunities. The other parties are asking for B-list status or higher."

Quentin nodded. "But our current roster of B-list and above artists is nowhere near what it used to be. Those who are C-list and below make up two-thirds of the total."

Rian quickly finished reading the materials and placed them on the small table beside her. "Since we don’t have resources, the company will create them. We will host a survival show with one hundred male and one hundred female trainees. The top nine of each will debut as a group, and the entire process will be live-streamed."

People these days were quite fond of this type of variety show, and a full live broadcast would serve as an excellent gimmick. Viewers would get to personally watch the trainees slowly improve and cast their votes one by one for their favorite artists.

"I understand, Miss. I will have the company’s staff begin preparations for this variety show."

Rian didn’t comment further on that. "Tell me about the situation at Emerging Tech."

Quentin pulled out a stack of documents. Yes, a massive stack—the kind that would make Rian want to turn and run. "Emerging Tech currently has a total of twenty-seven researchers. The experiments they are conducting cannot possibly be completed by so few people. Furthermore, the former CEO only sold the company because he had invested vast amounts of money and manpower without ever producing the results he desired."

"What kind of research were they originally doing?" Rian asked, genuinely curious. With the current advancements in technology, many wealthy people were investing in the field. Even if they couldn’t produce anything groundbreaking, manufacturing small gadgets could still turn a profit. After all, a company cared about profitability. Only the state could support researchers in developing major, time-consuming inventions.

Quentin frowned. He wondered if telling her the truth would make her die of anger. Although, to be fair, he had been infuriated himself when he first found out. Still, it was better to share the frustration than suffer alone.

"1nm lithography machines, 1nm chips, room-temperature superconductors, and controllable nuclear fusion." Quentin rattled off the four projects as fast as he could, then sat quietly to the side.

"What... what the hell? A 1nm lithography machine? Chip research? Room-temperature superconductors? Controllable nuclear fusion? Are they crazy, or am I crazy? What kind of bullshit is this?"

Quentin remained silent beside her.

Rian was left utterly speechless. While the principles behind a lithography machine weren’t overly complex, it was absolutely impossible to build one with just a genius or two! It required an entire industrial system, encompassing countless scientists with a solid grasp of theory, as well as countless highly skilled industrial workers.

What scientists could provide in the short term was primarily in the field of materials science. However, materials science required extensive trial and error along with lengthy durability tests. A single test could easily take years, so it wasn’t easy to produce results in a short amount of time.

Not to mention they were aiming for 1nm!

For lithography machines, the missing links were materials and high-precision machine tools. Only with a lithography machine could they even begin to develop chips. Trying to be born without a mother—this company certainly had an abundance of "talents."

How many years had it taken Veridia to finally produce a 7nm chip? And they wanted to jump straight to 1nm? The entire industrial system required for a lithography machine was not something a small company with a handful of people could pull off!

"What a pipe dream. No wonder the former CEO sold the company outright. Conducting this kind of research is nothing short of a bottomless pit!"

Quentin had also been somewhat speechless when he first learned about it. However, upon deeper investigation, he discovered that this had been the former CEO’s idea. The man had eventually given up after realizing he wouldn’t see results in two or three years.

"Miss, you can’t really blame the researchers," Quentin said. "It was the CEO’s idea to pursue this research. The man was living in a fantasy, thinking he could achieve it with just a few people."

Rian’s head was genuinely hurting now. She had scrolled through videos and read novels before, so she had heard of the high tech being mentioned. Now, her brain was starting to spin again. She was on the verge of a breakdown. Did this stupid brain of hers actually think she could produce world-shattering scientific research all by herself?

Tossing the documents aside, she suppressed her racing thoughts and leaned heavily against the back of her seat.

Seeing his miss tightly shut her eyes, Quentin gathered the scattered documents. Uncle Forrest, meanwhile, drove the car very steadily.

"Miss, we’ve arrived."

At that moment, the researchers at Emerging Tech were also extremely nervous. Many of them had gone bald; after all, their brains and hair had suffered tremendous devastation over the past few years! Just the lithography machine alone was enough to kill them, let alone room-temperature superconductors and controllable nuclear fusion!

It was as if the previous management was afraid these researchers wouldn’t drop dead fast enough! Now that they had a new boss, they only hoped this one had some basic understanding of the current state of technology in Veridia!

If they were genuinely forced to keep bashing their heads against the lithography machine, it would be better to just fire them. Their knowledge was simply too shallow for this—they couldn’t possibly build the damn thing!