Chapter 311: Reversing The Standard Around Them
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At the Base of Operations, Chen Jin asked Nuwa, “Nuwa, what is the current number of players who have successfully entered the game?” The game was released a day ago and he was very concerned about the number of players.
“856 people.” Nuwa said, “In the territory of Z, only 800 people have successfully entered the game.”
“Not even a thousand?” Chen Jin shook his head slightly, “It seems that the threshold of this game really is too high. Amongst the millions of people who downloaded the game, only less than one in a thousand players successfully entered the game. It deserved to be called the most hardcore game in history.”
“Master, the game’s entry test questions are not particularly difficult, but the level of technological development on the earth is still too backward. Only a few top talents have the possibility to enter the game.” Nuwa continued, “According to my estimation, there will probably be around 10,000 players in the Z country region who have the ability to enter this game. It will gradually increase to 30,000, even 50,000 over the next few years. The overseas version of “100% Science Lab” will probably attract about 30,000 scientists to enter, and it will probably increase to 50,000 in the future. The maximum capacity of this game is 100,000 scientists. If this number is exceeded, I will increase the difficulty of the entry test and eliminate those players with poorer research ability. All research resources are limited. Only the best of the best will acquire the most adequate resources.”
To put it even more plainly, this was the survival of the fittest in the scientific community. Only in this way would a large number of highly valuable R&D results be produced.
Chen Jin nodded. Nuwa was right. Pressure created drive. An adverse environment could better stimulate one’s potential than a comfortable and easy environment. When there was no compet.i.tion, it would create a group of warm and affable people that kept on the right side. Technology would stagnate. They would sit on the shoulders of old giants and enjoy the gains brought about by old work. At the same time, they would even count on others to make breakthroughs and share the results with them. It was definitely necessary to eliminate such unambitious and complacent scientists. According to Chen Jin, no one inferior could disguise themselves as part of the capable in “100% Science Lab” and get away with it.
…
For the next three weeks, Li Yan continued to challenge while frantically “charging.” He tried again three times in a row. 58 points. 56 points. 61 points! In the fourth attempt, he finally got a pa.s.sing score and entered the game “100% Science Lab.”
He was the 11,706th player who successfully entered the game. Say, was he a bit silly? It was only an entry test. It was too easy to pa.s.s the test. Just get your tutor or cla.s.smates to help. They would complete the entry test together. With several people taking the test together, was it not a piece of cake to get 60 points?
In fact, there were many players who more easily entered the game this way to acquire their own “laboratory.”
But what was this called? Cheating. This was dishonest test-taking behavior.
Moreover, they could never successfully deceive “Science Lab.” The level of players’ academic level can be inferred and a.n.a.lyzed through their actual research ability. If you did not have a solid grasp of the basic knowledge, you would inevitably make many low-level, layman-type mistakes in the process of doing experiments. These mistakes would be in stark contrast to your entry test scores. This kind of “contrast” could be detected by the game AI. A test panel would automatically pop up asking the player to answer the questions again. If their results were not up to standard, they would lose the right to continue in the game and be redirected to the login interface.
Even if you continued to pa.s.s the test via cheating, the test panel would pop up again after 2 days as long as those low-level, common-sense mistakes were still being committed… eliminating any way to continue “cheating.” The probability of getting away with this kind of hoodwinking without someone that had real scientific ability in their group was almost zero.
Li Yan had his pride as a top student, and he would not lower himself to that kind of “cheating.” He firmly believed that he had the ability to enter the game.
“I’m in, haha, I finally entered the game.” Li Yan looked at the computer screen with excitement. On the screen, an F-cla.s.s laboratory covering an area of about 100 square meters became his personal laboratory. He controlled the mouse to switch between the various lenses. Then he zoomed in and out abruptly to observe every corner of the lab. The beakers, test tubes, microscopes and culture rooms, etc. in the laboratory seemed to be incomparably real. It did not feel like a game.
After checking out the facilities in the lab, he was shocked. “In reality, it would take at least tens of millions to build such a lab. But it is the lowest-level F-cla.s.s lab in the game. Just how great are the conditions of the higher-level laboratories?” Li Yan was full of antic.i.p.ation and longing. He felt a sense of urgency to quickly upgrade the level of his lab.
He scrutinized the layout and environment of the lab once again. A great sense of accomplishment bloomed in his heart. He nodded and said, “No matter what, this lab is mine!”
…
The next day, Li Yan told his tutor that he pa.s.sed the “100% Science Lab” entry test and successfully entered the game.
“You pa.s.sed?” His tutor glanced at him and gave a gratified nod. “Very good, you are the third person in our research team to enter the ‘Science Lab’ and the tenth in our school to do so. You are… very outstanding.”
Li Yan was shocked and was somewhat doubtful about the veracity of the tutor’s claim. “Teacher, our school is a famous school ranked in the top 20 nationwide. There are at least a hundred top experts, professors, and doctoral students. How can it be that only ten people have entered the ‘Science Lab’? This is impossible!”
“Ten is a lot, it accounts for one-thousandth of players who have entered the game in this country. There are many schools and research inst.i.tutions who did not have even one person from their organization successfully enter the ‘Science Lab.’ They’re all panicking now.” The tutor shook his head. “In our country’s scientific research field, there are people who fake their academic achievements, people angling for fame, scammers, fake experts, academic scammers, and the immoral and despicable… It’s a mixed bag of people with chaos all around. Science has a very high threshold. The layman can’t understand the insiders. It is easy to be fooled by those fake experts. Some will end up wasting a lot of money with no results. There are even some who muddle through their mistakes which leads to serious academic corruption. This kind of phenomenon can’t be eradicated. There are real talents this year, but they can never win against those with glib tongues. The scientists who are buried in the laboratory will never look better than the actors in front of the podium. Even if they produce results that should win them a n.o.bel Prize, if they are not good at expressing themselves, they may not be able to win the n.o.bel Prize. This is the current state and reality of the scientific field. Fortunately, the emergence of Xing Hai Technologies”100% Science Lab’ put a lot of pseudo-experts back in their place. How much real, demonstrable skills do you possess? This game can see all that with a glance. It has become the most direct and observable evaluation standard. Now, the government has introduced a new project funding application standard. If there is a member of the project team who successfully entered the ‘Science Lab’, the project team would pa.s.s the application with priority. The more project team members who entered the game, the easier it was to apply for R&D funds. A game has become an important criterion. There are three people on our R&D team who have entered the game, this is enough to prove the strength of our team. I think it will not be as difficult as in previous years if we were to apply for research and development funds again,” The tutor said with a sigh of relief.
More than half of his hair was now white. That did not happen because he used too much brainpower in his research, but because of the worry and stress that resulted from his fight for research and development funds. He went to many places every year and partic.i.p.ated in a large number of banquets. A lot of energy was involved and it even affected his normal R&D work. Things were looking up now. A standard that measured the true level of one’s ability emerged. The level of one’s academic skills, who could do it and who could not, could now be seen with a glance. And as for who should be given research funding, there was no need to put on a show or argue. Real ability spoke louder than words.
From this point of view, Xing Hai Technologies’ “100% Science Lab” game reversed the research environment of the entire Z country.
Li Yan nodded in agreement and looked at the white hair on the head of his tutor. He listened to his lament and his heart ached inexplicably. He said to himself, Teacher, we no longer have to beg for sc.r.a.ps in the future.