The food printer in the New Plantation was the second thing today that amazed Lin Qianyi.
The food it printed out tasted just like the real thing.
You could even adjust the flavor to your liking.
There were tens of thousands of dishes to choose from basically, you'd never get tired of eating.
However, Gao Chen didn't really like the food here, and the cafeteria was quite empty. Lin Qianyi only saw a few students come to eat, and there were no human staff around.
Well, unless you count robots.
The robots here weren't even humanoid ones. From the school gate to the New Plantation, Lin Qianyi had only seen one bionic robot.
The Federation seemed to have strict regulations on bionic robots they were under Tier-3 regulation.
It wasn't that they were particularly advanced technologically; rather, they could cause serious societal impacts.
Especially in terms of being used as companions.
For many people, bionic robots could be the perfect partner.
They only consume a bit of electricity, need some internet connection money, and occasional maintenance.
The rest are all advantages.
Just the fact that they never lose their temper already makes them better than 99% of humans.
Not to mention, they're always hardworking, always youthful, you can easily change their appearance and personality, and they'll never demand gifts or care how much you earn.
The expectations people have for a partner are often impossible for humans to meet.
Only robots can.
Back in the last century, a surge in bionic robots led to the collapse of the population structure, which prompted new regulations that severely restricted their usage and purchase.
Even now, the consequences haven't been fully resolved.
These days, bionic robots are mostly used in the military.
Emotionless, fearless AI robots make perfect expendables.
After eating, Lin Qianyi returned to his residence and lay on the bed, replying to messages from Wang Xiaoyi.
She had sent several during this time.
Cross-border messaging had a lot of latency about ten seconds just to transmit and read, and roughly thirty seconds for a full message exchange.
Lin Qianyi replied briefly, then left it at that.
He originally wanted to take a few photos.
But Gao Chen had specifically reminded him not to casually leak any information from here, so he refrained.
After replying, Lin Qianyi stood by the balcony, feeling a bit bored.
Humans are like this when they're too busy, they crave free time, and once they're free, they want something to do.
Many times, we pick up the phone and put it back down without knowing what we're even doing.
Having no sense of purpose or anchor is terrifying.
But Lin Qianyi felt this idle state wouldn't last long.
He would soon have a lot to do.
And by then, he might start to long for this peaceful leisure again.
---
In the next two days, Lin Qianyi spent his time getting used to the environment.
There were many plant-related subjects at the New Plantation.
When broken down, there were hundreds of sub-disciplines.
But only a few of them carried real weight:
Plant Applications
Plant Medicinal Studies
Plant Evolution Guidance
"Plant Medicinal Studies" was technically a subset of "Plant Applications", but due to its popularity, it was separated into its own field.
"Plant Applications" focused on understanding the properties of plants and how to use them.
They studied parameters of specific plants, traced their origins, explored their potential uses, and developed products from them.
It was a bit like material science, but focused on plant materials.
Interestingly, Tianyue University also had a separate Material Applications department.
As for "Plant Evolution Guidance", it was indispensable to the New Plantation and had considerable resources allocated to it but very few students.
From the enrollment list Lin Qianyi checked, he was the only student in this year's intake for that subject.
Others had come before, but most either didn't produce any results or transferred to other departments midway.
This discipline relied partly on luck and took up a massive amount of time.
Hard work alone wasn't enough. If your chosen plant project was wrong from the beginning, years of effort could still end in failure.
The graduation requirement here was to independently guide the evolution of a brand-new first-tier plant species.
You couldn't just add a gene to make a plant grow faster and call it new. It had to demonstrate genuine innovation.
For example, if you added 100 genes and the plant still grew, bore fruit, and reproduced stably over three generations that would be considered acceptable.
Plant growth takes time. Evolution and correction take time. Choosing the wrong project and switching takes even more time.
Spending over a decade here without graduating was not unusual.
That's why, after the initial rush of students, enrollment gradually dropped until no one applied anymore.
They didn't even promote the program now. Occasionally, one or two naïve newcomers would try it, only to leave in frustration.
If Lin Qianyi didn't have access to a special planting space, he would have to be crazy to choose this major.
---
That day, while Lin Qianyi was bored and gaming in the apartment he had to create a new account here since his old one didn't work he received a call from Gao Chen.
He asked Lin Qianyi to come to the office; his mentor had returned.
Lin Qianyi immediately went downstairs, abandoning his game teammates.
Gao Chen was already waiting and said, "Don't worry, your mentor is easy to get along with. Just act like a diligent student, and he'll really take care of you. He's been frustrated these past few years because he couldn't retain students. He even lowered the standards for research topics just hoping for a single graduate…"
As they chatted, they arrived at the Plant Evolution Guidance office.
A young man in formal attire and glasses sat at the computer. He looked about twenty but had a mature aura.
Seeing Lin Qianyi and Gao Chen arrive, he stood up.
"You must be Lin Qianyi. Hello, I'm your mentor, Ji Ruixiang," he said.
"Hello, Mentor," Lin Qianyi replied with a nod.
"Come on over. I've got all the paperwork ready just need your signature," Ji Ruixiang gestured at the documents on the desk.
Lin Qianyi stepped forward, glanced over the papers, then picked up the pen to sign.
This world was different from the one he came from.
University here wasn't just about studying it was considered a formal entry into the workforce.
Students joined a mentor and immediately began working on a research project. If successful, they'd graduate and earn a Bachelor's Certificate.
If they continued contributing to the field and achieved significant results, they'd be recognized as a Scholar.
Most mentors held that title.
Those who branched into other fields and achieved interdisciplinary success were called Doctors (博者).
That was the highest academic title.
However, not all Doctors were equal some had achieved far more than others.
By the way, Ji Ruixiang's title was Doctor.
And he was only 73 years old.
Even across industries, he was considered young for someone with that title.
"Signed the contract no escaping now," Gao Chen teased.
He didn't have high hopes for Lin Qianyi, but it didn't matter. Young people had to learn the hard way.
"Don't talk nonsense," Ji Ruixiang said. "I checked on your memory moss while I was gone. You had the temperature a few degrees too high. It needs a frosty environment to activate the memory cells. I remotely adjusted it, but you'd better go check it's mostly dead."
"Crap, I've been so busy with clients I forgot all about that…" Gao Chen's expression changed and he left in a hurry.
After Lin Qianyi finished signing, Ji Ruixiang entered his information into the database. With that, he was officially enrolled in the Plant Evolution Guidance program.
"I'll take you to the Dao Apparatus Center to register your Dao Pattern. Have you picked one yet?" Ji Ruixiang asked.
As they walked, he explained:
All university students received one free first-tier Dao Pattern upon enrollment.
Normally, even the most basic first-tier pattern cost at least a million credits.
That was the price of knowledge.
More precisely, it was the cost of using the Dao Apparatus the machine that implanted the full Dao Pattern into your mind.
Incidentally, the Main God could also perform this function, charging around 1,000 points for a first-tier Dao Pattern.
"I'm planning to choose the [Body Fortification] Dao Pattern," Lin Qianyi said.
It didn't do much besides improving his physical fitness and expanding his bodily limits.
It was an upgraded version of the "Three Treasures Auspicious Technique" Dao Pattern.
Once fully developed, it could reach an interference value of 1000 matching the first-tier Evolver level.
"Great choice. It pairs well with other patterns down the line. I thought you'd want a top-tier pattern right away most students go for that," Ji Ruixiang said approvingly.
Among Evolvers, "top-tier" was an informal classification for Dao Patterns based on their interference values.
To be called a first-tier Dao Pattern, it had to reach 1000.
Anything below that was considered a Weak Interference Pattern.
But not all first-tier patterns were equal.
Some might just barely reach 1000, while others could exceed it by a wide margin those were graded by quality:
Low-grade: ~1000
Mid-grade: 1500+
High-grade: 2000+
Top-grade: 2500+
These rankings weren't achieved just by making the pattern more complicated. It had to be efficiently constructed to reach that interference value.
If you simply piled on data, it'd just be a mess.
Soon, they arrived at Ji Ruixiang's vehicle a standard black hover shuttle, but more spacious than commercial ones.
After boarding, they enabled auto-pilot. Ji Ruixiang chatted with Lin Qianyi, and before long, they reached the Dao Heaven Hall, where Dao Apparatuses were kept.
Two inscriptions hung at the entrance:
On the left: "Seek the knowledge of the universe."
On the right: "Understand the principles of Heaven and Earth."