Passing through the dormitory area, Xing Chen led Theresa to his academy.
The semester hadn't officially started, but many students who couldn't stand being cooped up at home had already returned to school.
As he passed the basketball court, Xing Chen was contemplating how to research the properties of Originium when suddenly, Theresa beside him shouted, "Look out!"
"What's wrong... WQ!" A basketball was suspended less than a centimeter above his head. If Theresa hadn't restrained it with her hand in time, it would have hit him in the head.
"What are you guys doing! Didn't you see someone walking by!" Xing Chen shouted at the people inside.
"You didn't watch where you were going, so it's our fault?" The leading student said with a smirk, clearly not taking Xing Chen's words seriously. "Why don't you come in and play a game? If you win, I'll apologize to you, and you can dunk the ball on my head, and we'll be even."
Xing Chen glanced at the tall player inside; he thought it would be quite difficult to do that.
"Theresa, can you help me out? Help me win a game."
"Of course I can."
As soon as Theresa agreed, Xing Chen regretted it.
The basketball flew over the several-meter-high wire fence, taking a strange, high arc, and accurately hit the tall guy who had just spoken.
"What are you still standing around for! Run!"
Before the people inside could react, Xing Chen pulled Theresa and jogged all the way to the national key laboratory.
"So this is your national-level laboratory, huh? It doesn't seem that big," Theresa said, looking at the four-story building in front of her.
"What's inside is more important than the size of the building." Xing Chen swiped his card at the lab's access control and then called Theresa to come over quickly.
"Will there be any problem if I come in here?"
"Don't worry, there are plenty of people who don't have permission to enter the lab."
Theresa was a bit reserved; she knew very well how expensive research equipment was, and such places often involved confidential information.
"Just don't touch anything or say anything you shouldn't."
Xing Chen, however, was very open-minded. He clearly understood the trade-offs between written rules and their application in real life.
He wasn't sure if other floors had classified information, so he didn't dare to take Theresa there, but his own laboratory certainly had nothing worth keeping secret, so it was best to head straight to his workstation.
Taking the elevator down to the lowest floor, Xing Chen's laboratory was directly opposite the elevator shaft.
"Xing Chen, there's someone inside," Theresa whispered. She had some understanding of how others perceived her.
It was fine in daily life, but it was troublesome in serious settings.
"Don't think about it, it must be my senior brother," Xing Chen said with a smile. "Don't worry, if it were my supervisor or something, they might scold me a bit, but our generation isn't as serious as you think."
Just as Xing Chen said, upon opening the door, the scent of concentrated coffee, which even the ventilation system couldn't dispel, wafted out. A person with an ethereal aura lay on a reclining chair bought from Pinduoduo, his eyes half-open, staring at the operating table not far away.
"Xing Chen, he looks like he's about to die," Theresa said to Xing Chen, making a judgment based on her many years of medical experience.
"I know, I'm like this too when I'm busy," Xing Chen said with a helpless expression.
"...Ah..., Xing Chen, you're here..."
"Senior brother, you're already busy here before the semester even starts."
"...Mm, there are still dozens of samples to do. Each one needs a surface scan, and each scan takes an hour or two... Who knows if new ones will be sent over..."
"Then can I borrow the instrument to scan something?"
"...Prepare your slice, and I'll scan it for you after I finish this sample..."
"Okay, thank you, senior brother."
Theresa was very confused. She was clearly standing right next to Xing Chen, yet this senior brother seemed completely unaware of her presence.
Xing Chen made a gesture to keep quiet, then led her to the sample preparation table.
Taking out the Originium crystal brought from Terra, Xing Chen switched to the hardest and sharpest cutting tools in the lab. Normally, these tools could cut through the ores he obtained with relative ease, but this time, they couldn't leave a single scratch on the crystal's surface.
He applied a little more force, but the result was the same.
"I'm strong, can I try this knife?" Theresa said from the side.
However, Xing Chen shook his head. These tools were not cheap. If they were damaged, how would he explain it to the school for reimbursement?
"Theresa, can you cut off a small piece with a thread?"
"That, I'm afraid not. The section you're asking for is too thin; the thread made by my Originium Arts will break---could you make it a little thicker?"
Xing Chen shook his head. The thickness he mentioned was already the maximum thickness supported by this instrument.
"Then can you make the thread even finer? As long as the contact surface is small enough, even a small force can generate a large pressure."
This time it was Theresa's turn to shake her head. She couldn't create such a fine thread.
"It's okay, just try it. Here, this is a microscope. You can see more clearly with it."
Theresa took the microscope, and the sight through the lens greatly astonished her.
"Haven't you used a microscope before?" Terra wasn't some primitive, backward civilization; basic optical equipment like microscopes must exist.
"I really haven't used one. My eyesight is excellent; many things others need instruments to see, I can see with my naked eye. Of course, it definitely can't compare to how clearly your microscope sees---wait a moment, I think I can create a thread that meets the requirements."
Since it was made by Originium Arts, the strength of the thread might not necessarily decrease with a reduction in diameter; it might even increase due to the concentration of mental power.
In short, Theresa successfully created the thin Originium crystal slice Xing Chen wanted.
After sealing it, Xing Chen handed it to his senior brother. The senior brother took the slice, opened the electron microscope, and placed the sample inside.
"What kind of element detection do you want to do?"
"Do all of them. Just see what's inside."
Half an hour later, the instrument's analysis results came out. The slide was completely white, and the content of various elements had all soared to one hundred percent.
"What did you put in there? You didn't break the instrument, did you?"
"It shouldn't be that bad. Try measuring a sample you've measured before again."
After another while, the results came out, largely consistent with what the senior brother had measured himself.
"This is truly strange... Where did you get this? What kind of ore is this? Such a high atomic mass, and also... uh, I can't determine its material composition."
"I don't know either. I picked it up because it looked like obsidian," Xing Chen said, feigning innocence, though internally he was startled by the test results.
"Is that so? That's truly peculiar," the senior brother muttered to himself.