Chapter 578: Isn’t It Already One?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The previous mission chain gave two mission cards; one was another mission chain, while the other one was a reward mission.
Lu Zhou thought about the time frame of the mission chain and how he could only accept one mission at a time. In the end, he decided to choose the reward mission first.
Reward mission: Able to give up at any time without consuming general points.
Description: The prosperity of a generation cannot be done by one alone. Stop focusing only on experiments, take on more students!
Requirements: 1. Select two courses, with a minimum of 12 contact hours each course. The final reward depends on the quality of the course. (S grade = 100,000 experience points, one lucky draw ticket).
Help instruct students to produce 5 or more theses. Rewards are calculated by the cumulative value of the impact factors. (1 impact factor = 1,000 experience points, 10 general points).
Reward: 0~??? experience points, 0~??? general points. 1-2 lucky draw tickets.
All in all, this mission was relatively simple.
He just had to lecture classes and take on a few students. It should take him one semester to do it. Especially for the theses part… It might not be easy for the average person to do this, but for him, guiding a few students to write a few theses was a piece of cake.
The rewards calculation metric wasn’t based on the academic value of the theses. It was based on the impact factor of the journal. His students didn’t have to tackle world-class mathematics problems. All that mattered was that his students’ theses were accepted by a high impact factor journal.
Not to mention, he could utilize the computational materials science field.
As one of the pioneers of this field, he could go to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and find a few research projects for his students to work on. He could then sign the theses as a communication author, and the probability of these theses being accepted would be very high.
As for the mission rewards, it was decent.
If he was lucky, he could get two S-grade, which would result in two lucky draw tickets. If he was lucky again, he might be able to get a scanner gun?
That was probably what Lu Zhou wanted the most.
It would be quite difficult to reverse engineer the Debris No.3 with the current technology. After all, Lu Zhou had no idea what the technology behind the engine was. He wasn’t even sure if it was an engine or not.
Of course, Lu Zhou had only ever gotten the scanner gun once in his life, so the probability of getting another one was very low.
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but complain in his mind.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a “beginner” anymore, that’s why I don’t even get to see the lucky draw probabilities…
Lu Zhou prepared the interview list and gave it to Lin Yuxiang, who was in charge of contacting the students. After that, he refused her invitation to eat at a restaurant and went to the cafeteria for lunch instead.
After Lu Zhou returned to the office, he began to think about his plans for the afternoon. However, Zhao Huan suddenly ran into the office.
She panted and lowered her head.
“Um… Professor, you have a number theory class in the afternoon.”
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and looked confused.
“Number theory class? I thought my class starts on week ten?”
Zhao Huan looked guilty as she said, “Sorry, I’m really sorry! Your computational materials class starts on week ten, but the number theory class starts this week…”
Starts this week?
Even though Lu Zhou was a little surprised, he didn’t put any blame on her.
After all, she was new to this job and was inexperienced. It was fine as long as she didn’t make the same mistake again.
“Keep your head high, it’s just one class, not a big deal. Just watch out next time.”
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t really mind, Zhao Huan still felt apologetic.
“How about I contact the academic affairs office and change your class schedule?”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “No need, I’ll do it in the afternoon.”
Zhao Huan was worried, and she said, “But… you haven’t done any preparation, right?”
Lu Zhou pulled out his desk drawer and smiled.
“That’s not a problem, all I need is a textbook.”
Teaching building.
Inside the second-floor classroom at the end of the corridor.
Even though the class would not start for another half an hour, the lecture hall was already filled with people. Some students even sat on the aisle of the corridor.
The class was about to begin, and the students in the classroom were excited.
“Do you think God Lu will really teach us himself?”
“I don’t know, that’s what it says on the curriculum.”
“It won’t be a teaching assistant, right?”
“That might be possible! If I were a chief designer, I wouldn’t have time for undergraduate classes! I won’t even bother working on a project worth less than a billion.”
“Keep dreaming, you!”
A tall and thin boy stood up in the middle of the classroom and looked around. He then sat back down.
“Jesus Christ, this is a full-sized lecture hall, how many people are in this number theory class?”
His roommate, who was sitting next to him and wore glasses, sighed and said, “This is Chief Designer Lu, Fields Medal and Nobel Prize winner. Forget about the master’s students at our school, even the genius students from Jinshi University came here.”
The students had to take the subway just to get here.
The tall guy said, “Why is Jinshi University here? Do they even have a mathematics department?”
“Who knows? But I think they should have one…”
Soon, the class bell rang.
As soon as the bell had finished ringing, Lu Zhou, who was wearing a gray trench coat, walked into the classroom while carrying a textbook.
His young and handsome face gave the students a different feeling from the other professors. When he stood on the podium, the commotion in the classroom became even noisier and more excited.
When a girl sitting in the front row began to take photos, Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled.
“Student, the class hasn’t begun yet, there’s no need to take photos.”
The girl taking the photos blushed and put her phone away.
Lu Zhou looked around at the crowded classroom and was surprised that there were so many people attending. He cleared his throat and said, “Everyone quiet down, let’s start.”
The moment he finished speaking, the classroom became quiet.
Lu Zhou could feel from everyone’s gaze that they were looking forward to his lecture.
In order to live up to their expectations, he didn’t make the students wait any longer.
Lu Zhou opened the first page of the textbook and cleared his throat.
“Number theory is an ancient field of study, its origin can be traced back to BC…
“You guys might ask what’s the point of studying these outdated things, and I can tell you now that there is no meaning.
“Whether it’s the twin prime conjecture, Goldbach’s conjecture, or the ‘1+1’ problem, it’s all just a matter of solving the permutation of prime numbers. However, through repeated scrutiny of these interesting yet meaningless propositions, we can often receive unexpected treasures from it. What treasures, you might ask. Treasures like a new mathematical tool or even a new area of mathematics…
“Turn your books to the introduction section, I will try to control the pace and start from the beginning. There’s no PowerPoint presentation, so you’ll have to write notes… I hope you guys can keep up.”
Lu Zhou turned around, facing the blackboard. He picked up a piece of chalk and began to write on the board.
The textbook he used was written by Professor Feng Keqin of Shuimu University. He was a close disciple of Hua Luogeng and one could say he personally witnessed the rise and fall of China’s number theory field.
When Lu Zhou first won the Crafoord Prize for his Goldbach’s conjecture proof, he received an invitation from his alma mater. It was to do a report regarding his Goldbach’s conjecture proof and the Group Structure Method. All of the big names in the number theory field were present at this report.
After the report ended, Feng Keqin asked for Lu Zhou’s opinion on incorporating the Group Structure Method into the textbook—Introduction To Number Theory.
After more than two years of repeated edits, this textbook was finally released last year.
Lu Zhou flipped through this book at the Jin Ling University library before and felt that the contents of this book were pretty good. It was suitable for a beginner to get their feet wet, but it also dove deep into some core number theory problems.
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t think any of these students could solve some kind of world-class conjecture, but he believed that as long as he passed on some of his ideas to them, it would greatly benefit their future academic careers.
Professor Tang Zhiwei sat at the back of the classroom as he looked at Lu Zhou and muttered emotionally, “Time really flies.”
Dean Lu Fangping, who was sitting next to him, smiled and said, “Yeah, you’ll be seventy next year, when are you going to retire?”
Professor Tang: “I’ll teach for a few more years, I’m not in a hurry.”
Dean Lu said, “A few more years? If I had a disciple like Lu Zhou, I would have retired a long time ago.”
Old Tang shook his head and said, “I didn’t teach him anything. This kid was very assertive during his second year. My plans for him never caught up with his progress. Over the past few years, I have been thinking about how he was able to do it. But the only conclusion I had was that he was a genius who was more diligent than your average geniuses… Maybe, there’s a higher-being teaching him.”
Lu Fangping looked at the crowded classroom and the students taking notes in the aisle, and he asked, “Do you think that Jin Ling University will one day become the mathematics center of China?”
Old Tang smiled and looked at the young man standing on the podium.
“Isn’t it already one?”