Chapter 56 - 53: Knowledge Island
Li Dong sat in front of his laptop.
[Transfer Progress: 11.2%]
The progress bar was moving, but so slowly it was almost imperceptible.
Li Dong leaned back in his chair and went over every detail of what had happened since he joined the "Cyan Dragon Study Group."
’This group has way too many problems.’
Universe #1666, where Newton was. Universe #1927, where Einstein and Von Neumann were... These scientists weren’t even on the same timeline!
And then there was Gauss, the peerless genius hailed as the "Prince of Mathematics." He seemed to have figured out some of the underlying operational logic of this cross-dimensional chat group. But the moment he voiced a theory about "countless worlds," he was ruthlessly kicked offline.
’What exactly did he send me?’
Before, he’d been so desperate to improve his grades and change his fate that he’d treated the group like a wishing well and a tutoring class, with no mind for digging deeper.
But now, the file Gauss had sent him had thoroughly piqued his curiosity.
He opened the chat group’s settings and looked at the grayed-out function icons he had previously ignored.
[Invite Group Member]—he’d used that one, pulling in Shackleton to save Mendeleev’s life.
But next to it were two locked icons: [Upload File] and [Data Migration].
Li Dong rubbed his chin.
’Something’s not right about this.’
’I usually send *Surviving on a Deserted Island* to Mendeleev or blueprints to Newton just by dragging and dropping them into the chat box. Why would there be a separate [Upload File] function in the group settings?’
His Logic attribute was already at 0.2, and his thinking was much deeper than before.
’Unless... files sent in the chat box are subject to censorship and blocking by the group’s rules!’
’And if I unlock this [Upload File] function, maybe I can break through the group’s restrictions and achieve unlimited transfers?’
As for [Data Migration]...
Li Dong really couldn’t figure it out.
Exporting the group’s chat history? ’That’s pointless; I can just remember it all in my head.’
Could it be for migrating an entire universe’s tech tree data? ’That’s too sci-fi.’
Finally, he looked at the [Group Leader (Intern)] tag next to his own profile picture.
’Gauss’s message said I should increase my authority. Can this file help me do that?’
’Looks like I have no choice but to wait for this thing to finish downloading.’
Li Dong muttered to himself.
"Four months..."
Li Dong spent the entire afternoon studying the group. His original plan to start learning Python to code an inventory system today had to be reluctantly postponed until after the Huaxuan Cup finals.
Sixth Middle School was very strict. After a half-day off on the weekend, students had to return to school on time for evening self-study.
Li Dong packed his things and hurried back to school.
「...」
Monday morning, the lessons in Sixth Middle School’s elite class were as hellishly difficult and breakneck-paced as ever.
The moment the bell rang for lunch, Elder Chen stood at the classroom door and waved at Li Dong.
"Li Dong, don’t bother with the crowded cafeteria for lunch. Come eat at my place."
Elder Chen’s home was near Sixth Middle School, just a few minutes’ walk away.
It was a rather old house, its rooms piled high with various physics monographs and journals. Elder Chen lived alone, and Li Dong didn’t see any other family members around. He was sensible enough not to ask.
The two of them had a simple meal at home: two bowls of fried sauce noodles.
After they finished eating, Elder Chen put down his chopsticks, picked up his thermos, and took a sip of hot tea.
"Li Dong, over the past few days, I’ve been carefully observing your reactions in class, and I’ve also looked through the practice problems you’ve done."
"To be honest, I’ve been teaching for nearly forty years and have taught countless self-proclaimed geniuses, but I’ve never seen a student as... outrageous as you."
Li Dong sat obediently across from him, just listening.
"Your knowledge is a bit of a jumble; it’s completely unsystematic!"
"If I were to measure you by the standards of a University Physics department curriculum, your current level..."
"I really don’t know how to describe it. It’s too contradictory."
Elder Chen began to deconstruct Li Dong’s knowledge structure.
"Take Classical Mechanics and analytical mechanics, for example."
"When dealing with complex rigid body motion and variable-mass systems, you use Lagrangian equations and the Momentum Theorem with masterful skill. Your physical intuition is on par with many physics graduate students from top universities!"
"Then there’s optics and thermodynamics."
"I get the feeling you can see right through the laws of light propagation. You can use Fresnel integrals to precisely calculate the light field distribution in non-uniform media, which shows your understanding in these specific areas is already very deep."
At this point, Elder Chen’s tone shifted.
"But!"
"Your weak points—or rather, it’s more accurate to call them knowledge blind spots—are far too obvious!"
"Take electromagnetism, for instance! You’ve only memorized the superficial form of Maxwell’s Equations, but you haven’t established a spatial concept of the electromagnetic field tensor at all!"
"I even suspect that if I didn’t give you the specific formulas, you couldn’t even derive the most basic boundary conditions for electromagnetic waves in a medium!"
"And also..."
Just like that, Elder Chen listed out Li Dong’s knowledge blind spots one by one.
"So, your knowledge is a series of isolated islands. It lacks the bridges between them; you haven’t built a complete, self-consistent edifice of physics!"
Listening to Elder Chen’s analysis, Li Dong didn’t feel embarrassed at all. On the contrary, he grew more and more excited.
Elder Chen was absolutely right!
From the time he discovered the Cyan Dragon Study Group until now, it had been about twenty days in total.
In those twenty days, he had relied on Passive Skills like [Physical Perception] and [Light and Shadow Insight], as well as the knowledge he’d farmed from big shots like Newton and Joule, to forcibly raise his physics level.
He was like a player with a cheat code, learning whatever skill was needed to beat the boss in front of him.
But his foundation was just too weak...
However, Elder Chen was wrong about one thing. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a bridge; he just hadn’t had time to build it yet. And the chief engineer for building that bridge was still lurking in the group. His name was—
—James Clerk Maxwell!
But Li Dong did indeed need a temporary bridge right now, so he nodded, showing that he understood Elder Chen’s analysis.
Seeing him nod, Elder Chen pulled out a thick stack of lecture notes from the side.
"Starting today, you’ll come to my place every day during lunch and evening self-study."
"I’m going to personally guide you, using the framework of the four major branches of mechanics, to solidify your foundation, brick by brick!"
Leaving Elder Chen’s home and walking back to school along the tree-lined path, Li Dong felt completely refreshed and invigorated.
"Wait..."
Li Dong’s steps suddenly halted.
’If this "island effect" exists in my physics knowledge, what about my math?’
His path of improvement in mathematics was exactly the same as it had been for physics.
’My mathematical framework must be full of holes, too.’
He had Elder Chen for physics now, but what about math?
A person immediately came to Li Dong’s mind.
The man who could casually pick up a top-tier paper from the *Duke Mathematical Journal* on the Langlands program and p-adic Hodge theory and discuss it with intimate familiarity!
Old Yang!
Li Dong’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, shining with the light of a capitalist who had just spotted free labor.
’No, I have to make a trip back to Seventh Middle School after the Huaxuan Cup finals are over!’