Relation

With such a powerful person joining her experiment, Victoria felt that the obstacles she had never been able to overcome would probably now be surpassed with ease.

If she could obtain the full rights to this experiment, then perhaps she would finally be able to hold her head high in front of those people.

Victoria lowered her head and chuckled softly.

Collins gathered the large stack of documents in front of him, then placed his fingers on his temples and slowly began to massage them.

“Miss Victoria, I’ve roughly gone through all your basic magic formation arrays.”

“As for your professional level… I have reservations.”

“From my perspective, what we need to do now is completely overhaul your experiment from top to bottom.”

Victoria looked at Collins in confusion.

“Completely… overhaul?”

Victoria had thought her basic magic structures were quite decent.

Besides, revising them would be a massive project that couldn’t be done in less than a week.

“Yes.”

“Your hopelessly flawed experimental foundations left me no choice.”

“I skimmed through your work, and to my dismay, you built each experimental array in segments and separate modules.”

Most magic experiments are built upon a single magic framework.

This ensures that all data trends remain consistent and helps minimize margin of error.

Victoria’s framework, however, rebuilt the magic structure anew with every experiment.

This not only required enormous effort to write redundant and bloated code but also involved repeated data conversions.

Victoria responded pitifully.

“I don’t know how to build large-scale composite magic frameworks…”

Collins facepalmed.

“Then couldn’t you find someone from the Rune Department or the Magic Array Department to help you?”

“Aren’t I looking for you right now?”

“Too late.”

“Now I have to start coding from scratch.”

“All your data will need to be recoded, and some parts will need to be redone entirely.”

“I’m afraid the resources wasted in this process…”

Victoria puffed out her ample chest and responded proudly.

“I’m not afraid of spending money.”

Though she looked like the girl-next-door type, Victoria’s family was actually very wealthy.

“It’s not a matter of money.”

“Though yes, money does help.”

“Forget it, let’s not talk about that now.”

“Have your accommodation issues been sorted?”

“Yes.”

“Your department head arranged for me to stay in a teacher’s dormitory, it’s really close to your lab.”

Collins removed his hand from the lab bench.

“Alright then, go and tidy up your dorm first.”

“I’ll need a good amount of time to go through these documents anyway.”

Victoria placed a finger to her lips and asked curiously, “Don’t you need my help?”

“Even if I’m not familiar with magic arrays, I can at least assist you, right?”

Collins shook his head and smiled.

“If you don’t cause trouble in my field, I’ll already be thanking the heavens.”

“Assist me? You think you’re qualified?”

Victoria was furious.

She raised her small fists as if ready to argue, but when she remembered how little she could actually contribute in Collins’s domain, she lowered her head and left quietly.

The lab was once again left with only Collins.

This was the environment he liked best.

Telling Victoria to organize her dorm was just an excuse.

In truth, when Collins was coding the foundational magic programs, he needed to be alone—otherwise, he would feel deeply unsettled.

This unease could even affect the success rate of the program.

But not long after Victoria left, the door was pushed open again.

Collins looked unhappily at the slowly opening door.

“Already done organizing your dorm?”

“I thought you were supposed to be some kind of princess—don’t you have makeup and clothes to sort through?”

“Who are you calling a princess?”

Sphinx poked his petite body out from behind the door.

Collins looked him up and down.

Maybe it was just a trick of the light, but Collins felt like this senior of his looked… different.

It was as if his aura had become softer, his frame more balanced.

More importantly, Sphinx now seemed… soft.

The kind of soft that made one want to bully him.

Collins turned his head back toward the half-written structural program in front of him and asked without looking up:

“You still dare show your face at school?”

“You helped Senior Landon—meaning you’ve made an enemy out of Senior Leng Qing.”

“If I were you, I’d take a leave of absence, disappear for a while, and come back only after things have blown over.”

That’s what I wanted to do too… but that bastard Leng Qing didn’t even give me time to run!

Sphinx thought to himself.

But on his face, he forced out a smile uglier than a cry.

“Um… Collins, do you know about the bonfire party happening in five days?”

Collins’s hands froze mid-code.

Every year, the university held certain traditional events.

One of them was the bonfire party in five days.

According to longstanding tradition, during that event, male students could invite female students to dance.

If the girl accepted, it meant she accepted the boy’s romantic interest.

If she refused, the boy had to move on and hunt for another target.

In other words, it was the university’s biggest singles’ mixer—and for some men, a sacred event they dreamed of.