Meanwhile, Viktor brought Lina's notebook and Kaya's thesis back to the laboratory together.
Although the night was growing late, scientists were creatures who never distinguished between day and night.
When Viktor returned, most of the members of their Hextech Applied Mechanics Research Group were still present. Jayce was there as well.
"What is it, Viktor?"
"You want to fight for an extra spot in our research group for that student, Lina?"
Viktor stated his purpose right from the start. This, however, left Jayce somewhat confused. "Why?"
"Didn't we already confirm the assessment results together? The one selected is Kaya. Having one such student in our research group is enough, so why recruit an extra one?"
Although Lina's performance could be considered genius, that was only in comparison to her peers.
In the eyes of a true, peerless genius like Jayce, both Lina and Kaya were nothing more than juniors with decent aptitude and some value for cultivation.
Losing a student of this caliber wouldn't be a pity, but adding an extra one would just be a hassle.
The professors in the research group were all leading experts dedicated to scientific research. They usually couldn't even be bothered to mentor their own graduate students, so where would they find the energy to guide an extra rookie in the group?
"Viktor, the primary focus of our research group is cutting-edge scientific research, after all, not teaching."
"Recruiting another student will probably affect our research progress."
"..." Viktor remained silent.
Honestly, he really wanted to say, 'If you attended fewer social events, our research progress would have sped up a long time ago.'
But after a moment of deliberation, he calmly replied, "I just feel that there was some bias in the judgment we made earlier."
"Jayce, you should also know that it's actually very difficult to determine a clear winner between the quality of Lina's and Kaya's thesis designs. Hastily declaring one of them the winner—isn't that disrespectful to scientific truth?"
"This..." Jayce was genuinely swayed.
Because he had previously felt that it was hard to decide a winner between Lina's and Kaya's theses.
In the end, because there was only one spot and a choice had to be made, he had unconsciously begun to favor Kaya over Lina.
Now that Viktor had brought up "scientific truth," Jayce was forced to re-examine his decision and wonder if he had truly failed to make a fair, scientific judgment.
"Well... Viktor, the issue you pointed out does exist. The judgment I made at the time was indeed a bit forced."
"But our research group is, after all, a place for everyone to conduct research. Whether or not to recruit an extra student isn't something I can decide alone."
"How about this? Since you brought the thesis outlines of both Lina and Kaya," Jayce hesitated for a moment before finally making a decision, "let's have everyone in the research group take a look at their thesis designs. Then, we'll put it to a vote."
"If everyone agrees that it's truly difficult to distinguish between Lina and Kaya, then for the sake of fairness, we will create an additional spot for her."
"No problem," Viktor nodded in agreement.
Whenever there was a difference of opinion in their research, the members of their group often resolved it through voting.
He had specifically brought Lina's notebook over this time precisely because he anticipated this situation.
Thus, under the direction of Jayce and Viktor, everyone in the research group gathered around.
There were eleven people present in total.
They gathered around a large office desk, waiting to review Lina and Kaya's thesis designs with varying expressions of curiosity, impatience, or indifference.
And Lina's notebook was finally opened.
But as Jayce, Viktor, and the others opened the notebook, their brows quietly furrowed.
"Where Did Zaun Come From?"
They hadn't noticed during their previous review: why was there an article at the front of this notebook?
And a historical thesis at that?
"It's probably just student Lina's extracurricular excerpts."
"A historical article about Zaun? That's quite rare..."
At first, everyone didn't pay much attention, but as they casually glanced over it and kept reading...
No one was thinking about the thesis designs anymore; they were all engrossed in the article.
"The author can actually explain the history before the establishment of Ancient Shurima so clearly?"
What first drew them in were the ancient historical records Levi had heard from Janna.
These historical records had long been forgotten in the river of time, to the point where even Piltover's historians couldn't reconstruct them.
Naturally, everyone was captivated by this historical popular science article with its detailed content and fresh subject matter.
But as they continued reading...
They gradually realized the extraordinary nature of this article.
It was far from being just a simple popular science article.
The ancient Shuriman royal secrets, the Darkin War, the Rune Wars, the legends of past heroes from Demacia and Noxus that Piltovan historians relished talking about—this article barely touched upon them.
The article shifted its perspective away from kings and generals, focusing instead on something no one had ever paid attention to before: the development and evolution of people's lives, social systems, national laws, and agricultural and industrial productive forces and relations of production over thousands of years.
"Productive forces, relations of production..."
"Incisive, this summary is simply too incisive!"
Everyone present praised it with admiration.
Because they were all scientists, they all believed they could change the world with scientific creations.
However, for the past several millennia, Runeterra had always been dominated by magic and martial prowess. Even now, with the advent of Hextech, the reality of mages and warriors ruling the world remained unshaken.
Yet, Levi's article clearly and explicitly revealed how scientific creations had shaped human society and influenced historical changes over the past thousands of years.
No matter how strong the power of mages and warriors was, it was merely individual strength. They contributed almost nothing to the progress of human civilization.
Instead, it was the efforts and achievements of scientists like them that served as the true engine driving the development of the era and the progress of civilization!
These theories naturally exhilarated the scientists.
They suddenly realized that their current work wasn't just about making scientific inventions; it was about leading human civilization into a brand-new era.
"Interpreting history through scientific methods..."
"The author is simply a genius!"
Every scientist was thrilled.
Even Jayce and Viktor found themselves completely mesmerized.
Then, unable to resist, they continued reading.
The historical thread of the article gradually combed through the past thousand years, detailing the collapse of the kingdom system, the birth of the merchant council city-state, and the split between Zaun and Piltover...
Especially the rise of the Piltover merchant conglomerate and the bloody history of colonization they single-handedly initiated.
As they read on, everyone's expressions gradually changed again.
"This article..."
Viktor was the most engrossed.
Every word and sentence of that article was like an unforgettable spell, constantly lingering in Viktor's eyes and heart.
Viktor was born in Zaun. He was inherently frail and had a crippled leg due to Zaun's severe alchemical pollution.
He had once harbored hatred—hatred for Zaun, hatred for himself.
He didn't know why he suffered, so he could only blame everything on this frail and weak body.
He blamed the weakness of flesh, blamed his innate misfortune!
But now, the appearance of this article...
It was as if a door to a new world had crashed open before him.
This earth-shattering sense of subversion was just like the first time he encountered Hextech theory—no, it was even more shocking than that.
"This article..."
Viktor choked up, staring blankly, unable to speak.
"This article is simply harboring malicious intentions!!"
His colleagues, however, all wore subtle expressions.
One of them even slammed the table in anger:
"Fabrications, distorting history, slandering Piltover, inciting hatred—"
"This is simply the writing of a demon!!"