1073 Is One Regiment Enough?

So when Minister Qin offered to give him an entire regiment, he was shocked.

Lu Zhou said, “One regiment is too much, I don’t have that many experimental machines.”

One regiment was at least 1,000 people, maybe even 2,000.

He needed a lot of volunteers, but not that many.

Minister Qin said, “Then give me a number, how am I supposed to know how many you need?”

“200 should be enough,” Lu Zhou said. He originally was going to say 100, but he decided to double the number just in case.

When Minister Qin heard the number, he was relieved. He would be willing to sacrifice an entire regiment, even two regiments, to get this technology on his hands.

However, the more people involved in this project, the more difficult it was to keep it confidential.

Minister Qin said, “No problem, as long as you can get the technology, we can get the people!”

This was a worthy sacrifice, as the potential of this technology was unlimited.

Once this technology matured, it would be able to achieve a full-scale simulation of reality. By then, it would not only be used to train Air Force, but also for conventional military exercises. Everything could be done in virtual reality.

The People’s Liberation Army could save tens of billions of military expenses a year.

These savings could be spent in places that needed it.

Like scientific research, or building national defense facilities…

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this technology could change the entire army and national defense force of a country.

This technology was worth it, no matter what the price was.

…

After experiencing the experimental machine, Director Li and Minister Qin didn’t stay here for long.

Before leaving, Minister Qin told Lu Zhou that the volunteer team would be arranged within a week and that Lu Zhou wouldn’t have to worry about anything other than research.

Thus, the virtual reality military team was created.

Because of its applications to the military field, the technology itself became much more significant and meaningful than before.

Lu Zhou was quite satisfied with Chen Yushan’s plan. After he obtained a visa and a place of residence for Lumiere, the project was going full force ahead.

Before he began building the entire system, he needed to first formulate an outline of the technical route, then build an algorithm framework. Finally, he had to collect and a.n.a.lyze the data from the volunteers.

On the third day that Professor Lumiere arrived here, Lu Zhou suddenly received an unexpected call.

“h.e.l.lo?”

“Hi… I’m Sarrot. I didn’t expect this number to still work.”

Sarrot?

Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.

“I haven’t changed numbers… Anyway, we haven’t spoken in a long time, why are you suddenly contacting me?”

Sarrot coughed and awkwardly said, “I didn’t want to disturb you, it’s just that… My friend seems to be lost, can you help me?”

Lu Zhou: “… Lost? Where?”

“Shanghai.”

Lu Zhou said in disbelief, “… Are you sure he’s lost?”

“Yeah, we were attending an academic conference in Shanghai, then he disappeared… He was standing on the street when I went to grab some coffee, then he was gone when I came back. I tried emailing and calling, but he hasn’t responded.”

Sarrot felt like his story was a little bizarre.

Lu Zhou was the only person he knew in China, so that was why he called Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou took a sip of coffee and asked, “What’s his name?”

“He lives in Switzerland, his name is Lumiere…”

“Pff!”

Sarrot heard the noise from the other end and paused for a second.

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Zhou wiped the coffee from his mouth and spoke.

“Nothing… I’ll get my people to find him.”

Sarrot nodded and said, “Thank you.”

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.

“No worries, come visit me some time in Jinling.”

Sarrot: “No problem!”

…

Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study.

Lu Zhou was sitting in the temporary virtual reality technology laboratory. He went into Professor Lumiere’s office and spoke to him.

“I know you’re excited, but at least respond to your friend’s email.”

“Friend? Oh right, I forgot. I’ll contact him later, I’m writing my resignation letter right now… You know, I used to work at the Switzerland Neural Network Science Research Center, and the director of the research inst.i.tute views highly of me. He has said on multiple occasions that he intends to promote me to a supervisor. Now that I’m suddenly resigning, I have to give him a reason.”

“Resignation?” Lu Zhou had a strange look on his face, “I… already did it for you.”

“… Did it?”

Lumiere froze, and he stopped typing on the keyboard.

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “I used your email to send an email to the department of the research center… They quickly agreed.”

Everything went silent.

After ten seconds, Lumiere asked, “What did Academician Ines say?”

Lumiere stood up from his chair, his eyes were bloodshot, like he was emotional…

“Ines? I don’t know who that is.”

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I’m a.s.suming he’s the head of the human resources department, I remember their reply was only two sentences.”

Lumiere froze.

After standing for a while, Lumiere suddenly sat down and sank in his chair.

“… It’s fine.”

He waved his hand and grabbed the mouse.

He put his two thousand word resignation letter into the recycle bin, then opened the unfinished research program outline, which he was planning on working on tomorrow.

Even though Lu Zhou felt a little worried about his mental state, seeing how Lumiere was still in the mood to work on the project, Lu Zhou felt like he should just leave him alone…

Lu Zhou patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t forget to reply to your friend.”

After that, Lu Zhou left his office.