After reading through the contracts, Wizard Kelt sent Locke a message, "Both contracts are good. Whether it's the buyout contract or the revenue-sharing contract, both are standard."

"You can sign them."

After receiving the opinion of a local wizard from Cloud Marsh Wetland, Locke finally dared to sign the revenue-sharing contract with Wizard Tyrence.

Both parties completed the contract signing.

These contracts cost thirty thousand magic stones each, made by contract masters and monitored by the Eye of Truth.

Wizard Tyrence said with a smile, "Then, happy cooperation. This is the address of one of our Arthas industry parks. If you need it, you can go there to complete the subsequent mass production work for the Hydra."

"After you're finished, you just need to provide us with the Hydra seeds."

Tyrence took out fifty magic crystal cards from his astral ring and handed them to Locke.

These seeds would naturally be enchanted magical plant seeds that had lost their reproductive ability when mature.

After all, what he had signed with Arthas was not a permanent buyout.

Wizard Tyrence stood up, and Locke bowed to him, then watched him leave the Witch Kitchen.

He had taken on another lateral project and directly obtained fifty magic crystal cards.

As for how much money he could get each month over the next two years, that would depend on how the subsequent project operations went.

Gregor watched as Locke stood up and quickly made way for him. During Locke's conversation with Wizard Tyrence, he had been listening in a complete fog.

After all, things like shop alliances, two types of transaction methods, and high-circle wizards were far too distant for a wizard apprentice.

The world of a wizard apprentice had not yet reached such a level. His world was more focused on studying.

Locke placed the fifty magic crystal cards into his astral ring.

With this, adding the five hundred thousand from the Tier 2 project funding and his own two hundred thousand in savings, he now had 1.2 million magic stones in funds he could mobilize.

He was wealthy again!

The main issue was that scientific research was simply too expensive. Such enormous funding, once invested in research, would burn away like firewood, easily depleted.

It was only because he had his golden finger.

For wizards without a golden finger, situations often occurred where they burned through all their funds without achieving any results at all.

Locke said to Gregor, "Let's go back."

Gregor replied, "Yes, teacher."

As they walked out of the Witch Kitchen, Locke ran into Wizard Daniel at the Dragon Blood Gathering. The two froze for a moment upon seeing each other.

While Locke had been negotiating with Wizard Tyrence, Daniel had just completed his defense. Beside Wizard Daniel was another wizard manager from a shop alliance.

Looking at the direction they were heading, it seemed they too were going to the Witch Kitchen.

Wizard Daniel greeted Locke warmly, saying, "Locke, this is Wizard David Franklin. He is a wizard manager from the Hanover Weather Customization Workshop Alliance."

Wizard Franklin had not attended Locke's defense, so he didn't recognize that Locke had also participated in the project conclusion reports today. He only nodded politely at Locke.

He was a Second Circle wizard who had only come to establish cooperation with Wizard Daniel, so naturally he had to maintain his dignity.

Locke said to Wizard Daniel, "It looks like you've had a good harvest today. Did you also secure a lateral project?"

Wizard Daniel nodded. "Also? That means you've already finished talking with a shop alliance wizard manager."

Locke smiled, "Yes, just finished negotiating. I directly obtained fifty magic crystal cards."

Wizard Franklin looked at Locke with surprise, immediately realizing that Locke had also participated in the conclusion defense today. Otherwise, he wouldn't have just finished negotiating a lateral project cooperation with a shop alliance wizard manager.

Moreover, the other party should also be considered somewhat accomplished.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to directly negotiate a project worth fifty magic crystal cards. He just didn't know whether this was a buyout or revenue-sharing.

If it was a buyout, that could only be considered normal level.

But if it was revenue-sharing, then the fifty magic crystal cards were only the initial licensing fee, and the contract Locke had negotiated with that wizard manager wouldn't be a small contract at all.

When Wizard Daniel heard about the fifty magic crystal cards, his eyes immediately lit up. "You've really struck it rich, Locke. You actually got fifty magic crystal cards all at once. Wizard Franklin and I still need to go to the Witch Kitchen to discuss the project."

"You're still more impressive, Locke."

Locke said, "It's just the commercialization of my championship work from the Cloud Marsh Cup."

Wizard Daniel said, "Oh, oh. Lord Franklin has taken an interest in the idea I conceived during my defense, using the fog from the natural world, the spirituality mechanism, to create divination spirit fog. It's about using changes in fog to perform a certain degree of divination."

"This is something I obtained from doing several months of basic research at Golden Crown Mountain. I have to say, basic research is really necessary. It has expanded my horizons, let me see more, and raised my upper limit."

"It even allows me to accomplish things that the weather systems I designed before couldn't possibly achieve."

Wizard Daniel continued, "My Tier 3 funding project this time also passed, and I successfully obtained a Tier 2 funding project."

Wizard Franklin looked at Locke and Wizard Daniel. He had a strange feeling that these two were good friends who were bidding each other up.

However, out of professional conduct, and because he really did think highly of Daniel's ideas and believed they might help him earn some merit with the shop alliance, Wizard Franklin suddenly spoke up, "Don't worry about that. The contract I'm negotiating with you involves an amount that will only be more than five hundred thousand magic stones, not less."

Wizard Daniel swallowed. "Your shop alliance really is rich."

After chatting with them for a few moments, Locke left.

He looked in the direction where Wizard Daniel was leaving. Daniel was still discussing with Wizard Franklin, "This new friend of mine is really impressive."

"I've rarely seen a wizard whose research progress can match mine."

"In Fission Mausoleum Plains, those wizard colleagues of mine could only keep pace with my progress at the beginning, but often within just a few months, I would pull ahead of them by a huge margin. From then on, they would become distant from me. In their eyes, I saw strangeness and active estrangement."

Wizard Daniel said, "It looks like I can really make a friend this time."

"Cloud Marsh Wetland, Golden Crown Mountain... what an amazing place. There are simply too many super geniuses here, or rather, freaks."

Locke glanced at Wizard Daniel, completely speechless.

Calling me a freak? I think you're the freak.

He had already activated his cheat, analyzing new magical plant mechanisms like an assembly line, batch after batch.

Yet Wizard Daniel's research progress was almost the same as his own.

This kind of talent was truly terrifying.

This also made the slight sense of relaxation that had just risen in Locke completely disappear.

At Golden Crown Mountain, there were simply too many super geniuses.

Geniuses from other regions, when placed here, could only become ordinary people.

They might even be at the bottom and get eliminated by the last-place elimination system.

And if he wanted to obtain the final special funding project, he needed to stand at the pinnacle of all the geniuses at the Origin Academy of Golden Crown Mountain.

So, he still needed to work harder. After returning, he would quickly do several more sets of data to see if he could discover more unknown natural magical power structure components.

He needed to make discovering unknown natural magical power structure components like working on an assembly line.

After all, the quota for special funding projects, even when allocated to a top-tier academy's Origin Academy like Golden Crown Mountain, was only one or two per year.

But thinking about it from another angle, if he couldn't even manage to stand at the top of all the geniuses at the Origin Academy of Golden Crown Mountain, then what right did he have to talk about going to the Star Domain Sea?

Walking on the street, Locke sighed, "It seems that being at this level at most means I've opened up a large gap from researchers at ordinary Origin Academies."

"But I haven't yet opened up a gap from researchers at advanced Origin Academies. Perhaps Daniel, like me, is also an anomaly, but who knows if even more anomalies will appear among the researchers in advanced Origin Academies."

"I need to work even harder and can't be complacent about my current achievements."

Locke brought Gregor back to the laboratory and spent the entire day doing experiments.

At midnight, Wizard Kelt suddenly came to his workstation looking for him, his expression tense as if he were under enormous pressure.

He stood in front of Locke's workstation, glanced at Gregor who was working, then said, "Locke, Yekaterina's Throne is looking for us."

Upon hearing this, all the researchers working in the workstation area of Group Six became nervous one by one.

It was as if some enormous invisible pressure had descended upon them.

Locke looked at Wizard Kelt strangely, not understanding why, every time Kelt heard Witch Yekaterina's name, even when he said it himself, he would become extremely nervous.

His pressure would skyrocket.

He didn't know how Kelt interacted with Witch Yekaterina, but so far, he felt that Witch Yekaterina was actually quite a good high-circle wizard.

Although, up to now, he had never truly met her face-to-face alone.

Not even once.

But precisely because of this, being in Yekaterina's team was also very free. After all, except for the monthly group meeting with hundreds of people, you wouldn't have any dealings with your collaborative advisor.

This meant the maximum degree of freedom.

But for some reason, the wizards in Group Six, especially Wizard Kelt, seemed to have something like PTSD just from hearing Witch Yekaterina's name.

Wizard Kelt said to Locke, "Locke, pack up and come with me quickly to see the Throne."

He looked at the watch in his hand. "We absolutely cannot be late. I'm giving you five minutes to get ready."

"Be on time, we must be on time..."

Wizard Kelt left, trembling.

Locke was completely bewildered. He turned to look at Witch Mason and Wizard Barrett, "Is the team leader really this afraid of our collaborative advisor?"

In the workstation, Witch Mason shrugged, "That's a Third Circle wizard. We're afraid too. However, we're afraid because she's our collaborative advisor, because she's a Third Circle wizard, but we only feel awe. I don't know why the team leader is particularly afraid of Yekaterina's Throne."

"Perhaps there are reasons we don't know about. And... the advisor is a witch who makes you completely unable to know what she's thinking. Perhaps that's why the team leader is afraid of her."

Locke nodded.

Actually, an advisor's personality would largely determine the atmosphere within a research group.

For example, Wizard Daniel's advisor, Wizard Feodor, was said to be magnanimous and kind, so the atmosphere in his research group would at least appear very harmonious on the surface, with everyone calling each other brothers.

But he had also heard that, as a result, the speed of producing results was somewhat slower than other research groups.

Having spent some time in Group Six, Locke could also perceive that Group Six was a very realistic research group, free, pursuing efficiency, and only looking at results.

This also revealed a glimpse of Witch Yekaterina's personality.

Witch Mason said to Locke, "By the way, Locke, I want to congratulate you on passing the conclusion defense. You completed a Tier 3 Origin Academy funding project in just four months. That's really impressive."

"Worthy of being a researcher at an advanced Origin Academy. Only now do I realize the gap between us ordinary Origin Academies and you advanced Origin Academies."

"This is my second year at the Origin Academy, and I've only just finished a Tier 3 Origin Academy funding project and am still applying for a Tier 2 Origin Academy funding project. Who knew you would surpass me directly."

Wizard Barrett also looked at Locke with admiration. "My progress is about the same as Mason's."

He thought of how he had previously tried to find out about Locke's project progress, and his face flushed slightly. "Worthy of being a researcher at an advanced Origin Academy. Your project completion speed is considered very fast among us ordinary Origin Academy researchers... And I heard that you completed the mechanism pathways of four bromeliad magical plants all at once."

"Not only was the completion speed very fast, but the quality was also very high. Before, I was always somewhat unconvinced, thinking that you researchers from advanced Origin Academies weren't all that remarkable, but now it seems you really are more capable than us researchers from ordinary Origin Academies."

"You only understand when you compare."

At the workstation, Wizard Panno wore a bitter expression, saying, "I had thought that Locke, you would at least accompany me for a while, searching for new projects together. Who knew I was the clown."

Wizard Barrett said to him, "I think you should first consider the points ranking at the end of this year. If you continue like this, you're going to be eliminated by the last-place system."

"You're only in your second year at the Origin Academy, with three years left. There's a whole bunch of First Circle wizards outside who think they can gather the requirements for graduation within three years."

"Therefore, there are still many wizards eyeing your position from outside."

Wizard Panno sighed helplessly.

Locke comforted him across the workstation divide. "Good things take time. Don't give up either. Perhaps you can write a project application that passes before September."

"That way, you won't be eliminated by the last-place system."

Panno said, "Right now, that's all I can do."

Locke gave Gregor a few instructions, then, timing it to the last minute, left the office area and found Wizard Kelt, saying, "Team leader, let's go."

Wizard Kelt took the opportunity to say beside Locke, "Locke, I really didn't expect you to be this capable. I misunderstood you quite a bit before."

Locke nodded slightly.

Wizard Kelt said, "But now the misunderstanding is cleared up. You alone are almost worth more than half of my entire Group Six."

"Your research efficiency is too high."

"I take back what I said to you before. I now believe that having you join our Group Six is simply wonderful. It's my good fortune."