Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 3: First Glimpse of Talent

The person who posted the bounty thread on the campus forum was Zhou Mo, a second-year graduate student majoring in materials science, who was working on a project simulating the mechanical properties of nanomaterials. His model required rapid analysis of a large number of frequency domain signals, but the data he got kept not matching the theoretical values. After struggling for two weeks without success, he finally sought help on the forum.

Zuo Cheng met with Zhou Mo online that very night.

After reviewing the data and code sent by the other party, Zuo Cheng located the problem in about fifteen minutes—the filtering algorithm used in the signal preprocessing stage was too crude, and the high-frequency noise was not filtered out, directly contaminating all subsequent frequency domain analysis results.

Three days ago, he might not have been able to figure this out so quickly. But now, his mind is filled with the signal processing fundamentals unlocked by the system, as well as the matrix factorization ability copied from Yu Ying. With these two knowledge systems combined, seeing this kind of problem is like having X-ray vision.

Instead of directly providing the answer, he wrote out the modification process step by step—first replacing the filtering algorithm, then adjusting the window function parameters, and finally performing cross-validation on the output data. He also included a piece of optimized code.

Zhou Mo didn't reply for half an hour.

Then a barrage of messages came crashing down.

"Holy crap, bro, are you a god?"

"It worked! All the data matches!"

"Are you really an undergraduate student? Are you sure you're not a postdoctoral researcher in some lab?"

The two thousand yuan was transferred to Zuocheng Card that very night.

When Zhang Lei saw the transfer record in the dorm, he was so excited he almost fell off his bunk: "Brother Cheng! Two thousand yuan! You earned that in one night? What did you do?"

"I fixed a bug in the signal processing for someone." Zuo Cheng put his phone back in his pocket, his tone as casual as if he were talking about what he ate at the cafeteria that day.

"That's it?" Liu Wei's eyes widened. "Signal processing work is worth that much?"

"Technical skills are all valuable." Zuo Cheng leaned back in his chair, looking at his three brothers. "I have an idea—there are quite a few technical help requests like this on forums, with most offering rewards between five hundred and three thousand. The four of us can do it: Chen Hao will handle programming and algorithms, Liu Wei will be in charge of order taking and communication, Zhang Lei, you have a wide network to help with promotion, and I'll handle the technical oversight. We can make money together, how about it?"

The dormitory was silent for two seconds.

"I think it's a good idea," Chen Hao was the first to speak, pushing up his glasses, his eyes shining.

"I can do it too!" Liu Wei raised his hand. "It would be a waste not to use my mouth to get orders."

Zhang Lei chuckled and punched the bed frame: "Brother Cheng has spoken, so what else is there to say? Let's do it!"

Studio 402—a name chosen by Zhang Lei, simple and straightforward—was established that very night.

A new notification popped up in Zuo Cheng's consciousness:

[Side Quest Generation: Technical Support - Getting Started]

[Task Description: Earn a total of 10000 Huaxia Coins through technical services.]

[Mission Reward: Unlock the "Applied Signal Processing" blade, +3 points]

Zuo Cheng's lips curled into a slight smile. The system, as expected, knew how to play along.

The following week, Studio 402 took on four jobs. Three were data analysis related to signal processing, and one was preprocessing for a structural mechanics simulation for a graduate student in architecture. Zuo Cheng was responsible for the core technical challenges, Chen Hao wrote the code and ran the data, Liu Wei handled the communication with the client, and Zhang Lei helped promote the project in various college groups.

The four of them worked together surprisingly smoothly.

After a week, the total income was 12,000 yuan, which was split among the four people, with each person receiving 3,000 yuan. Adding the previous volunteer subsidy and the 2,000 yuan, Zuo Cheng's bank account balance quietly climbed to a little over 10,000 yuan.

For others, this is pocket money, but for Zuo Cheng at this moment, it is the first pot of gold he has saved since his rebirth.

But what Zuo Cheng really cared about wasn't money.

Side quest complete!

[Unlocking the blades: Applying signal processing ✓]

[Points +3 (Current Points: 4)]

The moment the second leaf on the technology tree lit up, Zuo Cheng felt his knowledge base expand another notch. This time, it wasn't basic theory that was being poured in, but rather practical applications of signal processing in various engineering fields—communication, radar, acoustics, image processing—a flood of experience and skills poured in like a tide.

Two blades, four integrals.

That's enough, let's get down to business.

The next day, Zuo Cheng knocked on the office door of Professor Lin Zhiyuan, his thesis advisor.

Lin Zhiyuan, in his early fifties, is a senior professor at the School of Telecommunications Engineering, Huaxia University, specializing in intelligent signal processing and communication system optimization. While not a top-tier academic, he is known for his solid and reliable work ethic, and his students have consistently been of high quality.

"Zuo Cheng?" Lin Zhiyuan looked up from a pile of papers, adjusted his reading glasses, and said, "I've read your graduation thesis proposal. The topic is alright, but the entry point is too broad, and it's likely to be empty. You came here today to talk about it?"

"Professor Lin, I've recently reorganized my thinking and want to narrow down my focus to DFT optimization paths." Zuo Cheng pulled a printed analysis report from his bag and handed it to him with both hands. "This is my preliminary research; could you please take a look?"

Lin Zhiyuan took it, and his expression changed when he turned to the second page, after he had only glanced at it casually at first.

He sat up straight, pushed his reading glasses up, and carefully looked at each page.

The office was quiet for a full five minutes.

"These three optimization paths..." Lin Zhiyuan put down the report, looking at Zuo Cheng with a complicated expression. "I've seen similar approaches to the first and second ones in last year's IEEE conference paper, but your derivation is more concise. The third one..."

He paused.

"I haven't seen the third one before. Using homogeneous decomposition to handle the frequency domain transformation of asymmetric matrices is a novel approach. If it can be verified, this isn't at the level of an undergraduate thesis; it's something worthy of publication in a journal."

Zuo Cheng felt more at ease, but didn't show it on his face. "I also think the third point needs more verification, and I plan to focus on that next."

"Okay." Lin Zhiyuan smiled, a rare occurrence. "I have a provincial-level research project, one of the sub-directions of which is highly relevant to your third path. No one in the research group has been able to crack that tough nut. Are you interested in giving it a try?"

Zuo Cheng was waiting for this very sentence.

"Teacher Lin, I'm willing to try."

When Zuo Cheng left Lin Zhiyuan's office, he had a copy of the research group's internal documents in his hand. Lin Zhiyuan had granted him access to the lab, allowing him to use the equipment and database at any time.

He stood in the corridor, trying to organize his thoughts, when footsteps came from around the corner.

A tall young man, around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, walked over. He was wearing a slightly wrinkled shirt and had his hair meticulously styled, which created a deliberate sense of incongruity with his overall demeanor.

Upon seeing Zuo Cheng, he stopped and looked him up and down.

"You're Zuo Cheng?"

"Yes."

"My name is Ma Hao, and I'm Professor Lin's second-year doctoral student." He smiled, his tone polite but with a hint of condescension. "I heard Professor Lin wants you to participate in his research group?"

"Um."

"I've looked at that sub-direction before, it's not easy to do." Ma Hao put his hands in his pockets, leaned against the wall, and said, "To be honest, I don't mean anything by it—undergraduates participating in provincial-level projects will face a lot of pressure. Professor Lin is soft-hearted and sometimes finds it hard to refuse students, so you need to weigh the pros and cons carefully, lest you end up delaying the entire project's progress."

The words were perfectly worded, but the meaning couldn't be clearer: you don't deserve it.

Zuo Cheng looked at him, neither annoyed nor angry, but simply smiled.

"Thank you for reminding me, Senior Brother Ma. I understand now."

He didn't say another word and turned to leave.

As he reached the stairwell, he heard Ma Hao's voice behind him, sounding like he was on the phone, but the volume was just loud enough for him to hear: "...A senior undergraduate student, and Professor Lin actually put him on a research project. I wonder if what he writes will even be acceptable..."

Zuo Cheng didn't stop walking, but the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

Fine.

Zhao Kai was responsible for making sarcastic remarks outside, while Ma Hao was responsible for looking down on everyone within the research group. The order of precedence was all arranged.

Let them see what this "unworthy" undergraduate can actually write.

He took out his phone and saw a message Yu Ying had sent two hours earlier: "Zuo Cheng, I've been thinking about your homogeneous decomposition approach again. I have a few questions about boundary conditions that I'd like to ask you. Would it be convenient to meet you at the library Wednesday afternoon?"

Zuo Cheng replied with a single word: "Okay."

Then I opened the system panel and took a look at the tech tree.

Two emerald green leaves shimmer at the bottom, and on the branch above them, a third leaf has turned from dark gray to light gray—that is the "foundation of the communication system," just one step away from being lit up.

Further up, on the taller branches hung the outlines of larger, brighter leaves. He couldn't make out the names yet, but he could vaguely make out words like "satellite communication," "quantum signal," and "deep space exploration."

The tree is huge. So huge that he can't even make out the outline of its crown.

But it's okay.

The road must be walked step by step, and each leaf must be lit up one by one.

He clenched his fist and strode into the September sunlight.