Speaking of which, the background of this President Kaludan was quite explosive. After all, all of this was accomplished within twenty years. Before the war, the Republic of Makas was merely the strongest among just over a dozen countries, and not by all that much. Yet the President led such a country to sweep across the world within five years—isn't this far more impressive than a certain mustached fellow?
Mr. Shen Wan vaguely remembered when he first used his phone to call Kaludan. The person on the other end said, "Hello, may I ask how you obtained my private number?" Although the tone was relatively gentle, even the inexperienced Shen Wan of back then could detect the hidden fury beneath those words. Thus, he quickly and selectively recounted the fact that he happened to have a tiny, tiny hundreds of millions of good books on hand.
Upon hearing this, the other end fell silent. Shen Wan didn't mind; after all, it was indeed too absurd. A completely clueless commoner who could be looked up in the national system suddenly manages to call the highest leader of the country, claiming to have knowledge capable of rapidly upgrading civilization—who would find that easy to accept?
The silence did not last long before Kaludan spoke: "I know you. Twenty years ago, a supreme entity once entered my dream. He demanded that I rapidly unify the world, and said that after my unification, a prophet would appear in my life. As long as I followed the materials brought by the prophet, the country would surely enter the glorious era of interstellar navigation." A supreme entity? Who? Shen Wan sharply grasped the key point and asked in his mind: "System, who was that? Do you know?" "Ding, of course I know." Shen Wan pressed further: "Who was that?" "Ding, host authorization is insufficient."
"—Damn it." He still couldn't help it; Shen Wan cursed aloud. "What is it, Mr. Prophet?" Kaludan asked strangely. "It's nothing, nothing, please continue." Shen Wan managed to suppress the rising anger in his heart. "Oh, that person also told me to treat you as an honored guest. Where are you right now? I will come pick you up immediately." "Times Square, Atlantis City." Dropping the current location from his memory offhand, Shen Wan hung up the phone.
"Alright, let's continue chatting now. You, exactly why did you choose me?" Shen Wan's gaze darkened. "Ding, didn't I say before? Seeing that you're a literary youth." "I don't believe it. What was up with Kaludan's dream decades ago?" "Ding, the System doesn't know." Well, that was even less helpful than the host authorization being insufficient just now.
About two hours later, Shen Wan heard a "buzzing" sound. Looking up, he saw an armed helicopter descending. An elderly man with a square face and a sharp, fierce aura stepped out. Striding with the vigor of a dragon and the majesty of a tiger, the old man walked straight up to Shen Wan, ignoring the curious onlookers around them, and saluted with the military salute of the Republic of Makas (right palm flat and horizontal across the chest, left palm pressed flat against the left leg, standing upright): "Hello, are you Mr. Shen Wan?"
Shen Wan hesitated for a moment and was about to return the salute, but remembering that he didn't know the proper military salute, and feeling that the Republic of Makas's salute felt awkward to him, he abandoned the idea: "Hello, President Kaludan, I am Shen Wan, the one who just called." He then pointed to the few books placed on the ground and said, "Uh, these are the rather important materials I mentioned."
Kaludan took a glance and looked extremely puzzled: "What kind of characters are these on here? They don't seem to be the official script of Makas, nor the script of any of the fallen nations."
"!!!"
Shen Wan immediately said in his mind: "System, get your old self out here. Tell me, if they don't recognize Chinese characters, what use are these books to them?"
"Ding, hehe."
"Don't act cute like some slack-off Wind Aeon, hey!" He got so angry his tongue tripped.
Well, just like that, a young man who had long returned all his past knowledge to his teachers embarked on a journey to relearn college physics (cough) and professional English (also cough)...
Ten years later...
"General Shen, there is a document here that requires your signature."
A hand, exactly the same as it was ten years ago, took the document from the guard. Taking a closer look: "Galaxy-1 Test Launch Proposal Report." He smoothly signed his big name in the chief engineer's signature spot: Shen Wan.
"Ha, why is it that even someone like me who could only score a little over six hundred points on the college entrance examination could somehow effortlessly learn so much knowledge related to interstellar navigation after reincarnation? I really am a genius!" After signing, Shen Wan dismissed the guard and began daydreaming.
"Ding, nonsense. If not for this System's help, with your intelligence, just take what you can get." The System still couldn't bear Shen Wan's conceited look and chimed in with sarcasm.
"Impossible, you haven't even spoken much in these ten years. What did you help with?" Shen Wan was displeased.
"Ding, I gave you help; you don't need to know, nor do you need to chat with me." The System was also displeased.
"Then prove it to me." Shen Wan said resentfully.
"Ding, heh. With a brain where pouring out the water could barely fill your stomach, how could you suddenly have flashes of inspiration every time you encountered a research bottleneck? It wasn't me running over to Nous to fetch them for you." The System brandished borrowed authority.
"You? Still mocking me? Do you think you're Doctor Ratio? Can you devour those books in two years while simultaneously translating them into the Makas language version, and you claim you ran over to Nous? With you, a three-no system? Brainless, helpless, and fearless? How about this, I won't say anything else—you go invite Nous to take a look at me, and make me an Emanator of Erudition, and I'll believe you." Shen Wan routinely tried to trap the System.
Who would have thought that the System, which usually couldn't resist provocation the most, didn't bite this wave of bait: "Ding, you wanting to be an Emanator of Erudition is probably even more ridiculous than that bug blessed by the Aeon of Elation back then. Want to be an Emanator of Erudition? Fine, rely on yourself to have an audience with Nous; what skill is it to rely on the System? Friendly reminder, the Genius Society only has 49 members so far. If you want to be an Emanator of Erudition, you'd better not rank too far back, otherwise, I will fiercely kiss your butt with my smelly boots."
Shen Wan didn't speak again. Trapping the System was just like this: you could fail countless times, as long as you succeeded once it was pure profit. The last time he trapped the System was two years ago, when he bet that Makas could complete the construction of the first large-scale computer, "Deification No. 1", within a month. If he lost the bet, he promised to complete the first task assigned to him by the System, "Preparations Before Entering the Starry Sea", within a year; if he won, it would let him watch all the anime from his past life and play all the games from his past life. The result was obvious: just before the guard came in, he had finished binge-watching "My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected" for the umpteenth time.