The Outsider (Outsider #1) ✔️

Chapter 117 : Another Day in Uni

Dusk managed to control the speed and slow to a reasonable speed of around 60 kmph. The AI would keep the bike perfectly stable and turn on its own if it saw a danger of a collision (Safety Protocol = ON). Catherine was letting out whoops of happiness, trying to goad Dusk to speed up. She even reached out and pulled the throttle once before Dusk was able to bring it back under control.

They reached the PG Dorm in a very short time. The bike parked itself and they ran back to their room. Dusk ran into one shower and Catherine used the other. Dusk needed to get back to the Academic Cluster for her classes. Catherine, though thoroughly upset about the size of the bathroom and lack of a bathtub to soak, finished a shower and crashed back to bed. She needed to make up for the lack of sleep of the previous night. The horrid Marshall had woken her up and sent her to the Training Grounds instead of letting her sleep. But she liked beating up people! It made her feel empowered. That was one thing she was better than others!

Scarlet who only managed to sleep early in the morning, continued to sleep peacefully, lost to the world, completely unaware of the time.

Dusk took the Duo-Pax to Academic Cluster and checked out her schedule. The first class was with Professor Elton. She loved hardware course now and was eager to get back to her physical model. Some of the students greeted her, many scowled at her return. They did not like that she, though inferior to them in all ways, was so popular and successful. Most of them were from star families and read the financial news regularly. The news of her phenomenal success on the stock market gave them severe heartburn.

"Ok, early the next term, we will have to make our own independent chip. The chip design has to be your own. Anyone who copies the design will fail the course. At best, you can pair up. But I prefer independent thinking. I will assign you slots in various chip fabrication labs whom the university has tied up with. We have a special offer from Sli-Con Chiptron offering their pilot fabrication lab for some of our students.

"Lab time is expensive, so use the allotted time wisely. Anyone who has access to a specific chip lab they wish to use, notify me. You have the choice of using any chip lab that may be available to you as student. However, I will not allow that for Ms. Hale. Her project will be sandboxed and needs to be done in the Uni-Viva lab and use the chip fabrication facility of the university only." Elton said.

"But that's unfair! Why am I being punished? The university's fabrication lab is ancient!" Dusk protested as many of the students clapped in glee.

"Because, Ms. Hale, you own a very modern chip design and R&D facility called Patricina Metalics Research Inc., which makes some very advanced stuff. All you need to do is to order your chip designers to complete the design and fabrication for you. If they help you make the new chip, we have no way to know because it is not copied. We cannot allow you to take help from there. You have an unfair advantage. Therefore, you need to do all your work here in this lab." Elton explained.

"I am sorry," he continued, "but many students have protested against it."

"I feel sad that I have 'fellow students' who doubt my integrity. And worse is a Professor who gives a stupid instruction just because someone complained. I came here to learn. If I were to take help to pass one important assessment, then I may as well have gone to any small university to get a certificate! But well, if you all are petty minded, it is my bad luck. But the sword cuts both ways. I will instruct Patricina to blacklist students from Uni-Viva from jobs in the company and definitely for this particular year and class. I would have probably offered our facilities like Sli-con, but now it is out of the question."

Professor Elton started sweating. Patricina was hallowed grounds and a chance to work for them or possibly do internship with them would have made his class and course exceedingly popular. Besides, his students, including those in advanced courses being blacklisted, would be a huge PR disaster. In fact, once it was known, the students could sue him and the university.