Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

Seeing this, Cao Que was overjoyed:

"Some people have been scheming all along, but in the end, they've come up empty-handed! It's already the ninth round and they're still ranked 12th. If I were them, I would have withdrawn from the competition long ago to avoid making a fool of myself. Do they really expect to turn things around in the tenth round?"

Song Xingye smiled and shook his head, not taking the bait or having any interest in kicking someone when they're down.

He calmly took out his phone and sent Chang Jian a multimedia message with a report card.

Chang Jian, who had just been eliminated and returned home, replied to the message instantly; you could feel his excitement even through the screen.

"Holy crap! Bro, your skill is absolutely incredible! You're leading Xu Zhe, who's in second place, by 65 points? Does that mean you're going to leave the tenth-place player more than 100 points behind?"

Song Xingye slowly pressed the keypad, "Right... Anyway, I have 113 more points than Cao Que, who is in eighth place."

"Bro, I think you can graduate right now. What's the point of taking the tenth round? You could hand in a blank paper and still win."

"Forget it, submitting a blank paper isn't my style. You should go and write your thesis..."

After saying that, he turned off his phone and stopped talking to Chang Jian.

At this moment, Li Ang on the stage had completed the process and asked the students eliminated in this round to leave.

Since Guo Yanyang and Tao Shuo were eliminated earlier, only five people left in this round.

The huge conference hall felt much emptier now.

Only one round left.

Li Ang cleared his throat and adopted a relaxed and comfortable tone.

"Classmates, we've spent so much time together, going through round after round of assessments. Each round required us to rack our brains to come up with solutions and scrutinize the details. Your brain cells must be almost dead by now, right?"

The audience erupted in groans and cries of despair.

"Therefore, the tenth round of assessment... is not devilishly difficult. On the contrary, it's not only a completely open-ended question, but also a celebration for you all!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the 17 remaining "preparatory payload experts" in the room immediately perked up their ears.

As the grand finale, what exactly are these old foxes up to?

Li Ang stopped beating around the bush and went straight to the point:

"The Ultimate Test – Dongguk Space's Century-Long Blueprint!"

"The assessment format is 48 hours of free writing followed by a 20-minute on-site presentation, with a maximum score of 100 points."

Li Ang's gaze was intense, and his voice gradually became solemn.

"The background of the question is set in 2049 AD. It is assumed that Earth's orbital resources are nearing saturation, lunar research stations are in routine operation, and the competition for commercialization of near-Earth space has entered a red ocean phase."

"At this time, the nation decided to launch a super space project spanning 50 years and with an investment of 1% of GDP, as the cornerstone of civilization for the next century."

Boom! Everyone's eyes lit up.

Li Ang raised a finger, adding the constraints to the question.

"This mega-space project must be technically feasible, based on existing physical laws and foreseeable technological evolution, and strictly prohibits the use of magical technologies such as 'warp engines' and 'anti-gravity'."

"Furthermore, the project must be able to fundamentally solve a bottleneck facing human civilization, such as energy depletion, living space, resource scarcity, or asteroid defense."

"This question doesn't require detailed drawings, but it does require you to present a technical roadmap and its feasibility. The final score will be reviewed online by General Manager Liang, Engineer Lei, Engineer Lin, and Engineer Chen."

After saying that, he looked around and said, "These are the requirements. Any questions?"

Seeing that no one raised their hand, he nodded and said:

"If there are no problems, the meeting can be adjourned. Everyone, please gather in the conference hall at 9:00 AM the day after tomorrow to take turns giving presentations and complete the tenth round of assessment!"

……

After Li Ang left, everyone stayed in their seats and whispered among themselves for a while before falling silent again.

Song Xingye idly twirled his pen, staring blankly at a blank draft paper.

Cao Que, sitting in the front row, had already begun writing furiously, scratching his head as he pondered his "super space project."

Jiang Mian, on the other hand, was much calmer. She lay on the table, held a ballpoint pen to her lips, and stared blankly, fidgeting with her hair, as if she was thinking about what to eat for lunch.

Song Xingye glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and smiled calmly.

Cao Que really should be more nervous.

After all, he was ranked eighth. As long as he maintains his level and performs steadily in the tenth round and holds onto his ranking, he can be included in the Star Project's training list.

In contrast, Fan Xiaoying, who gained extra points by reporting Guo Yanyang, had to perform exceptionally well to have a chance to break into the top ten from 12th place.

But... it's not that simple.

Fan Xiaoying is shrewd, and the others are no pushovers either; they are all top students from prestigious universities who made it to the end. Why should they be inferior to him?

Jiang Mian is a very optimistic girl.

Despite gaining 100 fuel points by relying on Song Xingye in the ninth round, he still hovered in 15th place due to his low historical points.

The difficulty for her to turn the tide is no less than that for Fan Xiaoying.

Judging from her posture, she's probably going to just write something casually and then finish it off.

"Actually... Chang Jian is right, I can submit a blank paper too."

Song Xingye thought to himself, "I only have 100 points in the tenth round, which is less than my huge lead. There's no need to push myself too hard."

This is like a football match going into stoppage time, and your team is still leading by three goals—you could practically be taking a stroll!

But then he remembered what Li Ang had mentioned before, the special reward for first place—

The names can be engraved into a fingernail-sized silicon chip using an electron beam, and placed in the probe's time capsule along with the names of all the accomplished designers, before being sent to Mars.

This is a great honor for those working in the aerospace industry.

Song Xingye certainly wouldn't give up to Xu Zhe, who came in second place.

Besides, if I really submit a blank paper, Boss Liang and those big shots like Engineer Lei will probably think I'm arrogant and have a bad attitude.

"I'm currently leading Xu Zhe by 65 points. If I just scribble a few lines and design a passable aerospace engineering project, I can secure first place..."

Song Xingye grinned, feeling a little sorry for the second brother, Xu Zhe.

So he twirled the pen, bit off the cap, and carefully wrote down the words on the paper.

As a reborn old monster, Chief Engineer Song has too many ideas in his head. Many of the cutting-edge technologies of the future were still regarded as wild imagination or even absurd and bizarre in 2011.

This time, let General Manager Liang and his team broaden their horizons.

The pen tip touched the paper, making a scratching sound.

Song Xingye started writing quickly.

……

Twelve hours passed in the blink of an eye.

The remaining "preparatory payload experts" in the conference hall, like ascetics, racked their brains to plan their grand conjectures.

Countless inspirations and ideas collide and spark in the microscopic world, and young people indulge their talents, with one "super project" after another, capable of changing the course of civilization, taking shape on paper.

On the morning of the third day.

The tenth round of assessment and review has arrived as scheduled.

The first Starry Sky Summer Camp is coming to an end.

The students sat nervously in the conference hall, clutching their proposals tightly as if they were holding tickets to the future.

Jiang Mian also had a thin booklet in her hand, which looked quite shabby.

She sat down next to Song Xingye, her face beaming with a joyful smile.

Song Xingye joked, "Is this all the content you've managed to produce? You seem pretty confident, huh?"

Jiang Mian quickly shook her head in denial, but less than three seconds later her face lit up with joy, "No, it's just that I'm so happy to be able to go home soon!"

"You're really optimistic. You could have packed your bags and left a couple of days ago. The rest of the people are all top-notch test-takers, and the tenth round doesn't test applied mathematics, so your talent is useless and you have no chance to turn things around."

Song Xingye gave a very serious and insightful comment.

Jiang Mian paused for a second, then stubbornly puffed out her small chest: "Whether we can win or not is one thing, but attitude is another. Even if we know we have no chance of advancing, it's absolutely unacceptable to be scared before the battle even begins. If we don't try, who knows if we'll have a chance?"

Song Xingye praised, "With such an invincible mindset, you're destined for greatness!"

Upon being praised by her idol, Jiang Mian immediately smiled with an innocent and naive expression.

Then, she excitedly started counting on her fingers, "After the assessment, I'm going back to Jinling to indulge in duck blood vermicelli soup, Meiling porridge, sweet taro sprouts, plum blossom cake... Oh my god, I'm so hungry..."

"Your home is also in Jinling?" Song Xingye asked, somewhat surprised.

Usually, everyone goes home first after summer camp ends, so judging from this, it doesn't seem like she's going back to China Southern Airlines.

Jiang Mian nodded immediately, "Yes! My parents didn't want me to go too far, so I applied to China Southern Airlines, which is near my home, only a few dozen kilometers away..."

Song Xingye chuckled upon hearing this, "Wow...aren't you a pure earthbound spirit?"

"Earthbound spirit? What's that?" Jiang Mian tilted her head, asking earnestly.

"It's nothing, I was just complimenting your love for home."

Song Xingye rarely showed his humor.

Although Jiang Mian had a gut feeling that these weren't good words, she still pursed her lips and smiled obediently.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

Li Ang, carrying a briefcase, strode into the conference hall.

The entire room fell silent instantly.

He skillfully connected the equipment on stage, adjusting the multimedia as he spoke:

"Good morning, everyone. Today we're conducting the tenth round of online review. Please be patient, Mr. Liang and the expert team will be online shortly..."