Super God-Level Top Student

But when you consider the nationality of this scientist, the matter becomes less straightforward.

Yes, this is a scientist from Great Britain.

As it is well known, this is an empire with a grand ancestral legacy. People from this land have the right to critique everything, except probably food.

The empire back in the day had powerful ships and cannons, ready to seize whatever they desired.

The only regret is that the empire was likely too busy conquering the world to take a peek at the recipes wherever they went...

If the internet had to pinpoint a wasteland of cuisine, Great Britain would definitely top the list. This isn't a stereotype; open any international social media platform, and you'll see all kinds of complaints.

"You have to admire British chefs for their creativity. They throw all ingredients together to boil, and somehow manage to make it incredibly unpalatable! Probably only God knows how they do it."

"It's very simple to become a qualified chef in Britain; just toss the food into a pot and patiently cook it until it's unrecognizable, and you're a great chef!"

"I didn't realize until I went to Britain that their so-called dessert is just sugar and fat piled together. I'm genuinely thankful to Britain for successfully getting me off my sugar addiction! So British people really have no taste, right?"

...

Yes, when a scientist from Great Britain starts complaining about the cafeteria food, even if the pictures lack persuasiveness, everyone truly believes that the meals provided by CERN at this time have reached the point of inciting public outrage.

This has also cast a shadow of pessimism over CERN, a research institution that has existed for decades.

This institution, which once created the internet and made great contributions to modern science, has finally reached the twilight of its life cycle. And it's not really surprising.

In fact, since Huaxia officially announced the breakthrough in ultra-small collider technology, this seemed to have become a foregone conclusion.

Upgrades, maintenance, and research costs often amounting to billions of euros—during good economic times, it might not be such a heavy burden. Even if economic downturns occur, many countries could grit their teeth and actually persevere.

But if tens of billions of euros are needed just to produce something, while others can mass-produce it, and the annual maintenance and upgrades only require a few million euros, then continuing to persist seems pretty dumb.

What decision-makers probably find most unacceptable is that constructing the LHC is planned on a decadal basis, upgrading on an annual basis, and even simple maintenance can take several months at a time.

Yet, Huaxia's ultra-small collider with the same functionality went from project initiation to production in just under a year. Upgrading only needs the replacement of various parts, which can be done in just one or two days along with the routine one or two days of monthly maintenance.

Who would be the investor to continue investing in the project?

The crucial point is that both the LHC and Huaxia's ultra-small particle colliders are used for fundamental scientific research, which in the short term are projects with inputs only and no visible outputs.

With such a significant difference in investment costs, continuing to pour money into it has no significance other than increasing the burden on member countries.

So when one member country expressed unwillingness to continue investing, other member countries naturally would follow suit and refuse to continue funding.

To put it bluntly, instead of keeping this huge, cumbersome money-stealing beast, it would be better to save the money, foster a good relationship with Huaxia, then dismantle the original collider and sell it for scrap, using the money to directly order a few of the same equipment from Huaxia...

Of course, the decline in the quality of cafeteria meals truly can't be blamed on the council that hasn't been able to secure funding.

In theory, although powering up the most important equipment LHC again seems a long way off, the data accumulated by CERN actually still allows scientists to digest it for a while. Moreover, from the higher-ups' perspective, the scientists staying at the base really don't consume much money.

But just as the rich second-generation can hardly imagine the life of truly poor people, the bigwigs doing top-level design at CERN also find it hard to understand the psychology of specific operators.

If the equipment is destined not to be powered on again, can these poor professors still hanging around the research base take care of the business?

Even the cafeteria needs to see a future.

Since the top can't get the money, it's better to have these people kicked out quickly. Completely transforming CERN into a tourist attraction is probably much better than the current half-dead situation. After all, the research center is built next to the Alps and Jura mountains, offering pretty good scenery.

Plus, since CERN once created a glorious history, making a firm commitment to attract tourists is definitely better than the current situation.

If they can transform the underground site of the original large particle collider into a large theme park, the effect might be even better. It might even become a brand-new vacation destination for Europe.

In this case, scientists still staying at CERN are indeed a bit of an eyesore.

Of course, when these news were relayed back home, the relevant people just smiled knowingly, without much emotion or excitement.

Even the most assertive organization across the ocean has already admitted defeat. Recently, Huaxia's major media have overwhelmingly reported mostly about how the opposite side gave up another base, how the big ship withdrew with so many people, leaving no time to focus on the small matter of CERN.

Even the major event of Huaxia's small particle collider officially going online at Xilin University of Technology was merely mentioned casually in the news without sparking much discussion.

Yes, the taste of those Huaxia netizens has been spoiled. A year ago, they might have been excited about such matters, but now it's truly hard to generate much buzz by making a research institution look bad.

If Dou Dou stepped into the fray and couldn't even handle such a small matter, that would surely invite criticism!

The current mainstream sentiment on the internet can be summed up in two words: confidence! Super confident!

Confident to the point that it leaves the people who once habitually mustered everyone online for reflection feeling somewhat less assured!

After all, among these people, apart from a few who actually got the money, the vast majority sincerely believed that if Huaxia got into a conflict with the other side, it would most likely end in inevitable defeat, the kind of defeat where not a sliver of hope for victory could be seen.

As a result, after the other side actively came to the Capital for over a month of discussions, they indeed started to soften.

When both parties initially announced the terms negotiated together, they could still stubbornly argue that these negotiation results were impossible to implement. Merely a delaying tactic. And even if the other side didn't execute it, Huaxia could only stand helpless.

But who would've thought that formerly not giving promises much weight, Damei, this time clearly had no perfunctory attitude whatsoever, genuinely started to implement them almost at the speed of light. The speed of response could almost rival Huaxia's engineering speed.

This indeed knocked a lot of people for a loop.

It can only be said that the boomerangs over the years are truly too fast and sharp, forcing many who are fond of calling others to rethink, to begin rethinking themselves—maybe the demands they've been placing on the other side have been too high?

Yes, once a person falls into a cognitive trap, it's tough to break free.

This is also why in the era of big data, people easily get trapped in an information cocoon. When the brain is constantly pressuring them to believe what they have always adhered to, it's difficult to turn back even after hitting a wall.

Of course, this doesn't include those opportunists.

For those who do things for money, even if they utter lies a thousand times, they won't believe them themselves. Especially when it involves their interests.

So those guys who have noticed it's probably hard to get money from the other side have switched sides particularly swiftly, moving from praising America to praising Huaxia extraordinarily smoothly. If not getting a new account, those who are reluctant to give up their social accounts are the really hardcore ones who can take anything.

The key is, as long as I'm shameless enough, no one can hurt me by digging up old accounts.

If it weren't for Dou Dou's unique form of intelligence, these people could probably keep on living a decent life using their influence after the switch. But alas, there's no 'if' in this world.

Netizens' memory may only be seven days, but Dou Dou's memory can live as long as the servers spanning the globe.

Shrimp-level people are beneath Dou Dou's notice, but those with a little influence online are not so lucky.

Even if only 0.1% of Dou Dou's four hundred million fans followed its lead, the barrage of sneers and taunts is a burden too heavy for anyone to bear.

This internet carnival signals the end of this joyous but worrisome winter holiday.