A Hospital in Another World? C.161

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Silence engulfed the room.

Inside and outside the classroom, not a single word was spoken. Other than the heavy and hurried breaths, the only sound was the scraping of chairs on the floor. Garrett’s seat was at the back, and at this moment, almost all the students turned to look at him.

The dozen or so boys and girls standing by the door, serving their punishment, stretched their necks, supporting each other’s shoulders, and craned their heads to look at the back of the classroom.

"Review... review meeting?" Behind Anthony, a brown-haired boy trembled and poked him in the back. "Anthony, do any of your elders attend review meetings?"

"My father’s teacher is..." 𝔣𝔯𝔢𝔢𝔴𝔢𝖇𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔢𝔩.𝖈𝔬𝖒

Anthony’s voice also sounded shaky.

His father was a level 9 mage, and to outsiders, he was quite prestigious. However, aside from his father, there were a dozen disciples of the Archmage. Thinking of relying solely on connections to submit his paper to the review meeting...

Forget about it. It’s impossible even to show it to the Archmage.

You see, the Archmages in the review meeting are appointed by various schools and large research groups, strong at levels 13 or 14, and many are direct disciples of legendary mages. Lower-level mages don’t have such privileges, and mages above level 15, as well as legendary mages who find it troublesome, rarely bother with the review meeting.

And what does the review meeting do? It reviews the Magic Council’s budget for the year, approves or rejects pending laws, deals with major unexpected events, and so on... What qualifications does a paper have to be sent to them for review? What paper would they collectively evaluate?

Not to mention that it was just approved by the review meeting yesterday and confirmed to be published in "Arcane" today...

What is "Arcane" anyway?

The top two journals of the Magic Council, one called "Magic," and the other, "Arcane."

Representing the most advanced research results of the Magic Council. Those who publish in them are generally mages above level 15, or at least levels 13 or 14, high-level mages about to reach the upgrade threshold.

Every mage tower subscribes, and every magic practitioner with self-respect reads them regularly, of course, whether they understand it or not. Garrett even remembers seeing neatly stacked copies of "Arcane" and "Magic" in the War God’s Temple.

In Garrett’s concept, these two journals are roughly equivalent to the top three journals in the natural sciences in his previous life: "Cell," "Nature," and "Science."

In the medical field, you would add "The Lancet" and "The New England Journal of Medicine."

In the earlier years, publishing in one of these journals before the age of 30 was almost equivalent to securing a position as an academician.

"This is ’Arcane’..."

The trainees sucked in cold air with a hiss. Their fingers reached out to touch the paper, involuntarily trembling, partly in awe, partly in envy.

First Author: Garrett Nordmark.

On the cover of the paper, the neatly handwritten name stood out.

He is the first author. Not the second author, not the third author, not even co-first author. In other words, this paper is the creative work of Garrett alone, his idea, his organization of experiments – he is undoubtedly deserving.

Knowledge is eternal, but power is in an instant. In other words, the attention of the review meeting is only temporary, but once the paper is published in "Arcane," for decades, centuries, a thousand years, future mages will still see this article, still see the name Garrett Nordmark!

The shock and envy of the surrounding students couldn’t be concealed. Garrett estimates that if he, in his previous life in college, saw a classmate beside him independently publish in "Cell," "The Lancet," or "The New England Journal of Medicine," he probably had a similar expression...

"Garrett, this is your paper, you explain." Mage Edgar admired the astonished expressions of the students, and a rare smile appeared on his cold, very characteristic face of a necromancer. He took a step to the side of the podium, indicating for Garrett to come up:

"Your paper, be it the idea or the research method, no one knows better than you."

This... Garrett hesitated for a moment. Seeing him unmoving, Mage Edgar impatiently made a "tsk" sound and pointed down. The dark gold skull that had finished delivering the paper trotted down, straight to Garrett’s front. With one hand, it grabbed the paper in front of Garrett, slightly bent over, and made a "please" gesture with the other hand.

This skull is too agile... Is it from the same school as Linde? Really, Master, what is your relationship with Linde?

Garrett resisted the urge to stick his eyeballs to the skull. Don’t stare, don’t study its pelvis and skull to see if they’re original, don’t reach out to touch... Oh, why is this skull pulling people?

It’s really not decent to tug back and forth in the classroom. Helpless, Garrett could only follow the skull, step by step, onto the podium. First, he bowed lightly to Mage Edgar and the assistant, then nodded to the students below, cleared his throat, and began to speak:

"Respected Archmage, fellow students, hello everyone. My paper is not particularly outstanding; it just deals with the issue of mages possibly contracting diseases during their research. The council cares about the health of mages, which is why they attach special importance to it..."

The commotion in the classroom gradually subsided. Students exchanged glances, and the emotions of envy and jealousy finally dissipated a bit: so he just chose a good topic...

"Get to the point!" Archmage Edgar, however, became impatient. He knocked on the skull beside him – the dark gold skull bent down very considerately and handed the skull to its master – making an "empty" sound:

"At such a young age, steady and stable, without any sharpness!"

Uh... used to it. Garrett smiled embarrassedly, opened the cover of the paper:

"This paper starts with cases of diseases appearing in bat catchers, sellers, and researchers. Through animal experiments, it demonstrates the fact that contact with bats may transmit diseases, as well as the symptoms, transmission routes, and preventive measures of the disease.

...The design idea of the animal experiment... The experiment shows that this new type of disease is indeed caused by the infection from bats...

...According to the current cases, the incubation period of the disease is 4-14 days, and the main transmission route is droplet transmission, with also cases of infection through consuming food contaminated with bat secretions.

...Among the collected cases, 90% of the patients are ordinary people, 8% are mage apprentices and low-level warriors, and 2% are first-level mages. No signs of infection were found in mages and warriors of the second level and above. No evidence of human-to-human transmission has been found.

Preliminary conclusions can be drawn that as the level of extraordinary beings increases, their life force becomes stronger, effectively reducing the likelihood of getting sick..."

He explained the entire paper’s ideas and logic as succinctly as possible. Once finished, his

mouth was dry and tongue parched. With Archmage Edgar watching and the students below not daring to make noise, Garrett felt relieved. However, as soon as he finished, three or five hands went up:

"Why experiment on animals?"

Uh...

Garrett froze.

Should I say "because human experiments are not allowed," or should I say "because the magnification of the microscope is not high enough to separate the virus"?

Neither seems quite right...

Garrett sweated profusely during this class. Even though there were many things he couldn’t and didn’t want to talk about, the paper’s ideas, logical flow, and the formidable aura of "Arcane" conquered all the students. Even when the class ended, no one was willing to leave. They stared eagerly at Garrett, as if they were planning to let him revise their papers...

Luckily, Archmage Edgar chased everyone away. As the students left, one after another, the classroom quieted down, and the decibel level dropped from over 80 to below 40. Garrett rubbed his buzzing ears, barely having time to rejoice when the Archmage looked into his eyes and pulled out a dry smile:

"No wonder Linde recommended you several times. Your research ideas and topic direction really match well with the necromancy school. Would you be willing to join the Black Crow Swamp?"

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