All martial arts under heaven are invincible if they are fast enough, and unbreakable if they are solid enough.
Even the smallest object, if propelled at a sufficiently high speed, can generate astonishing destructive force upon impact.
For instance, a meteor ten meters in diameter colliding with Earth at the first cosmic velocity would be enough to obliterate a city of a million people in an instant.
The mecha controlled and piloted by Meng Hao, crashing into hundreds of thousands of tons of sand dunes at several times the speed of sound, generated a destructive force so immense that it left everyone stunned, even through the phone camera.
Rumble.
Accompanied by a colossal explosion.
Sand hills tens of meters high were completely blown apart.
The shockwave, carrying a staggering amount of sand, dispersed in all directions, its circular pattern even discernible to the naked human eye.
Tens of seconds later.
Staring at the sand dunes that had vanished into thin air, the impact crater several meters deep created by the mecha, once again submerged by the shifting sands, the online classroom fell silent for over half a minute before erupting once more.
"Holy crap!"
"Absolutely incredible."
"If this isn't CG, it's outrageously cool."
"The power of this single mecha impact is already comparable to a tactical nuclear bomb."
"CG rendered by computer?... I seriously doubt that claim now... No matter how realistic CG animation is, it can't perfectly simulate reality... This shockwave, this descent, this dynamic lighting – to me, it looks completely real!"
"Let's stop talking about visual perception... Our major is Applied Physics... The air compression, collapse, explosion, negative pressure siphon, and the flight of trillions of sand particles in the image... Even if a top-tier CG team could create this, no supercomputer in the world today could calculate the trajectories of trillions of individual sand grains... This isn't CG at all, it's actual footage from a real-life shoot!"
While the laymen watched the spectacle, the professionals saw the substance.
Even if Shilin University was a mere third-rate institution, the students attending the online class were all semi-professionals who had studied Applied Physics for three years.
Whether it was the lighting and sunlight in the scene, the movement of the mecha, or the hundreds of thousands of tons of sand blown away in the end, the trajectories of the sand particles, vast as an ocean, made these semi-professionals realize.
This was absolutely not a computer-generated CG image.
Furthermore, there was no team or supercomputer in the world capable of rendering such a video.
As the flying sand finally settled.
The scene returned to tranquility.
Everyone realized a staggering truth.
"If this video is real..."
"Does this mean Meng Hao is currently in the eastern border of Great Xia, in the Taklamakan Desert, known as the Sea of Death and a forbidden zone for life; and has even manually excavated metal ore in the heart of the desert and hand-built a mecha?"
This was simply too absurd!
Seeing the constant exclamations in the class chat, with almost everyone lost in their own thoughts.
Meng Hao, having parked the mecha in the sand and reappeared before his phone, rolled his eyes.
They were his classmates, after all.
And all of them were in the Applied Physics department.
Could they not act like country bumpkins who had never seen the world?
So what if he appeared alone in the forbidden zone of the Taklamakan Desert?
So what if he excavated metal ore and hand-built a mecha?!!
So what if he piloted the mecha and destroyed a sand hill weighing hundreds of thousands of tons in front of the entire class and faculty!!!
Why all the fuss and shouting?
Settle down.
Stop mashing those '666' keys on your keyboards.
It's all just basic operations.
Meng Hao picked up his phone again, switching to the rear camera.
He walked around the mecha sitting on the sand, capturing supplementary footage in 360-degree detail. He then moved a little further away, giving the incredibly cool, futuristic mecha several high-definition close-ups, before switching back to the front camera and speaking again in the class chat!
"Instructor Gao Ping."
"As per your request, I have built a mecha and performed a set of martial arts."
"I believe this homework assignment should be considered satisfactory, right?"
Of course.
Meng Hao's words had two intentions.
Firstly, to urge Gao Ping to quickly approve his homework.
Secondly, and more importantly, he was speaking directly to the system.
Indeed.
To be on the safe side.
Meng Hao even fiddled with his phone on the spot and sent the recorded video as an email attachment to Gao Ping.
Well, he had double-insured himself.
Now the system wouldn't play any tricks on him by changing the completion conditions of the task at the last minute, would it?
He never expected.
That this bold move of his would completely stun all his classmates and instructors in the online class, including Instructor Gao Ping.
After a full seven or eight minutes of stunned silence, Gao Ping felt he had regained his consciousness from the overwhelming shock.
On the live stream.
Gao Ping took out the student roster and drew a "○" next to Meng Hao's name.
Huh?
What did drawing a "○" mean?
As everyone knew.
A "√" meant passed, and an "x" meant failed.
So, what did Gao Ping's "○" for Meng Hao signify?
Did it count as passing or failing?
If he failed!
He would be forcibly wiped out by the system.
Seeing Meng Hao about to get anxious.
Gao Ping finally spoke slowly and unhurriedly.
"Student Meng Hao."
"To be honest, as your instructor, a graduate of the Physics department from Tsinghua University, I couldn't possibly believe, based on my emotions and common sense, that you went to the forbidden zone, the Sea of Death, the Taklamakan Desert, alone, and then single-handedly excavated, smelted, and fused massive amounts of metal, and even hand-built a mecha with your bare hands..."
"However, my twenty-plus years of professional knowledge in physics and my rationality tell me that the visuals presented in the video, including the lighting, sand, and gravity, cannot possibly be artificially rendered CG images..."
"Therefore, I need you to provide actual evidence to make my rationality completely defeat my emotions."
As if to prove that his emotional judgment was on the verge of collapse due to this Meng Hao, who was in the deathly desert hand-building a giant mecha, Gao Ping, with a slightly trembling hand, picked up his teacup and gulped down the remaining half cup of scalding hot water in one go.
Huh?
Don't stop now!
Finish it all in one go!
Meng Hao stared intently at the scalding steam rising from Gao Ping's mouth, waiting for him to continue.
"Therefore, I have decided that you have passed this assessment..."
"However, whether you can graduate smoothly and on time is still pending..."
"Unless, you can sell this mecha..."
"The various parameters and actual performance of this mecha are at the forefront of global technology... In fact, in many aspects, it has already surpassed current human technology..."
"So, asking you to set the price of this mecha at one million is not excessive, is it?!"