On Thursday, Day 34, the third-class championship took place. Zane defeated Keesha in the semi-final after blocking her Telekinesis Rocks with his shield and stealing her rock bag using the Mana Rope. In the final, he faced the sergeant and lost terribly. Sergeant Rhode cast one of the most powerful 0-ring wind spells: Hundred Cuts.
After casting Wind Fog to hide visibility, the sergeant took the opportunity while Zane was casting Detect Bio-Electricity to release hundreds of tiny wind blades that first tore apart Zane's magic blade before threatening to cut him into dozens of pieces. Luckily, the protective ward was always reliable. As such, a new champion was crowned.
Saturday, Day 36, Departure Day.
At 8 in the morning, Zane left the academy and returned to Earth. He connected to his Wi-Fi to recalibrate his phone. The date changed to Saturday, August 7th, but the time remained the same. He texted his mother and Alisha before relaxing on his bed. Unlike the first day, this departure meant everybody had only 12 hours, which, in hindsight, wasn't much.
Zane didn't know how to spend his time. Twelve days wasn't enough time to finish his dark web tasks, and he wasn't craving homemade food like last time. As he sat on his small bed, thinking of what to do, Zane finally decided not to waste the time. So he put on his earbuds and listened to an audiobook; the subject wasn't magic theory, but mathematics. After more than a month, he had finally achieved his original goal and had started learning Gremorian mathematics.
Half an hour into the session, Zane suddenly remembered something he wanted to do. Without wasting a second, he looked up the cell number for Riverdale Country School to ask for some information. Zane hung up a few minutes later and immediately switched into an all-black suit before heading to a nearby florist to buy a bouquet; his destination was Trinity Church Cemetery in Uptown Manhattan. He found the grave he was looking for and paid his respects.
"In the end, I never had a chance to apologize for how things turned out, Mrs. Heidi," Zane sighed. His mind flashed to that elderly woman with a gentle but stern smile, who always kept him grounded. In many ways, she kept his ego from reaching the stratosphere.
Zane sighed deeply. "With how I've turned out, you would probably be disappointed. So, maybe this is for the best."
Zane walked back home, slightly distracted. Life doesn't always offer closure, and he was used to that. Unfortunately, no one is immune to regrets — not even a genius. After he got home, Zane grabbed some juice from the fridge and headed straight to bed; he wanted to take a nap. However, as he was not paying attention, he knocked over one of the many piles of books in this cramped room.
"This place is really too small," he complained before tidying things up. One of the things he had knocked down was his sketchpad, so he picked it up. "It's been a while." He's had a sketchbook since he was a kid, always drawing his ideas. Even his time in prison didn't stop him from creating and innovating; in fact, it was one of the few things that kept him sane.
As Zane flipped through the notebook, his mind was suddenly reinvigorated. Over the past few years, he had thought of many ideas and designs, which he could divide into four categories: outdated, competitive, state-of-the-art, and conceptual. Outdated ideas or designs are things that were invented or advanced during his five years in prison or his one year of release. At one point, these concepts may have been advanced, but they are no longer useful; technology has made great strides in the past few years.
Zane believes competitive designs can still compete in today's market if he can produce them. He just needs the funding, and he can release these projects immediately. Most of these are software since that doesn't require too much research and development, and technically speaking, someone in their basement could develop revolutionary computer software.
State of the art is Zane's greatest achievement. All these ideas can fundamentally change the course of history. Unfortunately, he would need millions, maybe billions, of dollars to conduct research before he could complete any of them. Conceptual inventions are purely theoretical; they are things Zane believes technology won't achieve in his lifetime, but he could lay the foundation for the future.
"Maybe I should rethink how I approach Kwame Dynamic," Zane thought. "It doesn't have to be a fake company designed to help me launder money from the dark web. With the money from hunting, I can finance a proper company, with my own research and development team. And with the academy, I will have ample time to achieve results in a short period."
His schematics involved countless industries and fields: software, robotics, materials science, computing, AI, semiconductors, manufacturing, engines, aerospace, mining, medical applications, and even a bit of weapons manufacturing. Zane chose to study Mechanical Engineering because it offered such a broad path. As such, he had many directions that he could take with Kwame Dynamics.
"If only Ali would sign up full-time for the company. I could leave the business side to her," Zane sighed, preparing to close his book. "Hmm?" He opened it again and looked at the page he had just closed. It was a Neural Network Design, which is used to develop Artificial Intelligence. "That's right. An artificial neural network is loosely based on biological neural networks, which means I can also use them as a reference to build a Mental Neural Network."
Zane suddenly felt a moment of eureka was approaching, so he calmed down to focus his mind. An artificial neural network used in machine computing (AI) is composed of nodes called artificial neurons, which are connected by edges similar to the synapses of a brain neuron. But unlike the brain, artificial neural networks don't send electrical or chemical signals: they send numbers, just like any computer.
"Artificial Neural Networks have layers: the signal travels from the first layer — the input —to the last layer: the output. But they are also supported by hidden layers — yes, hidden layers," Zane's eyes shone brightly. "My approach has been wrong from the beginning. Instead of trying to build a direct connection between different parts of the brain with pure mental energy, I should treat it like building a highway, with hidden layers of support."
Zane immediately closed his eyes to try. "No, building the hidden layers is too draining on mental energy. I might as well stick to the previous method." The idea wasn't feasible, but he didn't give up; his intuition told him he was on the verge of something, and the only thing missing was another piece of the puzzle.
"What is missing?" Zane uttered. He glanced at the artificial neural network designed on his hand. "Nodes…artificial neuron…input…output…wait, nodes? Yes, I can create nodes of mental energy to support the construction of the hidden layers."
After condensing his mental energy, Zane divided them into decent chunks, all located in the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the brainstem, and a small part of the limbic system. The small chunks acted as nodes that activated the many effects needed for the [Flow State], including focus, emotional regulation, drive, skill enhancement, and memory. Then, from these nodes, Zane fused with the life energy of countless neurons, forming a pathway that connected all these areas of the brain.
One of his core issues was this pathway. Maintaining the channeling—the fusion of mental and life energy—for so long and consistently enough to build the pathway was not easy. But now, this pathway originated from four places and met somewhere in the middle, which drastically reduced the difficulty. More importantly, Zane built hidden layers, which are actually just a layer of mental energy underneath the channeling pathway.
The hidden layer serves as a failsafe. If the mental channeling fails, the mental energy underneath will jump in to fill the gap. With this method, building a pathway between the four sections of the brain became much easier and more efficient. Zane didn't have to worry about failing the channeling since he knew he had a support system he could tap into with a single thought.
"Now, let's put everything together," Zane uttered. He immediately felt it. First, there was a tingling sensation in his left hand, followed by a sudden feeling of peace or serenity; his mind had never felt so active. The surroundings looked clearer. More importantly, Zane was more aware. Suddenly, he could notice the slightest of details, including the fact that the mosquito in his room had an injured wing. Zane even felt his mana was easier to manipulate. Unfortunately for him, the sensation soon ended as the mental network collapsed. He immediately tried again.
"Only three seconds? That's not even enough time to cast a spell," Zane uttered. A few more tests yielded the same result, so he tried a different path. The brain had too many neurons, and the number between these four specific sections was astronomical. So, on his second attempt, the [Flow State] only lasted a second. What's more, the subsequent attempts were no better.
"So, we're back to where we started?" Zane frowned. His previous plan involved calculating the perfect pathway for his network, and now, he also had to do the same. "I guess I'll keep trying and testing different paths."
Zane sighed to himself. He closed his notebook, preparing to clean up things. "Wait, why should I do all that work? Isn't that what computers exist for?"