One by one, people started to come out, about five individuals aside from Li Ming, all with a gleam of combativeness in their eyes.
Tinkering with a little gadget, is it worth such intense animosity? The stimulant isn’t even me, so why keep fixating on me?
Li Ming grumbled inwardly, but sometimes he found these people rather endearing in their foolishness.
"Very good," Ding Hui nodded with satisfaction, "That’s more like it."
"Here are the materials, use them as you wish. If by afternoon you can’t get it right, then stop wasting time."
He gestured towards the small workbenches—each was equipped with the necessary tools, ion welders, high-energy hammer furnaces...
Ding Hui casually found a spot, gathered the other students, and began to comment on their actions as they unfolded before him.
"That Zhou Kui, seems like he’s making boxing gloves, a layer of fiber liner, a layer of nanofibers... Oh, the nanofibers aren’t nanomaterials, just approximations."
"His technique is fairly adept, the middle layer is wrapped with soft plastic alloy... the outer layer is polyester foam... not very challenging overall."
"Ha... not bad, creative, replacing foam with high-energy gel, it could store energy for an explosive effect in combat..."
His keen eye allowed him to very quickly deduce what they were creating with just a glance or two.
The other students, initially nonchalant, gradually became serious. Both Ding Hui’s knowledge and the skills of Zhou Kui and his companions were astonishing to them.
"Come, let’s see what our number one is doing..." Ding Hui shifted his gaze towards Li Ming’s direction.
The other students also looked over, all secretly hoping Ding Hui would offer some criticism.
Li Ming had shown incredible potential in development, and being a student of Professor Wu, he had an immeasurable future. However, they would be quite pleased if they could surpass him in any other way.
Yet, they waited a while and still hadn’t heard Ding Hui speak. Some couldn’t help but take a couple of steps forward to look at Ding Hui.
They then realized that their mentor’s expression was unusually grave and solemn.
"What... what is he doing? Going straight for the ion welder?" Many people gasped.
For their level, the ion welder needed to be used with extreme caution.
"Such proficient technique, is he making gloves? He’s using copper for the embedded material, must be electromagnetic, quite bold. Isn’t he afraid of voltage instability?" Ding Hui finally spoke, his tone full of uncertainty.
This made the other students look at each other in bewilderment. Before, Ding Hui had commented on others with great confidence, but now it was different.
"Using the welder to craft an electronic control board?" A student was left speechless, watching Li Ming’s movements as he welded resistor components onto the control module with a miniature welder.
None of the other students dared to engage in such tasks, those requiring circuit controls, for they were too complicated. A misstep leading to a short circuit was the least of their worries.
Not to mention using a welder to craft it, which demanded incredible technique.
"What’s he looking for?" Everyone saw Li Ming suddenly halt his work, searching through the materials around him while frowning.
As if unable to find a satisfactory material, he picked up a large chunk of heavy magnetite, placed it on the workbench, then took up the ion welder and started to heat the edges.
"No, what is he doing?" The group was baffled.
Only Ding Hui, with furrowed brows, suddenly got up and paced back and forth, muttering, "Impossible, theoretically it’s possible, but it requires extreme precision."
Everyone watched Ding Hui pace, unable to comprehend.
"I’m done!" With an excited shout, Zhou Kui held up his crimson-red gloves.
"Shut up!" Ding Hui shouted, startling Zhou Kui, who was slightly embarrassed.
Only then did they realize, Ding Hui was crowded around Li Ming, and so were they.
As they saw Li Ming’s hands steady without a trace of a tremble, Ding Hui finally breathed a sigh of relief. The block of black heavy magnetite was now reduced to half its size.
After a long while, the black heavy magnetite completely disappeared, leaving behind two thumb cap-sized black crystals.
"Holy shit, hand-refined Refined Magnetic Cores!" someone exclaimed, their voice quivering: "Heavy magnetite generates a strong magnetic force when electrified; if the temperature is right, it could be refined into a magnetic core, and then gain a storage effect, the core material for many relay stations."
"But the temperature and time have to be extremely precise, and it can only be done in workshops, I’ve never seen anyone do it by hand."
Upon hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but stare, now understanding that Li Ming was actually refining materials with an ion welder.
Hand-crafting magnetic cores was unheard of. Even with the well-controlled temperature of an ion welder, this seemed too otherworldly.
Zhou Kui held his own gloves in his hands. Initially, when he noticed everyone’s focus was on Li Ming, he felt a tad indignant.
Now he just scratched his head, his cheeks reddening, hiding the gloves behind him, too embarrassed to present them.
Li Ming placed the magnetic core at the heart of the glove and then took out a piece of black fabric.
"Insulating skin, this should be the last step."
With precise thermal fusion, a pair of gloves lay quietly on the workbench, completely black, with faint purple circuitry nodes on the palms, looking quite ordinary.
"Teacher..." Li Ming looked up at the fervent Ding Hui, "this is my Electromagnetic Explosion Gloves."