I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

"Utterly nonsensical!" the editor at Nature journal put down the phone and continued with their peer review work.

"What's up with Gamas?" a colleague joked, placing a cup of coffee on his desk.

"Nothing much, just someone wanting me to rush their review, claiming they are this year's Nobel Prize in Physics laureate," Gamas sipped his coffee, his tone laced with mockery.

"Hahaha, I got calls from three Nobel Chemistry Prize and two Nobel Prize in Physics laureates just yesterday," Gamas' colleague laughed, "Turned out their papers weren't even third-class in quality."

At their Nature magazine, submissions were categorized into four quality levels; the lowest was Level Three, which were utterly mediocre articles that were usually sent back immediately. Such articles accounted for over 90% of all submissions.

Level Two articles had a certain academic breakthrough and, after some revisions, had the chance to be upgraded to Level One.

As for Level One articles, they were the ones that required the editors' attention; if they reached Level One quality and were modified and supplemented with additional data, they stood a great chance of being published in the magazine.

The top-level articles absolutely had to be breakthroughs in topic selection and be rich in content, typically resolving fundamental issues in certain disciplines or achieving significant breakthroughs in application, where the economic benefits could be measured in upwards of one billion US dollars.

However, such articles were rare; top-level articles might only be encountered once every few years, and once discovered, the editors would compete vigorously for them.

Should they be lucky, and the content of one such article won a world-class award, their names as editors would also appear in the corresponding publication, and the most direct benefit would be a generous prize sum.

"Why don't you just pull it out from the archives and take a look, maybe they really could win the Nobel Prize?"

"Hahaha, if you want to check it out, be my guest, but don't disturb my work here!" Gamas expressed his headache, "It's been a long time since I've seen a high-quality article. If there aren't any good submissions this month, the chief editor is going to have issues with me."

"Then you carry on; I'll see if I can fish out any good articles," Gamas' colleague returned to his desk and began sifting through today's hundreds of submissions.

This scene was nearly a daily occurrence in every top-level journal.

Although history had seen many cases where, for instance, a Nobel Chemistry Prize winner's manuscript was rejected or left unseen in the archives for a year or two, those were exceptions. How many Nobel laureates could there be in a year? What were the odds it would happen to be their turn?

"There really are no high-quality submissions today," Gamas' colleague Mohad started browsing the submission system.

"Evidence that Cats Can Be Solid and Liquid Based on 'Low Bond Number'"

"What a zoo this is, to think that someone would write such an article!"

"Y-Earphones for Baby Education in the Womb"

"Baby pod... well, well, what's this... a recording device?"

"Determining Human Preferences for Durian via Brain CT Scans"

"They dare say they're going for the biology award with this stuff?"

"The Impact of Wearing Underpants on Mice Mating"

"... Oh God, is there any hope left for humanity?"

Actually, this wasn't Mohad's first encounter with such absurd articles; their submission system frequently showcased such bizarre pieces, which were indeed a rather entertaining part of their otherwise monotonous work.

"The Trap Capture Method as Proof of Dark Matter's Existence in the Universe"

Suddenly, an article with a particularly eye-catching title grabbed Mohad's attention.

Humans have been studying dark matter for a hundred years now, but so far, there has been no progress; currently, the number of research groups studying dark matter worldwide is less than one-third of what it was a decade ago.

There's no helping it; studying this thing often requires extravagances like particle colliders, and even if some outcomes are obtained, there's virtually no direct financial gain apart from prestige, so gradually many people have also given up.

It seems that articles proving the existence of dark matter haven't really appeared in several years. In Mohad's recollection, the latest one seems to be from four years ago, but it was rejected by a peer review expert due to a very obvious academic error at the time.

If any of these articles had a chance to win the Nobel Prize, then the one represented by this title would definitely be a contender; as long as someone can prove the existence of dark matter, they would undoubtedly be a Nobel Prize in Physics laureate.

"Astronomical telescopes, particle colliders, cosmic background radiation observation...sheesh, this research group really does have money," Mohad was somewhat amazed at the equipment used in this paper, not something ordinary research groups have the ability to utilize.

"Could it be from a national royal observatory or some research institute like that?" Mohad glanced at the mailing address of this paper, "Huaxia, Jiangzhe Province, Jiangnan City, Jiangnan University of Science and Technology? A university?"

Mohad immediately looked up the information; was Jiangnan University of Science and Technology a prestigious university in Huaxia?

"Ranked 128th in Huaxia, world ranking... This kind of school has these kinds of resources?"

"The corresponding author is just a title holder of Huaxia's Thousand Talents Plan, not even an Academician; this really is laughable." Mohad was just about to reject this paper outright; a third-class university and a third-class scholar, could they solve a problem that has troubled the whole world for a hundred years? That would be ridiculous, right?

But when he saw the logical validation and the massive data that followed, he actually found that the author's train of thought was so clear he could understand it himself!

As an editor for a world-class academic periodical, Mohad used to work in academia too, but the differences between disciplines and topics are vast. Even with some scientific literacy, under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult for him to understand these papers, but this one was so clear.

He immediately put down the work in his hands with excitement and started to meticulously review this paper, even consulting a large amount of supplementary material simultaneously. At least there were no common sense errors he could find throughout the article, which was very complete; if the data weren't falsified, the conclusion should be quite convincing.

"No, this has to go to the reviewers immediately!"

Mohad's instincts told him that this was an extraordinary paper, and even if the conclusions were wrong, if the validation process was worthwhile, it wouldn't be impossible to publish it in a periodical.

If this proof is correct...

Mohad's breathing became rapid; then this paper could very likely directly win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and if he were this paper's handling editor, he could be promoted to chief editor next year based on this achievement!

The chief editor of Nature, a position many ordinary scholars wouldn't even dare dream of, its status is even higher than that of an average professor!

He immediately sent an email to a few scholars he knew, hoping they would read this paper thoroughly.

Normally, these scholars drag their feet when reviewing, giving feedback within a month or two, which would already be considered very efficient.

But on the third day, Mohad received a phone call from a professor at the Royal Institute of England.

"Professor Pritt, have you finished reading that manuscript?" Mohad asked cautiously.

"Hmm."

Mohad could tell that there was something off about the professor's mood.

"Professor, what's the matter? Is there a problem with that paper?" Mohad continued to ask. If the quality of the paper was too poor, it would be a waste of time for many professors, and they would usually be very angry.

Could I have been mistaken? Mohad began to doubt himself.

"Mr. Mohad," the professor named Pritt took a deep breath, "this will be the greatest discovery made by humans in the early part of this century!"