Competitors

Zhang Zhi saw that it was getting late and his own matters were mostly settled, so he took his leave. "Your Excellency, I have no further issues. If you have no other instructions, I'll take my leave."

Li Qianjun picked up a piece of paper from beside him and handed it over. "I have nothing else. You can head back first. This paper lists the rewards from the academy for your Trial Tower achievements. Take a look, but don't take it with you—it'll be issued to you later under the guise of a special enrollment student subsidy. Just keep it in mind."

Zhang Zhi took the paper and glanced at it. There were only two lines: 100 Academic Credits per month, and one Medium Small World cultivator Promotion Slot per year.

He had heard of Academic Credits. Class Advisor Liu had mentioned them this morning—credits could be used at the academy's Card Exchange Point to trade for various cards.

As for the Promotion Slot in the second reward, he wasn't quite clear on what that meant.

Still, with only one slot per year, it had to be something good, right?

He placed the paper respectfully on the table beside him, then stood up, took his leave, and left the Li Residence.

Li Qianjun watched Zhang Zhi's retreating figure, lost in thought.

On his way back, Zhang Zhi guessed that Li Qianjun had likely deduced that his small world might possess a World Trait, though he hadn't called it out.

When he returned to his lodgings, he realized he had a lot on his plate tomorrow. First, he needed to go to the library to look up materials on small world advancement and World Traits.

After that, he had to go to the classroom. He'd only agreed to Class Advisor Liu this morning, and he couldn't skip two days in a row—she'd really lose it.

He had a lot of respect for that advisor, who genuinely cared about her students.

Finally, he had to wait for the person Li Qianjun had arranged to deliver the materials. He still wasn't sure when they'd show up tomorrow.

Thinking it over, Zhang Zhi sighed and figured he might as well wash up and get some sleep.

But the day's experiences had him too excited. This Secondary Education School really was different from Primary Education. He tossed and turned until the sky was barely light before finally drifting off.

The next morning, Zhang Zhi was woken up by a visitor.

He went to the door and found it was the person Li Qianjun had instructed to deliver the materials yesterday.

The courier had come bright and early, but he hadn't brought the materials—only a message. He said their Club President wanted Zhang Zhi to go to the Student Activity Center himself, where the president would hand over the materials.

Hearing that, Zhang Zhi nearly laughed in frustration.

Was this the kind of brainless side character protagonists always ran into in novels?

Was the president feeling threatened by him and trying to throw his weight around?

Then he thought again. Li Qianjun was at least a Great Power with hopes of becoming a Middle Thousand World Realm Lord. Any club tied to him would surely be run by his family.

Could someone from that family, stupid enough to sit in the management seat of the Seven Dragons Academy's clubs, really be that foolish?

With that in mind, a thought struck him. If he were just an ordinary fourteen-year-old genius from the bottom rungs, full of pride after catching a noble's eye, and someone tried to pull this kind of power play, what would he do?

He'd originally planned to head to the library after getting up, but now he furrowed his brow, thinking for a while, before heading toward the subway station.

He wanted to meet this club president and see what game he was playing.

After getting off the subway, it was just a short walk to the Student Activity Center.

The Student Activity Center was made up of nine nine-story buildings. It was where all school-recognized groups, clubs, and teams held their activities. Zhang Zhi's first impression was the sheer number of people—it felt like the entire student body was there.

The entire first floor of the center and the surrounding plazas were used for students to trade and exchange goods.

Yes, that's right. Students had set up little stalls everywhere. At a glance, there were at least a thousand of them, and with all the shoppers, tens of thousands of people were milling about—probably an undercount.

Many clubs were recruiting new members. Zhang Zhi pretended to be a newbie and went around to the recruitment booths to gather intel.

It wasn't really pretending—he was a freshman, after all.

The benefits from the various clubs were pretty good. For ordinary students, they weren't even worse than the academy's subsidies.

A whole stack of materials, including basic knowledge about the Trial Tower, was part of the perks.

Of course, those materials weren't just limited to what was in the library. They also included plenty of secrets each club had gathered over the years. Any club that had managed to stick around definitely had Some Skills.

But signing that agreement wasn't so easy. Each club had its own set of obligations, but they all shared one thing: the service period in the contract often started at ten years.

Even if you got into the Higher World Education Academy, you'd still have to come back and fulfill that contract.

For an ordinary World Master with no ambition, that agreement wasn't bad. But for anyone with drive, it was a shackle.

It was like knowing you could definitely succeed in starting a business, just needing a little seed capital, and then someone comes up and says, "I'll give you the funds, but first, come work for my company for ten years."

Would you agree? Unless you were desperate, hardly anyone with ambition would.

After asking around at several club recruitment booths, Zhang Zhi roughly guessed why the president had done what he did.

He wanted to recruit Zhang Zhi into his club—or rather, use that recruitment to achieve some goal of his own.

If Zhang Zhi had gotten angry this morning and run straight to Li Qianjun to complain, it wouldn't have hurt the president much.

He could just say his Original Heart was to secure more benefits for the family, and he'd barely get scolded. In fact, it might even leave a good impression with the family's higher-ups.

But what about Zhang Zhi? If he couldn't even handle getting materials from a club without feeling wronged, calling him "picky" wouldn't be an overstatement. Worse, calling him "incompetent" wouldn't be too far off either.

If he were just an ordinary fourteen-year-old genius from the bottom, singled out by Li Qianjun, he might have fallen for it.

If you had a good temper and didn't get angry, then when you came to pick up the materials, they'd say, "See, everyone else has to join the club to get these. You're a special recruit under our Li Qianjun, and you're taking our club's materials—it's only fair you join, right?"

Once you joined, you'd naturally become his subordinate. His family, including Li Qianjun, would praise him for handling things well.

He'd get the praise and nip a potential rival in the bud—two birds with one stone. For the president to come up with such a sharp move in such a short time, he really had some skill.

That club president was probably genuinely worried about "competing for favor" with Zhang Zhi. But his methods were far more refined than most.

People from those families—their hearts were just black.