Just Ox-Horses

The moment the idea of holding competitions came to him, Chen Yu wanted to cheer for himself.

Heaven Origin did not have many competitive events, mainly because its income was low, while competitions were money pits.

Competition venues cost money. Hiring relevant staff cost money. Competition rewards cost money. Everything cost money.

Ever since Heaven Origin's Spirit Stones had been mined dry, the new Cultivators' Committee had been completely broke. They could not organize competitions and could only rummage through old warehouses for scraps, barely keeping things afloat.

If Dreamscape competitions were used, many of the previous expenses could be saved. But referees, competition rewards, and the relevant dreamscapes would still cost money.

But precisely because no one was doing this, it was Heaven Origin's blue ocean.

As long as he was willing to spend money, he could promote his dreamscapes, hand out his Positive Mana as rewards, and incidentally torment the contestants with all sorts of competition mechanics.

Genius!

With the content decided, the next step was deciding the competition format.

Although he had the ready-made dreamscape Body Cultivator, it was clearly not a good choice.

This dreamscape had already become Heaven Origin's ultimate score-grinding tool. If he used it for duels, the other students would only praise him for dedicating himself wholeheartedly to Heaven Origin's educational cause, spending money to promote his own educational philosophy. He was truly too kind.

Such a good person had to be supported, with a huge like!

Then the Positive Emotion would explode, he would be locked in the little dark room again, and Teacher Zhao would torture him mercilessly.

"How... should I handle this?"

"Handle what?"

Turning around, Chen Yu saw the burly Ma Daqiang appear beside him, holding both his and Chen Yu's exercise books.

Shaking the homework book, he asked awkwardly, "Godfather, I wanted to ask... was there something wrong with your Chinese homework today?"

"Are you questioning my intelligence?"

"I'm questioning your morality. In the essay question, why did you write, 'Laozi's writings are five thousand words long, but Laozi is still the founder of Daoism'? Isn't that a little too arrogant?"

"...Laozi was a person."

"I know you're a person, but we're discussing arrogance right now. Don't put too much profanity in your homework, or your Morality score will be deducted."

Letting out a long breath, Chen Yu told himself not to communicate with people whose intelligence had run out of credit, then asked gently, "Then how do you think it should be changed?"

"Change it to 'I,' then it'll sound gentler."

"...Then go do it."

After sending Ma Daqiang away, Chen Yu felt as though his patience had improved a little.

But Ma Daqiang was not completely useless. At the very least, he had let Chen Yu know what kind of competition he should make.

An academic knowledge competition, with Xiao Chen writing the questions!

More precisely, an intelligence-based academic competition.

Each match would have forty people. Once enough participants gathered, the match would begin. Everyone would be randomly assigned ten questions, and those who answered correctly within the time limit would advance to the next round.

After two consecutive rounds, if players still remained, they would enter a turn-based answering stage. The questions would gradually become more difficult, until the final winner was decided.

As long as he set the rewards for this competition high enough, his Positive Mana would be cleared out as soon as it appeared. Then he would never need to worry about this again.

Thinking of that, Chen Yu sighed with relief. He had finally found a good method and would no longer have to suffer like this.

But when he opened the Dream Maker Platform and prepared to make a simple version to test it out, he discovered an important problem.

The maximum reward for a single Dreamscape competition could only be set at ten points of mana.

Confused, Chen Yu sent his question to the Tianyuan Cultivators Committee, and they quickly gave him an explanation.

Chen Yu, who had created two outstanding dreamscapes, was a key subject of the Tianyuan Cultivators Committee's attention. His inquiries would therefore be specially marked and handled quickly.

[Dear beginner Dream Maker, Mr. Morning Light.]

[We have received your inquiry. This restriction exists because Demon Sect cultivators previously used dreamscapes for fraud, inducing players to make large mana transfers or gamble for profit. This caused many cultivators to accumulate enormous mana debts. Afterward, the mana they condensed had to be used to repay those debts, yet the interest on those debts exceeded the amount of mana they themselves could condense.]

[Many cultivators were forced to pawn their Spiritual Roots and leave in despair.]

[In order to maintain a stable number of cultivators in Heaven Origin, we have had no choice but to limit rewards to 10 points of mana. We ask for your understanding.]

After reading the Cultivators' Committee's reply, Chen Yu could understand it, but it was impossible for him to fully accept it.

Clutching his head, he lamented that those bastard Demon Sect members had no idea how important sustainable exploitation was. Now they had blocked off every path for him.

Opening the Constitution Panel and bringing up the detailed interface, he found that the Fourth High School students were still freaking out. Once they finished freaking out, they gave him Positive Emotion.

The Sports High School students were still being abused. Once the abuse was over, they gave him Positive Emotion.

Adding the two together and factoring in the emotion cooldown, he could currently obtain around six thousand points of Positive Emotion every day, equivalent to sixty thousand yuan.

"Having to spend sixty thousand a day? You might as well kill me."

Moreover, his emotional cap was one hundred thousand. Although he could draw on it in advance, the total amount would not change, which meant it only amounted to sixteen days' worth.

Over those sixteen days, he had to cultivate, make dreamscapes, and figure out ways to spend money at the same time. His schedule was packed tight.

Therefore, he had to transfer part of the work to other people so that he could relax a little.

Thinking of the Morning Light Co., Ltd. he had registered before, Chen Yu knew it was time to hire people.

The employees he hired could help him spend money and create some of the repetitive materials in his dreamscapes, freeing up his time for the crucial parts and giving him time to cultivate.

With that in mind, he immediately put away his phone, found Teacher Zhao to ask for leave, then left the school at once and headed straight for the job market.

Heaven Origin's job market had originally been called the Bottom-Tier Worker Exchange Center. After the new Tianyuan Cultivators Committee came to power, they felt the name sounded unpleasant, so they changed it to the job market.

Some cultivators did not have much education. Other districts would not take them in, so they could only scrape together odd jobs here to make a living.

Those who could not find work could only sit at free spiritual energy points and absorb spiritual energy, becoming spiritual energy Miners for others while living in a state where their expenses exceeded their income.

The moment Chen Yu stepped inside, the high school graduates immediately raised their heads expectantly like quails that had caught a scent.

But when they saw that the person entering was another high school student, they lowered their heads in disappointment and continued sitting, reducing their mana consumption that way.

Every Ox-Horse here had only one mat and could only sit cross-legged on it. They could do nothing else.

They kept their heads lowered, red slips of paper balanced on top of them. The papers listed their education, scores, and subjects they excelled in for potential employers to choose from.

Though this place was called a job market, they all knew that they were merely Ox-Horses.