Zhang Tianyuan walked a lap around the school.
Apart from the prompts on the panel, he found nothing unusual with the naked eye.
It was an ordinary wooden building, just a little crude and a little odd in style.
And although the seating inside was wooden, its desks and chairs were almost identical in style to modern ones, giving it a deliberately backward feel.
Hearing Bai Xu's request to sit inside, Zhang Tianyuan nodded.
"This is actually a school. Go sit inside and try out its effects. As I said before, studying in there gives you certain boosts."
Especially for languages-a full 100% boost.
This Elementary School was intended for lords to educate the savages in the game world, so its boost to language learning was the strongest.
But clearly, "savages" like Bai Xu had no use for that function.
Having finally learned the details, Bai Xu and the others impatiently entered the miraculous pavilion.
It was called miraculous not just because of how it had been built, but for other reasons too.
Bai Xu recalled how, at dawn, the strange covering outside had vanished once the school was completed. Still hungry for more, the science team had wanted to scrape a layer of wood shavings off its surface and take it back to analyze its composition.
Who would have thought they could not scrape off even that thin layer, no matter what they tried?
The wooden pillars seemed harder than steel. Never mind wood shavings-after all that scraping, the science team had not even left a mark.
Finally, when it was broad daylight, the science team had to abandon the idea and leave, asking Bai Xu and the others to find out what the wooden building was really made of instead.
They kept feeling it was not wood.
Afterward, Bai Xu had wanted to go inside the school and take a look, but the cautious Instructor Yin had stopped him.
As a result, they had waited all the way until now, nearly noon, before Zhang Tianyuan finally arrived and gave his permission.
Bai Xu pulled out a chair and immediately sat down, instinctively laying both hands flat on the desk. He looked around for a while, and then...
Nothing happened.
Bai Xu and the others looked at Zhang Tianyuan in confusion.
Zhang Tianyuan stared into the air, his gaze unfocused.
He was reading the four prompts that had popped up on the panel.
[Non-residents of the territory cannot use special territory facilities]
"Mr. Zhang, is something wrong?" Bai Xu asked.
Zhang Tianyuan said, "I may have to disappoint you. I just remembered that you don't yet meet the requirements for using the school's seats."
Bai Xu grew anxious. "Then what are the requirements?"
The others also watched him eagerly.
"To use these seats,
you have to be members of our organization."
Zhang Tianyuan looked them up and down.
"Would you... be willing to become the first members of the Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society?"
"The first members of the Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society?" Bai Xu and the others reacted rather strongly, all rising from their chairs. Only then did Instructor Yin ask, "Is this an organization you founded?"
Experienced as he was, he had noticed the words "first members." Clearly, this organization had only recently been founded.
In fact, Zhang Tianyuan's purpose in seeking them out had to be connected to this organization as well.
Zhang Tianyuan did not play any games of deliberate mystification. He knew that would only be lifting a rock to smash his own feet, so he readily admitted it. "That's right. The Parallel Mutual Aid Association is an organization I only recently decided to establish."
To be precise, he had only decided to establish it before coming here.
Seeing that Bai Xu and the others were clearly very curious about the organization,
Zhang Tianyuan simply sat down on a chair in the school and gestured for them to sit back down too, preparing to give them a proper explanation of his organization.
Unlike Bai Xu and the others, the moment Zhang Tianyuan sat down, his mind felt light and clear. Many little things he had long since forgotten came back to him, and even his thinking sped up considerably.
[Memory increased by 30%, comprehension increased by 10%, language-learning ability increased by 100%]
The school had taken effect.
Zhang Tianyuan paused for only a moment before continuing to explain the Parallel Mutual Aid Association.
"I assume you all know about parallel spacetimes?"
Bai Xu and the others hurriedly nodded.
Over the past month, they had received many crash courses, and parallel spacetimes were among the theories about Zhang Tianyuan's origins.
"Since you all know, I won't need to explain any further."
"Although every parallel spacetime develops differently, once a bird gets big enough, you get every kind of forest. Once there are enough parallel spacetimes, naturally a few of them are going to be doomed sooner or later."
Bai Xu glanced at Instructor Yin. Both of them realized Zhang Tianyuan was alluding to something.
Weren't they the ones who were about to be doomed?
Zhang Tianyuan pointed at them, not mincing his words at all. "No need to look. I mean you. I told you that the very first time I came."
Bai Xu gave a wry chuckle and could only listen as Zhang Tianyuan continued.
"As it happens, I can open a Spacetime Tunnel, so I thought we could make a fortress of our united wills. If one spacetime can't withstand a disaster, two spacetimes can
withstand it together. If two spacetimes can't withstand it, we'll find a third and withstand it together."
"That way, not only can we save many lives, we can also preserve the strength of each of your spacetimes to the greatest extent possible."
Instructor Yin wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and restated it according to his own understanding. "In other words, apart from us, Earths in other parallel spacetimes are also suffering apocalyptic disasters."
"And your goal, Mr. Zhang, is to gather the strength of all our spacetimes to fight these terrifying natural disasters together?"
Zhang Tianyuan said, "That's basically correct, except the apocalypse isn't necessarily caused by a natural disaster. It could also be an alien invasion, or a virus..."
At that thought, Zhang Tianyuan glanced at "I Am Legend," which he had yet to enter.
That was his next target.
Bai Xu, the machine gunner, and the driving champion were still too shocked to recover.
Since last night, they had received far too much information, and it was all far too astonishing.
Compared with this new information, the miraculous school before them no longer seemed quite so important.
Seeing that today's events had already reached the limit of what Bai Xu's group could take, and that he had said everything he could tell them,
Zhang Tianyuan casually confirmed the faction name awaiting designation on his panel as [Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society], then used the system's printing function to pull several sheets of paper out of thin air and hand them over.
"If you're willing to become the first members of the Mutual Aid Society, sign these."
"Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society Membership Application"
Core principle: mutual help, mutual support, mutual rescue
Basic obligations: follow official arrangements, maintain information confidentiality, actively cooperate with rescue efforts, actively participate in rescue efforts
Rights enjoyed: access to territory facilities
These were actually the naturalization terms he had spent three days drafting on the island through the customization function.
As long as they signed and affixed their fingerprints, they would become his residents, with no room to change their minds.
But these terms were indeed very fair, and could even be called preferential.
Other than filling a resident slot, Zhang Tianyuan took nothing.
Joining the Mutual Aid Society not only required no contribution, but granted eligibility to use territory facilities, along with the unseen benefit of rescue from the apocalypse.
Bai Xu was quite excited by Zhang Tianyuan pulling the terms out of thin air, but soon, like his colleagues, his gaze became fixed on the sheet of paper in his hands, and he did not look up for a long time.
"What do you think? You can go ask your superiors first whether you should become the first members," Zhang Tianyuan asked.