June 15th.
Monday.
This was not only the day Fang Ping would sign his contract, but it was also the day the results of the Gaokao cultural studies and martial arts university admission requirements would be released.
MCMAU had admitted 1580 students in 2008. The minimum requirements were a Vitality of 130cal and 620 marks and above in cultural studies.
In 2009, the university admitted more, though the requirements increased somewhat. The minimum Vitality threshold was bumped up to 132cal.
…
Fang Ping felt emotional for a moment when he overheard some students discussing the admission.
He had been agonizing over which university to choose at the same time the past year.
In the blink of an eye, he was already a Rank-3 martial artist.
“Soon, 2000 students will enter the school. Will there be any surprising martial arts prodigies this year?”
Fang Ping muttered as he walked out of the school.
The MCMAU campus was becoming less crowded by the day.
The seniors have all left school by now, save for a few, who were definitely staying to work for MCMAU as assistant instructors. University was only four years long in Sino Nation; there was no talk of advancing one’s studies.
The only way one could stay on campus was to be the assistant instructors or instructors. The former could be Rank-3 martial artists, but instructors had to be at Rank-4 at the bare minimum. Most instructors actually started their careers at Rank-3.
Few of the Rank-4 graduates stayed. It was normal that they went to work for the government, the Military Department, the Department of Education, or any other place.
Fang Ping’s phone rang while he was on the way.
He picked up. Fang Yuan said precociously, “Bro, are you coming back tomorrow or not?”
Fang Yuan would be taking the Zhongkao on the 17th.
If Fang Ping was not free to return the next day, it was unlikely that he would return.
Fang Ping could not help but laugh. “I should be. I’ll finish up the stuff I have to do today, and drive home by myself. It’ll take no time at all.”
“Really?”
“Really. Now take a break. It’s your exams soon, don’t spend your time thinking about useless things.”
Fang Ping did not really care if Fang Yuan’s results were good or not.
The cultural studies classes were important, but one’s prowess in the martial arts was even more important.
The government made martial arts students take the cultural studies tests so that they did not become illiterate brutes and hooligans.
Martial artists might still show better performance in other fields.
Martial artists who only learned the martial arts were more prone to committing crimes and would not walk far on their path of the martial arts.
Of course, if one was outstanding in the martial arts, they would be more lenient on them regarding the cultural studies requirements. Fang Ping had chatted with some martial artist candidates back in Nanjiang. Even if they were a little weaker in their cultural studies, they should have no problem applying for MCMAU.
While chatting with Fang Yuan, Fang Ping arrived at the hotel as promised.
…
In the hotel’s conference room.
Li Chengze and several others from the Distance Ltd management, including the technical director, had arrived. They had also brought along a lawyer they had hired from a firm.
Li Chengze appeared relieved at Fang Ping’s arrival.
“Mr. Fang.”
“Director Fang.”
“…”
The group of people greeted Fang Ping in turn. Fang Ping nodded and asked, “Where’s the other party?”
“They’ll be here soon. We agreed to meet at 9. They should be punctual.”
“Let’s go welcome them, see who those people with such good taste are. I have yet to meet them.”
Fang Ping laughed. The corporation investing in Distance was one Fang Ping had not heard of. It was not that famous.
Until now, Li Chengze was the one dealing with the other party, so Fang Ping had not seen him before.
The corporation was quite bold, to purchase 30% of Distance’s F&B division’s shares with 30 million yuan, especially at this time.
30 million yuan may not be much to big corporations and conglomerates, but it meant quite a lot to less famous companies such as this.
…
Fang Ping and his entourage had not walked far. They stood in front of the conference room for a while before a group of five to six people walked toward them from the other side of the corridor.
When there was still a distance between them, Li Chengze whispered to Fang Ping softly, “The frontmost person is the Vice President of New Martial Fund, President Jiang, Jiang Yuanhao. He’s also a martial artist…”
Fang Ping could sense it even without Li Chengze’s introduction. He was a Rank-2 martial artist, though Fang Ping could not say for sure if he was Peak Rank-2 or Upper-stage.
Jiang Yuanhao was young, in his thirties. He was demure-looking with his gold-rimmed glasses and a little taller than Fang Ping, standing at about 1.8m tall.
After Li Chengze finished with the introduction, Fang Ping walked forward first, extending his hand with a smile. “President Jiang, this is the first time we’ve met. I apologize for the inadequate treatment.”
Jiang Yuanhao also had his hand out. He shook hands with Fang Ping and replied with a warm smile, “Mr. Fang’s always busy. I can understand. I already feel thankful that you can take some time out to meet me despite your swift advance in the martial arts.”
“You’re just putting me down with that, Mr. Jiang. Recently I’ve been cultivating all the time, indeed. I apologize.”
“…”
The two of them exchanged some pleasantries before they stepped into the conference room.
Jiang Yuanhao did not have the circumspectness commonly associated with businessmen—or perhaps he did not feel the need to in front of Fang Ping. Either way, he entered the topic immediately after he sat down. “Mr. Fang, the contract will be as we have agreed on. 30 million yuan for 30% of Distance F&B.
“We see the potential of Distance F&B. This is one of the reasons we invested in it.
“We also believe that Mr. Fang will advance far in the martial arts, bringing more profit to our cooperation.
“But…”
Seeing the other’s eyes on him, Fang Ping said with a smile, “Just say it. If you have some criteria you want to go over, do it. You don’t need to think too much. We can’t just let one party shoulder all the risks.”
“Mr. Fang is indeed generous. I’ll go straight to the point, then.
“The company wishes that we can add one more rule to the contract.”
Jiang Yuanhao paused for a while before continuing, “The Distance Ltd New Martial invested in belongs to Mr. Fang, not anyone else. If the ownership of Distance’s shares shifts and Mr. Fang is no longer the president of Distance, we have the right to ask for compensation…”
Fang Ping understood what he meant. He said, after a moment of consideration, “Agreed.”
Half of what New Martial invested in was the company. The other half was the person helming it.
If Fang Ping decided to sell Distance, the excess that New Martial paid would be for naught.
Fang Ping could understand why the other party set this condition.
New Martial determined the compensation to be three times the contract fee.
Fang Ping was not too fazed by that.
He would just deal with it when the time came. If he had earned a lot of money, he would not care about such a small sum—if he had, he would not sell the company.
If the company suffered a loss or became bankrupt, it would be because of reasons unrelated to Fang Ping.
Both parties signed the contract quickly. After that, Fang Ping said with consideration, “If your party is amenable… I hope that the money will be transferred as soon as possible.”
This was an acquisition, not a financing. For both, the money would normally not be handled so promptly after the contract was signed.
The absence of payment meant that the contract was not fulfilled formally. Fang Ping knew how the system worked. The system would not factor this in the evaluation of his Wealth if the contract was not formally fulfilled.
Jiang Yuanhao was a little surprised by Fang Ping’s anxiousness. He laughed, “Sure. We believe that Distance and Mr. Fang both won’t disappoint us.”
30 million was not much but it was no small sum either.
Fang Ping was already a Rank-3 martial artist, so he would be unlikely to sully his reputation because of this. The contract was signed, too; it would be the same no matter when the payment was made.
“If Mr. Fang needs the money, I’ll discuss this with the company. The money will be transferred to you in three days.”
Fang Ping calculated in his mind. It would only be the 18th three days later, so he said with a smile, “Sorry for the trouble. I really need the money.”
Jiang Yuanhao seemed to guess something. He said after some thought, “Does Mr. Fang intend to purchase some necessities?”
“Mm hmm.”
“I see…”
After a moment of consideration, Jiang Yuanhao said, “I’ll call the company right now and ask them to complete the process as soon as possible. We can’t possibly hinder Mr. Fang in handling his business.”
It was normal that one bought pills and weapons before heading down the Catacombs. Every item costs money.
Although Jiang Yuanhao was not a Rank-3 martial artist, he seemed to know about the Catacombs. Maybe he guessed what Fang Ping aimed to do.
After signing the contract that marked their investment on Distance and Fang Ping, of course he would not want to see Fang Ping suffer a premature death.
Jiang Yuanhao did as he said, calling the New Martial Fund on the spot.
Fang Ping gave his thanks, and with that, the cooperative effort was settled.
Fang Ping did not pay attention to the details of the cooperative effort and the delegation and supervision of human resources. New Martial joining deterred Li Chengze from ever monopolizing the company, which was good as far as Fang Ping was concerned, as he did not need to hire someone to keep an eye on him.
…
They had lunch together. Fang Ping got to know more about New Martial during the meal.
The company was quite new. Its headquarters was not in Magic City but in Capital City.
Although it was founded recently, they had quite a lot of money. They had huge investments in both Magic City and Capital City. According to Jiang Yuanhao, they mainly invested in students from the Big Two.
Rather than saying that they were investing in businesses, it might be better to say that they were investing in the people.
Graduates from the Big Two would normally fare quite well after school. It was rare that the company invested in a freshman, though. Jiang Yuanhao was inferior in skill to Fang Ping, but he had seen and known more.
They also discussed the situation of the universities during their meal.
Including the geniuses in each school.
“After the seniors graduated, Li Hansong in junior year became the leader. He’s already at upper-stage Rank-4, and might reach Rank-5 before graduation.
“After Li Hansong, there are no outstanding persons in sophomore year. There are a few freshmen, though.
“Han Xu entered Rank-3 a few days ago, and he’s proved to be thrice-honed, same as you.
“Fang Wenxiang has also entered Peak Rank-2, and Rank-3 is near.
“There are quite a few talented people in the Eight School Alliance too.
“The past few years have seen a lot of talent in all schools, including average martial arts universities. Wang Jinyang from NMAU might enter Upper-stage Rank-4 soon.
“Aside from you, there are many geniuses in MCMAU.
“Xie Lei has already entered Peak Rank-3, and you’ve already entered Upper-stage Rank-3. Your classmates, such as Zhao Lei and Chen Yunxi, are also a hair’s breadth away from Peak Rank-2…
“I imagine that there will be an increase in Rank-3 martial artists in the next few years, and Rank-4 and 5 martial artists in school will no longer be a rare sight.
“Our generation can only look up to yours, to have achieved so much during school age…”
Jiang Yuanhao had also graduated from a martial arts university, but he was only at Peak Rank-1 when he did.
Now he was at Peak Rank-2 and was close to Rank-3, but there was a huge difference between him and the talents in university—a difference of over ten years.
…
Both parties dispersed after the meal.
Fang Ping did not head for his company. He was antsy, as he did not know when the money would be transferred to him.
He waited. At six, he received an SMS informing him.
The money was already here!
“27.6 million.”
This was the sum Fang Ping received. When he saw that a chunk was cut off the 30 million, he remembered that this transaction was also one where he transferred the ownership of his shares, so he would have to pay taxes. He felt too sad to say anything about it.
Martial artists’ tax ratio was actually quite low. Civilians would have to pay 5 million in taxes if they had transferred ownership of shares worth 30 million yuan.
Putting the matter of money aside, Fang Ping quickly checked his Wealth.
Wealth: 80.5 million
Vitality: 450cal *(999cal)
Mentality: 420cal (519cal)
Bones honed: 177 bones (90%), 29 bones (30%)
“It went through!”
When Fang Ping saw his Wealth go up to 80 million from the initial ten thousands, he was elated!
Selling 30% of the shares of his F&B platform for 30 million meant that the platform was valued at 100 million.
Fang Ping owned 70% of the shares. The value of that plus 27.6 million in cash he had gotten his hands on and deducted of the money he had invested on the platform meant that there was an 80 million yuan increase of his assets.
“Whoa!”
Fang Ping was elated. This was a timely rain that ended his drought.
Before he could fully bask in his happiness, he called Jiang Yuanhao and thanked him.
The other had transferred the money to him so fast in a straightforward way.
When Fang Ping had finally gotten his hands on Wealth and now had some cash on his hands, he started to contemplate something.
“If I pay back the credit loan I took out, will my Wealth increase?”
Fang Ping was not banking his hopes on it. This was the first time he loaned credits. Maybe… Maybe the system would glitch?
…
With that small flicker of hope in his heart, Fang Ping logged on the MCMAU platform and redeemed 660 credits with 19.8 million cash. These, plus his remaining credits, totaled to 1000 credits, which he debited to his personal account.
His Wealth stayed the same after that.
Fang Ping shook his head. He knew that there was no reason something so advantageous would happen to him. Loaning credits was not economic to him.
If the credits were his, the Wealth points he got from them would be more valuable than his credits.
If the credits were loaned and paid back with cash, there was no room for the value of credits to grow, so there was no way his Wealth would increase from them.
“That’s a pity. If that’s possible, my Wealth will increase so much from a few more transactions…”
Fang Ping was slightly regretful, but he did not dwell on it. If the system was really that flawed, Fang Ping would already have billions and billions of Wealth points. He would not have to worry about his Wealth.
“Now I have enough Wealth points but I still can’t use them casually. I can only use them in battle. I’ll save the rest so that my Wealth will reach 100 million.”
80 million in Wealth seemed like a lot, but Fang Ping now had a Vitality close to 1000cal. If he encountered a serious battle and used his Vitality a little too fast, he would end up using millions in one battle.
He had to use them sparingly.
“I estimate that 10 million will be used when I’m down in the Catacombs, which means that I have to earn 30 million this time so that my Wealth will reach 100 million.
“30 million… If I’m lucky enough to pick up an energy ore 30 grams in mass, it’ll be enough. It’s not too hard, it seems.”
Fang Ping muttered to himself. At last, he said, “I have to pay more attention to the company’s affairs. If it’s valued to be worth billions someday, I won’t have to worry about my Wealth ever again.”
He had gotten back most of the money he had invested in it, save for a few million.
His Wealth had increased 80 million while everything was still owned by him.
The delivery company, the MCMAU platform… Those businesses might not look like they were worth much, but he would eventually earn a lot from them. This, Fang Ping believed… As long as the society was not completely screwed up.
“I don’t have to do too much or take risks. It takes longer, but it’s way more economical compared to doing missions.”
Fang Ping basked in his happiness for a moment, his worries for the past few days clearing up.
He had been afraid of people challenging him while his Wealth was barren. Now… If Qin Fengqing dared to swing by carrying his saber, he would kill him on the spot!
