Chapter 215: Ready to Reap

　　Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

　　Magic City.

　　As it was still Labour Day Golden Week, there was heavy traffic in Magic City’s transport hub.

　　Fang Ping hailed a taxi and went straight to his company.

　　On the way there, he got a call from Fu Changding.

　　…

　　“Fang Ping, the assessment results are out.”

　　“What are the results?”

　　“You got 800 marks, the highest of everyone in the assessment.”

　　“800 marks?”

　　Fang Ping was taken aback. “If I recall correctly, a Peak Rank-3 should be worth 1000 marks. Plus I killed three Rank-3 martial artists…”

　　“Not all the Peak Rank-3 points go to you. They’re split among the people who took part in the joint attack first, then the remainder goes to you.”

　　After explaining this, Fu Changding continued, “After all, there were many people who were injured in the fight with the Grand Missionary.”

　　Fang Ping abandoned the subject of the fight and asked, “How about the reward? Does getting 800 marks imply 800 credits?”

　　“All I can say is you think too much. They didn’t mention anything specific. Just wait until they announce it when we go back to school.

　　“Stop complaining, I only got 120 marks.”

　　Fu Changding sounded resigned. Another person on the line sounded even more resigned, and that was Yang Xiaoman, who said loudly, “I didn’t even manage to achieve the basic requirement! I only got 95 marks!”

　　Even though everyone had worked very hard during the assessment, the marks for killing Rank-1 martial artists were pathetically low. Since the number of Rank-2 martial artists was limited, when the points for killing several of them were averaged out, everyone only received what amounted to the points for killing a single Rank-2 martial artist.

　　As of right now, a large group of students ended up not achieving the basic marks.

　　Fang Ping smiled and was no longer bothered by his results. He asked, “Have you guys gone back yet?”

　　“Not yet. Nanjiang’s Governor-General Zhang wanted to give us a reception today. Say, Fang Ping, where are you? A Grandmaster giving us a reception—it’s the ultimate honor you could get from someone of his level!”

　　Zhang Dingnan taking the time out to welcome the students meant that the evil sect incident was almost at its conclusion.

　　Fang Ping was not bothered about whether the top three high-ranking martial artists from the evil sect were dead, alive, or had fled. He was only capable of worrying about what mattered at the moment, and right now, his mind was occupied with his lack of qualifications for becoming a Grandmaster.

　　As for the reception that Fu Changding mentioned, Fang Ping had a rough idea of why Zhang Dingnan was doing this. He said with a smile, “Yes, he’s really giving you guys face this time, isn’t he? If Nanjiang is in trouble next time, you won’t be able to turn him down, will you?”

　　A Grandmaster powerhouse who was the local governor, being hospitable toward a group of Rank-2 and Rank-3 martial arts students—if Nanjiang had a crisis and asked for outside help, these martial artists would be more or less sympathetic to the request.

　　Zhang Dingnan’s use of courtesy as a trade-off for aid indicated no small amount of shrewdness.

　　Fang Ping was not against it either; perhaps Nanjiang needed a governor like him. Zhang Dingnan was planning ahead and securing influence from all sides in preparation. Should Nanjiang meet with a dire crisis, that would be more martial artists coming to their aid.

　　…

　　After he was done chatting with Fu Changding, Fang Ping hung up the phone.

　　Not long after he hung up, Fang Ping received a message on his phone which said Chen Yunxi’s 5 million had been credited to his account.

　　The moment this 5 million was credited to him, the Resurrection Pill Fang Ping had taken previously automatically defaulted to one of his assets. (TN: In 212, the author wrote that Fang Ping swallowed a Lifeline Pill. Here though it is written as ‘Resurrection Pill’. We can probably assume that they’re one and the same but will translate it according to how the author writes it. Sorry for the confusion!)

　　According to contract pricing, the Resurrection Pill was fixed at 6 million and seemed to have been approved by the system.

　　The next moment, the value of Fang Ping’s Wealth increased by 2.6 million which allowed him to reach 14.6 million and above.

　　He currently had 25 million in cash.

　　“It’s still not enough!”

　　Fang Ping sighed softly. He had to have at least 100 million worth of Wealth before the system had any hopes of upgrading.

　　Whether or not he could upgrade was also a problem.

　　His resource gap was too big!

　　“Other than that, my weapons are damaged, my boots are probably unusable, and my fengzuidao needs repairing…gah! This mission was a total loss.”

　　Fang Ping brought his depressed mood with him as he arrived at his company.

　　…

　　Prosperity Building.

　　The number of employees on Distance Ltd’s side was increasing; as a result, the atmosphere was more bustling and tense than before.

　　In April, Distance Ltd started its expansion throughout Magic City thanks to Fang Ping’s 20 million transfer.

　　As of now, even though they had not yet managed to penetrate every corner of Magic City, at least the express delivery employees from Distance Ltd could be seen everywhere.

　　When Fang Ping arrived, the workers who recognized him greeted him one after the other with congratulations.

　　Fang Ping nodded slightly and headed straight to Li Chengze’s office.

　　Inside the office, Li Chengze was in the midst of a call. When he saw Fang Ping entering, he hurriedly said a few words and hung up the phone before saying, “Mr. Fang, you’re here.”

　　“Yes. What’s the situation currently?”

　　“We’ve made arrangements for all 6 of Magic City’s districts. They’ve begun to accept the businesses and the results aren’t bad at all, so much so that we’ve gotten ourselves a reputation.

　　“Even so, we’re only in the development period…”

　　“I’m not asking about this. I’m asking whether anyone is interested in our company.”

　　Li Chengze nodded as he said, “Yes. I remember what you told me last time, that if anyone’s interested, we can discuss it further. Therefore, we’ve been welcoming all financing enterprises as well.

　　“However, there aren’t many enterprises and organizations that are willing to invest. Some of them demand an exorbitant price, saying that if they finance 10 million, then they should hold 30% of our shares…”

　　“You’ve yet to meet a reliable organization?”

　　Li Chengze thought for a while before he said, “Currently, there are a few enterprises that are serious about it. This website called Da Zhong Ping Dian—Mr. Fang, have you heard it being mentioned before?”

　　“Yes, I know of it.”

　　“They’re really interested in our food and beverage platform. However, they’re only proposing an acquisition… ”

　　Li Chengze continued, “Even after I explicitly rejected their offer, they suggested a collaboration, meaning that we combine our food and beverage platform with them to form a sub-site—a secondary website hosted under their site’s domain name.

　　“They gave us a valuation of 50 million and hope to use Da Zhong stocks to allocate the funds.

　　“In other words, we become a public company and you become a shareholder in their stock…”

　　Fang Ping shook his head and said, “I won’t consider this suggestion. What’s the point of me having those shares? I know who their boss is. He’s too much of a cultured snob. If Da Zhong merges with us, that might still be ok.”

　　“Other than Da Zhong, some Internet enterprises also expressed interest. Do you wish to negotiate further?”

　　“What about venture capital institutions?”

　　Li Chengze frowned slightly and continued, “Lately, venture capitalist institutions—and this includes venture capital institutions the whole world over—have started to be much more cautious. It seems that investment power has dropped—no one knows why—and most of the institutions are very cautious about their investments now.”

　　Fang Ping furrowed his eyebrows. He guessed that the whole thing was probably caused by the worsening of the situation in the Catacombs.

　　Most of these institutions had been established by martial artists.

　　With things in the Catacombs getting worse, these organizations were perhaps adopting a period of “wait and see”.

　　Currently, the Catacombs had yet to affect the normal operation of the world’s economy. After all, mainstream businesses mostly served ordinary people.

　　However, if the situation deteriorated, it would have an effect on normal society. Under such circumstances, if various large institutes chose to pull back from investing, it was only right that they do so.

　　The future of funds invested would depend on the situation to come.

　　If the situation was unclear, these venture capital institutions would not dare to recklessly invest in companies with long-term investment return periods.

　　“So troublesome!”

　　Fang Ping cursed. If things continued this way, the situation on his side would get quite unpleasant. After all, the food and beverage express delivery enterprise was not the sort that promised quick returns.

　　“We can’t even get one company that’s interested?”

　　“There are some, but the quoted price is mediocre… ”

　　“What’s the highest?”

　　“The highest valuation currently is 55 million, it won’t get any higher than that.”

　　“I’ve invested close to 40 million already… ”

　　Fang Ping cursed under his breath and tapped the table lightly. After giving it some thought, he said, “Then we’ll continue expanding. In addition to that, Distance Ltd needs to improve its reputation a bit. The situation hasn’t deteriorated to this degree yet!”

　　Li Chengze did not really understand what Fang Ping meant. Fang Ping, on the other hand, felt that this could still be considered a period of peace.

　　If the situation in the Catacombs were to escalate within a short amount of time, it would not be that obvious either.

　　The Grandmasters were still busy with their own affairs which meant that things were still under control.

　　The day the Grandmasters had no heart to conduct business or politics and gathered together at the Catacombs—that would be when things had truly gotten worse.

　　“We’ll discuss further with the company that gives us a valuation of a billion and above. Any lower than a billion, just ignore them!”

　　Fang Ping added after that, “Besides, 3G has been launched in the country now and some 3G mobile phones have already started going online. On the apps front, invest a bit more into them.”

　　“Understood.”

　　“How about you, what’s your Vitality score?”

　　“I’ve reached 145cal. It won’t be long until I reach the threshold to become a martial artist.”

　　“Yes, try to become a martial artist as soon as possible. It’s early May now and I hope that we’ll be able to get our first financing in June.

　　“It’s nothing more than putting some hype in place. Pay more attention to this aspect and make full use of gimmicks—the first food and beverage O2O enterprise, the first online food and beverage platform enterprise undertaken by a martial artist, the first… ”

　　How Fang Ping wished he could say “the first takeaway food delivery enterprise to send food to and fro from the Catacombs!”

　　‘Do you believe that in future I’m going to get martial artists with Catacombs experience to deliver fast food there?

　　‘It was miserable for martial artists—in the Catacombs even eating was difficult. Most of the time, martial artists took pills to survive. I’m determined to make my services available all the way into the Catacombs.

　　‘Even if the situation in the Catacombs does get worse, so what? It’s probably going to be even more awesome!

　　‘It’s too bad I can only dream about it.’

　　The moment he thought about it, Fang Ping imagined martial artists risking their lives fighting Catacombs creatures when all of a sudden, a takeaway delivery person arrived, shouting, “Stop for a bit, your takeaway has arrived. Continue after your meal… ”

　　Tsk tsk, this image was merely a dream alas.

　　Obviously, Li Chengze was at a loss and did not understand why Fang Ping was chuckling.

　　Fang Ping paid no attention to him and merely gave him some advice. He also reminded him to complete their first round of financing as soon as possible before June.

　　…

　　MCMAU.

　　MCMAU seemed quite deserted at the moment.

　　In reality, this was merely Fang Ping’s mistaken impression. MCMAU had always been like this. Now, it was only because the people he knew were mostly not in school, which made him feel that the campus was much more deserted than usual.

　　When he arrived at the dormitory, Fang Ping felt lonely as he looked at the tightly closed doors of the nearby apartments.

　　“Alone and lonesome,” Fang Ping murmured. He forgot who was it but someone had told him that martial artists had to endure loneliness.

　　Previously, he had told Fu Changding very straightforwardly that martial artists should not be too close.’

　　Now that he was finally alone though, Fang Ping could not help but feel that it was too lonely.

　　It was not until Fang Yuan’s phone call that this feeling of loneliness dissipated considerably.

　　“Fang Ping, where have you been these past few days? Why couldn’t I get through to your phone?”

　　“My phone got broken. I got a new one.”

　　“Oh, that’s right, mom told me to ask, are you coming back home next month?”

　　“Next month?”

　　“Yes, have you forgotten already?”

　　“What?”

　　“I’m going to take my Zhongkao!” Fang Yuan said coquettishly, “Why don’t you say you’re coming back to send me to my exams? You’re so irresponsible!”

　　Fang Ping couldn’t help laughing. He had only remembered the matter when she mentioned it. He grinned, “What do you mean mom told you to ask me? I bet you just wanted to ask that question yourself. When’s your Zhongkao?”

　　“Middle of June. Two days, 17th and 18th.”

　　“Calling to remind me more than a month before it, eh? Nice try.”

　　Fang Ping laughed good-humouredly, “Let’s see how everything goes. I may go back then.”

　　That would involve finding out when he was scheduled to go to the Catacombs. If he were to go after Fang Yuan’s exams, he definitely would be able to make a trip home.

　　If he went before Fang Yuan’s exams though, Fang Ping most likely would not be able to go back.

　　When Fang Yuan heard her brother’s noncommittal answer she could not help but show her disappointment. Even so, Fang Ping did not say that he definitely could not return so Fang Yuan did not complicate the matter further.

　　“Fang Ping, my Vitality has reached 130cal. Isn’t that terrific?” Fang Yuan said proudly.

　　The physical assessment for this year’s martial sciences examinations had just ended and they had announced the Vitality results.

　　Compared with last year, the number of exam applicants for this year had increased greatly. Previously, it was a good year if the entire country had one million applicants. However, the numbers had reached a staggering three million for this year’s exam.

　　All the martial arts universities would be expanding their enrollment this year.

　　Similarly, the baseline had been set higher.

　　Going solely by the physical assessment for this year, the benchmark was as high as 115cal. If one wanted to get into a martial arts university, they might need at least 120cal Vitality, which was quite a few cal more than last year.

　　Fang Yuan was merely a Year 3 Junior and had already reached a Vitality of 130cal. That little miss had been very proud of herself for the last few days and had taken the opportunity to flaunt her results at Fang Ping for a bit.

　　“130cal?”

　　Fang Ping was slightly stunned. After half a second, he replied, “I met a few student martial artists just now, and I turned my nose up at them. Why do you think showing off your 130cal Vitality at me will be any different? Round Face, aren’t you thinking a bit too much?”

　　“Humph!”

　　“Stop snorting. I’m already a Rank-3; I might even be a Grandmaster soon. Work harder, don’t embarrass me.

　　“Little miss…the world is much more dangerous than you think it is.

　　“Around the end of this year or perhaps next year, Nanjiang may not be that safe anymore… ”

　　Fang Ping was about to bring up something, gave it some thought, then said, “Forget about it, I’ll drop it. Let’s continue this next time.”

　　A Catacombs entrance was about to appear in Nanjiang. It would not be a strange thing if it appeared in Sun City.

　　“Around that time, I’ll have to find an excuse for my parents and little sister to come to Magic City.”

　　Fang Ping muttered irresolutely for a moment. Magic City and Capital City were probably the safest areas since the number of Grandmasters in those areas was higher.

　　His parents definitely would not agree to this if he brought it up now.

　　It was hard for the older generation to leave the town that they had in lived their whole lives and start anew in a foreign place; they would not be able to get used to it.

　　“Maybe I should get a place in Magic City. Even if the Catacombs crisis comes, Magic City’s real estate won’t depreciate. On the contrary, it’ll be MCMAU’s base camp at that time as well as Sino Nation’s economic center. If people want to flee, Magic City will probably be their first choice.”

　　“If we really reach that point, Magic City’s real estate might climb steadily, so much so that they might enforce an admission system.”

　　Between thinking about these things and all the things that he now needed to spend money on, Fang Ping was getting a splitting headache.

　　There were so many things that required money. A part of him wanted to save his Wealth for a system upgrade while another part of him wanted to improve his combat skills…

　　All of these were spreading him thin financially!

　　‘I really want to kidnap a Grandmaster…if I got my hands on Lu Fengrou, I’d be stinking rich… ‘

　　Fang Ping’s mind was all over the place. He urged his younger sister once more, “Don’t be too arrogant. I’ll try my best to go back for your Zhongkao. I’m hanging up now.”

　　“Okay.”

　　At that moment, Fang Yuan was still thinking about what her older brother had said. Somehow or other, she felt some uneasiness in her heart.

　　‘Danger?

　　‘What danger?

　　‘Maybe we should increase the number of people in the Yuan Ping Club; with more people, we’ll be stronger!’

　　Naturally, Fang Ping would not understand what was on Fang Yuan’s mind.

　　After he had hung up the phone, Fang Ping thought for a bit and headed straight to the logistics department.

　　The e-commerce platform had been operating up to this point, and the school, as well as the students, were enjoying the convenience it brought. It was time to reap what he had sowed.

　　He could not put all his eggs in one basket. He could not allow himself to wholeheartedly count on the Distance Ltd food and beverage services. What he had to do was take the initiative and fight for profits.