Outside the Internet cafe.

　　Fang Ping had on a resolute expression, and his eyes glinted with steely determination.

　　He must be determined!

　　After searching for information for an hour or so, Fang Ping had finally figured some things out.

　　For example, the question of what a martial artist was.

　　Modern martial artists were not that much different from those in Wuxia novels and movies back from his past world, if only for the modern background. Martial artists were an everyday sight in modern society.

　　If it was just an unusually high-stakes occupation, Fang Ping would not be compelled to become one although he was interested in superhuman strength.

　　In the current climate, though, martial artistry was not purely a career, but it also indicated power and status.

　　The strong will always rule over the weak — this is an unchanging truism.

　　In his past world, this difference was not too discernible, not when everyone was an ordinary human that could be killed by a bullet.

　　In this world, where martial powerhouses were everywhere, the disparity was evident.

　　For example, Fang Ping completely understood what Yang Jian had said regarding the limitations of ordinary citizens in politics and business now.

　　They were the main components of this society. There were actually no limits on the careers that ordinary citizens could pursue.

　　But… according to the law, yes, according to written law: if a company wanted to expand its business to neighboring cities, its registered legal representative had to be a martial artist of any rank.

　　If it wanted to expand to other provinces, the legal representative must be no lower than Rank-4.

　　According to the information that Fang Ping got from the Internet, martial arts were categorized into nine ranks, with Rank-1 as the lowest and Rank-9 as the highest.

　　Martial artists below Rank-4 were low-ranked martial artists, and those of Rank-7 and above were high-ranked martial artists, also called Grandmaster-level powerhouses.

　　If one wanted to found an inter-province company, the first requirement was that the legal representative had to be Rank-4 or above.

　　For an international corporation, it was not regulated by law, but as Fang Ping had seen on the Web, everything was futile if there was no powerhouse over Rank-7 in the company — no matter how good one’s product was or how many customers one had, entering other countries or areas was no different from immediate defeat.

　　And if one’s corporation had a Rank-7 or above powerhouse, he would have to prove his own mettle.

　　One example was the current Brother Ma!

　　Penguin’s products were almost similar to those from his past world, focusing mainly on instant communication. QQ was still the main means of online communication in the Sino Nation.

　　It was only limited to the Sino Nation, though!

　　Penguin was unable to venture into Asia although Ma Huateng had the power of a Rank-7 martial artist, because Google, an international corporation, was also marketing an instant communication software, and its representative in Asia was a Rank-8 powerhouse.

　　If Ma Huateng could not prove his strength, strength enough to vie for resources with Google, then he need not think about expanding his horizons.

　　The market he wanted to expand to was overseas, so the people he delegated for that purpose might disappear without a trace.

　　Only after he had proved his strength to the public and his competitors would he be able to expand progressively. This was also the reason Ma Huateng chose to challenge Tim immediately after he achieved a breakthrough to Rank-8.

　　The results of this challenge were not important. The main takeaway was that he had proved himself as an extremely strong powerhouse with power that matched his rank, and so he should have the ability to get his share of resources.

　　These were the rules of the business realm, and they were more or less the same in others.

　　For example, things were slightly different in the political realm. The governor was the most powerful person in a province, and they had to be at Rank-4, at least.

　　Currently, there was no governor with a rank lower than Rank-5. In some powerful provinces, they were even Rank-7 Grandmasters.

　　The sitting governor of the Nanjiang province was now at Rank-6, not the weakest among all provinces, but also not particularly strong. This had also caused his inability to fight for more resources on behalf of Nanjiang.

　　The resources stated was the decisive factor contributing to the government’s investment in the cultivation of martial artists.

　　This was the reason why Yang Jian was so excited when he relayed the gossip saying that the governor of Nanjiang would be achieving a breakthrough soon.

　　A governor at Grandmaster-level could fight for more resources on behalf of Nanjiang.

　　This was not an exception in the entertainment world or other occupational realms.

　　Male and female artistes with great fame would need to have outstanding skills in martial arts in addition to talent and good looks.

　　If they did not have the skill, they would not be able to protect their wealth no matter how much they earned.

　　It would be an exception if they had powerful elders behind them.

　　Descendants of wealthy people and officers were now deemed Wuerdai’s ¹ too because those with wealth and power were all-powerful martial artists.

　　An extremely small fraction of ordinary citizens could also attain high positions, but those people, without exception, had powerful martial artists watching their backs. They needed to exhibit their own value — evaluated with much stricter standards compared to martial artists — too.

　　If one could not become a martial artist, they were destined to say goodbye to elite careers and power.

　　This striking disparity was also the reason why every ordinary citizen wanted to be a martial artist in this modern age.

　　A martial artist, no matter how weak he was, could earn millions even if he did nothing aside from assuming nominal responsibility for a company.

　　In reality, those who could succeed in becoming a martial powerhouse were all elites in society. These people rarely worked for others, aside from the case where they bent under those ranked higher, preferring to found their own business.

　　Compared to ordinary citizens, their advantage was evident.

　　“If I don’t become a martial artist, I’ll never be able to surpass others no matter how many brilliant ideas I have.”

　　Fang Ping muttered to himself. This was the bloody truth.

　　Aside from the entire martial artists’ fiasco, everything else was more or less the same as before.

　　Which was to say, if Fang Ping wanted to found a company right now, his products and ideas were not bad.

　　The point was that Fang Ping himself did not have the power to protect himself against harm. If he wanted to earn a small sum, it would not be a big problem. It would not be the case if he wanted to make it big.

　　If he crossed the line, the most likely outcome would be someone snatching his business away. As the legal system in Sino was still considered thorough and the government still maintained order in the country, it would not result in other people taking his life, but there was a huge possibility that his business would be taken away.

　　For example, Wechat still did not exist.

　　There would only be two outcomes if Fang Ping created it somehow. One, it would eventually become someone else’s.

　　Two, it would be popularized in the city and treated as minor entertainment. If it branched out from the city, sorry, he would not earn a single thing no matter how much it earned. As for who it would belong to outside his city, it depended on the results of the fight between competitors.

　　Ordinary citizens could only go to work earnestly or found a small company or factory within the city.

　　Although the company was only limited to the city, it did not mean definite safety.

　　This sort of life, where everyone stood on tenterhooks, had more limits than those of the people from his past life.

　　If Fang Ping did not want to be a nobody, then him becoming a martial artist was a given.

　　He wanted to be somebody, but first, he had to ensure that he did not need to worry about sustenance and safety.

　　Luckily, ordinary citizens were still the majority in this world. The society did not really toss them aside or shatter their hopes of advancing upwards.

　　The Gaokao gave countless ordinary citizens a hope of a big break.

　　Nowadays, some of the elite schools founded Faculties of Martial Sciences in order to cultivate martial artists, so ordinary citizens still had hope.

　　There were also full-time schools of martial sciences that were open for admission during the Gaokao period.

　　As the proverb said, social sciences were neglected in favor of martial sciences.

　　Martial artists possessed a high level of skill, and the resources used to cultivate them surpassed those spent on ordinary citizens by a huge margin. Cultivating a martial artist meant spending a lot of money.

　　Under those circumstances, those who were enrolled in martial sciences and were cultivated with the nation’s resources must be extraordinary.

　　That was why being admitted to martial sciences now was more difficult than obtaining admission to elite universities from his past life.

　　In the year 2007, there were 9 million candidates taking the Gaokao in total, but those who were accepted into martial sciences by universities all over the nation added up to a sum less than twenty thousand.

　　In his past life, schools like Tsinghua University and Peking University only accepted a few thousand students each year, but there were many elite schools. Including those enrolled in Project 985 Universities, it numbered at least a hundred thousand admissions in total.

　　In this world, there were more than a hundred universities and full-time schools that had faculties of martial sciences. One hundred universities, and only twenty thousand freshmen; the number seemed too small after it was divided.

　　An admission ratio of 1/500 did not seem too low, but this was only in big metropolises. It would have to be multiplied by ten times in small cities.

　　This was also why Chen Fan and the others were devastated.

　　Barring that, there were also loads of barriers to overcome even if one was to enroll in martial sciences.

　　The ten thousand bucks that Chen Fan had stated previously was only the lowest one.

　　Putting the other criteria aside, this application fee alone was enough to give Fang Ping a headache.

　　And he had a time limit too — application for the martial sciences examinations would start in a week.

　　After the deadline had passed, he would not be able to enroll even if he had the money.

　　“An application fee of ten thousand bucks…”

　　Fang Ping was determined initially, but he was a little deflated after that thought. The beginning criterion alone extinguished the fire in his heart by half.

　　And that was before mentioning the series of obstacles lying after that.

　　‘My head hurts!’

　　Fang Ping sighed constantly. There probably were not many revenants who reincarnated into modern society that had this hard of a time.

　　…

　　After Fang Ping had lunch and returned to school, there were only 15 bucks left in his pocket.

　　The afternoon classes had not commenced yet. Some of his classmates were doing practice tests in preparation for the Gaokao while some of the others were chatting, mostly about the battle between the two Grandmasters that Zhang Hao had mentioned that morning.

　　Chen Fan, who was doing practice tests, put down his pen hurriedly when he saw Fang Ping return. He asked, “Did you go to play computer games?”

　　Fang Ping rolled his eyes and deadpanned, “How could I still have the mood to play games during this time? Do you think I’m stupid? I went to search for information about the Gaokao.”

　　While saying that, Fang Ping rubbed his palms together and asked with a smile, “Little Fanfan, do you have money left?”

　　Chen Fan’s brow creased slightly, and he said after a pause, “I still have ten bucks left…”

　　“Cough, don’t kid me. If you have money, lend me eight or ten thousand, and I’ll return a hundred times more to you if I ever get rich!”

　　“Haha!”

　　Chen Fan smiled without mirth, pushed his glasses up and resumed answering his practice test. Fang Ping was made crazy by poverty!

　　Fang Ping sighed — his path was not one to walk on.

　　They were all students. Not mentioning Chen Fan’s ordinary family background, who among his peers with decent conditions would be so stupid as to lend him ten thousand bucks?

　　Could he only ask his parents for the money?

　　His family was not rich, though, and ten thousand bucks was not a small amount of money. According to his own standards, there was almost no hope for him to enroll in martial sciences. If he really asked his parents, would they agree?

　　It was a Saturday, so there were only Senior Three students at school. The application period was said to be next week, but there were only less than two days to Monday.

　　This was the first step of his application for the martial sciences examinations, too. If he wanted to keep on taking exams, he would have to continue spending money.

　　In this society, powerhouses were all cultivated by resources and wealth.

　　If not, why would those martial powerhouses all engage in businesses and strive to expand them?

　　Most of those who did not do so would join governmental divisions.

　　Those powerhouses in novels and TV shows were all carefree. They could advance in rank with only a thought and did not need to eat or drink. Fang Ping did not think anything of it before.

　　Now he knew all of it was bullsh*t!

　　That afternoon, he browsed the Internet briefly and saw some gossip. The resources required to cultivate a Rank-1 martial artist, the weakest of all ranks, had the total value of one million bucks if converted to money.

　　This was only for Rank-1 martial artists, the weakest and least outstanding ones in Fang Ping’s eyes.

　　A million was spent just like that.

　　The higher the martial artist’s rank, the more resources he would have to spend. They all spent astronomical amounts. Without the support of their businesses, there was no way they could have advanced further!

　　If students from ordinary families were not admitted into martial sciences, how many of them could self-study outside universities and become martial artists under those conditions?

　　Everyone was attracted to universities of martial sciences like moths to a flame mostly because their faculties of martial sciences would provide more than half of the resources needed. Consider it as funding provided by the schools.

　　Even though it was not enough, banks would open their doors to those who were accepted, so taking loans would not be a problem.

　　Or they could sign contracts with large corporations. Martial science students were popular, and those corporations were also happy to invest in candidates early.

　　All that was needed for all this was admission to martial science.

　　Wanting to become a martial artist without spending money was impossible.

　　Fang Ping sighed again. He did not know how many times he had sighed today. Why was his life after reincarnating so difficult?