Universe Infinite Canteen

"Ah, I heard that Hou De had a new principal, and it turns out to be you."

Manager Bian pushed his monocle up his nose and sized up Ma Lu, "Do you have any money now?"

"No."

"Then what are you talking about," Manager Bian turned his head toward the door where Cao Youyi was standing, bowing he said, "Miss Cao, my apologies."

Behind him, the group in indigo gowns began to rub their hands together, ready to push past Cao Youyi and enter the school.

But then Ma Lu's voice rang out again, "But I have this."

He took out the green stones that had dropped from monsters he had last fought, thirteen in total.

Qiutong had mentioned that Cao Jinhua had used these items to make payments at the Ministry of Education, which implied they were also a form of currency.

Items from the Disaster Zone were far from ordinary people, but as a bank manager, Manager Bian recognized the objects in Ma Lu's hands.

"Is this... Song Stone?"

He picked one up, examining it closely under his monocle, then said after a moment,

"It really is Song Stone, and the quality isn't bad, you should have said earlier that you had such good things."

Ma Lu originally hadn't intended to use the Song Stone for money, as these were only produced in the Disaster Zone and were clearly rarer than silver coins.

But now that the creditor had come knocking, he had to get past this hurdle first.

Manager Bian said, "Song Stone is an indispensable material for talisman making and also currency in the talisman master world, quite easily liquidated as it is equivalent to cash, but..."

He shifted his tone, "it's still not enough, the amount of Song Stone you have here should add up to about three or four thousand, but Mr. Cao borrowed five thousand from our bank.

"With interest, the total comes to 5371.40, let's round it up to 5371, so you're still short by more than a thousand."

"What about this then?" Ma Lu took out a leaf that glowed, another spoils from the last trip to the Disaster Zone, and it was also registered at the Talisman Master Association.

Ma Lu had taken everything from Cardcaptor Sakura, paying no mind to just a single leaf, and had left these along with the Song Stones without taking them back.

"Is this... a rare material for talisman making?"

Manager Bian was seeing such a magical leaf for the first time and couldn't help but take a few extra glances, but soon he averted his eyes, showing a hint of difficulty,

"We are just a small bank, and can't assess the value of talisman-making materials."

"That's okay, I know where these can be sold," Cao Youyi said, "Manager Bian, didn't you say paying up by today would be fine?"

Manager Bian hesitated, then nodded, "Then I'll give you one more night, if you haven't gathered the money by sunrise, don't blame us for selling the school building to the Salt Gang."

He finished speaking and without paying any more attention to those in indigo gowns, he hurriedly descended the mountain.

Seeing Manager Bian leave, the Salt Gang members looked at each other and reluctantly left as well.

But they didn't go far, stopping halfway up the mountainside, they found a spot to sit, apparently wanting to wait and see if Hou De could manage to pay up the money before dawn.

Cao Youyi paid no attention to those people; she just looked at Ma Lu and said indifferently, "You've returned."

"I'm back," Ma Lu said, "were the people just now sent by the Hero Group to cause trouble?"

Cao Youyi gave a slight nod, "The railway bank Ping City branch actually used to have a good relationship with us, otherwise my brother wouldn't have gone to them to borrow money. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"This time, they suddenly demanded early repayment and their attitude was tough; someone must have been behind it. As for the Salt Gang, they are just a group of thugs who would do anything for money."

"However, Hou De is after all a legitimate talisman master school recognized by the Ministry of Education, and there are quite a few talisman masters at the school. They probably wouldn't dare to actually make a move on us, most likely they came to probe our reality, especially yours."

Cao Youyi paused, "Those 5000-plus silver coins are considered the school's debt to you. We'll repay you when we have the money."

The last part of her sentence lacked confidence, now who in Ping City didn't know that Hou De was a money pit.

The Cao Family was the best example; Jin Hua had invested all his family's money into it, but it still failed to prevent the decline of the Hou De, and he even owed the bank money before he died, which now falls on Ma Lu, his successor, to pay back.

Ma Lu didn't mind; he wasn't planning to stay long in this Plane and didn't care that much about money. Moreover, if his plan went smoothly, the school wouldn't lack funds in the future.

In fact, Cao Youyi soon brought him some good news.

The Ministry of Education's reform details had come out: from now on, clearing catastrophe belts would not only yield all recovered items to the school, but also give a corresponding cash reward based on the belt's level.

In other words, starting today, attacking the Disaster Zone would also get money from the Ministry of Education. Although it wasn't much, a Level 1 Disaster Zone could bring in 500 silver coins.

At least it covered travel expenses and left a considerable surplus, and additionally, the top ten leaders in total clearance would receive another reward.

That reward, however, had nothing to do with Ma Lu since it was only issued once a year, and the collection was also a year away.

Besides, to encourage competition among schools, the Ministry of Education decided to try implementing a challenge system.

Simply put, a school could rapidly improve its rank within the Ministry of Education through challenges.

Originally, the Ministry's university rankings were updated every six months, but with the challenge system introduced, the rankings would now change in real-time. If a challenge was successful, the rankings of both schools involved could be swapped.

This was a significant benefit for Ma Lu, making him extremely pleased.

Because moving up in the rankings would bring him education points, and not a small amount. The previous biannual change was too slow, and the ranking was determined by officials from the Ministry based on the school's size, faculty, financial condition—among multiple dimensions.

It was not easy to improve a school's ranking, but now, a successful challenge would do just that.

For a bottom-ranking school like Hou De, there was no need to defend, only to go on the offensive.

However, Cao Youyi was not optimistic about this, especially when she found out that future funding from the Ministry of Education would also be linked to school rankings, and financially subsidizing backward schools might be canceled.

This was like adding frost to snow for a financially troubled Hou De.

But she simply warned Ma Lu and then busied herself with acquiring glowing leaves and Song Stone.

Ma Lu went to the research lab first, checking the newly developed "Practice is the best teacher" and "Weight Training."

Practice is the best teacher: After each real battle, according to the number of participating students, a corresponding number of education points are provided. A Level 1 Disaster Zone gives 2 points per person, a Second Level 4 points, and a Level 3, 8 points...

Weight Training: Temporarily reduces the physical and spiritual strength of participating teachers and students by 50%, in exchange for doubling the education points after the battle.

Good, all the prerequisites for earning education points had been met, now the next step was to figure out how to defeat the monsters and Lords in the Disaster Zone.

But with the current halved combat power of Hou De's teachers and students, they obviously couldn't achieve this.

However, no matter, Ma Lu had already figured out a response, and he then shifted his gaze to a certain item in the prop shop.