Chapter 123: First Impression of the Academy (1)
After taking a short break in the room to readjust his mental state, Su Yu went down.
...
In the cafeteria.
Zhou Hui was already busy eating while the new students arrived one after another. The same scene was playing out all around them as well, with one senior student leading several new students.
"Over here!"
Zhou Hui waved at Su Yu. When he went over, she smiled and said, "Go grab something to eat. You know how to do that, right?"
Su Yu smiled and left without saying anything. This was basically a self-service restaurant. By the time he returned with his meal, Zhou Hui was almost done eating. When all the students arrived, she gestured at them to eat while she sat there waiting.
As they ate, she said, "In the past, some of the genius students joined without knowing how to do anything. They thought the academy was their home, ordering the senior students around like they were servants. Some even ordered the senior students to fetch their meals for them."
Zhou Hui laughed and said, "Good thing none of you are that stupid. Otherwise, I would have been rich."
Everyone looked at her blankly. What did she mean?
"Stupid. Don’t you need to pay for work done?" Zhou Hui softly said, "You can all serve as a witness that I'm not an unreliable senior sister. Pay attention to your surroundings. If any senior student ends up getting the meal for some new students later...hehe, those new students will not enjoy what comes next.
"According to the rules of the academy, you must be rewarded for what you do. Since the senior student has helped the new student with a task, then the new student will be charged no lower than one merit point. A greedier senior student can even demand three to five merit points per task. The new student will have no choice but to pay up. They only have themselves to blame for being incapable of even fetching their meal themselves."
Zhou Hui giggled and said, "Just wait and see. Something like this will definitely happen. Some new students are too stupid and arrogant. They think that this place is their home."
The expressions of Su Yu and the other students changed. Was the environment here really so cutthroat?
Fortunately, their group had been too embarrassed to let Zhou Hui help with anything. A short girl beside Su Yu asked with some lingering fear, "Senior sister, when you offered to help me with my luggage earlier, did you intend to charge me for it?"
"Of course." Zhou Hui answered righteously, "Everyone seems to be able to carry their own luggage except you. When I see you struggling, isn't it normal for me to offer my service? Don't worry, I'm not greedy. I can do it for only one merit point."
...
The short girl rejoiced that she had insisted on carrying her luggage herself because she had been too embarrassed to accept the help. It would seem like that decision had saved her a merit point.
For these new students, even one merit point was a large amount. Even those from rich families wouldn't be willing to waste their merit points like that. That was basically the same as paying someone tens of thousands to carry a suitcase. Who would be willing to do that?
Su Yu was not bothered about that. Instead, he asked, "Senior Sister Zhou, are senior students being paid to welcome the new students?"
"Yes. We get one merit point for this mission." Zhou Hui smiled happily, "That's a lot. In fact, this is a job many couldn't get even if they wanted. Only mental tempering grade students like us can get it. It is easy and safe. It doesn't even take much time. We wouldn't be able to get one merit point so easily during any other time."
Zhou Hui scanned the group and said, "Who among you are high-tier students?"
The short girl raised her hand cautiously and said, "I am."
Zhou Hui's eyes lit up and said, "You're a high-tier student? You're rewarded 100 merit points for joining the academy, right?"
The short girl was fearful of the look in Zhou Hui's eyes. But she still nodded and said, "Yeah. That was what I heard."
"Junior sister!" Zhou Hui exclaimed with her eyes brightly lit, "Have you ever considered providing loans? By loaning your 100 merit points for 3 months, you will get 110 merit points in return. You have just joined the academy so you won't be needing that many merit points anyway.
"It would be too much of a waste to just keep your points in your card. You can consider lending it to me. I'll help you look for loan takers. After 3 months, I'll return 110 merit points to you. You can earn 10 merit points without doing anything!"
Su Yu and the other students were dumbstruck. The people here were way too creative in terms of making money. Even the students from the bigger cities were as stunned as Su Yu. Something like this was completely beyond their imagination.
The short girl was so scared that she almost teared up. She hurriedly said, "No. I still need to buy some original texts. I need the points myself."
"Sigh."
Zhou Hui sighed before smiling again, "You're bad at math. Fine, your senior sister won't trick you. You can always consider lending your merit points to me if you find yourself not able to finish them. I'll give you my number later."
She then looked at the others on the table and said, "The same goes for you guys. Consider my offer. Of course, there might be more high-high students among you as well. But that is not indicated on the list I'm given, I am too lazy to ask too much.
"Don't worry. Nobody would dare to steal your merit points. This is the academy. You will definitely receive interest for the merit points you loan out. There are a lot of people lacking merit points in the academy. These people only need some points for emergencies and can quickly return the points to you."
Su Yu couldn't help but to ask, "Senior Sister, are merit points hard to earn here?"
"Of course." Zhou Hui helplessly said, "We're not warriors. Our physical strength is too weak so some missions are out of our reach. And there are too many old students that have yet to graduate. Easy jobs involving translation and administration would be snatched the moment one is available."
Zhou Hui sighed, "I've been in the academy for six years. I'm already at the Mental Tempering Stage, but I can still rarely find any suitable missions for me. Otherwise, why would I be here welcoming new students like you? You need merit points for willpower texts, for classes, for meals, for everything!"
Zhou Hui's face turned gloomy as she said, "I can't live anymore."
The new students felt sad for her hearing about her hardships in the academy. That was too pitiful.
Su Yu was also worried. He asked, "Is there no way to earn merit points?"
"Of course we have." Zhou Hui said, "Like I said, there are a lot of missions around. Helping pillmasters with pills, helping beast tamers with rearing beasts, helping character masters with odd jobs, all those tasks provide merit points.
"If you're strong and confident, you can challenge the Top 100 Ranking of the academy. If you can get on the ranking, you'll receive bonus merit points each month."
"Top 100 Ranking?" Su Yu asked in confusion.
Beside him, the short girl said, "I know about that! Senior Sister, is that the ranking for those in the Mental Tempering Stage?"
"You can say so." Zhou Hui smiled, "Only those in the Mental Tempering Stage can get on that ranking. Also, you must be below 30. Those who have graduated after reaching the Skysoar Realm will not be allowed to get on the ranking as well. The rewards of this ranking are provided for the students, not the Skysoar graduates."
The short girl said, "Senior Sister, I heard about that from my aunt. But I'm planning to walk the path of pillmaking. I won't have much strength. How do I get on the ranking?"
"You don't have to worry about that." Zhou Hui explained, "The Top 100 Ranking is mainly for combat specialists. Pillmasters, talisman masters, and weaponsmiths have their own rankings. You can aim for those instead. But those rankings won't be as popular as the Top 100 Ranking."
She paused to look at the look of longing on the eyes of the new students. With a smile, she said, "You guys can forget about it. How many students are there in the academy? And how many students can graduate each year? Every year, there are at least 1,000 students below 30 staying behind after failing to graduate while the others leave the academy after giving up. And over the past 10 years, more than 10,000 of these students have been accumulated in the academy."
Even when taking only those below 30 into consideration, there were over 10,000 of them. And that was already excluding the ones who had given up and left the academy. Or else, the number would have been bigger.
Zhou Hui continued her explanation, "There are more than one mental tempering classes. Each major faction has their own classes. There are about 5,000 Mental Tempering Stage students below 30 in the academy. And among them, only 100 can get on the Top 100 Ranking. Newbies like you should stop dreaming."
"There are so many Mental Tempering Stage students?" A young man exclaimed in astonishment, "That's too many!"
"You’re surprised by that?" Zhou Hui was indifferent, "There are plenty of Mental Tempering Stage students around. That number will be even bigger when including those above 30. You only need 50 percent willpower to reach the Mental Tempering Stage. A new student can reach that point after a year or two.
"However, after reaching that stage, you will be stuck for a very long time. There are still a large number of Mental Tempering Stage students in their seventies in the academy."
Zhou Hui shook her head and sighed, "It is too hard to reach the Skysoar Realm. Last year, 62 students graduated from the academy. Only 16 of them are below 30. A large majority of our students would have no hope of reaching the Skysoar Realm."
Everyone sank into silence.
Zhou Hui smiled again and said, "Don't worry. If you really can't do it, you can always change your profession. LIke me. If I can't reach the Skysoar Realm by 30, I will leave the academy and look for something else to do.
"We have strong willpower. If we shift into a warrior, we can reach the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms quickly. At the Infinite Strength Realm, you can easily find a decent job."
One of them couldn't resist asking, "Senior Sister, how old are you?"
Zhou Hui's eyes turned dangerous, "That is a dangerous question. Do you know that?"
The smile then returned to her face as she said, "I'm ok. I've been in the academy for 6 years, making me 24 this year. I'm fine being asked that question. But if you ask those old senior sisters that have been in the academy for decades...you will regret it terribly."
The students laughed. The mood on their table had warmed up considerably. Earlier, everyone was tense. But Zhou Hui was a pleasant and talkative person so they were able to keep the conversation going.
Su Yu and the other students could see that the nearby tables were so silent it was scary. Some of the senior students only ate silently, completely disregarding their junior students. Evidently, this was only a mission for them.
Apart from showing the way, they would not need to do anything else. Thus, they would only converse with the new students if they were in the mood. Otherwise, they could always ignore the new students.