Fang Ning was pretty beaten up, so he decided to read some webnovels saved up from before. Coincidentally, one of the books showed up with unread chapters, so he clicked on it. However, he was not ready for the shock.
"Sorry, going on a blind date tomorrow. Applying leave for a day."
"Sorry... I have to stop this book. My blind date told me she would rather date a delivery boy than a webnovel writer."
"Super bummed. Gonna do a health check tomorrow and be a delivery boy."
"Pfft!" Fang Ning who had wanted to refresh himself by reading some webnovels was immediately struck down. He almost spewed three liters of blood into the air and fell to the ground.
[System Notification: Critical warning. The Host is under emotional meltdown...]
The System lets a lucky pickpocket go and flew somewhere safe. After that, it went into the System Space to check on Fang Ning.
The System asked, "What now? I didn't cut off your internet or electricity. Host, why are you in emotional meltdown again?"
There was nothing else it could have done. Even though the System was controlling Fang Ning's body most of the time, if the Host died, it would most definitely follow.
Fang Ning laid inside the System Cyber Cafe, shriveled up like a dried fish, "My game's gone, and my favorite novel died. I want to lie down here and have a quiet moment to myself."
The System looked at him, "???"
Fang Ning stared back, "..."
Finally, the System said, "You're a boss with more than a billion net worth. You could just take a little bit of it out and be the author's sugar daddy so he could write, do you really have to have the meltdown-"
Fang Ning retorted, "Aren't those money yours? You are only allowing thirty thousand per month. Do you remember the time I bought those books? You said I had spent more than three months' worth in one receipt. What money do I have? Who can I be a sugar daddy to?"
The System relented, "If it's really squeezing you tight, I can let you have some more."
Fang Ning immediately revived and got up from his prone state. He crouched in front of the computer, ready to receive the money from Sir System.
Fang Ning asked bluntly, "How much can you give me?"
The System replied in the same manner, "A hundred thousand?"
Fang Ning immediately said, "You're so stingy. A hundred thousand would be about a year of salary, how could I afford the sugar daddy lifestyle? At least five million."
The System said, "2.5 million."
Fang Ning was a true homebody, so he was lazy to haggle, "2.5 million it is then."
Fang Ning glanced over to the computer to see the 2.5 million being credited to his account and immediately became refreshed again.
[System Notification: The Host recovered his spirit.]
The System asked, "Now can you go ask your sugar baby to write your book?"
Fang Ning said, "That's too much work. I'm too lazy to actually go find him, and it'll take a lot to persuade him. I'll find another one that's good."
With so much money to spend, he could just change to another one...
If that author knew about this little ditty, he would have gone to the bathroom and cried, saying, "Didn't the rich man wanted to give me money to finish my book, how could he have a change of heart so quickly?"
The System said, "So what are you gonna do with the money?"
Fang Ning replied nonchalantly, "Invest in the new game..."
The System said, "Didn't you already cultivate Dragonization Ability to Elementary Dragon Form, how is your spirit still so weak? What if it was a bleak future and everyone's fighting to survive? Webnovels would all disappear, what books would you read?"
Fang Ning retorted immediately, "Don't you think I know that? That was why we need to eliminate the overly ambitious careerists to avoid the chaos. In the past, we didn't have people helping us, so your monster farming was like playing junk Korean games. Honestly, the monsters you farmed were also the normal stuff the agency deals with. The more challenging monsters all hid, the few that we've encountered before were just because of luck. Now that we're badass, this needs to change."
The System asked, "Change how?"
Fang Ning explained, "It's easy. We know the higher-ups in Truth Department, so we might as well take this chance to clean up Vigilante A's image, register a company, and start luring monsters to our doorstep..."
The System said, "Oh, I know. You didn't want to do it, so you're asking my follower to do it for you, aren't you?"
Fang Ning replied, "That's right! So cut the cr*p and show me the money."
The System offered, "Is ten million enough?"
Fang Ning spat blood, "One hundred million!"
The System said, "Fine."
Immediately, Fang Ning rolled his eyes, 'If cultivation is involved, Sir System would not mind drilling a hole in its wallet, but it would haggle so much on giving me an allowance, it even halved what I asked for.'
The money came in almost immediately. Fang Ning started brainstorming. After a while, he had an idea, 'Why do I need to rack my brain over this? I have a loyal minion that's easy to persuade, I must have become an idiot due to the lack of blood...'
Fang Ning immediately communicated with Zheng Dao.
Zheng Dao replied, "I did want to talk to you about that, I didn't expect you to already have something in mind. I understand managing a company, what do you wanna name it?"
Fang Ning responded, "I have, uh, naming-o-phobia. What if you come up with a few names for me to choose? I want it to be low-key but classy and meaningful..."
Zheng Dao answered, "Sure, I'll let you know in an hour."
Fang Ning told him, "Alright, get busy."
An hour later, Zheng Dao sent him about a dozen of names.
Fang Ning winnowed at the names for a good long while. He could not decide, it was not that the names are all good, it was because the names all felt kind of lacking.
Honestly, he was not suitable to be a boss. Why so?
It was because he was not insistent enough. Even though none of the names were extra satisfying, he did not want to ask Zheng Dao to redo. His thought was that because naming is hard. Since he does not need to do marketing, it would be too unfair to ask Zheng Dao to redo.
He also thought about when he was a programmer, whenever his clients wanted the third revision and beyond, he would almost flip out. He did not want to rain on Zheng Dao's parade, so he chose one at random...
Fang Ning told Zheng Dao, "Let's go with Harmony Draconic. Actually, I'm gonna change a word, we'll call it the 'Harmony Powers Ltd.', that should make it a little subtler..."
There was nothing Zheng Dao could have done, "Okay, I'll go ask the Truth Department about setting up a company. Ultimately, our organizations have too many things in common. If we could get them to share their information, it'd be much easier."
Fang Ning replied, "Sure. You've given a lot of thoughts on this, so I think you should be the general manager of this company. However, it may be a little dangerous in this position in the future, I need to think of how to guarantee your safety."
Zheng Dao was grateful. After a few conversations with the Venerable White Dragon, it seemed he not only wanted to bring peace to the world, he would treat people sincerely too, evidenced by him caring about Zheng Dao's safety.
He knew the Venerable One's avoidance toward beating around the bush, so he offered, "Yes, Venerable One, I'll go and look for them now."
Fang Ning was really happy. He only needed to say a word and then there was someone to take care of things for him. This way, a lot of absurd ideas could be realized. Now that he did not need to exhaust himself to set those things up, he had to make sure his minion was protected, it was hard enough to find one in the first place.
Fang Ning typed, "Go ahead. Be careful, if you need someone to support you just Wechat us."
Zheng Dao pondered on it for a while. The dozens of people he had contacted flashed through his mind as he finally decided on contacting one. He opened his Wechat and sent the person a text message.
Zheng Dao sent, "Zishan, are you free right now?"
That's right. The person he chose was Qiao Zishan. Even though they had only started talking the day prior, Qiao Zishan had already treated him like a big brother. Naturally, a large part of that was still because of the hero behind him. His presence was the best guarantee Zheng Dao could have socially.
'He's honest, easy to persuade.'
Qiao Zishan replied, "Oh, It's you, Zheng Dao. I'm having a terrible headache, I can't even focus."
Zheng Dao replied, "My Superpower can calm your symptoms. Why don't we meet? I can help you a little."
Qiao Zishan sent, "That'd be great. Let's meet at the Qingyuan Tea House in Zone XX 1 ."
Zheng Dao responded, "I know that place. I'll be there in a bit."
In Qingyuan Tea House, it was silent, there was only the sound of water being poured into teapots for steeping, as well as the murmurs of some customers among themselves.
The duo asked for a private room and ordered a pot of Longjing tea. They requested for the waiters to not disturb them in the meantime.
As they sat, Zheng Dao did not do much but Qiao Zishan felt a wave of warmth washed through him as his worries disappeared into the air filled with the scents of tea. He sighed, "Zheng Dao, your ability was really useful, and it helps with making money. No wonder you could afford to study in the Aristocratic Cultivation Club."
Zheng Dao opined, 'He really is an honest person, a little tactless, even. But the incident in the club also opened doors for me, fate really is a strange thing.'
He said, "If you don't mind, do you want to tell me your worries, let me see if I could offer you some advice?"
Zheng Dao knew his idioms well, before one requests for something, he must offer something in return. That was the concept of bartering. If there was no offering of any sort, it would be of no use to expect something in return.
Hearing Zheng Dao's offer, Qiao Zishan instinctually felt the this must involve some kind of secrets. However, he thought there were more secrets behind Vigilante A, and his secrets were nothing compared to Vigilante A's. Besides, Vigilante A would never cast a greedy eye on his things.
Everything he had was to do with his personal cultivation that does not involve the running of Truth Department. Besides, Old Man Xu kept asking him to promote the sharing of their experiences, learning from each other so they could advance together.
Vigilante A had been the unreachable elite, there was no way to get in contact with him. Now that there was a messenger Zheng Dao, it was a good chance to ask.
He had just released all his worries, so he thought for a while and said, "It's nothing, really. Lately, I've been searching for an apprentice to inherit my Morality cultivation techniques, but people were short-tempered and ingenuine. Normally, they look decent, but as soon as they started cultivating, their tails would show, and some even caused troubles. Why is it so hard to find a person pure of heart? It was bugging me so much."
Zheng Dao heard his worries and laughed, "If you want to find people pure of heart, you should go to the preschools."
Zheng Dao's teasing had burst open the solution to Qiao Zishan's problem, so he immediately saluted Zheng Dao by holding his right fist to his left palm, "Thank you, Zheng Dao. I'm not worried about spending time, but I am concerned with the people I choose. I shall update the Department so they could prepare the parents for the news."
Zheng Dao thought it might be a good time, so he said, "If that's the case, why don't I follow you to look at your choices? My Superpower can coax people to speak the truth, after all."
Qiao Zishan was thankful. He immediately asked for the bill, and they left the tea house together.
Original text literally said "XX区"