At Star City, Chen Feng stared blankly at the army of producers in front of him. All these producers that were normally arrogant and cold were now gathered together to protest something.
"Shameless Chen Feng! Selfish Chen Feng!"
"We shall never allow Chen Feng's rise!"
"We don't need such a producer!"
"Requesting to expel Chen Feng!"
Countless banners and screens with these words could be seen midair.
Chen Feng was somewhat stupefied.
What's happening?
As far as he remembered, when he'd previously returned, he had still been somewhat popular and welcomed by everyone here. How had things changed so much this time?
Finally, some of the crowd noticed him.
Suddenly, some of them shouted. "It's Chen Feng!"
"Where?"
"There."
Shit!
Chen Feng started having a bad feeling. However, a pair of petite hands dragged him backward suddenly, hiding him from everyone's sight.
Who?
Chen Feng turned around, and what entered his sight was a pair of snow-white peaks.
Ha Li?
Chen Feng was astonished. The one who'd dragged him away was the very Lady Ha Li, the owner of that world-encompassing pair of peaks!
"Shh." Ha Li dragged Chen Feng and continued running for quite a while before finally stopping at a place where there was no one else around. After stopping, she started gasping for breath with her face flushed red. For cooped up nerd producers like her, it was incredibly rare to run this distance even once per year.
"Senior Hou… told me to bring you over…" Ha Li said as she gasped for breath.
"All right."
Only at this did he understand why she was doing this.
Hou Liang? Good, I want to know what's going on as well!
Soon, he reached Hou Liang's room.
"Sit," Hou Liang said indifferently.
Chen Feng sat down and directly asked, "What happened?"
"What else?" Hou Liang sighed before slowly elaborating.
Every year, the Gene Production Association would choose the most excellent producer based on contribution points. This chosen producer would enjoy special privileges where a certain amount of resources would be concentrated on this producer.
This was a way of showing appreciation to this excellent producer.
However, outside of everyone's expectations, when the contribution point ranking had been released for this year, Chen Feng had been the one occupying the top spot.
"Me???"
Chen Feng widened his eyes. How many missions had he taken?
"Yes, it's you." Hou Liang was feeling helpless. Evidently, he had not expected this either. "Although the number of missions you completed is quite low, look at the rank of every single mission you completed! Almost all of them were at the 'world danger' tier! There's also that new camp mission you completed previously. The contribution points for such missions…" Hou Liang shook his head. In other words, this excellence award had now landed on Chen Feng.
"Even if that's the case, they don't have to protest against me, right?" Chen Feng couldn't understand their motivation.
Hou Liang shook his head and said, "The excellence award is merely a trigger. The crucial point is the status of the previous excellence award recipients. Are you aware of who those people are? They are all senior producers that are known and respected by all! Their high contribution points were obtained from their research papers! Almost all producers benefited from their research! As for you, although you have helped the world greatly with your missions, you have not directly benefited those producers. Do you understand now?"
What were the tiers of mission Chen Feng had completed? World-danger-tier missions! These were all unique missions that were interlinked with the Genetic Union as well. Apart from this, there was also the contribution points he'd received for the warning of the catastrophic event he'd given them—the upcoming crisis one year from now. This event had been confirmed as real by the master seers of the Genetic Union. As a result, currently, the Gene Production Association and the Genetic Union had started their secret project to face what was to come. However, all these were classified and could not be made public.
Even if these were made public, it would be extremely hard to obtain the recognition of those old, stubborn producers. The reason for that was because, in essence, the way in which Chen Feng had completed these missions was more in line with how those at the Genetic Union would act, which was totally not helpful for the producers of the Gene Production Association.
For example: the progress of the gene production profession.
The previous recipients of the excellence award were all gene producers that were meticulous researchers who had achieved great breakthroughs in research pertaining to topics such as gene armaments and the like. After their breakthrough in research, they would sell their research results in exchange for mission points that others could obtain through mission completions. As such, the other producers would be able to read these research results through their mission points.
With every mission point they received from the sale of their research paper, the association would grant them an equivalent amount of contribution points. As such, based on the number of these contribution points, the association would be able to determine the biggest contributor to the organization.
As the only purpose of contribution points was to display one's fame, as far as everyone was concerned, the one with the most contribution honor points would be the one worthy of the excellence award. Furthermore, the association had a whole reward system that revolved around the contribution points. All these were to encourage those old producers to engage in research. A lot of producers spent their whole life in research just for this excellence award.
This would be equivalent to one's lifetime achievement. The same was applicable this year. Several senior producers that were well known and prestigious had been competing intensely for this award, selling their research results at a discount to obtain more contribution points. Just as everyone had been enjoying this race between them, surprisingly, someone else had appeared with points far surpassing the others!
Under normal circumstances, when a producer completed a mission, the points awarded were not contribution points; instead, these were mission points that could only be used to purchase gene-production-related items.
However, every single mission completed by Chen Feng was too astonishing and terrifying! Every single one of those missions had contributed to the whole world, giving him sufficient contribution points to push him to the top of the rankings!
Finally, Chen Feng understood. "So that's the case."
"Mhm." Hou Liang's head ached. "Those few fellows who were competing for this award have now grouped together against you, requesting justice. This is especially true for that Lan Jingling…"
Chen Feng was astonished. "Lan Jingling?"
"Yes." Hou Liang nodded. "The Lan family is quite powerful. A lot of their family members are members of the headquarters of the Genetic Union and the Gene Production Association. The reason for this uproar is also due to her agitating the public. Oh yeah, her younger brother is in the Genetic Union as well. His name is Lan Xing; have you met him?"
Chen Feng: "…"
He recalled that particular idiot that had been insulted by everyone to the point he couldn't show his face anywhere. Chen Feng seemed to hear others mentioning that the guy was called Lan Xing. He was ugly and stupid yet arrogant; however, in essence, he was not an evil person. Originally, Chen Feng had thought that they would only cross paths once. Unexpectedly, he would encounter Lan Jingling this time around…
"I suppose the reason that Lan Xing went against me previously was for this as well," Chen Feng said knowingly.
Due to his sister losing the excellence award to Chen Feng, he had been thinking of venting his sister's anger. It was quite probable that was the reason.
"Although this Lan Jingling is quite an eccentric person with a bad temper, her contributions to gene production are truly genuine. All sorts of problems related to formulas and research have been successfully solved by her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to become a candidate for the excellence award without completing a single mission," Hou Liang said.
Chen Feng seemed to understand now. "Hence… You are looking for me to tell me to let them win the award?"
"No." Hou Liang shook his head. "We need to get your answer to solve this issue as soon as possible. If you don't want this excellence award, we will reform the system. In the future, the excellence award will be awarded based on contributions in regard to research, while unique contributions will not be taken into consideration. If you are interested in getting this excellence award… it will still be yours. The Gene Production Association will not treat our own people unfairly!" Hou Liang said righteously.
They were aware of Chen Feng's contributions. Even if these contributions couldn't be announced to the public, they could not erase the honor belonging to Chen Feng!
The reason he'd called Chen Feng over was to obtain an answer.
Chen Feng shut his eyes.
Excellence award…
Lan Jingling…
Protest…
Hehe.
A toying smile appeared on Chen Feng's face.
At that, Hou Liang laughed. From that expression, he could guess Chen Feng's answer.
"Cancel it first, then," Chen Feng said.
"All right, then we will first think of a way to suppress—wait, what did you say?" Hou Liang widened his eyes.
Cancel? Had he heard wrongly?
"Just cancel it for now." Chen Feng smiled. "Since the association has given me so many resources, I should give back sometimes, right?"
Hou Liang: "…"
"Cancel it," Chen Feng confirmed.
Hou Liang stared at Chen Feng "Are you sure?" Chen Feng's earlier expression did not seem like the expression of someone scared! Moreover, Hou Liang had known Chen Feng for quite a while. This fellow was not the type that would be afraid of anything!
"I'm serious," Chen Feng said earnestly. "If only the contributions from research are taken into consideration, the public will be pacified as well."
"Don't act recklessly!" Hou Liang was now feeling horrified. He had a feeling that Chen Feng was about to stir up some trouble. This guy was truly making him nervous even when he shrunk from a challenge…
"Don't make trouble!" Hou Liang nagged him before leaving, not noticing the smile on Chen Feng's face.
Using research as the measure of contribution? Ahh…