Chapter 29: Money Matters—A Step Forward Becomes a Struggle
Facing the orders from the school leadership, Lin Xue pulled out the school regulations and asked which specific rule her founding of the Red Heart Society had violated. After a moment of contemplation, the school leaders cited the regulation regarding student organizations causing public outrage and inappropriate public opinion. Lin Xue retorted directly: if the majority of student organizations withdrew their complaints, could the Red Heart Society continue to exist? The school leaders, unwilling to offend Lin Xue—or rather, the immense power standing behind her—agreed to her terms.
However, no sooner had they agreed than they secretly instructed all student organizations that they must not withdraw their complaints under any circumstances. But where there is a policy, there is a countermeasure. Lin Xue simply summoned the student body presidents and offered them membership in the Red Heart Society, coupled with a reward of 10,000 contribution points, and they immediately withdrew their complaints. Even though guidance counselors and faculty members overseeing student organizations tried repeatedly to intervene, they could not shake the students' resolve to drop the complaints. After all, 10,000 contribution points from the Red Heart Society represented tangible, high-value transcendent resources. Under normal circumstances, they might have considered the teachers' standing, but when cold, hard transcendent resources were placed right before them, who could resist? At the end of the day, if the school wouldn't provide these resources for free, why shouldn't they strive to obtain them themselves? Thus, the order to disband the Red Heart Society withered away before it could even be issued.
Naturally, mindful of the camaraderie with Xu Tao from the previous simulation, you had Wang Meng look after Xu Hai at Cloud City University No. 2. Under this care, Xu Hai also became a member of the Red Heart Society.
On January 20, 126 of the Transcendent Calendar, as news arrived via "Transcendent Finance" regarding the Federal Third Battle Group's defeat on the front lines, the entire Adamantine market entered a state of volatility. The price of Adamantine began to soar. After learning this information, members of the Red Heart Battle Team grew even more reverent toward you, for in you, they saw a bright and promising future. Especially with the growth of the Red Heart Battle Team, everyone could see that its various positions were modeled after those of a formal battle group. Once the Red Heart Battle Group was officially established, they would all be considered founding veterans of the organization!
On March 15, 126 of the Transcendent Calendar, to ensure the security of your assets, you sold off your Adamantine three days ahead of schedule. After all, your massive capital investment had significantly influenced the Adamantine market. To avoid becoming part of the group harvested by the market, it was better to exit early.
On March 17, the Adamantine market experienced massive turbulence—a day earlier than last time. This made you feel quite fortunate that you had cashed out and left early. Of course, given the price at which you had purchased the Adamantine, you wouldn't have lost money, but you certainly wouldn't have made as much as you did. Now that you held substantial wealth, you began to make plans for yourself and the further development of the Red Heart Battle Team.
Shortly thereafter, the mysterious disappearance of Instructor Wang Guang from Cloud City University No. 2 allowed the equipment manufacturing apparatus to fall into your hands. If it had been an ordinary student, the Dean of Students could have easily crushed them. But because Wang Meng was a founding member of the Red Heart Society and Lin Xue was his staunch comrade, this status made the Dean hesitate. Ultimately, faced with the Red Heart Society's uncompromising stance, the looting of Wang Guang's assets came to an abrupt halt.
With this equipment casting instrument in its possession, the great Red Heart Society began to hum with activity. Internally, the society purchased equipment materials at prices higher than the market rate, forged them into equipment using the device, and then sold them to its members at prices lower than the market rate. Naturally, all transactions were settled using Red Heart contribution points. Given the current size of the society's membership, a single equipment casting instrument was easily handled. With the arrival of this device, the Red Heart Society officially possessed its first industry. Lin Xue felt deeply moved by this; though the money earned by this instrument meant little to you personally, it was a pivotal first step for the society.
In May 126 of the Transcendent Calendar, you reached level 15 by refining intermediate God-Given Crystals. As your level increased, you noticed that the experience energy required for each subsequent level was becoming significantly greater. Although your current net worth allowed you to purchase intermediate God-Given Crystals at will, the speed of absorption and refinement became the critical bottleneck for your advancement. Upon your inquiry, the President of Cloud City University No. 1 addressed your concerns: the refinement of intermediate crystals was actually quite fast. Once you completed your second advancement and began refining high-level God-Given Crystals, you would realize just how slow the process could be. A newly advanced professional typically required about half a month to refine a single high-level God-Given Crystal. Of course, the world was vast, and there were tools and equipment designed to accelerate this process, but such items were prohibitively expensive—often costing billions—and their use frequently resulted in the leakage of the crystals' energy.
Those not born into prestigious clans simply could not afford them! As you prepared to leave, the President urged you to spend time tempering your Bronze Battle Aura. Although there was no explicit requirement for this before the second advancement, and you could technically skip it if you lacked the funds, if you were to temper your Bronze Battle Aura to the state of perfection before advancing to Silver Battle Aura, the boost provided by your Silver Battle Aura would reach the absolute maximum value attainable through that passive skill.
Upon learning this, you frowned. You had thought that before the first advancement, you were helpless without money; you hadn't expected that after the first advancement, the real spending would only just begin. Especially during the second advancement, without money, even if God-Given Crystals were placed right in front of you, you wouldn't be able to level up! How tragic was that? Fortunately, you had the gift of time and space, and you were sufficiently wealthy.
In June 126 of the Transcendent Calendar, you spent a massive sum to purchase a large-scale instrument to assist in the absorption of intermediate God-Given Crystals. By now, the Red Heart Society had over two thousand members, and more than two hundred had passed the trials to offer you their loyalty as members of the Red Heart Battle Team. With this instrument, the team members would be able to refine God-Given Crystals at an ever-increasing pace.
In July 126 of the Transcendent Calendar, Lin Xue came to you, saying that the President of Cloud City University No. 2 had called her in for a talk, hoping she would disband the Red Heart Society. The existence of this student organization had begun to severely affect the normal operations of the university. The five major departments of the school combined only had about ten thousand students, yet the Red Heart Society alone had over two thousand. At the same time, Lin Xue expressed to you the true meaning behind the President's words: he wanted to establish communication with the forces behind her! In other words, if the power backing Lin Xue was strong enough, he would naturally turn a blind eye and even encourage the expansion of such student organizations. But if she could not satisfy him, he would forcibly dismantle the Red Heart Society!