Universe Infinite Canteen

On his way to find someone, Ma Lu was already studying the newly acquired campus management system.

It was similar to those campus simulation games on Steam, mainly revolving around recruiting and nurturing students to increase the school's prestige and such activities to earn education points.

Ma Lu currently had 124 education points in hand.

All of them came from the 10 new students he had recruited this time.

Among them, students with Grade E aptitude provided him with 1 education point each, Grade D with 3 points, Grade C with 10 points, and Cao Jiajia with Grade B provided the most, a full 100 points.

And there were many uses for these education points, such as unlocking and upgrading the school's buildings.

Hou De could currently upgrade six buildings: student dormitories, classrooms, canteens, sports fields, faculty lounges, and the Principal's Office.

All six places were currently at their initial 1st level.

Ma Lu could see their aerial view from his Traveler's Bracelet. When he tried placing his finger over the student dormitory, a prompt for an upgrade immediately popped up.

Would you like to spend 50 education points to upgrade the dormitory from 1st level to 2nd level?

Effect: None → Additional 10% Energy and Physical Strength Recovery during rest.

Ma Lu then moved his finger to the classroom, the upgrade cost from 1st to 2nd level was still 50 education points, but reaching 2nd level would grant a 10% increase in learning speed.

Ma Lu then pointed to the sports field, with the same upgrade cost of 50 education points, this time it was a 10% increase in the effectiveness of exercise. Physicality was also very important for a Talisman Master.

In the previous fight, Ma Lu had deeply realized this; if he had not held his plank position, he might have let that Lord escape.

Next was the canteen, the importance of eating was self-explanatory, and after upgrade, it would improve appetite and mood.

And appetite and mood could indirectly affect the efficiency of studying, exercising, and even sleeping—a small BUFF that improved all Attributes.

Then came the faculty lounge, which was for improving the teachers' energy levels. If teachers rested well, they would be more energetic in their lectures, and then more knowledge would be imparted to the students... Ma Lu figured this was probably the system's logic.
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Finally, the Principal's Office, the cheapest to upgrade, from 1st to 2nd level actually only cost 10 education points, and such a cheap cost brought an effect that was quite trivial—increasing the principal's Mood Value by 10%.

Although Ma Lu was curious how much more Joy a 10% improvement in mood would bring, considering the preciousness of education points, he still resisted the impulse and didn't immediately upgrade the Principal's Office.

After inspecting the buildings, he then looked at the faculty training system, but to unlock this feature, he first needed to build a faculty training tower. Besides education points, new building construction also required space and equipment.

Open spaces were plenty in Hou De, but equipment had to be purchased from outside. Ma Lu checked the estimated price given by the system, which would amount to at least a thousand silver coins.

For schools under the banner of Hero Group, this might be a small sum, but for Hou De, it was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

So even though the teaching level of instructors would significantly improve after training, Ma Lu still had to give up on unlocking the faculty training feature for now.

Apart from training, simply adjusting the faculty's salaries could also affect the teaching level. Alright, it couldn't be denied that when people are paid more, their sense of responsibility does indeed grow to a certain extent.

And the good news was that this enhancement did not require consumption of precious education points, but the bad news was that Hou De had no money in its accounts, so for the current stage, using education points was more realistic.

After finishing looking at faculty training, Ma Lu turned his attention to the item shop, which had a variety of items. Some could temporarily enhance students' abilities, facilitating the cleaning of the catastrophe belt.

There were items that could improve the effects of studying and training, though they were basically for use on single individuals, equivalent to giving special treatment to key training targets.

The effects were significant, as were the prices, which in the long run, were far less cost-effective than upgrading buildings.

Ma Lu even found items in the shop that could improve student aptitude, and their prices were outrageously high.

He browsed through them briefly, getting a general idea, and then shifted his focus to the next feature.

— Business Department.

This was also easy to understand: it involved all kinds of commercial activities, cultivating Talisman Masters, accepting advertisements, making movies, creating merchandise, going around to make money for the department.

Apart from specialized buildings, it also required designated personnel to be in charge of this business and an allocation of initial funds to get the Business Department going.

Although Hou De was indeed very short of money now, the threshold was a bit too high.

Finally, he came to—Research and Development.

This was equivalent to the skill tree system in general games, and unlocking it required building a Research Laboratory.

Research Laboratories also required space, but fortunately, equipment could be bought in the item store, and it wasn't too expensive, only 18 education points.

Additionally, Ma Lu had figured out what the Principal's mood was useful for. Unlocking research projects required education points and also research time, and this research time was, astonishingly, linked to the Principal's mood.

A 10-point increase in the Principal's mood would reduce research time by 10%, which meant that if Ma Lu could upgrade the Principal's Office to level 10, plus sufficient education points, then he could instantly research all the projects.

And research had several pathways: cost reduction and alleviating the school's financial pressures, further improving student training efficiency, strengthening student capabilities, faculty, and increasing the output of education points.

With that, Ma Lu had roughly gone through the functions of the campus management system.

How should it be said, it was up to the standard of Destiny's protection, with effects that were pretty game-changing.

Take the most basic classroom, for instance—upgrade it to speed up learning. With a 10 level upgrade, students of the same aptitude would double their learning efficiency.

Grade E becomes Grade D, Grade D becomes Grade C, Grade C becomes Grade B, and Grade B skyrockets to Grade A.

This was undeniably high-tech, particularly when used in conjunction with the canteen, dormitory, and faculty training—it was like a genius production line, and Xiao Yan would be able to mass-produce them.

But after reviewing it all, Ma Lu was still not entirely satisfied; he still felt it was too slow.

Zhang Wuji, back in the day, had fallen off a cliff, accidentally discovered the Nine Yang Divine Skill, and spent five years reaching the last level. Even if his learning efficiency was doubled, the training duration still reached two and a half years.

Of course, it wasn't the system's fault, after all, the system's name was the campus management system, and campuses were mainly based on academic years.

But Ma Lu could not accept this; he was here for the purpose of collecting ingredients, not to dedicate himself exhaustively to building Hou De into a century-old prestigious school.

So was there a more efficient training method, allowing Hou De's students to grow quickly and bear fruit?

Ma Lu's gaze eventually settled on the Research function.