Chapter 279: Extremely Poor Talent, Purely Relying on Background

Chapter 279: Abysmal Talent, Purely Backed by Privilege

"Wang Yin?"

Gongshu Jin felt the name Wang Yin struck a chord of familiarity.

Suddenly, it clicked. He recalled catching a glimpse of a commercial for the Oasis Group, which seemed to feature someone by that name.

However, it had been a mere fleeting glance back then, leaving no lasting impression.

Furthermore, when Li Xiao had just recounted the events, many of the specific details were hazy even to himself, making his narration rather ambiguous.

Gongshu Jin decided it was best to investigate the matter on his own.

A moment later, to his astonishment, he discovered that his search yielded absolutely nothing.

"Impossible, I distinctly remember seeing that Oasis Group commercial..."

Suddenly, realization dawned upon him: "Right, I only recently arrived on the 2nd layer. I must have seen that advertisement back when I was still on the 4th."

Upon further thought, his curiosity regarding the matter only intensified. He went so far as to utilize his limited allocation of the corporate dedicated line to temporarily contact an employee on the 4th layer, requesting their assistance in digging into the affair.

Gongshu Jin thought to himself, "It is a pity my clearance remains insufficient. Otherwise, why would I have to go through such trouble? I could have directly accessed the upper-layer network information via the Spirit Realm Network."

Before long, word came back from his contact.

"The advertisement did exist, but it has essentially been scrubbed by now. Even the related comments, posts, and videos have been systematically blocked, deleted, and taken down."

"As for the livestream footage you requested, it cost me a few spirit coins just to unearth it."

In the next instant, the video playback leaped directly into Gongshu Jin's ocular prosthesis.

It was precisely the scene of Zhang Yu astride Wang Yin, driving his fists into the man's face, blow after relentless blow.

Beholding this spectacle, Gongshu Jin's gaze flickered, a pensive look settling into his eyes.

Observing Gongshu Jin's demeanor from the side, Li Xiao knew the other man must be using his cranial prosthetics to look up data. He hastily added, "Director Wang treated Zhang Yu with kindness as weighty as a mountain, yet he was met with a wretched backstab. This Zhang Yu is nothing but an untamable dog..."

"Mmh..." Gongshu Jin nodded, yet remarked, "Untamable? Why must he be tamed? One could simply make a friend of him."

Gongshu Jin did not give a single shred of consideration to Li Xiao's words.

A penniless wretch from the 1st layer like Li Xiao, whose academic performance was mediocre and whose ranking trailed far behind his own...

To Gongshu Jin, could such a creature even be considered human? At best, he was a hound that barely managed to walk in human guise—a canine companion, perhaps, but nowhere near the status of a human friend.

Particularly given that Li Xiao did not even know which layer Wang Yin had descended from, entirely ignorant of how deep these waters ran.

Gongshu Jin estimated that even here on the 2nd layer, likely only the corporate factions engaged in trade with the 1st layer, along with those who kept a close eye on lower-layer news, would be aware of Zhang Yu's victory over Wang Yin.

That Zhang Yu had bested a Wang Yin who had crippled his own cultivation during battle proved that Zhang Yu possessed decent combat prowess for a novice in the Foundation Establishment stage. Yet, to Gongshu Jin, none of that mattered.

Staring at the video frame, his concern lay not with the martial power Zhang Yu displayed, but with the ultimate outcome.

In Gongshu Jin's view, for Zhang Yu to pin Wang Yin down like that, beat him into unconsciousness, and still emerge completely unscathed to attend the university's Foundation Establishment class spoke volumes of an extraordinary background.

That was true style, true presence, and true, undeniable charm—vastly superior to being peerless in battle, boundlessly talented, or staggeringly brilliant.

Conversely, no matter how formidable Zhang Yu's combat capabilities appeared, or how exceptional his latent talent might be, Gongshu Jin would not care. He would merely assign a mental price tag to the youth.

"I must get Zheng Shen to look into this. What exactly is this Zhang Yu's origin? To beat Wang Yin so savagely and yet not perish on the 1st layer?"

Revolving such thoughts in his mind, Gongshu Jin naturally abandoned his original intention of taking Zhang Yu under his wing, pondering instead whether he might forge a friendship with him.

What constituted a friend? To Gongshu Jin, it meant someone who was either wealthy, well-connected, or exceptionally high-achieving.

"Moreover, this Zhang Yu secured his Foundation Establishment qualification during his second year of high school, a full year ahead of me, yet his data is actually a staggering twenty percent lower than mine. It appears his talent is abysmal, and he relies purely on his background."

It naturally never occurred to Gongshu Jin that after obtaining his qualification, Zhang Yu had been delayed for a considerable time simply because he lacked the funds to purchase a spiritual root.

He thought to himself: "With talent like that, it is impossible for him to catch up to me in the future; indeed, the gulf between us will only widen. He poses no threat to my quest for the top rank in the class."

"On the contrary, his background might just prove useful to me."

At this thought, Gongshu Jin felt all the more that Zhang Yu was a fitting candidate for friendship.

Beside him, Li Xiao remained oblivious to these calculations, yet hearing the words spoken, he could sense Gongshu Jin's goodwill toward Zhang Yu, filling his heart with a mixture of surprise and jealousy.

Gongshu Jin, meanwhile, walked straight up to Zhang Yu, casting his gaze over both him and Yu Xinghan before deploying his customary method of making acquaintances.

There were no pleasantries, nor any polite small talk; Gongshu Jin resolved to directly flaunt his financial might.

This was Gongshu Jin's tried-and-true rule of socialization, one that had never failed him since childhood.

Generally speaking, once he displayed his wealth, the affluent would accept him, while the impoverished would fawn over him.

To Gongshu Jin, wealth—much like one's grades and rankings—was an absolutely effective and logical matching mechanism, capable of filtering out useless social interactions.

"Hello, you two."

Gongshu Jin deliberately turned to display his back, his hands tracing lightly along his spine from top to bottom as he let out a soft chuckle. "Take a look at this Vajra-forged spinal prosthesis of mine. How much do you think it cost?"

Zhang Yu blanked for a moment, thinking to himself, "Is this fellow here just to flex his wealth at me?"

Seeing Zhang Yu's silence, Li Xiao chimed in from the side to play the sycophant: "Surely it must be at least fifteen spirit coins?"

Gongshu Jin replied indifferently, "It cost me twenty."

"After all, the raw material for this spine came from a master of the Vajra University, crafted from a spine the master spent years cultivating through bitter practice."

"For a spine of the same model, a professional bone-harvesting cultivator would require an entire year to regrow it. In other words, an identical spinal prosthesis only appears once a year at the very least."

Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, "Fucking filthy rich bastard!"

Observing the unfazed Zhang Yu, Gongshu Jin thought, "Is even a Vajra-forged piece beneath his notice?"

Frowning slightly, Gongshu Jin spoke up, "You two, let us add each other as contacts." Although he only intended to seek out Zhang Yu, seeing that Yu Xinghan was accompanying him, Gongshu Jin figured he might as well add both to test their depth simultaneously.

As the contact requests were accepted, Gongshu Jin activated the unique capability of his own ocular prosthesis, a prompt materializing in his vision to display the models of his new contacts' eye implants.

Using a contact connection to discern the other party's ocular prosthesis model was yet another of his subtle social techniques.

"The Chrono-Remnant Demon Eye? Such a top-tier ocular prosthesis?"

"This Zhang Yu... is a friend."

In that instant, Gongshu Jin knew his judgment had not played him false; the Zhang Yu before him was by no means an ordinary individual.

"Though it seems this friend of mine is not much of a talker, choosing not even to show off his ocular prosthesis. Is he the low-profile type, much like Ji Yuanshu?"

"Yet, having witnessed my financial strength, he must surely understand that we are fit to be friends."

"I shall settle for adding him today, and let the rest unfold in due course."

With that thought, Gongshu Jin gave Zhang Yu a curt nod, offered no further words, and turned straight back around.

Watching Zhang Yu remain aloof and unresponsive while Gongshu Jin walked away, Li Xiao sneered inwardly, "Heh, this Zhang Yu truly possesses a wretched temperament. Now he has gone and offended Gongshu Jin too, hasn't he?"

Right at that moment, Yu Xinghan nodded, "Sure, let's add each other."

On the other side, Gongshu Jin looked at the contact approval that had only just come through, his brow furrowing slightly. "The Polar Tiger? And such an obsolete model at that."

"This one is no friend."

With a mere flick of his intent, Gongshu Jin silently deleted Yu Xinghan from his contacts.

A distance away, Ji Yuanshu observed this spectacle with cold detachment, thinking to himself, "According to the investigation I just conducted, it appears the Oasis Group has already moved against this Zhang Yu."

"This Zhang Yu might very well be entangled in the struggle between the Myriad Dharmas and the Netherworld..."

"But anyway, it has nothing to do with me. Civil engineering students are ultimately just passersby to me. This Zhang Yu, from what I can see so far, is far behind me in terms of data alone. His ranking poses no threat to me at all."

"Then there's no need to bother with any of it."

"I just need to focus on securing first place in the class for three years, then switch to finance in the future and break into the top 30 of the entire school."

"That's the plan my master has laid out for me."

...

After class, the people in the classroom dispersed in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Yu patted Yu Xinghan on the shoulder and asked, "Where are you heading next?"

Yu Xinghan grumbled in frustration, "Damn it! How could Gongshu Jin delete me?"

Recalling Gongshu Jin's behavior, Zhang Yu said, "He probably looks down on us."

As everyone scattered, Yu Xinghan felt his Eye Relic functioning much more smoothly. He nodded and said, "It's normal for people from the fourth level to look down on us from the first level. If I were in their shoes, I'd probably look down on us too."

Yu Xinghan remembered the warning from Starfire Zhenren and said, "Anyway, let's work hard to improve our grades and rankings."

"For us first-level people, socializing in college is a dead end."

"Only grades and rankings... are our sole source of confidence."

"But first, I need to replace this damn Eye Relic. Where are you going?"

Zhang Yu's gaze flickered slightly as he replied, "I want to go to the Great Library first and exchange for some techniques to take a look."

Zhang Yu used his Eye Relic to navigate the way to the Great Library.

Only then did he realize that the Great Library wasn't a physical location but a website.

Meanwhile, in the Foundation Establishment class group, the teacher, Jiao Lei Zhenren, sent a message.

Jiao Lei Zhenren: [Link] This is the latest class ranking, based on everyone's foundational data upon entering the class. Future rankings will be updated continuously based on comprehensive performance. You can take a look at where your current strength stands in the class.

"Class ranking?"

Zhang Yu clicked on it and found that it was the ranking list for the entire second-level campus of Wanfa University, including the school-wide ranking, department ranking, and class ranking.

The subpage sent by Jiao Lei Zhenren was precisely the ranking list for their Foundation Establishment class.

13th place, Zhang Yu.

"Not bad," Zhang Yu nodded. "I'll just take it step by step from here."

The next moment, as Zhang Yu actively connected to the Great Library and his identity and permissions were confirmed, he felt the light and shadows before his eyes shift abruptly. Countless bookshelves suddenly appeared, occupying every corner of his vision.

Row after row, endless bookshelves were projected before him through the Eye Relic.

This was the Great Library of Wanfa University.

With a light tap of Zhang Yu's finger, rows of bookshelves began to arrange themselves according to his requirements, categorized and organized.

"The technique I'm looking for..."

Long before coming to Wanfa University, Zhang Yu had already planned out his cultivation path for after entering college.

Especially based on his cultivation experience during high school, Zhang Yu felt that the first thing he should do upon entering university was to confirm whether there was a University Saint Body in the Chain Method Diagram, similar to the High School Saint Body.

"The High School Saint Body was perfect for development. If I had obtained it earlier, my cultivation during high school would have been two or three times faster."

"I hope there's a University Saint Body too."

The next moment, as Zhang Yu focused his thoughts, one foundational-level technique for the Foundation Establishment stage appeared before his eyes.

(End of Chapter)