On Wednesday and Thursday, Li Banjia's "Imperial Expedition" proceeded step by step.
The "Rank 9 Junior official salary" of 1 silver tael per day was credited punctually, slowly increasing his [Imperial Treasury Silver] balance to 411 taels. Wang Mengmeng, the newly appointed "Documentary Lady-in-Waiting," demonstrated high work efficiency and enthusiasm, driven by the (faint) blessings of the [Diligent Edict] and her own hard work. Every day, she reported to Li Banjia on the progress of "user persona research" and "competitor strategy analysis," gathering a vast amount of raw data and screenshots.
Meanwhile, Li Banjia used his Level 1 [Policy Discourse] skill to plan the overall direction of the project and the structure of his first weekly report for Zhao Dezhu next week, while also guiding Wang Mengmeng's workflow. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
However, by Thursday afternoon, trouble arose.
Wang Mengmeng hugged a stack of printed data and a USB flash drive containing a mess of web links, and approached Li Banjia with a troubled little face: "Brother Jia... I've pretty much collected all the data, but... but the activity data for many competitors is fragmented, and there are a lot of unstructured user reviews. I have no idea how to effectively analyze the trends and user emotional preferences hidden inside them... Doing manual categorization and statistics in Excel feels like it's going to take until the end of time..."
Li Banjia took the materials, flipped through them, and furrowed his brow as well. The data Wang Mengmeng had collected was indeed comprehensive, but as she had said, these raw data points were like scattered sand; without effective in-depth analysis and visual presentation, their value would plummet. His [Intellect] stat of 7 allowed him to realize what was needed, but when it came to how to efficiently process the data using the current crude office software, he was somewhat at his wits' end.
"What on earth should we do... Surely I can't actually make Mengmeng count everything by hand? Wouldn't that turn my 'Documentary Lady-in-Waiting' into a 'vote-counting factory worker'?" Li Banjia muttered inwardly, while feeling a brief pang of anxiety that the project might be delayed.
Just as he was at an absolute impasse, that familiar pixelated eunuch avatar popped up once again on his phone screen, accompanied by a sharp "Clang—!"
[Imperial Majesty's Sole Decision: Detected that Your Majesty faces the potential risk of a "project delay" in the "Pilot Storm" project, and the current "craftsman (referring to Wang Mengmeng)" lacks the skill to overcome the present difficulty. To ensure the "smooth advancement of the imperial path," a limited-time trial feature is hereby activated—]
[Project Auxiliary Instrument of the Ministry of Works] (Trial Version)
[Function Overview: Contains basic task scheduling templates, simple data visualization tools, and general analysis workflow references.]
[Trial Duration: 48 hours.]
[Activation Cost: [Imperial Treasury Silver] -10 or [Imperial Majesty] -2.]
[Tip: Make good use of tools to achieve twice the result with half the effort. Permanent unlocking or upgrading of this function requires the subsequent formal establishment of the [Ministry of Works].]
"A Project Auxiliary Instrument? And from the Ministry of Works?" Li Banjia looked at this familiar system "sales pitch" routine, feeling both exasperated and amused. "Sure enough, there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world, and certainly not from the system! Even a trial costs money!"
However, solving the problem was the priority. He currently had 17 [Imperial Majesty] points and 411 taels in the [Imperial Treasury]. 10 taels of silver was a mere drop in the bucket, and 2 points of Imperial Majesty wasn't much either.
"Activate! Use silver!" Li Banjia chose the "cheaper" payment method.
[Imperial Treasury] -10, leaving a balance of 401 taels. On the system app interface, the [Project Auxiliary Instrument] button, bearing a small hammer and ruler icon, lit up.
Li Banjia clicked into it and found that it indeed contained several modules. He first opened the "Simple Data Visualization Tool" and discovered he could import Excel data and then choose to generate several basic charts, such as trend line charts, user review word clouds, and sentiment proportion pie charts. Although crude, it was undoubtedly a hundred times better than doing it manually.
"Mengmeng, come, come, come! I'll show you a great treasure!" Li Banjia excitedly called Wang Mengmeng over, and the two of them began studying the new tool together.
Under Li Banjia's guidance and Wang Mengmeng's cleverness, they imported the previously collected chaotic data. After some groping and adjustment, the once-dry numbers and text quickly transformed into relatively intuitive charts. For instance, through word cloud analysis, they quickly identified the keywords that appeared most frequently in competitor user reviews; through the sentiment proportion pie chart, they also gained a general understanding of users' prevailing emotions toward certain types of activities.
"Wow! Brother Jia, this tool is amazing!" Wang Mengmeng gasped in admiration as she looked at the automatically generated charts. "With this, my analysis report will be so much more persuasive!"
Li Banjia nodded, though in his heart he was thinking: This [Project Auxiliary Instrument] has indeed resolved an urgent crisis, but it is ultimately just a "simplified version" and a "trial version." Once the project gets more complicated in the future, they will definitely need more professional personnel to conduct more professional analysis. As a "Documentary Lady-in-Waiting," Wang Mengmeng excelled at data collection, organization, and clerical work; this kind of technical data processing was clearly not her core strength.
"It seems that within my 'imperial court,' having just one articulate civil official is not enough; I must also have a 'Minister of Works' who understands technology." For the first time, Li Banjia realized so clearly the importance of diversifying a team's skills.
Friday afternoon. (Daily salary +1, Imperial Treasury 401 + 1 = 402 taels)
With the help of the [Project Auxiliary Instrument], Wang Mengmeng's analysis report was finally completed smoothly, and its quality was quite high. She handed a comprehensive research report complete with charts and text, titled "Pilot Project Phase I: User Persona and Competitor Strategy Research Report," directly to Li Banjia.
"Brother Jia, do you think this is okay?" The young girl wore an expectant look on her face.
Li Banjia carefully reviewed it and nodded repeatedly. "Splendid! Mengmeng, you've made a massive contribution this time! This report is crucial for our upcoming weekly report."
Accepting the report, he already had a much clearer vision for Monday's weekly report content in his mind. Meanwhile, the 48-hour trial period for the [Project Auxiliary Instrument] was about to expire, and the icon began to flicker and slowly fade to gray.
Looking at the system interface prompt of [Retinue Limit: 2], and then at Wang Mengmeng's energetic and smiling face, Li Banjia felt a thought grow stronger and stronger in his heart: It was time to recruit the second talented individual for his "imperial court."
As if sensing his thoughts, the system appropriately popped up a reminder:
[System Prompt: Before moving troops and horses, provisions must go first; to accomplish great things, talented individuals serve as the foundation. Your Majesty should widely open the path to seeking talent to boost your prestige.]
"Got it, got it. I'll start scouting candidates for the 'Minister of Works' right away." Li Banjia closed his phone and cast his gaze toward a certain corner of the office.