Tuesday. (Daily salary +1, [Imperial Treasury] 406 + 1 = 407 taels of silver).
Li Banjia's "Zichen Hall (Draft Version)" welcomed its first official "three-man court session." In a quiet corner of the office pantry, Li Banjia, Wang Mengmeng, and the newly appointed "Ministry of Works clerk" Zhang Chen gathered around a small round table for a brief project sync-up meeting.
"Mengmeng, I've looked at the first draft of your user personas and competitor analysis. It's fantastic. The next step is to distill the core points, pair them with charts, and use them in the weekly report for President Zhao this Friday," Li Banjia began by affirming Wang Mengmeng's work.
The young woman nodded vigorously. "Mm! Rest assured, Brother Jia, I can work with Brother Zhang today to optimize the charts!"
Li Banjia turned to Zhang Chen. "Brother Zhang, I'm hoping we can showcase some early user behavior data from our pilot project in the weekly report—even if it's just the most basic page visit duration and core feature click-through rates. So I'd like to ask for your help in setting up a simple data tracking and logging script as soon as possible, mainly targeting the H5 promotional event page for our pilot."
Zhang Chen adjusted his glasses and mused, "Technically, it's not difficult. However, this kind of tracking script needs to be deployed server-side, or at least require access and modification permissions for the test environment. I'll need to apply with the colleagues in charge of the relevant servers first." He was always cautious.
"Alright, I'll leave this part to you, Brother Zhang. Mengmeng, you should also compile a list of key user behavior nodes that need tracking and give it to Zhang Chen," Li Banjia instructed, feeling more and more like a proper "emperor," even though he was still directing petty matters.
Wednesday morning. (Daily salary +1, Imperial Treasury 407 + 1 = 408 taels).
The three team members each performed their duties. Wang Mengmeng was refining her analysis report, while Li Banjia began building the overall framework for the weekly report, pondering how to use the techniques of Policy Discourse Lv.1 to package the existing achievements more brilliantly.
Over on Zhang Chen's side, however, trouble had arisen.
He walked over to Li Banjia's desk, his brow slightly furrowed. "Banjia, something's not right. I applied to the IT Operations group for test environment deployment permissions for the H5 event page, and they said... they said the test servers are running low on resources lately, so all new deployment requests have to wait in line. They estimate it won't be approved until next week."
"Next week?" Li Banjia was stunned. "But our weekly report is due this Friday! If we can't get the initial test data, the report's persuasiveness will take a huge hit!"
Zhang Chen nodded, his tone somewhat helpless. "And I checked the server resource utilization and the queue list. Logically speaking, a small-scale script test like ours shouldn't be facing this kind of crunch. I suspect... someone is trying to block us."
Li Banjia's heart sank. The first person he thought of was Liu Ming. That guy had his own connections in the IT department, so pulling this kind of petty stunt was right up his alley.
Sure enough, his phone screen quietly lit up, and the pixelated eunuch avatar, accompanied by a blood-red exclamation mark, issued an alarm.
[Emergency Military Intel! "Vassal King" [Liu Ming] is pulling strings behind the scenes, having already dispatched his faction member (IT Operations team member Li Si) to maliciously block key resources (test server permissions) for Your Majesty's "Pilot Storm" project, attempting to delay the project's progress and ruin the quality of the weekly report!]
[Triggered Emergency Quest: [Pulling the Firewood from Under the Cauldron to Defeat the Scheme].]
[Quest Objective: Within 24 hours, see through and neutralize [Liu Ming]'s resource blockade, ensuring the normal collection of initial project data.]
[Quest Rewards: [Imperial Majesty] +10, [Imperial Treasury Silver] +100, [Zhang Chen] Loyalty +10.]
[Optional Assistance: Consume [Imperial Majesty] -5 to obtain a summary of the "cipher text" related to this matter from the recent communication records between [Liu Ming] and his faction members.]
"Damn you, Liu Ming! You're even resorting to pulling the firewood from under the cauldron!" Li Banjia cursed inwardly, his gaze turning sharp. He currently had 22 points of [Imperial Majesty], so he could spare these 5 points.
"Exchange for the 'cipher text' summary!"
[Imperial Majesty] -5. A short passage of text surfaced in his mind:
"...Brother Liu gave instructions to stall that Li Banjia's H5 test for now, using server busy-ness as the excuse... wait until he submits his weekly report before dealing with it... perks won't be lacking for you..."
It really was Liu Ming's doing! And he had even promised perks!
Li Banjia sneered. Since you're unrighteous, don't blame me for being unjust.
He said to Zhang Chen, "Brother Zhang, there's something fishy about this. Don't rush to pressure them just yet; I'll figure something out."
He pondered for a moment, his [Strategy: 7] brain operating at high speed. A direct confrontation definitely wouldn't work; if the IT operations side was dead set on dragging their feet, there was nothing he could do. But perhaps he could...
An idea came to him. He called Wang Mengmeng over. "Mengmeng, send an email to President Zhao's secretary in the name of the project team. Just say that our pilot project's H5 page has been preliminarily built, and in order to ensure we can report the most authentic and up-to-date initial user feedback data to President Zhao on Friday, we urgently need a test environment for deployment and short-term data collection. Ask if President Zhao's secretary can help coordinate with the IT department to open a temporary green channel for us, even if it's just for a few hours. The phrasing should be tactful and the stance humble, highlighting the project's urgency and its importance to President Zhao's report."
Wang Mengmeng was clever and immediately understood Li Banjia's intention. "Brother Jia, are you planning to... borrow the Imperial Shangfang Sword?"
"Pretty much," Li Banjia smiled slightly. "We won't go straight to President Zhao, but we'll let President Zhao's secretary know that we've run into 'a tiny little' difficulty, and that this difficulty will affect her boss's KPI. Let's see how she handles it." This move of his could also be considered a flexible application of [Policy Discourse], leveraging force with force.
Thursday morning. (Daily salary +1, Imperial Treasury 408 + 1 - 10 (project assistance instrument) = 399 taels).
(Correction: The previous chapter's treasury already had 10 taels deducted for the project assistance instrument, so Wednesday was 408 - 10 = 398. Thursday salary +1, making it 399 taels. Imperial Majesty 17.)
(Re-correction: Chapter 12 settled the treasury at 402 taels, Imperial Majesty 17. At the start of this chapter, Tuesday salary +1, Imperial Treasury 403 taels. Minus Zhang Chen's coffee -5 (hypothetically), Imperial Treasury 398 taels. Wednesday salary +1, Imperial Treasury 399 taels. Thursday salary +1, Imperial Treasury 400 taels. Imperial Majesty 17 - 5 (cipher text summary) = 12.)
Less than two hours after Wang Mengmeng's email was sent, a call came from the IT Operations group. Their tone was vastly different from yesterday's, claiming that "after urgent internal coordination, a temporary test port has been cleared for Li Banjia's project," urging them to deploy immediately.
Zhang Chen was somewhat surprised. "Banjia, your... pull is quite massive."
Li Banjia smiled and didn't explain further. He knew that President Zhao's secretary must have worked her magic on that end. Subordinates could play power games with each other, but when it concerned matters the big boss was watching, no one dared to dawdle.
Zhang Chen immediately threw himself into work, and soon deployed the data tracking script. By the afternoon, the first batch of initial user behavior data (though the sample size was still very small) began trickling back.
At the same time, Liu Ming received a call from his confidant Li Si in his office. Upon hearing the news, his face turned ashen, and he almost dropped his phone. He hadn't expected Li Banjia to break the deadlock so quickly!
By evening, the system prompt arrived right on schedule.
"Clang—!"
[[Pulling the Firewood from Under the Cauldron to Defeat the Scheme] quest completed! Evaluation: Excellent (Quick-witted response, well-leveraged momentum, pulling the firewood from under the cauldron, turning the tides).]
[Quest Rewards: [Imperial Majesty] +10, [Imperial Treasury Silver] +100, [Zhang Chen] Loyalty +10.]
Li Banjia's [Imperial Majesty] skyrocketed to 22 points (12 + 10), and the [Imperial Treasury] reached 500 taels (400 + 100)!
He clicked on the [Imperial Court] to check. On Zhang Chen's avatar card, his [Loyalty] had also changed from 55/100 to 65/100, with his status reading "Heartily Convinced (Technical bottleneck broken)."
"Splendid!" Li Banjia was in a fantastic mood.
He glanced at Zhang Chen, who was organizing the initial data alongside Wang Mengmeng. This taciturn tech guy also wore a trace of relieved ease on his face at the moment. Being able to smoothly exercise his skills rather than being bogged down by boring bureaucratic procedures was also a form of solace for him.
The key data for the weekly report was secured, and Liu Ming's conspiracy had been temporarily thwarted. Li Banjia felt that a small stumbling block on his path to becoming an "emperor" had been cleared away.
However, he also knew that this "Vassal King" Liu Ming would definitely not let it go at that. The real "palace intrigue" might have just begun.
He took a deep breath and began preparing wholeheartedly for the project weekly report due tomorrow. This time, he was going to let Zhao Dezhu see an even more dazzling set of achievements!