Back at his workstation, Li Banjia felt as though he had just run a marathon or won five bucks in the lottery—his body was exhausted, yet his mind was buzzing with unnatural excitement.
He clicked on the pixelated eunuch icon, and the quest 【Benevolence and Severity】 stared right back at him.
"Review... and thank those who provided help (?)..." Li Banjia stroked his chin, a peculiar look in his eyes.
Reviewing was easy. He opened a new document and titled it: *My First Public Appearance Summary Report Regarding the Morning of May 5th XX Project Reporting Meeting (Top Secret)*.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat and began typing, his inner voice keeping up a running commentary:
"Time: 9:00 AM today. Location: The suffocating meeting room. Event: I, Li Banjia, bolstered by the 【Dragon Might】 (Novice) buff, argued with a bevy of scholars (mostly Zhao Dezhu) and emerged completely unscathed. Quite the achievement."
"Core takeaways: First, the golden finger is indeed the primary productive force. That ten-minute 'Dragon Might' effect was phenomenal; my lower back stopped aching, my legs stopped shaking, and I actually dared to make eye contact with the boss. Second, daily accumulation cannot be neglected either; having solid PPT content is the foundation. Otherwise, you'd be like mud that won't stick to a wall, and even if I were given the 'True Dragon Qi', it wouldn't do a damn thing."
"Reflections and improvements: Next time, the timing for using 【Dragon Might】 needs to be more precise (if there is a next time), and I need to pay attention to 'royal majesty'—can't be too cowardly... but can't put on too many airs either, or people will think I'm a psycho."
After finishing the review, he felt his understanding of this "victory" had become much clearer.
All right, now for the hard part—thanking the "person who provided help (?)".
That question mark was loaded with meaning.
Who helped me? The system? That pixelated eunuch? Or the brave heart of mine that dared to click "Use"?
Tentatively, he muttered toward the screen: "Um... System? Eunuch? Thanks for the 【Dragon Might】 card?"
The screen remained completely unresponsive, and the pixelated eunuch still wore a blank expression.
"Figures, doesn't look like an AI customer service bot," Li Banjia muttered, curling his lip.
Thank himself directly? That felt a bit too narcissistic.
He thought for a moment, letting his gaze sweep across the office. Help... aside from the system, nobody else had overtly helped him make today's meeting run smoothly. If he really had to stretch it, Zhao Dezhu hadn't chewed him out until he was unrecognizable like usual—could that count as a form of "help"?
"Thanks, Boss, for not killing me?" Li Banjia shivered and quickly shook off the dangerous thought.
"Got it!" His eyes lit up. He opened a food delivery app, found the cheapest coffee shop downstairs from the company, and ordered three Americanos with a note: "Keep it up, little buddies in Zone 302!"
Zone 302 encompassed his desk and the two desks flanking it. One belonged to Wang Mengmeng, a newly arrived intern who was always flustered, and the other to Brother Zhang, an honest guy on the same team who was decent enough to work with, though he seemed to be under a lot of stress lately.
"Buying coffee for colleagues to spread positive energy in the office—that surely counts as 'bestowing grace', right? By extension, that's expressing goodwill toward a 'potentially existing helper', right, System?" he mumbled at the screen.
As if in response, the moment he clicked to complete the payment:
"Clang—!"
【Quest 【Benevolence and Severity】 completed! Your Majesty is beginning to show a heart that cares for subordinates. Excellent.】
【Quest rewards: 【Intellect】 +1, 【Imperial Treasury Silver】 x20.】
Li Banjia immediately opened his 【Personal Profile】.
Sure enough, the 【Intellect】 column had jumped from 5/100 to 6/100!
At the same time, his phone chimed with another notification: 【XX Pay deposit: 20.00 yuan】.
Looking at his newly minted 6 points of Intellect, Li Banjia smacked his lips. "Added 1 point of intellect, and I feel... like nothing changed? Am I supposed to instantly transform into Albert Einstein or something?"
Still, his account balance had gone from 138.52 to 148.52, and after subtracting the thirty bucks he just spent on coffee, he had 118.52 left. Adding the 20 given by the system made it 138.52... wait, no! It was yesterday's 10 yuan plus today's 20 yuan, which was 30 yuan total! His payment account should now be 138.52 - 30 + 20 = 128.52, plus the original 10 yuan... he couldn't keep track!
"Wait," Li Banjia suddenly paused, reorganizing his thoughts. "Original balance 138.52, the system gave 10 yuan, making it 148.52. Spent 30 on coffee, leaving 118.52. The system gave another 20 yuan, so now it's 138.52!"
Thought process clear, calculation accurate!
Li Banjia's eyes widened abruptly. "Holy shit? Is this the effect of 【Intellect】 +1? My brain actually feels... a bit sharper?"
With lingering doubt, he opened the PPT that needed revision. Zhao Dezhu's instruction had been to "polish the details a bit more." That usually meant a major overhaul and trying to guess the boss's mind.
Yet this time, as Li Banjia looked at the PPT, the parts that had previously seemed vague and required agonizing deliberation now appeared crystal clear in his mind.
"The data charts here can be made more intuitive..."
"The logical chain on this page can be tied together with a subheader..."
"Given Zhao Dezhu's expression at the time, he definitely cares about this risk point; I need to add a page of countermeasures..."
Ideas poured forth like a spring, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Places that previously took ages to chew over and left him unsatisfied no matter how he tweaked them now quickly found their optimal solutions.
He even had the leisure to adjust the overall color scheme and layout of the PPT to make it look more "professional" and "high-end."
Before 4:00 PM, Li Banjia had finished all the revisions, read through and checked it twice himself, and felt an unprecedented level of satisfaction.
"Such efficiency... I am quite pleased!" he thought smugly.
Right at that moment, the intern next to him, Wang Mengmeng, called out softly, "Brother Jia, that printer seems to have jammed again. I-I'm not really sure how to fix it..."
In high spirits, Li Banjia got up and solved the problem in a jiffy. In the past, he would have felt rather impatient with such trivial chores.
Wang Mengmeng looked at him gratefully. "Thanks, Brother Jia! You... seem a bit different today, Brother Jia?"
"Oh? Really?" Li Banjia smiled with deliberate inscrutability. "Must be because I slept well last night."
At 5:30 PM, with half an hour left until quitting time, Li Banjia took a deep breath and emailed the final version of the PPT to Zhao Dezhu.
Scarcely a second after the email went through successfully, he received a reply.
Sender: Zhao Dezhu.
Content: Read.
Just a single word!
Li Banjia nearly jumped out of his chair!
"Read"! In Zhao Dezhu's dictionary, this basically equated to "I am aware, petition granted." No "redo," no "what is this garbage," just a calm "Read"!
This was undeniably an epic victory!
Rubbing his hands in excitement, Li Banjia opened the system panel once more.
The number in the 【Imperial Treasury】 had changed to 30. His 【Intellect】 was 6.
His gaze involuntarily drifted toward the grayed-out buttons.
【Court】, 【Harem】, 【Conquest】... What kind of conditions were actually required to unlock these high-sounding functions?
He tentatively hovered his mouse over the 【Court】 button.
A small tooltip popped up:
【Unlock conditions: Your Majesty's rank must reach 'Rank 9 Junior', and you must possess at least one 'subordinate official' (requires system verification).】
"Rank 9 Junior... subordinate official..." Li Banjia murmured to himself.
It seemed his journey of imperial simulation still had a long way to go.
Still, today's minor progress had already opened his eyes to infinite possibilities.