The calm of Li Banjia’s days—mostly spent slacking off and checking the system (while contemplating the meaning of life)—was shattered once again by a company-wide email from the Administration Department.
[Notice Regarding the First "Golden Idea" Innovation Proposal Contest]
The email was long-winded, but the gist was this: to spark employee innovation and boost the company’s core competitiveness, a contest was being held. Winning proposals would receive generous bonuses, certificates of honor, and the potential to be implemented, among other things.
"Golden Idea? More like a 'Golden Idea' (for the boss) combined with 'free labor' (from the employees) in the form of overtime," Li Banjia muttered, curling his lip. He had seen plenty of such formalistic competitions before; they usually started with a bang and ended in a whimper, either fizzling out or being rigged from the start.
Just as he was about to mark the email as "read" and toss it to the back of his mind, his phone vibrated in his pocket right on cue.
Li Banjia deftly unlocked the screen and opened the app with the pixelated eunuch icon.
"Clang!"
[Large-scale collective selection event detected. This is an excellent opportunity for Your Majesty to display talent, raise Prestige, and select the virtuous (perhaps?).]
[Main Quest Triggered: [Imperial Examination in the Toad Palace] (Junior).]
[Quest Objective: Win an "Excellence Award" or place in the top 10% of the company’s "Golden Idea" Innovation Proposal Contest.]
[Quest Rewards: [Rank EXP] +50, [Imperial Treasury Silver] x200, unlock new skill [Policy Discourse] Lv.1.]
[Optional Assist: Consume 10 taels of [Imperial Treasury Silver] to purchase the [Pre-Exam Tutoring Package] (includes: Summary of previous winning proposals x1, temporary [Quick Witted] buff for 1 hour).]
Li Banjia’s eyes widened at the rewards.
[Rank EXP] +50! He was currently "Unranked," and unlocking the [Imperial Court] required reaching "Rank 9 Junior." These 50 points were undoubtedly a huge step forward! Not to mention 200 taels of hard "silver" and a high-end sounding skill called [Policy Discourse]!
"Should I buy the 'Pre-Exam Tutoring'?" He looked at the 80 taels in his [Imperial Treasury] and felt a pinch of regret. But then he thought, if you don't risk the bait, you won't catch the fish; if you don't spend the silver, how can you make the Golden List?
"Buying it!" He steeled his heart and clicked confirm.
[Imperial Treasury Silver] -10. An icon resembling a compressed file and a card labeled "Quick Witted" popped up on the system interface.
He opened the "Summary of Winning Proposals," surprised to find that it actually summarized the characteristics, focal points, and potential judge preferences from previous years' events. Although the language style remained that classic system-generated "machine-translated classical Chinese," the core content was quite refined and practical.
"This 10 taels of silver... money well spent!" Li Banjia felt a surge of energy.
Over the next few days, Li Banjia worked diligently during the day (while sneaking looks at his materials) and burned the midnight oil at night (finishing his proposal PowerPoint).
His base stats weren't high ([Intelligence: 6], [Charisma: 5]), but combined with the attention to detail from [Calculated Lv.1] and the system's "exam syllabus," he chose a business direction he was familiar with and that was easy to make flashy (to bluff people): "A Few Immature Suggestions on Improving User Stickiness in Our Company’s New Media Matrix."
While drafting the proposal, he found that the 6 points of [Intelligence] did indeed make his thinking more comprehensive, and [Calculated] allowed him to sound quite authoritative on resource and budget analysis.
On the night before the submission deadline, Li Banjia decided to use the one-hour [Quick Witted] buff.
Upon activation, he felt as if a cool spring had been poured into his brain; his thoughts became crystal clear. He instantly found ingenious solutions to bottlenecks and vague phrasing. His fingers flew across the keyboard, turning out witty quips and golden sentences, and even the layout of his slides looked more stylish than usual.
An hour later, the buff ended. Li Banjia looked at the freshly minted proposal and nodded with satisfaction: "With this policy discourse of mine, if it doesn't shake the heavens and earth, it should at least make those mortal judges sit up and take notice."
He even shamelessly asked Wang Mengmeng (Loyalty: 70) to help proofread for typos. The young girl was almost completely obedient to him now; after a careful check, she offered a few tips on the layout, making the PPT look even better. Li Banjia, pleased as a dragon, praised her verbally and thought about giving his "loyal official" some real benefits once the "Treasury" was flush again.
The day of the contest arrived quickly. The company had rented a small conference hall, and it looked quite professional. Li Banjia’s turn to draw was near the end. He sat in the audience, watching his colleagues give speeches that ranged from nervous to impassioned, and felt a ripple of excitement himself.
When it was Liu Ming’s turn, Li Banjia watched closely. Liu Ming seemed well-prepared, speaking about optimizing internal processes to increase efficiency. It sounded standard, but it benefited from solid data. After finishing his speech, Liu Ming shot Li Banjia a meaningful, provocative glance.
"Brother Jia, it's your turn. You can do it!" Wang Mengmeng whispered from the side to cheer him on.
Li Banjia took a deep breath and walked onto the stage.
He opened his PowerPoint. His 5 points of [Charisma] weren't high, but they were enough to keep him from feeling as nervous as he used to. His voice was steady, his pace moderate, and he unfolded his "Golden Idea" smoothly, aided by his meticulously prepared slides.
Instead of piling on flowery language, he used internet slang and scenarios that young people enjoyed, analyzed the current state and pain points of the company’s new media accounts, and proposed several grounded yet innovative operational strategies.
At the highlights of his speech, several young colleagues in the audience even let out knowing laughs. Even Zhao Dezhu, who sat in the middle of the judges' panel and was usually austere, seemed to relax his brow, his mouth twitching slightly as if holding back a smile.
When he finished, the applause was warmer than he had expected.
A few days later, the results were posted.
Li Banjia's name appeared prominently on the list for the "Excellence Award," ranked seventh!
[Winner List]
...
7. Li Banjia (Marketing Department) - "A Few Immature Suggestions on Improving User Stickiness in Our Company’s New Media Matrix"
...
"Holy cow! Seventh place! Excellence Award!" Li Banjia stared at the internal notice, nearly jumping out of his chair. This was better than he had hoped!
Wang Mengmeng was even more excited than he was: "Brother Jia! You’re amazing! I knew you could do it!"
Colleagues around him cast glances of surprise and congratulations, and even the senior employees who usually ignored him came over to offer a few words of praise.
As Zhao Dezhu passed by his cubicle, he paused and said, for once, "Li Banjia, that proposal... it was decent. Some ideas could be refined further. Bring it to my office next Monday."
"Y-yes, President Zhao!" Li Banjia was pleasantly surprised.
His phone vibrated in his pocket again.
"Clang!"
[[Imperial Examination in the Toad Palace] (Junior) quest complete! Rating: Excellent (Novel strategy, appropriate language, the Imperial heart is very pleased).]
[Quest Rewards: [Rank EXP] +50, [Imperial Treasury Silver] x200, new skill [Policy Discourse] Lv.1 unlocked.]
Li Banjia quickly opened the system to check.
His [Rank EXP] had surged, moving him closer to his goal of "Rank 9 Junior"! The [Imperial Treasury] also instantly became flush, reaching 270 taels!
In his skill bar, there was a new icon shaped like an ancient scroll: [Policy Discourse] Lv.1 (Effect: Improves the ability to analyze, plan, and articulate complex matters, making your arguments more persuasive and forward-looking).
He felt the subtle, sharpened clarity toward things that the new skill brought, looked at the clearly changed attitudes of his colleagues, and recalled Zhao Dezhu’s meaningful remark.
This "imperial examination" had not only brought him fame and fortune (within the system) but had also opened a new door for him in reality.
"It seems that my path as an 'Emperor' has taken another giant leap forward!" Li Banjia’s mouth curled upward, unable to suppress a grin.
However, when he saw Liu Ming pass by from a distance, casting a gloomy look in his direction, he knew that the real battle in the "Imperial Court" had perhaps only just begun.