You said you failed your college entrance exam and are now crowdfunding to build a university?

In the rented room.

Wei Ying stared at the camera flashing red light in front of him, as well as the pile of live streaming equipment on the table, and was stunned for a long time.

The instant noodle container was still open, and the kettle was hissing in the corner. He reached out and touched the armrest of the gaming chair; it was cold.

"You really wore it?"

Memories flooded in like a tide. The original owner of this body was a small-time live streamer. Her parents died early, and she didn't finish her studies. After graduating from high school, she gritted her teeth and bought a set of equipment to start live streaming.

After three years, he had a little over 20,000 followers, but the number of viewers online during his live streams often hovered around 200.

The live stream was still running on the computer screen.

The title is "Live Stream Challenge: If You Dare to Ask, I Dare to Do It".

Wei Ying twitched the corner of his mouth. His predecessor made a living using this method; the audience would give him ideas, and he would choose the most unorthodox ones to do, and then he could collect a wave of tips.

Haunted house exploration, subway shouting, reporting traffic police on the street... the things they do are getting wilder and wilder, it's pure suicide.

The comments were still floating around intermittently.

"The college entrance exam is over, and the admission results should be out soon, right? We estimate that the rate of students from eastern Sichuan getting into top universities will be at the bottom again this year."

"From eastern Sichuan? I'm from southern Sichuan. Don't even mention it, it's all tears."

"The people of Haixi are here, with a population of over 100 million, and they've turned out like this."

"Hey, Haibei, come check this out too. Four provinces, a quarter of the nation's test-takers, and you can't even get four 985 universities? Running off to other provinces every year, aren't you frustrated?"

"If only our four provinces could have a decent university..."

As the conversation progressed, the comments section became increasingly heated. It's understandable; with over 300 million people across four provinces—Eastern Sichuan, Southern Sichuan, Western Hainan, and Northern Hainan—the sheer number of college entrance exam takers is staggering every year, yet the number of truly good universities is negligible. The acceptance rate? It gets more dismal year after year.

Wei Ying was engrossed in reading when a thought popped into his head.

A cold, emotionless voice rang out: "Host's transmigrator identity detected. System binding in progress."

His eyes lit up.

System! The transmigrator's benefits may be late, but they've arrived.

"Binding complete."

"This system is a live challenge system. The host can earn challenge points and skill rewards by completing the challenges proposed by the audience."

"A request from viewers in the live stream has been detected, triggering a random challenge: [Establishment of Haichuan University]."

Wei Ying was taken aback.

A semi-transparent system panel appeared before my eyes, with the task description clearly written.

Establish a school?

He almost laughed in anger. The difficulty of the college entrance exam and the lack of universities—what did that have to do with him? He was penniless, yet he was expected to build a university spanning four provinces?

He casually opened the computer's search bar and typed: "How much does it cost to build a university at the very least?"

The numbers that popped up made his eyelids twitch.

Starting at 3 billion.

I checked my pockets again, and I didn't even know if I had thirty yuan.

"This system is a rip-off!" Wei Ying muttered, just as he was wondering if he could change the task, the panel lit up again.

"Ding! Initial host binding detected. Newbie gift pack awarded."

The backpack icon flashed. Wei Ying didn't hesitate and silently said, "Open."

"Obtained 1 random Grandmaster-level skill book".

"Gained 100 challenge points."

The book transformed into a speck of light and pierced directly into his brow. A deluge of things flooded in—composition, light and shadow, brushstrokes, and an indescribable sense of experience and touch, as if these hands had been painting for decades.

Wei Ying blinked, and unconsciously made two swiping motions with his fingers.

Okay, even if the livestreaming business fails, I can still draw portraits for people under a bridge and I won't starve.

Then look at those 100 challenge points; you can exchange them for items in the system shop.

The random skill book was priced at 100, the black technology blueprint was a bit more expensive at 2000, and there was something called "supercomputing" priced at 5000... And the "100% completion reward: 10000 points" after the school building task made his eyelids twitch.

10,000 points.

Wei Ying licked his slightly dry lips and made up his mind.

Let's give it a try.

The task description is clear, and completion is judged by five aspects: school location, school emblem, school motto, number of students, and faculty. The school location is the foundation; without land, everything else is in vain.

But land costs money; several hundred million is the starting price.

Where does the money come from?

Wei Ying scanned the system store and stopped at something called [Targeted Message Delivery].

The description states that it can filter out specific groups of people and send content to their phones, with two options: "leaving a trace" and "not leaving a trace." Leaving a trace costs 20 points per message, and the sender's name appears to be their phone number; leaving a trace costs 200 points per message, and the source cannot be traced.

He glanced at his 100 points and chose to leave a trace.

"Please define the target audience."

"Eastern Sichuan, Southern Sichuan, Western Hainan, Northern Hainan, aged 18 to 60, as long as they are alive."

"Approximately 1.12 million people have been screened to meet the criteria."

"Message being delivered."

In the small county town's internet cafe, smoke filled the air, and the keyboards and mice clattered and clicked incessantly.

Students who have just finished the college entrance examination are gathered here, some playing games, some watching short videos, and some slumped in chairs with their eyes glazed over.

The scores were released, and many people couldn't reach the cutoff, so they simply gave up and figured they'd just coast along for a few more days before heading to the factory to work as packaging workers.

"bite--"

"Ding-dong—"

The phone notification sounds kept coming in.

A guy in the middle of a team battle glanced at the screen and scoffed, "Scam text messages? Building a university? Crowdfunding? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"These days, scammers never update their lines, it's so boring," someone nearby chimed in.

Li Ming slumped in the peeling sofa of the internet cafe, his phone screen lit up, reflecting his expressionless face.

He scored 458 on this year's college entrance exam, 30 points short of the second-tier university cutoff. His parents advised him to study for another year, but he hasn't decided yet, or rather, he's too lazy to think about it.

Another text message popped up, and he tapped it with a flick of his finger.

The very first sentence made him unconsciously straighten his back a little.

"From eastern and southern Sichuan to western and northern Hainan, with 300 million people in four provinces, we can't even gather four top-tier universities!"

"I'm not satisfied. I'm planning to set up a university for our own people. I've already thought of a name: 'Haichuan University.' Our goal isn't high: catch up with Qingbei University in three years, and strive to become a world-class university in five years."

"We're short on money right now. We're all from the same hometown across four provinces, so let's lend a hand. A thousand yuan each, it's not much."

Account: 6217xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Please include "Haichuan" in the payment notes. Once the money is received, the task will be completed.

"Wei Ying".

Li Ming stared at the screen, his thumb hovering over the "delete" button for a long time without pressing it.

He exited the text message, opened his browser, hesitated for a moment, and then typed "Wei Ying Live" into the search box.

In the rented room, Wei Ying looked at the "Delivery Successful" message on the system panel, breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt a pang of regret. 20 points were gone just like that.

He refocused his attention on the live stream on his computer screen.

The comments section was still filled with discussions about the frustrating education issues in the four provinces, but some viewers had already noticed that he hadn't made a move for a while.

"Where's the streamer? Did they disconnect?"

"They probably got scared away by the comments about Jianzhu University, hahaha!"

"A challenge! A new challenge? I've already decided: I'll spend the night at the bottom of an old mine pit in eastern Sichuan!"

"Upstairs, you're going to kill the streamer..."