Chapter 150 | The Otherworld Journey That Starts From a Slime

Why was it said that the Rock Guild surviving until now was a miracle?

Don’t be in a rush; let me explain it slowly.

First of all, the Rock Guild was a guild founded by members of the Rock family.

However, unlike other guilds, which were founded with the support of their respective families, the Rock Guild had none.

Why was that?

Because the senior who founded the Rock Guild had actually run away from home to develop himself at All Souls Academy!

He founded the Rock Guild specifically to prove to his family that he could succeed even without them!

And believe it or not, he actually did!

At that time, that senior relied on his own strength to develop the Rock Guild to the level of the academy’s Eight Great Guilds, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with guilds founded by students from imperial royal families.

The reason was simple: the guy was straightforward and treated people with sincerity. Although he was clever, he disliked convoluted schemes.

Because of this personality, a large number of powerful experts followed him at the time.

Even though that senior wasn’t very good at managing a guild, he had brothers and friends who could manage it for him. And so, the Rock Guild flourished.

However, the good times didn’t last.

As those seniors graduated, the Rock Guild declined day by day.

It was because the high-level members of the Rock Guild were all quite blunt. While they were sincere, they were also prone to offending people.

Consequently, they offended several other guilds during that period.

Without family assistance, the Rock Guild was simply no match for those other guilds.

They couldn't compete for resource applications because the others had specialized teams. They couldn't compete in terms of financial capital because the others had family backing, possessing wealth far beyond what the Rock Guild could muster.

The only thing the Rock Guild could compete with was individual strength, but those families could continuously send new talented experts to join their guilds. In contrast, the Rock Guild could only rely on recruiting outstanding new students.

Under the suppression of other guilds, fewer and fewer powerful freshmen joined the Rock Guild, and fresh blood became scarce. Thus, the Rock Guild’s downward slope became steeper and steeper.

By now, the position of Rock Guild Leader had fallen to Talia.

The original leader was Talia’s brother, a Two-star Saint-tier, but he was due to graduate in another year. Therefore, he had no choice but to pass the position of guild leader to Talia early so she could adapt to guild management in advance.

But the personalities of those from the Rock family were just like that—even if they were smart, they weren't particularly interested in things like managing a guild.

In Talia’s words, if there were someone who could take over the guild, she would have washed her hands of it long ago!

Compared to managing a guild, she preferred being free and fighting in the Colosseum.

Zhang Ye felt that this was also a reason for the guild’s decline—even the guild leader was slacking off!

Furthermore, Talia’s personality was even more direct than that of the Rock Guild’s predecessors, perhaps because she was a girl. In short, if anyone showed disdain for the guild, Talia wouldn’t give them the time of day.

As a result, she offended even more people.

There were currently about twenty-some guilds in the academy, and the Rock Guild had offended half of them!

Even Samanra’s Wind Spirit Guild had a history of friction with the Rock Guild.

That was why it was said that the Rock Guild being able to survive until now was truly a miracle.

However, this was also thanks to the Rock Guild’s internal cohesion. The people who joined the Rock Guild generally had decent characters and were upright.

Moreover, because of their sincere treatment of one another, most guild members were willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the guild. This unity allowed them to persevere, which was the reason the guild had lasted this long. Any other guild would have disbanded long ago.

Unfortunately, the guild’s overall capabilities were lacking...

And this year’s freshman recruitment was their last chance.

This was because All Souls Academy recruitment happened once every two years.

If they couldn't recruit enough fresh blood now, then once Talia’s brother graduated in a year, the Rock Guild would absolutely collapse.

Although Talia didn’t like managing the guild, it was something left behind by her predecessors, and she didn’t want to see it fall like that.

Zhang Ye, who had attracted a massive wave of popularity and possessed great strength, naturally became the guild’s primary recruitment target.

With him joining, she believed that some students who were drawn to Zhang Ye would also join the guild, driving its development.

Zhang Ye saw through Talia’s little scheme perfectly.

“So, these are all the assets the entire guild has?” Zhang Ye asked, looking at the spreadsheet Talia had listed.

Talia nodded helplessly. “Yes. Resource applications are naturally approved for guilds with strong momentum first. For the Rock Guild... this is all there is.”

Zhang Ye’s brow twitched.

Setting everything else aside, the guild funds column alone was unacceptable.

Look at this: 390,000 points?

That wasn’t even a quarter of Zhang Ye’s personal assets!

This amount of points would be a lot for one person, of course, but for a guild of a hundred people, it wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Furthermore, the materials in the guild warehouse were pitifully few. The only thing they had a decent amount of was spirit spring water.

This was from the spirit spring discovered not long ago, which the Rock Guild had bottled up. Spirit spring water could be used for cultivation, refining magic potions, or setting up formations—it had many uses.

Selling a bottle of spirit spring water for a hundred points... that still wasn’t enough. There were only a few hundred bottles in the warehouse, not even enough to fill the gaps between teeth.

The spirit spring eye could continuously produce spirit spring water. According to Talia, it could fill about two hundred bottles a day, which meant over 20,000 points a day.

If they had time to develop, it would be quite good. After all, a single spring eye could eventually produce spirit spring water worth tens of millions of points. But the current Rock Guild didn’t have that much time, not to mention that other guilds were currently eyeing this spring greedily.

As for the funds of other guilds, there were only estimates here, but each of those estimates was in the millions or tens of millions of points. The Rock Guild simply couldn't compare.

Then there was the number of guild members. The Rock Guild only had 105 people left, and when the group of seniors graduated, their followers would likely leave with them. This hundred-some people would probably shrink by half, which was completely incomparable to the hundreds or thousands of members in other guilds.

Academy rules dictated that if a large guild had fewer than fifty members and maintained that for a month, it would be forcibly disbanded.

“So the two most urgent matters right now are fresh blood and guild funds, right?” Zhang Ye said.

Talia nodded. “That’s right.”

Zhang Ye thought for a moment and said, “Then there’s no time to lose. Let’s start preparing!”

“Preparing?” Talia was stunned. “Preparing what?”

Zhang Ye smiled. “While my popularity hasn't faded yet, I’m going to go and harvest a batch of leeks!”

“Set up a stage within the guild territory. Of course, it would be even better if you can apply for a spot in the Colosseum. The more seats, the better. I’m going to hold a concert!”

“A concert?” Talia’s eyes lit up.

This world certainly had the concept of concerts. For example, people from the Rhyme family often held them.

“Yes!” Zhang Ye said. “All the proceeds from the concert will go to the guild fund!”

“And I believe that through the concert, we can draw a large amount of fresh blood into the guild!”

Talia immediately felt this method was feasible, but then she added, “But the students we recruit might include spies from other guilds, right?”

Zhang Ye laughed. “Which guild doesn’t have spies? Guilds without spies have all collapsed!”

“If they send spies, let them. We need to save the guild first. Who cares about spies or not? Spies are people too. Let’s get the numbers up first. Besides, who’s to say the spies won’t be turned to our side later?”

Talia nodded heavily upon hearing this. “That makes sense!”

“Alright, leave the venue application to me. At worst, we’ll just build a stage ourselves!”

“By the way, how should we charge for the tickets?” Talia asked. This was the key question.

“What’s the price for a Rhyme family concert?” Zhang Ye asked.

“Between two hundred and five hundred points,” Talia said.

Zhang Ye chuckled. “Then we’ll charge one hundred points per person. However, you can’t explicitly label the price as one hundred points.”

“Then what should I do?” Talia asked.

“Do this: spread the word that I’m holding a concert. The original price is three hundred points, but for a freshman promotion, it’s only one hundred points!”

Talia asked in confusion, “Why say that? Is there a reason?”

Zhang Ye nodded. “Of course. The purpose of saying that is to establish a spending mindset for them.”

“Think about it. If you directly say it’s a hundred points, people will say: ‘It’s a bit expensive, but I guess I can take a look.’

“But if you say it’s three hundred points and now it’s only a hundred, people will say: ‘Holy crap, isn't that like making two hundred points? I have to go see it!’

“Does that make sense?”

“It does!” Talia’s eyes sparkled as she nodded heavily.

Zhang Ye gave another cunning smile. “And it’s not just that. Once this news spreads, they will subconsciously price my concert tickets at three hundred points. That will be their inherent spending mindset. That way, even if the tickets return to the ‘original price’ later, they won’t feel it’s expensive!”

“So that’s how it works!” Talia felt enlightened. She had never thought points could be earned this way.

With this approach, they shifted from passive to active. Without changing the actual price, they changed the consumer's psychology, even making the consumer feel like they were the ones profiting!

Brilliant!

“And also like this...” Zhang Ye rattled off a bunch of other ideas, making Talia’s eyes grow brighter and brighter.

“Alright, I’ll go prepare and start the publicity right now!” Talia said impatiently.

Zhang Ye waved his hand. “Don’t be in such a hurry. The venue hasn't even been confirmed yet. And with only a hundred or so of you, how are you going to publicize? Handing out flyers?

“That won’t have much effect, and the scope of publicity won’t be large. Furthermore, once other guilds find out, they might obstruct us, leading to negative results.”