“Gear?”

“Yep. The name is very strange right? But I feel that it’s impossible to find a more accurate description within a short time-frame.” Xie Junping was like an energetic salesman, but his delivery was just so-so.

Luo Nan lightly pressed his hand against his forehead. He had quickly formed the habit of doing similar actions within this period of time. It made his attention not as concentrated.

The two people weaved through the natural screen of trees while they talked. Soon they saw the front of a building.

The outside of the building was a rusted red color, just as in the first glance impression. That color seemed to not be of any natural color of the environment, instead it was like a rusted metal, a bit of a painted color. It turned out that the main part of the building was overrun by plants, long vines, and weeds, making it even harder to tell the arrangement of the whole thing.

Xie Junping was a bit anxious. This type of external form gave Luo Nan a bad impression. Xie Junping rushed to supplement: “There’s been quite a few renovations in the past two years. The surroundings are a bit messy, but people will absolutely be pleasantly surprised looking at the insides.”

Luo Nan did not know what to do, so he didn’t speak a word. He wanted to see where the hell Xie Junping was going with this conversation.

Two people went weaved on a small path born from weeds until they reached the main entrance of the building. What should be a small plaza was set up here. However, it was already seized by the assaulting jungle due to too few people caring for the area. It seemed that the main door wasn’t sealed closed; the long vines of the wetlands extended inside the hall.

The entire building was located in the tight encirclement of woods. The small plaza was the greatest vantage point nearby, but it was still hard to get a full view of the building.

Luo Nan only now realized something: “There’s nobody here?”

“There will be people during the semester. Now it’s just an empty shell.”

Xie Junping used his wristband for AI access privileges. Then the metal door of the building lifted up and the large empty hall inside automatically lit up.

Xie Junping pulled Luo Nan inside while giving an explanation: “This place is known presently as the ‘Order Club’. It was once a very lively old society. Rumor even has it that this club was established before the school was. It had attracted over a dozen of the world’s top five-hundred bankrollers and investors. It’s super awesome. But having too many investors is also troublesome. In particular, after the earlier generation of members graduated, the investors that backed the later generations were extremely competitive. What used to be a perfectly fine society forcefully had a battlefield of hell emerge, giving fruit to hatred that could kill. Two major incidents happened in sequence. One in the year 90 and the year 93, the characteristics of which were vile. The school prohibited new members from being recruited, causing the society to fall to ruin.”

The two had just entered the completely empty hall at this moment. No cleancut square structures could be seen here. A revolving staircase, a cylindrical elevator, and a ring-shaped corridor were cut in the giant hall. There was also a hint to a nature that was vaster and wider.

Xie Junping shrugged his shoulders: “The main architecture within this building are circular-based. This is probably the reason why the building was named ‘Gear’. The main fifteen rooms, hallways, and all the series of courtyards on each floor are said to be all circular in shape. It’s all derangedly circular. You’ll probably be a bit dizzy the first time you enter here, but you’ll be fine when you adapt to it.”

Luo Nan didn’t really feel that there was anything to adapt to. Instead he was somewhat curious.

Xie Junping continued with his introduction: “Indeed, the club has the greatest fate for being passed on to this generation. In fact, the qualifications for recruiting new members will be renewed this semester. If only those fools hadn’t been so stupid to cause financial issues last quarter, have all the investors withdraw their backing, and have their funding run completely dry and empty… The senior members left the society one by one, and the few meager members who stayed are tied in related legal cases. They’re being investigated even now. If their guilt is confirmed, then the society will automatically be disbanded.

Having spoken to this point, Xie Junping sighed a fake breath: “The club hasn’t dissolved yet, but there are people scrambling over this place like it’s a matter of life or death.”

Luo Nan was somewhat surprised: “This place is really popular?”

“Of course! The school’s societies have been coveting the northern bank for a long time, especially ‘Gear’. Gear takes up 5,000 square meters of space. It’s already ranked among the best of the societies and research institutions. It was the flashiest building in the northern bank back in the day. There’s no shortage of investors buying stuff here these days. Even more importantly, this is the sole and only place that can be excavated in the northern bank. Only this place has sufficient underground space among all the research institutions and society buildings of the northern bank. This place is incomparable! Those people are using money to fight each other. It’s no different from a cat fight……”

Spittle flew as Xie Junping spoke, but the problem was that Luo Nan had no sympathy at all for this sort of gossip; he was just stupefied. Xie Junping unconsciously produced his “charming eyes casted for the blind” from his intense feeling of failure. He could only point out helplessly at this moment:

“Junior Nan. Don’t you want to know who took over the club?”

Luo Nan casted a glance at him: “Isn’t that still undetermined?”

“There’s only two groups left man~ The Construction Society and the Mystic Arts Research Society are taking turns bidding it out. We just need to see who can surpass the other. The result will come out two days from now…… I feel that the Mystic Arts Research Society has a really big chance!”

“Mystic Arts Research Society?” Luo automatically threw a greater amount of attention towards Xie Junping when he heard the super society that he had missed the chance with.

Xie Junping’s face revealed a bizarre smile: “The Mystic Arts Research Society has staked it all for the sake of this plot of land. The society has already promised to be responsible for all the debts and members of the Order Club…… Hehe. They haven’t considered that the whole process will take until next semester to finish even if everything goes smoothly. But this damned piece of land won’t have anyone to maintain it. It will turn into a remains and ruins before our eyes. The price may not be worth it by then. Junior Nan, what do you think?”

What logic are you following…….

Luo Nan swept a glance around the large hall to verify that this place certainly did have an automatic cleaning system and perhaps even mechanical AI; there seemed to be no dust at all in his visible surroundings. There wouldn’t be any change even if half a year, or even ten years, pass with this level of maintenance.

However Xie Junping had spoken in this way for a completely different objective.

Luo Nan had a rough understanding.

Having spoken to this degree, Xie Junping already had a completely lit up attitude: “Look Junior Nan. People are needed to act as upholders and maintain basic operations if one wishes to protect the assets of the society to the greatest degree. But the resources and contacts of the Order Club are a thing of the past. They have nothing but damned debt. If one wishes to achieve this, funding from the Student Council will have to be spent. I calculated that at least 100,000 is needed for a year. This would all be debt.”

“If only there was someone in this moment who would be willing to enter this already-declining society and spend precious man-hours to conduct maintenance work for free… That person wouldn’t have any society activities at all, his social networks wouldn’t grow… Oh man, that would be quite the sacrifice! It’s hard to find someone like this Junior Nan. Your big bro over here has been pressed so hard with this matter for the past few days that even his hair has gone white. What do you think? Can you give me an answer to this problem, can you undo this knot……”

Luo Nan watched Xie Junping do his salesman performance and was speechless for a time, but he completely understood Xie Junping’s intentions…… It was pretty much a twisted and roundabout way of achieving his goals.

Luo Nan would first have to enter the currently-collapsing “Order Club” according to Xie Junping’s plan. He would become a member, then soon a society would take it over. He would become an undumpable additional member under the Mystic Arts Research Society half a semester later…… This was a matter that was already promised by Xie Junping.

This path looked to be quite decent. Of course, this plan needed a kind of high-level officer like Xie Junping in the Student Council. The money and influence of the officer was needed to complete the entire procedure of stuffing a newcomer into a society that was on the brink of collapse; this society was fundamentally in a state without any organizational capabilities.

However the Mystic Arts Research Society was backed by big investors and was also a circle for rich kids. Would they accept Xie Junping’s rough stuffing of an additional member?

At the very least, Xie Junping had quite the confidence right now. He laughed with giggles as he pushed Luo Nan inside an elevator.

“Relax, relax. I’m quite familiar with this aspect of things. From the perspective of people within the circle, the people over there will do the take over at all costs. I also contacted them beforehand. One or two people don’t count as much….. Junior Nan. I’m not being unreasonable. If it weren’t for the chaos yesterday causing you to be tired enough to miss your interview, would we need to do things in this round about way? This damned place. Things haven’t been easy ever since Yan Hong had his reputation completely swept away and his research team dissolved. They’re saying that we’re taking advantage of them unfairly. I’m saying that they’ve committed a great offense against us!”

A certain name entered Luo Nan’s ear, causing Luo Nan to jolt still. He suddenly turned: “What did you say?”