Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 187: Unscrupulous Canteen Simulator!

Chapter 187: Chapter 187: Unscrupulous Canteen Simulator!

"""

Wang Dawei never expected that such a simple name-changing feature could become so wildly popular among the viewers in his live streaming room!

He didn’t even know he had so many fans willing to send gifts.

Soon, with the support of countless planes and rockets, approximately one-third of the students and teachers at Henggang Middle School had their names changed to those of viewers in the live streaming room, which made them stand out from the other NPCs using the default system names.

However, just as Wang Dawei was enjoying receiving gifts, another paid message appeared.

[Gu Fan: Principal Wang, don’t just focus on collecting gifts. Although a relaxed administration is good, you also need to find ways to help everyone get into good universities!]

Wang Dawei paused for a moment and then nodded, "Hmm? Oh! Director Gu makes a good point. Relaxed administration is good, but indeed, we also need to find ways to help everyone get into good universities!

"After all, everyone has paid so much in tuition and school choice fees to come here just to enjoy the best teaching resources of Henggang Middle School and get into the universities of their dreams.

"But as everyone has seen, our school’s current funding and faculty... don’t seem to have any significant advantage compared to other schools...

"So... Director Gu, as the Director of Academic Affairs, do you have any brilliant ideas?"

[Gu Fan: I think we should enforce strict management! For the failing students in the non-airplane classes who don’t improve despite repeated teaching, hit them hard and expel them all! Even if their fathers were kings of heaven, they shouldn’t be allowed to affect our school’s college entrance rate! Concentrate all the best teaching resources in the key classes, and let the rest fend for themselves. Raise prices in the canteen and the store to boost the school’s education fund! Just change the prices back before the inspectors arrive. What’s the use of having so much money? Simple, offer the highest performance wages to teachers to boost their work efficiency! That’s pretty much it, Principal Wang, draw inferences from one instance, and see what you can do.]

Wang Dawei couldn’t help but take a deep breath, "Director Gu... brilliant ideas! Hey, to be honest, this seems pretty interesting!"

Was Wang Dawei playing seriously before? Of course, he was.

But the results were not good.

Upon reflection, Wang Dawei realized that on one hand, the reason was that the game’s numerical balance was as inconsistent as— let’s be frank—crap, and its difficulty setting was unreasonable. But on the other hand, he also didn’t fully grasp the game mechanics.

Director Gu’s suggestion was clearly a great approach!

Thinking big!

With this in mind, Wang Dawei immediately started to take action.

First, he concentrated all the best teachers in classes one, two, and three, then filled their timetables completely from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.!

All meaningless courses like PE, music, and art were canceled and replaced with academic subjects!

Even this allocation of teaching resources was a bit too much, but no matter, the students in the remaining classes were basically a lost cause; any teachers would suffice to get the bare minimum done, just strategically abandon them.

It didn’t matter if there weren’t enough teachers for the regular classes either. Just arrange for them to teach more PE, music, art, or self-study classes, emphasizing a "happy education."

When he was changing names for the viewers using rocket donations earlier, Wang Dawei, out of respect for the viewers who were "parents," chose students who were already quite good, so the overall quality of students in classes one, two, and three was still relatively high.

Next, Wang Dawei maxed out the performance wages for teachers and homeroom teachers of these three classes to enhance their enthusiasm for work!

The result of this was a severe deficit in educational funding. The funding from higher authorities, combined with the internal profits of the school, simply couldn’t cover the salaries of all staff members.

But it didn’t matter, Director Gu had already pointed out the direction!

If the school’s college entrance rate and reputation value weren’t up to par, then it was unlikely to increase the funding from upper levels.

To reverse the deficit, he had to start from within the school, finding new sources of income and cutting costs.

Wang Dawei immediately slashed the wages of the canteen aunties, cleaning staff, security guards, and other school workers to the bare minimum everyone could barely tolerate.

Henggang Middle School Simulation wasn’t very sophisticated in this area; theoretically, these individuals should have a dissatisfaction value that, when maxed out, would lead to emotional outbursts and actions like resigning.

But obviously, Henggang Middle School Simulation wouldn’t implement such detailed systems; low wages simply caused dissatisfaction among the staff, lowering their work efficiency, but it didn’t lead to more complex issues.

So for Wang Dawei, it was no big deal—if work efficiency dropped, so be it. As long as student performance wasn’t affected, everything was negotiable!

But cutting costs alone wasn’t enough, he needed to generate revenue.

Wang Dawei then hiked the prices in the school’s store and canteen!

Initially, Wang Dawei was somewhat merciful and didn’t raise prices across the board.

Both the store and the canteen had product lists. For the canteen, for instance, the cheapest items were steamed buns with pickled vegetables, and the slightly pricier options included vegetable and tofu dishes, while the most expensive were dishes with chicken, duck, fish, etc. Obviously, the costs of these dishes were different.

At the start, Wang Dawei was a bit softhearted.

"Let’s just double the price of chicken, duck, fish, and meat dishes, how’s that, classmates?

"We’ll give the steamed buns with pickled vegetables and vegetable tofus a pass for now. We ought to leave an alternative for the poorer students, right?

"Okay, let’s start with that and try it out.

"Ah, this part isn’t done well, I must criticize the game. How can we raise canteen prices without holding a student representative meeting? I remember at our school, even when the canteen prices went up, they at least went through the motions of inviting student representatives from each class to a meeting with the person in charge of the canteen. They reported on the rise in food prices and justified the increase.

"Although it was definitely going to pass regardless, you still need that process and step, right? Otherwise, it makes me, the principal, look autocratic, which isn’t good.

"""

"This game really doesn’t restore the situation well enough, it deserves criticism,"

"Huh? Wait a minute, why is nobody eating fish? Everyone’s moved on to green vegetables and tofu?"

Wang Dawei was speechless. He realized that changing the cafeteria prices like this didn’t directly lead to increased revenue.

The students were quite smart. Seeing the price of chicken, duck, fish, and meat go up, the number of buyers plummeted. They all just bought the cheapest steamed buns with pickles and green vegetables with tofu.

"Is this reasonable?"

"I’m not criticizing you, students, but a man is iron, food is steel; skip a meal and you’ll feel weak. You’re growing, how can you only eat green vegetables and tofu? Can that provide the nutrition necessary for studying?"

"No, Principal Wang has a kind heart and can’t bear to see students eating the same thing every day."

"Cafeteria auntie! Adjust the prices for me once more!"

As he spoke, Wang Dawei raised the price of steamed buns with pickles and green vegetables with tofu as well.

Now the students had no other choice!

All the dishes had a price hike, leading to a noticeable increase in school funds.

However, this action clearly had some side effects. On one hand, it led to a drop in student satisfaction with the school, impacting the school’s reputation. On the other hand, the general vitality of the students decreased.

But for Wang Dawei, these were no big deal.

"No problem, students, I’ll go check the cafeteria again."

"Good, now everyone’s diet is balanced. Some are eating green vegetables with tofu, and others are eating chicken, duck, fish, and meat. This shows that our price adjustment strategy has achieved initial success."

"What? The proportion of people eating green vegetables and tofu is still too high?"

"Ah, that doesn’t matter. The students are all strong and healthy, and they can fill up on green vegetables and tofu, which are rich in vitamins and proteins, enough to replenish the energy needed for studying."

"Some top students even munch on steamed buns and mineral water every day, and that doesn’t stop them from getting into TOP2, right?"

"As students, we should not compete in eating or dressing but in studying!"

"Look, this student from the airline class is rich. Zhou Yang is eating fish. But it’s okay, students, don’t follow him. Let’s live within our means. Eating pickled vegetables and tofu also contributes to the school, right?"

"Of course, those students who can afford it can also eat more fish. Eating fish is good for the brain, and you’ll soon become as excellent as Zhou!"

The audience could hardly keep it together and started barraging the comments with criticism.

"What Henggang Middle School Simulation? It’s clearly a black-hearted cafeteria simulator!"

"Keeping up with current events, huh? Now we know why school cafeterias always have various negative news!"

"What a beast, before students could eat steamed buns with pickles and green vegetables cheaply, but now green vegetables with tofu are sold for 20 a portion!"

"Really, though, have you noticed that students seem to be going to the cafeteria more quickly now? Seems like it really does facilitate studying!"

Just then, another paid comment floated across the screen.

[Gu Fan: Principal Wang! Inspectors are coming next month, hurry up and change the prices back!]

Wang Dawei was startled and quickly checked the time. It was indeed close to the month of the higher-ups’ inspection!

The Henggang Middle School Simulation handled this aspect rather rigidly. Inspections from higher-ups weren’t a randomly triggered special event but were triggered at a set time.

But this provided Wang Dawei with a convenient opportunity for action.

He quickly reverted all the cafeteria prices back to their original state.

Indeed, when the inspection from the higher-ups took place the following month, everything in the cafeteria was normal, so it was just a formality.

"Good, thanks for the heads-up, Director Gu! Is the inspection over? If it’s over, let’s change the prices back,"

During that academic year, Wang Dawei essentially stopped worrying about the day-to-day management of the students. He was mostly fixated on adjusting the cafeteria prices!

Of course, it’s not to say he didn’t worry at all.

Last academic year, Wang Dawei took a hands-on approach, personally reviewing each student’s attributes and academic performance whenever they misbehaved, and then administering punishment commensurate with the severity of the infraction.

The result, whether by design in the game or due to some bug, was that the students simply could not be reformed by love; they kept making the same mistakes!

Just two days ago, he had caught a student with dyed yellow hair and ordered him to get a haircut, only for the student to show up two days later with red-dyed hair.

Wang Dawei was fuming!

But this academic year, Wang Dawei didn’t look into things so deeply. Whenever he discovered a student violating the rules, the first offense would be detention and a demerit, the second offense was immediate expulsion!

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