Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 188: Thanks to the Students Who Choose Schools! (Three more for monthly passes!)

Chapter 188: Chapter 188: Thanks to the Students Who Choose Schools! (Three more for monthly passes!)

Of course, doing so has its drawbacks, it would lower the school’s prestige.

But Wang Dawei had already adopted a devil-may-care attitude. Prestige? Can it be eaten as a meal?

Since now there was no hope of becoming a focused school in the district, what’s the use of prestige? Just having fun is all that matters, just fooling around is all that matters!

Before long, the three academic years in the game passed, and it was time for the students in the aviation class to take the college entrance examination.

Wang Dawei didn’t hold much hope for this round of college entrance exams.

Because during the previous three academic years, the enrollment rate of Henggang Middle School had barely changed, hovering around just over 30%.

For this result, Wang Dawei wasn’t surprised. After all, he had been busy renaming fans during this period. Then there was the food court’s price rollercoaster, playing a game of wits with the inspections from higher-ups, and expelling many students, which resulted in a significant drop in the school’s prestige.

Although he did make some money by raising prices in the cafeteria and the snack bar, and he hired some teachers and increased the performance pay of the teaching staff, without a significant improvement in student quality, there probably wouldn’t be much of an increase, right?

However, when the honor roll came out, Wang Dawei was flabbergasted.

"Huh? We have a student who got into a first-tier university!

"Who’s this? They must be tough as nails! Pig Grunt Grunt! I remember them clearly, both of them are old-timers from our aviation class and they got into a first-tier university!

"One at Imperial Capital Sports University and one at Magic Capital Normal University! Good, good, you are truly the pride of our aviation class!

"Gee, our enrollment rate to undergraduate programs has reached 55% this academic year! Isn’t this the threshold for district focused schools?

"So many students got into first-tier universities, directly adding over 200 points of prestige! What’s the prestige now? 1003! Just barely made it past the finish line to complete the task!

"Oh? Guys, our Henggang Middle School is on the up and up!"

Wang Dawei had never expected that often when one tries hard to plant flowers, they don’t flourish, yet willows grown without intention to, become shades for people unintentionally!

This time, he barely completed the upgrade task, and Henggang Middle School finally transformed from an ordinary middle school to a district-focused middle school!

What surprised him most was that students who made it into first-tier universities could add so much prestige to the school that it completely made up for the previously deducted prestige!

After clicking the "Upgrade to District-Focused Middle School" button, colorful firework effects appeared on the screen.

Wang Dawei couldn’t wait to check the upgrade rewards.

[1. Improvement of student quality]

[2. Increase in funding]

[3. Random unlock of management skill]

The first two rewards are easy to understand, they’re visible changes, but the key is the third one, a random unlock of management skill!

[Unlocked: School Selection Fee!]

[After upgrading to a district-focused middle school, more parents are keen to send their children to Henggang Middle School to study, including some students with poorer academic performance.]

[Accepting them can earn a substantial school selection fee, but being too greedy might lead to a significant drop in school performance.]

After unlocking this feature, Wang Dawei discovered that at the start of each school year in the game, a new interface appeared, allowing him to adjust the ratio of enrollment numbers.

The types of students that could be recruited became three kinds: ordinary students, repeat students, and school selection students.

The ordinary students, as before, default to enrolling from the first grade, with varied academic performances and many still not abiding by school discipline.

The repeat students, however, would directly join the third year of high school, and on average, their grades were better than those of the ordinary students, and non-compliance with discipline was significantly improved.

As for the school selection students, they also started from the first grade, but generally had extremely poor academic performance, with almost every one of them carrying some bad habits.

Players could adjust the number of these three types of students within a certain range.

Wang Dawei couldn’t help but be overjoyed: "Great! No need to say more, Director Gu, I understand, I know what to do!"

Without another word, he maxed out both the repeat students and school selection students entries!

The number of new students at the school was limited; by recruiting more repeat and school selection students, the spots for new students would be used up.

But it was clear that Wang Dawei knew what was more important.

New students are worthless, repeat and school selection students are the real deal!

Repeat students generally have a base, their academic performance is decent, and since they’ve decided to repeat a year, they’re not likely to cause as much trouble as the average student, which greatly increases the probability they’ll follow the rules.

Though many repeat students might not be very bright, and the ceiling for their grade improvement might not be very high, that’s okay, getting into a second-tier university still counts towards the enrollment rate!

As for school selection students, they are the school’s bread and butter; you need funding to increase teacher salaries, and only with higher salaries will teachers be motivated to teach and manage effectively.

"Come, let’s see what kind of quality our newly recruited school selection students have... Wow, what a colorful bunch!"

As he saw these school-selecting students, Wang Dawei silently turned on the music app and played a song called "What Can Beautiful Girls with Braces Do".

Each of these students nearly all had bizarre hairstyles from perming and dyeing, dressed in outlandish outfits that were brightly colored and garish to the extreme.

On the other hand, the repeater students’ style was much more normal, with hardly any dyed hair or school uniforms. They all sported standard haircuts, with the boys in crew cuts or flat tops, and the girls with short hair or braids, their school uniforms worn neatly and tidily.

"Well now, we’ve managed to recruit a Funeral of Love Family."

"Fine, since you’re the noble school-selecting students, we’ll also make special arrangements for you, and pay particular attention to your class.

"Never mind if the student quality is up to par, as long as there’s money, that’s fine. With money, we can improve the teaching quality and ensure the school can develop over the long term. Principal Wang is thinking ahead, students should be understanding.

"We are currently in the stage of enduring economic defeats, so for these two years, we just need to maintain the current university admission rate and keep our status as a key school in the district. We mustn’t drop in rank! Afterward, we’ll save up a few million or even tens of millions in educational funds and then properly reorganize.

"Director Gu, make sure you keep a close eye on things and notify me in advance whenever someone from above comes to inspect."

Wang Dawei said all this while arranging all the newly recruited Funeral of Love Family students into classes in the back.

After the arrangement was complete, these classrooms looked less like a school and more like a hair salon.

"Considering the current state of these school-selecting students, let’s focus on ’happy education.’ Come on, max out the physical education, music, and art classes. If that’s not enough, use self-study periods to fill in the gaps."

"It’s a pity that this game isn’t smart enough; it doesn’t have a special category for art and sports students, which isn’t good and doesn’t reflect reality.

"Otherwise, by digging through this Funeral of Love Family, we might be able to find some promising art and sports talents.

"Now there’s no way to recycle waste."

"Well, it’s noon, and the students have all gone to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Eh? I’ve noticed that these school-selecting students seem quite wealthy, why are they all eating fish and meat!

"They indeed come from rich families, which is very reasonable. Then... let’s continue to raise prices in the cafeteria! We’ll not touch the steamed buns, pickles, and vegetable tofu yet, lest those students from less wealthy families starve to death. Let’s raise the prices of chicken, duck, fish, and meat further, making the school-selecting students contribute even more to our school."

Under Wang Dawei’s vigorous reforms, the financial situation of Henggang Middle School saw significant improvement. In less than an academic year, the school saved more money than in the previous three years combined.

But soon enough, trouble arose.

The college entrance exam was only two months away!

"The college entrance exam is coming up, students, what are we going to do? The results of the first, second, and third mock exams aren’t looking good; there are too many students dragging us down!

"If we really go into the college entrance exam with these scores, it’s a minor issue for students not getting into good universities, but it would be troublesome for our school to lose its status as a key school in the district!

"Without the district key school status, we would revert to being an ordinary high school. Losing our repeaters and school-selecting students — that won’t do at all.

"No, Principal Wang must do something.

"Students, you all keep studying as usual. Sharpening your weapons at the last moment is not fast yet it sheds light. Prepare for a surge now; strive to score one more point in the college entrance exam and defeat a thousand others.

"I, the principal, will also sharpen my weapons at the last moment, prepare for a surge, and strive to defeat a thousand others, letting our school’s average score go up by one point.

"Come on, in the two months before the college entrance exam, let’s strictly rectify the school’s spirit and discipline!

"Hey, there are two people smoking in the bathroom? Let me see your grades! Last place? You still have the nerve to smoke with these grades? You’re out!

"Let me look at you, anyone who dyes their hair some fancy color is certainly not a good student, you... hmm? Your scores are so high? Hey, young man, not bad, you have potential. Alright, Principal Wang won’t say much. I understand you smoke to relieve the pressure of attending classes, and you dye your hair to transform into a Super Saiyan and boost your battle power. All understandable!

"Here, Principal Wang will personally buy you a pack of good cigarettes out of my own pocket, go back to class now."

Wang Dawei started cracking down on disciplinary issues within the school. Any student who was not performing well academically was punished severely and harshly!

Following the principle of expelling where possible, advising to withdraw if not, noting the misconduct if not, and leaving on school probation if not, a number of students were cleared out.

But obviously, this approach couldn’t be sustained indefinitely because it would continuously lower the school’s prestige. Once the prestige fell too low, that too would cause the district key school status to be at risk.

Just when the school’s prestige was hanging by a thread and Wang Dawei was somewhat at a loss, another paid pop-up message refreshed on the screen.

[Gu Fan: Principal Wang, we can continue with the elimination of the bottom rankers in the key classes!]

Wang Dawei was stunned for a moment, then he realized.

"Oh! Right! Director Gu, you’re truly my savior. How could I have forgotten about this! Just look at my memory!"

Wang Dawei suddenly remembered that the game indeed had this feature where a class could be designated as a key class, and an elimination rate could be set – for example, the bottom few students would be demoted to ordinary classes.

But there was a BUG with this feature! The students who were eliminated from the key class wouldn’t appear in the ordinary classes; they would completely disappear.

As this had been exploited in the past with key classes packed with viewers who’d gifted aircraft and changed names, and since the BUG was somewhat malicious, Wang Dawei immediately set the elimination rate to zero and never used it again.

But now, reminded by Gu Fan, Wang Dawei instantly saw that this BUG could evidently be exploited!