Yang Fan opened the Divine Shop and searched for the word "weapons".
"F-grade weapon spear, priced at 10,000 Faith Points."
"F-grade weapon iron hammer, priced at 13,000 Faith Points."
"F-grade weapon Qingfeng sword, priced at 20,000 Faith Points."
"..."
Looking at the weapon prices, Yang Fan furrowed his brows slightly: "They're a bit too expensive."
A single weapon cost tens of thousands of Faith Points, and besides that, there were armor and helmets.
Just an F-grade weapon alone; if he wanted to fully arm a believer from head to toe, it would cost thirty to forty thousand Faith Points.
Yet the army in his divine kingdom currently numbered a full 50,000 people. If they were all equipped like this, wouldn't it cost around two billion?
"No wonder gods who follow the warfare school need to recruit so many Subordinate Gods; weapons alone are an astronomical expense," Yang Fan sighed.
With Yang Fan's current financial strength, graded weapons were completely out of his league for large-scale consumption, and those cannon fodders didn't deserve them either.
"The prices are too high. Help me search for ordinary weapons. I need to equip mortals on a large scale, preferably made of iron, and the total price for 50,000 sets should be within one million." Yang Fan continued searching through the Intelligent Lifeform.
"Filtering merchants, recommending the best choice: Motie Mercenary Group Shop."
"200,000 sets of ordinary iron weapons, priced at 4,000,000 Faith Points."
"The merchant is currently online. You can inquire if they sell in separate batches."
Yang Fan clicked on the communication box and typed: "Boss, I'd like to buy 50,000 sets. Is that okay?"
"1,000,000 Faith Points, ready to trade at any time," the other party replied in a second.
"Can it be cheaper? I'm still a student in Grade 12."
"Small business, no bargaining."
At this moment, on a distant planet, a man sat in front of a workbench smoking coarse tobacco, spat, and said: "Another miserable pretender. I've been customer service for so many years, my ears are growing calluses from hearing these clichés. Poor people have too many problems. I still need to find a way to improve product competitiveness and make money from the rich."
"Is there really no discount?" Making such a big deal for the first time, Yang Fan still wanted to haggle.
"No." The other party refused decisively. Having done business for so long, his Dao Heart was already firm; how could prices be easily changed?
"I come from a single-parent Clan, and I have two younger sisters to support. I really have no choice..."
"Hold it right there... I've sent you the link. Any lower and I won't be able to report to my superiors."
Yang Fan looked at the pop-up link: 50,000 sets of ordinary iron weapons for a price of 800,000.
"This... negotiating business is this simple?" Yang Fan's mind was a bit dazed. Fearing the other party would go back on their word, he hurriedly transferred the Faith Points over. This story is hosted at NovelPing.
"Transaction successful."
At that moment, the man took a deep puff of his cigarette, his eyes somewhat wistful.
Just then, his room door was pushed open, and two little heads poked out.
"Daddy, big brother is calling you to eat," twin daughters called out simultaneously.
"Got it. How were your classes today? Did the teacher reward you with any little red flowers?" The man stood up, holding one daughter in each arm, and said gently.
"Yes, we recited the biodiversity research report in front of the whole class today, and the teacher rewarded each of us with one."
"Good girls!"
"..."
With the procurement of weapons for ordinary soldiers completed, Yang Fan prepared to equip each of those six Tier 1 Beings with a full set of F-grade weapons.
Finding a private shop once again, he clicked the dialogue box and typed: "Boss, can it be cheaper? Both my parents passed away when I was young, and I've raised ten younger sisters all by myself. I really don't have any extra Faith Points left."
"Scram."
"The chat box has been closed by the other party," the System prompt came from Taotao Network.
"..."
Yang Fan only felt a flock of crows flying across the top of his head.
In the end, he spent nearly 200,000 more Faith Points to buy a full six sets of Tier 1 weapons.
His working capital hit rock bottom once again.
After pouring all these Resources into his divine kingdom, Yang Fan stretched lazily, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep early.
He had done everything he could; he only hoped to stand out tomorrow and win investments from those bosses.
Early the next morning, Yang Fan got up and headed to school.
This assessment was not in the Virtual World; all teachers and students of Grade 12 had to gather at Yang County No. 1 Middle School.
Three months had passed since the day of Awakening, and Yang Fan once again stepped through the gates of Yang County No. 1 Middle School.
The school playground was lively, with over 2,000 people in the entire Grade 12. Even though the vast majority belonged to the logistics school, they were required to be present by regulations.
"I heard the principal, Hong Bing, will show up today. That's a Tier 3 God, a big shot who is normally hard to see even once."
"I heard from my elders that today's assessment location is a divine kingdom conquered by the principal when he was young while fighting against Alien Deitys. To cultivate young people, this divine kingdom is specifically used to keep Demonic Beasts of various tiers, and then its coordinates are made public for student assessments."
"Pretty much, except the believers are different. We are the Human Race, so our believers are humans. As for those aliens, their believers include all kinds of Demonic Beasts, undead, and demons—bizarre in every way."
"Handsome, you know so much."
"Not bad. My grandfather is a demigod and also a chatterbox, so I've heard more stories."
"..."
Yang Fan arrived at his spot and curiously looked around.
Ever since Tier 1 Beings were born in his divine kingdom, Yang Fan could feel that his senses had become much sharper.
Class 7, where he was located, had the weakest aura. Li Shuhao, who had the strongest strength, had an aura on him like a stove fire; calling his classmates mere sparks would be flattering them.
As for Class 1, Grade 12 standing right in the middle, even from far away, Yang Fan could feel the terrifying aura emanating from them.
"Luo Bing, the prodigy of the Luo Family with a B-grade talent, has she already reached this stage in three months?" Yang Fan gazed into the distance at her back.
Clearly there was no temperature change in the air, but an invisible chill stung his eyes painfully.
Her strength was probably several orders of magnitude stronger than his. With a terrifying talent and the Luo Family's all-out cultivation, if he was running forward, then she was driving a sports car.
Yang Fan took a deep breath, lowered his eyes, and tried not to draw attention.
"Brother Yang, how are your preparations?" Li Shuhao greeted him.
"Not bad."
"Once this assessment is over, if you want to change your development direction, my initial proposal is still valid."
During the last Prosperity Rating evaluation assessment, although Yang Fan made him shine with surprise, he still remained pessimistic about the divine kingdom direction Yang Fan had chosen.
Without combat talent and without Clan investment, in a mere three months, how much could the strength of believers change?
"Thank you." Yang Fan nodded gratefully, knowing the other party meant no harm.
Another Class 7 Genius, Wang Zhenyu, was very quiet at the moment, continuously taking deep breaths. It was clear he was very nervous.
"Brother Yang, after the exam later, come to my house for dinner. We haven't heard from you in so long, shouldn't we catch up?" Zhang Pang came over and put his arm around Yang Fan's shoulder.
"We'll see when the time comes. I've prepared for a long time for today, and I still want to win investments from those big families."
"Pfft, cut it out. For us logistics folks, who is going to invest in us? My believers only know how to farm. Later during the exam, I plan to send a thousand believers to wander around the exam venue and retreat directly the moment they see a Tier 1 Demonic Beast. This kind of exam takes ten days or half a month to finish every year, I'm too lazy to waste time at school." Zhang Pang rolled his eyes.