NOVEL NEXT Chapter 427: Project Implementation_2
"As for the specific situation of the Awakeners School, do you have any thoughts?"
Tian Xuesong looked at Wang Tao again.
In fact, the project of the Awakeners School was able to be implemented so quickly because it was related to Wang Tao himself.
Previously, someone had proposed the idea of establishing an Awakeners School, but it hadn't received much attention because it seemed like a nice concept that was very difficult to implement and even felt somewhat pointless.
It was like saying before the apocalypse you wanted to build a top-tier private high school specifically to train students to apply for prestigious universities. It sounds good in theory, but in practice, it's simply not possible... The same was true for the Awakeners School.
Although the City Hall would certainly be able to construct a school if it was willing to allocate the funds, that would be all. The subsequent training and teaching could not be carried out.
To put it bluntly, if they knew how to train Awakeners, they would have done so themselves already, so why wait for a school?
Of course, they actually had a method, which was to use money – stacking up Crystal Cores and manpower. Many of the Awakeners within the Six Major Legions came about this way.
But the cost was too great to be feasible for widespread adoption...
Therefore, the project of the Awakeners School fell into the category of sounding great but being highly impractical.
However, the situation changed when Wang Tao expressed his desire to serve as the principal of the Awakeners School.
While Wang Tao was generally low-key and spent most of his time outside the city, everyone had conducted extensive research on him. Not just him, all the Awakeners in the base were subjects of the upper echelons' studies.
And through their research, they discovered an Ability that was stronger in Wang Tao than in any other Awakener – being a Scholar!
Many crucial pieces of information regarding Awakeners were freely shared by Wang Tao! For instance, the three conditions necessary for Awakening, Hidden Attributes, how to increase those Hidden Attributes, etc., all came from Wang Tao! And he shared them for free!
Had Wang Tao not spoken up, others might have taken a year or more to discover such things.
The reason why Wang Tao was so scholarly wasn't because he learned things unknown to others, but because he had traveled to many places in the post-apocalypse and had experienced various scenarios. His own experience was very rich, and he had a sharp mind... Combining all of this, he became a Scholar in a way that others simply could not replicate!
The above conclusions were drawn by everyone regarding Wang Tao, and this was also the impression Wang Tao intentionally guided them towards, as he could not possibly reveal that he could see HP bars...
Although the reasoning may seem somewhat far-fetched, it was logically consistent, so it appeared reasonable to others.
So the question arose, what kind of spark would a scholarly person like Wang Tao ignite if combined with the Awakeners School?
They were somewhat expectant.
Therefore, the Awakeners School project, which would have been uncertain when it could be implemented and might have remained forever in PPT presentations, was suddenly getting ready to launch.
Let Wang Tao take the position of principal and see if it could work!
If Wang Tao could genuinely leverage his own experience to train Awakeners, not many, but even just two or three, that would be quite an accomplishment for the entire base.
After all, in this base of over fifty thousand people, there were only about forty Awakeners, and many of them were hard-forged with resources based on information Wang Tao had shared for free after these details were disclosed!
The number of Awakeners before was even smaller, not even reaching ten...
Of course, they were unaware of the specific circumstances of the Starfire Society, which also had over ten Awakeners. But even adding the Starfire Society, it was only about fifty in total, roughly a one in ten thousand chance... an alarmingly low probability.
So their expectations weren't high; as long as Wang Tao could cultivate two or three Awakeners within a certain period, and not purely rely on resources to stack up, that would be considered a great success! If he could cultivate one or two, that still counted as a profit. And if he couldn't cultivate any... well, at least some experience would have been accumulated, right?
Wang Tao didn't know what they were thinking, but when he saw Tian Xuesong asking him very seriously if he had any other thoughts, Wang Tao straightforwardly asked:
"How much autonomy does my role as principal have? Or rather, how much authority do I have?"
Wang Tao didn't like others directing and dictating to him, nor did he appreciate any kind of pretense. He was willing to take on the role of principal purely out of a desire to help the base cultivate some talent. But if the process turned out to be unpleasant, then it didn't matter to him whether he helped or not.
Tian Xuesong obviously could tell what Wang Tao meant, and replied with a smile:
"The council does place great importance on this project... Let me put it this way, your position as principal is that of the most powerful person in the school, bar none. The entire school is under your leadership; as long as you don't violate any core principles, you can establish any systems you like within the school! Without your permission, no one is allowed to interfere with anything. That includes the council..."
"Of course, I'll speak frankly; while the council can't directly interfere with the principal, it can replace the principal through a vote, and that is the right of the council..."
"Oh yes, one last thing: the school's financial resources come from a special allocation from the City Hall, so the only requirement from the council is that these special funds can't be managed by you alone – there must be supervision, or a department specifically established to manage the funding... I know you probably don't care about the money – Awakeners find it easy to make money – but after all, this is the money of our entire base; it has to be publicly transparent and credible..."
"As for your salary and benefits, they are definitely top-tier, pretty much the same as the council members. Although you'll likely have little interest in such things, this is the stance of the City Hall..."
Tian Xuesong said a lot, but to sum it up simply, Wang Tao's authority as principal within the school was very considerable, with the only restriction being that special funding required supervision and could not be misused.
Wang Tao nodded in satisfaction.
The conditions were very good, as long as no one got in his way and he had space to work. As for the funding issue, it mattered even less to him; in fact, if the council didn't require it, he would have taken the initiative to find someone to supervise it himself.
In Wang Tao's view, money was the thing most likely to cause disputes, and the best way to avoid disputes was not to handle it personally. Since Wang Tao wasn't there to take advantage of the position, having someone oversee the management would be better.
On the way back, Wang Tao talked with Tian Xuesong and the others for a prolonged period, mainly about the Awakeners School.
Especially regarding selection, Tian Xuesong passed on a lot of experience to Wang Tao – put character first, talent second. It was better not to cultivate any Awakeners at all than to raise an ungrateful one.
Wang Tao had his own methods of assessment, but he also listened with an open mind to their experience and conclusions.
After returning to the City Hall, both parties went their separate ways.
They went to interrogate the people they had arrested today, while Wang Tao went to see Jiang Hui first.
Jiang Hui, after interrogating the two vice mayors, uncovered some news – that Yao Guodong's previous inability to become an Ability User was also their doing! They discovered a place outside that was rather strange; some people who went there could not become Ability Users afterward. They managed to trick Yao Guodong into going, and it indeed ended up being true...
Wang Tao's eyebrows raised at this.
Yao Guodong had a "Curse" Status before, which prevented him from becoming an Ability User. Wang Tao was quite interested in this Curse and thought that, if there was a chance in the future, he might like to check this place out.
Wang Tao then met with Gu Yun.
After discussing the Dusk Church, Gu Yun also mentioned the matter of the Awakeners School.
"Now that the project has been thoroughly grounded, should we release some information now? The base is too quiet now, with people still suffering from disasters. I think they need to be given some hope... Of course, you're the principal, so we'll go by your opinion."
Wang Tao thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, go ahead and handle it as you see fit."