Chapter 2: [ You Have Gained The Harem Cultivation System ]
According to a Harvard Business Review Study, a CEO worked an average of 50 hours per week. 75% of all the meetings were planned in advance, while 25% were spontaneous. Most of their time was spent on face to face meetings. On average, they got 7 hours of sleep per day.
Yang Li had finally caught a bit of reprieve as he sat in his office. The next few hours would be spent on paperwork, which was far better than working with a group, because as much as he wished to become more sociable… it still drained him a lot.
His life could have been called tedious.
And yet he was actually grateful for this and so he continued to do his work, burying himself in it. He was working on the fifteenth document when the sounds of something crashing in his room made him look up, only to see a strange creature lying down on the floor. It looked like a panda, but no panda was small. He rubbed his eyes for a moment and half wondered if the stress was actually getting to him.
But it was in that moment that the panda flew to his face and grinned, "Congratulations!"
Yang Li stared at it for a second before looking back at his paperwork. The thought of scheduling a psych evaluation flashed through his mind. This one was quite a realistic hallucination.
"Hey! Look at me! Why are you ignoring this magnificent creature?!" the voice continued to babble on.
He wouldn't give it attention and then it would go away—that was surely the plan. Or perhaps he needed a nap? He rubbed his face and let out a sigh. He would have to cut back on coffee as well.
"That's it! Mister Yang Li, if you don't pay attention—your stocks are going to collapse!"
He blinked and looked at the panda. As a product of his warped mind, Yang Li knew that he shouldn't talk to it, and yet, he clicked his tongue. Perhaps this was his subconscious fears getting to him? "That is impossible. Nothing short of an economic collapse could trigger my stocks to plummet. Fluctuations may occur, but that's normal."
"You know what, if seeing me doesn't convince you—System will!" The panda raised a paw and smacked him across the face.
The world spun, and with a dull ache, he realised that he was on the floor half a minute later. The sound of a door opening followed a moment later.
His secretary rushed towards him in concern."Mister Li, are you okay? What happened—are you alright, Mister Li?"
He rubbed his forehead and nodded, "I'm fine, don't worry. Just a little accident." He glanced at her and frowned. "Right, by chance, did you see a floating panda?"
"Er… you may have hit your head too hard, Mister Li." His secretary, Ying Yue He, gave him a sheepish smile. And that was in spite of the panda creature now laying on top of her head.
Yang Li nodded and pulled himself up to his feet, "That appears to be the case, thank you for your concern. You can head back to your post."
He fixed his chair and returned back to his seat. One of the things that he was somewhat worried about was gossip spreading—it was too embarrassing if people learned that he had fallen off his chair.
"Oh, are you sure we shouldn't call for a medic?" Ying Yue He asked with a concerned look. She held her hands together and fiddled with her thumbs, "Or someone who knows first aid, I think Jenny knows some?"
The CEO shook his head and at last flashed her a smile, "I'm fine, thank you for the concern." It always seemed to work whenever he requested things for a smile—and it worked a lot faster when he did it on women. Men? Not so much.
Once the sound of the door closed, he let his smile drop and eyed the panda floating in the air. He didn't want to talk with it when others couldn't see it. And if it wasn't going to talk to him either—well, Yang Li was willing to adapt to the strangeness of this event.
It didn't hinder him at all—
[ If You Do Not Accept and Follow The System, Your Company Will Collapse ]
A screen floated in front of him as well as he heard someone announce the words written on it. The voice was disembodied and flat which was a stark difference to Panda who had yelled at him awhile ago. And somehow this time, he felt a wave of energy pressuring around him as the panda continued to give him the silent treatment.
Whether it had been from the voice or the panda, somehow it didn't matter.
This was… he may have read something similar to this situation when he was younger. And yet it still didn't make sense on why he was chosen or why this 'System' had to be so cruel. Wouldn't it have been better to stake his life on this instead? He wasn't the only one affected if the company collapsed.
He narrowed his gaze at the Panda, "If my company collapsed—I can always rebuild it from scratch." There had been his concerns with the other stakeholders in his company but there was also another thing that weighed heavily in his mind. It made him realize that all his hard work throughout the decade would all be for nothing.
"Hah! I'd like to see you try when the Heavens are against you!" The Panda jabbed a paw at him and laughed. It was so tiny and yet the laughter was so malicious and yet the pressure in his room grew heavier.
It could have been a Panda Devil for all Yang Li could know. But he still couldn't give up, he nodded, "That sounds like a challenge."
"Listen here, CEO Li—when the System says 'collapse' it means burned into ashes. You're never going to recover from that disastrous fall and you can't expect yourself to be a Phoenix to rise from such ashes either. Your name, effort and years will all go down the drain and people like your Secretary will lose her job—but hey, maybe she'll work in another company but you'll be the only one who'd suffer until you die."
Threats. Words that promised him of something dangerous if he didn't agree… he balled his hand into fist before nodding at last, "Fine, I will accept."
A grin formed on the Panda's face as the tension in the room quickly disappeared. A new screen soon appeared in front of him.
[ Congratulations! You've Gained The Harem Cultivation System! ]
Yang Li sighed and rubbed his forehead. What kind of nonsense was he hearing and reading right now? "I am familiar with the word Cultivation and System but what is this Harem included in it? The System doesn't make any sense and I am a bit surprised that you have not 'transported' me into another world."
The Panda rested its fluffy face on a paw, "Let the System explain it to you."
It was now a wonder on why the Panda was still here then but he asked for the meaning of Harem Cultivation.
[ Each Girl You Add Into Your Harem Gives You Charisma Points To Become A Cultivator ]
There were a lot of questions that spun in his mind but right now he would only ask one thing. "...And why do I need to become a Cultivator?" The ridiculousness of all of this still made him wonder if he was dreaming.
[ To Entertain The Celestial Heavens Of Course! ]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone