With great power, comes great responsibility.
Fang Yuan was milking his position of class president for all it was worth, but did that mean that it could come without downside?
Of course not!
It was entirely because of this, after all, that the academy elder was alright with him slightly abusing his authority to an extent.
Fang Yuan was no stranger to societal systems or hierarchies. He had enormous experience in dealing with them from his time as Supreme Leader of the Blood Wing Demon Sect.
Granted, there were a few differences between leading a demonic sect and with leading a classroom of students, but it wasn't like Fang Yuan was overwhelmed with his work either.
The issue was that no matter how much experience he had, he could not completely disregard his work. Even if he was two or three times faster, it did not mean that he could do them in an instant.
All of these things cut into his cultivation time. The academy elder might have even planned this, Fang Yuan felt, in a bid to slow him down.
"Class president," the teacher would say in the morning. "Start taking the roll call."
This was part of his job duties, meaning that he had to be on time, if not several minutes early for every class. It was harder to play hookey as well as to sleep in class, cutting into the time he could cultivate at night.
The teachers could ignore that kind of behavior beforehand, after all, but now that he was class president if they didn't make a stern example out of him they would feel that he was not maintaining discipline.
There was a story back on Earth about a group of hunters who would catch and kill monkeys. They would do so by placing a small amount of fruit in a hole within a tree. Monkeys, upon smelling the fruit, would stick their hands in.
However, the holes were just narrow enough that their hands would get trapped. But, unwilling to let go of the fruit, the monkeys would remain there, even as the hunters approached to catch them.
This story was likely apocryphal, Fang Yuan felt, but it had a deep meaning behind it. Sometimes, benefits could be a trap, and in the pursuit of wealth, humans would often lead themselves to their own demise.
Positions of power were much the same. They were alluring- people chased power and rank for all sorts of reasons, but this also came with a drawback. As much as they used the system, the system also used them.
After all, now, Fang Yuan had to work harder during class. He couldn't doze off. He couldn't come later. And what compelled him to do all this were the benefits he would be getting.
Even back on Earth, to obtain high positions, one usually had to give up something in return. That could be in the form of hours of unpaid overtime, time lost with loved ones, etc.
Leaders also couldn't do whatever they wished for. The clan head controlled all of the resources in the village yes, but only in theory. Could he take all of the primeval stones from the spirit spring for himself? Could he go and ransack the treasury of the village and take whatever gu worm he wanted? No!
Of course, leaders also benefitted from the system. The clan head could not defend against the wolf tide on his lonesome, and needed others to do his scut work for him.
Fang Yuan, however, had realized that the benefits of a clan or sect were only really there for those who were Rank 5 and below. Above that, the benefits one had to give up to nurture their subordinates were not worth the effort that one had to do.
If he had known such, he would not have founded the Blood Wing Demon Sect back in his old life. That was why he had no intentions of starting one again in this life.
For that matter, even if he were offered the position of clan head, he would not want it. He would be saddled with even more administrative duties and the like.
For now, Fang Yuan was going along with all of this as the benefits outweighed the downsides for him. However, it should also be noted that he was only doing the bare minimum while extracting as much as possible.
It could be said, in a way, that Fang Yuan was a parasite. He was taking some of the clan's resources with no intention of paying them back. Like any good parasite, he was forcing his 'host' (the clan) to nurture and protect him for the time being, before he abandoned it to live on his own outside.
"Class president! We have a situation!"
Fang Yuan sighed. He was beginning to think that staying in the dormitory was going to be an issue, because it meant that he was too easy to find. As such, the students knew exactly where to find him.
This was a bigger issue than simply the extra amount of work he was expected to do. Reason being was that this made it far harder to do things secretly. At any moment, some rando could drop by with some issue without any kind of warning.
"What is it?"
"Class president, a cat got stuck in a tree!"
"And to rescue it, Li Shieh climbed up the tree, but he got stuck and couldn't come down too!"
"And then to rescue Li Shieh, Ka Rai went after him, but then got stuck as well!"
"Please do something, class president!"
Fang Yuan sighed.
When were those three useless people finally going to break through to Rank 1 Middle Stage, so that he would finally have two vice-presidents to pawn off some of this work too?
Mo Bei, Chi Chen, and Fang Zheng were desperately competing to show up Fang Yuan, yet one of the people who was hoping for their success the most was Fang Yuan himself.
This was one of the rare times that Fang Yuan was eagerly anticipating another person's success.
Because it would mean that he would finally be able to catch a break!
Fang Yuan did not have to wait for long- the results came in quickly enough in the upcoming days.
Mo Bei was the first, while Fang Zheng succeeded a few hours later.
Chi Chen was the slowest, succeeding twenty hours after Mo Bei. It could not be helped however, as he was secretly using his grandfather's primeval essence to supplement his own- he, just like Fang Yuan currently, was not an actual B-grade talent but merely a C-grade pretending to be B-grade. And now, the drawbacks of such a method were evident.
Both Mo Bei and Fang Zheng were awarded pins with silver replicas of the Moonlight Gu as symbols of their newfound positions.
Their happiness only lasted for a short while, however.
"Class president, please take the roll call."
"Vice-presidents, one of you take the roll call," Fang Yuan said immediately as a response, waving at one of the two to take his spot.
Both Fang Zhen and Mo Bei froze at the moment, the gears in their heads slowly turning as they took stock of the situation.
Fang Yuan was technically their superior, so neither of them could say 'no.'
'Did we put in all of that effort just to become Fang Yuan's lackeys?' they thought.