Cuojue woke up early the next day at 7 am. She got ready and started practicing her only martial art and other skills that took time to progress. As for whether she would get new skills, she wanted to leave extra points when she truly needed them, so she would not spend on skills right now. Although she had many points now, she still felt heart ache spending points. She felt stomach burn when she imagined her 6 years worth of points being flushed down the drain. She was a poor person indeed.
After practicing for two hours she started absorbing Qi and began tempering of the muscles.
This time the pain was even greater, but bearable. Due to her first time cleansing, she was prepared, thus able to withstand the pain.
Now, she required more Qi to finish the second stage. She took 4 hours to absorb Qi while she cleanse her muscles before cleaning up and resting.
Cuojue decided to sit down and have tea time while she planned her schedule and future.
First of all, there is rising tensions between the liberion empire and chinese federation. Because of this, both her parents and grandfather had to leave for work more often than usual and coming back after more than a week. Cuojue wondered how she could help ease their burdens, but a fruitless attempt. She didn't know basic knowledge of politics and military strategy, but she felt confident in uncovering conspiracy thanks to her experience working in a secret group. Albeit depressed, she continued to understand her situation.
The most important thing right now was the premonition she experienced. Cuojue felt that this matter was of utmost attention. She wanted to know what that mantis emblem meant, but if she dug too deep, she might invite trouble. Again, she had no choice but to leave it to her father and patiently wait for an answer.
Now the only thing she could do was make herself stronger and build a stronger influence. Her family only had influence restricted to clansman and the military. And due to the decline and pressure from other rising families, the Huang family is much weaker than it used to be. So her family coudn't spare her extra support for now.
(GAAAA!! I thought I could enjoy life, but who knew I would get thrown into work again!) this was the first time she felt annoyed in this life.
Really, her family was being oppressed and some unknown enemy was looking for a chance to attack them. It would make sense that she would feel stressed and dwell on it in depression. But that was not Cuojue. She will not sit still and would do what she had set her mind on.
Right now she needed money the most to startup an organisation, information and backing was important. But how? She didn't had any prior education in business, if she tried to start one, she would be a headless chicken. She could only start education when she entered a martial arts academy.
Thus she could only turn to the accension system.
Right now she had over 10000 AP and she could use it on obtaining knowledge since there was business books and the like availale in the shop which cost 500 to 2000 AP. Not worth it, she needed martial arts and skills right now.
She could use the latest generation of a learning capsule, but her family didn't had a dime to afford one right now. There was also mind enhancing fluids that the common people had to rake up a small fortune to obtain, but affordable for her family that she could use. However, her mind was not mature enough to handle advanced knowledge yet as well as the side effects of such medicine. So, her only solution was the gacha.
She decided to use her gacha tickets. First she used her 3 bronze tickets.
[Would you like to use 3 bronze tickets?]
She did not hesitate. But on the inside, she was crying, visualizing an empty wallet. Her precious tickets were gone now.
(Yes...*sob)
*ping*ping*ping
She heard 3 pinging sounds and looked at her prizes.
[Result:]
[Lesser health pill ×2.]
[Skill upgrade +1lvl]
[Lesser Qi burst pill ×3]
(Haiz...these won't help me at all...woe is me.)
Now it was time for her to wallow in her sorrows...or not, she had to remain strong.
The health pills would speed up recovery which could be useful for non-fatal injuries.
Skill upgrade as it implies, would upgrade her skill. But she did not need it right now.
Lastly Qi burst pill. This pill would give a burst of extra Qi to the consumer, but would leak out of the body slowly since it isn't Qi refined by the body. None of these could help right now. So she threw them into her inventory.
Now she was hessitating. She didn't want to use her precious silver ticket. She thinked long and hard, her brain running on fumes. Alas...there was no other choice. She gritted her teeth and plunged into a hole called gambling. If she coudn't get what she needed, her options would be restricted and the amount of time she could save would be vastly reduced.
Ping*
[Congratulations to host for obtaining the #1 prize of the silver gacha. Now removing it from the draw. Prize has been transfered to inventory.] a monotonus voice rang.
Surprise evident in her expression, Cuojue opened the inventory and took out her reward.
(What is this?)
She cupped it into her hands. It was an iron ball with a silver metallic sheen, and was light despite its look. In the center of the metal ball the size of a softball, was a black circle that was a screen similar to a smartwatch. Cuojue, for some reason felt it was cute and touched the black circle. Lines upon lines of unrecognizable symbols and codes filled up the black circle screen.
Cuojue was startled and curious. She waited eagerly to satisfy her now childlike curiosity. After a few seconds, a ding sound was heard and a neon blue horizontal line appeard. It spread into 3 circles. 2 thin blue circle lines and a neon blue circle the width of a reversi piece formed.
The metal orb floated off into the air with some difficulty before stabilizing.
*Pyu*Pyu*Pyu
The orb was floating and making cute pyu pyu noises. Backing its owner for attention.
Hello!
Hearts filled Cuojue's eyes and hugged the adorable orb. She felt a soft sensation that was slightly firm. She felt that this orb was not ordinary but mostly adorable and felt really nice to hug.
(Kyaaa so cute!!! And it feels really nice to touch too!)
A minute ago, this orb was hard and cold to the touch. But now soft and warm. Cuojue now wondered what to call it.
(Pyu...lets call it Pyun from now on. It makes alot of pyu noises.)
She released her hold and gave it a name.
"Your name would be Pyun from now on! Please take care of me!"
Her smile was bright and beautiful. If a man had seen her, he would have proposed to her now. {*A:Someone call FBI on this guy.}
Pyun was so happy to be given a name by its wonderfup owner that it started to bob and make pyu pyu noises with a its eye expressing
joy.
*pyu*pyu*pyu
Cuojue decided to break the joyful mood and asked what it can do. Pyun seemed to understand her words.
"Pyun, what can you do?" Now was not the time to have fun, she had to figure a solution to her current problems.
Wanting to prove itself, Pyun immediately accessed Cuojue's braze. Pyun noticed Cuojue's need for money and decided to show her current businesses that can generate alot of revenue that she could invest in or soon to be succesful companies that she could buy stocks from.
Pages of information suddenly projected from her braze. Cuojue felt both suprise and delight. She now had someone who could handle her problems with money. She read through a few pages and could finally decide a course of action.
"Pyun, can you access my memory?"
Pyun bobed up and down to indicate a yes.
"Ok Pyun, make a copy of mangas, books and music from my memories. We could sell these for money. These stuff are considered ancient material and could sell for alot in this era. I'm already losing some memory pertaining to these so it is better to extract it now and make use of it. Pyun, also make sure to hide where such books and music came from. We need to hide our activities since it would attract alot of attention. Can you do that Pyun?"
Attracting attention of her enemies early would certainly spell her doom.
Pyun bobed again while making pyu noises to show that it was reliant and would not fail its first order given by master.
Pyun accessed the quantum network while examining Cuojue's memories and making copies of the online "goods". Pyun made an account and began business on the meganet.
Time to wait for the cash to roll in.
"Excellent, now I have less worries. With money solved I can finally focus on getting stronger. But for now, lets visit my cute brother." she was in a good mood and wanted to take her mind off things for awhile. Recalling what she spoke with her father the previous day about her brother. It would be ideal to check up on Baohu.
(Thank you system, seems like you aren't that useless afterall.)
Cuojue decided to show her appreciation while blatantly exposing her dissatisfaction with it until now. Once again, she was petty. You couldn't count the number of times this damned system would disrespect her in every possible way. Suffering from its insults and sarcastic remarks from the day she was born. 6 years of verbal torture, but she got used to it and was now a form of normal banter for them.
[Seems like you finally understand how great I am. I must say, today your luck must be quite good, but don't rely on that toy too much. It would be better for master to do things yourself.] The system adviced her out for her own good, not minding her words.
A little annoyed with its pretentious attitude, she still decided to keep its advice to heart and no longer spoke. Although it was considered useless, it had also helped her in a number of ways indirectly. The daily quests she did every day made her body stronger, healthier and more flexible. Doing strange excersises everyday while controling her rest and diet. It had also provided her what she needed, the prices were justified, the system only followed a rule of equivalent exchange. In a way she also felt gratitude to the system. Therefore, the complaints she had were only half-hearted. Still there was one thing that really made her mad was that the system mentioned Pyun as a "toy".
"Pyun is not a toy! Hmph!" She spoke out her protest, snorted and turned her head away, showing that she wasn't willing to resume the conversation.
For once the system was flabbergasted and somehow felt guilty. Wait, why do I feel guilt?
After she was done planing and chugged down her remaining tea, she got up and left for the door.
Mira greeted the young lady when she exited the room. Observing for awhile, Mira saw Pyun floating beside the Cuojue. Even when questions were evident on her face, she decided it would be best not to ask. It was basic courtesy.
Cuojue who was ready to leave for the nursery room, saw her head maid's expression and felt it was funny.
"I bought this arcnobot from a toy store with my allowance. It was very cute! I like it very much! I am going to visit little bro and show off Pyun, big sis Mira can stay and rest." Her lips curved into a cheeky smile.
(I'm sorry Pyun! I don't know how to explain your existence.... It was your fault system!)
The system felt hurt. What did I do?
Mira who saw her smile felt that the young lady was the most cutest star in the sky. Thus, Mira no longer had any questions and took it as the young lady had just bought a toy with her allowance that was stocked up.
"Yes, milady." Mira bowed a curtsy.
Cuojue, who heared a response replied with a 'Mn!' and jubilantly visited the nursery. Pyun followed alongside her.
In the nursery room, Cuojue went up to Baohu's crib to take a look. Her little brother was sleeping so peacefuly that a large snot bubble was blowing up. Very adorable.
Sensing a kin in his presence, the snot bubble burst Baohu woke up. His glistening red eyes landed on Cuojue's white and delicate face and then to stare at her purple pupils that shined like stars. Baohu than giggled and laughed.
Cuojue than smiled and picked her little brother up. She played with him for awhile.
After that, she brought Pyun over and let her cute brother play with it. She decided that she would spend time to play with her sibling everyday from now on. Perhaps that it was her first time to have a sibling that she had the urge to show love and affection.
She suddenly thought of her fathers' conversation and used inspection on Baohu.
____________________________________________
Name: Baohu Huang
Age: 0>
Average Stats: 0.1
Skills: None
Bloodline: Minerva Blood Dragon - Qwuetzar(Sealed)
____________________________________________
Cuojue's expression stiffened. She placed Baohu back into the crib and let him play with Pyun abit longer.
She turned around and her expression deepened with unease. The Minerva Blood Dragon was a race that became extinct 2000 years ago. They were extremely powerful and didn't have a limit like many other races. From birth they are destined to reach Abyssal Knight just by growing. In history, they were said to have been children of Minerva, god of time and space and therefore was blessed to be strong.
Because their race was so powerful that the some of the more stronger civilisations banded together to hunt them down.
Minerva Blood Dragons were considered materials for making medicine and equipement useful for those who are at the Abyssal Knight and above. All of the Minerva Blood Dragons were hunted except one. Qwuetzar. He was the strongest of his race and he annihialated multiple civilizations and a stellar nation that used to have a position in the inner star cluster. And for some unexplainable reason, Qwuetzar evolved into a dimension tier beast at that time. He became an entity superior to god level beings. But he became a target of hostilities by the core cluster forces. It was an open secret that the core cluster forces are afraid that stronger beings than them would shake their power and rule, thus hunting Qwuetzar.
Qwuetzar did not want to have anymore bloodshed as he had already gotten his revenge, therefore vanishing. Leaving behind no clues to be found. The core cluster forces than decided to give up and leave it be.
But who knew that the remaining traces of his existence was left in Baohu's blood. Cuojue was astonished by this revelation and made conjectures on how this happened.
It most likely had to do with him transforming into a human and starting a new life here. Leaving behind decendents. Probably that is how the huang family had started. Her ancestors had probably already became powerful or were unfortunate to have died before reaching abyssal knight or must have died in battle. The bloodline also become more diluted and the chances of a family member inheriting the bloodline became little to none. This time, her little brother had become the one to inherit it. Her brother might be a heaven's son.
So her father knew that the bloodline of the huang family was that of the Minerva Blood Dragon. But it seemed like he didn't know which dragon it came from. Since that now she knew, she could understand her father's worries. But she had now known something far problematic than just a Minverva Blood Dragon Bloodline. It was the bloodline of Qwuetzar who could evolve and could also mean that those with his bloodline could evolve too. This would pose danger to Baohu and the huang family.
This secret...she had to keep it with her to her grave. She can't share this with anyone, even her family. But she would do whatever it takes to protect Baohu. And keeping quiet was just a start.
Again she was stressed and tried to calm down. Fuuuu....
She decieded to forget about this for now and think about it when there was a solution presented before her.
Cuojue than turned around with a slightly tired expression and saw Baohu asleep. She saw Pyun playing a lullaby and Cuojue laughed a bit. Some weight was lifted off her chest.
Yes, as long as I have Pyun, I can do a good job protecting Baohu. Such were her thoughts.
She gave Baohu a kiss on the forehead and ordered Pyun to follow her for lunch.