So that's how it is...
Chen Xing pondered thoughtfully, now knowing of a way to acquire Skill Points, he "borrowed" a piece of jerky from his sister's room after dinner.
Chen Lingya seemed to want to discuss the potions again, but Chen Xing left with the jerky in hand.
Chi Yu watched as her little snack was taken away, her cat face full of confusion ⊙×⊙???
It's not for me? Where are you taking it!
Back in his own room, Chen Xing summoned his Beast Taming creature; the little Salty Bay Crocodile lay on the soft sheets and turned its head to see the approaching human face.
After blinking its eyelids, it stared at Chen Xing with its big eyes. Smelling the familiar scent, the Salty Bay Crocodile's slightly uneasy mood stabilized considerably,
Since signing a contract with Chen Xing ten days ago, the little Salty Bay Crocodile had gone from initial wariness to current trust, developing a certain dependence on Chen Xing.
Chen Xing took out the jerky, and upon smelling the food, the little Salty Bay Crocodile crawled eagerly toward it.
Biting down, the Salty Bay Crocodile's tiny white teeth clamped firmly onto the jerky, but the jerky didn't move an inch.
As it shook its head while gripping the jerky, the jerky remained unmoved, while its body was flung into the air.
Finally, the Salty Bay Crocodile realized it was biting a piece of wood flavored like jerky. It "ao"ing at Chen Xing, it huffily turned its head away, no longer paying Chen Xing any mind.
Chen Xing laughed at the little guy's apparent annoyance.
I might as well tear the jerky into shreds for you. The next moment, Chen Xing's eyes widened at the unwavering piece of jerky in his hand. Damn! Is this jerky or a stick! If it were a bit larger, it could kill someone.
Usually, Chi Yu would eat jerky as if it were a crispy snack, but surprisingly, it was so tough.
He went to the kitchen and used the back of a kitchen knife to shatter the jerky, then returned to his room with the broken pieces.
Looking at the small pieces of meat placed near its mouth, the little crocodile haughtily turned its head away, clearly disdainful.
Even when Chen Xing pried open its mouth and stuffed in the meat scraps, it still chewed and swallowed with a show of indignation.
The Shi Ban reacted as expected, "You have fed your Beast Taming creature once, intimacy value over 80, received 1 Skill Point Fragment."
It really works!
After the little crocodile finished eating, it glanced at Chen Xing once more before turning its head away again. However, this time, although its head was turned, its mouth remained open.
After the Salty Bay Crocodile swallowed the meat scraps again, a line of text emerged on the cover of the Shi Ban: Today, you have already fed this Beast Taming creature, and this act cannot earn Skill Point Fragments.
So, a Beast Taming creature with a favorability over 80 can only earn one fragment per day.
Chen Xing wondered if there were other ways to earn Skill Point Fragments.
Can I top up? I do have a few hundred bucks in pocket money.
After fussing about for half the day, Chen Xing finally confirmed that he couldn't top up, probably because the system didn't care about his few hundred bucks.
But he did indeed find another method to earn Skill Point Fragments.
"You have trained your Beast Taming creature once, intimacy value over 80, received 1 Skill Point Fragment."
Using books to create a racing track on the ground, Chen Xing used food as bait to entice the little crocodile to run. After running back and forth for three minutes, he received the prompt.
Feeding and training—after learning two ways to acquire Skill Points, Chen Xing had a vague understanding of the pattern for earning Skill Point Fragments.
Lying on the bed with his phone on, the Salty Bay Crocodile sprawled beside his pillow, its belly exposed and its four feet in the air.
Its round, soft white belly with four tiny paws looked quite comical, and the crocodile, seemingly full from its rough jerky meal, squinted as it slowly digested.
Chen Xing gently massaged its belly with one hand while scrolling through his phone with the other. His class group chat was especially lively at the moment.
Gao Jianqiang: How big are your little crocodiles now? I just measured mine, and it's already 40 centimeters! (Picture)
Wang Qiming: (Picture) My little crocodile is nearly half a meter long. Last week, my dad hired a professional Beast Taming nurturer to tailor a set of nutritional potions for my Beast Taming. I'm going to score high in this month's exam.
Zou Minghan: How much did it cost? I heard these Beast Taming nurturers are not cheap.
Wang Qiming: Eighty-four thousand, just enough for a month's nutritional potions, said to be very effective for young crocs.
Deng Hongtao: Your family really spends liberally. My family found it too expensive, we only bought a few bottles of general supplements.
Chen Xing thought about the supplements his sister was preparing for him. He had no regrets refusing them; he intended to earn whatever he was lacking, and besides, his sister was under more pressure and needed them more than he did.
Their homeroom teacher had said during a lecture that students who ranked high on the monthly exam would receive rewards, which were distributed by the school but provided by the nation.
Chen Xing closed the group chat and opened his phone's browser to search.
"What are the rewards for the monthly exam?"
The phone page stuttered for a moment before displaying a dense list of entries.
"Lavish! Third place winner of the Yu Jing City Tianhe Private High School sophomore monthly exam awarded a bottle of Jiaolong Blood, and the first place is...
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"The Great Xia Education Bureau Announces Plans in 755 to Increase Resource Allocation to Public Middle Schools Nationwide, Aiming to Cultivate More Outstanding Talents"
"Did You Know? Resource allocation quotas vary by province each year. Do you know the quota for your province?"
Chen Xing resumed his search, "Great Xia Jincheng Public High School First-Year Monthly Exam Resource Rewards."
The smartphone page refreshed.
After a bit of searching, he finally found the information he was looking for.
However, it wasn't this year's information, but the list of rewards distributed after last year's Jincheng high schools' first-year first monthly exam.
After reading it, Chen Xing had a rough idea. The article mentioned that the amount of resources each public school received varied, and this amount depended on the school's overall performance on last year's national exam, which was why the competition between schools was fierce.
Last year, the top hundred students from the first monthly exam of the first year at Azure Dragon No. 8 High School all received an extra bottle of Grade D General Nutritional Reagent as a reward; the top ten students received an additional 1-10 bottles depending on their ranking, meaning the first-ranked student would receive 11 bottles of Grade D General Nutritional Reagent.
There are two types of nutritional reagents on the market: one is a custom-made version, tailored to a Beast Taming's species, weight, and energy level, and is expensive. The other is a general nutritional reagent, with nutrition contents that are suitable for most flesh-bodied Beast Tamings, but a general reagent of the same level can't compare to custom-made ones and is therefore cheaper.
A bottle of Grade D General Nutritional Reagent has a market price of one thousand yuan, so the first prize is a supplement worth eleven thousand yuan.
Good grades are indeed another way to make money.
Messages were still flashing on the phone, but Chen Xing silently closed the screen.
He placed his phone beside the pillow, thoughtfully pulling up the blanket to cover the tender belly of the small crocodile lying beside him.
Time to sleep! Goodnight!
In the next room, having finished her homework, Chen Lingya took her pajamas and walked into the bathroom.
The sound of water splashed from the shower head, fogging up the space. A slender hand wiped away the steam on the mirror, revealing a delicate, gaunt face with long hair beside her ears, and a long, deep scar that extended from the side of her cheek to the base of her earlobe.
Her fingers gently touched the scar as Chen Lingya's eyes gradually grew colder.
Taking out the ointment from the pajamas in the laundry basket, Chen Lingya endured the stinging pain as she applied the ointment to the wound and then applied a patch of gauze she had cut to size herself.
After pinning her hair back behind her shoulders and draping it over her ears to cover the gauze, Chen Lingya changed into her pajamas and returned to her room with her head lowered.
The next morning, when Chen Xing woke up for breakfast, he heard that his sister had already packed her luggage and gone to school.
Liu Haiyan handed over something from the coffee table to Chen Xing, "By the way, your sister asked me to give this to you before she left this morning. Her school has organized an outdoor training session, and she won't be back for half a month."
Looking at the black box his mother passed to him, this was exactly the General Nutritional Reagent that his sister was supposed to give him last night.
After a moment of silence, Chen Xing took the box, opened the clasp, and inside, lying on dark blue satin, was a glass test tube filled with technology's sense, adorned elegantly with a delicate hollowed-out silver rose, while the azure liquid shone brilliantly under the light.
This one looked a bit unfamiliar, not like the Grade D General Nutritional Reagent he had researched the night before. Could it be Grade C?
Confirming it wasn't Grade C after checking the images. And not Grade B or A either.
Hiss—It must be a mix-up!
This had to be a custom reagent given by his sister's school.
A custom reagent only worked when used by the specified Beast Taming; it was just sugar water with some nutritional content if given to any other Beast Taming.
Just as he was about to put it back, Chen Xing suddenly noticed a white corner peeking out from the edge of the box.
Drawing out the white note, it was a brief message.
In his sister's handwriting it said, 'This is the latest custom reagent from the lab for Salty Bay Crocodiles, specially saved for you.'
This was actually a custom reagent for Salty Bay Crocodiles? Since his sister's Beast Taming was an Azure-pupiled Snow Leopard, did she save this specially for him?
Chen Xing had never heard his sister mention anything about a lab before. To his understanding, such things seemed very far away from their family, unlikely to intersect at all.
Hesitating for a moment, Chen Xing clicked the box closed and returned it to his bedroom. Then he pocketed the little Salty Bay Crocodile, waved goodbye to his mom, and left the house.
"Oh~"
Stepping outside the residential complex and onto the public road, the little Salty Bay Crocodile in Chen Xing's pocket was full of curiosity about the outside world.
Tucked in the pocket, it sneakily peeked half its head out, its bright eyes curiously surveying the world.
A big dog as tall as a person passed by, led by its owner, and the little crocodile quickly shrank back into the pocket.
That dog was quite big, even bigger than its own mouth, but hiding in the pocket made it feel secure.
Excited by this thought, the little crocodile emitted an eager 'oh oh'.
Upon arriving at school, the morning was for academic study, followed by lunch time at noon.
During high school, all public school Beast Taming lunch is provided free of charge by the state.
Descending the stairs, Chen Xing and his classmates headed to the first-year canteen, with the enticing aroma drifting from a large shack-like building up ahead that resembled a pig farm.
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