So that's how it works, Chen Xing thought to himself. Now he knew one way to obtain Skill Points. After dinner, he went to his sister's room and "borrowed" another piece of dried meat.
Chen Lingya seemed like she wanted to bring up the nutrient solution again, but Chen Xing grabbed the meat and left before she could say anything.
Chiyu watched as its snack was taken away, its cat face full of confusion ⊙×⊙???
Wasn't that for me? Where are you taking it?
Back in his room, Chen Xing summoned his beast. The small Saltwater Crocodile lay on the soft bedsheet, turning its head to see the familiar face approaching.
It blinked its large eyes, staring intently at Chen Xing. It smelled the familiar scent, and the slight unease it had been feeling settled down.
Since signing the contract with Chen Xing ten days ago, the small crocodile had gone from being wary to trusting him, developing a certain level of dependence.
Chen Xing took out the dried meat, and the small crocodile, smelling the food, quickly crawled toward it.
It bit down on the meat, its small white teeth clamping tightly, but the meat didn't budge.
It shook its head, trying to tear the meat, but instead, its own body lifted off the ground.
Finally, the small crocodile realized it was biting into what felt like a piece of wood that tasted like meat. It let out an annoyed "Ao!" and turned its head away, ignoring Chen Xing.
Chen Xing couldn't help but laugh. The little guy seemed a bit angry.
"Let me help you tear it into smaller pieces," Chen Xing said, but as he tried to break the meat, his eyes widened. Damn! Is this meat or a stick? If it were any bigger, it could probably kill someone!
Chiyu usually ate these like they were nothing, but Chen Xing had no idea they were this hard.
He went to the kitchen, used the back of a cleaver to chop the meat into smaller pieces, and returned to his room with the crumbs.
He offered the small crumbs to the crocodile, but it turned its head away, looking disdainful.
Even when Chen Xing pried its mouth open and shoved the crumbs in, the crocodile chewed and swallowed them grudgingly.
The stone slab reacted as expected: "Fed a beast. Intimacy level above 80. Obtained Skill Point Fragment *1."
It worked!
After finishing the crumbs, the crocodile glanced at Chen Xing, then turned its head away again, but this time its mouth was open.
When the crocodile swallowed the crumbs again, a line of text appeared on the stone slab: "Today's feeding limit reached. No additional Skill Point Fragments can be obtained."
So, a beast with an intimacy level above 80 can only provide one fragment per day.
Chen Xing pondered if there were other ways to obtain Skill Point Fragments.
Can I just pay for them? He had a few hundred yuan in pocket money.
After some experimentation, Chen Xing concluded that he couldn't simply buy the fragments. Maybe his few hundred yuan weren't enough.
However, he did discover another way to obtain Skill Point Fragments.
"Conducted a training session with the beast. Intimacy level above 80. Obtained Skill Point Fragment *1."
Chen Xing used books to create a small track on the floor and lured the crocodile to run back and forth with food as a reward. After three minutes of running, he received the notification.
Feeding and training—after learning these two methods, Chen Xing began to understand the pattern of obtaining Skill Point Fragments.
Lying in bed, Chen Xing opened his phone. The small crocodile lay on its back next to his pillow, its round, white belly exposed, its little feet sticking up. The rough meat had filled it up, and it was slowly digesting with its eyes half-closed.
Chen Xing gently massaged its belly with one hand while scrolling through his phone with the other. The class group chat was buzzing with activity.
Gao Jianqiang: How long is your crocodile now? Mine just measured 40 cm! (Picture)
Wang Qiming: (Picture) Mine's almost half a meter! Last week, my dad hired a Professional Beast Trainer to create a custom nutrient solution for my crocodile. I'm going to crush the monthly exam!
Zou Minghan: How much did that cost? I heard Beast Trainers aren't cheap.
Wang Qiming: 84,000 yuan for a month's worth of nutrient solutions. They're supposed to be really effective for young crocodiles.
Deng Hongtao: Your family's really splurging. Mine thought it was too expensive, so they just bought a few bottles of generic supplements.
Chen Xing thought about the supplement his sister had tried to give him. He didn't regret refusing it. If he needed something, he'd find a way to earn it himself. Besides, his sister was under a lot of pressure and needed it more than he did.
Their homeroom teacher had mentioned that students who performed well in the monthly exams would receive rewards, funded by the government and distributed by the school.
Chen Xing closed the group chat and opened his browser to search.
"What rewards are given for the monthly exams?"
The page loaded slowly and then displayed a long list of results.
"Extravagance! The third-place student in Yujing City's Tianhe Private High School's monthly exam received a bottle of dragon blood. The first-place prize was..."
"The Ministry of Education announced in 755 that it would increase resource allocation to public schools nationwide, aiming to cultivate more outstanding talent."
"Did you know? Each province has a different resource allocation quota. Do you know what your province's is?"
Chen Xing searched again, "Monthly exam rewards for first-year high school students in Jincheng public schools."
The page refreshed.
After some searching, he finally found the information he was looking for - though it was from last year, not this year.
The article mentioned that each public school's resource allocation depended on its overall performance in the previous year's college entrance exams, so competition between schools was fierce.
Last year, the top 100 students in Qinglong No. 8 High School's first-year monthly exam received an additional bottle of Grade D generic nutrient solution as a reward. The top 10 students received extra bottles based on their ranking, with the first-place student receiving 11 bottles.
Nutrient solutions came in two types: custom-made, tailored to the beast's species, weight, and energy level, which were expensive; and generic solutions, which were suitable for most physical beasts but less effective than custom solutions, making them cheaper.
A Grade D generic nutrient solution costs about 1,000 yuan on the market, so the first-place prize was worth 11,000 yuan.
Doing well in school was another way to make money.
The messages on his phone kept flashing, but Chen Xing silently turned off the screen.
He placed the phone next to his pillow and pulled the blanket up to cover the small crocodile's soft, white belly.
Time to sleep. Goodnight!
In the next room, Chen Lingya finished her homework, grabbed her pyjamas, and headed to the bathroom.
The sound of water splashing from the shower filled the room, and steam fogged up the mirror. A slender hand wiped away the condensation, revealing a pale, thin face. She brushed the hair away from her ear, revealing a deep, narrow wound that ran from behind her cheek to the base of her earlobe.
Her fingers gently touched the wound, and her eyes turned cold.
She took out a tube of ointment from her pyjamas, applied it to the wound despite the pain, and covered it with a piece of cut gauze.
She brushed her shoulder-length hair back over her ear to hide the bandage, changed into her pyjamas, and returned to her room with her head down.
The next morning, as Chen Xing got up for breakfast, he heard that his sister had already packed her things and left for school.
Liu Haiyan handed him something from the coffee table. "Oh, your sister asked me to give this to you before she left. Her school is organizing a field training session, and she won't be back for two weeks."
Chen Xing looked at the black box his mother handed him. It was the same box from last night, containing the generic nutrient solution his sister had tried to give him.
After a moment of silence, Chen Xing opened the box. Inside, a deep blue satin lining held a high-tech glass test tube with intricate silver rose patterns. The blue liquid inside shimmered under the light.
This didn't look like the Grade D generic nutrient solution he had researched last night. Was it Grade C?
After checking images of Grade C solutions, he confirmed it wasn't that either. It wasn't Grade B or A either.
Huh—it must be a mistake!
This must be the custom solution her school gave her.
Custom solutions only worked for the specific beast they were designed for. For other beasts, they were just sugary water with some nutrients.
Just as he was about to put it back, Chen Xing noticed a corner of white paper sticking out from the box.
He pulled it out—it was a note in his sister's handwriting: "This is the latest custom solution for Saltwater Crocodiles from the lab. I saved it for you."
This was a custom solution for Saltwater Crocodiles? His sister's beast was a Snow Leopard, so she must have saved this specifically for him.
Chen Xing had never heard his sister mention anything about a lab. In his mind, such things were far removed from their family and shouldn't have any connection to them.
After some hesitation, Chen Xing closed the box and put it back in his room. He then tucked the small crocodile into his pocket and waved goodbye to his mom as he left the house.
"Ao~"
Once outside, the small crocodile, hidden in Chen Xing's pocket, peeked out curiously at the world.
A large dog, about waist-high, walked by with its owner, and the crocodile quickly ducked back into the pocket.
That dog was huge—its mouth alone was bigger than the crocodile. But hidden in the pocket, the crocodile felt safe.
Excited, it let out a soft "Ao Ao" sound.
At school, the morning was filled with regular classes, followed by lunch.
All public schools provided free lunches for beasts during high school.
After class, Chen Xing and his classmates headed to the first-year cafeteria. The strong, spicy aroma wafted from the large, barn-like building ahead.