Chapter 23: Chapter 23: You’re Better at Being a Dog

Dusk was falling.

The sun sank below the horizon, its lingering warmth searing the edges of the deep blue night sky orange.

Su Zhi walked back to his residential complex, enveloped by the evening breeze.

Yu Bao trotted ahead with a "Bling Bling" in his step, sometimes dashing forward, sometimes stopping to wait for him.

Shao Ya and Xiaoyue were there too, as usual.

This time, however, they hadn’t managed to drag the clueless Liu Yuhang back with them.

"Here, this is for you."

"Huh?"

Seeing Su Zhi hand her his bag of Wood Magnet Crystals, Shao Ya quickly waved her hands in refusal.

"No way! We agreed to split it fifty-fifty!"

"But Yu Bao is an Earth Element type. He has no use for Wood Magnet Crystals."

"Even if he can’t use them, you can trade them with someone else, or at the very least, sell them!"

"Ah, well, I don’t really know much about that stuff..."

"Fine, just give them to me."

Shao Ya took the Wood Magnet Crystals with a deadpan expression.

"So, should I help you trade them for resources? Or just exchange them for cash?"

"I’m not sure."

"You’re going to be the death of me..."

Seeing Shao Ya’s worried expression, Su Zhi inexplicably felt like she was acting like his mom. It was actually kind of funny.

The main reason was that he really didn’t know what to do with them...

If he were to trade them for resources, Yu Bao already had enough to last until the city league.

If he were to trade them for money, it wasn’t like Pet Beasts in their infant stage had any major expenses besides resources...

"Hey, you can’t face the city league being this out of it!"

Shao Ya puffed out her cheeks, feigning seriousness. "Focus! Focus!"

"Woof!"

Yu Bao also puffed his cheeks with all his might, looking at his master with an earnest gaze.

Su Zhi gave a token puff of his cheeks to show he got the message.

Xiaoyue was grooming her fur in the distance, pretending not to know them.

"By the way, do you still have that custom skill path for Yu Bao?"

"Yeah, it’s on my phone."

"Send me a copy."

"Okay." Su Zhi did as she asked, then added curiously, "What do you need it for? Are you thinking of having Xiaoyue learn from it?"

The corners of Shao Ya’s mouth turned up. She put her hands behind her back, leaned forward, tilted her head slightly, and winked with her right eye.

"Wouldn’t you like to know!"

"Jerk."

"Train hard when you get home. If Yu Bao runs into Xiaoyue during the quiz tomorrow and can’t win, he’s going to be a crybaby again."

"Woof woof!"

Yu Bao grew anxious, circling Su Zhi on the spot.

’I’m a big boy! I don’t cry that easily!’

"I’m heading home. Bye-bye."

"Oh, see ya!"

Su Zhi waved at the white-haired girl, watching her enter Building 9.

·

「That night.」

"...Woof woof!" (Train hard, defeat the big boss!)

Yu Bao shouted his slogan, leaping from the top of the bookshelf for the thirty-fourth time.

At the same time, he activated a small-scale Sandstorm, gathering tiny grains of sand and stone around his body.

The target—the windowsill!

SPLAT.

This time, too, Yu Bao failed to successfully land on the windowsill.

He decelerated too early, going into a horizontal trajectory and crashing into the comforter Su Zhi had placed on the bed beforehand.

Su Zhi watched from the side, hands in his pockets.

’Actually,’ he really wanted to say, ’the Desert Concealment we’re practicing right now is an escape skill.’

’Shouting that slogan doesn’t really fit the situation...’

"Woof... whine..." (Why is the sky dark...)

Yu Bao’s entire upper body was buried in the comforter, with only his two hind legs sticking out, kicking relentlessly.

After struggling for a good while, he finally pulled himself free with a POP.

If one had to describe the scene...

It was like a fat radish trying to pull itself out of the ground.

Yu Bao was exhausted. He flopped onto the bed, tongue lolling out, PANT, PANT, unable to get up again.

"Wooo..." (Still no good...)

"You’ve only been practicing for a little over an hour. It wasn’t this fast when you were learning Earth Force Field, either. There’s no need to rush."

Su Zhi smiled and patted Yu Bao’s head.

"You’ve already mastered Sandstorm, so you can definitely learn Desert Concealment too. Maybe you’re just missing one key element."

"Woof!" (That makes sense!)

Yu Bao jumped up, good to go again.

’I’m going to keep practicing!’

Following his custom skill path, he was currently learning the Earth Element High Level Extraordinary Skill: Desert Concealment.

This skill allowed a user to briefly turn their body into sand and stone before instantly reverting. It was used by many a Desert Pet Beast to evade predators.

Yu Bao now had a reconnaissance and Control Field skill—Earth Force Field, and a damage output skill—Sandstorm. All he was missing was a movement skill.

As for defensive skills, Yu Bao had no interest, and Su Zhi didn’t plan on having him learn any for the time being.

With only twenty days until the city league, it was difficult for a first-year high schooler’s Pet Beast to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Right now, the most important thing was to maximize their strengths, not patch up their weaknesses.

Logically speaking, since Yu Bao had already mastered Sandstorm, he should have been able to quickly grasp the closely related Desert Concealment.

’Where did we go wrong this time?’

Beast Tamer and Pet Beast, their minds linked, pondered together with chins in their hands.

"Time for dinner, Bao!"

"Okay." "Woof."

Forget it, food first!

·

Tonight’s dinner was exceptionally lavish.

Su Mao brought out the ultimate killer move from his Beast Taming Text—braised beef with egg and scallions!

Yu Bao’s eyes sparkled as he buried his head in the food and gobbled it down, too busy to even let out a bark.

"Eat! Eat up! Tonight’s meal is dedicated to the amazing Yu Bao!"

Su Mao’s face was filled with pride.

Even though he was a middle-aged man of forty, he was still as fixated on this as a little kid.

"Jumping up more than a thousand places in the rankings! You have no idea, when I popped up in the parents’ group chat, the other parents were so shocked and envious!"

"I posted the chat screenshots in a bonus Chapter, and my readers all said it was more satisfying than the main story, ahahahaha..."

Su Zhi quietly reminded him, "Liu Yuhang’s dad is one of your readers. You’ve been exposed now, so you’d better think twice before asking for a day off in the future."

"Ahem... Let’s not talk about that."

Su Mao gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Were you and Yu Bao just training a new skill? How’s the progress?"

"I’ll let Yu Bao tell you."

"Woof woof!" (Dad, let me tell you...)

The moment the topic came up, Yu Bao stopped eating and began to babble on endlessly.

Su Zhi took the opportunity to snatch a few slices of beef.

’How do you gain the upper hand at the dinner table?’

’It’s simple. Bring up a topic the other person is an expert in. They’ll see it as a chance to show off and forget all about eating.’

Of course, Su Mao didn’t understand a word. After all, he wasn’t a Beast Tamer, so he could only maintain a smile...

In the end, Su Mao only understood the whole story after Su Zhi translated for him.

"It’s not a big problem. A smart little pup like Yu Bao will definitely be able to learn it!"

Su Mao patted Yu Bao’s little head.

"Oh, right, Teacher Zhou sent me a private message. You guys are participating in the city league at the end of this month, right?" Wang Sujuan asked curiously.

"It’s just the school’s qualifying tournament. Only after we make it through the qualifiers can we officially compete."

"Go, Xiaoshu! Crush them!" Wang Sujuan gave him a big thumbs-up.

Su Mao also patted his son’s shoulder. "But don’t push yourself too hard, okay? A competition this intense is bound to be difficult. It’s no loss if you don’t get selected, and a huge win if you do."

"Hey! Don’t be teaching Xiaoshu your slacker philosophy! He’s trying to strive for the top!"

"There’s nothing wrong with doing your best, but you also have to know your limits..."

"Stop your nonsense. Have you written today’s update yet?"

"Ahem... Let’s eat."

The family continued to enjoy their dinner.

Scattered lights twinkled outside the window. The dining room was lit by a warm-colored lamp, and the evening news playing on the TV served as background music.

Yu Bao tilted his head in confusion.

’For some reason, it feels like a lot of the meat suddenly disappeared.’

’Hmm, guess I’ll eat the egg then.’

·

·