Chapter 42: Chapter 42: A Week’s Point Allocation

CLICK-CLACK—CLICK-CLACK.

After an unknown amount of time, the incessant clicking finally stopped.

Su Zhi pushed the keyboard away and let out a sigh of relief.

"Woof."

Sitting by the door, Yu Bao tilted his head and pressed it against the wood, looking for all the world like he was eavesdropping.

Seeing Su Zhi stop working, Yu Bao ran over, Bling Bling.

"Woof woof." (’I think Mom and Dad are gone.’)

Yu Bao was a little worried.

’Mom and Dad went toward the kitchen. Could they have gone to sneak some food?’

"It’s fine. Just ignore them."

Su Zhi ruffled Yu Bao’s head and sat down to play ball with him.

He’d actually known his parents were eavesdropping for a while. They’d even had an argument right outside the door, only realizing after they were done that they might give themselves away, at which point they lowered their voices...

Su Zhi cooperatively pretended not to hear.

Married life was like that. Two people always had endless fights, often arguing for a long time over the most trivial things.

Sometimes, a fight would start unintentionally and just get fiercer and fiercer. He remembered the worst one: Wang Sujuan was buried in her lesson plans, Su Mao was clattering away at his keyboard, and the silence between them was terrifying. Neither said a word to the other.

That day, for the first time, Su Mao put out thirty thousand words.

’So fighting isn’t entirely without its benefits...’

Su Zhi never worried that their arguments would ruin their relationship.

No matter how bad the fight got, one of them would always apologize the next day, regardless of who was at fault. Then the matter would be dropped, never to be mentioned again.

Eventually, they even developed a rhythm to their fights: you apologize one time, I’ll apologize the next.

They never missed a single opportunity to argue.

Su Zhi figured that perhaps it was precisely because of this that he had such a relaxed family atmosphere and learning environment.

Of course, the biggest winners were probably Su Mao’s readers.

"Hahh, hahh."

"Oh, right! I forgot to allocate your Points!"

Seeing Yu Bao’s eager expression, Su Zhi held his doggy head—

[Pet Beast: Yu Bao (Yu Dian Dog)

Power: 1.10

Agility: 1.29

Intelligence: 1.27

Constitution: 1.10

Perception: 1.35]

[Real-time Energy Value: 545]

This week, Yu Bao had earned a total of 0.30 Points. The first two days he got 0.05, but after that, it was just 0.04 per day.

Su Zhi allocated the Points for Yu Bao, giving 0.10 each to Agility, Intelligence, and Perception.

Yu Bao was quite excited. He still remembered the first time he got over 0.10 points added at once, which had made him feel as swift as the wind.

But after running around and jumping a bit, Yu Bao shook his head in disappointment.

’It seems I’m not as strong as I imagined.’

Su Zhi ruffled Yu Bao’s head again, a smile on his face:

"That’s normal. In the beginning, your Agility value was less than 1.00, so allocating Points then was an increase of about one-ninth."

"Now your Agility is already very high. What used to be an increase of one-ninth has dropped to less than one-tenth, so of course it doesn’t feel like a big improvement."

"Woof..." (’So that’s how it is...’)

After a brief moment of disappointment followed by sudden understanding, Yu Bao nodded and reaffirmed his resolve.

’Train hard! Earn more Points!’

Yu Bao pawed open the window and tested out his Sandstorm.

Before, his training had been somewhat spontaneous; he practiced whenever and however he felt like it. But ever since the Point Allocation System appeared, Yu Bao’s training had gone into double-speed mode. He couldn’t sleep well at night unless he’d squeezed the system dry.

Thanks to Yu Bao’s hard work, his Sandstorm had progressed from early Tier One to Tier One Peak. However, he hadn’t yet broken through to Tier Two. It seemed he was missing some kind of epiphany.

At first, Yu Bao was anxious, but seeing how zen Su Zhi was about it every time, he became zen too.

’Since I can’t break through any time soon, I might as well let nature take its course. Who knows, maybe I’ll break through on a whim one day~’

"WHOOSH!"

As Yu Bao activated the Skill, sand and wind howled outside the window, slamming into the apartment building across the way and triggering all the voice-activated lights.

Yu Bao instinctively ducked his head. ’Good thing the lights in our apartment are off. It’d be bad if someone found out it was me.’

After testing Sandstorm, Yu Bao eagerly tried out his new Skill.

SMACK! Yu Bao slapped the ground with his paw.

A faint yellow Energy Light Array appeared, and then a wall of earth shot up, nearly cutting the bedroom into two separate rooms—

The Earth Element Low Level Extraordinary Skill, Yellow Earth Wall!

This was the entry-level Defense Skill for Earth Element Pet Beasts. It wasn’t hard to practice, and with his foundation in Earth Force Field, Yu Bao had learned it in less than two days. Now, it had even reached Quasi Tier Two.

Just like the Tier Two Vine Fury, a Tier Two Yellow Earth Wall could be summoned multiple times!

"Alright, alright, put it away..." Su Zhi said, shaking his head with a helpless laugh as he looked at the bedroom full of earthen walls. "Otherwise, I’ll have to sleep on a Yellow Earth Wall."

"Woof!"

Yu Bao nodded obediently and retracted the Yellow Earth Wall.

’He was just a little impatient, that’s all.’

On Friday, the Pet Beast Ranking refreshed. Yu Bao’s grade ranking leaped to 21st.

He was only a dozen or so spots away from Big Brother Xiaoyue!

Yu Bao went to sleep overjoyed. The next day, he went into the mini-test full of energy... and lost to Xiaoyue again.

And tomorrow was the exchange tournament, where he’d have to face Pet Beasts from other schools.

Of course, Yu Bao didn’t care about winning or losing.

What Yu Bao cared about was how many Points he could farm...

Just then, Su Zhi’s phone buzzed.

[Zhou Shengfa]: U there? Whatcha doin?

[Zhou Shengfa]: Exchange tournament’s tomorrow. Probably the first relatively formal competition of your life, right? Nervous?

[Su Zhi]: Ah, does this count as a formal competition?

[Zhou Shengfa]: ...

[Zhou Shengfa]: Dammit, I came to comfort you with the best of intentions, and you kill the conversation in one sentence.

[Su Zhi has retracted a message]

[Zhou Shengfa]: ...

[Zhou Shengfa]: Anyway, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just fight how you always fight.

[Zhou Shengfa]: Don’t worry about what your opponent thinks, just let your rebellious style shine.

[Zhou Shengfa]: Alright, I’m heading to bed. If you feel your mentality slipping, contact me immediately!

The corner of Su Zhi’s mouth turned up as he scrolled through the messages from Old Ban.

’He wasn’t nervous, but it seemed Old Ban was nervous for him. He used to think his teacher was strict, but it turns out he’s a mother hen...’

BUZZ BUZZ

His phone buzzed again. This time, a Huajing Cat avatar was flashing.

[Shao Ya]: U sleep?!

[Su Zhi]: Nope

[Shao Ya]: Su Zhi is also not sleeping.jpg

[Shao Ya]: Look up! I’ll show you something cool!

Oh? Su Zhi turned to look out the window, his gaze traveling up to find Shao Ya’s window on the fifth floor of the opposite building.

The girl had changed out of her school uniform. She was wearing light, elegant pink silk pajamas that traced her graceful curves.

Shao Ya waved energetically at him, then ducked back inside.

[Shao Ya]: Okay, that’s all, go to sleep.

[Shao Ya]: Good luck at the exchange tournament tomorrow!

’What’s so cool about that...’ A slight smile played on Su Zhi’s lips as he replied with an "OK."

But Shao Ya was right. It was already midnight; he really should get to sleep.

Su Zhi sent Old Ban a "Got it" and got up to wash his face.

Just then, with a roasted chicken nugget in his mouth, Yu Bao came running from the kitchen, Bling Bling.

"Woof!" (’I think Mom made this!’)

Su Zhi nodded. Hearing the snores coming from his parents’ bedroom, his smile grew wider.

’A lot of people are worried about me tonight.’

"Alright, let’s eat a few before we sleep."

"Woof!" (’Yay!’)

...

「Several kilometers away, in a certain residential complex.」

A certain middle-aged man with thinning hair was lying in bed with his wife.

He was holding his phone, his gaze distant, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated—

[Su Zhi]: Got it.

Zhou Shengfa’s whole body suddenly relaxed, and he drifted off to sleep with a peaceful expression.

·

·