Chapter 275 - 204: On the Agenda
As he recoiled, he felt a strange presence beside him. He turned his head and saw Cao Mingyu, his eyes twinkling as he scrutinized him.
"My friend Su Zhi, follow your heart! If you don’t want to say anything..."
"Ahem, actually, I’ve been wanting to say a few words!"
Su Zhi decisively stood up with his glass, his expression solemn as he surveyed everyone present.
"This was our first team match. Even though we had our wins and losses, they’re all the same in my eyes. Every single fight was brilliant. You all worked hard!"
"You worked hard too, Brother Shu!"
"I just helped you guys out since we’re all from Huai City. Besides, if I hadn’t teamed up with you, I wouldn’t have had anywhere else to go."
"Such a powerful tone, such heart-warming words... As expected of my dearest friend, Su—"
Su Zhi immediately sat back down. "Alright, everyone’s tired from fighting all morning. Let’s eat! Eat!"
Fang Yuan shot a glance at Cao Mingyu, his mouth twitching. In the end, he resisted the urge to tell him to get a grip on reality.
’Better to just let him latch onto Su Zhi.’
’Anything’s better than him latching onto me.’
"Oh, right!" Su Zhi looked toward Liu Yuhang. "Did you manage to make the reservation?"
"Yep, I got it!"
Liu Yuhang waved his phone. "I’m planning to take Xue Li to the Storm Strait again at ten o’clock on Sunday night. I hope it’ll be successful this time..."
"Quack!" Xue Li patted Liu Yuhang’s shoulder.
’We’ll definitely succeed!’
"You can do it~!" Shao Ya also gave Xue Li a thumbs-up.
Su Zhi rested his chin on his hand. "You’re not going until ten? You’ll be getting back in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t it be better to go earlier?"
Liu Yuhang sighed. "I already talked to the instructor. He said it’s my own business and I have to find the time myself."
"Well, that’s pretty heartless of him."
Su Zhi sighed with a smile and looked over at Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan had been feeding Lilith, his arm half-encircling her, a faint smile playing on his lips.
When he noticed Su Zhi looking, Fang Yuan’s expression immediately stiffened. "What do you want?"
"Nothing." Su Zhi held back a laugh and asked curiously, "Speaking of which, when is Lilith planning to evolve? She should be getting close to her evolution point, right?"
"Yeah." Fang Yuan nodded. "But the White Flame Battle Spirit is a relatively special Pet Beast. It doesn’t need to go to a specific location to evolve like other Pet Beasts. Instead, it evolves through moments of epiphany in battle."
"Oh, I see!" Su Zhi said with understanding.
’Come to think of it, Wu Bao is a Fighting Element too. I wonder what his evolution will be like? But with Wu Bao’s "Fierce and Warlike" personality, evolving might be a little difficult...’
"By the way, let me remind you of something."
Fang Yuan put down his glass and glanced at Su Zhi. "A standard team match has a seven-person roster: three singles, two doubles. We’re currently two people short, which forces some of us to fight two or even three times.
"It’s fine when we’re up against weaker or evenly matched opponents. But the moment their Pet Beasts are stronger than ours, even by just a little, we end up in a very passive position.
"Of the students from Shanda University Affiliated School who fought today, none of them were from their main lineup, except for Wang Haokun. Their main force is strong, so much so that they even have substitutes. If we consider them our hypothetical rivals... our current strength is severely lacking."
"I basically agree with Fang Yuan. Our lineup’s quality is actually up to par, the main problem is that our numbers are a bit tight."
Shao Ya swallowed a piece of sausage and looked at Su Zhi. "But team registration isn’t official until the day before the selection tournament. We still have time to expand our ranks!"
Su Zhi felt a headache coming on. "What you’re saying makes sense, but where are we supposed to recruit new members? I’ve looked around; we’re the only ones here from Huai City."
"Huh? No one from the other schools was selected for this training camp?"
"Nope. In fact, if Fang Yuan hadn’t transferred back to No. 2 High, we wouldn’t have even been able to scrape together five people. Huai City is a small city, after all. We’re at a huge disadvantage..."
Everyone sighed.
"There’s no need to be discouraged, everyone. I’ve discovered a loophole in the registration process."
Cao Mingyu pushed up his glasses, a shrewd look on his face.
"Look, although it requires the selected students to attend the training camp, it doesn’t require registered team members to be participants. As long as their student registration is in Huai City, they’re eligible. In other words, we can totally recruit a student from Huai City who isn’t at the camp to join us!"
"..." The other four were momentarily speechless.
’You’re right, but what’s the point of recruiting someone who couldn’t even get into the training camp? Wouldn’t they just be a warm body?’
Of course, in some big cities, there really were top-tier Beast Tamers who couldn’t be bothered to attend the training camp. They’d get temporarily recruited by their city’s team to fight in a few matches, treating it as a way to earn some extra cash.
Because of this, the role of "outside mercenary" appeared in the team tournaments every year, a method of supplementing the team that was even officially recognized.
However, that was because those big cities had plenty of powerful individuals and an abundance of Beast Tamer resources. Many of the top dogs actually looked down on the team tournaments...
But in a small, crappy city like Huai City, people were practically breaking their necks just to get into the training camp. Where would they find a top-tier Tamer who was good enough to come but disdained the offer?
"Oh well, let’s just go with the flow," Su Zhi shrugged with a smile.
’If it can’t be solved for now, then let’s not worry about it.’
’Time to just let things be.’
After lunch, everyone returned to their rooms, having composed themselves. The joy of victory didn’t last long; after all, there was still intense training in the afternoon.
In two weeks, the university team tournament would officially begin. Students from the eleven prefecture-level cities in Shanyou Province would form teams to compete. The top two teams would be crowned, representing Shanyou Province as Teams A and B in the higher-level, district-wide tournament in the Yu Dian District...
Every second here was actually filled with tension.
That’s why it was especially important to give it your all while maintaining a relaxed state of mind.
Take Yu Bao, for example. The moment he got back to the room, he flopped down and fell asleep as if he had heatstroke.
"When are you planning to contract your second Pet Beast?"
Su Zhi thoughtfully covered Yu Bao with a small blanket, then turned to the white-haired girl beside him, who was holding a cat.
"Of course, the sooner the better! It’d be best if I could contract it before the selection tournament starts. That would strengthen our team, right?"
After speaking, Shao Ya stuck out her tongue. "But I really haven’t decided what to contract yet..."
"Mhm, there’s no rush. You can take your time."
Su Zhi said in a low voice. He seemed to have something else he wanted to say, but after a moment’s hesitation, he turned away. "Well, we’re going to go sleep. Good afternoon."
"Hee hee~ Good afternoon!"
The girl skipped back to her room, her voice carrying a hint of mischief.
CLICK—
Back in his room, Su Zhi closed the door and let out a soft sigh.
"CHIRP CHIRP!" Shan Bao popped out from inside his clothes, excitedly tugging at Su Zhi’s pant leg with its beak.
"I know, I know... How are you even more impatient than Yu Bao now?" Seeing the little guy’s eagerness, Su Zhi couldn’t help but smile.
In contrast, Yu Bao’s style had been completely different recently. Not only was he not in a hurry to add Points, but he even told Su Zhi not to rush him.
’He’s really pulling out all the stops just to show off...’
’Shan Bao, the second-generation King of Impatience, is more normal.’
[Pet Beast: Shan Bao (Flash Gold Sparrow)
Power: 1.00
Agility: 1.05
Intelligence: 1.04
Constitution: 2.50—2.70
Perception: 1.02]
[Real-time Energy Value: 2120]
High-end points only required simple addition. 0.20 Points were added all at once, and Shan Bao immediately felt its combat power skyrocket to a terrifying degree.
’I really want to go ram into something hard right now to test it out!’
Su Zhi immediately tucked Shan Bao into the blankets. "Your health is your greatest asset. You need to be well-rested to have the energy for training and battling. Sleep first, sleep..."
"Chirp!"
...
The afternoon was brief and quiet. Sunlight streamed across the floor, gently brushing over Yu Bao’s belly.
The sound of running water echoed in the living room, as if a faucet hadn’t been turned off properly again.
Yu Bao’s brow furrowed. It rolled over and kicked off the small blanket covering it.
The sound of running water stopped for a moment.
After turning over, Yu Bao’s brow relaxed, and it went back to snoring soundly, seemingly lost in a sweet dream.
And then, the sound of running water started up again...
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