Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Man, You Have Successfully Attracted...

Su Zhi and Cao Mingyu fighting to a draw had already left the members of the student council completely shocked.

But after hearing what Su Zhi said, the student council members first froze, then erupted in an uproar:

"Damn, that’s way too arrogant!"

"The president was clearly going easy on him. Does he really think he’s better than the president?"

The president’s loyal lapdog, Zhang Wei, was seething with rage. He strode out from the crowd and pointed a finger in Su Zhi’s face. "I’m warning you! I gave you an inch and you took a mile! Everyone saw it was a draw!"

"You say the president lost? If you can’t explain why, you’re in for a world of hurt!"

Su Zhi kept his hands in his pockets. "You don’t seem strong enough to beat me."

"You—" Zhang Wei’s voice suddenly caught in his throat.

A painful memory began to resurface...

As the person in question, however, Cao Mingyu made a gesture for quiet.

Then, he looked at Su Zhi curiously. "What do you mean by that? Both of our Pet Beasts stopped at the same time."

"A spar is about stopping when the point is made. But a real battle is a fight to the death."

Su Zhi said calmly, "If this were a real battle, neither side would have stopped attacking."

"In that case, my Yu Bao was confident it could kill Cotton with Furious Sand Blade."

"Tell me, was Cotton confident it could kill Yu Bao with a Water Bomb?"

"WOOF!"

Yu Bao stomped its feet anxiously, trying to argue, but after opening its mouth, no sound would come out. It could only lower its head in frustration.

Indeed. If Cotton had used High-pressure Water Gun back then, it might have truly been a draw.

However, High-pressure Water Gun had too long of a wind-up, and in its haste, Cotton could only counter with the slightly faster but much weaker Water Bomb.

The members of the student council who had been denouncing Su Zhi now fell silent.

Instead, they began to discuss it in hushed whispers:

"I guess that makes sense..."

"This Su Zhi guy is really something."

"But he said it in front of everyone. How is the president supposed to save face..."

Cao Mingyu nodded in understanding. There was no trace of anger from losing the match on his face; instead, a somewhat excited smile appeared. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"You all go wait by the entrance."

"Yes, sir!"

Once the student council members were gone, Cao Mingyu tilted his head, sizing up Su Zhi, his voice gentle.

"When you said that, did you ever consider that I might hold a grudge because you didn’t let me save face? Or that other people might distance themselves from you for not conforming to social expectations?"

"I don’t really care."

Su Zhi blinked, answering without a second thought, "Just be yourself. Why care what other people think?"

Cao Mingyu’s eyes widened instantly.

His already pleased expression instantly morphed into delighted surprise.

...

In Cao Mingyu’s eyes, society had always been a grand stage where everyone played a specific role.

Everyone wore a mask, forced to play their assigned part even if they didn’t want to. Cao Mingyu was no exception.

To his teachers, he was a model student. To his parents, he was a worry-free child. To his classmates, he was a top student, a god of academics.

Yet he knew that his true self was hidden beneath the mask, slowly rotting away in the shadows.

Cao Mingyu despised this act, but to be accepted by the world, he had no choice but to put on the mask.

Until today—

He had met someone who didn’t wear a mask—a truly pure person!

His intuition couldn’t be wrong. Su Zhi was the perfect person he had been searching for all this time to no avail!

"I lost. I admit my defeat, completely and wholeheartedly."

A fervent light glinted in Cao Mingyu’s eyes as he eagerly extended his right hand. "Please, be my friend!"

"I refuse."

"Yes, and I’m also proud to have a friend like you... Huh?"

Cao Mingyu froze.

Su Zhi warily kept his hands in his pockets.

’You brought a gang to corner me in my classroom this morning. You’re lucky I don’t hold a grudge, and now you want to be friends?’

’It’s true I skimmed some Points from the battle, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hold a grudge.’

’Besides, there’s something weird about a guy being so intense about making friends. Who knows what he really means... This Cao Mingyu guy might have some strange fetish!’

Yu Bao didn’t know why Su Zhi was ignoring Cao Mingyu, so it took the initiative to flash a smile to ease the awkwardness: ⌓‿⌓​

"Is there anything else? If not, I’m leaving."

Cao Mingyu was at a loss for words. "You..."

Then, without waiting for Cao Mingyu to say anything, Su Zhi turned and walked away.

The ultimate technique of online flaming: hit and run.

The student council members waiting at the gym entrance were too slow to react. They just watched Su Zhi walk off into the distance. It was only then that Zhang Wei piped up, "Should we go after him? Are we just going to let him leave?"

Cao Mingyu shook his head, covering his face with his hand.

His smile grew wilder, almost unhinged.

Su Zhi had actually rejected him.

He didn’t give him any face just because he was the student council president!

So arrogant... so interesting!

Cao Mingyu licked his lips, his gaze burning with intensity.

This man had successfully captured his attention!

...

...

Su Zhi and Yu Bao leisurely walked back to the classroom.

Class wasn’t over yet. Everyone else was still outside under the scorching sun, miserably training their Pet Beasts’ Skills.

Looking out the window at the increasingly vicious sunlight and the busy Envoy’s Pets on the field, Su Zhi suddenly felt a sense of glee.

It seemed that one person’s happiness really could be built on the suffering of others~

"Woof woof! Woof woof!" Yu Bao lifted a paw to bat at Su Zhi, then pointed at itself.

Time to add the points!

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about you."

He had reaped 0.05 Points from the arbitration match this morning.

’Looks like one Fang Yuan is worth about two Cao Mingyus...’ Su Zhi mocked silently in his head.

Of course, that wasn’t how the math actually worked. The more intense and fruitful the battle, the more Points he gained.

Dealing with Cotton wasn’t much easier for Yu Bao than dealing with 004, but from that fight with 004, Yu Bao had grasped many new Skills and gained a huge amount.

So when it came to facing Cotton, the pressure wasn’t as great.

Su Zhi rubbed his hands together and then ruffled Yu Bao’s furry head.

In truth, allocating points could be done with a simple thought.

The reason he was ruffling Yu Bao’s head was that he’d seen it done this way in a popular Beast-Taming novel.

This wasn’t superstition... it was faith!

With a good ruffling, Su Zhi allocated the 0.05 Points to Yu Bao according to the formula: 0.02 to agility, 0.02 to Perception, and 0.01 to Intelligence.

Its Real-time Energy Value reached 680!

For the current Yu Bao, this level of increase might seem minuscule.

But that wasn’t actually the case.

The boost from allocating Points was multiplicative, not merely additive.

It was a regulatory mechanism of sorts, channeling the results of Yu Bao’s own hard work into the desired outcome.

The harder Yu Bao trained, the more obvious the enhancement from the Points became. That was why Yu Bao had shown a visible increase in strength back when the Points being added were still very small.

Although Yu Bao didn’t practice the Skills required by the curriculum, the amount it trained on its own was at least three times that of other Pet Beasts of the same level!

Other Pet Beasts’ training was by the book, so they naturally found it exhausting and painful. But Yu Bao practiced what it loved, so it was happy even when it trained a lot.

When it came to hard work, Yu Bao was the one raising the bar for everyone!

Suddenly, Yu Bao’s eyes shot wide with a pleasant surprise.

"Woof woof!" (Su Zhi! Let me show you something cool!)

’What does it want to show me, a dung beetle pushing its ball...?’ Seeing Yu Bao point its rear end toward the window, a small question mark appeared over Su Zhi’s head.

The next second, Su Zhi’s heart leaped with joy.

Yu Bao wasn’t moving at all, but behind it, a vortex of swirling sand and wind began to form!

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