Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“The next group is…” Li Kang called the next group blankly.
Soon, the ten people for the fourth group entered the simulators. With the record of Su Bai and the water-fire duo, the people in the hall were quite uninterested in the others’ records, for it was too difficult to surpass his.
“You were so strong earlier.”
Chen Ruoxue praised.
“Of course.” Su Bai smiled and raised his head high.
“It seems like I’m in the last group, with Zhao Li from Iron Second Middle School,” she whispered.
“You can do it; I don’t think it’ll be a problem for you to be the top few,” he said.
While they were talking, the ten people in the simulators had already begun breaking through the stages, but they were all at normal speed, and no dark horse emerged.
Ten minutes later, ten people came out one after another. The strongest player had only passed forty-five stages, so it was obvious that the stages were not so simple; it was just that Su Bai and the others were too strong.
“The last group, Chen Rouxue, Zhao Li…”
As Manager Li Kang’s voice fell, those called stepped forward to write down their names before entering the simulators.
“What a fast speed; who is she?”
“Chen Rouxue is the other who defeated five people on her own. She’s so strong; I wonder if she’ll surpass Su Bai?”
In less than thirty seconds, Chen Ruoxue had broken ten stages in a row, while Zhao Li, who was also not too bad, had passed six stages.
However, Su Bai shook his head. His girlfriend could quickly get through every stage with her signature combos, but it would be too difficult and almost impossible to break through the ninetieth stage.
On the screen, the number of stages passed by Chen Ruoxue and Zhao Li rose rapidly, but after five or six minutes, the latter started to have failed stages, and so did she.
Ten minutes later, Chen Ruoxue finished at eighty-two stages, whereas Zhao Li ended his with eighty stages.
“Very well. The selection competition is over. Now, we have our top ten, and they’re Su Bai with 90 stages, Chen Ruoxue 82, Zhao Li 80, Wan Shui 79, Qian Shan 78, Wang Er 68, Wang Tao 65, Li Xing 60, Li Hai 58, and Wang Li 52.
“The top five will be the official members of Cannes’ juvenile team, while the rest will be reserve players,” announced Manager Li Kang expressionlessly.
“Thank you for participating in this selection, everyone. To those who failed, don’t be too disappointed. I believe that gold will shine everywhere. I wish you a bright future. If you have nothing else to ask, you can leave. As for the ten people whom Manager Li just called, please stay behind,” said Coach Yu Lingyue.
Everyone, other than the ten people named, got up and left one after another, either helpless or sighing. Yu Lingyue was right. They were just a group of teenagers, so failure was not unacceptable.
“Congratulations to the ten of you for passing this selection. In this year of Cannes’ juvenile team, you’re already the most outstanding.”
Director Liu stood up and smiled.
“Here’s the agreement; take a look. If you think that it’s okay, then sign it. After you each sign the contract, I’ll take you to see the club.” Li Kang put the agreement on the table.
Su Bai and the others stepped forward to read their respective contracts.
There were only two pages in their contracts, which mainly showed that they had joined the Cannes’ juvenile team. While under the contracts, they were obliged to keep the team’s secrets and so on.
“Why are there only responsibilities and obligations to us in this agreement? Why isn’t there anything about team allowances, player salaries, and other rewards?”
Su Bai looked up and asked, “Isn’t it said that joining the Cannes’ juvenile team will give us a monthly allowance of hundreds of thousands, and there’s also the opportunity to enter the monster wilderness? Why isn’t there such information written about those?”
The others were unfamiliar with contracts and did not notice this at first. Upon hearing his question, they all raised their heads to look at Li Kang and the others.
Li Kang was stunned for a moment, and then he smiled and replied, “You don’t know, but the team’s agreement has always been like this. You can rest assured that you will have your share of the allowances. As for entering the monster wilderness, that opportunity is also obtained internally and is generally not stated in the contract.”
“Li Kang’s right. The contract doesn’t have a problem; it has always been the case. The club has never defaulted on the allowances and salaries of previous players, nor on benefits and the ilk. This agreement is just a formality.” Director Liu nodded and confirmed.
“Then when can we enter the monster wilderness?” Su Bai asked again.
“After everyone signs the agreement, your certificates will be issued within a week, and then you can enter the monster wilderness,” explained Li Kang.
He nodded and signed his contract. The other aspects of it were negligible, just that the welfare allowances were obscured, but since this was just a form of formality, it was not too unusual, either.
In fact, he only really cared about entering the monster wilderness. The allowances and other benefits were not too attractive to him, for hundreds of thousands a month were not even enough for his pets’ few days of rations.
There was really no other way to do this. With the Cannes’ juvenile team failing to win the city competition every time, the sponsor naturally gave less monetary support.
Just like the last member who had just retired this year. He placed last in Province X’s competition in March and was almost criticized to death. In this case, it was impossible to ask the city to send too much money.
“Okay, I’ll take everyone to see the club after you have all signed the contracts. Everyone will train there, so it’ll be our second home.”
Li Kang smiled and put the contracts away.
The team club was not far from the pet center. It was quite spacious, with all kinds of equipment and excellent accommodations.
Once they brought the youths to the club, Manager Li Kang and Director Liu departed, leaving Coach Yu Lingyue to take care of them.
After touring them around, Yu Lingyue looked at everyone and said solemnly, “I believe that all of you know how the last team members got the last place in the city competition. This year, we are entrusted with a risky mission, so I hope that everyone will take it seriously. In this month’s city competition, we should at least not take the last place.
“Only when everyone performs well can the team receive sponsorships and advertisements as well as more allowances.”
Everyone nodded their heads. Those who had been selected through layers of tests naturally had the confidence in their strength and would not want to place last.
“Coach, our team hasn’t confirmed the captain and the vice captain. When will this be confirmed?” asked Qian Shan.
“The captain will be determined before the selection competition in March of next year. This is the case every year,” replied Yu Lingyue.
After understanding the general situation, everyone was briefed and allowed to leave or stay in the club.
Su Bai was about to take Chen Ruoxue to the pet center and stroll around when Zhao Li walked over.
He looked at him with a smile on his face and said, “Hello, Su Bai. I’m Zhao Li; I hope we can be friends.”
“Of course, I’ll take you to our town to play when we’re free.” Su Bai nodded and said. His impression of Zhao Li was pretty good.
“Haha! Okay. I hope that we will have the opportunity to go on adventures together.” The other smiled and nodded.
After thinking about it, Su Bai still greeted the other people. However, it was obvious from their discordand behavior that the water-fire duo and the rest regarded him as their competitor.
“Sigh. Let’s go.” He sighed. His teammates were too young. He only snatched the championship once, so there was really no need for such deep hatred.
“Okay,” replied Chen Rouxue crisply.
The two went to the pet center and had lunch. Because they were both anxious to go hatch their pets, they both hurried home.
“I’m going back now; I’ll come find you when I hatch the Thousand-face Fox.” Chen Ruoxue smiled and blinked at him.
“Okay, I also want to hatch the Thousand-face Fox.” Su Bai nodded, and after watching his girlfriend leave, he opened the contract book and released his pets before taking them home.
At home, he prepared to hatch the Thousand-face Fox. His two pets followed him around, anticipating the arrival of their new partner.
“Howl! (๑oั╰╯oั๑)”
Ah Bai, what’s the name of our sibling that you’re about to hatch?
Purple Jade looked up eagerly at him.
“I don’t know; let’s wait until it hatches,” he said.
Su Bai opened the incubator and poured the transparent incubation liquid into it. He then turned on the switch, adjusted the incubation temperature, and waited for the egg to hatch.
When he was done fiddling around, his two pets walked over to the incubator and peered in through the transparent glass. There was nothing special about the Thousand-face Fox egg; it looked like an average thirty-centimeter-tall ostrich egg with an entirely white body.
Su Bai thought for a while, then unfolded his contract book, and opened the last page.
Following his thoughts, an emerald five-pointed star array appeared on the contract page. It flew out and fell to the Thousand-face Fox egg.
Time flew quickly and ten days soon passed. In the blink of an eye, it was June 25. This also meant that the summer vacation was coming. Su Bai got first place in the final exam without any dispute in both pet combat and theoretical knowledge.
No one was close to Chen Rouxue as the second place, either. Both their scores surpassed the third place by a few dozen points, but even though it was summer vacation, they still had to attend classes for their final preparation for the college entrance examination. Thus, they only had ten days of holiday.
During this time, apart from going to school to prepare for the final exam, Su Bai either accompanied his pets to train or took care of the Thousand-face Fox’s incubation.
After taking the new medicinal cakes, both pets had changed tremendously and had gotten promoted once again. In order to supplement the cub’s tactical system, he spent another 200,000 yuan to purchase the Grass Sword Storm skill for it.
This skill was previously used by Zhang Yue’s Forest Deer during the five towns’ spring festival competition. It had a wide range of attack motion and was also pretty strong.
Once Purple Jade expanded its Thorns Domain, it could also use Brambles Thorn and Brambles Leaf to cast the Grass Sword Storm. Since these thorns and leaves were poisonous, their power was greater than an ordinary Grass Sword Storm.
Originally, Su Bai wanted to buy the two skills, Tie-Knot and Super Absorption, to perfect the cub’s combat system. Unfortunately, the two skill jades were very rare and expensive, and the price totaled more than one million. In particular, the Super Absorption skill was an intermediate-level top skill, so the asking price was three million, which was beyond his purchasing power.
As for the Little Tyrant, he did not buy this pet of his new skills as it only needed to sharpen its current skills for now.
“Howl~ φ( ̄∇ ̄o)”
Ah Bai, is our sibling gonna be born soon?
The cub walked around and spun in front of the egg incubator.
“Yes, soon.” He nodded and showed it the pattern of a fox on the contract page.
“Roar~”
Ah Bai, will the newcomer share my food?
The Little Tyrant asked while it held a piece of iron ore and gnawed on it.
Su Bai: “…”
“Don’t worry; I won’t divide your food, but if you don’t work hard, you won’t have so much food to eat.”
“Sisi~”
Congratulations for obtaining a fourth partner, Ah Bai! I, Little Bloodworm, will definitely work hard to get along with my new sibling happily~
The Little Bloodworm lay on a leaf on the table and congratulated him.
“Haha! I believe that you’ll get along happily with it.”
He nodded and focused his gaze on the Thousand-face Fox. Since the hatching fluid had been absorbed, it should be born soon.
“Weep weep…”
A faint cry came from the eggshell, and then a white claw broke it and stretched out. Following that, a head and, finally, the whole body appeared.
A white fox, the size of an adult tabby cat, showed its entire body, with a small melon-seed face, big eyes, blue pupils, and big triangular ears with upright and fluffy white hairs. It looked capable of damaging the country and causing suffering to people.
“Hing…”
It made a different cry and then shrank back a little fearfully. The aura of the cub and the Little Tyrant was so powerful and terrifying.
“Howl~ (๑oั╰╯oั๑)”
“Roar~(∩▽∩)”
“Sisi… (*^▽^*)”
All three pets made friendly sounds, warmly welcoming the new member of their lovely family.
“Hello, little fellow! I’m Su Bai. I hatched you and am also your Pet Tamer. You can call me Ah Bai. They are all your partners; I believe that everyone can get along happily in the future.”
He introduced everyone to the baby fox with a gentle smile. At present, it seemed that this little fellow was quite good. Other than its voice not sounding like that of an ordinary fox, it was a cute weeping fox overall.
“Weep weep~”
The baby fox cried in a friendly tone upon receiving their kindness.
Su Bai walked over and reached out. The baby fox hesitated for a moment before leaning forward to rub itself against him and lick him with its pink tongue.
“Come, I’ll bring you out. I prepared something delicious for you.”
He took it out and placed it in a small nest at the side. He fetched more than half a bowl of floral milk and poured some in its shell.
“Weep weep~”
Seeing the milk, the baby fox happily closed its eyes. It then stretched its head over and quickly lapped the drink.
While it was drinking, Su Bai checked its specific information.