Beast Taming: My System is Bugged-Chapter 134 - 133: Dreamscape: Updating the Black and White Long-Armed Ape Combat Option
Dear Mr. Gu Ming, the manuscript for your Cultivation Technique, "Cyan Pine," which you submitted to our journal, has passed its final review. It will be officially published in the April issue of our journal.
An early-print copy of the Flood Dragon Monthly Report has been sent to the mailing address you provided. Please keep an eye out for it.
Reading the letter from the journal, a huge weight was finally lifted from Gu Ming’s shoulders.
"So this is what having a reputation gets you," he sighed.
No wonder those authors who’ve already published successful papers love submitting their work to journals they’re familiar with.
Just look at the Five-Week Journal—they wouldn’t even give me the time of day.
This was a Cultivation Technique acknowledged by the Hall of the Great Dao, and yet they still rejected it.
Gu Ming couldn’t imagine any reviewer being more impartial than the Hall of the Great Dao itself.
Fortunately, since it was accepted by a Four-star journal, Gu Ming’s paper would certainly earn him bonus points on the college entrance exams.
Then again, now that Gu Ming was publicly publishing this Cultivation Technique, the competition in the future would undoubtedly intensify.
Gu Ming was well aware of the pros and cons.
For the upcoming college entrance exams, this could raise the overall strength of candidates nationwide, making the rat race even more brutal.
But it was fine. He was the creator, after all.
No matter how hard others tried, Gu Ming at least held the top spot in the Hall of the Great Dao.
The advantages enjoyed by the creator were more than just a fancy title.
If someone who cultivated his Spiritual Technique were to stand before him...
...they would, without a doubt, be affected by his Spiritual Technique.
It wasn’t as exaggerated as him simply flexing and instantly neutralizing his opponent’s combat ability.
But when facing him, their combat effectiveness would drop by twenty to thirty percent. That was a sure thing.
For candidates at the same level, a twenty to thirty percent drop in combat effectiveness was a massive disadvantage.
As the creator of this Cultivation Technique, Gu Ming would have a suppressive Skill effect on all subsequent Cultivators who learned it.
This was a rare, hidden benefit.
The more people who cultivated it, the more people would be at a disadvantage against him.
When the time came, Gu Ming could just stand there, and anyone who wanted to be his enemy would have to first consider if they were strong enough to take him on while suffering from that negative effect.
If they couldn’t, it would be wise for them to back down.
Either that or they’d try to turn from foe to friend and do their best to get on his good side.
So, for Gu Ming, publishing "Cyan Pine" had pros that far outweighed the cons.
Besides, this was a groundbreaking Cultivation Technique that would be used in schools all over the country in the future.
Having such a widely applicable Cultivation Technique, one that would benefit the country and its people, emerge early was good for everyone. It could reduce losses during the Demon War.
Gu Ming sent the news of the manuscript’s acceptance to their small three-person group chat.
Teacher Zhang: "Congratulations! What a coincidence, Lu You’s ’Earth Shifting Technique’ was also accepted. It’s going to be published in a Two-star journal. You’re listed as the primary author for that one too, which means you’ll have two papers published in journals next month. The school will probably hang up two banners for you."
Seeing this, Gu Ming manually tagged Lu You and offered his congratulations.
"Teacher Zhang, if I’m getting a banner, is Lu You getting one too?"
"Of course," Teacher Zhang replied instantly.
Lu You immediately responded with a cute, melting emoji.
Even through the screen, Gu Ming could sense her panic, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.
It made Gu Ming picture the scene of Lu You being personally called on stage by the principal to give a speech.
’She must have completely frozen up the moment she got the acceptance notice,’ he thought.
’She probably just calmed down, and now she’s thinking about the banners. She must feel like crawling into a cardboard box to hide from the world.’
Teacher Zhang changed the subject. "Has Cyan Treasure mastered its Laser Skills?"
"It has learned them, but it hasn’t reached Entry Level yet."
"Let me see it tomorrow morning," Teacher Zhang said.
Gu Ming put down his phone and looked at Cyan Treasure, who was eating a nutritious feast.
After it learned the "Plant Life Light Wave," it started getting hungry more often. Clearly, its body’s nutritional deficit had grown.
Before mastering this Skill, the Little Cyan Snake’s three meals a day were within a range Gu Ming could afford.
But after its energy and nutritional needs skyrocketed, the cost of a single meal for the Little Cyan Snake shot up to around a thousand yuan.
You really don’t know until you try. The moment it started cultivating Light Element Skills, money began to drain away like water.
And that was just the price of a single meal.
The Little Cyan Snake used to eat three meals a day.
Now, however, in the short time it took Gu Ming to finish his chat, it was hungry again.
Gu Ming had no choice but to prepare another meal, taking ingredients from his home reserves and making fresh Pet Beast food for it.
He also mixed in some of the medicinal herbs from the future that he kept in the cabinet. He didn’t include this part in his cost calculation, as he had no idea what these materials would be worth.
With the addition of a late-night snack, the Little Cyan Snake was now eating four meals a day.
That was four thousand yuan a day, which added up to a monthly expense of one hundred and twenty thousand.
In the past, this was a figure Gu Ming could never have imagined.
His was a poor family. Without winning the lottery, there was no way they could have afforded a Little Cyan Snake that cost over a hundred thousand a month to raise.
And that didn’t even include the cost of the medicinal poisons for Cyan Treasure’s baths, or the recovery medicines for all the bruises and injuries it got during training.
Over the course of a semester, the costs could easily soar into the high hundred-thousands, maybe even close to a million.
Furthermore, once Cyan Treasure evolved to Two-star, the expenses would increase dramatically again.
At this rate, it seemed his savings of several million yuan would only be enough for the Little Cyan Snake alone.
As for the cost of raising his elderly Grouper Fish, Ah Kun, he could only skimp a little on the medicinal herbs, feeding it just enough each day to increase its Attributes.
Fortunately, Gu Ming couldn’t form a contract with a second Pet Beast yet, so Ah Kun’s expenses didn’t need to increase for the time being. Maintaining the status quo was fine.
It seemed he would still be going to his grandpa’s house on the weekend to learn Military Boxing.
But tonight, Gu Ming planned to spend his Achievement Points and start grinding Skills.
’Should I learn Military Boxing at the same time?’ he wondered.
’Never mind, training the Laser Skills is more important right now.’
’I can work on it later if I have time after I’m done with the Laser Skills.’
Gu Ming waited for Cyan Treasure to finish its meal, then immediately reached into the Fish Tank, touched Ah Kun, and entered the Dream Cultivation Space.
This time, it wasn’t going to be as simple as just cultivating Skills.
As soon as Gu Ming entered the Dream Cultivation Space, a new system prompt appeared:
"New training opponents recorded from the previous session: Black and White Long-Armed Ape (Incomplete information, strength unknown);
Ma Tianba (Incomplete information, strength unknown???)"
Gu Ming’s eyes lit up. "Excellent! Now I can use these two powerful Pet Beasts as training partners."
It was one thing for Ma Tianba’s information to be incomplete and his strength unknown. Gu Ming knew Ma Tianba was incredibly strong, so it was normal for the system to be unable to analyze him.
But why was the Black and White Long-Armed Ape’s information also incomplete?
’Cyan Treasure and I fought it head-on. The gap between us shouldn’t be so massive that the system couldn’t analyze it, right?’
Gu Ming was filled with doubt.
Then, he commanded Cyan Treasure to move forward.
"Go fight the Black and White Long-Armed Ape. Try to use your Laser Skills to train your Skill Level."
Cyan Treasure swayed its serpentine body, slithering forward to face the Black and White Long-Armed Ape that the system had replicated.
The Black and White Long-Armed Ape had white fur on both of its arms, while its hairless, muscular chest was exposed. Its black-furred head was imposing without showing any anger.
It stood over two meters tall, every inch of its well-defined muscles as hard as steel, and it radiated an incomparably powerful aura.
’This thing... why does it feel even more oppressive than when we fought it over the weekend?!’
Cyan Treasure was startled.
