Beast Taming: My System is Bugged-Chapter 57 - 56: Persuasion

Teacher Zhang’s original plan was for the Little Cyan Snake to follow a conventional evolution path: three weeks of physical training to strengthen its core abdominal muscles, then forming its Inner Core to evolve to One-star.

That would time it perfectly for the monthly exam, allowing it to secure a good ranking and build the Little Cyan Snake’s confidence at the same time.

However, from the looks of it, Gu Ming wanted to take the Little Cyan Snake down an unconventional path—one that no one had ever walked before.

Teacher Zhang didn’t outright object. Instead, he genuinely tried to think along Gu Ming’s lines.

As the creator of a Cultivation Technique, Teacher Zhang’s research wasn’t limited to Snake Pet Cultivation Methods; he also studied how to lower the financial threshold for Pet Beast evolution.

Currently, most Pet Beasts with High-star Potential needed to consume large quantities of expensive medicinal herbs to nourish their bodies.

The cost of a single dose wasn’t much, but over time, the pre-evolution cultivation costs would add up to an astronomical sum.

This was manageable for a middle-class family, but for an ordinary family like Teacher Zhang’s—who had to work multiple jobs for over a decade just to clear his debts—the cost of raising a Pet Beast was still far too expensive.

To avoid burdening his family, and also to save some startup funds for his daughter, Teacher Zhang hadn’t formed contracts with many Pet Beasts.

Aside from the Pet Beast he’d had since college, he was only raising one other creature: a young, uncontracted Snake Pet.

Because of this, Teacher Zhang had done in-depth research on pre-evolution cultivation costs, especially for the evolutionary branches of Snake Pet Species.

Gu Ming had merely proposed an incredible, even somewhat unreasonable, evolutionary path, but it caused a surge of inspiration in Teacher Zhang.

"Do you have any basis for this idea?" Teacher Zhang asked. He sounded like he was objecting, but he was already turning the idea over in his mind.

He wanted to test Gu Ming’s idea, feeling this path had potential, but he didn’t want to gamble with Gu Ming’s future.

Letting Gu Ming’s Cyan Treasure practice the incomplete version of the breathing exercise was one thing. After all, one could study multiple Cultivation Techniques. If a technique didn’t work out, you could just abandon it, affecting at most a week or two of Cultivation Time.

But Evolution was different. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event for a Pet Beast. If it failed, there was a high probability it would never be able to evolve again.

Gu Ming knew that if he asked so rashly, his teacher would definitely stop him.

However, he planned to pursue a Mana-based evolution path next, and Teacher Zhang was his extracurricular tutor who monitored his progress daily. As soon as he started the Frozen Pill process, his teacher would surely detect it. It would be much harder to explain things then.

Gu Ming nodded. He searched through his past knowledge and said, half-truthfully:

"When I was a kid, I saw an Ash Rabbit trying to evolve in a frozen wasteland. It failed on the first day, and its Inner Core froze. I thought that was its limit."

"But when I saw it again the next spring, it was already a Two-star. Its Mana fluctuations were much stronger than a normal Ash Rabbit’s."

The example Gu Ming gave was from a real childhood memory, but he had been too young at the time to perceive the Ash Rabbit’s Inner Core or judge its Star Level.

This half-truth of a lie was enough to sway Teacher Zhang.

He was a top student himself, with a solid theoretical foundation; he hadn’t become a teacher by pulling strings.

After briefly considering the freezing theory Gu Ming mentioned, he felt it might be worth a try.

"Ahem. I suggest you think it over. I’ll ask your parents tonight. If they agree, then I’ll help concoct a formula for the Frozen Pills and do my best to prevent any damage to the Inner Core."

At this point, Teacher Zhang had already agreed in his heart. But as a teacher, he had a responsibility and couldn’t gamble with Gu Ming’s Pet Beast.

Even if Gu Ming himself consented, he still had to see what his parents thought. If they were strongly against it, he, as the teacher, couldn’t take the risk.

Cyan Treasure didn’t understand any of this. It just blindly trusted its master’s choices.

Afterwards, since he had no more classes, Teacher Zhang took Gu Ming and Cyan Treasure to the training room to work out.

Cyan Treasure found it easy at first, but as Teacher Zhang’s large hands pressed down repeatedly, the Little Cyan Snake went completely numb.

The upside was that Gu Ming saw a continuous stream of text pop up from his system.

[Cyan Treasure’s training was highly effective. Endurance +1, Power +1]

[Cyan Treasure’s training was highly effective. Defense +1...]

Attribute increase notifications like these popped up for a long time before finally stopping.

By lunchtime, the Little Cyan Snake finally had a chance to breathe. The smell of food from the other students’ trays revived it. Its eyes darted around, and it inhaled deeply through its nose.

A hamster chewing on a sunflower seed entered its line of sight. It waved at the snake, then pointed to the girl with glasses next to it.

The girl with glasses quickly held her hamster down and waved toward Cyan Treasure, her face bright red. She seemed anxious, as if she had something to say to its master.

Cyan Treasure felt like it understood. It immediately tapped the back of Gu Ming’s neck with its tail, signaling that someone was looking for him.

Gu Ming turned around and saw the "sunflower seed" girl and the hamster in her hands.

The little hamster was struggling fiercely in the girl’s grasp, so much so that her face was flushed with effort as she barely managed to hold on.

Gu Ming walked over to her and got in line with her to get food.

"Um, I have a study hall this afternoon. Are you free?"

Gu Ming asked, taking the initiative.

After all, he wanted to research cross-Attribute cultivation, so having an Earth Attribute pet nearby was rather important.

Hearing this, Lu You’s brain short-circuited.

Socially anxious, she just nodded repeatedly, only able to give a soft murmur of agreement.

A few seconds later, as she followed Gu Ming in the food line, she suddenly realized he was talking about what they had agreed to last night.

That was something her little hamster had arranged on its own. If it had been up to her, she would never have dared to ask the top student in their grade for help.

But since it had come to this, she didn’t dare refuse and could only brace herself and agree.

When they reached the front of the line at the serving counter, the cafeteria lady, who recognized Gu Ming, asked with a smile:

"Gu Ming, the usual today, right?"

"No, I’m adding extra dishes today. I’ll have the Cyan Lotus Spirit Dew Soup, the Green Scale Shredded Dragon Meat, a Profound Jade Stem..."

Gu Ming ordered several double-digit priced dishes in a row, instantly pushing his hundred-yuan meal past the two-hundred-yuan mark, all the way to 210 yuan.

This left Lu You, who was standing behind him, completely stunned. The plate piled high with food was practically radiating Spiritual Qi and glowing with a faint light, making her Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster drool.

Looking at the Little Cyan Snake’s tiny body, she wondered, ’Can it really eat all that?’

"Getting ready to evolve? Why so much food all of a sudden?"

the cafeteria lady chuckled. The spoon pet in her hand shook continuously, piling Cyan Treasure’s side dishes high.

"Something like that," Gu Ming said, then stepped aside to let Lu You order.

"Lu You, which meal set would you like? Any extras?"

"I... I don’t need any extras. Just the basic fruit and melon set is fine," she replied in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.

Fortunately, the woman serving the food was a Beastmaster. Even if she was only a Zero-star Beastmaster, she was a Beastmaster nonetheless, and her Pet Beast enhanced her hearing.

In less than two seconds, Lu You had her food.

Her tray held only a bowl of rice and a few dishes for herself; the other half of the tray was filled with various fruits and melons that contained only a small amount of Spiritual Qi. The meal cost a hundred yuan—the same standard hundred-yuan meal Gu Ming used to eat.

In comparison, Gu Ming’s meal looked downright luxurious.

One glance was all it took for Gu Ming to understand her family’s financial situation. It was about the same as his own.

He then noticed she had received her basic meal without swiping a card. Just like him, she had been admitted with a tuition and meal waiver.

Given the circumstances, the fact that she didn’t order any extra dishes suggested her family’s financial situation was similar to the Gu Family’s before they’d won the lottery.

Looking at her, Gu Ming suddenly felt a sense of kinship, of two people in the same boat. It was as if he were seeing his past self, pinching every penny.