CSMCDB - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
"I've discovered your brain doesn't work too well." Yan Ling frowned, her face showing obvious impatience. "What does the old gatekeeper have to do with me?"
"Isn't he the headmaster? Or some mysterious big shot?"
"...No." Beneath the table, Yan Ling's hand clenched into a fist. She told herself over and over that this was her first disciple, still young, and she couldn't hit her. It took a long while for her to suppress the urge. "You don't know Qiu Fei? Then you must know her disciple, right? Lin Jinyu."
"!!!"
"Qiu Fei said her disciple owes you a favor. Coincidentally, I lost a drinking contest to Qiu Fei once and owed her one. This time, I've paid her back." Yan Ling pursed her lips. "I've made another bet with her, so you'd better not let me down. You promised to reach Star Warrior before Lin Jinyu. She recently broke through to the third layer of Star Practitioner. So, good luck."
Wen Yuncheng: ???
That was way too much information!
"Wait, she's a third-layer Star Practitioner? I'm only at the first layer!" Wen Yuncheng looked incredulous. And Lin Jinyu was the one who helped her get into the academy?!
"Oh? What's that got to do with me? All I know is what you promised me." Yan Ling smiled. "If you lie to me, I'll feed you to the demonic beasts during this year's Beast Tide."
"...I-I'll do my best..."
After the meal, Wen Yuncheng was somewhat distracted when she returned to the Dueling Arena. If it weren't for the hundred Star Stones per match, she probably would have lost due to her lack of focus. Fortunately, the Star Stones brought her attention back to the fight.
Fighting eleven consecutive matches in one day, Wen Yuncheng not only became famous but also earned the nickname "Madman." People said she was either a battle maniac or desperately poor. Of course, those who knew she was Yan Ling's disciple all thought it was the former.
It was truly a beautiful misunderstanding.
On Sunday, Yan Ling didn't accompany her to the Dueling Arena. Wen Yuncheng went alone. She deliberately woke up early, and since she no longer needed to go through registration or ranking procedures, she started her first match at seven o'clock. During her breaks, she ate steamed buns and mantou she'd brought from a breakfast shop, washing them down with cold water. She didn't finish her day of fighting until ten o'clock. This time, she had competed a total of sixteen times, fighting almost every first and second-layer Star Practitioner there.
The two days of fighting earned her 2308.5 Star Stones, though 256.5 of that belonged to Yan Ling. Wen Yuncheng didn't have a spare Star Stone card to split the funds, so she could only carefully note down the amount and settle it monthly as her teacher had instructed.
Fortunately, six of her opponents over the two days were from Star Academy. Because of this, Wen Yuncheng earned a total of 300 experience points.
She had originally expected 1350 experience points, but after carefully re-reading the mission description, she realized she only got them for fighting "fellow students."
Host: Wen Yuncheng
Race: Human
Age: 15
Class: Mechanical Master
Level: 12
Experience: 165/3000
Points: 105
Since she hadn't done her two-kilometer runs during the two days of fighting, her experience gain was only three hundred. Luckily, she had leveled up, so it wasn't a loss.
Earning mission points and experience during the school week, and earning Star Stones and a small amount of experience on the weekends. It was quite a fulfilling life.
"1947, can I upgrade these skills again?"
[Skill power increases as your level increases. However, the degree of improvement varies for each skill, and they cannot be upgraded.] 1947 said, then opened the shop for Wen Yuncheng. Wen Yuncheng noticed a "New Arrivals" section had appeared.
[This is meteorite stone I acquired from another plane. 3 points for 100g. Interested?]
"Yes. Can I have it for free?" Three points for just one hundred grams—how could 1947 even say that with a straight face? It should take a look at how poor its host was. Wen Yuncheng closed the shop directly. Out of sight, out of mind. Of course, the fact that 1947 had gone out of its way to acquire forging materials for her from another plane was quite touching. Too bad she had no points.
[Get real.]
"You get real. Do I look like some rich tycoon to you?" Wen Yuncheng was exasperated. "Tell me the truth, how many points will I need to learn the next skill?"
[50.]
Wen Yuncheng sighed. "Even if level twenty is still a long way off, I have to start saving up, don't I?"
1947 said no more.
The next day, Wen Yuncheng resolved to eat all her meals in the cafeteria. No matter how fragrant the food in the shop was, she absolutely wouldn't touch it. To that end, she even bought a large amount of dry rations to store in her storage ring.
After class, Wen Yuncheng hastily finished her lunch and went to the Forging Tower.
The person in charge of the Forging Tower was a vice headmaster of Star Academy. Wen Yuncheng was in luck; the vice headmaster happened to be in his office today.
The vice headmaster was a hale and hearty old man with a kind face. He looked at Wen Yuncheng with a smile. "I remember you. You're a promising young man. That girl Yan Ling mentioned you to me. Are you short on money?"
"Hello, Vice Headmaster. I do need a lot of money to improve myself. Not through pills or anything like that, of course, but to upgrade my equipment." Wen Yuncheng bowed, a little embarrassed. "H-Have you seen my matches? This Mechanical Armguard of mine... would you take a look?" As she spoke, Wen Yuncheng unstrapped the Mechanical Armguard from her left arm and handed it over.
"The concept is very clever. You're quite inventive. Are you looking to sell the blueprint, or...?"
"I'd like to get a share of the profits. For example, for every Mechanical Armguard sold, I would receive a portion of the money," Wen Yuncheng said. "I will also provide the blueprint, but I don't want to sell it outright." As she spoke, she handed over the blueprint for the Mechanical Armguard as well. Of course, this wasn't the system's copy, but one Wen Yuncheng had drawn herself.
"...Alright." The vice headmaster was surprisingly agreeable. He took the blueprint, glanced at it briefly before setting it aside, and returned the Mechanical Armguard to Wen Yuncheng. "However, you are still a student. You should be moderate when it comes to earning Star Stones. Your main focus at the academy should be your studies. Of course, the school doesn't forbid you from participating in external competitions, but you must always prioritize your own safety."
"Understood! I won't neglect my cultivation. My constitution is rather special, and you probably know about the mutation. I will absolutely not let it slow down my cultivation speed!"
Seeing Wen Yuncheng's excitement, the vice headmaster gave a slightly helpless smile. "How about this? That girl Yan Ling also asked me to look after you recently. If you can reach the second layer of Star Practitioner within a month, I'll make an exception and let Yan Ling take you along for this year's Beast Tide. What do you say? Are you confident?"
[Mission Activated: Beast Tide]
[Mission Requirement: Reach the second layer of Star Practitioner within one month and travel to the Demonic Beast Great Forest with Yan Ling.]
[Mission Reward: 3000 Experience, 200 Points]
Wen Yuncheng never would have thought that coming to discuss business could trigger a mission! Moreover, the vice headmaster was being so considerate to her, as if she were his own grandson—wait, that didn't sound quite right.
Shocked as she was, Wen Yuncheng immediately agreed. "Don't worry, Vice Headmaster, I can definitely do it! It's just, that... about the Star Stone share?"
"You know the cost of the steel. The price for internal sales within the academy can't be too high either." The vice headmaster picked up the design and estimated the costs. "For external sales, you'll get a cut of four hundred Star Stones per unit. For internal sales, two hundred Star Stones. Settled monthly."
And so, the deal with the academy's Forging Tower was struck. Wen Yuncheng didn't haggle too much. After all, getting a share of the profits by cooperating with Star Academy was already a great deal, and the amount was quite good.
If she were to go it alone, setting aside the costs, she had neither the connections nor the customer base. Even without the blueprint, others could easily reverse-engineer the Mechanical Armguard. But if Star Academy was selling it on her behalf, piracy wouldn't be so rampant. All things considered, Wen Yuncheng was very satisfied with this price.
Besides, even if others had the armguard, they didn't have Wen Yuncheng's passive skills. Without mechanical affinity, they couldn't use their thoughts to activate or deactivate the armguard's mechanisms. Manual operation would not only be troublesome in actual combat but would also require constant practice to master.
Reaching the second layer of Star Practitioner within a month... meant reaching level fourteen. Wen Yuncheng did a serious calculation. If she sparred with four classmates every afternoon, that would only be four thousand experience points in twenty days. Leveling up to thirteen already required three thousand experience, and reaching fourteen would need over six thousand. If she ran two kilometers every day, that would be fifteen hundred experience. If she encountered classmates in the Dueling Arena, the miscellaneous experience might add up to around six thousand, right? The abacus in Wen Yuncheng's mind clattered away. She had only been sitting in her dorm for a moment before she stood up. No! She couldn't rely on luck! What if she woke up half an hour earlier every day to run two kilometers? Then run again at noon, and again at night. That way, she'd get an extra 100 experience per day compared to usual!
[Are you crazy? Can you handle it?]
"A woman can't say she can't! I can do it!" Wen Yuncheng slammed her hand on the table. She didn't care that she had just returned to her dorm for a noon nap. What nap! Time to run!
Once her physical fitness improved, she could challenge herself to run four kilometers in one go, or increase her speed for the two-kilometer run! Wen Yuncheng briskly went downstairs, did a few simple stretches to loosen her muscles, and started running laps around the dormitory.
Watching its cub work so hard, 1947 felt a faint sense of melancholy for some reason. Sigh.
Perhaps, this was what it felt like to have a female host.
Perhaps due to the increased exercise, ever since Wen Yuncheng started her three-daily-runs routine, her appetite had also soared. She didn't gain any weight, though; it was probably all burned off by the exercise. Few people in Class A copied her method of physical training. However, Zhou Xuan and the others excitedly joined Wen Yuncheng for the noon and night runs. They couldn't get up in the morning, as they had to absorb Star Power to cultivate at night.
With the mindset of not letting a single opportunity slip by, Wen Yuncheng arranged to practice close combat with Zhou Xuan and the others every evening. They didn't use skills or Star Power, purely sparring with techniques. These sparring sessions were short and could also be counted by the system for her mission.
It was just too exhausting.
So exhausting that Wen Yuncheng would fall asleep the moment she hit her bed every day, and she even occasionally dozed off in class.
But the results of pushing herself so hard were also obvious. In just the five days of the school week, Wen Yuncheng had gained 1550 experience points. She had also accumulated thirteen points here and there. At this rate, reaching the second layer of Star Practitioner in a month seemed entirely possible.
"I've noticed that Student Lin's former fiancé is truly worthy of having been engaged to her. They're both absolute cultivation maniacs."
"How so?"
"I went to the combat training grounds one night and saw that guy still sparring with someone, but they were practicing practical combat techniques. Oh, right, and he also gets up super early every day to run."
"Oh, right, right! I've seen him at lunchtime too, and at night. The guy is really pushing himself, but his way of working hard is different from ours."
"Well, of course. His Star Power is mutated, you know."
"Keep your voice down. It wouldn't be good if Student Lin heard you."
"We're just gossiping a little. Student Lin is so cold all day, all she knows is cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. It's no fun at all. The only interesting thing to talk about is her former engagement..."
"She went to the Fire Tempering Bath again? That place can temper the body and help with cultivation, but she's only a third-layer Star Practitioner. Soaking in there day after day, something is bound to go wrong sooner or later... No, I have to go talk to Teacher Qiu about this."
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