Pack Animals

"Xiao Chen, there's so much dust on the floor. Since we don't have anything to do right now, why don't we sweep the classroom?"

After the two finished looking at the photos on the wall and were preparing to leave the classroom, Shen Qinghan noticed the thick layer of dust on the floor; her obsessive-compulsive tendencies kicked in, and she wanted to clean it up.

Lin Zichen had no objections.

Thus, the two quickly found brooms and began sweeping the classroom in silence.

They hadn't been sweeping for long when two girls walked in from outside.

One of the girls, wearing her hair in a bun, hesitated for a moment upon seeing people sweeping before asking timidly, "Um... are you two also freshmen?"

Lin Zichen stopped what he was doing at the sound of her voice, looked up at the two at the door, and said, "Yes, we're freshmen too. We just got here, and since we saw some dust on the floor, we decided to sweep it up."

Eh? It's actually Lin Zichen! Oh my god... Seeing Lin Zichen's strikingly handsome face, the two girls instantly became excited and thrilled.

The girl with the bun, in particular, felt her entire face flush red, and her voice trembled with nerves: "Th-that, Lin Zichen, I'm your fan."

"A fan?"

"I mean, I watched every Eight-School League you participated in during middle school. I think you're amazing, so... so I became your fan," the girl with the bun explained, looking shy.

Liar, not being honest. You clearly only became a fan because he's handsome... Listening to the girl with the bun, the short-haired girl beside her was frantically roasting her in her heart.

Afterward, she looked at Lin Zichen, her cheeks flushed with a faint crimson, and she said quite bashfully:

"Lin Zichen, I'm your fan too. We both attended Shanhai No. 1 Middle School in middle school. I just wanted to be at the same school as you, and thinking you would definitely advance to the high school division of the same institution, I specifically applied to Shanhai High School."

This part was actually true; both were little fangirls of Lin Zichen who had specifically applied to Shanhai High School just to be at the same school—or even in the same class—as their idol.

Lin Zichen felt a bit flattered, never expecting his little fangirls to have spread to other schools.

However, his luck with the opposite sex seemed a bit too overwhelming.

This was not a good thing.

His desk drawer would be stuffed with love letters sooner or later, which would only lead to a bunch of unnecessary trouble.

While the three were talking, Shen Qinghan stood to the side, sweeping silently without saying a word, as transparent and invisible as a ghost.

Except for a brief period in the lower grades of elementary school when she was lively, she had been rather introverted for the rest of her life, rarely taking the initiative to speak to others.

Only in front of Lin Zichen did she become talkative.

After all, they had grown up together and were very familiar with each other, making it much more comfortable to be around him.

"The floor in this classroom really is quite dusty. Since we don't have anything to do right now either, let's help you two clean the classroom."

The girl with the bun walked toward a corner of the classroom as she spoke, picked up a broom, and began sweeping along with them.

Seeing this, the short-haired girl followed suit and started sweeping as well.

With the addition of these two girls, the entire classroom floor was quickly swept clean.

Just then, Lin Zichen noticed three lines of text appearing in the void.

[Achievement: Completed a task 1,000 times through multi-person cooperation]

[reward: Obtained Biological Attribute--Gregarious Animal]

[Cumulative task completions: 1/1000]

After reading the text, Lin Zichen felt a surge of excitement. A fifth achievement had suddenly appeared out of nowhere—what a pleasant surprise!

He wondered what kind of effect the Gregarious Animal attribute would actually have.

It was truly something to look forward to...

At this moment, the homeroom teacher, Han Yuanfeng, was passing by the corridor outside the classroom on his way to the restroom.

Seeing people cleaning inside, he walked in with a smile and said, "You all swept the whole classroom? Not bad, it's very clean. Worthy of praise!"

Upon hearing this, the three girls felt incredibly happy. Leaving a good impression on their homeroom teacher right at the start of the semester was a huge win; the sweeping was definitely worth it!

Unlike them, Lin Zichen felt no ripples in his heart.

Having been praised too many times since he was a child, he had become immune to it.

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for lunch.

Seeing that it was about time, Lin Zichen went home with Shen Qinghan to eat.

After the meal, he rested at home for a while before heading out again.

He didn't call for Shen Qinghan, choosing to go out alone.

The Ghost Shadow Squid Atlas had already been activated, and now it was time to unlock the atlas for another Exotic Beast.

It was time to head to the mall and see if there was any suitable Exotic Beast meat to purchase for consumption.

Riding his bicycle, he flew to the mall.

Lin Zichen parked his bike and headed straight to the top floor to see if there was any reasonably priced Exotic Beast meat for sale.

After looking around, he finally set his sights on some Violent Roc meat.

The Violent Roc is an Exotic Beast slightly more advanced than the Ghost Shadow Squid, though its primary use remains consumption.

Its biological trait is exceptionally keen eyesight.

While an ordinary eagle's vision is generally eight times that of a human, the Violent Roc's vision can reach thirty times that of a human—truly formidable.

Furthermore, its ability to track targets within its field of vision is incredibly strong, capable of precisely locking onto even an Exotic Rabbit moving so fast it leaves afterimages.

Drawing from the experience of unlocking the Ghost Shadow Squid Atlas during the previous summer break, Lin Zichen estimated that unlocking the Violent Roc Atlas would likely grant him a biological attribute related to vision.

Vision is an extremely important biological attribute; if good enough, it can significantly enhance a person's combat effectiveness.

Take the Martial Arts Tournament, for example: someone with keen vision can more easily track an opponent's movements, thereby defending against attacks more effectively and landing strikes with greater precision.

In summary, the Violent Roc Atlas is undoubtedly worth unlocking.

Well, the main reason is that the price of Violent Roc meat is cheap, costing only 1,998 credits per jin.

This "cheapness" is relative to the prices of other Exotic Beast meats.

After all, on this entire floor, apart from the Ghost Shadow Squid meat which costs only 998 credits per jin, there is no other Exotic Beast meat cheaper than the Violent Roc's.

The third cheapest variety of Exotic Beast meat costs 5,888 credits per jin.

The price gap is quite staggering.

If it follows the same pattern as the Ghost Shadow Squid meat, where consuming one jin increases the atlas progress by 1%, then the total cost required to unlock the atlas would be around 900,000 credits.

900,000!

Rounding that up, it's almost a million!

I can't afford that, I really can't!

After deciding to purchase the Violent Roc meat, Lin Zichen quickly found the landlord and asked him to help purchase one jin of Violent Roc meat.

Soon, the meat was in his hands.

His savings evaporated by 1,998 credits instantly.

Lin Zichen didn't dwell on the money; he turned around, found a secluded spot, and began to consume the Violent Roc meat.

[You have consumed a trace of the "Violent Roc" Life Origin]

[Violent Roc Atlas: 1%]

Just as he had anticipated, consuming one jin of meat increased the atlas unlocking progress by 1%.

Calculated this way, it would cost nearly 200,000 credits to unlock the Violent Roc Atlas.

200,000... It seems I'll have to work even harder in high school tournaments to save up money, striving to light up this Violent Roc Atlas before the second year.

Lin Zichen thought to himself, feeling confident that he could light up the Violent Roc Atlas before his second year and add another biological attribute to his repertoire.

Although the cost to unlock the Violent Roc Atlas is high—twice that of the Ghost Shadow Squid Atlas—the prize money for high school-level martial arts tournaments is significantly higher than that of middle school-level Martial Arts Tournaments.