Lack of Funds

On the bus back to school, Teacher Zhou softly consoled the students whose faces were filled with disappointment after failing to form contracts.

Chen Wei had heard that around a hundred students from Water Mountain Second High School had applied to visit the Water Mountain Breeding Base this time. Fifty were on this bus alone, yet only a dozen or so had successfully formed contracts—about the same success rate as the previous class, roughly 25%.

The students who had failed to form contracts this time would likely all be reassigned to Beastmaster Class Three or Four.

The atmosphere on the bus was somewhat oppressive. Even the students who had boarded with joy on their faces, staring at their Star Rings, were now mostly sitting quietly, making no deliberate effort to show off their pet beasts.

Perhaps accidents and failure always accompanied life. Looking at the many classmates before him who were dejected or even silently crying, Chen Wei tapped the armrest with the fingers of his right hand, feeling deeply troubled as well.

The 1.5 million he had originally budgeted had now become 2.5 million, while his parents' inheritance combined with Donghua Kingdom's subsidy amounted to only 1.5 million.

That was only thanks to his former self's father having been an elite beastmaster. How could an ordinary orphan have that much money?

Chen Wei had previously calculated that after taking out a loan, he would still have 750,000 to raise his pet beast. Now, only 250,000 remained.

Most importantly, the loan had soared from 750,000 over ten years to 1.25 million over ten years, which meant repaying just over 10,000 every month.

One had to know that an ordinary entry-level beastmaster's monthly salary on the market was only around 10,000.

Little Color Spirit's rations were also no small expense. Even with the simplest arrangement, ice-element source crystals and fish meat would cost several thousand a month.

What was more, Chen Wei had no intention of shortchanging his pet beast. Little Color Spirit was the apple of his eye, so the expenses would be even greater.

At that thought, Chen Wei's gaze darkened slightly. Plans could never keep up with changes. The shortage of funds weighed heavily on him. It seemed that starting tomorrow, he would have to work hard to earn money and support the household.

If he continued following his original plan and focused solely on raising his pet beast, he would probably starve himself to death.

Fortunately, he had already entered his third year of high school. The first- and second-year curriculum mainly taught all kinds of beastmaster knowledge. By the third year, it became a practical consolidation of what had been learned during the first two years.

Other than the first two days of school, the school would not force third-year students to attend class. Instead, it opened its beastmaster facilities, allowing students to flexibly apply their knowledge to raise their pet beasts. Students were even permitted to work part-time during class hours to earn money for raising them.

This was perfect—Chen Wei could use this third year of high school to raise Little Color Spirit while earning money to support the household.

Back in the apartment with its somewhat shabby outer walls, Chen Wei sat on his bed, took out the rations gifted with the contract from his backpack, and eagerly summoned Little Color Spirit.

The moment it emerged from the Star Ring, the still groggy Little Color Spirit glared at Chen Wei in irritation. Its large eyes brimmed with anger; clearly, it was very unhappy that Chen Wei had disturbed its sleep.

The corners of Chen Wei's lips rose slightly, amusement flickering in his eyes. "You can't sleep all the time. You still need to eat something."

Seeing her beastmaster's gentle yet utterly unapologetic smile, Little Color Spirit raised her head high, wanting to show her disdain. But she realized she was still looking up at Chen Wei anyway. With an unhappy shake of her head, she lay down to sleep, completely ignoring her beastmaster.

Feeling Little Color Spirit's displeasure and dismissal, Chen Wei instead found her tsundere manner unbelievably adorable.

Shaking his head vigorously, Chen Wei smiled helplessly. This little fellow... she wasn't using [Charm] on her own beastmaster too, was she? That kind of charm was practically cheating.

"We're partners who will grow together in the future. If you listen to me, I'll add one more massage every night."

At the mention of massages, Little Color Spirit opened her big eyes, turned to look at Chen Wei, and let out several more "Yiya, yiya" cries.

"Three times a day in total. No more than that." Chen Wei laughed, then gently stroked Little Color Spirit's head with his left hand and began tonight's [Dragon Power] massage.

Once Little Color Spirit wore a comfortable expression, Chen Wei held a secondary ice-element source crystal to her mouth, watching with a smile as she slowly ate it.

Right now, Chen Wei felt as though he had raised a daughter. She was so adorable that his heart was practically melting.

Once Little Color Spirit had absorbed nearly enough energy, Chen Wei placed her on the bed to rest for a while. Then he got up and fed a little fish food to Little Gold, who had been staring longingly from inside the fish tank.

Turning to look at Little Gold swimming nimbly around the fish tank, Little Color Spirit's lips curled slightly. She looked at Chen Wei again and let out a crisp sound. "Yi."

"That isn't food I prepared for you. He's your companion, so you can't eat him. Absorb some source crystal first. There'll be meat tomorrow." Chen Wei gently reminded her.

Hearing her beastmaster say she could not eat it, Little Color Spirit immediately lost interest. She curled around the source crystal into a ball and went back to sleep.

Chen Wei took out his phone, logged into the beastmaster marketplace app and browsed around. He spent 5,000 Star Coins to place an order for 3 kilograms of fresh fish and 1 kilogram of secondary ice-element source crystals.

These ingredients should be enough for Little Color Spirit for the time being. After all, using [Dragon Power] to speed up her growth also means supplementing her with the corresponding nutrition. It can't be like the last experiment, where Little Gold nearly starved to death, Chen Wei thought.

Keeping up with Little Color Spirit's nutritional needs would cost quite a lot. On top of the loan he already carried, he needed to think of a way to make money!

It's a shame Boss Lin at the reservoir won't let me fish there anymore. Otherwise, I could have earned some extra money to ease the pressure, Chen Wei thought regretfully.

With no other choice, Chen Wei opened a recruitment app on his phone, selected several pet beast shops near River City District that offered fairly decent pay, and submitted his résumé. Then he began familiarizing himself with and cultivating his second-stage Source Star.

Once a Source Star reached the second stage, one could form a contract with a second pet beast. If one raised a pet beast's strength to the second stage, one could apply to the Beastmaster Association to become an intermediate beastmaster.

However, Chen Wei currently had no intention of contracting a second pet beast. Soldiers were valued for excellence, not numbers. For now, raising Little Color Spirit well was what mattered most.

The next day marked the start of the third-year beastmaster classes. By convention, every student had to register again.

Upon entering the Third-Year Beastmaster Class Two classroom, Chen Wei swept his gaze around the room in search of a suitable seat, only to find quite a few unfamiliar classmates.

The classroom was extremely noisy at the moment. Many students in the back rows were excitedly talking among themselves, and some had even summoned their pet beasts.

Unaccustomed to the overly noisy environment in the back, Chen Wei found a quiet seat near the front and sat down.

At that moment, Old Huang, who was arguing with his classmates in the crowd until his face was red and his neck thick, happened to spot Chen Wei. He immediately pointed at him and shouted, "I'm seriously not bragging to you guys—the person who contracted a Cold Jade Snake is Chen Wei."

Old Huang's voice drew everyone's attention in the classroom. Even Chen Wei, who had been sitting in his chair with his mind full of thoughts about making money, was startled awake by Old Huang's shout.

Realizing that he had become the focus of everyone's attention, Chen Wei could only turn back with an awkward smile. "If no one else successfully contracted a Cold Jade Snake yesterday, then I'm probably the person you're talking about."