Shopping in the online mall, a teacher's advice

Lin Yuan walked into his bedroom.

There was a simple single bed, three bookcases filled with books, and plenty of thriving green plants. A faint fragrance filled the room.

The computer desk was large, with three monitors sitting on it.

Lin Yuan deftly booted up his computer and soon logged into the Beast Alliance's official online mall.

His identification information had already been updated.

Previously, he had two tags: [One-star Beast Tamer] and [Certified One-star Pet Food Shop Owner].

He had earned the former two months ago. In this world, anyone whose mental power reached 10 points could become a one-star beast tamer.

At Puchuan Experimental High School, this was also something every first-year student had to achieve before the awakening ceremony.

He had obtained the latter after inheriting the pet food shop his parents had left behind.

In this world, every shop related to pet beasts underwent star-rating certification.

Specific pet beast products had to pass an even stricter certification process before they could receive a sales license.

After that, the shop could open an online storefront through the official channels.

Products sold through the Beast Alliance's official channels had to be graded resources at minimum. At present, the only product Yuanming Pet Food Shop could sell online was the ordinary-quality [Purple Dew] that Zilan produced.

That was why Lin Yuan frequently logged into the Beast Alliance's official online mall. He needed three computer screens to handle multiple tasks at once and confirm order information.

[Purple Dew] was also their shop's most important product, both online and offline.

This was why Lin Yuan always strictly "controlled" Zilan, stopping her from giving them floral dew whenever she pleased.

Now, two new tags had appeared in his identification information.

[Kindling Seed] and [Puchuan Inheritor].

Beneath these four tags were different links that led to the corresponding platforms and webpages.

Naturally, Lin Yuan opened the [Kindling Seed] interface.

Five percent off all products—that was the first piece of information he saw.

He searched for extraordinary-quality [Sweet Rain Pearl]. Quite a few shops stocked it, with prices ranging from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand alliance coins.

That was more or less what he had expected.

But when he searched for extraordinary-quality [Spirit Treasure Liquid], the results were completely blank.

Clearly, his status as a [Kindling Seed], obtained simply by entering the Kindling Class, was not enough to grant him access to this product.

Lin Yuan quickly opened the link under the [Puchuan Inheritor] tag, entered another mall interface, and moved the page to another screen to compare them immediately.

Here, all products were ten percent off.

He also saw a gold ingot icon gleaming with golden light, followed by a notice—

"Your first purchase of products worth less than one hundred thousand alliance coins is free. If the total exceeds one hundred thousand alliance coins, you must pay the remaining cost after one hundred thousand alliance coins have been deducted."

Compared with the [Kindling Seed] mall, the [Puchuan Inheritor] mall had more merchants offering [Sweet Rain Pearl], and some even offered better-quality ones.

When he searched for extraordinary-quality [Spirit Treasure Liquid], information for three or four shops appeared as well.

Their prices were fairly consistent, generally around one hundred and fifty thousand alliance coins.

To be honest, that price startled Lin Yuan a little.

His parents had been in poor health before they passed away, and most of the income from the little shop they had run for years had gone toward medicine and medical treatment.

Even so, they had left Lin Yuan roughly eighty thousand alliance coins.

Over the past two years, with Qin Bailing and Linghuan's help, Lin Yuan had continued to keep Yuanming Pet Food Shop running smoothly.

He had saved another forty thousand alliance coins.

In other words, he now had one hundred and twenty thousand alliance coins in savings.

A quick calculation showed that, with the inheritor mall's ten-percent discount, he would still need to spend a little over seventy thousand alliance coins to buy all the materials required for Zilan's evolution.

That was good news.

But there was one thing Lin Yuan could not overlook—the choice of his first contracted beast.

In the Chenlong Kingdom, anyone who became a one-star beast tamer and awakened a talent of any rank could register with the Beast Alliance and receive a starter pet beast with fairly ordinary aptitude for free.

But to some extent, beast taming was a profession that "burned money"—at least during the early stages of development.

For students with better talents, a free starter pet beast generally would not be enough.

In fact, when Chen Xuanbai had explained to the seven of them how to make good use of this first batch of seed money, he had subtly hinted that, for promising students from ordinary families, it was an excellent source of funds for buying their first starter pet beast.

Indeed, the best choices for a first contracted beast cost roughly one hundred thousand alliance coins.

These pet beasts often started at lower extraordinary quality. Most were excellent combat beasts, capable of supporting high school beast tamers through all kinds of competitions and practical combat activities in their early stages.

Moreover, they often had publicly available, well-established evolution paths, making them the most suitable pet beasts for one-star beast tamers to contract.

Lin Yuan had known all this two years ago.

On the day his savings reached one hundred thousand alliance coins, he had even celebrated, considering it a way of securing solid financial footing for his first step ahead of time.

But this new plan might upset the balance he had previously built for himself.

After buying Zilan's resources, he would have fifty thousand alliance coins left in savings.

Fifty thousand alliance coins could still buy a decent starter pet beast, but its initial quality would be upper ordinary at best.

For an ordinary second-year high school student, that would certainly be respectable enough.

But for one of the top seven seeds in Puchuan Experimental High School's second-year Kindling Class, it would be rather hard to justify.

With his experience as a teacher in his previous life, Lin Yuan knew perfectly well how confused and disappointed the Kindling Class teachers would be if, despite having one hundred thousand in seed money, his first contracted pet beast failed to meet the "standard" expected of an excellent student.

But he had always been decisive, never one to agonize over a choice.

After barely three more seconds of analysis, he made his decision.

Evolve Zilan first!

Zilan had already met the prerequisites for evolution. Once the materials were ready and she evolved, she would soon replenish his cash flow.

Yes, Lin Yuan had long since learned that even a mid-extraordinary-quality [Purple Dew Orchid] was enough to raise any pet food shop from one star to two.

Let alone a higher-quality [Purple Spirit Treasure Orchid].

The assignment Chen Xuanbai had given them was to contract their first pet beast within seven days.

Lin Yuan naturally understood his teacher. On the surface, they merely had to contract their first pet beast, but in reality, the teachers wanted to assess what kind of rapport they could establish with their contracted beasts within that week.

But with things having reached this point, Lin Yuan had also prepared a backup plan.

With so many years of life experience behind him, he naturally took a longer view.

He knew what talent he possessed, and he understood that his wealth would gradually accumulate after Zilan evolved. In the end, he was unwilling to settle.

At this pace, even if he failed to contract his first pet beast within seven days and played the "bad student" once, it would not affect his future growth.

With that thought, he quickly began adding the evolution materials Zilan needed to his shopping cart, one by one.

He also chose materials with relatively better composition and quality from the available options.

One drop of extraordinary-quality [Spirit Treasure Liquid] and one extraordinary-quality [Sweet Rain Pearl].

There were also more than a dozen ordinary-quality materials, including [Orchid Rain Leaf], [Purple Sweet Branch], and others.

After the ten-percent discount, Lin Yuan used his first "grant" of one hundred thousand alliance coins and paid an additional 71,863 alliance coins himself.

When "Payment successful" appeared, Lin Yuan let out a long breath.

Deliveries from the Beast Alliance's shops were all handled by [Courier Birds]. Once the goods were assembled, he would receive them in roughly two hours.

Meanwhile.

At Chen Xuanbai's home.

As he looked at the [Shadow Witch Cat], now quiet and utterly content, his face was full of delight as well.

"I bought ten female cats over the past two days, and Little Shadow finally stopped running off. His overall energy has stabilized too, and he quickly rose from extraordinary level 7, where he'd been stuck for a while, to extraordinary level 10."

"His power is brimming, and he's adapting to his traits faster. At this rate, he'll soon reach the threshold for his next evolution."

"Only, with that temperament of his, I wonder whether the usual evolution routes still suit him."

"In any case, a breakthrough is a good thing. It's all thanks to that kid Lin Yuan."

After considering it for a while, he also opened the Beast Alliance's official shop. "I should give that kid some advice and pick out starter pet beasts around one hundred thousand alliance coins with strong future potential."

Lin Yuan was sitting in front of his computer.

He was looking up information about pet beast evolution.

After all, he was not yet a certified breeder. This material was not taught in the first year of high school, and previously, he had only studied a little of it on his own.

Although the [Eye of All Spirits] explained the evolution path, primary materials, supplementary materials, and evolution procedures in detail, the actual execution still depended on him and Zilan working together.

Fortunately, he also remembered plenty of practical experience conducting experiments and cultivating plants and animals in his previous life. Combining that with this world's knowledge of beast breeding allowed him to understand things quickly.

While he was researching, a string of messages from Chen Xuanbai suddenly popped up in the bottom-right corner of his screen.

He opened them.

They were links to three pet beasts his teacher recommended.

A line of text was attached beneath them: These three pet beasts should suit you quite well. I've put in a word with our city's Beast Alliance. Tomorrow, you can visit their breeding center and see them for yourself. If they suit you, you can choose whichever one catches your eye on the spot.