After they won several games in a row.
The atmosphere gradually grew more familiar.
He started talking more, too.
Whenever he solo-killed an opponent, he would shout with excitement, getting utterly worked up.
Gu Qing and his roommates gave him plenty of encouragement, showering him with cries of "Zhou Yuan, you're awesome!" and making him feel even better.
Seeing that the time was about right.
Gu Qing began asking roundabout questions about Zhou Yuan's lab, pretending to be curious.
Finally, he asked with feigned casualness, "Zhou Yuan, you mentioned injecting yourself with quite a few things. Are you working on some impressive experiment?"
Just like last time, Zhou Yuan held nothing back. "When I was an undergrad, I got bitten by a venomous snake while hiking once. I almost died in the mountains."
"Then, during grad school, I made a mistake during a procedure and came into contact with a dangerous reagent. That nearly killed me, too."
"Ever since then, I've felt that the human body is too fragile. I want to develop a universal antitoxin vaccine that will make humans immune to all poisons."
Well, that sounds pretty noble, but no matter how I look at it, your research seems more like an attempt to create a supervirus that could accidentally trigger a global zombie apocalypse...
Gu Qing couldn't help silently snarking, but his voice carried a hint of longing and admiration as he ventured:
"Zhou Yuan, your research sounds pretty impressive. I'm really interested. If you get the chance, could you take me into the lab to broaden my horizons and let me see it for myself?"
PS: Holding out my bowl-please send monthly votes and recommendation votes!
Chapter 23: King of beast taming
"Sure. When I get the chance, I'll take you, my junior, on a tour of the lab."
Zhou Yuan agreed without a second thought.
Gu Qing was a little surprised. He hadn't expected him to agree so readily, and immediately struck while the iron was hot:
"Zhou Yuan, when you say you'll get the chance, roughly when would that be?"
"When there's no one in the lab. I'll sneak you in."
Zhou Yuan didn't beat around the bush at all. His answer was straightforward and decisive. He was an honest guy.
Gu Qing praised him sincerely. "You're a real pal, Zhou Yuan!"
They played a little longer.
Then Zhou Yuan suddenly said something had come up and he couldn't play anymore. After saying they could play again next week, he muted his mic and went off to deal with it.
With his target no longer playing, Gu Qing lost interest in continuing, too.
He simply told the other two to keep playing, saying he was a little sleepy and would lie down on his bed.
As soon as he lay down, he summoned the panel with a thought to check his stats.
[Name: Gu Qing] [Age: 21] [Devouring (upgradeable or fusible): Your digestive ability is greatly enhanced] [Lightning-Fast Reflexes (upgradeable or fusible): Your reaction speed is greatly enhanced] [Exceptional Comprehension acquisition progress: 38/100] [Knotted Muscles acquisition progress: 41/100]
After giving it a casual glance.
Gu Qing sank into thought.
Gao Fei had gone to the seaside and wouldn't be back until Sunday night.
Xia Shuran had gone home and wouldn't return to campus until Sunday night either.
He couldn't get Yang Yuntong to come out and work through problems with him.
Zhou Yuan wouldn't have time to play games together until next week, either.
Thinking about it that way, there was absolutely no point in staying at school this weekend.
Forget it.
There's no one to grind stats with anyway.
Might as well go home.
With that thought.
Gu Qing decisively got out of bed and said goodbye to his two roommates.
He took the bus home for a meal.
It wasn't even ten in the morning yet, so he had more than enough time to make it home for lunch.
Over an hour later.
Apartment 608, Building B, Huaxuan Residence.
The moment Gu Qing stepped through the door, he saw his younger sister, Gu Yao, lying on the couch playing on her phone. One leg was propped up carelessly, her foot bobbing away. She looked very unladylike.
The sight of her soft, fair little foot reminded him of how she'd furiously picked at her feet last week, and he couldn't hold back a laugh.
"What are you laughing at?"
Seeing her brother staring at her with a silly grin as soon as he came home, Gu Yao looked utterly baffled, finding it completely inexplicable.
Gu Qing chuckled. "Nothing. I just remembered you picking at your feet in your room last week."
"Get lost!"
Embarrassed and angry, Gu Yao grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Hurry up and forget about it, or I'll sneak into your room tonight and whack you with a stick until you lose your memory!"
Seeing that his sister was genuinely getting annoyed, Gu Qing stopped teasing her.
He headed straight for the kitchen.
To see whether his parents needed any help.
Half an hour later.
The family of four sat around the table eating.
Halfway through the meal, Gu Yao suddenly asked curiously:
"Hey, I watched that video of you stepping in to help last weekend. That guy was swinging a cleaver around. How did you dare go up and stop him? Weren't you afraid he'd cut you?"
As far as she remembered, her brother had always been a very rational person.
She couldn't understand how Gu Qing had dared rush up barehanded and subdue a knife-wielding attacker that night.
"I was a little impulsive that night. I got pretty scared afterward, too."
Gu Qing offered an offhand explanation.
Gu Yao adopted the air of an elder and lectured him. "Listen, little Qing, you'd better be more careful from now on. Stop making Mom and Dad worry all the time."
No sooner had she finished than her mother, Wen Wanyi, lightly tapped her on the head with her chopsticks and said irritably:
"You little brat, mind how you speak to your elders. Eat!"
"Oh."
Gu Yao pursed her lips and lowered her head to eat.
After the meal.
Their parents went out to do who knew what.
The siblings played on their phones in the living room.
"Hey, I saw on TikTok that a new Pet Shop opened across from our complex. The pets there are amazingly well trained. Even the cats can do backflips. I wonder how they trained them."
Gu Yao stared at her phone in amazement.
Gu Qing was unimpressed. "Isn't it probably AI?"
"I'm not an idiot. You think I can't tell whether it's AI?"
"But you are an idiot."
"You're the idiot!"
Gu Yao glared fiercely at her brother, then forwarded him the video. "I sent it to you. Take a good look yourself and see whether it's AI."
Gu Qing opened the video and watched it, discovering that it really didn't seem to be AI.
The little animals in the video looked utterly real, from their expressions to their movements. He couldn't find a single trace of AI.
"The owner of this shop has some serious skills, teaching backflips even to dumb little creatures like cats."
Watching the video, Gu Qing marveled aloud. "Put them in the world of Pokémon, and they'd be a great trainer at the very least."
"Hey, this shop is right across from our complex. Why don't we go take a look?"
"No. I'm not interested in pets."
"But I am! Just come with me!"
"No."
"Come with me now, and once I start college, whenever I meet a pretty girl in my classes, I'll introduce her to you right away."
"Pretty girls aren't the point. What matters is that I want to be a good big brother."
As he spoke, Gu Qing rose from the couch and urged his sister beside him, "Stop sitting around. Get up and change your shoes. We're going to the Pet Shop."
Gu Yao looked scornful. "Heh, that was a quick change of tune. On behalf of my future sister-in-law, I look down on you."
Ten-odd minutes later.
The siblings left their residential complex and arrived at the Pet Shop's entrance together.
"Huh? Pokémon Pet Store?"
Looking at the name above the door, Gu Qing struggled to keep a straight face and couldn't resist joking to his sister, "I wonder if they sell Pikachu in there. If they do, I'm definitely buying one to take home. Whenever you misbehave, I'll have it give you electroshock therapy."
Gu Yao rolled her eyes at him and scoffed. "You're the one who needs shocking. You're the most disobedient person in this family. I'm way better behaved than you."
The siblings bickered briefly at the entrance, then soon walked into the shop together.
The shop wasn't large.
At a glance, it looked to be only about sixty square meters.
But the decor looked very refined.
And very distinctive.
The walls were covered in Pokémon posters.
Anime figurines of Pikachu, Charmander, Psyduck, Bulbasaur, and others were everywhere.
Clearly, the owner really loved the Pokémon anime.
They gave the pets in the shop a quick look around.
There weren't many.
But there was a full range of species.
There were cats, dogs, rabbits, parrots, hamsters, squirrels, and more.
There were no snakes, of course.
"Welcome to the Pokémon Pet Store!"
Before you continue