Starting With Contract Pets

“Get up; it’s dinnertime.”

Chen Rouxue shook him awake.

“Ah…” Su Bai yawned and got up from the table. He looked up to see only the two of them in the entire arena.

“Where are the others? Are they all gone?” He rubbed his eyes and hugged his girlfriend.

“Otherwise? Who told you to sleep like a pig.” Chen Rouxue rolled her eyes and took his hand away. She got up and started packing her things.

“Where are Yang Zhou and the others? Have they left, too?” Su Bai held the girl’s hand and pulled her back into his embrace. He held her waist tightly and leaned back to look at her.

“You…” Landing onto his lap, Chen Rouxue blushed. She pretended to be fierce and glared at him.

“You smell so good!” Su Bai chuckled and gently sniffed at her. “Where are they?”

“They all ran to play the Pet Combat Simulator in the pet center.” She looked helplessly at him. “Let me go. Let’s go eat.”

“I don’t wanna; you’re so pretty, so let me hold you for a while.”

He refused to let her go. She was so warm, soft, and fragrant that he did not feel hungry just holding her.

“No, this is a public place. There’s even a camera here.” Chen Rouxue shook off her boyfriend’s hand and stood up. Although this guy whispered sweet nothings to her, she was still a little uncomfortable in front of the camera.

“Then shall we find a private space without a camera?” Su Bai stood up and blinked mischievously.

“No way, you big-headed devil. Hurry up and let’s eat; I’m hungry.” She picked up her backpack and glared at the boy.

“Alright, let’s go.” Su Bai took off his headband and put on his backpack. He called his pets over, then held the girl’s hand as they walked out.

“Howl~ φ( ̄∇ ̄o)”

Purple Jade got up and yawned; it then followed Su Bai with the sleepy Little Tyrant.

“Hehe!”

Big Demon flew down to join them, making a scary ghost face and opening its bloody basin of a mouth from time to time. However, the other two pets were not frightened. The Little Tyrant was only taken aback for a while before it started applauding.

“Let’s eat dinner first, then join Yang Zhou and the others.” Chen Rouxue turned to look at her boyfriend. She wanted to eat alone with him.

“Okay, but I have no money. Treat me to dinner,” replied Su Bai.

She glared at him. “I can’t believe there’s someone like you. Are you really asking your girlfriend to treat you to dinner?”

“I have a weak stomach, so I can only sustain life by eating the soft rice fed by you,” explained the boy. Life was not easy, so he could only eat soft rice.

His sweet words were music to Chen Rouxue’s ears. She lifted her chin and looked condescendingly at her boyfriend. “Hmph. How much advertising fee did you earn this time?”

“Take a guess?”

The youth blinked and walked forward.

“Two million yuan?”

“More.”

“Three million yuan?” she asked in surprise. No wonder this guy said that he could afford to provide for her.

“You’re so smart.” Su Bai chuckled.

“Wow, out of the three-million sponsorship fee, you actually only forked out one million to be split equally among five people. You’re really too much.” Chen Rouxue poked the boy, not knowing how he had managed to get such an expensive deal.

The youth smirked. “Why? You don’t like it?”

“No, I do. I already feel distressed about handing out 600,000 yuan. Why do you have to distribute the money you earn to others?” she asked, always surprised by her boyfriend.

“As a reward, I’ll just treat you to dinner today.”

“Yay! I wanna eat tamarind fried rice with minced pork and rice,” said Su Bai. He liked this girl for being so honest.

After finding a good gym, they walked inside to order. Chen Rouxue looked at the menu and said, “One pot rice with capers, minced pork, and crispy rice. One beef rice bowl, two cups of orange juice, and three non-spicy bowls of fried beef for the pets.”

Almost every gym would have special pet food after more than a hundred years of development.

Soon, all the food was served. The two chatted as they ate, while their pets feasted on their fried meat.

“Do you want to try the Pet Combat Simulator later?” Chen Rouxue asked.

“We can go and take a look, but let’s forget it if there are too many people; I hate falling in line.” Su Bai replied after he swallowed a big mouthful of rice.

They slowly ate while the pets gobbled up their food in a matter of minutes. They then looked up with piteous eyes at the couple.

Su Bai resolved not to feed them for now. They had just eaten enough energy potions, so this next meal was simply to satisfy their gluttony.

“Let’s go meet with Yang Zhou and the others.”

After the meal, Chen Rouxue paid as promised. Their friends were still at the pet center, playing the Pet Combat Simulator.

“Okay.”

Nodding, Su Bai set off with her to the pet center in Liuyue District.

Halfway there, he suddenly stopped. Chen Rouxue looked at him curiously. “What happened?”

Without saying anything, he walked to an empty alley and opened his backpack. He took out a scarlet badge in a plastic bag from a compartment.

The scarlet badge still looked the same, but it felt warm to the touch and burned a little.

“You’re still carrying this scarlet badge?” asked his girlfriend in surprise.

“I wanted to figure out the use of this thing, so I carried it with me. Now, it seems to be guiding me to something.”

When he moved the badge in different directions, there were changes in its temperature.

“What are you planning to do? Bloodline-related matters are very dangerous. I think it’s best not to touch them,” said Chen Rouxue. Although she was a little curious, she was more concerned about his safety.

“It’s okay. Let’s just follow it and see what happens. The pet center isn’t far from here. If anything happens, someone will rush over immediately.”

Su Bai was very curious about this thing and wanted to explore it further.

“Don’t be scared. Since my master left this thing to me, it means that the degree of danger isn’t very high.” He took her hand reassuringly.

“Okay, let’s go.” She thought for a while and found it reasonable.

Under the guidance of the scarlet badge, they soon came to a bar with their pets. The scarlet badge was directing them to this bar.

“Wait, let’s hide.” Su Bai said before walking inside with her and the pets.

“That’s Wang Er. Does he have the badge, too?” Chen Rouxue asked suspiciously, looking at the figure leaving in the distance.

Wang Er also came from the same bar that the scarlet badge had led them to.

“It’s the Blood Moon Bar; let’s go in and take a look.” Su Bai looked up at the bar and then turned to his pets. “You two, follow me closely.”

“Howl!”

“Roar!”

Both nodded and followed him.

Su Bai looked at the bar and stepped in it with Chen Rouxue.

“Huh? What’s this place?”

“Howl?”

“Roar?”

Su Bai scanned his surroundings and realized that he had arrived at a completely different place. While there was still the sun in the sky, a faint blood moon could also be seen.

The surrounding area was desolate, with forests, mountains, rivers, and so on reaching far into the horizon.

What made him panic was that Chen Rouxue had also disappeared. It seemed that only he and his pets could enter this place.

Purple Jade and the Little Tyrant looked around vigilantly. They were also stunned by this completely unfamiliar place.

“Chirp chirp chirp!”

Suddenly, four or five Vultures about half-meter tall rushed down from the sky and flew toward them. They spat several dim energy balls at the same time.

“Oh, no. Quickly dodge!”

Su Bai quickly fled while the pets dodged immediately.

With three bangs, a series of energy balls hit the place they had just been standing at. The energy balls exploded and the yellow liquid gushing out from it exuded an unpleasant stench. The liquid instantly corroded the ground it touched, leaving a one-and-a-half-meter-wide pothole.

“Chirp chirp chirp!”

Immediately after, a new round of energy balls smashed downward, but this time, the main target were the pets. Su Bai only had to dodge one or two energy balls.

He screamed as he ran, “Little Tyrant, use Fireball. Buddy, use Continuous Energy Burst to knock them down!”

“Roar!”

The Little Tyrant roared fiercely and directly launched its Lava Purgatory, hurtling Fireball into the sky.

“Howl!”

The cub also dodged and fired at the sky with energy bullets.

Bang bang bang! Several fireballs burst in the sky, which caused an ten-meter-wide explosion, setting a group of Vultures ablaze and scattering them in all directions.

Immediately afterward, energy bullets flew upward. The scattered Vultures directly became living targets, falling from the air like dumplings one by one.

“F*ck, is this a monster wilderness?”

Su Bai looked at the Vultures which had fallen to their death and exclaimed in shock. The monsters here were already so violent and terrifying despite being mid-level slaves. The surrounding environment and concentration of spiritual power looked very similar to the monster wilderness he had seen in the live broadcast rooms before.

“I’m probably right; this is a monster wilderness.” He looked at the badge in his hand and remembered Wang Er’s harsh means in the previous town selection. Indeed, only those who had experienced such danger would develop ruthless methods.

“F*ck, how do I get out?” Su Bai looked up at the blood moon in the sky. He had indeed been eager to come here, but he had not really considered how he could go back.

While he was still stunned, his pets had already dug up crystal nuclei. The cub directly used its Vine Whip to dig out one crystal nucleus after another. As for the Little Tyrant, it chopped off the Vultures’ heads with a few crush claws, digging out their crystal nuclei after ensuring that they were already dead.

“Howl!”

They walked to their owner, using their spiritual power to support the eight crystal nuclei from the eight dead Vultures.

Stunned, Su Bai put the crystal nuclei into his backpack and looked up at them. “Let’s go and look around. You two, follow me closely.”

Since he could not get out for now, his only choice was to explore this place and see if he could meet anyone.

He surveyed his surroundings carefully as he walked. After a few hundred meters, he suddenly said, “Don’t go over there; follow me here.”

He looked at the withered yellow thatch in the distance with lingering fear. It was camouflaged by a Giant Spider, which Su Bai did not want to provoke even though the monster was only a high-level servant.

“Roar!”

After walking a few hundred meters, the Little Tyrant roared and dug the ground with its spiritual power. Soon, a khaki stone half a meter deep was revealed.

“Roar!”

It pulled out the stone and handed it to him, its head raised as if asking for praise.

“It’s a concentrated earth ore; you can eat this.” Su Bai examined the stone and handed it back to the Little Tyrant. Although it was not rare, it was produced in places with strong spiritual power. Since it could be found within half a meter of the ground, it meant that the concentration in this place was indeed very high.

“Roar!” His pet happily took the ore and swallowed it like a popsicle.

He looked at the scarlet badge in his hand and continued exploring.

“Don’t go to the left.” Su Bai looked at his left, where a Centipede Stone monster was pretending to be an ordinary pile of rocks. It had dismantled its body into pieces as a disguise.

Fortunately, he had the Pet Tamer interface, and the cub also had its Forest’s Rhythm. Thus, they managed to spot most monsters.

After walking further for a few kilometers, the land was still desolate. No human could be seen at all, and they had to avoid many monsters along the way so that they would not have to fight often.

Only occasionally, some monsters thought they were easy to bully and charged at them but were dealt with by his two pets. So far, they had not encountered any warlord monster.

“Howl!”

Suddenly, the cub pulled at his trousers and pointed to a place not far away.

“Huh? Is that a warlord-level Flowing Cloud Fruit?”

Su Bai looked over and saw a low shrub and yellow thatch there. In front of the shrub was a half-meter-high tree, which had three pale green fruits with purple cloud patterns.

The Flowing Cloud Fruit was a Tier 2 wood attribute tree and contained a lot of pure spiritual power, which was a good material for making potions and medicines. All three fruits of it were second-tier, which was equal to a low-level warlord. In the market, they usually cost 100,000 yuan a piece. This tree only grew in places with high concentration of spiritual power, so it was more valuable than a Woodgrain Fruit.

“Be careful. The thatch over there is a bloodthirsty plant. Purple Jade, use Vine Whip and see if you can pluck the fruits.”

Su Bai examined the situation closely. Because the thatch was too deep, he could only see the low-level servant Bloodthirsty Spear Bush monster and could not see if there were other monsters in the grass.

However, according to the monster’s characteristics, there was a high probability that no other monsters were around. The Flowing Cloud Fruit was just a bait to lure others.

The introduction he saw through his interface explained that the Bloodthirsty Spear Bush was a low-intelligence gregarious monster with slow movements. When they gathered together, they would nourish a spiritual plant with their spiritual essence, luring other monsters to pluck the plant before gobbling them up. The wider a Bloodthirsty Spear Bush was, the higher the quality of the spiritual plants bred. This also meant that it was possible to awaken a high-level Bloodthirsty Spearbush King.

However, since this monster was not wide, it was unlikely to awaken as a Bloodthirsty Spearbush King.

“Howl!”

Nodding, the cub activated its Vine Whip to reach toward the monster. As soon as it spread its reach there, the Bloodthirsty Spear Bush began twisting around the vine whips.

“Use Super Vine Whip to pluck the Flowing Cloud Fruit and withdraw.” Su Bai thought for a while and ordered. This monster moved at a tortoise-like speed, and he felt confident of dealing with it with the Little Tyrant.

“Howl! ヾ(o・ω・)ノ”

The cub nodded and soon strengthened the vine whips until they were as thick as an adult’s thigh. The vines rushed in like pythons, picking three Flowing Cloud Fruit and escaping quickly.

“Chirp chirp chirp!”

The Bloodthirsty Spear Bush suddenly went mad and tried to restrain the cub’s vines. A spear pierced and shot forth, but the cub’s vines were so strong that they were impenetrable. The three fruits were, thus, successfully stolen by his pet.

“It’s of superior quality.” Su Bai examined the three Flowing Cloud Fruit and happily packed them in his backpack. As long as humans could recognize this Bloodthirsty Spear Bush, it was a good place to obtain good resources. Looking at this, it was obvious that other people had robbed its fruits before, too.

“Hey, the Bloodthirsty Spear Bush is mine. Leave the fruit behind.”

Suddenly, a human voice came from behind.

Su Bai twisted around to see a young man with messy hair followed by a high-level servant Flame Dog.

“Howl! (▼皿▼#)”

“Roar! (▼ヘ▼#)”

Both pets glared unkindly at this new arrival.

“F*ck, you have two pets.” The young man was startled and took a step back. He laughed and said, “Brother, I’m just joking with you. It’s nothing; you can continue.”

“Flame Dog, let’s go.”

The boy patted the head of the silly dog beside him and then turned to flee.