Show Me the Money

Chapter 45 – Pet System

Qian Xiaoqian was silently upset during the entire way. She merely walked with her head down.

Fatty wanted to speak for a few times but stopped himself. All he could do was sigh in the end.

“Lil’ Qian,” Fatty looked at Qian Xiaoqian in her eyes in front of the girls’ dormitory. “You should know that big brother has never interfered with your life. But I have to stop him this time. Someone like Qi Xuan is nowhere as good as you think he is.”

“I know,” Qian Xiaoqian lowered her head. “I know big brother’s the best. But I just can’t believe Qi Xuan could do something like that.”

“It’s good that you understand,” Fatty let out a sigh of relief. “You should get a boyfriend at your age. I don’t have much requirements. I don’t care whether his family’s rich or poor, or whether he’s handsome or ugly. All I ask if for him to have a good personality.”

“Mm,” Qian Xiaoqian nodded seriously.

“Alright, then go up,” Fatty felt the envy, or perhaps it was disdain, directed towards him from the surroundings. He twitched his mouth as he saw the male students pointing at him.

After watching Qian Xiaoqian go upstairs, Fatty’s expression turned dark. He pondered for a moment, then sent a can on the floor flying with a kick. When it hit a student, Fatty did not apologize. Instead, he glared at the student the can hit, while the student also glared back at him. Ten minutes later, when the student finally gave up because “he thought that it was his wrong for standing in the track of the can”, Fatty chuckled, then returned home.

When he did, he cooked some random food to fill his stomach, then went on the forums once more. After spending a grueling ten hours doing so, the game servers were finally back online.

When Fatty put on his game helmet once more, the screen in front of him was not the normal login screen. Instead, it was a green grassland with all sorts of animals running around. Eagles flew, bunnies hopped, tigers growled, and lions roared. There was an endless ocean at the edge of the grassland, and several strange aquatic beasts could be seen lazing around.

Then, the scene changed. A large battlefield appeared. Magic flew all over the place, countless humans could be seen killing each other with various techniques. What’s more, there was an animal or a plant being next to every single person. These beings either attacked, helped to defended, or occasionally healed their owners.

It was very obvious that the pet system has been activated.

While waiting to log in, Fatty checked up in the information and found the rules of the pet system:

1. Each player can adopt a pet every 20 levels. I.e. A Level 20 player can have 1 pet, a Level 40 player can have 2 pets, and so on.
2. The level of the pets cannot exceed that of their masters. If they do, then they cannot be summoned during battle.
3. There is a loyalty system for pets. The scale is between 0-100, and a low loyalty will mean that the pet may defect.
4. Pets can be traded. The pets’ levels will be reduced to 0 after trading, but their skills will remain the same.
5. Pets gain experience based on a percentage of their masters’ experience.

After logging on, Fatty appeared in Black Tortoise City. Perhaps it was due to the upgrade, but Black Tortoise City seemed a bit more aged than before.

Ding.

System Notification: As the first player to reach Level 20, you have been awarded with a random pet egg.

Like I thought, the first guy always gets special benefits. Fatty opened his inventory and found a gold pet egg.

Lightning Bird Egg

Pet Egg

Can hatch into a Lightning Bird.

Alright, let’s drip a drop of blood onto it to bind it to me. Fatty swiped his right index finger on his dagger to squeeze out a few droplets of blood, which he dripped onto the pet egg according to the information given.

Creak.

The moment Fatty did so, the egg trembled slightly, then a few cracks appeared on it. Soon, the cracks became larger and more plentiful until a pint-beaked yellow bird head appeared in front of Fatty.

The status board of a player’s was slightly different. It had stars beside each stat, which represented its growth rate, and each time the pet levels up, its stat would increase corresponding to the number of stars it has for that stat. The highest was ten stars. For example, the Lightning Bird has four stars for its HP, which means that its health would not increase by a lot every time it levels up. Meanwhile, its attack was rather decent, making its stats overall rather mediocre. However, its Movement Speed stat did reach a terrifying seven stars potential.

Chirp. Chirp.

The Lightning Bird crawled out of its shell and flapped its yellow wings, then struggled as it flew up from Fatty’s palm.

The little pet was merely the size of a fist. It was covered in yellow feathers. It had a pair of brown eyes with red claws and beak, making it very attractive for female players.

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations. You have successfully hatched Lightning Bird. As the second pet hatched in the Chinese region, its ranked has been increased by 1, reaching the Yao level, also increasing all of its statistics by 1 star. Please name it now.

“What? Second one?” Fatty was shocked. There are four to five hundred million people in the CN region, so there was undoubtedly a lot of talented people. It’s pretty clear that somebody got lucky and managed to get a pet egg earlier.

“Birdie,” Fatty instantly decided on the name.

“Look! That guy already has a pet when the system was just activated.”

“Wow, what a pretty bird,” many female players were instantly attracted by Birdie.

“Big Brother Fatty, how about gifting the little bird to me? I’ll even let you do that… You get what I mean,” a seductive female player said coquettishly.

Fatty shuddered, then quickly put the Lightning Bird into his Pet Inventory and sprinted towards the bank. He suddenly recalled that he got a dirt-yellow sphere from Diggy Rat while he was still in the Beginner’s Village. If he wasn’t wrong, then that should be a pet egg as well. Since the second pet got all its stat potential increased by 1 star, I wonder what would be the reward for the third.

Fatty rushed over to his bank and took out the sphere. As he expected, it was now a named item.

Diggy Rat Egg

Pet Egg

Can Hatch into Diggy Rat.

“Haha, hatch!” Fatty swept his finger across his dagger and squeezed out a few droplets of blood onto the egg. Diggy Rat is was a yao, so the pet should have pretty good stats. With the system reward, it might be no worse than the first pet to hatch!

Fatty waited for a while, but there was still no reaction. He was rather confused. Could the yao boss be acting high and mighty, so would only come out after drinking enough blood? He gritted his teeth and sliced a large wound on his hand and smudged blood all over the pet egg. Since players couldn’t fight in the city, him losing some blood wouldn’t cause his HP to drop.

He waited for a while longer, but there was still no reaction. Fatty looked at the pet egg for a while, then suddenly realized what was going on.

F*cking hell, I nearly forgot. I thought it was a rotten egg or something. The system limited Level 20 players to only have 1 pet, since Fatty already has the Lightning Bird, he naturally couldn’t hatch the Diggy Rat egg.

The Lightning Bird’s stats’ potential all increased by 1 stat due to the system reward, so it had a 7 star attack, while its speed reached a whooping 8 stars. Although its defense’s and health’s growth potential was slightly low, it was still a great pet, and might not be any worse than Diggy Rat.

But… people were always greedy for more. Fatty was a typical example of that. He felt like a yao boss monster’s pet egg would definitely be better than the Lightning Bird.

I have to trade the bird away first before hatching a new one. But who do I give it to? Fatty looked at his friend list. Qian Xiaoqian wasn’t online yet, and he couldn’t afford to wait for her. I’ll just give it to Purple Bell first.

“Bell,” Fatty turned on his communicator.

“Big Brother Fatty, what is it?” Purple Bell’s sweet voice sounded out. For some reason, Fatty felt strangely at ease every time he heard Purple Bell’s voice.

“I have a pet, do you want it?” Fatty asked.

“Huh? Big Brother Fatty has a boss as well?”

Fatty realized something when he heard Purple Bell’s exclamation.

“Bell, do you have a pet now?”

“Yeah, do you still remember that Saving the Sealed Butterfly mission? My older brother spent a lot of money to buy all sorts of materials for me to complete the first step of opening the seal. Since you reached Level 20 and activated the pet system, the butterfly celestial became my pet,” Purple Bell explained.

“Oooh, I see. Show me the stats!”

Purple Bell immediately sent the stats over. Fatty took a single look, then felt ashamed.

The stats were all 15 and all had a 4 stars growth potential. That wasn’t really the main thing, the main reason he was starting to get jealous was that it was ascendable. What did that mean? An ascendable pet could have the potential to even become a divine beast!

“Haha, Little Sister Bell’s pet is truly better. Big Brother Fatty’s pet instantly seems rubbish when compared to yours. Alright, Bell, go back to what you were doing, Big Brother Fatty has stuff to do now,” Fatty praised.

“Mm, okie. Bye bye Big Brother Fatty,” Purple Bell also acted courteously no matter what happened.

Fatty turned off the communicator, hesitated for a moment, then called Liu Lan.

“What?” heavy panted sounded out from the communicator, causing Fatty’s blood to boil.

“I’m gonna give you a pet. You want? If you do, then come and find me at Black Tortoise City’s bank,” Fatty casually sent the Lightning Bird’s stats over.

“AHHHHH!” A sharp scream nearly busted Fatty’s eardrums. “I want! Damn fatty, save it for me!”

Not long later, Liu Lan ran over with a gust of wind, and Darksnow in tow.

“Hold this first, I’m going to take a look at this other pet’s stats. If it’s no good, then we’re swapping,” Fatty gave the Lightning Bird over to Liu Lan.

“Wow, damn fatty, where did you get such a great pet? It’s so pretty. Don’t think about getting it back.

Fatty ignored her. He squeezed a few droplets of blood on the Diggy Pet egg once again. This time, it finally reacted.

The dirt-yellow pet egg wobbled, then cracked open, revealing a small gray rat.

“Fatty, this?” Liu Lan looked at the Lightning Bird in her hands, then looked at the confusion.

Fatty felt rather awkward, and what made everyone looking at the little rat speechless was that after it snuck out of its shell, it looked around sneakily, then turned around to eat all the eggshells.

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations. You have successfully hatched Diggy Rat. As the fifth pet hatched in the Chinese region, one of its statistics have been increased by 1 star at random. Please name it now.

F*cking hell. I was just a bit slower, and now I’m fifth.

After the little rat finished the egg shells, it squatted down on Fatty’s hand and looked around in bright eyes, appearing as sneaky as a rat.

Fatty stared dumbly at the rat in his hand. He felt like his brain was unable to process anything anymore.

“Fatty, take look at the stats,” Liu Lan reminded.

What’s this? An all-rounder? Although the Diggy Rat didn’t have an insane of a speed as the Lightning Bird, its growth potential for each attribute was rather even, and was not really worse than the Lightning Bird overall.

“Lil’ Sis Lan,” Fatty looked towards Liu Lan passionately.

“Tsk, it’s pointless no matter how intimately you call me. How could I let you get back what you already gave me?” Liu Lan looked at him speechlessly. “Birdie? What a terrible name. You’re Sparky from now on. C’mon, let’s ignore the fatty. Come and level up with Big Sis.”

Fatty blinked as he watched Liu Lan take Sparky away.

“Tsk, what are you getting so full of yourself from? My little rat isn’t bad either. Hmm, I’ll call you Gary cuz you’re gray. Man, we really are suited for each other. C’mon now, Lord Fatty will take you farming. That birdie’s master is not even Level 20 yet, so she can’t summon the bird in battle. You will definitely become the highest leveled pet in the game!”