Start With Contracting Sprites

Chapter 28: The Silkworm Baby Which Wants To Make Money

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Tap, tap, tap.

Su Hao’s fingers tapped away, nimbly on the laptop that he had newly purchased.

With its beady eyes widened, Silkworm Baby was sprawled on the desk and staring at him quietly.

That computer belonged to it!

Su Hao searched the Internet for information on spiritual force being compressed multiple times.

There were a lot of search results. But when he took a look at them… What exactly were all these?

“There’s actually so little content that’s really about compressing spiritual force multiple times? And quite a few results even turned out to be novel content in the end?”

Su Hao looked exactly like the confused guy surrounded by question marks in the pictures used in memes.

At last, he finally found a search result with content that had relatively more value.

It was a thesis. The content was about spiritual force being compressed multiple times or, rather, a hypothesis about it.

It was just a hypothesis, nothing more!

“Could it be that there isn’t a systemic method of allowing sprites to compress their spiritual force multiple times in this world yet?

“Or maybe the higher management has already secured a method, just that they haven’t publicly announced it yet?”

Su Hao had no way of knowing.

But no matter what, just the compression of spiritual force alone had already made the value in unlocking Spiritual Force-Enhancement Cultivation more than what he had imagined.

One must say that the interface was indeed impressive.

Therefore, it was still himself that was impressive.

Silkworm Baby’s spiritual force at this point was only slightly above 70. There was still a relatively long way to go before it reached 100.

On October 1, its spiritual force had only been 60.

The fact that it was able to bring it up swiftly to 72 in just a short ten days was thanks to the combination of mid-level jade powder and other nutritional supplements.

The training method was also a key factor. It helped Silkworm Baby to absorb the nutrients perfectly without any wastage at all.

“But it’s just the first few days of mid-level jade powder usage where spiritual force would increase at a faster pace. It’ll slow down to a rate of only 30 percent faster than consuming primary-level jade powder after that.”

There were only two-odd months to the end of the semester and the joint combat practice among the five schools.

With Silkworm Baby’s current rate of progression, breaking through to entry-level was impossible. But having its spiritual force break through to 120 and completing a small compression was something that he could mildly hope for.

“The breakthrough to entry-level is considered a big compression, while the spiritual force compressions before one reaches entry-level are known as small compressions. However, the improvements they bring to a sprite’s power are extremely obvious nonetheless.

“Silkworm Baby needs to start preparing for it now so that the limit of its spiritual force won’t be stuck at slightly past 100 when the time comes.”

Based on Su Hao’s understanding, this concept was similar to the idea of meridian expansion in martial arts novels.

A sprite’s body was akin to a bucket, with spiritual force being water. When the bucket became filled with water, the amount of spiritual force in a sprite would no longer be able to increase any further.

At this point, the capacity of the bucket would have to be expanded.

The information provided him with quite a few methods.

After reading through it carefully, Su Hao sank into deep contemplation.

“The simplest and most efficient way is to get a high-level sprite to assist.”

Sprites that were elite-level and above would have this ability. It was best to use one of the same element. However, he didn’t have one.

“There may be similar services on the market, but it’ll definitely be very expensive.”

Su Hao flipped back and forth through his options and realized that he was left with only one choice again—external stimulation.

This method expanded the spiritual force capacity of sprites through the use of drugs and complementing it with a special acupuncture method.

But this required money nonetheless!

“Silky, you’re gonna enjoy good stuff again. Happy?”

Silkworm Baby continued to stare at him quietly with its big eyes as he spoke.

“I’m going out to buy some things for you. Are you coming along?

“Are you really not coming? If not, then I’m going.”

Su Hao left.

Silkworm Baby leaped up at once.

It climbed over to the door and looked around sneakily. Then, it went over to the computer and nudged the mouse. Its little legs were too short and weren’t of much use. It could only use its mouth to bite the mouse to move it.

It opened a certain software clumsily. Then, it shifted the computer slightly, adjusted the angle, and turned on the camera.

It swiftly recorded a short video that lasted ten-odd seconds.

In the video, a Silkworm Baby was performing tricks.

While standing upright, it sprayed out light balls of spiritual force, which was slightly bigger than a quail egg.

Balls of light were tossed high into the air. When they landed, Silkworm Baby swiftly caught them and swallowed them back into its mouth.

It didn’t know how to edit the video after recording it, so it used the account that it had registered a few days ago to upload it directly.

There were two other short videos under the account.

Silkworm Baby moved the mouse and opened the two other videos. It saw the low number of views, paltry number of comments, and zero tips. Then, it took a look at the guidelines regarding remuneration given for content creation.

By using the mathematical knowledge that it had learned recently, it did the calculations with much difficulty. Its eyes turned depressed.

When will I ever be able to earn my monies, gurgle~

Silkworm Baby fell into deep thought.

It turned off the video software and opened the browser.

After spraying out a thin line of spiritual force from its mouth, the spiritual force light dots coalesced and barely managed to avoid scattering.

After keeping at it for a long time, it finally wrote the two words “earn money” on the trackpad.

On the screen was a great variety of search results.

With its limited literacy, Silkworm Baby tried to recognize the words one by one. In no time, it sank into confusion.

“Gurgle~”

What a hard life I lead.

…

When Su Hao returned with a large bag of things, what he saw was an obedient and serious Silkworm Baby practicing its usage of spiritual force.

He was very satisfied.

“Silky, look what I brought you.”

“Gurgle.”

Silkworm Baby wasn’t interested.

“You’re not interested in even stuff that costs tens of thousands of yuan? What a wastrel Silkworm you are.”

“Gurgle!!”

Silkworm Baby jumped up at once. “Gurgle, gurgle!”

“What? You don’t want these and only want money? That won’t do. There’s only one thing that you, a sprite in the growth stage, should be doing now, and that’s to train.”

“Gurgle~”

“Didn’t I buy you a computer previously?

“What do you mean ‘snatch’? Can the actions of a Sprite Trainer be classified as ‘snatch’!?

“You’re not suitable to play with the computer the way you are now anyway.”

Silkworm Baby received a huge blow and turned depressed.

At this point, Su Hao said, “But when you evolve, you’ll have feelers, and you’ll be able to easily use the computer and the cell phone. Isn’t that something to really look forward to?

“So, your current diligence is all for the sake of being able to play better in the future.”

Silkworm Baby thought about it.

It seemed like this actually wasn’t an attempt to dupe it. It really made a lot of sense.

Su Hao brought out a beautifully-packaged box. Then, he carefully took a crystal ball out of the box.

“This is a spiritual force ball. It’s a tool that’s specially meant for training spiritual force. Try it.”

Manufactured by Green Shade Group, it was very suitable for sprites that hadn’t reached entry-level yet.

With the help of the spiritual force ball, raising a sprite’s level of control of spiritual force was a piece of cake.

Su Hao had wanted to buy it for a long time, just that he couldn’t afford it previously.

This ball cost 5,800 yuan, after all.

Silkworm Baby approached the spiritual force ball curiously. It glanced at the instruction manual next to it.

“Input… spiritual force…”

It pressed against the crystal ball and slowly infused spiritual force into it.

At once, the whole crystal ball lit up. If one examined it closely, they would see a tiny bright green dot inside the crystal ball. There were also faint translucent paths around the tiny dot.

“Manipulate your spiritual force and move the tiny green dot along the path.”

Silkworm Baby manipulated its spiritual force right away and moved it carefully.

It was a sprite that had gone through training and had a foundation, after all. In just three minutes, it had already gone one round of the path. Its compliance rate was even relatively high.

There was a pedestal base under the crystal ball which displayed the score in real-time. Charging was not required, as the spiritual force infused by sprites during their training served as its energy source.

The pedestal gave it a score of 73 points.

Silkworm Baby squinted at it. Wasn’t that too low!?

Even Su Hao could score 90 marks in his examinations!

It was very unhappy. With an air of stubbornness, it continued to practice.

The moment Su Hao saw this, he knew that everything was set.

Why was this spiritual force training crystal ball so popular? Because it could get sprites addicted!