Chapter 10

Tian Xiangdong was practicing his boxing techniques on the playground, but his eyes kept glancing at Zhou Wen, who was leisurely playing with his phone under the shade of a tree. He had been practicing for almost an hour, but Zhou Wen had been playing his phone for the entire time.

"Comparing people really makes one angry. We are practicing to the point of exhaustion, while that guy is leisurely playing games." Tian Xiangdong felt increasingly frustrated as he watched.

After a few days of training together, Tian Xiangdong understood one thing: Zhou Wen being the top talent at Guide High School was not just because of his excellent cultivation talent.

Tian Xiangdong originally thought that the saying "cultivation is like rowing against the current" applied to all humans. After all, humans are not machines; if they don't practice every day, they easily fall behind.

Especially during practical application, timing and distance can easily become off.

But Zhou Wen was different. Whatever he learned, whether he practiced it regularly or not, he seemed to use it with such natural proficiency.

In the past few days, during their group practice, Zhou Wen would always cooperate. But when it was time for individual practice, he would go off to play games.

If it weren't for Zhou Wen's impeccable performance during the group practice, which could even be said to be the best among the four, Tian Xiangdong would have taken on the role of a teacher and given him a good lecture to make him understand the importance of diligent study and daily progress.

But now, Tian Xiangdong could only secretly watch Zhou Wen play games, while he had to practice hard.

"What are you looking at? If you don't focus on your practice, your movements will become deformed." Li Zhi, who was standing nearby, said.

Tian Xiangdong glanced at Zhou Wen, who was dedicated to his game, and said enviously, "If only I had Zhou Wen's talent. Cultivation is so painful; who wouldn't want to play games all day?"

Li Zhi laughed and said, "Do you really think Zhou Wen just plays games all day?"

"Isn't that the case? We can clearly see how much he enjoys playing every day," Tian Xiangdong said.

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "We only see what he does at school. We don't know what he does after school."

"You mean he practices hard at home after school?" Tian Xiangdong understood Li Zhi's implication.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. Zhou Wen may seem harmless and carefree, but deep down, he is very proud. After his defeat by An Jing, even though it wasn't entirely his fault, his pride wouldn't let him let it go. He must be working hard to improve his cultivation. His combat proficiency shows that he is far from the lazy and playful person he appears to be," Li Zhi said seriously.

"Why does he have to act so lazy at school? It's not necessary. Wouldn't it be better to use the time for cultivation?" Tian Xiangdong was skeptical.

Li Zhi glanced at Zhou Wen and said, "I think that when he was first defeated by An Jing, he might have suffered some psychological shock, making people think he had given up."

"But that doesn't explain why he plays games at school," Tian Xiangdong still couldn't understand.

"Think about it. If everyone thinks you're a scumbag, and then you shock them by getting the top score in the city on the college entrance exam, wouldn't that feel great?" Li Zhi said.

"Damn, Zhou Wen's mentality is so dark. That scumbag and manipulative guy..." Tian Xiangdong suddenly understood, almost shouting out loud, but Li Zhi quickly covered his mouth.

Zhou Wen, of course, was not as Tian Xiangdong thought. He could improve his strength by playing games, and the game characters were like his avatars. When the game characters fought, he could gain combat experience and skill proficiency, so he didn't need to practice anymore.

"Mutated Giant Ant!" Zhou Wen was happily grinding monsters when he suddenly saw a blood-red Mutated Giant Ant appear.

In the past few days, he had killed at least a dozen Mutated Giant Ants, but the results were not satisfactory.

Apart from the first Mutated Giant Ant, which dropped two Dimensional Crystals, the probability of the subsequent Giant Ants dropping Dimensional Crystals was getting lower, and the quality was much worse.

Not to mention Energy Skill Crystals, even Level 9 Dimensional Crystals were rarely seen, and about ten Mutated Giant Ants didn't drop anything at all.

When he saw the Mutated Giant Ant this time, Zhou Wen was not as excited as before. He calmly controlled the blood-colored avatar, who delivered two powerful punches and directly killed the Mutated Giant Ant.

" Ding!"

The familiar sound rang in his ears, and this time something actually dropped.

Zhou Wen was not very excited. Even if a Dimensional Crystal dropped, if it was only a 7 or 8 point one, it wouldn't be very useful to him unless it was a Speed Crystal, as it would only replenish his energy consumption.

But when Zhou Wen saw what had dropped, he was slightly taken aback because the item's name did not include the word "crystal."

"Killed Mutated Giant Ant, discovered Companion Egg."

A game notification appeared in the lower left corner of the screen, making Zhou Wen both surprised and delighted.

Dropping a Companion Egg meant the possibility of obtaining a Companion Pet. However, according to Zhou Wen's knowledge, Companion Pets rarely appeared at the Mortal stage. They usually only appeared at the Legendary stage.

Companion Pets themselves were a symbol of strength and status. People who could walk the streets with a Companion Pet were generally Legendary-level or higher, respected and envied by others.

The reason why Companion Pets were almost non-existent at the Mortal stage was that Mortal-stage Dimensional Beings rarely dropped Companion Pets. Legendary-stage Dimensional Beings had a lower probability of dropping Companion Pets, and the Companion Eggs themselves required Legendary-level Energy to hatch. Therefore, even if Mortal-stage humans obtained Companion Eggs, they couldn't hatch them.

Once hatched, Companion Pets were bound to their masters for life and could hardly be transferred to others. If they were forcibly transferred, it would require a significant cost, which most people would not do.

Zhou Wen had never seen anyone at the Mortal stage in Guide City with a Companion Pet.

The Companion Egg was as big as the blood-colored avatar's fist, entirely milky white and translucent, oval-shaped, with a few red light points faintly flickering inside, looking mysterious and beautiful.

Zhou Wen eagerly controlled the blood-colored avatar to pick up the Companion Egg. The moment the avatar's fingers touched the egg, Zhou Wen felt a sudden tremor in his body, as if the Energy inside him was being sucked out by a syringe and quickly flowing into the phone.

In the game, the Energy value of the blood-colored avatar dropped from 9 to 0 in an instant.