Chapter 207: Extra- After the Meeting (Part 4)
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
As soon as the title changed, the viewers in the livestream room were stunned. It seemed they hadn’t expected things to turn out this way. But they were quickly drawn to the egg in the livestream.
Who wouldn’t be curious about an 8-star quest pet egg? Currently, in Celestial Horizon, the highest level pet egg that had been released was a 7-star pet egg. The 7-star pet boxes had fewer pets, and only a few top players in the entire server had such pets. Each one either had high base stats or extraordinary skills.
If 7-star pets were that newbie, then an 8-star pet was even more so.
High-star quests were rare in Celestial Horizon, and an 8-star dungeon had basically never been seen. The only 8-star box ever released was during last year’s World Taoism Conference, and only a few people managed to get 8-star treasure chests, let alone open a pet egg from them.
[Forget about the boyfriend for now, how amazing must the data of an 8-star pet be?]
[That’s hard to say, right? BrokenOracle and Night Bell’s attack-type pets seem to be 7-stars, and well-trained pets have ordinary damage twice that of normal A-class pets! Plus, they have advanced break-defense attributes!]
[It’s possible that this egg will hatch the highest stat pet in the entire server.]
[Damn, I’m starting to get excited. Will it hatch tonight?!]
The 8-star pet egg looked even more ordinary than other high-tier pet eggs. The viewers in the livestream stared at the plain, unremarkable egg, unable to imagine what kind of pet would come out of such an ordinary exterior. The viewers couldn’t understand, and even ScarletFruit and ClearWind, who were standing close by, couldn’t figure it out.
As soon as they heard that Momo was going to hatch an egg, many people in the exploration group immediately applied to join. Before long, several top players like CloudTraveller and BrokenOracle had joined the original four-person group.
After taking the egg out from Soul Rabbit, there was no noticeable change in the egg.
Su Mo examined the surface patterns of the egg and then placed it back into Soul Rabbit’s pouch. Once it was within Soul Rabbit’s care range, he noticed Soul Rabbit’s Satiety level slowly began to drop, eventually stopping at 63.
It seemed as though the 100 Satiety level ScarletFruit had fed earlier was just an illusion.
“What the?” ScarletFruit crouched down to look at the egg. “No way… This egg can affect other pets’ Satiety levels??”
CloudTraveller said, “Hatching a pet egg is hard to predict. An 8-star pet might be more complex than an ordinary pet. Clearly, this egg can drain Soul Rabbit’s Satiety level.”
Soul Rabbit, holding the egg, started rubbing against people again. Most of the time, it rubbed against Su Mo, but occasionally it would jump around Yu Zhen. Pets had affection for their players, with the highest affection directed toward the owner, and the next highest for Yu Zhen, who often fed it. It made begging gestures, acting spoiled.
apple said, “Big bro, doesn’t your rabbit rely on fighting to hatch eggs? Why not try fighting to speed up the process?”
ScarletFruit said, “…Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case. Bro, do you mean speeding up the process involves fighting?”
ClearWind said, “That’s how Veil Wraith and Flower Spirit came out.”
Su Mo replied, “It probably has nothing to do with fighting. The first two times were probably just coincidences.” He glanced at Soul Rabbit. The hatching cycle was too long. If fighting were truly involved, then in the past six months, during his dungeon runs and battles, he hadn’t seen any signs of the pet egg reacting. Moreover, this time, the abnormality with the pet egg was related to the Satiety level.
“Keep feeding?” Yu Zhen asked.
Su Mo sat cross-legged, aligning his view with Soul Rabbit’s, and asked, “Fruit, how many high-grade pet food do you have left?”
ScarletFruit glanced at the stock in his bag. “Two sets, I think?”
Su Mo said, “Then give them all to me.”
ScarletFruit was speechless.
As the main financial contributor to Momo’s pet food supply, ScarletFruit felt his heart bleed as he clicked the trade button. One set had 200 pieces of pet food, so two sets meant 400 pieces. Considering the cost…
Damn! The cost was so high. Once the egg hatched, he would have to drag it out and have it stand on the street for two days to make up for the business loss!
[What the?! This is such a brutal egg-hatching method?]
[Soul Rabbit is really strong.]
[Does this mean feeding the egg-holding Soul Rabbit to full Satiety?]
[This Satiety level is really unpredictable.]
[Basic tutorial??? This is a pay-to-win tutorial!]
[What egg-hatching? This is an eating broadcast!]
More and more people poured into the live stream on StarNet. Curious passersby, seeing the stream ranked at number one, clicked in and were greeted by a group of viewers pointing at Soul Rabbit. All the audience were watching others feed their pets, while the livestreamer seemed oblivious to the comments, focusing on encouraging the rabbit instead.
[???]
[Huh? Why is this livestream so popular?]
[What’s so special about a rabbit? I don’t get it.]
[Upstairs, don’t miss out if you’re passing by! Hold on a little longer and you’ll get to see the first 8-star pet in Celestial Horizon being born!]
[Man, Soul Rabbit is eating so slowly. I really want to jump in and help it eat!!]
[It’s in for a treat. Momo and UnchainedWanderer are personally feeding it (I want to too).]
Su Mo and Yu Zhen’s AFK spot happened to be near Sunset City Vicinity, and a lot of players came over to watch. They surrounded Soul Rabbit, forming layers of onlookers. Soul Rabbit had never received this much attention in its life. It enjoyed its owner’s petting and feeding, and eventually sat down on its bottom, holding the egg and opening its mouth, waiting for its owner to feed it.
After about half an hour, with two sets of 400 pieces of pet food nearly finished, Soul Rabbit’s Satiety level reached 90.
ScarletFruit’s heart trembled. “Is… is it finished eating??”
“Finished,” Su Mo said. “I’ll go to the warehouse to grab some more. Not sure if it’ll be enough.”
“No need to go, bro. I’ve got more,” ClearWind said, taking out several high-grade pet food from his bag. “I’ve got a few here.”
CloudTraveller: “Not enough? I’ve got some.”
BrokenOracle: “I have one set, is it enough?”
Su Mo nodded. “Alright, I’ll set up a stall.”
apple: “Set up a stall? For a little pet food?”
Watermelon: “What, you look down on our pet food?”
FireworksAndLanterns: “Yeah, if it’s not enough, no worries! Big Brother Bittermelon is on his way. He’s got three more sets!”
HealsFor25000: “I’m dying to see the 8-star pet tonight!”
With ScarletFruit’s two sets gone, the crowd around them quickly pulled out pet food from their bags. As they were talking, a golden announcement banner appeared, followed by the Array Master pulling out several packages of premium pet food and sitting down to feed alongside Momo.
[Global Announcement] UnchainedWanderer: 100 gold per piece for premium pet food, direct trade through the platform is preferred.
[???]
[Am I here to watch the egg hatch or to eat dog food!?]
[100 gold per piece??? Damn, guys, I’m leaving the chat, I’m off to work and get rich.]
[!!! I think I still have a few in my warehouse. I’m going to list them for sale right now.]
ScarletFruit’s face showed pain. “Premium pet food??? Do we really need premium food just to feed a pet??”
ClearWind fell silent for a moment. “You don’t understand. Our own pet deserves the best. Parenting starts with the egg.”
After saying this, he saw ScarletFruit get up and prepare to leave. He asked, “Wait, where are you going?”
“Setting up a stall for 97 gold per piece, Brother Wanderer buys at 100 gold,” ScarletFruit whispered to ClearWind. “Why let someone else make money off it? I’ll make a profit too.”
A 3-gold difference, 200 pieces per set, running a quick trip would earn 600 gold—who wouldn’t be tempted by that?
Su Mo naturally saw the announcement as well. He watched the man next to him skillfully open a package of new pet food, and then continued his work feeding the pet.
Yu Zhen said, “You take the trade.”
Su Mo opened the trade window, placing 2 sets of premium pet food inside. “No need to feed it this well.”
Yu Zhen replied, “The sooner it hatches, the sooner it can work for you.”
Su Mo agreed, “That’s true.”
Others: “…?”
Viewers: ???
After Soul Rabbit’s Satiety level reached 90, it began to rise very slowly. The viewers in the livestream didn’t really treat this hatching as a tutorial anymore, but seeing how expensive the pet food was, they couldn’t help but marvel at how difficult it must be to hatch an 8-star pet.
“Is this really going to be the hatching process from now on?” apple asked. “With this kind of pet food consumption, the price of pet food is probably going to rise. If every 8-star pet is fed like this, the pet food market is going to make a fortune!”
Su Mo watched Soul Rabbit’s progress bar increase. “It shouldn’t be like this all the time. The abnormal value for Soul Rabbit was around 60, and after that, it didn’t drop. There’s a baseline value, and besides, not every player will use other pets to hatch eggs. Based on the main system’s logic, feeding Satiety levels is likely one of the methods.”
“That makes sense,” CloudTraveller said. “Time is inevitable. Maybe if you leave it alone, over time the pet egg will absorb other things to grow. The hatching conditions can’t be that simple.”
“Pet food is too simple to handle,” CloudTraveller continued. “Perhaps the pet inside this egg needs food, but not all pet eggs need food.”
[Could it really be a pig inside this egg?]
“I can’t believe I’ve been watching a rabbit eating for more than an hour.”
“What? Has it really been over an hour?”
“Slow down, rabbit, I still want to make money!”
“LOL, I just went to the main city’s marketplace and found all the premium pet food sold out.”
ScarletFruit said, “Oh, I get it now, the pet food market’s going to be empty.”
FireworksAndLanterns, seeing him restocking, said in the team chat, “Don’t buy too much, you might end up losing money.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not that dumb,” ScarletFruit replied. As a shrewd businessman, he knew he wouldn’t be so easily tricked. So many people were consigning to UnchainedWanderer, there was no way his stock would make it in time, and it might even get replaced by consignment sales. It would be a waste of time to go back and trade.
So he bought them at 97 gold each from the market and resold them at 99 gold on the trading platform.
As soon as he listed them, they were snapped up instantly, and he wasn’t worried about his stock not selling.
As a businessman, one must have a long-term vision.
ClearWindIsHere’s livestream had high popularity, and with UnchainedWanderer broadcasting the announcement about buying premium pet food, game merchants quickly sensed an opportunity. They flooded into the marketplace, purchasing goods to resell at higher prices. Not to mention, just the flipping of goods alone made them a huge profit.
Amidst this hustle and bustle, Soul Rabbit’s Satiety level, which had consumed an unknown amount of food, finally maxed out.
[fuck!! Wait! I still have one more batch of pet food left unsold!]
[What??? Slow down!!]
[Are you still buying, big shot? I just sold a batch at the market.]
“Is it really going to hatch now?”
“Wow, it really does hatch once it’s fed!”
“This is amazing, is it going to break open directly?”
After the Satiety level was full, new patterns appeared on the creamy-white egg. The shallow lines gradually deepened, resembling ancient totems, slowly manifesting on the surface of the eggshell. Su Mo took the egg from Soul Rabbit, and immediately received a notification.
——[Your pet egg is about to hatch. Please handle with care.]
Su Mo was very familiar with this prompt. “It’s about to break open.”
[It’s coming! Let me see what an 8-star pet looks like!]
[fuck, those totems… is a divine beast about to appear?]
[There are still a lot of unlit pet entries in the pet atlas, I feel like this might be a new species.]
The pet egg began to change under everyone’s gaze. The totems grew deeper, until with a crack, the eggshell broke open. A plump, scaled hand emerged from the shell, holding onto the eggshell fragments and pulling them inward. Soon after, there was the sound of crunching as the egg shell was being eaten.
Everyone paused, their attention completely focused on the eggshell.
Su Mo bent down and, through the crack in the shell, saw a pair of red pupils. Before he could fully make out what kind of pet it was, a prompt appeared before him.
[[Quest pet egg] has hatched. You have obtained a rare, special pet [Greedy Cloud]. Do you wish to claim it?]
Greedy Cloud? Su Mo confirmed, and a unique pet interface appeared in front of him. Next to the name “Greedy Cloud,” there was a [Beast] label. In the description for [Greedy Cloud], the phrase “Tao Tie bloodline” immediately made Su Mo realize what it was.
The Tao Tie bloodline. No wonder it eats so much.
But that wasn’t all. In the pet’s skill interface, there were 5 skill slots. Most pets had 3 skills, but Greedy Cloud had 5 skills, and only 3 of them were lit up. It was a pet that combined both offense and support. Skill 1 was a single-target attack, Skill 2 was a group attack, and Skill 3, [Greed], allowed it to absorb the attack attributes of its defeated targets to increase its owner’s attack power.
And the higher the target’s attack power, the more attack power it could add.
“Fuck, doesn’t that make it a hybrid attack and support pet? How newbie is that?”
“The two skills that aren’t lit up—maybe they’ll be passive skills? Or active skills!”
“Truly worthy of being an 8-star pet, this is terrifying!”
“Next month when the high-star quest event opens, I’m going to try to open an 8-star chest and gamble for a high-star pet.”
[I’m so tempted!]
[I feel like the main brain is about to change the pet system.]
[I also want an 8-star pet, boohoo.]
[First, you need an 8-star quest chest. Then, you need to be able to open a pet (bitter laugh).]
[I can already imagine how the high-level dungeon players will be farming like crazy next month!]
As everyone’s attention shifted to Greedy Cloud’s skills, the little creature still nibbling on eggshells finally emerged from the eggshell. Its appearance was hard to classify—it had both beast scales and fur, red pupils, and small tiger teeth. It crawled out of the shell with some egg residue still clinging to it.
It looked around curiously at the people, then stood on its two feet. After taking a few steps, it didn’t forget to turn around and drag its eggshell with it, then crookedly pounced toward Su Mo, settling next to him with its eggshell.
It looked like a child that hadn’t grown up yet, sitting next to its parent, munching on the eggshell and keeping a vigilant eye on the people around it.
[I’m dead.]
[Celestial Horizon, if you can make AI for pets like this, you should release it to the whole server!]
[So kawaii!!!]
“It actually walks on two legs.”
“Its hands are so chubby and cute!”
“You can’t tell what it is, but it’s kind of cute.”
“Is it not fully grown yet?”
Soul Rabbit hopped around Su Mo, occasionally peeking curiously at the little Greedy Cloud, seeming to have a good impression of it. The other two pets, Veil Wraith and Flower Spirit, also ran out of Su Mo’s pet compartment and followed Soul Rabbit, watching the new little member.
“Shit, it’s so fierce, it actually glared at me!”
“Kid, you still owe me a portion of food for breaking your shell!”
“Ungrateful wolf, now that it’s full, it doesn’t recognize anyone!”
Su Mo patted Greedy Cloud’s head and looked back at the pet’s attribute panel. At that moment, the little Greedy Cloud in his arms finished rubbing against him and turned its milk-soft but fierce eyes toward the nearby array master.
“He’s staring at me,” Yu Zhen said.
Su Mo held Greedy Cloud in front of Yu Zhen. “The beast scales are a bit rough, holding it isn’t as comfortable as the rabbit.” As soon as he brought Greedy Cloud in front of Yu Zhen, its little chubby hand grabbed Yu Zhen’s finger and rubbed it against its face.
Yu Zhen’s gaze shifted slightly. He shook the remaining high-grade food in front of Greedy Cloud. “Want to eat?”
Su Mo set Greedy Cloud down, and it hesitated for a moment, staying close to Su Mo for a few seconds. Then, with small steps, it ran a couple of paces, dragging its eggshell behind it. It sat in the small space between Yu Zhen and Su Mo, ignoring everyone around, grabbed the food Yu Zhen had given it, and started eating with a quick and decisive motion.
Everyone: “……?”
Su Mo paused for a moment. “Wait.”
Yu Zhen looked at him, puzzled.
Su Mo, focused on the attributes, then noticed that Greedy Cloud’s Satiety level was only 20. “Its Satiety level is only 20. It might need more food.”
Everyone: “????????”
ScarletFruit, fully loaded with supplies, squeezed through the crowd to the center to see the egg. “I’m here. What does the fourth kid look like? Let Daddy take a look.”
Before he could get close, a golden announcement trumpet flashed by.
[Global Announcement] UnchainedWanderer: 100 gold per piece for special-grade food, 150 gold per piece for advanced-grade food, 20 gold per piece for high-grade food. Direct trade via designated platform.
ClearWind called out, “Fruit’s here! Come check out this little glutton, it can eat so much.”
ScarletFruit, not stopping, decisively turned around. “The kid can wait. Making money is more important.”
Author’s note: ScarletFruit: My entire gaming career has been spent taking care of my brother’s kid.
