Evolving infinitely from ground zero

"Xiao Chen, there's a lot of dust on the floor, and since we're free now, why don't we sweep the classroom floor?"

After looking at the photos on the wall and preparing to leave the classroom, Shen Qinghan noticed the dust on the floor and, feeling her OCD kicking in, wanted to clean up.

Lin Zichen had no objections.

So, they quickly found brooms and silently began to sweep the classroom floor.

They hadn't been sweeping for long when two girls walked in from outside.

One of them, a girl with a bun hairstyle, hesitated upon seeing people sweeping inside the classroom and then timidly asked, "Um... Are you guys also new students?"

Lin Zichen stopped what he was doing and looked up at the two girls by the door, saying, "Yeah, we're new students too. We just arrived and noticed some dust on the floor, so we decided to sweep it up."

What? It's actually Lin Zichen! Oh my... Upon seeing Lin Zichen's strikingly handsome face, the two girls immediately became a little excited and thrilled.

Especially the bun-haired girl, whose entire face turned a fiery red as she nervously said, "That... that, Lin Zichen, I'm a fan of yours."

"Fan?"

"It's like, like, I've been to each inter-school competition you participated in during junior high. I think you're so amazing, so... so I became your fan," the bun-haired girl explained with a bashful face.

Liar, dishonest, clearly just a fan because he's good-looking... The short-haired girl next to her internally ranted as she listened.

Afterward, she looked at Lin Zichen, cheeks tinged with a hint of red, and said shyly:

"Lin Zichen, I'm also your fan. We both went to Shanhai No.1 Middle School; we wanted to attend the same school as you, hoping you would move up directly to the high school section here, so we specifically applied to Shanhai High School."

Her words were true. Both were Lin Zichen's little fangirls, who had intentionally applied to Shanhai High School just to be at the same school as their idol, maybe even the same class.

Lin Zichen felt a bit overwhelmed as he listened, not expecting his fangirls to have reached out to other schools too.

But, it seemed his luck with admirers might be a bit too strong.

This wasn't a good thing.

Sooner or later, his desk drawer would be stuffed with love letters, and then there would be all sorts of unnecessary trouble.

While they were chatting, Shen Qinghan was sweeping the floor in silence, like an invisible person with zero presence.

Except for a lively spell during her early elementary years, she had mostly been introverted and rarely initiated conversations with others.

Only when she was with Lin Zichen did she become more talkative.

After all, they had grown up together, were very familiar with each other, and felt much more at ease in each other's company.

"The classroom floor really is quite dusty, and since we're also free right now, we might as well help you clean," said the bun-haired girl as she walked over to a corner of the classroom, picked up a broom, and began to sweep.

The short-haired girl followed suit and started to sweep as well.

With the addition of the two girls, the classroom floor was quickly cleaned.

Just then, Lin Zichen noticed three lines of text information floating in the void.

[Achievement: Collaboratively complete tasks 1000 times under the premise of working with others]

[Reward: Biometric Attribute——Social Animal]

[Number of completed tasks: 1/1000]

After reading the content, Lin Zichen felt a surge of excitement; an unexpected fifth achievement had suddenly appeared, a real surprise!

He had no idea what the effect of the Social Animal attribute would be.

It was truly something to look forward to...

At this moment, the homeroom teacher, Han Yuanfeng, walked past the classroom on his way to the restroom at the front.

Seeing them cleaning the classroom, he smiled and came in, saying, "You guys cleaned the whole classroom? Not bad, it's really clean. Well done, you deserve praise!"

Upon hearing this, the three girls immediately felt very happy. They had made a good impression on the homeroom teacher right at the start of school. This was a big win; sweeping the floor was definitely worth it!

In contrast, Lin Zichen was utterly unfazed inside.

Having been praised so much from a young age, he had become immune to it.

...

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Time flew by.

Before I knew it, it was mealtime.

Lin Zichen saw that it was about time and went home to eat with Shen Qinghan.

After the meal, he rested at home for a while and soon left again.

Without calling Shen Qinghan, he went out alone.

The Phantom Squid illustration had already been unlocked, and now it was time to unlock the illustration of another Exotic Beast.

It was time to browse the market to see if there was any suitable Exotic Beast Meat to purchase for consumption.

Riding his bike, he arrived at the market as if flying.

Lin Zichen parked his bike and headed straight to the top floor to see if there was any reasonably priced Exotic Beast Meat on sale.

After looking around, he finally set his sights on the Violent Great Eagle Meat.

The Violent Great Eagle, a slightly higher-level Exotic Beast than the Phantom Squid, was still primarily used for consumption.

Its biometric feature was its exceptional vision.

A regular eagle's vision is typically eight times that of a human, whereas the Violent Great Eagle's vision can reach thirty times that of a human, which is incredibly powerful.

Besides, its ability to capture its field of view was extremely strong; it could even accurately capture Exotic Rabbits moving fast enough to leave afterimages.

With the experience of unlocking the Phantom Squid illustration last summer, Lin Zichen guessed that after unlocking the Violent Great Eagle illustration, he'd likely gain a vision-related Biometric Attribute.

Vision is a critically important Biometric Attribute. If it's good enough, it can greatly enhance a person's combat abilities.

Take martial arts competitions, for instance—those with better vision are more likely to capture their opponent's movements, thereby better defending against and attacking their opponents.

All things considered, unlocking the Violent Great Eagle illustration was undoubtedly worth it.

Well, its main appeal was still the affordability of the Violent Great Eagle Meat: only 1998 yuan per pound.

This "affordable" was relative to the prices of other Exotic Beast Meats.

After all, in this entire floor, aside from the Phantom Squid Meat, which cost only 998 yuan per pound, there was no cheaper Exotic Beast Meat than the Violent Great Eagle Meat.

The third cheapest Exotic Beast Meat was priced at 5888 yuan per pound.

The price difference was quite staggering.

If it was like the Phantom Squid Meat, where consuming one pound would increase the illustration's progression by 1%, then the total cost of unlocking the illustration would be close to 900,000 yuan.

900,000 yuan!

That's nearly 1,000,000 yuan when rounded up!

Too expensive to afford!

After deciding to purchase the Violent Great Eagle Meat, Lin Zichen quickly found the landlord Uncle, asking him to help buy a pound of it.

Soon, the meat was in his hands.

1998 yuan evaporated from his savings account.

Lin Zichen didn't care about the money; he turned around and found a secluded spot to start consuming the Violent Great Eagle Meat.

[You have consumed a strand of "Violent Great Eagle's" Life Origin]

[Violent Great Eagle Illustration: 1%]

Just as expected, consuming a pound of meat increased the illustration's unlocking progress by 1%.

By this calculation, it would take about 200,000 yuan to unlock the Violent Great Eagle illustration.

"200,000 yuan... Looks like I need to work even harder in high school competitions to save money. I aim to light up this Violent Great Eagle illustration before my second year,"

Lin Zichen thought to himself, confident he could unlock the Violent Great Eagle illustration before his sophomore year in high school, giving himself another Biometric Attribute.

Although the cost to unlock the Violent Great Eagle illustration was high—twice that of the Phantom Squid illustration—the prize money in high-school-level martial arts competitions was much more than in junior high-level competitions.

...

PS: Bowls out, asking for Monthly Pass and recommendation tickets!

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