My starting summon is a small skeleton

At the Secret Realm Management Backend.

They had some strong opinions about the performance of Lu Wu now.

Because they had watched Lu Wu climb the ranks from start to finish.

They were acutely aware of his process, which could be described as exploiting every loophole and bug, and he even tried to bribe the gatekeeper boss in the end.

They had never seen such a dirty challenger before.

Therefore, they were quite dissatisfied with Lu Wu claiming the top spot.

But upon further reflection, although Lu Wu's methods were somewhat underhanded and not exactly honorable, differing from a typical Summoner's brute force approach, all his methods were within the rules.

He hadn't broken any rules.

Even the act of trying to bribe the boss, there was actually no explicit rule in the Secret Realm against it.

After all, no Summoner had ever considered passing through by bribing a gatekeeper boss, and in the end, Lu Wu didn't succeed in bribing; they intervened.

With that in mind, even if the Secret Realm Managers had qualms about Lu Wu's score, there was nothing they could do.

They also knew who Lu Wu was.

A Genius Cultivator, with backing from Fucheng!

Even though Summoners often disdainfully referred to those who play Cultivators, they were quite subservient when they actually needed their aid.

Hence, they did not dare to offend too deeply.

Eventually, the backend administrators concluded that it was not worth making a fuss.

After all, it was just a matter of who was ranked first and one Summoning Stone, let him choose it.

The Summoning Stones they provided were pre-selected anyway, and the ones left probably weren't that great. At most, the stones would be worth ten or so Internal Network Points, or maybe even a few dozen for an ordinary stone; not a huge loss. Just give him one and get rid of the guy.

Under this mindset of the backend administrators, Lu Wu's Secret Realm Bracelet quickly received a prompt.

"Ding, your challenge rating has reached 400, and you are currently the top scorer on the leaderboard.

You have earned the reward of choosing a Summoning Stone!"

Seeing this prompt, the corner of Lu Wu's mouth lifted.

He wasn't too concerned whether he got a Summoning Stone or not, the main thing was that he had taken first place.

He especially wanted to know, right now, what kind of expression that short, soft, "heng"-sounding Hengheng Monster outside would have.

Because of this, Lu Wu was eager to press the button to leave the Secret Realm.

He was a little worried whether the Hengheng Monster could handle this reality and might have run off.

As it turned out, Lu Wu had somewhat underestimated the Hengheng Monster's toughness, or rather, its stubbornness.

Although the Hengheng Monster was indeed very distressed to see its short-lived first place on the leaderboard be taken away in less than two hours, to the point of shedding tears on the leaderboard, it didn't run away. Its eyes red, it was waiting for Lu Wu at the base of the leaderboard.

As soon as it saw Lu Wu emerge, the Hengheng Monster charged at him immediately, "Heng, I lost this time, but I definitely won't lose again next time!

I will get my rating back and reclaim first place.

Also, I meant what I said before, don't think you can completely defeat me just because you won against me on the leaderboard once!

I will not admit defeat. I will definitely beat you in the high school competition!"

Having said that, the Hengheng Monster didn't wait for Lu Wu's response, turned around, and ran off, her ponytail swaying.

Lu Wu was now particularly pleased.

Although the Hengheng Monster was still obstinate, from her red-rimmed eyes and the sway of her ponytail, one could tell she was struck by the defeat from Lu Wu.

And that made the broad-minded Lu Wu very comfortable.

"I'll make you 'hmmph,' I'll make you strut your stuff, the real game has just begun. Just wait, during the high school competition, I'll definitely make you cry again!"

Amidst these silent threats, Lu Wu was watching the retreating figure of the Hengheng Monster.

Dudu, holding Tuantuan, came over and casually used its plump body to block Lu Wu's view of the Hengheng Monster.

Lu Wu didn't notice Dudu's intention and as soon as he saw Dudu coming over, he reached out and vigorously ruffled Dudu's head: "See? I said we'd aim for number one and we did just that. Impressive, right?"

"Impressive!"

Dudu's head nodded frantically: "Lu Wu is the most impressive!"

"Of course, let's go. I've got a Summoning Stone as a reward. Let's claim the reward and then focus on training Tuantuan a bit more. Once it's three stars, we'll head home!"

Now that Little Skeleton had advanced to three stars, it was time for Lu Wu to officially start preparing for Little Skeleton's advancement.

In theory, they could have gone back now, but considering Tuantuan's power, Lu Wu decided to stay a few more days.

No sooner had Lu Wu finished speaking than Dudu immediately claimed, "Tuantuan is three stars now!"

"Three stars?"

Both Lu Wu and Tuantuan were puzzled.

Especially Tuantuan, which was not only bewildered but also particularly doubtful. Was it really three stars? How come it had no idea?

But if the pet owner said three stars, then three stars it was!

And so, in the time it took for this single sentence to be uttered, the lazy, upgrade-averse Tuantuan turned around and instantly advanced to three stars.

Lu Wu watched the entire process, since as he was petting Dudu's head, he had also casually petted the pig.

He had personally witnessed how this pig advanced from two stars to three stars in the time it took to say a single sentence.

Although he had no idea how the pig managed to advance, nor how Dudu knew their pig was about to level up, this didn't prevent Lu Wu from glaring at his own Little Skeleton.

Look at them, just saying it's three stars and it becomes three stars!

Then look at you—leveling up, unleashing a Big Move, and all that, why is it so much trouble? You even have to smash a phone.

Not just any phone will do; it has to be your phone, which is such a hassle!

Little Skeleton, who was inexplicably glared at, felt very resentful.

Especially when it saw that Lu Wu was petting the pig while glaring at it, Little Skeleton became even more unhappy.

Indeed, Little Skeleton still wanted to swat the pig.

And whether it was because Little Skeleton's intention to swat the pig was too obvious,

Dudu's pig couldn't resist giving Little Skeleton a nudge with its snout, followed by a turn, burying its pig head deep into Dudu's embrace before turning back and proudly 'hmmphing' twice.

This action appeared highly provocative to Little Skeleton.

It clearly meant that Little Skeleton didn't have Lu Wu's embrace!

Little Skeleton was instantly discontented; it most certainly had Lu Wu's embrace, and had just been held a moment ago!

It had been held for a long, long time!

Little Skeleton was so anxious it almost spoke out loud.

Unfortunately, it couldn't speak, and in the end, it could only tug at Lu Wu's clothes, gazing at him with earnest eyes.

Little Skeleton [resentful (a pig says your Little Skeleton doesn't have Lu Wu's embrace, Little Skeleton is resentful, Little Skeleton wants a hug!)]

Seeing Little Skeleton's state, Lu Wu too felt a big headache coming on.

Since stuff had been stuffed inside Little Skeleton's frame, its spiritual wisdom had been growing crazily—it changed every day. It hadn't been long, and now it had learned to feel resentful and act coquettishly.

Lu Wu, truly at a loss, could only symbolically give Little Skeleton a hug.

With this one hug, Little Skeleton was delighted, but Dudu was left stunned...