"Yellow Dog: Power, 32. Speed, 24. Mana, 9!"
"Jiang Lechuan, did you slack off during winter break? How is its Mana only nine points?"
"Last semester, you were in the first group to come of age, much earlier than everyone else."
At the start of the new semester, the homeroom teacher and the students of Class 3-1 gathered in the school's training hall for a physical check-up of their Pet Beasts.
Starting from the second half of the semester, Pet Beasts would be factored into the students' assessment scores.
Previously, the total score was 300 points from written exams. Now, with the addition of 700 Pet Beast points, the total exam score had reached one thousand points.
If one didn't plan on applying to a Beast Taming University, their score didn't really matter.
However, in Class 3-1, the only goal was Beast Taming University. Everyone who made it into this class was a top student.
Class 3-2 was positioned similarly to Class 3-1; both classes were aiming for Beast Taming University.
During the placement exams, the homeroom teachers of both classes had recorded the students' birthdays. This was to ensure that even the latest to come of age would do so by the end of winter break, making them eligible for Cultivation in the latter half of their senior year.
Students who couldn't come of age in time were placed in regular classes. They could choose to repeat the year or contract a Pet Beast early.
Although contracting early would affect a candidate's physical development, it wasn't a major issue for those with rich families. They could simply use the "power of money" to compensate for any developmental deficiencies.
"Teacher, I tried to make it work hard, but it can't sit still. It's always moving around."
Jiang, who had been called out by the homeroom teacher, had a bitter expression. It wasn't that he didn't want to; it was that the Yellow Dog he contracted wouldn't cooperate.
"Sigh, I've told you before, the Yellow Dog is too common a breed. This type of Pet Beast is naturally restless. You just had to pick a cheap one."
"Pet Beast score: 65. Last semester's final score: 223. Your current total is 288."
"Next."
The homeroom teacher waved his hand, gesturing for him to take his Pet Beast and move to the side.
Gu Ming stood at the edge of the crowd with his Little Cyan Snake, observing the Pet Beasts of each of his classmates.
Currently, the Pet Beast score was the sum of the physical check-up data—that is, the total of Power, Speed, and Mana, with a maximum of three hundred points.
Additionally, there were Cultivation and Combat scores, totaling four hundred points.
The two were not calculated separately because universities were divided into the Combat Element and the Cultivation Element.
A Pet Beast not skilled in combat could follow the Cultivation Element path. If a candidate understood cultivation and also had some foundational combat ability, they would have a scoring advantage on the college entrance exam.
However, Cultivation and Combat were courses for later in the semester and hadn't started yet, so for now, only the physical check-up scores and written exam scores were counted.
'This scoring system isn't really fair.'
'If a rich person just threw resources at their Pet Beast, maxing out its three stats and pushing them infinitely close to their theoretical limits, they could guarantee a base of three hundred Pet Beast points on the college entrance exam.'
'But there was nothing to be done. That's just how the Beast Taming Society is now: the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.'
'To get into one of the top ten prestigious universities, you have to choose your Pet Beast's breed carefully. It can't be too weak.'
'Some Pet Beasts are born as strong as an ox and can run like the wind. For them, cultivating Mana is as simple as eating and drinking. Racking up points for the three stats is a breeze.'
That had been Gu Ming's plan before: buy a high-potential Pet Beast and secure the base points for the three stats right away.
If he ran out of money for Cultivation later, he would just take out a loan.
'It was the college entrance exam, after all. It wasn't a loss to go all out just once.'
'As long as he got into his dream university, what did it matter if he had to repay a loan?'
The only difference was that Gu Ming had awakened the "Old Deng's Counterattack System."
Although he wasn't a fifty-year-old "Old Deng" himself, the tragedies his fifty-year-old self had experienced made him temporarily abandon the idea of loan-funded Cultivation.
'With the Old Deng System, as long as I don't aim for perfection, getting into a second-tier Beast Taming University will be easy. If I'm lucky, I might even be able to fight for a spot in a first-tier one.'
"Gu Ming, you chose a Little Cyan Snake over winter break?"
Beside Gu Ming, his deskmate, Wang Teng, walked over with his Grass Attribute Dumb Flower.
Seeing that the Pet Beast Gu Ming had contracted was a small, green-skinned snake, Wang Teng rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things.
But he wasn't mistaken. It really was the most basic model of Little Cyan Snake.
"I had no choice. With my family's financial situation, a Little Cyan Snake was all I could afford," Gu Ming said, shaking his head.
"No way! Didn't you save up several years' worth of scholarship money?"
"I thought you were going to pick an Electric Dog, or at the very least, a Fiery Monkey. Both are Pet Beasts with Four-star Potential."
"How could you end up choosing a... Little Cyan Snake."
Wang Teng looked incredulous, his voice growing quieter and quieter, afraid of touching a sore spot for Gu Ming.
He was Gu Ming's deskmate, so he knew about Gu Ming's family situation and that Gu Ming had planned out several Cultivation strategies.
He never expected that Gu Ming, the same friend who had ambitiously planned the future with him, would choose the most economical option after winter break.
This was tantamount to completely giving up, forfeiting his chance to compete for a spot in the top one hundred universities.
To be fair, with millions of candidates across the Great Zhou nation, everyone wanted to squeeze into the top one hundred, and the competition was incredibly fierce.
If you wanted to get into the top ten, your Pet Beast needed to have at least Five-star Evolution potential.
To get into the top one hundred, you had to contract a Pet Beast with a minimum of Three or Four-star Potential.
The Little Cyan Snake, however, was the lowest of the low. Most were One-star Pets, with a rare few able to reach Two-star Evolution.
With a Pet Beast of such low potential, aiming for a Beast Taming University in the top one hundred was definitely out of the question; even getting into any undergraduate university would be difficult.
Fortunately, Gu Ming's written exam scores were high. At worst, he could get into a vocational college.
If he went the vocational college route, he wouldn't need to contract a Pet Beast with very high potential.
The Little Cyan Snake happened to be the preferred choice for most vocational students.
Wang Teng looked at him, wondering what major event Gu Ming had gone through during winter break to force him to make such a choice.
Gu Ming shrugged. 'He knew that without the system's warning, he really might have gone down the path of taking out a loan.'
'But not anymore. I'm going to rely on my own hard work and the system's resources to get into a university.'
'There's no way I'll let the failed life of my fifty-year-old self be repeated in this body.'
Before long, the students who had completed their physicals came down from the stage one by one.
325 points, 375 points, 346 points...
Very few students broke four hundred points. Most of them came from moderately well-off families and couldn't afford high-potential Pet Beasts. Furthermore, they hadn't come of age very early, most of them only two or three months prior.
There was another group that had only come of age during winter break. Gu Ming was the latest example, having only contracted his Pet Beast five days before the break ended.
In that case, their Pet Beasts hadn't undergone many days of Cultivation, so it was normal for their three stats to be low.
The homeroom teacher noticed some of the students in the two-hundreds looking dejected and immediately offered some words of comfort:
"Don't lose heart, everyone. You haven't had many days for Cultivation yet. Half a year is enough time for all of you to catch up."
"The growth curve of a Pet Beast in its Juvenile Stage has a threshold. It usually only takes three or four months to cultivate them to the juvenile bottleneck. After that, forming the Inner Core takes a very long time."
"By the time the college entrance exam arrives, your combat power won't be that far apart."
"Alright, Wang Teng, come on up. It's your turn."
"Okay!"
Wang Teng shouted in a loud voice, excitedly leading his Dumb Flower onto the stage.
This flower was a Grass Attribute with a maximum of Four-star Potential. The only issue was that the cost of cultivating it to Four-star was a bit high, more than his family could afford.
However, it wasn't necessary to cultivate the Dumb Flower all the way to Four-star. Stopping at Three-star was also a good, cost-effective choice.