“This dumb cat needs to learn how to communicate.” Big White looked at Baobao and couldn’t help feeling sorry for it.
“Big White is right.” White Tiger sat cross-legged in the snow, pointing at Baobao, who was wagging its tail. “It really does need some lessons.”
Chen Guan lowered his head to look at the mutated cheetah by his feet. He didn’t actually need Baobao to speak, but learning another language couldn’t hurt.
“How do we teach it?” Chen Guan asked.
“Learn from this lord.” Big White lifted its chin, lowered its massive head over Baobao, and began the lesson.
“Human language follows specific tones. For monsters, the biggest obstacle is that horizontal bone in their vocal tract.”
Big White cleared its throat. “Listen carefully.”
It opened its mouth and produced a perfect vowel.
“Repeat after me. Make this sound.”
Baobao shrank half an inch behind Chen Guan’s leg, clearly ready to give up.
“Come on.” Big White glared at it with golden slit pupils, looking thoroughly threatening.
Baobao tentatively opened its mouth. “Awooo.”
Big White rolled its eyes.
“That’s a wolf’s howl,” Big White said, deeply displeased. “And you’re a cheetah. Why are you learning to howl like a wolf?”
“Big White, you’re being too rough.” Animal-lover White Tiger stepped forward and pointed at his own throat.
“Little cheetah, watch my hand.”
“Gather your breath.”
“Press the airflow here, then release it slowly.” White Tiger personally demonstrated the movements needed to produce the sound.
Baobao looked at White Tiger, then raised its head to glance at Chen Guan.
Baobao opened its mouth.
“Meow.”
The air fell silent for three full seconds.
“What kind of garbage monster cores have you been feeding it?” White Tiger rubbed his forehead, his face full of helplessness. “It can’t even widen its basic vocal passage.”
Chen Guan mentally calculated the state of his pitiful wallet. The low-grade goods he bought wholesale really were nothing to brag about.
Wait, the school never said it had to eat good food. Otherwise, it wouldn’t even be able to speak?
“It can understand my simple commands,” Chen Guan offered feebly in his defense.
“That’s nothing more than an instinctive conditioned response.” Big White snorted and raised a forepaw to tap the snow.
“You need to train it as an equal combat unit.” Big White’s tone was full of the authority of an elder lecturing a junior. As a fully grown tiger, it was much older than this kid, after all.
In the mental space, Baal let out a lazy chuckle. “Just transmit the commands directly through emotions. Why bother using humanity’s inefficient method of verbal communication?”
Baal found this lesson boring. Pulling on Old Wang’s beard would be far more entertaining.
Chen Guan ignored the demon’s snide remarks and watched White Tiger and Big White take turns drilling Baobao.
“Curl your tongue up against your palate,” White Tiger instructed, teaching it how to pronounce phonetic sounds.
“Don’t clench your back teeth,” Big White sternly corrected from the side.
Baobao was caught between a tiger and a human.
Its purple fur stuck up in a disheveled mess.
All it could do was keep making strange animal noises.
“Hiss.”
“Caw.”
“Woof.”
White Tiger covered his forehead.
“Is this little thing really a mutated monster?” White Tiger expressed serious doubts.
“It must have traded all its intelligence points for spatial abilities,” Big White said, pawing at its ear.
“Forget it.” Chen Guan crouched down and reached out to rub Baobao’s head, once again repeating something he had just learned. “You’ve already done great. If you can’t learn it, then don’t worry about it.”
Baobao pressed its head against his palm in wounded frustration, making a muffled whimper in its throat.
“These things can’t be rushed.” Chen Guan looked at White Tiger. He really thought it was fine if Baobao never learned to speak, just like how terrible his own English was.
“No.” White Tiger’s attitude was firm.
“As the companion beast raised by an eleventh-tier summoner, it must force out at least one word today.” White Tiger rose to his feet and kicked the little tiger beside him. This had become a battle for his dignity.
If he couldn’t even teach a little cheetah, how could he face his superior?
White Tiger issued an order. “Since the conventional methods aren’t working, we’ll use a more barbaric approach.”
Big White immediately understood. Its body swelled, and the full pressure of a tenth-tier monster poured out without restraint.
The surrounding wind and snow froze in midair. Baobao’s legs went limp, and it collapsed onto the snow. Fine beads of cold sweat seeped through its purple fur.
“Don’t move.” White Tiger stopped Chen Guan, who was about to intervene.
“This is the most traditional method of language instruction in the monster world. Only by breaking through the shackles of one’s species in a life-or-death crisis can one’s potential be awakened.” White Tiger explained the reasoning, then fixed his eyes on the cheetah’s reaction.
Big White advanced step by step.
“Make a sound.” Big White spoke in human language and opened its enormous, fang-filled jaws. “Answer me loudly.”
Its roar reverberated throughout the valley. Crushed beneath that overwhelming force, Baobao struggled desperately to breathe and tried to stand.
A raspy, airy friction came from Baobao’s throat.
“Huff.”
“Huff, huff.”
It stared wide-eyed at the approaching tiger as Big White raised a paw into the air.
“Speak!” Big White increased the pressure.
Baobao opened its mouth.
“Peh.”
The single syllable rang out with perfect clarity, and the entire scene fell silent.
Chen Guan looked at the purple cheetah, its fur standing on end in the snow. Big White’s raised paw froze in midair, while White Tiger leisurely used his little finger to clean out his ear.
“What did it just say?”
White Tiger turned to Chen Guan, desperately needing a witness with normal hearing to confirm it.
Chen Guan kept both hands in his pockets and honestly repeated, “It said ‘peh.’”
The tiny mutated cheetah was clearly reflected in Big White’s golden slit pupils. Heavy streams of air blasted from its nostrils, carving two snow pits into the ground.
“Such an impudent little brat.”
Big White bared its fangs and took a heavy step forward.
“Today, this lord will teach you to respect your teacher.”
An even more violent current of air pressed down ahead of it. Baobao’s legs went limp as it lay in the snow pit, its purple tail tightly wrapped around its hind legs. Trembling, it inched backward toward Chen Guan while defiantly opening its mouth.
“Peh.”
This time, the sound was even louder. The spray of saliva froze into ice particles in midair.
Golden light blazed in Big White’s eyes. It raised a forepaw and was about to slam it into the ground. The dignity of the King of Beasts could never tolerate such blatant provocation from a low-level feline.
“Big White, put your paw down.”
White Tiger spoke up to stop it, and Big White’s paw halted in midair.
Fine, let it provoke him. The tiger shrank back into a tiny version of itself.
White Tiger walked over and crouched in front of Baobao. Looking at the cheetah that only dared to hide behind a human, his face lit up with the fervor of an educator who had discovered a promising student.
“Being able to make a human monosyllable is already a tremendous achievement.”
White Tiger raised one finger and waved it. “It means the horizontal bone loosened under the pressure. This is a qualitative leap.”
Chen Guan remained skeptical of this theory. He watched Baobao turn once more toward Big White’s direction and silently blow out a breath.
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
