Chapter 47
Chapter 47: That’s Bandit Behavior—Bandit Behavior!
The principal had almost bought her sob story.
If he hadn’t gone out of his way to check Qian Qi’s background, he might’ve actually believed she was so poor she spent winters hiking up the mountain to eat snow.
He wasn’t about to keep sparring with her. His voice dropped, his expression turning severe. “Talk properly. Stop rambling about useless crap.”
This was no small matter. If defense fruit could be mass-produced, the impact would be no less than that hemostatic magic potion.
“Qian Qi,” he said coldly, “without permission from the Magic Plant Research Institute, any magic plant byproducts that haven’t passed safety inspection are forbidden to circulate. If your defense fruit came through an improper channel, then as Principal, I have the authority to impound the defense fruit you just sold—and even forbid you from selling hemostatic magic potion again.”
A faint edge of intimidation cut through his tone. “You don’t want the money you just earned to vanish, do you?”
Qian Qi blinked.
Oh. So we’re doing threats now.
Too bad she wasn’t built for intimidation.
She locked eyes with the principal and sniffled hard.
In his chest, an ominous feeling rose.
Sure enough, the next second, Qian Qi reached for the microphone with trembling fingers. Before she spoke, tears were already falling. Her voice—wet, wronged, and heartbreakingly loud—carried across all of Beast-Taming Plaza.
“Principal, do you know how cold it was last winter? So many orphans couldn’t eat enough or keep warm. I gave them my own bread and told my brothers and sisters I’d go up the mountain to hunt for meat.”
She drew a shaky breath, as if reliving it. “But I can’t hunt. Not at all. Every day I could only grab snow and eat it—eat until my stomach was so cold I couldn’t feel hunger anymore, then go back.”
A beat. Then her voice sharpened, catching fire.
“But one day, in the snow, I accidentally ate a defense fruit. I was so excited. I knew exactly what it meant. With defense fruit, humanity’s progress in clearing d-rank instances would leap forward!”
“I only had one thought!”
Qian Qi lifted her rough little face, wet with tears, and pressed the microphone to her mouth like she was addressing the world. “Enter a d-rank instance and test it on myself. Face a d-rank magic beast head-on and see where its defense limit really is!”
“For that, I’ve faced death more than once. I nearly died in the instance!” Her voice rang with ferocious conviction. “But I never regretted it—because I’m a student at Awakeners University, and a student at the Magic Plant College! I’m willing to give my life to study how magic plants can benefit humanity!”
Her feverish speech echoed over the plaza. Even the students who hadn’t fully dispersed turned to listen.
“I burn with curiosity! I have a fearless spirit! I’m willing to stake my life to fulfill the mission in my heart!”
“And if you insist on im-pound-ing my defense fruit…” She hit each syllable like a hammer. “Then I can only rise up and resist! Fear no authority! Swear to defend my dignity and passion—leaving only a great will behind in this world!”
She put vicious emphasis on “impound,” staring straight at the principal with a gaze that dared him to try.
She wasn’t the type to be controlled by threats. If you tried, she’d bite back—dirty method for dirty method.
Sure, biting a dog gets you a mouthful of fur, but the dog still hurts.
The principal lunged for the microphone, voice low and urgent. “All right, all right! I’m not impounding anything—just put the microphone down!”
Qian Qi hugged it to her chest and shook her head, wearing the wounded look of someone who would never trust again.
The principal forced himself to soften, trying reason instead. “You just said defense fruit is important for clearing d-rank instances. If that’s true, why won’t you say where it came from?”
“I did.”
Qian Qi’s face turned instantly innocent, as if she’d never screamed into a mic in her life. “I picked them up in the snow. Only a dozen or so. I studied them for months and still couldn’t figure out how to grow them. My research funds have been tight lately, so I had to sell them for emergency cash.”
Then she sighed dramatically and pointed the moral at him. “But someone says they’re going to impound my defense fruit. Sigh… students’ enthusiasm for research is getting crushed.”
The principal: …
So now he was the villain?
He studied her face, trying to read truth from lie. But Qian Qi’s rough little expression was like a bronze wall—solid, unyielding, giving him nothing.
Qian Qi nodded earnestly. “Of course. I’ll fight for humanity’s rise!”
She nodded harder, all righteous sincerity. “If I manage to grow them, I’ll tell you first.”
Absolutely first.
With that “guarantee,” the principal finally left Beast-Taming Plaza, satisfied.
Su Ang, walking with him, glanced down at the small metal box in his palm. Something about Qian Qi’s wording scratched at him.
They’d only met twice, but in his impression, Qian Qi wasn’t this hot-blooded—or this easy to appease.
After turning it over in his mind, he said evenly, “Principal… she said you’d be the first to know. But she never said when she’d tell you after she grows them.”
The principal froze.
Then his face went blank.
Then it twitched.
“Holy crap,” he muttered.
Had he just gotten played by that brat again?
After the auction, Qian Qi had planned to find Chen Tong and make him reimburse her clothes. Instead, the bastard ran like his life depended on it. She even went to the Magic Beast Department dorms to hunt him down and still couldn’t catch him.
“Fine. No rush.”
Her flip-flops slapped the pavement as she pivoted—and picked a new target.
It was said that once Beast-Taming Department students successfully contracted a magic beast, the contract beast would be stored in the school’s Magic Beast Storage Room. It only came out when it needed training.
And without their contract beast beside them, beast tamers were usually weak. Sure, after contracting, they could fuse and awaken a new skill—but that skill’s rank would be one tier lower than the contract beast.
Take the Beast-Taming Department senior who fought today: he’d contracted a d-rank contract beast, but his awakened skill was only e-rank.
Qian Qi, meanwhile, was d-minus rank.
She swung up a huge burlap sack she’d fished out of the school doctor’s trash can and yanked it over the senior’s head.
Then she kicked him hard enough to topple him.
“This is for hitting me! For trying to kill me! For helping evil people do evil things!” She unleashed a storm of kicks. “And for not killing me back then, so now I have to go through the trouble of beating you!”
She kicked wherever it hurt most—then kicked harder.
Qian Qi was petty. Qian Qi held grudges. How could she possibly let someone off who’d tried to help Chen Tong finish her?
It wasn’t that she didn’t take revenge. The timing just hadn’t been right. She had a reputation to maintain, obviously—so she’d settle accounts privately, under cover of darkness.
Today, this little bastard was going to learn a basic rule of life: do dirty work for bad people, and karma comes with interest.
“Damn—who is it?! Ah—stop!” The senior screamed, fighting to rip the sack off, but Qian Qi’s footwork was fast, vicious, and oddly professional—as if she’d done this a thousand times. He couldn’t even get a hand up.
Worse, he hadn’t inherited his contract beast’s earth-element ability. He’d inherited an e-rank strength skill.
Which meant that against Qian Qi’s d-rank strength, he had zero chance.
He took the beating, got thoroughly dismantled, and finally passed out cold.
Qian Qi hauled the sack up, dumped him out, and grabbed his bruised arm like she was checking produce at a market.
Then she opened his lightbrain, pressed his finger to unlock it, and transferred money into a black account she’d recently created. Smooth. Efficient. Like rehearsal.
The System panel couldn’t help blurting, “This is bandit behavior.”
Qian Qi snorted. “He should be grateful I was restrained by law and basic morals in my last life. Otherwise he’d already be a naked corpse on the street.”
This money was just him buying his life.
The System panel paused. “A corpse on the street is one thing. Why naked?”
Qian Qi said flatly, “Because I’m a pervert.”
The System panel: “?”