At 11.55 pm that night, Zhao Yao was beside himself. He was not playing with his cats or his computer games. He was just lying on the sofa in the living room with his eyes glued to the ceiling. He was waiting for the clock to strike 12.
"Under normal circ.u.mstances, I should be able to receive the experience points from my monthly mission at 12 am which signified the start of a new month."
Regardless of the number of experience points received, Zhao Yao was confident that he could upgrade his cats by 1 or 2 levels.
He took out his BOOK and stared at it.
His book was lv3 at the moment. Because of the "X2 Exp Card" which he had been using, his experience points had already acc.u.mulated to lv3(1204/2000).
Matcha who was also affected by the card had reached lv4 (660/2000).
Zhao Yao only received one diamond each day for completing his daily missions. However, he had to use two diamonds every day to purchase the "X2 Exp Card" for both his BOOK and Matcha. Hence, he had used up many of his diamonds and was left with just 5.
He decided to only purchase the "X2 Exp Card" for his BOOK starting from next month. By using the diamond he earned from his daily missions on his BOOK, he could save the remaining five diamonds for any emergencies.
Other than the "X2 Exp Card" in diamond hall, there was also "Power Up Card" which could be activated at a critical juncture.
Zhao Yao then flipped to the pages on Dust Ball and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was not given the "X2 Exp Card" and was currently lv3 (498/1000). If Zhao Yao added the points from the BOOK to Elizabeth, she could level up instantly.
Meanwhile, Dust Ball was currently lv3(330/1000). She could also level up instantly if Zhao Yao decided to pump the points from the BOOK to her. After all the time that they had spent together coupled with the power of Celestial Beats and the lure of catmint, her loyalty had increased to 95, just 5 points short of 100.
While Zhao Yao was immersed in his thoughts, the clock had unknowingly struck 12 and the new month had begun.
The words beneath the monthly mission panel also changed.
There was a tick right next to the mission which signified the completion of the task. Under the reward section, it wrote that after deducting the utility bills and the money spent on cat food and the automatic self-cleaning litter box, the profit was RMB 102,333 and he could earn 200 experience points. He could collect the points by clicking on the b.u.t.ton which would automatically refresh the mission for the month.
Zhao Yao would earn 100 experience points for every RMB 50,000 earned. He immediately exchanged one diamond for an "X2 Exp Card" in diamond hall and used it on the BOOK before receiving the points from the monthly mission.
Instantly, 400 experience points were added to the BOOK, and it now read, Book: lv3(1604/2000)
Zhao Yao sighed as he thought, "What a pity I spent the first half of the month improving the café"s popularity. I did not earn enough money to upgrade the book by 1 level. However, these 400 points should be sufficient for me to upgrade both Dust Ball and Elizabeth to level 4.
Thankfully, I managed to cut my cost to the lowest. If I spend just a few thousand more, my profit would have dipped below RMB 100,000 and the experience points earned would reduce by half.
And there"s still the problem of rental and tax. If I had to pay them myself, the experience points earned would be zero."
However, this was a problem which Zhao Yao could not avoid. A cat café"s operating cost had always been significantly higher than typical cafes. Hence it was rare to see a cat café occupying such a central location.
Furthermore, Zhao Yao only bought and fed his cats with the most premier cat food. One month worth of cat food was equivalent to the amount of money 20 college students spent on food.
Zhao Yao started extrapolating the café"s business based on its steadily climbing popularity and believed that the profit and experience points earned next month would be way more than this time. The corner of his mouth quirked up at the thought of it.
He could never resist a mission which allowed him to gain both experience points and money.
"Now, it"s time to add the experience points to the cats. Let"s start with Elizabeth."
Zhao Yao"s entire face lit up as he thought about upgrading Elizabeth. Matcha gave him an excellent ability when he was upgraded to level 4 the previous time. Zhao Yao eagerly antic.i.p.ated what Elizabeth could give him.
He transferred the experience points from the BOOK to Elizabeth, and she leveled up instantly. It now read lv4(0/2000).
The power tree sprang up again with two ability branches to choose from.
The Eternal Illusion: The caster could cast an illusion on the intended target for 24 hours. The illusion was not dependent on the proximity between the caster and the target.
The 5 Senses: This would turn the illusion into the perfect illusion where it affected all five senses simultaneously.
Zhao Yao"s jaw dropped when he saw the options given to him. He thought, "Both powers are so sick, be it The Eternal Illusion or The 5 Senses."
"The good thing about The Eternal Illusion is that I could switch to the other cat"s power after casting the illusion while maintaining it."
"As for The 5 Senses, it was a perfect illusion, and there was no chance an ordinary person could see through it."
Zhao Yao was in a dilemma as he did not know which power to choose from. Both were extremely powerful in their own right.
"I guess I"m going for The 5 Senses. The perfect illusion would be beneficial for future fights and will simultaneously improve the café"s business."
Zhao Yao finally decided on The 5 Senses after much deliberation.
He was excited to give the power a go and activated it immediately.
The objects before him disappeared instantly, and he found himself in outer s.p.a.ce. He turned around and saw meteors streaking past him and the stars s.h.i.+ning in pitch darkness.
"This is s.p.a.ce."
He waved his hand and commanded, "Let there be wind."
A giant gust of wind blew across his face as he muttered, "This is too realistic. Is there nothing I can"t do?"
Against the darkness and the wind blowing on his face, Zhao Yao shut his eyes and reimagined a whole new setting. When he opened his eyes, he found himself along the busiest street in Jiangmen city. He spread his arms, and the ground broke into halves. Buildings started collapsing, and the public was scurrying in fear.
Zhao Yao was taken aback by his abilities. Suddenly, he was jolted by a searing pain in his head as he clutched his head and stopped the illusion. He wondered, "What"s happening? Why does my head hurt so much?"
In his head, everything was a mess, and all he wanted to do was to lie down and rest. He only recovered after resting for 10 minutes.
Zhao Yao recalled what happened just now and concluded, "The 5 Senses takes a toll on the human brain."
When he used his illusion to manipulate the sense of smell, sight, and hearing during cat"s night, he had already reached his physical limit.
With the power of The 5 Senses, the details in the illusion were magnified ten times which exhausted even more energy.
"The scene which I tried to depict just now was too complicated, and it was too exhausting for my brain," Zhao Yao concluded. He rubbed his eyebrows and continued, "This means that I cannot make my illusion too complicated or deviate too much from reality. The illusion should preferably be as simple as possible."
"Is this what it means to have pros and cons?" Zhao Yao chuckled at the thought. However, The 5 Senses was still considered a perfect illusion. Perhaps with the upgrade of his BOOK, and improving his physical conditioning through "Two is better than one", his body might be able to cope with the stress of The 5 Senses.
Zhao Yao shut his eyes and took a short break. He opened his eyes and flipped to the page on Dust Ball and transferred the points over to her.
Instantly, the experience points written in the book reflected the changes:
Book Lv3(432/2000)
Dust Ball Lv4(0/1000)
Zhao Yao excitedly flipped to the page which had information regarding her abilities. After seeing Matcha and Elizabeth"s fearsome powers, Zhao Yao was eager to see what Dust Ball had in store for him.