Superstars of Tomorrow

When Fang Zhao came, Nanfeng had just finished a round. He had just set a personal record with great difficulty and was very pleased with himself.

Nanfeng also hadn’t expected that the Planet Yin handheld game consoles would be that interesting. Although Curly Hair would swipe at the console from time to time, Nanfeng found that his timing was very good.

As expected of a dog valued at nearly 300 million. Its paw alone brings good luck.

Nanfeng didn’t think Curly Hair actually understood this kind of high intelligence puzzle game. He thought Curly Hair was just lucky.

Thus, when he saw the celebratory screen of a new record on the screen, Nanfeng excitedly took Curly Hair’s paw and kissed it.

“Mua! Mua! That’s my Little Curly Curls! Ohhh, this little paw is so awesome!”

Curly Hair puffed his chest out and was panting happily. He hadn’t gamed in so long. He was happy to try out this new game console! And, he had even set a new record!

Then, the two of them noticed Fang Zhao standing over there, stony-faced.

“Cough, Boss, why have you come?”

Nanfeng shot up awkwardly from the stone bench and returned the console to the student. His inner thoughts were screaming, I’ve always performed so outstandingly in front of Fang Zhao and attained this salary with great difficulty. Why is the image I built up crumbling in just an instant? Will Boss think that I’m a two-faced, good-for-nothing slacker?

Curly Hair too immediately leaped down from the stone bench with his tail drooped. He eyed Fang Zhao carefully.

Dogs were always adept at studying the facial expressions of humans to know how they were feeling.

Even though Fang Zhao’s face was expressionless, Curly Hair knew from his abundant experience facing the wall that Fang Zhao wasn’t all in a good mood. He did still want Fang Zhao to buy him game consoles.

As they were still outside, Fang Zhao didn’t say anything and sent Nanfeng, Zuo Yu and Yan Biao back to their quarters. The artiste group would be leaving Planet Yin soon, and they needed to prepare for their impending departure.

While walking in silence towards their quarters, Nanfeng wailed in distress, “Gaming is my downfall! Boss’s evaluation of me will certainly be bad now! He won’t fire me, will he?”

Yan Biao and Zuo Yu eyed him with complex looks. “Probably not. You are still very useful.”

Nanfeng didn’t believe it and sighed while flopping on the sofa. “I never imagined it happening. I had only intended to play for a while, but three hours passed in the blink of an eye!”

What caused Nanfeng the most heartache was that he had been caught red-handed playing games when he was supposed to be walking the dog!

Would he ever be assigned to dog walking in the future?

Such a lapse!

It was too late for regrets now. All Nanfeng could do was think of how to redeem himself.

Meanwhile, Fang Zhao returned to his quarters. Curly Hair walked around the room once before facing Fang Zhao. There were no monitoring devices here, and Curly Hair wanted to say something!

Fang Zhao gestured for Curly Hair to come over. “I too have stuff to say to you.”

Curly Hair immediately came over and crouched down.

“Just now, someone from the Inter-planetary Fund came looking for me to have a talk…”

Fang Zhao gave Curly Hair a recap of what he had learned from Yu Hua. He told Curly Hair exactly what he was and that there were people in the Inter-planetary Fund who already knew some specifics.

“Half-machine organism?” Curly Hair was very curious about this. He had always assumed that he was a slightly more impressive dog. He never imagined that he was a whole different species!

No wonder he only thought about eating when he saw those other dogs. They actually weren’t of the same species!

Curly Hair wagged his tail even more vigorously when he heard Fang Zhao say that the Inter-planetary Fund could provide some of the energy he needed to grow.

Someone to provide food→Fang Zhao won’t go bankrupt from feeding me→Don’t have to worry about being abandoned for eating too much.

2

Curly Hair’s eyes sparkled when he thought about it rationally.

Summarizing everything that Fang Zhao said, Curly Hair drew a deep association with regards to the Inter-planetary Fund: Inter-planetary Fund = Snack supplier

1

He needed huge amounts of energy to grow. It seemed like the Inter-planetary Fund had a lot of money. He wouldn’t make them go bankrupt, would he?

Whatever! I’ll just eat!

As for what Fang Zhao mentioned about “assuming a certain responsibility when necessary”, Curly Hair expressed that this wasn’t a problem!

Assume responsibility? What sort of responsibility?

Fighting? Or perhaps make a guest appearance as an inspection dog? Or dig bones? These were all fine!

With the huge matter of food settled, Curly Hair’s dog life seemed much brighter and more relaxed!

It just lacked…

Curly Hair raised his gaze, carefully observing Fang Zhao’s expression.

“Do you understand everything I just said?” Fang Zhao asked solemnly.

“Understood!” Curly Hair nodded his head earnestly.

Fang Zhao raised an eyebrow as he observed Curly Hair.

After a while, Fang Zhao added, “Anything else you need?”

Curly Hair’s ears sprung up and he licked his nose. “Can you buy a game console? The one Nanfeng was playing is not bad. It’s definitely not expensive.”

Curly Hair still showed great restraint when they were outside. Even though he couldn’t help pawing at the game console, he could still control himself to a certain extent.

He had never seen this sort of handheld game console before. There were many games inside, and although it couldn’t connect to the Internet, it was very interesting. It was still on Curly Hair’s mind even after they returned to the living quarters. Thus, Curly Hair wanted Fang Zhao to bring back one so he could play as much as he wanted to.

Non-helmet game consoles that required him to play with his paws were still very appealing to Curly Hair.

His personal terminal had been destroyed. Maybe this handheld game console would help him get through the pain.

“Buy? Awoo!”

Curly Hair did a little roll and nuzzled Fang Zhao’s shoes with a hopeful look of longing in his eyes.

Fang Zhao looked at him but didn’t say anything.

Curly Hair rolled around some more and raised his head towards Fang Zhao. He put on his most adorable face.

Fang Zhao continued to have the same stiff expression.

“You want the handheld console?” Fang Zhao asked.

“Yes!” Curly Hair jumped.

“Alright, do a set of comprehensive test papers. Forget about the console if you score anything less than 95 out of 100.”

1

“…Wuu.”

Fang Zhao went to create a set of questions. The questions were about Planet Yin and their cooperation with the recently mentioned Inter-planetary Fund.

While Fang Zhao was setting questions, Curly Hair seized the time to refresh his memory on everything that he knew. He was worried that he wouldn’t get to play if he scored badly.

Curly Hair took the test seriously, albeit feeling very nervous. He even checked through three times after he was done and only submitted at the final moment of the time frame Fang Zhao had stipulated.

The results came out very quickly.

“95 marks. You barely made the cutoff.” Fang Zhao deducted less marks from the analysis questions Curly Hair got wrong, considering that all the multiple-choice questions were right.

Curly Hair was delighted upon hearing his results.

“Awoo!”

Game console! Game console!

Fang Zhao called Nanfeng and asked him to purchase a game console.

Nanfeng, who had been lying in his room worried sick, was instantly revived.

The time to raise his own worth in the boss’s eyes had arrived!

As for Boss’s decision to buy a game console?

Nanfeng thought, I understand. It’s not seemly for Boss to get one himself. Clearly, the little assistant is the one who wants to game.

Nanfeng reckoned he could see through his boss’s intentions and happily went out to buy a game console.

However, it wasn’t that easy to purchase a Planet Yin game console. Nafeng had to find the relevant department to proceed with administrative procedures. These Planet Yin game consoles were limited exclusives. Any purchase had to go through several audits. Planet Yin electronics generally weren’t for sale. Nanfeng couldn’t purchase more than one unit.

After the matter of the game console was handled, Fang Zhao contacted the Inter-planetary Fund and provided a list of items.

They would be leaving Planet Yin soon, so Fang Zhao had to prepare more “dog food” to prevent Curly Hair from salivating over everything he saw.

On the day the artiste group was leaving Planet Yin, Fang Zhao saw Yuan Zheng among the people seeing them off.

Yuan Zheng was seated in an armored vehicle, flanked by soldiers protecting him.

Yuan Zheng had matured a lot and was no longer as naive after experiencing the assassination attempt. However, he still worshiped Fang Zhao.

Previously, in Yuan Zheng’s heart, Great Master Heng Xin was a god-ranked idol while Fang Zhao was a human-ranked idol.

Now…

I was wrong. My Zhao God is also a god!

Yuan Zheng held a box in his hand. It wasn’t the Poseidonsaur model that Fang Zhao had given him. It was the petal shaped bullet .

His life was saved by Fang Zhao. The only thing Yuan Zheng could do was to live up to his expectations.

At the same time, Fang Zhao’s personal records were split into two sections. One was ordinary, and the other was denoted as strictly confidential.

——

On the returning spaceship.

Fang Zhao examined the gift in his hands.

“This is a little gift from Planet Yin for each of the invited artistes,” the soldier who had given out the boxes said.

Fang Zhao learned from the other artists that this was a standard gift. They would always receive a token of appreciation from Planet Yin as they were leaving. It wasn’t especially expensive, but it was full of sincerity and Planet Yin’s style.

This time, the token of appreciation was a non-confidential warship model exquisitely crafted from power ore in the style of Planet Yin.

“Guardian series ‘Initial’ class warship.”

Fang Zhao inspected the warship model.

The Guardian series “Initial” class warship was one of the first generation machines from when humankind had first expanded into outer space. Fang Zhao had seen relevant information about it when he studied New Era space travel history.

Production of “Initial” class warships had stopped 200 years ago. The warships themselves had been completely decommissioned from service over a hundred years ago. However, the “Initial” class warships were irreplaceable in the hearts of many older space travel enthusiasts.

Fang Zhao had seen an actual one in Planet Yin’s exhibition hall. He intended to give this model to his great-grandparents when he returned. He remembered how the two elder Fangs always had melancholic looks whenever these warships were mentioned.

While Fang Zhao was appreciating the gift, Nanfeng was busy handling various matters for their return to Earth. As for Yan Biao and Zuo Yu, Fang Zhao arranged for them to take turns feeding Curly Hair. At the same time, this was an opportunity to let the two bond with Curly Hair.

Feeding was done in the cabin, and the dog food was some power ore provided by the Inter-planetary Fund. This was quite a long journey, and they couldn’t let Curly Hair starve the way. This would also stop him from salivating at the ship’s power core.

At this moment in the cabin, Yan Biao rigidly took out a piece of power ore from the box and placed it in front of Curly Hair.

Fang Zhao had told Curly Hair countless times to maintain dog form when he was outside. Thus, he could only bite bit by bit when it was time to eat.

Crunch, crunch——

It was like he was biting on an apple.

The two man salted fish team watched with rigid expressions. I was once thoroughly shocked, but now I can already calmly watch as it eats ore.

“Make sure to clean up all the fragments too,” they reminded Curly Hair.