kiwanis-nylisc Chapter 313 - 302: It’s Not Easy Being a Company’s Pet Beast
Chapter 313 - 302: It’s Not Easy Being a Company’s Pet Beast
Gu Ming returned to his workstation.
The neighboring desk space, once empty, was now occupied by a group of newly-arrived three and Four-star Beastmasters.
Among them, Team Leader Lan Ze was the highest-level Beastmaster, possessing a Five-star Level Pet Beast.
The arrival of the Blue Flame Task Force meant that the initial draft of the Cultivation Technique concept Gu Ming submitted yesterday had been approved in the internal meeting.
The higher-ups had approved a Cultivation Technique team to push the project forward. Gu Ming had also transitioned from his intern position onto the proper track, doing the work of a full-time employee—developing a New Technique.
Team Leader Da Fei didn’t show up, only explaining via a message on his phone that Gu Ming’s base salary would be increased accordingly.
Additionally, as long as the Cultivation Technique was successfully developed and brought to market, Gu Ming would receive a commission and long-term dividends.
The size of the dividends would depend on the Cultivation Technique’s development difficulty and application prospects, and secondarily, on Gu Ming’s own capabilities.
This was different from designing a Cultivation Technique on his own, writing the draft himself, and submitting it to the Hall of the Great Dao for certification.
Working at a company to design a Cultivation Technique essentially meant sacrificing his ownership rights.
In return, however, the company had well-established Cultivation Technique development teams with incredibly rich resources.
Gu Ming sat down and chatted with Team Leader Lan Ze for a while, learning that the team had access to all sorts of dedicated resources. They could, for instance, power-level the Red Carp King’s Sonar Skills to Entry Level Skill Level in a single day.
These weren’t resources an ordinary Beastmaster could just throw money at.
Take Gu Ming’s house for example. Although both his parents were Five-star Beastmasters with tens of millions in savings...
...the money they could sink into the Domain of Cultivation Technique Study wouldn’t even count as a fraction of the company’s development budget.
Furthermore, the higher the Star Level of a Cultivation Technique, the more resources it required.
For example, for the one-day power-leveling that Team Leader Lan Ze just promised, the cost of the cultivation medicines they’d pour into it, plus the various appearance fees for a High-star Pet Beast to demonstrate a Perfection Level Sonar Skill on-site, would already be a small expense of several hundred thousand.
Just achieving this Entry Level Skill Level alone was enough to show how absurdly high the resource investment of a Cultivation Technique Study company was.
Later, if they needed to train it to Mastery Level or Master Level proficiency, as long as Gu Ming, the Cultivation Method Designer, made the request, the company would directly wire the money and use resources to rapidly stack up the levels.
Of course, the amount of resources invested at that stage would be on a different scale. It would start in the millions, and over time, accumulating to over a hundred million was considered the minimum budget standard in the industry.
Moreover, the development process for a Cultivation Technique was always accompanied by failure. No one could succeed every single time.
Therefore, all things considered, joining a Cultivation Method Company as a Cultivation Method Designer was an extremely promising career and a dream job for countless students from Beastmaster Universities.
Gu Ming hadn’t even officially started university yet, and he was already sitting in the coveted dream job others longed for at a Cultivation Method Company.
However, he wasn’t particularly happy about it.
’With the system’s help, my probability of failure when researching Cultivation Techniques can be reduced to a very low level.’
’The information on future Cultivation Techniques provided by the system allows me to lock onto already successful development paths in advance.’
’During development, I can avoid countless wrong turns, at the very least.’
’All the failures and costs of research can be invisibly eliminated.’
In other words, Gu Ming was actually getting the short end of the stick by designing Cultivation Techniques at the company.
If he were to strike out on his own, the profits and exclusive rights he would earn would far exceed the small commission he was getting here.
But one had to remember that ordinary people didn’t have the help of a future-seeing cheat like the system.
Nor did ordinary people have the resources to endure decades of development, day in and day out, without going broke.
Take Teacher Zhang Yunpeng for example. In the future timeline, he spent several decades developing the Green Treasure Breathing Technique all by himself.
Developing a Cultivation Technique individually was truly difficult.
No funding, no resources, no connections—it was incredibly hard to begin with.
No matter how great one’s Talent, they would still fear the debt accumulated from countless failures.
Of course, Gu Ming was just complaining internally.
In reality, he would still do what needed to be done.
’To put it bluntly, I don’t have that kind of money anyway.’
’All those thoughts were just a beautiful fantasy based on a situation where I had no lack of funds or connections.’
’In reality, there are always all sorts of difficulties right in front of you.’
Oh well. The Cultivation Technique did seem like it would be a hot seller, and as long as it was successfully developed, it was bound to be very useful. Gu Ming figured he could live with the arrangement.
That morning, Gu Ming followed the team members and watched as the Red Carp King they brought in was taught the Sonar Skills. It went from learning the basics to practicing nonstop, making a mad dash toward Entry Level Skill Level.
It didn’t matter if its throat was wrecked from the practice.
One Golden Throat Elixir down the hatch, and its throat was fine again.
Continue practicing, continue pushing, and if it breaks again, eat another Pill.
The company’s Healing Pet Beasts weren’t just for show either. They were constantly helping to heal its throat, greatly slowing the deterioration of the Red Carp King’s vocal cords.
Gu Ming watched with alarm. This kind of power-leveling seemed feasible, but the pressure it put on the Pet Beast was immense.
Gu Ming frowned to himself, and Lan Ze noticed.
"Teacher Gu, what are your thoughts?" he asked with a placid smile.
"I wouldn’t dare call myself a teacher. It’s just... this power-leveling method, isn’t it a bit too aggressive? Is there no more scientific and reasonable way to teach it?" Gu Ming said with a frown.
In his view, this power-leveling method was nothing more than a brute-force approach of chugging Elixirs and cultivating desperately.
It was recklessly cultivating while simultaneously throwing money and resources at the problem.
If you were so poor that Cultivation was your only path forward, then cultivating with no regard for your life would be understandable.
’However...’ Gu Ming thought about how this was a private, capitalist company and realized he couldn’t really object.
’With a 300% profit margin, capital would sell the very rope used to hang itself.’
’Forcing a Pet Beast to risk its life for Cultivation is nothing in the eyes of capital.’
Lan Ze still wore that same placid smile. To him, wasn’t this all just a matter of course?
He also understood Gu Ming’s soft-heartedness. It was only human, after all.
"For one-day power-leveling, this is the only way.
"Unless the work target from the higher-ups is relaxed to ’within three days.’
"Then we could switch to a more relaxed training plan, and the Pet Beast wouldn’t have to chug so many Elixirs... I estimate a healer would be enough."
Lan Ze shook his head and spread his hands with a smile.
Gu Ming waved his hand. "Stop."
"What?" Lan Ze was taken aback.
"I said, we can try the Array Carving Technique now."
Gu Ming said, deciding to halt the Red Carp King’s life-threatening, desperate special training.
’Cyan Treasure didn’t know Sonar Skills last night either, and the Array was carved just fine.’
’It’s just a non-essential condition, not a hard requirement.’
"Oh, oh, oh! That’s great! It’ll suffer less, and we’ll save time and money, haha."
Lan Ze understood. He clapped his hands and had the team member in charge of training stop.
The Red Carp King returned to Gu Ming’s side.
At that moment, it looked like it was on its last breath, appearing completely drained.
Having just gone through hellish training, its throat was still a bit hoarse.
Sonar Skills didn’t require producing an audible sound, but infusing Mana into the throat to emit ultrasonic waves still took a great deal of effort.
Seeing this, Gu Ming said, "Carving the Array in its mind requires a good mental state. This current state won’t do. We need to let it relax, body and mind."
’Actually, I have another method: just have Cyan Treasure demonstrate the Cultivation Technique.’
’It practiced hard in its dream last night and has already grasped the New Technique.’
’But if Cyan Treasure demonstrates it, it won’t be a 10% transfer of insight, but a 50% or 60% transfer.’
’Because its Skill Level hasn’t reached the Master Level yet, Cyan Treasure can’t control the amount of insight transferred, so it’s not convenient to have it demonstrate.’
Lan Ze frowned slightly, but only for a few seconds. Thinking of the Cultivation Technique targets set by Team Leader Da Fei, he didn’t dare take responsibility for any delays.
Since Gu Ming felt they could proceed with carving the Array, he should give his full support and push the progress forward with all speed.
He immediately made a decision:
"Xiaowang, go brew it a bowl of Body Relaxation and Spirit Awakening Soup. While you’re at it, call Teacher Tang over to give it a Spirit-Calming Massage Therapy session..."