20. Study the attributes of the "survival of the fittest

It was only a moment before the coach of the Martial Arts Team walked up to the two of them and stopped.

However, contrary to expectations, he was not there to pick a fight but to invite Lin Zichen to join the Martial Arts Team.

"Zi Chen, I am Coach Guo from the school's Martial Arts Team. I saw your amazing performance at today's school sports meeting with my own eyes, and I was deeply shocked," he said.

"In all my years at Shanhai High School, I've never seen a student with such good academic performance who can also excel so significantly in sports."

"Personally, I think your athletic talent is definitely superior to your academic talent."

"Therefore, I'd like to invite you to join the school's Martial Arts Team."

"Of course, the invitation may seem a bit abrupt, and you can get to know the Martial Arts Team first before you make a decision."

"Room C of the school gymnasium is our Martial Arts Team's headquarters. Tomorrow or whenever you're available, feel free to come by and learn more," he continued.

Guo Xiangyuan said all this in one breath without giving Lin Zichen a chance to speak.

He genuinely thought that Lin Zichen's athletic talent was far more outstanding than his academic talent.

After all, as a genius student who always came first in exams, most of his time must have been spent studying, with little time left for physical training.

And yet, under such circumstances, Lin Zichen still managed to crush the Martial Arts Team's members at the sports meeting and win three gold medals.

Without a doubt, he was a rising star in the world of martial arts.

If Lin Zichen didn't take the path of martial arts, it would be a waste so egregious that both gods and men would be outraged!

Watching the Martial Arts Team's coach who approached him like a salesman, rambling nonstop, Lin Zichen frowned slightly, not taking a very good impression of him.

So, as soon as he finished, Lin Zichen immediately smiled politely and said, "We'll see about that. I need to get home now. Goodbye, Coach Guo."

Having said that, Lin Zichen pushed his bicycle and left with Shen Qinghan.

Once they were out of the school gate, he swung his leg over the bicycle and said to Shen Qinghan beside him:

"Han Han, hop on."

"Zi Chen, how about I ride you home today?"

Shen Qinghan with a lollipop in her mouth, hopped over to the front of the bicycle, eager to give it a try.

Lin Zichen decisively refused:

"Forget it. The last time you rode alone, you almost fell into a ditch. If you carry me, you're more likely to kill me."

"That was just an accident."

"Give up, with those skinny legs of yours, you definitely can't pedal a bike with someone else on it."

"All right, I'll do as you say," Shen Qinghan said, no longer insistent, and obediently went to sit on the back seat, wrapping her arms expertly around Lin Zichen's waist.

Seeing her settled, Lin Zichen lightly pedaled away.

Despite not seeming to exert much effort, the bicycle sped off, covering a distance of hundreds of meters in no time.

Lin Zichen's cycling skills were high-caliber, on par with professional cyclists, smoothly weaving through the busy streets and alleys without attracting a single curse from pedestrians.

Shen Qinghan sat behind, her arms wrapped around Lin Zichen's waist, sucking on her lollipop, feeling the breeze and feeling utterly exhilarated.

Many female students from Shanhai High School were walking by, all looking enviously at Shen Qinghan seated on the rear of Lin Zichen's bike.

Shen Qinghan had lost count of how many times she had been the object of envy among girls her age.

Each time she was envied, her heart swelled with delight.

As she reveled in these feelings, she couldn't help but let out a silly chuckle.

"Why are you suddenly laughing like that?" Lin Zichen asked.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"There's a countdown for the green light ahead, I'm going to speed up for the sprint, so hold on tight," he instructed.

"Zi Chen, I'm holding on tight. Hurry, the green light is almost over!" Shen Qinghan urged.

"Here I go!" Lin Zichen exclaimed.

"Go on! Little Witch of Flight! Faster!" Shen Qinghan cheered with unclear speech because of the lollipop in her mouth, her bangs blowing wildly in the wind, her face full of excitement.

Lin Zichen, the one responsible for pedaling, was up front, desperately pushing the pedals, afraid of not making it to the green light at the upcoming intersection before it turned off.

...

He stopped at the gate of his home.

Xiao Chen bid goodbye to Shen Qinghan and pushed his bicycle into the house.

As soon as he entered, Zhang Wanxin greeted him with an enthusiastic face and asked with a big smile,

"Xiao Chen, how did the school sports day go, did you get all gold medals?"

"Yeah, I got three gold medals."

Xiao Chen took off his backpack, unzipped it, and took out three gold medals to hand over to Zhang Wanxin.

Zhang Wanxin was thrilled, her eyes crinkling into slits as she exclaimed with joy,

"I knew it, my Xiao Chen is a genius in both literature and martial arts!"

After saying that, she turned her head to Lin Yansheng, who was immersed in watching a football match on the couch, and called out with some dissatisfaction,

"Hey Lin, your son brought back three gold medals from the sports day and you still won't come to praise him, what game are you still watching!"

"Eh, coming, coming!"

Lin Yansheng came over, grinning and jogging all the way.

Afterward, the family of three each wore a gold medal, and took a happy family photo at home.

It was mainly Zhang Wanxin who wanted to take the photo; she wanted to show off her son on her circle of friends.

...

After dinner.

Xiao Chen went up to the rooftop filled with vegetables to hunt for mosquitoes.

He wanted to test the effect of the "Survival of the Fittest" attribute to see if he could absorb the life source from within the mosquitoes, thereby obtaining their attributes or skills.

However, after killing more than 20 mosquitoes, there was still no display of the anticipated textual information in the void.

It seemed that mosquitoes did not possess a life source.

Or to say… it was negligible.

Out of rigor, he stopped hunting mosquitoes and went back inside the house to hunt cockroaches.

After more than two hours, he had killed over ten cockroaches.

But the result was the same; there was no life source to absorb.

"Could it be that ordinary creatures won't do, and it has to be Exotic Beasts?"

Xiao Chen thought about this and felt it was highly likely.

Perhaps only creatures as powerful as Exotic Beasts harbored enough life source within them to be absorbed.

For small animals like mosquitoes and cockroaches, at the bottom of the food chain, the life source they contained was probably pitifully little, virtually negligible.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain the results of the tests he just conducted.

After all, in the annotation of "Survival of the Fittest," it mentioned living creatures in general, without specifying Exotic Beasts.

Having come to this understanding, Xiao Chen decided to take a trip to the mall.

In this world, malls sold merchandise related to Exotic Beasts.

Although the prices were sky-high and he could not afford them,

That did not prevent Xiao Chen from going to take a look and confirm his suspicions.

Once he had the idea,

Xiao Chen went downstairs to find Zhang Wanxin and, with a casual excuse about needing to buy something, successfully got her permission to go out.

"Xiao Chen, where are you going?"

Just as he was pushing his bicycle out of the gate, Xiao Chen heard a shout coming from the balcony of the neighboring house.

He looked up and saw Shen Qinghan leaning on her balcony, enjoying the breeze.

"I'm going to the mall to buy some things!"

"I want to go too, wait for me, I'll tell my dad and mom and then I'll come!"

After dropping this line, Shen Qinghan quickly disappeared from the balcony, going back into her house to tell Shen Jianye and Xu Meng that she was going out with Xiao Chen.

...

PS: Bowls out, begging for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets!