Chapter 9 Comprehension - Taming Skills

Back at the game screen, the farmer had already begun urging him, so Xiao Buli didn't hesitate to choose—Accept. The farmer then explained some knowledge about feeding pigs to him.

System prompt: Player Xiao Buli has changed his profession to 'swineherd' and learned the occupational skill—Breeding. You can view the details of this skill in the Skill Bar.

Upon opening the Skill Bar, there indeed was a new skill. Xiao Buli moved his mouse over it.

Breeding: A skill that allows for the feeding and care of animals, based on understanding their habits, so they can grow continuously under human supervision. Current skill level LV1.

Although it wasn't a powerful skill, it was still pretty good to learn for free.

He chose to start working, but the screen switched to a minigame. Feeding pigs wasn't at all difficult; a whole row of twelve pigs lay in their pens eating, with a chibi character above them throwing down food. If a pig went too long without eating, it would become angry, turning red in color. If it became extremely angry, a warning would appear above its head, and then it would break through the pen and run away. The player had to ensure that none of the pigs ran off, so they had to calculate the amount of pig food, the character's Movement Speed, and the pigs' hunger levels to succeed in the game. Overall, it was quite an amusing minigame.

Ha, ha, ha, Xiao Buli began to focus and started taking care of the cartoon pigs. What he thought would be a simple game gradually made him tense as time progressed. Due to his unfamiliarity, he accidentally let two pigs escape. The farmer immediately ran out of the house and cursed him, threatening to fire him if there were any more slip-ups.

Xiao Buli naturally wouldn't take an NPC's words to heart, but he became even more serious. Unlike the typical fun minigames designed purely for the player's enjoyment in most online games, this game was surprisingly difficult. Sitting up straight, Xiao Buli clicked 'start' once more. It was the same game, but Xiao Buli's performance had improved significantly. His fingers danced back and forth across the keys like playing the piano. With his now better understanding of the game, not a single pig ran away this time. After the game ended, Xiao Buli looked at the screen with anticipation; he should be able to receive a rating above A-level for his efforts. The pig feeding rating was displayed.

System prompt: Five pigs gained weight because they ate enough food, four pigs were unhappy for not getting enough to eat, and three pigs lost condition because they ate too little.

Pig Feeding Rating: D—Barely passable.

Looking at this rating, his usually expressionless face showed some change—not anger but surprise. Was that all? How could his careful play and seriousness lead to such an ordinary score? It seemed this game truly deserved its high difficulty rating; even its accompanying minigames were so professional.

It turned out that pig feeding was indeed a long and arduous task. However, the high difficulty level sparked his competitive spirit. Xiao Buli clenched his fist to loosen up his fingers and rubbed his slightly sore pinky before diving into the pig feeding game again.

Generally speaking, leveling up any profession's skills is relatively easy in the early stages of any game, and this game was no exception. Coupled with Xiao Buli's professional gamer qualities and serious attitude, he found this seemingly simple minigame to contain some tricks. For example, the white pigs ate the fastest, the black pigs were the quickest to anger, and the spotted pigs wouldn't run away when extremely angry but would instead fall into a deep sleep. If the sows were full, they too would sleep, and then the piglets would drink their milk, which maximally conserved pig food. Before he knew it, the entire morning had passed. Completely immersed in challenging the game, Xiao Buli hadn't noticed time flying by, and with a flash of gold, his Breeding Skill rose to LV5.

System prompt: After a long breeding career, you've gained insight into Taming Skills through the pig feeding process. Current level LV1.

Taming Skills: With a grasp of the wild habits of beasts, you can tame them to serve you. The success rate and level of Tame are related to the target's Wildness.

System prompt: After long-term labor, your Movement Speed has increased slightly, and your stamina has improved a bit.

Taming Skills! When Xiao Buli saw this skill, he was somewhat enlightened; indeed, it made sense to associate Taming Skills with pig feeding. It seemed that skill acquisition in this game was quite systematic. He decided to quickly level up pig feeding to ten; that way, he should be able to get Taming Skills to level two.

"Ha ha, so cool, I've learned a combat skill," a voice suddenly sounded from behind, interrupting his thoughts.

Xiao Buli turned around to look, and the one cheering was Sun Bin, who had changed his profession to a farmer and was helping other people to till the land.

"No way, how did you get so fast?" Li Baocheng's complaint came through, "By the way, how high did you level up your 'Farming' skill?"

"Not high, not high, just LV5," Sun Bin boasted with a pro gamer's demeanor. After all, it seemed he was making the fastest progress among the group. However, the arrogance that once adorned his face had faded quite a bit, and a thin layer of sweat seemed to emerge on his forehead—it looked like leveling up his farming to LV5 had taken quite a bit of effort.

Upon asking, it turned out that when he leveled up Farming to LV3, he had learned a skill specialization for polearm weapons, and when he reached LV5, he acquired the 'Wild Dance' skill. The former is a prerequisite skill for learning advanced polearm techniques, while the latter is a small-scale AOE melee skill.

Xiao Buli secretly realized something, it seems like those who could pass the test were indeed no ordinary people. Sun Bin might seem arrogant and impolite, but his gaming skills were certainly not beneath his own.

Seeing that all four had found jobs in the village and had no plans to leave, Li Jian too found a computer to sit down at and logged into the game. Han Baiqiang curiously looked back at his screen. On the screen, Li Jian's character was a burly warrior wearing full-body scale armor with a helmet adorned with bull horns and holding a massive dual-bladed steel axe. He indeed looked imposing.

"Nice gear, huh? Hey, why does your character look so 'buff'?"

Hearing Han Baiqiang's envious exclamation, Li Jian turned his chair around and replied, "Don't be fooled by how buff my character looks now. At the start, he was as skinny as me. After I took up Lumbering, the character's physique started to bulk up as Strength and Stamina increased. It seems this game has incorporated Rocky's physique growth system; your character will get more and more stylish over time."

Hearing Li Jian's explanation, Han Baiqiang let out a long "Oh."

Xiao Buli also caught the conversation and curiously turned his head to glance at Li Jian. Even under the guise of a suit, it was not hard to see that his physique was quite burly. He was certainly tall, but where was there a hint of 'skinny'? Could it be that Li Jian was very sensitive about his build? Shaking his head, Xiao Buli didn't dwell on the issue and turned back to continue feeding the pigs.

After a hasty lunch, Xiao Buli returned to his computer. This kind of life felt strangely familiar, quite similar to when he used to rush through games. Usually, by this time, he would have leveled up by at least ten or twenty levels in a game, and if it was a locally made game, leveling up thirty or fifty times was also possible, having slain hundreds or thousands of monsters. Now, he hadn't even left the Newbie Village yet. Indeed, every game is a world of its own.

The Breeding Skill slowed down further with each level, and before he knew it, Xiao Buli finally succeeded in leveling it up to LV7. As the screen flashed with golden light, a silent "YES" cheered in his mind. He rubbed his sore neck and looked around to see the others still striving. Glancing out the window, the sky had already darkened, and nearly five o'clock was shown on the computer clock—time really flies.

Leaning back in his chair to relax his neck, Xiao Buli was ready to continue the battle when suddenly a soothing tune, signaling relaxation, filled the air. Li Jian stopped his actions and checked the time. "Oh no, it's time to get off work. Everyone, quickly find a safe place to log off," he said.

Li Baocheng, who seemed like he wasn't ready to stop playing, teasingly asked, "Can I volunteer to work overtime for free?"

Li Jian laughed but helplessly shook his head, "If only I could, I'd work for free every day, but sorry," he gestured a no-go with his finger towards Li Baocheng, raising his voice, "Company policy, you can only play up to eight hours a day unless… there's a special circumstance." He said with an apologetic look, pushing up his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.

Xiao Buli and the other two turned to look at Li Jian after hearing this. If possible, they certainly wouldn't miss the chance to work overtime, especially considering Qin Shimoon's previous statement that their performance this month would directly affect their subsequent groupings, and different groupings likely meant different incomes.

However, seeing Li Jian's helpless expression, they could only agree reluctantly and dragged their feet in logging off the game.

Li Baocheng deliberately slowed his logout speed. Watching Han Baiqiang and Sun Bin leave, he hurried to Li Jian's side.

"Manager Li, what's the max level for this skill? I'm progressing quite fast, right?" Li Jian was waiting for everyone to leave to fulfill his managerial duties. Contemplating Li Baocheng's question, he eventually answered, "Most skills max out at level 10, but who knows? The biggest joy of this game is you never know what will happen next."

Xiao Buli was about to exit the room when he probably caught Li Jian's answer. So, reaching Max Level in Breeding should be quickly attainable, and by then, he should be able to switch to a stronger profession. Xiao Buli thought as much and didn't stay to listen to their continued conversation.