My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 172 Green Tea Shark and Miscellaneous Red Dragon (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
The blood-red twilight crept into the dormitory, staining half of Li Qingping's cheek. He stood still, gazing silently at the small shark in the crystal ball.

The shark playfully revealed its small, sharp teeth and grinned sharply, like a mischievous little child.

Li Qingping couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, asking in surprise, "Is this the friend Your Highness wanted to introduce to me?"

“That’s right, this is the friend I’m introducing to you.” Caesar smiled slightly.

"Your Highness Caesar, may I ask about the origin of this shark?"

"Its name is 'Agubaru,' but I don't actually know what kind of creature it is."

"Abaguru?"

Li Qingping muttered to himself, seemingly lost in thought.

“Oh right, that’s Shark Shark’s name.” Yagubaru snorted twice and proudly raised his tail. “Only a shark aristocrat like me deserves a name. The other sharks are all low-lifes and don’t deserve to be in the same species as me.”

Li Qingping stared at it in silence for a long while before finally speaking, "No wonder... When I came here a few days ago, I felt that this shark was a bit strange."

Caesar said in a low voice, "I'm sorry to have kept it from you, the circumstances were special before."

“Li Qingping is a complete idiot,” Yagubaru suddenly said in Chinese.

Li Qingping and Caesar were both stunned.

"No way, Li Qingping, you really didn't hear me cursing you that day?" Yagubaru asked curiously.

It pressed its head against the glass, staring at Li Qingping with crooked eyebrows and squinting eyes, its gaze seeming to ask: Are you still human? Switch to artificial?

Li Qingping was taken aback at first, then slowly said, "Sure enough, it was you who was cursing me that day."

"Otherwise, who else can criticize you?"

“The way you swore sounded a bit like one of my friends. At first, I thought I was hallucinating,” Li Qingping said.

Caesar was taken aback: "Wait a minute, so this means something like an insult?"

"if not?"

Caesar said slowly, "Aguru told me before that calling Li Qingping a big idiot is a compliment, so I wanted to use it to compliment you."

Agubaru seemed surprised that Caesar would betray him, so he paused for a moment, then quickly defended himself:

"Cesare, to determine whether a word is an insult, you need to consider the context. For example, if you call a pig a pig, is that considered an insult?"

Caesar shook his head: "No."

“Right, by the same token, when I call an idiot an idiot, I’m not actually insulting him,” Yagubaru lectured earnestly. “To be even more precise, the word ‘idiot’ might actually be considered a compliment to Li Qingping.”

It paused for a moment: "After all, no one would call a pig an idiot, they would only call humans idiots."

"We're complete strangers, why are you speaking so harshly to me?" Li Qingping was puzzled, thinking to himself, "You not only called me an idiot, but you also implied that I'm a pig. What grudge do you hold against me?"

Since the last time he was in a bad mood and almost killed Hei Yong in front of Gu Wenyu, Li Qingping decided to turn over a new leaf and be a good person. No matter how he was provoked, he would try his best to remain calm and not let his emotions control his mind.

Otherwise, he would have had to pull that shark out of the crystal ball and teach it a lesson.

Agubaru thought for a moment: "Because I've heard a lot about you from Caesar, I feel like your IQ is no different from a pig's. Do you know that in the current situation, standing on Caesar's side is almost a certain death sentence?"

Upon hearing this, Caesar remained silent.

Even if Li Qingping ultimately chooses to back down, turn away, or even stand against him, he will not have any complaints. From the very beginning, he had planned to go all the way with Yagubalu.

Li Qingping said expressionlessly, "How will we know if we don't try? Besides, Her Majesty the Queen said that I should take him away from here on August 1st. Maybe they don't actually intend to..."

Agubaru interrupted him: "Assessment complete. You are as innocent as Caesar before he turned evil."

It shook its head and muttered, "Luckily, Shark has already used an evolution stone to evolve him into a corrupted elementary school student, otherwise his future would really be bleak."

The little shark looked dejected, gurgling out two mouthfuls of seawater, its eyes blurry with tears, and then wiping its eyes with its tail: "Sigh... I don't know why Caesar trusts you so much, even though... even though Shark came first."

"Green tea shark," Li Qingping commented expressionlessly.

"A worthless red dragon." Yagubalu ground his teeth fiercely.

Seemingly sensing Li Qingping's hostility towards Agubaru, Caesar smiled silently and said:

"Don't worry, Li Qingping. It's been protecting me these past few days, otherwise I might have died several times over. Even if it's a bad guy, it's a bad guy that's good for us."

"As expected..." Li Qingping pondered, "The eldest prince and his men have already made their move against you."

“The Queen Mother is in cahoots with them too,” Caesar said in a low voice after a moment of silence.

Li Qingping was slightly taken aback, and it took him a moment to recover: "I see... I had only guessed that it was possible before, but I was not sure."

He paused, then looked up at Agubaru: "But with just the abilities of a Nobel Shark, it shouldn't be enough to protect Prince Caesar from the assassins they sent, right? Does this shark possess some kind of magical ability, or can it change its appearance?"

Yaguba Lu puffed out its chest, instantly becoming arrogant. It said aggressively, "Instead of that, why don't you ask yourself what you've been doing? If it weren't for Shark, Caesar would have died long ago. If you want to protect Caesar, can't you show some determination?"

Li Qingping said expressionlessly, "Didn't I hand over the phoenix feathers to Prince Caesar?"

"What's the use of that bird feather?" Yaguba Lu tilted his head and glanced sideways at Li Qingping. "Isn't it still up to Shark to make a move?"

“I’d like to ask that too,” Caesar said, casting a curious glance at Li Qingping.

"Your Highness will know in time," Li Qingping said, seemingly unwilling to explain.

“No way, this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone act like a riddle-teller even when they’re talking to their own people,” Yagubaru said.

"Is your shark a bit too modern?" Li Qingping said. "Not only do you speak Chinese, but you also know internet slang."

"Don't underestimate the wisdom of the shark nobility, arrogant humans," Agubaru said disdainfully.

Li Qingping shook his head, deciding not to argue with this green tea shark anymore.

"Enough of this small talk," Caesar said. "Li Qingping, would you come with me to see my father?"

“Of course,” Li Qingping nodded. “Let’s set off now. There are fewer people in the palace at this time, and the eldest and second princes should still be asleep.” Caesar nodded, then picked up the crystal ball and followed Li Qingping out of the floating castle, heading towards the most expansive island beneath the sky of the miniature garden. Upon seeing Caesar and Li Qingping, the guards immediately knelt in respect.

The two passed through rows of kneeling guards and entered the brightly lit palace. Under the blood-red sky, the enormous palace presented a bewitching color, like a woman wearing loose ancient clothes with her shoulders exposed.

Before long, the two arrived at the bedroom deep inside the palace. Looking up, they saw a lavishly decorated bed shrouded in an invisible barrier.

The king lay quietly on the bed. Black veins throbbed on his face and the back of his hands, like tiny black snakes writhing. His lips were pale, and his entire body was bloodless, his exposed skin shifting between black and white.

Anyone who saw this scene would probably think that there was a corpse lying on the bed.

The dormitory window was wide open, and outside were rows of blood-red trees. A leaf swirled and fell into the trees, shattering the last rays of the setting sun.

Caesar lowered his eyes and gazed quietly at the king's sleeping face.

The fallen leaves, blown by the wind, approached the bed beneath the king, only to be instantly burned to ashes by the barrier.

At this moment, the king held a deathly white scepter in his hands—the legendary "White King's Scepter," a divine artifact capable of suppressing all extraordinary beings, both at the generational and lower levels, without distinction. The protective barrier surrounding the king was generated from the scepter itself.

No one knows when this barrier will disappear; perhaps it will disappear on the day the king dies.

When that time comes, the White King's Scepter will change hands again, and whoever obtains this scepter will gain the right to rule the world of the miniature garden.

The little shark in the crystal ball licked its sharp teeth, wondering if eating this thing would increase its size.

Li Qing remained kneeling silently behind Caesar, never raising her head.

“Father…it’s been a long time.” Caesar looked at the aged man and spoke softly.

Yet, all that answered him was deathly silence. Outside the window, blood-red leaves swayed in the wind, and the entire palace was enveloped in a soft rustling sound.

"I will live on," he said softly, "and live more freely than anyone else."

Yagubalu blinked, and just then it suddenly heard a soft footstep.

It turned over in the seawater and looked behind it. A woman dressed in a noble and elegant manner walked in. She had a golden hairpin in her hair and her long skirt trailed on the ground like a bird's tail feathers.

“Caesar, my child… I heard from the guards that you have come to visit your father,” Kalilena said as she walked.

"Mom, am I disappointing you because I didn't die?" Caesar suddenly asked.

Karelina was taken aback.

“It’s alright… I don’t hate you,” Caesar said calmly. “On August 1st, I will leave here as promised and never set foot in the Garden of Bamboo Grove again. If you still have even the slightest bit of feeling for me, please let me and Li Qingping leave together…”

He paused for a moment: "Only you can convince your two older brothers, right?"

Karelina remained silent for a long while before finally speaking, "What nonsense are you talking about, child?"

She paused, then looked down at Li Qingping, who was kneeling on the ground: "Li Qingping, I heard that you voluntarily asked to leave the Royal Court Team. Don't you know how much the King values ​​you? Even after you left the Garden of Bamboo without a word, he still kept your position as the vice-captain of the Royal Court Team... But after he fell ill, you resigned from your position immediately."

Li Qingping remained silent.

His face was cold, and his dark eyes reflected the ground, as if refusing to answer her words.

“That’s enough…” Kalilena said softly, “You should all go back and let the king rest in peace.”

Caesar turned around, his white bangs falling to obscure his eyes. He silently passed by the Queen, holding the crystal ball, with Li Qingping close behind.

At a different time, Li Qingping might have chosen to capture Kalilena to threaten the Wangting team.

But the legendary whale hasn't landed yet, so doing this would be pointless. Instead, it would give them an opportunity to label him a "traitor" and openly attack him.

On the way back, Yagubaru muttered to himself, "A worthless red dragon. If you want to be friends with Shark, you have to pay a friend fee."

Li Qingping was not only puzzled, but also very annoyed.

He was about to retort to the shark when Caesar suddenly explained:

"The friend fee that Agubaru mentioned refers to the Strange Fragments. It seems that eating Strange Fragments can make it stronger, so I've been feeding it fragments these days in order to break through."

"Did you hear that, you little red dragon?" Yagubalu winked and slapped the seawater with his tail.

“Green Tea Shark…” Li Qingping said calmly, “but it’s not impossible for me to feed you some junk.”

As he spoke, he summoned the Book of Strange Tales, quickly took out some fragments of strange tales that he would never normally use, and casually tossed them one by one into the crystal ball, as if feeding a pet.

The little shark's eyes shone like Astro Boy's. It used its tail to open the lid of the crystal ball, opened its mouth, and swallowed the fragments that Li Qingping threw at it with a "whoosh" like it was eating potato chips. Then it rubbed its belly with its fin.

It let out a satisfied burp, "Li Qingping, you're the best... Now that you've paid your friend fee, I, Shark, will never call you a worthless little fish or a red dragon again. I'm incredibly good to my friends!"

Aguru paused, then lowered his voice softly:

"Green Tea Red Dragon".

"Miscellaneous fish and sharks."

Li Qingping spoke expressionlessly, putting away the pictorial record of strange tales that was floating in mid-air.

Seeing that the man and the shark were getting along well, Caesar felt relieved and looked away from them. For some reason, Li Qingping seemed to like the shark quite a bit, as if he felt it resembled one of his friends.

During this short journey, Li Qingping fed Yagubaru a total of 10 common-level oddities that he didn't need, and 5 general-level oddities.

[You have consumed 10 "Common" level Oddity Fragments and 5 "Universal" level Oddity Fragments, triggering the effect of the exclusive training system "Oddity Gluttony," increasing your actual size by 22.5 meters.]

[The size change of Unit 3 – the Eternal Abyss Shark "Agubaru": 124.5 meters → 147 meters.]

Yaguba Lu patted its round belly with its fins and licked its little sharp teeth: "I'm going to start killing you all... I can't help but start going on a killing spree."

“Green tea,” Li Qingping said.

"Minion fish," the little shark said.

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(End of this chapter)