Forge a path to success.

Chapter 115 Each with their own difficulties
It's 2:30 a.m. in the southern part of Kinyo City.

A small, white, furry creature resembling a fluffy bat pushed open the door and tiptoed into the backyard, quietly picking up a small watering can. The small backyard was laden with fruit: crisp, sweet cucumbers, tender red tomatoes, and many newly planted kumquats—all high-quality fruits beneficial for children's healthy growth.

"Pop...pop pop..."

The white-haired little animal, Gulibo, muttered softly due to nervousness. Growing good fruit requires daily care; a day of drought or a day of drought will affect the quality. As a certified Level 2 professional gardener and Level 1 plant nurse by Jingsha City, Gulibo always takes meticulous care of plants, never neglecting even small potted plants temporarily assigned to him.

Unfortunately, he got frozen this afternoon and didn't warm up until almost midnight. What else can be said about Bosheng's misfortune? I can only water him in the middle of the night…

It carefully finished its work, and seeing that the patrolling monsters outside weren't coming, it quickly slipped back into the house. But it was in such a hurry that the little water bottle slipped from its grasp and fell to the ground with a clatter. Gulibo's already pure white fur turned even whiter with fright, and it screamed in its heart, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! I'm going to be eaten by the monsters!"

"It's so noisy..." "What's wrong?" A muffled sound came from the small door next to it.

"It's nothing, just dropped a kettle!" Gulibo thrashed about. "Everyone, don't worry! Go get some sleep!"

"It's Gulibo making noise by itself..." "Gulibo is so noisy~" "Watch out, or a monster will catch you."

The children complained for a while, then soon fell asleep. Seeing that the monster outside hadn't come in, Gulibo breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the small water bottle, and groped its way forward in the dark. It arrived at the toy corner where the children played during recess, and lay down beside an exceptionally large flowerpot, crying with heartfelt emotion: "I can't take it anymore! I really can't hold on any longer! Divine Tree, when will someone come to save us, Boo!"

The large flowerpot—a strange contraption that appeared to have no plants growing on it, just a brown rugby ball stuck upside down in the soil—remained motionless, yet a mysterious force stirred the dust on the ground, forming faint writing.

Be patient and hold onto hope.

Gulibo cried even louder: "What did you say, Divine Tree? I can't see without the lights on!"

【…】

Shi Zhong stretched out his spiritual vines with great effort, barely managing to reach the switch. The light illuminated the writing on the ground, as well as the children's building blocks, toys, and the few extracurricular books that no one seemed to read.

As everyone knows, the growth of a stone requires positive emotions such as hope, love, and courage, as well as a stable order. In addition, it ideally needs a harmless environment free from combat. After much hard work, Gulibo finally found a location that perfectly met these requirements—

Jinye City Third Experimental Primary School!
The number of adults corrupted by society is extremely small, and the innocent children are full of hope! Everyone attends classes on time, goes to bed on time, and listens to the teacher, making the school's order unbreakable! 90% of the creatures are elementary school students, so the threat level is close to zero! Moreover, because it is an experimental elementary school, the children study very hard, and this positive atmosphere is the perfect cradle for nurturing the stone species!

After much pleading and begging, Gulibo finally managed to get a job as a school janitor so it could bring its "favorite rugby toy" to the toy corner. Unfortunately, the school's pay wasn't enough to buy quality soil, so it had to work part-time at a family restaurant in the city center during its breaks to take care of the sacred tree. While others get a break after work, it gets a workday after work…

As he pondered, Gulibo felt an overwhelming and inescapable sorrow. Just a month ago, he was happily working at his family's bookstore, enjoying a fulfilling life, catching up on manuscripts and tending to his potted plants. Who would have thought that a simple delivery job would lead to a shipwreck? Who would have imagined that after finally surviving the disaster, he would be found by a group of pirates? Who would have thought that the floating debris he casually retrieved while cleaning the deck would turn out to be stones?

What else can we do but run away?!
I thought the days of caring for the stone seeds while dodging pirates were tough enough, but then a bunch of lunatics started causing chaos in Golden Leaf City these past two days. How am I supposed to live with this bad luck?! Shopkeeper, editor, where are you?! Please, show your magic and save me!!

Do not be afraid, we are never alone.

【That's right, I'm here too!】Giant Egg wrote cheerfully.

"Pop!" Gulibo jumped three feet high, turning 180 degrees in mid-air to see the giant egg that had rolled in without anyone noticing. It leaned against the flowerpot, panting for a moment: "Next time... please say hello..."

"You're such a coward! How can you be a Jingwei bird like that?"

The little animal protested in a low voice: "Who is Jingwei Bird? I already told you I am Gulibo from the Gubo tribe."

The giant egg rolled to the side of the building block area and began to use its eggshell claws, which it used for feeding, to build with the blocks.

[I have good news for you. Those pirates you were worried about were taken care of by Mr. Chu, the one who treated me to dinner today!]

Gulibo was overjoyed: "Great, they're finally locked up."

No, the leader was stabbed to death.

"That's terrifying."

[Another piece of news, neither good nor bad.] The giant egg put its hands on its hips with several eggshell claws... seemingly on its hips. [To support your disguise operation, Lu Bu has been making a big show of his activities in the city for the past two days.]

"Oh, what's the result?" Gulibo asked excitedly.

【(^ω^) As expected, nobody thought I was a stone seed.】

"I knew it!" Gulibo wailed. "How could any idiot mistake a four-meter-tall egg for a seed?!"

"I think the description is very similar..." Shi Zhong wrote unwillingly.

Why do giant eggs always appear without anyone noticing and manage to blend into the battlefield so perfectly?
The answer lies here.

Long before this chaotic battle even began, it had already made contact with the Stone Seed. Spreading false information, gathering intelligence on everyone, and slightly maneuvering the situation to get rid of unsuitable individuals—this was part of an agreement it had unilaterally reached with the Stone Seed. Unfortunately, the Stone Seed had no confidence to refuse the agreement.

"I've looked around and there's no one here specifically for you, so there's no need to worry for now," the Giant Egg said. "Rest assured, Bu always keeps his promises. Since the Stone Seed has agreed to help me with the power of the Tree, I, General Fei, will naturally ensure your safety."

“I get so worried whenever you talk like that, Bo!” Gulibo lay on the ground. “Lord Stone Seed, are you really not going to reconsider…”

Shi Zhong's thinking was clear and unambiguous: [The enemy outnumbers us, they are strong, we are weak; our only way out is to surrender!] "What a useless piece of trash!"

[How can we stand idly by when others are in trouble?] Shi Zhong began his moral education: [An egg and a person are both living, breathing lives. We cannot only consider human lives and ignore the lives of eggs; such thinking is biased. You must love both people and eggs; this is true love.]

"ZZZ." Gulibo blew a snot bubble. It was too tired today and fell asleep while listening to the nonsense.

"Alas, this child," Shi Zhong said. "Lu Bu, have you achieved your goal?"

[A very fruitful haul!] The giant egg wobbled precariously. [I've found my destined one; all that's left is to wait for the right moment. Whew, I can't wait!]

Could you please tell me Mr. Chu's full name?

His name is Chu Hengkong.

The stones inside the pot wobbled.

As I expected. Thank you.

The giant egg swayed, as if nodding, then rolled silently into the corridor. New writing appeared on its back before it left.

【(ω)By the way, just to be on the safe side, I'd like to remind you again.】

Don't have any other thoughts, or I'll eat you up.

The stone felt utterly helpless. It resolved to appeal to the other's emotions and reason: "You should be able to sense that the forces of darkness are stirring. Ominous signs are about to appear!"

【I just felt the room was very dark.】

The giant egg rolled into the darkness, and only the occasional snoring of Gulibo could be heard inside. Shi Zhong gently touched Gulibo with his mental vines, not wanting to disturb its sleep. This child was truly suffering from constant worry and fear.

Gulibo slept for almost four hours, only to be suddenly awakened by a force at dawn. It hurriedly looked around and saw a line of characters on the ground indicating the type of stone:

A terrifying cold wave is approaching; danger is lurking all around us!

"Boom!"

Gulibo perked up immediately and whispered, "Shall we run away?"

The terrifying cold front is just 18 meters to the left of the school's main gate.

"Then what's the point of running?!"

Jinye City Third Experimental Primary School is a boarding school with hundreds of children resting in the dormitory. If they were to run away at this time, who knows what kind of trouble they might cause?

Gulibo ran to the backyard, broke off a cucumber and two tomatoes, and hurried nervously towards the front gate. The teachers would be arriving soon, and it had to quickly ascertain the situation before surrendering, or the consequences would be dire.

When it went outside, it didn't see the gray fog creatures. It seemed that those monsters had been busy all night and were tired, so they went back underground. Gulibo turned its head nervously and saw a disheveled blue-skinned man sitting on a bench 18 meters to its left.

—It's that turbid tears! This time it's really all over!!

Gulibo's entire animal form turned gray at lightning speed, foreseeing its own hopeless future in this unfortunate ordeal. Undoubtedly, it would be frozen into an ice cube, then made into Gulibo-flavored ice cream, and then swallowed whole by a bully, churned and melted in its frozen stomach, becoming chilling fertilizer…

Please, please don't! At least let me die a peaceful death!
In the terror of death, the blue-skinned man turned his head, stretched out his rough palm, and called out in a voice as terrifying as a raven from hell.

"come over……"

Gulibo hopped over, trembling, his movements resembling those of a zombie.

Iceman Sethlen grabbed it, and his other large hand pressed down from above like a lid. Gulibo's vision went black; he thought to himself that his earlier predictions were too idealistic. This time, he wouldn't even have a chance to become an ice pop before turning into shattered ice!

But after waiting for a while, the pain he had imagined did not come. Gulibo mustered up his courage and opened his eyes, only to find himself lying peacefully in the palm of the ice man's hand, which was simply rubbing his head.

“Good boy…” Sethlen said, “The little mouse is so cute…”

“Um…” Gulibo said softly.

Sethlen was so startled that he almost fell off his chair.

"The mouse...talked?!"

"I'm a member of the Gubo tribe, not a mouse!"

(End of this chapter)