The worse you are, the stronger you become: My summoned beast is a photographer.

Hollen held the ranking certificate and looked at it over and over again to make sure that Ming Luochen wasn't doing magic, before carefully putting it into his pocket as if he were carrying a rare treasure.

"Let's go eat first." He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "Today... we're celebrating your success."

Teacher Buck led everyone out of the hotel and south along the cobblestone streets of the inner city. The capital was even more enchanting at night than during the day. Streetlights lit up one after another, casting a warm yellow glow on the gray stone walls, making the whole street look like an oil painting. Restaurant signs swayed gently in the night breeze, and exquisite dishes and desserts were displayed in the windows. The enticing aroma wafted from the cracks in the doors, making one's mouth water.

The group entered a high-end restaurant called "Golden Oak." The restaurant was exquisitely decorated, with several oil paintings depicting hunting scenes hanging on the dark wood wainscoting, and crystal chandeliers casting a soft light that made the silver cutlery on the white tablecloths gleam. A waiter dressed in a sharp black tailcoat politely led them to a long table.

After taking their seats, Ellie eagerly moved closer to Aura, her fox ears perked up, her eyes full of curiosity: "Aura, after your humanities competition, are you really going to participate in the martial arts competition?"

Aura nodded, took the menu from the waiter, and casually flipped through it: "Well, since I've already qualified for the competition, I might as well give it a try."

"But don't you also have to participate in the finals of the humanities competition?" Anthony couldn't help but interject, his fork frozen in mid-air. "Two competitions almost back-to-back, can you handle it?"

"The liberal arts competition will end in one day," Ming Luochen answered for Aura, his eyes scanning the restaurant. "The martial arts competition is the day after tomorrow, so the timing doesn't conflict."

Ellie clicked her tongue in amazement: "You guys are amazing! One liberal arts competition wasn't enough, you had to compete in the martial arts competition too... and there were only two of you, yet you got eighty-ninth place?"

"I'm only ranked eighty-ninth in the Little Knights Ranking Battle," Aura said modestly. "Those geniuses from high schools didn't participate; those are the real masters."

"That's all?" Teacher Buck's lips twitched, unable to resist interjecting, "Do you know how many people participate in the Little Knight Ranking Battle every year? Thousands upon thousands across the country, fighting tooth and nail to get into the top 100. You, an F-rank summoner and a level 5 beast tamer, made it in in a single day, and you call that 'that'?"

Aura smiled sheepishly and lowered her head to drink water.

Ming Luochen didn't participate in the conversation. He turned his gaze from the street scene outside the shop window to the other customers in the restaurant.

At the table by the window sat a middle-aged lion couple, dressed in elegant dark suits. Seven or eight dishes were laid out on the table, each only touched a few times before being pushed aside. The man wore a watch with a dial inlaid with tiny white crystals, and the woman wore a thumb-sized sapphire pendant around her neck.

At the corner table sat a group of young noblemen, dressed smartly and laughing boisterously. Three bottles of wine were already empty in front of them, yet they were still urging the waiter to open another one.

A solitary, elderly lizardman sat at the bar, with only a glass of water and a plate of dried fruit in front of him, but a marquis's crest was pinned to his collar.

Looking at the table of aristocratic young men, Ming Luochen thought about how to make money using Blue Star's successful business model, and silently did some calculations in his mind.

This restaurant has about thirty tables, with an average cost of at least fifty silver coins per table. The table turnover rate is low, but the average transaction value is extremely high. If he were in charge—

Menu Upgrade. Utilize pre-made food technology to reduce kitchen costs while ensuring consistent speed and quality. Service Standardization. Adopt the "customer is king" philosophy from Earth, letting these nobles experience true prestige. Marketing Hype. Leverage the buzz surrounding the liberal arts competition to monetize your and Aura's fame—a summoned beast from another world earning money for baby formula in the capital city—this gimmick alone is enough to generate buzz.

Then, we'll start offering takeout.

The capital city has a population of one million. Although the percentage of wealthy people is not high, their absolute number is considerable. Those aristocrats who have mines, those working-class families who are too busy to cook, and those rich kids who want to eat well but don't want to go out—as long as they build up their reputation for food delivery, getting thousands of orders a day is not a problem.

He quickly calculated in his mind: one store, with a daily net profit of 100 gold coins, would be over 30,000 gold coins a year. Ten stores, 300,000. One hundred stores, 3 million…

3125颗S级水晶。一颗S级水晶按市场最低价，200金币算，总价六十二万五千枚金币。相当于62亿五千万铜币（蓝星的62亿5千万）。

To earn that much money through the restaurant business, he would need to open hundreds of stores and operate them for several years.

Suddenly, my enthusiasm was extinguished.

Whether it will succeed remains to be seen.

But he can't rush things. Rushing won't help. He can only seize every opportunity to make money, accumulating small gains over time, while also looking for other avenues. That should allow him to earn money.

"Husband?" Aura's voice pulled him from his reverie. "What are you thinking about?"

Ming Luochen came to his senses and realized that everyone was looking at him.

"Nothing," he smiled, picking up a piece of roasted lamb chop and putting it into Aura's bowl. "Just thinking about how to make money."

"Make money?" Ellie blinked. "You just won the game, and instead of celebrating, you're thinking about making money?"

"How can I support my wife if I don't make money?" Ming Luochen said matter-of-factly.

Everyone at the table laughed.

Hollen grinned broadly, patting Ming Luochen on the shoulder and saying, "If you could open a shop in the capital, I'd be the first to come and support you."

"I'll remember that." Ming Luochen raised his water glass. "Principal, don't complain about the price later."

"Expensive means delicious." Hollen laughed heartily.

Amidst the laughter, Ming Luochen's gaze drifted towards the window again.

The capital city is ablaze with lights at night.

The streets were bustling with people and carriages, with wealthy merchants, nobles, and commoners all going their separate ways.

The goal of seven billion weighed heavily on his mind, but he showed no sign of it. He simply ate his meal quietly, occasionally putting a piece of food on Ola's plate, and occasionally responding to a classmate's joke.

Aura glanced at him sideways, said nothing, but quietly took his hand under the table.

Her hands were warm and strong, like a reassuring injection.

Ming Luochen squeezed his hand back, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Don't rush, take your time.

-

After a day of rest, the team leader, Buck, led the students to register for the competition and receive their identification badges.

This year's competition was once again held at the National Central Academy of Literature in the capital. There are over 1,800 universities across the country participating, but the majority of participants are elite universities from first- and second-tier cities, totaling 38: 5 from top-tier first-tier cities, 11 from first-tier cities, and 22 from second-tier cities. A total of 114 students participated, plus 78 gifted students from outside universities, for a total of 192 participants.

This place is basically a gathering place for the top 100 super geniuses in the country. The contestants who come here to participate in the liberal arts competition have two purposes: first, to compete for a ranking in the liberal arts competition, and second, to gain exposure and have a chance to be admitted to top-tier colleges and universities.

Ming Luochen curiously looked at the other contestants, who included all sorts of strange beastmen. The most eye-catching were the mermaid and the octopus sitting in the waterwheel.

There were only a little over a hundred participants, but each one brought their own summoned beast, and with university teachers leading the teams, the venue was much more lively. The university participants all wore school uniforms with their school badges, making it easy to identify which school they came from.

"Look, those are the contestants from the Imperial Royal Noble High School." Ellie tugged at Laura's clothes, her voice unconsciously lowering, her eyes filled with respect, and her fox ears slightly tucked back.

Ming Luochen followed along, and his heart stirred slightly.

The students of the Imperial Royal Noble High School all exude an innate sense of nobility and confidence. They stand ramrod straight, making their white and gold school uniforms look perfectly crisp and neat, even the folds of the fabric revealing an impeccable sense of decorum.

The school uniform was made of a material that no ordinary workshop could produce. The collar and cuffs were intricately bound with the imperial griffin emblem by silver thread, and the school badge on the left chest was outlined with tiny white crystals. Even in the dim light of the hall, it shone with a light that was not dazzling but impossible to look away from.

Those walking in the procession were all direct descendants of the empire's top noble families.

The leader, a young golden-haired lion, had a sleek, bushy mane that was meticulously groomed, with every single strand neatly arranged. He was over three meters tall, as imposing as a mountain, and had a pair of enormous golden wings and a lion's tail on his back. The folded wings formed a golden halo behind him, and the feathers trembled gently as he walked, like flowing gilding.

To his right stood a fox-girl with delicate platinum earrings adorning the tips of her ears. Her beauty was breathtaking, an innate allure emanating from her. Her nine snow-white fox tails swayed gracefully, without a single stray or unwanted color; each hair shimmered with a silvery sheen, and when the tips gently moved, they resembled nine blooming night-blooming cereus flowers.

To the left of the lion youth stood a young man with a human head and a snake's body. He was slender and tall, with pale skin, narrow eyebrows, and a pair of dark green vertical pupils that gave him a sinister and eerie appearance. He had a high nose bridge, and a smile that was always playing at the corners of his mouth. He was exquisitely handsome yet sinister, with a cold and ethereal aura; at first glance, he was both beautiful and dangerous. His snake tail dragged on the ground, its scales a dark green that gleamed with a cold metallic sheen under the light, the tip of which occasionally flickered up slightly before slowly lowering again.

The attendants following behind them were all dressed in uniform dark-colored uniforms, with their backs straight, eyes fixed straight ahead, and even their footsteps were extremely light, for fear of disturbing their young master and young lady's conversation.

Unlike students from other schools who huddled together, noisily marveling at the layout of the hall, the three walked slowly in a triangular formation, their steps almost perfectly synchronized. They spoke in hushed tones, each with a polite smile, their voices hushed only to the whispers of the others. Even as they passed the crowded registration area, under the watchful eyes of hundreds, they showed no sign of hesitation or unease, as if the surrounding clamor and throngs of people were separated from them by an invisible barrier, utterly insignificant.

The once noisy registration hall fell silent the moment they entered. Students who had been crowding the front desk instinctively scrambled to the sides, making way for them, as if afraid of bumping into these privileged students.

Anthony instinctively clenched the crumpled list of participants in his hand, his knuckles turning white. Ellie also moved closer to Aura, her fox tail unconsciously tightening, her eyes filled with a deep-seated panic and restraint.

After all, the students who can study at the Imperial Royal Academy in the capital come from families that are at least counts, and the elites who can participate in the competition are definitely geniuses carefully cultivated by duke families.

Ming Luochen was also slightly moved. He thought of the class differences in India on Earth. He had always thought that the students of Pudi Yale College were already quite decent and well-behaved, but compared to the group of people in front of him, they were like waiters in a riverside tavern meeting nobles attending a banquet in the palace—the former's decentness was a sense of propriety learned from the rules, while the latter's nobility was a habit ingrained in their bones from birth, nurtured by top-tier resources and education.

The difference in temperament was too great. This group of people not only came from top-tier families, but their aura of self-confidence that disregarded everyone, yet maintained top-notch etiquette at every turn, was enough to overwhelm many contestants who had come from afar and were already timid.

Principal Hollen's smile faded slightly. He raised his hand to straighten his collar, his voice extremely low, only audible to the students around him: "This is this year's top seed, the contestant from the Imperial Royal Noble High School. Their school has swept the top three spots in the humanities competition for fifteen consecutive years. If it weren't for the quota restrictions, I'm afraid there wouldn't be any students from other high schools in the top fifty." His trunk curled slightly, and a hint of solemnity appeared in his eyes.