The girl selling goods at the market had never seen money before.

You bastard, how dare you deceive the feelings of an old woman like me! You deserve to die!

The cafeteria lady gripped her spoon tightly, vowing in her heart that she would never again believe a single word of nonsense uttered by the sons and daughters of No. 1 Middle School!

None of the students here are poor!

The poorest are those like her, the unfortunate working class!

--------

Ps:

After returning to work after the Lunar New Year, with a surge in customer traffic, I caught the flu again, just as I was recovering from a cold.

Everyone should take good care of their health. Wear masks in crowded places, because this thing is extremely potent; when it gets hot, you feel like you're about to catch a fever.

I'll offer a reward once I've fully recovered!

Volume 1: Chapter 85: The Girl Who Became a Bunny Girl

Star City No. 1 Middle School, third floor of the cafeteria, VIP private room.

Bai Jinxuan sat on a leather sofa, in front of her a transparent crystal table inlaid with countless gorgeous diamonds.

On the left, there were lush green potted plants, and in the corner, there was a magical incense. The faint fragrance quickly spread throughout the room, and in terms of both functionality and comfort, it was much more sophisticated than the incense in the red-light district.

Keep in mind that the concentration of magic in the room at this moment is already comparable to a medicinal bath worth a thousand magic crystals.

On the right, a transparent wall, somewhat like glass, offers a clear view of the first and second floors of the cafeteria.

She clearly remembered that when she was still on the first floor, she couldn't see the inside of the third-floor private room.

"So, this private room is one-way transparent."

Bai Jinxuan couldn't help but complain, then gently placed the dinner she bought for 500 yuan on the elegant crystal table and opened it.

This scene evokes the feeling of a down-on-her-luck young lady receiving a poor, uneducated man.

However, Bai Jinxuan didn't care about any of that. All she could think about was what the golden rice particles would taste like.

Infuse magic to break the seal, then open the lunchbox, and a fragrant aroma of rice wafts out.

"It looks pretty good."

Her brows relaxed, she reached out with her chopsticks, picked up a small ball of rice, and put it in her mouth.

The moment she chewed, the golden rice particles melted like candy, transforming into a sweet magic that gathered in her mouth.

Without a doubt, these golden rice particles are a specially processed magical nutritional meal.

Realizing this, Bai Jinxuan immediately turned her attention to the food box on the other side.

Unlock, open, pick up, chew.

Sure enough, this squid and sundew dish is also a nutritious meal, and judging from its appearance, its raw materials are taken from the monsters on the second underground level.

No wonder the food in the cafeteria is so expensive, it turns out it's all nutritious meals!

Thinking about it carefully, it actually makes sense. After all, this is No. 1 Middle School, and the students are not short of money. Unlike No. 5 Middle School, where they are stingy when buying medicine.

The wealthy can improve their magical capacity and cultivation level in such a simple and unpretentious way, simply by eating. But for a poor person like Bai Jinxuan, there are many more things to consider.

What? You're saying she has tens of millions in savings and is a little rich? Wrong! At No. 1 High School, she's a poor wretch.

Who among those who can get into No. 1 High School doesn't have some family wealth? Ten million is nothing. Relying solely on nutritional meals to improve physical fitness, even a hundred million wouldn't be enough to last half a year.

Just as Bai Jinxuan was pondering, a large wave of students suddenly surged into the cafeteria, and in an instant...

The first floor was bustling with activity, and everywhere you looked, it was packed with people.

Pick any one of them, and their dinner alone costs several thousand yuan. Some people eat dozens of dishes, and the total cost is estimated to be over 100,000 yuan. That's terrifying.

It seems that only one's own dinner is the cheapest in the entire cafeteria.

"I feel like I'm even more of a liberal arts student than liberal arts students. Luckily, I was in a private room where no one could see me, otherwise I'm afraid I would be laughed at."

Bai Jinxuan withdrew her gaze and continued to enjoy her dinner. After experiencing the magical nourishment of the nutritious meals, she realized how abundant the resources were and how fierce the competition was at No. 1 Middle School.

Everyone can afford nutritious meals, but very few people can eat dozens of plates of food in one go; an average person would be stuffed to death.

After all, even nutritious meals have their limits for human digestion. If you eat too much, you can't digest or absorb it, which is equivalent to eating it for nothing.

According to Bai Jinxuan's observation, the reason why there are such big eaters is due to their school uniforms.

To be precise, it's the magic circle on the school uniform.

[Binge eating - significantly increase the efficiency of your nutritious meal consumption (10 credits/day)]

With just 10 credits, you can rent a day's worth of gluttony, and then spend money to eat like crazy. Even a fool can achieve genius-level progress.

In fact, this speed was much faster than Bai Jinxuan's medicinal bath.

Folk remedies can never compare to the secret techniques of major sects.

The importance of academic credits was fully demonstrated at this moment.

While eating, she started looking up ways to earn credits on her smart bracelet, finding three methods that were the most efficient.

First: Weekly tests.

At No. 1 High School, the major subjects, namely humanities and sciences, are tested weekly. The first place in the weekly test can get 100 credits, the second place 50 credits, the third to tenth place 30 credits, and so on up to the top 1,000 can get 10 credits.

In other words, as long as you rank in the top 1,000 of your grade, you are guaranteed at least 10 credits. If you follow the school rules, the minimum weekly credit requirement is 7 credits, and you will still have 3 credits left after deducting them.

It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 first-year students at No. 1 High School, but only one-tenth of them can retain their places through the exam.

Those whose grades rank outside the top 1,000 must accumulate credits through other means.

The second type is the most popular.

Bounty mission.

Unlike other schools, No. 1 High School is not a money pit. Its abundant resources were not acquired by throwing money at it, but by the accumulation of students and teachers over many years.

For example, most of the nutritious meals in the cafeteria are hunted by the students; these are bounty missions.

Every week, the school creates an expedition team that students can sign up to participate in. They then go to the dungeon to hunt monsters. The smart bracelet will score the students based on their gains and performance. If they perform well and have a lot of gains, they will get credits; otherwise, they will lose points.

Since expeditions are usually led by teachers, casualties are relatively rare, but not nonexistent. Therefore, students who choose bounty missions must be prepared to die in the dungeon, which is a great challenge for the wealthy children in the upper city.

That's why bounty missions are the students' last resort. When they run out of credits, are desperate, and are unwilling to be kicked out of the school, they will accept bounty missions and go underground to seek a glimmer of hope.

However, for Bai Jinxuan, going to the underground city was like coming home, and she felt no psychological pressure at all.

What? You can earn credits by killing monsters? I'm going to make a killing here!

When she saw the bounty, her eyes lit up, but soon her heart sank.

She doesn't have an exploration permit, so how can she join an expedition team? She can't even enter the dungeon.

I need to find some time to go to the union and take a certification exam first...

Bai Jinxuan looked at the third method for quickly obtaining credits.

transaction.

That's right, academic credits, just like money, can be traded.

Furthermore, there is an official purchase price here—each student is limited to two purchases per week, and 1 credit costs 10,000 yuan.

Of course, this is the official price. The price among students is much higher. There are countless posts on campus about selling credits, with the cheapest ones being sold for over 7 yuan. This made Bai Jinxuan tempted to sell her credits.

She has 500 credits; selling 100 of them and getting ten million in return wouldn't be a big problem at all.

But while I may think about it, selling it certainly won't be that simple. Such a precious resource is easy to sell, but difficult to buy back.

You know, she's even reluctant to rent out the magic circles that enhance her school uniform.

She really wanted that [Arrogance] magic circle. It cost 20 credits and could greatly increase her physical functions and magic absorption speed. Combined with a medicinal bath, she could absorb magic in the bathtub for a whole day.

In reality, at No. 1 Middle School, Bai Jinxuan's medicinal bath was just a cheaper training room, which was nothing to the other young masters and ladies.

It's just about increasing the magical environment, right? Other families have plenty of resources; achieving similar conditions isn't difficult for them.

The real difficulty is time.

Take [Gluttony] for example. Consuming large amounts of magic-rich flesh and blood in a short period of time to enhance one's strength is vastly different from someone who only eats a few nutritious meals a day.

They have money, they can eat slowly and improve their skills, but that's too slow for students at No. 1 High School.

With this kind of progress, you still want to get ranked in weekly tests and earn credits? Dream on.

Bai Jinxuan gradually figured out the promotion path at No. 1 Middle School.

Use credits – Get a ranking – Earn credits – Use credits.

The more you use it, the faster you improve, the higher your ranking, and the more credits you earn—a perfect positive feedback loop where resources snowball.

Therefore, she must improve herself as quickly as possible to get a good ranking in the weekly tests; otherwise, she will have no advantage in the highly competitive No. 1 High School.

With this in mind, she made up her mind to rent [Arrogance] first, and then go back to the house to cultivate, taking the lead in maximizing the use of resources.

After quickly finishing her meal, she picked up her handbag and left the cafeteria through the back door.

The back door of the cafeteria is very spacious and connects directly to a commercial street. Many students who have finished eating will buy some desserts on their way through this street.

At the end of the road is the parking lot. It can only be said that No. 1 Middle School knows how to do business. The front door of the canteen is a one-way street.

Bai Jinxuan glanced at them casually, and sure enough, the prices of these desserts were not ordinary; none of them were cheaper than the limited edition strawberry cake.

In other words, if even eating a dessert has to be magical, then why not just eat a nutritious meal directly?

She shook her head. "If you're eating dessert, of course you should go for the good stuff. I really don't understand these rich girls. They're just like Yao Yao, they don't even know what snacks are."

Ugh, I really want to eat strawberry cake.

The girl thought it from the bottom of her heart, and then, as if heaven had heard her words, the strawberry cake appeared.

She rubbed her eyes, and in the middle of a row of shops, there was that familiar sign, that logo...

It's a very sweet and delicious shop!

When did it open a branch near No. 1 Middle School?! No, wait, it should be that it opened a branch in the Xiacheng District...

As expected of a shop I trust, I knew it would achieve great things!

Bai Jinxuan put cultivation, arrogance, and infighting behind her; now, all she wanted was to reunite with her old friends.

When fellow countrymen meet, their eyes well up with tears; strawberry cake, here I come!

She darted to the shop entrance, where the familiar shop window and the familiar fresh and delicious aroma still lingered.

"Hehehe... Boss, give me ten strawberry cakes!"

"Okay, Miss."

Bai Jinxuan: ?

This title...

Looking up, sure enough, it was that black-haired older sister in a maid outfit and glasses! I think she said earlier that she was the shop owner?

So, this is the headquarters?

What is the headquarters? It is naturally the birthplace of strawberry cake, the place that possesses its supreme recipe.

This is an opportunity you can't miss! With the strawberry cake recipe, you can make delicious strawberry cake at home.

She immediately stood on tiptoe, pressed her face against the shop window, and looked at the shop owner with expectant eyes.

"Sister, sister, are you hiring? I want to make delicious strawberry cakes too!"

Upon hearing this, the maid smiled and looked at him with tenderness.

Why did you want to make a strawberry cake?

"Of course it's because it's delicious... Shop owner, do you make all those strawberry cakes?"

"Ah."

The store manager pushed up his glasses, his face expressionless, but his tone was slightly proud.

Bai Jinxuan felt that it was perfectly reasonable for someone who could make such delicious food to be a little arrogant; a shop owner who could make such sweet and delicious food should hold their head high.

So she quickly asked, "Can you teach me?"