Chapter 10: Life Is Like a Play — It All Depends on Acting

Lin Binbin raised an eyebrow, then flashed an innocent, harmless smile. "Hello, uncle. I found this corpse."

"Found it?!"

"Mm." Lin Binbin smiled cheerfully, "I just happened to go into the mountains today, and there lay the body of a fire lizard. My mom said, things that nobody wants are ownerless property and can be picked up."

The guards who had just been showing respect rolled their eyes and scoffed. "Hmph."

"I thought he was some kind of genius, but turns out he's just trash."

"But it makes sense — all the talented Beast Tamers in Death Ming Mountain have either been recruited by the government or joined the Teng family. How could any be left wandering around?"

"Just now, I was fooled by this kid's aura, and what the heck is that dumb iron thing next to him? Looks like a misfit…"

Hearing this, Lin Binbin raised his brow. "You didn't say that when you saw Bai Yuan just now. You were ready to hand him tea and call him big brother."

The old man frowned slightly at Lin Binbin's words, a barely noticeable trace of disgust flashing in his drooping eyes. Though displeased with Lin Binbin's behavior, he still had to do the examination. He approached the fire lizard's body and placed his hand on its skin. Narrowing his old eyes, as he infused spiritual energy, his expression shifted from calm to grave.

After a moment, he tested again, then stood and said in a deep voice: "A D+ grade mutated fire lizard."

"But strangely, there's no aura of any other beast or Beast Tamer on it…"

Could the gash on its body and belly have been caused by the lizard accidentally falling? Obviously not. The only reasonable explanation was that a C-rank or higher Beast Tamer had come through Death Ming Mountain.

"That's right. My appraisal skill is D-rank, so I can't detect anything beyond that. And only a C-rank or higher Beast Tamer would look down on a D-rank beast corpse, otherwise this stinky kid wouldn't have gotten such a bargain."

The elder's thoughts grew more heated, and he hurriedly signaled to someone nearby to spread the news: "Quick! Inform the lord immediately. Say a C-rank or above Beast Tamer passed through Death Ming Mountain. We must find this person before the officials do."

Watching all this, Lin Binbin got a clear idea of the situation. He suddenly interrupted their conversation with his youthful voice, "Uncle, you're not planning to pay me for this, right? It took me a lot of effort to drag this corpse out of the woods."

"I even asked around on the way here. A D-rank beast's corpse is worth at least a hundred spirit stones. And since you just confirmed it's D+, isn't it reasonable to ask for two hundred?"

The elder gave him a glance and frowned slightly. "Did you understand what we just said?"

Lin Binbin quickly thought of a reply, but didn't answer immediately. The elder's brows knitted tighter, his gaze turning cold.

Then Lin Binbin finally spoke, purposely dragging out his words to sound slow and simple: "Uncle, I don't understand what you're saying. When will you pay me? My mom's sick and needs money for treatment."

Because of his young age, Lin Binbin had a natural advantage. Hearing this, the elder's cold expression softened.

He looked at Lin Binbin and said, "It's better that you don't understand. Remember, from today on, it's as if you never saw this corpse. You're forbidden from mentioning it to anyone, or you'll bring death upon yourself. As for the money…"

"Bring it on, pay him what the boy said."

Lin Binbin breathed a sigh of relief. Since spirit stones were cumbersome to carry, they kindly gave him a storage pouch as well. This generous act had Lin Binbin grinning ear to ear. Wow, so generous—he'd be coming back here often.

"Teng Gu elder, is this kid really harmless?"

Watching the happy, humming child bouncing away, the guards whispered doubtfully.

"Yes. I sense no Beast Tamer aura on him, and the beast next to him isn't graded. No mistake."

"He's just a six or seven-year-old kid, no threat."

Turning to the guards, Teng Gu said calmly, "Our top priority now is to find the Beast Tamer who killed that fire lizard. That's the real matter."

"Remember, if you can't get on good terms with him, find a chance to eliminate him. Otherwise…"

When Lin Binbin got home, it wasn't yet time to clock out. He quickly counted the spirit stones he had, and after confirming the amount, put his Beast Tamer badge aside.

On the left side of the badge was a large beast head, beneath which was Lin Binbin's name. On the right was his Beast Tamer rank—currently F-rank.

He didn't care much about rank; lower ranks were better, meaning fewer eyes watching him.

Then he pulled up his panel.

"Thirteen points left."

Lin Binbin grinned. Happiness came way too fast.

For now, he planned to focus on upgrading his mech. Early on, he'd play it safe. Besides, this body was only seven years old, and if the gap was too big, people might notice something strange.

Thinking it over, he put all the free points into his life profession, grinding levels hard.

[Consume one free attribute point to learn Basic Equipment Maintenance?]

[Consume one free attribute point to learn Elementary Mechanical Modification?]

[Consume one free attribute point to learn Elementary Mechanical Drafting?]

"Confirm!"

A flood of knowledge poured into his brain. He felt his head splitting as if about to explode, the pain lasting for over ten minutes before finally subsiding.

When the pain eased, a brand-new mechanical system knowledge filled his mind.

Lin Binbin allocated the remaining nine points evenly across the three categories, tossing the leftover point into equipment maintenance.

[Elementary Mechanical Modification 4 points, Elementary Mechanical Drafting 4 points, Elementary Parts Production 8 points, Basic Equipment Maintenance 2 points]

"Okay, that's about right."

Just after finishing leveling up, noises came from outside.

The voices were low, clearly trying not to be heard by someone, but the house was too small to keep secrets, so Lin Binbin heard everything clearly.

"Dad, the family is so poor we can barely make ends meet. Big brother's clothes are the hand-me-downs you wore out yourself, we eat coarse grain every day with no decent vegetables. So why did you buy little brother a beast egg?"