Superstars of Tomorrow

For the first helmet in his dog life, Curly Hair actually worked extremely hard to change.

Fang Zhao’s dormitory had a new display cabinet where those few gaming helmets were now kept. Curly Hair used this display cabinet to motivate himself. Whenever he felt vexed and didn’t want to learn, he would go stare at Fang Zhao’s display cabinet to regain the drive once again!

After his Yanzhou home had been burglarized, Fang Zhao moved some of his items. That “rabbit” and the gaming helmets were all brought over to the dormitory. This had been a vehement request by Nanfeng. He felt uneasy if he couldn’t keep an eye on them in person so he came over everyday to look at them.

As for the other stuff, Great-grandfather Fang suggested keeping them at the retirement facility. He would definitely be able to help Fang Zhao look after them well, especially those awards and prizes that Fang Zhao had won. Thus, Fang Zhao assigned Yan Biao to drive over and deliver those things.

With an incentive to spur him on, Curly Hair’s progress was satisfactory.

He progressed from muffled sounds at the beginning to faintly discernible words and finally to properly enunciating individual words. These changes all happened within a week. His ability to control his speech improved tremendously. All that was left was getting used to knowing when to use human speech and when to bark like a dog.

Curly Hair hadn’t been too enthusiastic towards talking originally and perhaps hadn’t really put in effort to change. But now, Fang Zhao dangled a carrot before him, and this dog had become proactive all of a sudden. The changes over these few days were really drastic!

This made Fang Zhao contemplate a lot and even guess whether Curly Hair’s changes were linked to his desires? Or perhaps, he changed slowly, but an intense desire could make him change even more rapidly?

For example, he had eaten someone on Whale Island.

And now he could communicate through human speech.

Although Fang Zhao still didn’t know how Curly Hair had eaten a grown man without leaving any trace, Fang Zhao didn’t doubt its authenticity.

Curly Hair couldn’t describe the process though Fang Zhao had asked. His reply given had been very simple: “Open mouth, swallow. Ate it because I felt like it.”

This was an unknown species that needed proper guidance and a degree of control.

On this day, Fang Zhao returned from classes and listened to Curly Hair practice speaking. It was no longer the perfunctory sort. That dog was really serious about it.

“Chicken thigh, gophers, beef…”

Curly Hair had completed the day’s phonetics exercises. He was currently reading a short excerpt with emotion. Then, Curly Hair excitedly showed his A+ evaluation results to Fang Zhao.

“Fang Zhao! I have already gotten A+ for five days in a row! Yesterday, my performance while out walking was very good too. I didn’t mistakenly mix up human and dog speech! Can I get the helmet now?”

Curly Hair’s large eyes were brimming with expectation.

Fang Zhao took a look at his results today and nodded. “I can place the order.”

Curly Hair’s speech still couldn’t be considered especially smooth, and he had a limited vocabulary. Fortunately, he didn’t have that sort of stiffness from the beginning. The high frequency machine-like tone no longer appeared, and he could indeed start the next step.

Fang Zhao opened the online order web page for learning consoles. He had already saved the webpage when he had asked the manager of the sales exhibition. Now, it seemed like Curly Hair had achieved the most basic requirements. Fang Zhao opened up the saved order web page.

After choosing the model, there were many components that could be selected and added. The buyer could also choose designs and colors according to their own preferences.

“Take a look and choose your colors and design. What do you want to inscribe?”

Curly Hair wagged his tail and came over.

This was the first helmet he would get in his dog life!

Curly Hair referenced the few gaming helmets in Fang Zhao’s display cabinet when selecting the designs and added own his paw and teeth prints before engraving two words: “Curly Hair”.

After he was done, Fang Zhao submitted the order for manufacture and made the payment. All that remained was receiving it.

There was a queue for the helmet to be custom-made so the earliest Fang Zhao could receive it was in two days.

When Fang Zhao received the helmet from express delivery and brought it back to the dormitory, Curly Hair was already waiting by the door.

After Fang Zhao removed the packaging, the words on the box were revealed.

Curly Hair’s dog face stiffened.

Learning console?

“What is a learning console?”

Why isn’t it a game console? There isn’t even a Fiery Bird insignia!

He suddenly had an ominous premonition.

“Why does it look exactly like a game console?”

Curly Hair tilted his head and looked at the product’s name on the box. He was puzzled.

Fang Zhao’s expression was unchanging. “They are cousins.”

“There aren’t only gaming helmets. There are learning consoles as well. We have to progress step by step,” Fang Zhao told Curly Hair. “Learning console—gaming console—personal terminal. This is a process we have to follow. At present, you have to use the learning console first. We can proceed to a game console depending on your performance.”

Although this learning console was a little different from what Curly Hair had expected, the game console and smart personal terminal were too attractive to this dog!

It was just like a huge bone dangling before him that he could only reach by biting through all the small bones blocking the way.

As for right now, the learning console was fine.

“Can games be played?” Curly Hair asked.

“Yes.”

“Can it link to the Internet?”

“Yes.”

Curly Hair was happy again and circled the box, urging Fang Zhao to open it. He wanted to see his first ever helmet that belonged to himself! Even if this was only a cousin of the game console, Curly Hair wouldn’t dislike it!

For a dog that was permitted to access the Internet, even a learning console would delight him.

When the learning console with Curly Hair’s paw prints and name engraved on it was taken out from the box, Curly Hair cuddled it. Similar to those three gaming helmets, Curly Hair had his own imprinting method.

Back then, Curly Hair had known those gaming helmets were being stolen because he had bound the display cabinet rather than the gaming helmet to himself. Thus, he had been able to sense the items within the cabinet being moved. The process was somewhat fuzzy: Staring, then binding possibility, then binding complete.

Curly Hair was adept at this now and bound his own helmet to himself.

After binding, he started his learning console journey. Fang Zhao let him use the learning console to learn more vocabulary.

The learning console provided a certain degree of freedom when it came to searches.

Indeed, it was “a certain degree”!

After all, it was essentially still a learning console. Even though it could access the Internet, there were age limitations. After a guardian set restrictions, content for certain ages and above became inaccessible. In short, only content for minors could be accessed.

Curly Hair put on the learning console, entered studying mode and used the search bar to search for phrases related to dogs. Fang Zhao still required him to practice phonetics; however, unlike previously, he now had greater freedom with the learning console.

Curly Hair looked at the displayed words and read them.

“A dog’s threat is based on its master’s power; a cornered dog will jump walls…”[1.Chinese idioms that contain the word dog]

Fang Zhao watched from the side for a bit before doing his own stuff. From time to time, he would check on how Curly Hair was doing.

Purchasing a learning console was also a form of restriction. Fang Zhao had to watch this unknown creature a little more closely to prevent him from going astray or being overly free to do as he pleased.

Without restrictions, he reckoned that this dog would even fly.

After observing for two days, Fang Zhao discovered that Curly Hair didn’t show any signs of rejection towards the learning console. Perhaps he had special sentiments for it being the first helmet, or perhaps he didn’t encounter any difficulties and thought that learning was just like playing.

The learning console had new material every day and had tests based on progress. The educational games and tests were given the standard A, B, C grades. Curly Hair did very well on puzzles and crosswords, frequently scoring A+. On the other hand, he wasn’t very good with riddles and logic games, sometimes getting results from B to C-. However, he was still very interested in them.

All these only counted as in-curriculum games that the learning console provided after completing each module as a recap.

However, when Fang Zhao asked Curly Hair about his experience using the learning console, Curly Hair replied, “I still like game consoles better.”

“Then you just have to work harder,” Fang Zhao replied.

“What do I have to do?”

“First, you have to graduate from secondary school.”

Of course, it was impossible for Curly Hair to go to school. There was no need for a graduation certificate. The learning console had pre-installed settings. What Fang Zhao wanted was for Curly Hair to reach the graduation standard for secondary school.

Curly Hair learned extremely quickly, but Fang Zhao discovered that this dog frequently went overboard!

Curly Hair preferred to learn science, history, geography and other subjects quickly. However, his language was atrocious.

Sometimes, Curly Hair was like a high speed calculator with astonishing data processing and memory that even a human brain couldn’t keep up with. Furthermore, his calculation speed was increasing.

After earning an A+ on a math test, Curly Hair wagged his tail and hopped around, enjoying his glorious dog life.

However, he was stumped on reading comprehension, making him doubt this dog life.

Rote memorization was fine, but when it came to reading and compositions, Curly Hair wilted.

Curly Hair already found modern texts difficult enough. Ancient texts were simply demonic!

After getting yet another C- evaluation in succession, Curly Hair cried, “Reading comprehension is too hard waaa—

“I am only a dog, why do I have to learn all this!

“My dog brain can’t understand the way these scholars think. The sentiments they try to convey are so difficult to understand! How would I even know what they are trying to express!”

Curly Hair didn’t want to study all this. He felt there wasn’t a need because he was only a dog. There was no need to go to school or any real need to get a graduation certificate. What was the point of studying literature?!

To this dog’s cries over why he should study literature, Fang Zhao replied strictly, “To better survive in human society.”

Fang Zhao hoped that Curly Hair could better understand the thinking of human society through the process of all the studying. The goal was to be able to distinguish good words from malicious talk; to understand insinuation, sarcasm and beating around the bush in order to not get tricked.

“Wasn’t there a ‘Without knowing how to speak and write, one can’t go far nor exist long’ in the teaching material you were reading yesterday? Therefore, you still have to learn even if you don’t like it. Go through the recommended books every week and read through them slowly.”

Curly Hair read books very quickly just like his brain did calculations, but unlike people, he couldn’t view things with the same logic.

After being lectured, Curly Hair mulled over everything Fang Zhao had mentioned, especially the line “to better survive in human society.” It was etched into his mind. Curly Hair felt that this sentence was extremely important and that he had to understand it carefully.

After pondering for half the day, he understood it.

Curly Hair reckoned he finally understood the meaning of what Fang Zhao’s line was trying to convey.

After learning all this, he could act like a person online!

For example, he could use the in-game mic when playing games.