High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 770: Chapter 118: Direction of Business Expansion_1

It was Lin Guo’s insane proposal at the last Absolution meeting that opened Zheng Qing’s mind. Not only did he identify an outlet for his Cat Department’s ’redundant’ production capacity, he also found a ’blockbuster product’ for the yet-to-open shop on the pedestrian street owned by the hunting team - although selling mice was a quick deal with a time limit, the short-term demand was high.

So, from a few days ago, Zheng Qing and Xiao Xiao began to spend the gap after dinner following afternoon classes, summoning his cat subordinates to catch mice.

This time, Zheng Qing loosened the conditions for the mice. He wanted every living mouse, no matter if they were physically handicapped or mentally languishing.

The reason why he didn’t want dead mice was partly due to poor storage conditions, the shop on the pedestrian street was small and didn’t have independent refrigeration facilities, making it extremely difficult to store a bunch of dead mice. On the other hand, it was also due to price considerations, at any time, living mice are always worth more than dead ones.

Caring for living mice was a bit troublesome - Zheng Qing and his team need to prepare cages, food, and water, and even attach talismans every now and then to mitigate the plague and keep the rat colony calm. Nevertheless, due to the higher prices, the income from keeping live mice was relatively higher.

...

In the open ground of the woods.

The black cat paced unhurriedly around the pile of mice while Doctor Xiao was taking notes on a notebook, recording today’s income. The cat troop obediently squatted nearby, earnestly looking at the two bigwigs checking the ’tribute,’ hoping they’d finish soon. Meanwhile, the little foxes peeked out from the bushes and tree stumps, looking for fun.

And there was Lin Guo, standing with his hands on his back. He was eyeing the mice one by one, squinting and staring with great interest as if he was watching something fascinating.

”By the way, Captain!” The little wizard seemed to remember something, suddenly raised his head and looked at the black cat. ”I’ve always been curious... how did you persuade your cat subordinates to hand over the mice they caught to you, instead of to their real owners? If I remember correctly, many of the cats here were bought for the purpose of catching mice.”

”As a human, you shouldn’t try to understand the world of cats,” the black cat gave the little wizard a deep look and said slowly in a low voice. ”As for why these cats can’t catch mice for their masters... if they don’t catch mice, would their masters sell them off?”

”Many people keep cats simply as an excuse,” Xiao Xiao added.

Lin Guo nodded in seeming understanding, not continuing the topic, but changing the questions:

”How did you get your cat group to neatly arrange the mice they caught... and even tie their tails together! I’ve never seen cats catch mice so ’cleanly’!”

In Lin Guo’s impression, when cats caught mice, they would often bite their prey until they were unrecognizable. Some kindhearted cats would leave transparent wounds on the prey using their claws.

But like the prey caught by Zheng Qing’s cat group, their whole body remained unharmed, and they were arranged neatly and slept soundly together – this was something he had never seen before.

”Ha!” The black cat, upon hearing this, immediately squatted on the ground, lifted his paw, and smugly rubbed his nose. ”This is our core competence... If the mice had missing limbs, had holes all over, who would want to buy them?”

”As for the method, one of the reasons is that these cats are smart. I demonstrated it a few times, and they all learned how to use their claws to knock out the mice and how to tie the mice’s tails into a bow.”

”On the other hand, we’re lucky. There’s a ’Coma Cat’ among this group... well, it’s that Egyptian cat squatting diagonally behind the Feral Cat. This cat has inherited a blessing from an unknown generation of Egyptian Pharaoh’s pet. Mice that are hit by its paw will fall into a coma.”

”Of course, so far, we have only found that its ability is useful for mice... Perhaps back when the Nile River had a mouse infestation, the Egyptian Pharaohs specifically developed this ’special cat breed’?”

As Zheng Qing spoke, he paused, thought for a moment, finally shook his head and added, ”Or maybe we could try other small animals, like eight-eyed spiders, Red Chain Snakes, or sexton beetles... I remember there are sub-species of sexton beetles in Egypt, they used to be very rampant back in the days. Maybe this cat’s ability can work on those insects.”

Before Lin Guo had a chance to speak, a slightly sharp voice cut in from the side.

”From the sounds of it, are you guys also planning on accepting some sexton beetles?” Ding Dang’s head popped out from behind Lin Guo’s shoes. Looking at Zheng Qing, he asked, ”Alive or dead?”

”Of course, alive!” The black cat answered subconsciously, then paused, looking up at the dressed-up little mouse, ”Huh? You’re still here, I thought you left earlier.”

”With so many mice here, how could I possibly go back empty-handed!” Ding Dang flicked his tail, sounding somewhat impatient. ”If I can exchange sexton beetles for your mice, would you be willing to trade?”

”Sexton beetles?” The black cat slightly narrowed his eyes.

Besides mice, other ’abnormal species’ that invaded the campus included spiders, snakes, and sexton beetles. Jiuyou Academy was assigned to deal with mice, while Alpha Academy was assigned to deal with sexton beetles.

Although sexton beetles looked much cleaner and were easier to catch than mice, for many wizards with cleanliness obsessions, especially psychological ones, having them catch sexton beetles was worse than eating raw frog livers.

After all, eating frog livers can improve eyesight, while catching sexton beetles is a thorough ’lucky draught’, which was a taboo for many wizards carrying some historical burden.

”Can you provide sexton beetles?” Xiao Xiao, who was counting the number of mice, suddenly stopped his quill and looked at Ding Dang. ”I mean in large amounts... lots and lots of sexton beetles?”

”Of course!” Ding Dang slapped his chest without hesitation. ”Fried sexton beetles are our favorite snacks. Any home without seven or eight hundred beetles would be too embarrassed to invite guests!”

The black cat couldn’t help but look at Doctor Xiao.

Both man and cat’s eyes suddenly lit up.

That’s right!

Cats aren’t good at catching sexton beetles or eight-eyed spiders, but mice are!

Previously, because the mice they caught were all wild mice with low intelligence, it would not be convenient to order them to catch beetles. They could use magic to control the mice, but both the time cost and the magic cost would become extremely high, making it not worthwhile.

But things are different now.

With the ’Dressed-up Rat Race’ - this was the new name given by the black cat with Ding Dang as the leader - who are mice and intelligent beings, they could help catch sexton beetles, and D&K’s business could easily expand to Alpha Academy!