122: Have dinner together

Today was Saturday. Originally, Zhao Zixuan, Fang Mu, and Li Baoyu were at home.

However, to celebrate their first-place win in the Card Innovation Competition, they all agreed to have hotpot for lunch, so they planned to return home this afternoon.

During the more than ten days he was away, Li Lan and Li Yue helped him look after the shop.

He had only asked Li Lan to help him with the shop on weekends, but unexpectedly, the siblings helped him open and watch the shop every day, though only for a period after school.

Xu Bai also invited Li Lan and Li Yue to join them for hotpot... When there's good news, the best way to celebrate is with a meal.

Everyone sat around, eating hotpot together.

"Brother Xu, I heard the exhibition went very smoothly, and that you even collaborated with the military?"

Zhao Zixuan had heard some news from his brother and wanted to confirm it with Xu Bai.

"Indeed, quite a lot of people came to the exhibition. The Card Innovation Competition judges recommended me to the military, and then they sent someone to collaborate with me."

"I also know there are some confidentiality requirements, but can I know when I'll be able to see the cardss you collaborated on with the military?"

Zhao Zixuan rubbed his hands. He was also a military enthusiast and had once thought about becoming a soldier, but alas, he had Card Maker talent and became a Card Maker.

However, if ordinary people knew about his idea, they might beat him to death.

After all, ordinary people dreamed of becoming Card Makers.

"I heard from the military that it will be very soon, but I'm not entirely sure about the exact time.

However, we encountered members of a mercenary group during the previous tests, and now the mercenary group is also urging the military to open up the weapons for sale."

"Alright, then the weapons should be available soon. I wonder if I'll be able to buy a cards then."

Xu Bai thought for a moment. Are guns in this world regulated? Or can everyone buy them? Why did he feel like he hadn't seen any guns at home?

"Can you buy them?"

Fang Mu replied, "Yes, you just need to pass a gun license test, and then you can go to a Government gun specialty store to purchase firearms.

I took the gun license test with Fang Mu and passed. Bao Yu didn't go with us to take it at the time."

Li Lan quickly added, as a commoner, he knew that buying firearms wasn't that simple.

"No, you need to reach Citizen Level 3. Those with lower Citizen Levels can also find someone to vouch for them, and then they can take the gun license test.

Zi Xuan, did your family vouch for you?"

Seeing Zhao Zixuan nod, Li Lan continued.

"Also, not all firearms are available for purchase by everyone. Some weapons are not released to the public by the military, and weapons with greater destructive power depend even more on the purchaser's Citizen Level.

I heard this is a tiered release model. Different Citizen Levels have different permissions.

Oh, by the way, Brother Xu, what Citizen Level have you reached?"

Citizen Level? Xu Bai was a little confused.

"My Citizen Level? Where do I see that? I haven't even noticed."

Fang Mu silently opened his mouth.

He didn't expect someone to be so unconcerned about their Citizen Level.

One should know that with a higher Citizen Level, the corresponding social status, social welfare, and purchasing power would all increase.

Even they were very concerned about their Citizen Level.

"Well, look at your ID cards; it has an indicator there. However, after your collaboration with the military, your level should increase, and you'll need to go to the Guard Team to upgrade it."

At this point, everyone took out their ID cardss from the side of their cards reader.

After all, ID cardss are very important in this world and need to be carried at all times.

Fang Mu — Citizen Level One

Zhao Zixuan — Citizen Level One

Li Baoyu — Citizen Level One

Xu Bai — Citizen Level Two

Xu Le — Citizen Level One

Li Lan — Citizen Level One

Li Yue — Citizen Level One

..."I'm one level higher than you all now. Why is that? Are there any benefits?"

"I heard that after graduating from a Higher Academy, you get one level up. After that, to upgrade, you need to see what contributions you've made to the country.

The benefit might be being able to buy more cards; I'm not sure about the others, since I'm only Level One."

Li Lan shrugged, smiling helplessly.

"Some of these benefits are invisible, for example, during an evacuation, higher-level citizens will be prioritized, as they have contributed to the country."

Fang Mu replied.

"That's right, that's right, I heard before that it's indeed like that. This is also a method everyone agrees with; it's very fair."

Li Baoyu had filled his stomach to about 70% and finally joined their conversation.

For a foodie, chatting wasn't as important as eating.

Hearing their words, Xu Bai nodded.

"Then it really does seem quite important."

"Exactly! If your level is high, you can even influence the decisions of those above you. Oh, and Xu Bai's collaboration with the military definitely counts as a contribution to the country. You should go to the Guard Team to upgrade your Citizen Level then."

Zhao Zixuan also chimed in.

Xu Bai smiled and nodded at Zhao Zixuan's kind offer.

As for influencing the decisions of those above, with his current situation, he couldn't reach the higher-ups yet, so he wouldn't think too much about it.

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. How's your studying recently? You haven't fallen behind, have you?"

"Don't worry, we'll study hard. We still want to follow you in the future."

Zhao Zixuan promised Xu Bai.

Following Xu Bai to study some time ago, the more they learned, the more they felt Xu Bai was amazing.

Because they had actually studied with other Card Makers before, but each time they only learned the method of making a specific cards.

However, when studying with Xu Bai, all the principles were explained clearly to them, and they could even make other things based on these principles.

It was like one person gives you a fish, and the other teaches you how to fish.

So, there were many benefits to studying with Xu Bai.

"No problem, then let's all follow me. Li Lan, you too."

All four of them nodded at Xu Bai's words.

Xu Bai was secretly delighted.

He actually had the idea of nurturing them.

One person's strength is limited, but the strength of many is infinite.

I want to bring you all along to collectively drive modern development.

"Oh, I suddenly remembered I brought you some local specialties."

With that, Xu Bai thought for a moment, wondering if this counted as a local specialty, but it was brought from Province B anyway.

Xu Bai picked up his backpack, rummaged through it, and took out the dried exotic beast meat and Ink Bird braised eggs he had saved for them.

After that small group competition, they were in high spirits and formed teams to go out several more times, bringing back many exotic beasts and Ink Bird eggs. The army cafeteria made a lot of dried exotic beast meat and braised eggs from these.

After the research concluded, Liu Tianshi had the researchers take some with them, so Xu Bai brought back a lot.

Everyone accepted them. They knew a little about dried exotic beast meat, but they had never seen these eggs before.