8 Steven Buys Food To Ea

The school campus stalls were comparable to a small marketplace. The sounds of laughter and other chatter filled the pathways. The mouthwatering smells of different foods enticed people to different stalls.

Steven, noticing the number of delicious foods, ran up to the first stall. A sign on top read, "Zhong Guo Gu Dian Mei Shi" with some ancient looking letters underneath that Steven couldn't quite read.

"Welcome to our humble stall." The lady said to them. "We serve traditional Chinese cuisine."

"Okay, I would like Nian Gao stir fry, fried rice, tea eggs, shrimp rice noodle roll..." Steven started rambling a bit, pointing at each item in the stall.

"Steven..." Zero said, "You know that you have to pay for the food you buy?"

"Yeah...? I have the money."

"No, do you have the contribution points?" Zero asked, frustrated.

"What's that?" Steven asked, curious.

Zero sighed. "Contribution points in this school is the school's exclusive virtual currency... Your ID card is basically like a debit card. It's in the student manual."

"Nobody reads that," Steven said.

Zero was about to go on a tangent-

"Alright, that'll be 170 points." The lady said.

"Okay," Steven replied, handing out his ID card.

The lady swiped it and said, "Alright, your remaining balance is 2830 points."

Steven gathered his mountain of food and sat down at one of the benches.

"You know" Zero stared, "You shouldn't spend all your points on food. The store's campus shop sells many necessities..."

Steven hungrily ate the food.

"What could be," Steven said between bites, "More important than food?"

Steven wolfed down the food.

"Okay, I'm done eating," said Steven. "Let's go eat more!"

Steven hopped around the stalls, buying this and that. At that point, he only had 1980 points left.

"Are... you full yet?" Zero asked, casually.

"Not yet. Everyone has a second stomach for dessert." Steven replied back. "Plus you haven't eaten anything..."

"I'm not hungry," he said.

"Mm... I'll go buy some ice cream." Steven said, pointing at a stall.

"I'll stay here," Zero said.

Zero watched the birds fly in the air and down on the ground. They were frolicking, dancing, and singing. He hummed along.

"I'm back!" Steven was holding a vanilla ice cream cone and a mocha bean one. "Here, have this," he said, giving Zero the vanilla one.

"Why vanilla?"

"Hm... I guessed you would like it? Also, because it's the color of your hair."

"Wow, is that how you guess what ice cream flavor people like? Oh look, you have brown hair, so that's why you chose the mocha bean one, right?" He said sarcastically.

"Wh- How did you know?" Steven asked, surprised.

"I like vanilla, but it isn't my favorite," Zero said.

"What is?"

"I guess green tea? It's quite soothing..." Zero replied. "I guess a little matcha taste is fine with the ice cream, but I don't like it very bitter."

They ate their ice cream.

"Zero, how do I get contribution points?" Steven said, finishing his ice cream up.

"Hm... I guess. There are many ways to earn contribution points. Helping out a teacher, dueling a student, setting up a stall, or getting a part-time occupation." Zero answered.

"What are duels?" Steven asked.

"Fights."

"They allow fighting on campus?" Steven asked, worried.

"Well... you can duel people in secondary occupations, duel on knowledge, duel on skills such as art, music, and etc. So it doesn't have to be a fight. But yeah, it could be. Fights are closely monitored, and the healing in these schools are pretty high tech."

"Oh, how do you know so much?"

"By reading the student manual? It's all in the book."

"Who reads books?"