Chapter 2: Fusion

"Bang! Bang! Bang!... Open the door right now!"

As expected, the landlady barged in angrily. Without saying a word, she began inspecting the place. "I thought I heard an animal just now. Are you secretly keeping pets?"

Faced with the landlady's fury, which had clearly reached its peak, Grayson immediately put on his most flattering expression.

Thinking quickly, he pointed at his computer and smiled, explaining, "Landlady, how could I? I was just watching a wildlife documentary online. That was a wolf howling. Hehe, we're in the city; how could I possibly keep a wolf?"

The landlady paused to think. Indeed, it had sounded like a wolf howl. She shot him a fierce glare and scolded, "Next time, keep the volume down. Don't disturb the neighbors!"

"Yes, yes, of course... It won't happen again," Grayson replied, sending her off and locking the door. He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. The landlady's overwhelming presence was terrifying.

But after calming down, he sat back in his chair, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

If he now had this system, could he also capture other monsters? Like those ridiculously powerful bosses?

The Black Dragon Princess Onyxia, the Red Dragon, Nefarian… and so on.

With this in mind, Grayson immediately logged into his main account and entered a dungeon.

However, to his surprise, even after taking down the final boss, no capture prompt appeared.

Grayson frowned in disappointment. "Does capturing have a cooldown? Or is it…"

Another possibility came to mind, and Grayson felt a little frustrated.

To test his theory, he switched accounts again.

This time, when he stood before a pack of wolves, the prompt appeared once more.

"A Level 2 monster has been detected. Do you wish to capture it?"

"Capture." Grayson issued the command without hesitation.

Just like before, a wolf gradually disappeared. This time, he noticed that its disappearance was counted toward his quest progress. It seemed the system treated it as if he had killed it.

"Capture successful. Gained 1 experience point."

Exiting the game, Grayson reopened the status panel. Sure enough, the second monster slot now contained another wolf.

Opening the attributes of both wolves, he reviewed the details in their respective panels.

Attributes of the First Wolf:

Monster Name: Wolf (Original Name)

Quality: One Star 

Level: 1

Stamina: 6

Strength: 7

Speed: 7

Intelligence: 1

Talent: None

Skills: None

Potential: 1.2

After checking the Level 1 wolf, Grayson looked at the other one.

Attributes of the Second Wolf:

Monster Name: Wolf (Original Name)Quality: One Star

Level: 2

Stamina: 6

Strength: 9

Speed: 9

Intelligence: 1

Talent: None

Skills: None

Potential: 1.0

Grayson stared at the stats in fascination, deep in thought.

There were two main things he was concerned about: quality and potential.

Anyone who has played games knows how important these two factors are when it comes to pets.

Grayson still didn't fully understand the concept of quality, but after seeing the attributes of the two wolves, he guessed that potential probably represented the average growth value of their four main attributes.

With that in mind, Grayson immediately clicked on the "Fusion" button, placing the Level 1 wolf with higher potential in the main slot, and the Level 2 wolf in the secondary slot. He then clicked to issue the "Fusion" command.

After a series of operations, the Level 2 wolf in the secondary slot disappeared, and the wolf in the main slot underwent a drastic transformation. What was once a normal adult wolf shrank into a wolf cub.

"Fusion successful. You have obtained a Level 0 Wolf Cub."

Immediately afterward, the attributes of the wolf cub popped up on the screen.

Wolf Cub's Attributes:

Monster Name: Wolf Cub (Original Name)

Quality: One Star

Level: 0

Stamina: 5

Strength: 6

Speed: 6

Intelligence: 1

Talent: None

Skills: None

Potential: 1.3

Although the quality hadn't changed, Grayson's eyes lit up as he understood the relationship between potential and quality.

Based on his guess, the potential had to reach a certain level before the quality could show significant fluctuations.

With this in mind, Grayson logged back into the game.

However, this time he was disappointed. The usual capture prompt didn't appear in his mind, indicating that he had reached the capture limit.

At this point, the system's experience bar showed 2/20, meaning he needed 18 more experience points to level up. Currently, the only ways to gain system experience were by capturing monsters or failing fusion attempts. The latter was uncontrollable, and the former had a limit, so he realized he couldn't rush things.

But the question remained: How could the wolf cub gain experience? Also, it seemed like he could even name it.

Grayson muttered to himself. While he didn't know exactly what this system could bring him yet, one thing was for sure: it was incredibly powerful.

Just imagine, one day when he could bring all the bosses from Mount Yama into the real world. Not to say he'd dominate the world, but at least no one would dare to mess with him.

However, that was still a long way off. Right now, he needed to figure out the system's functions and, on a more practical note, look for a job.

While lost in thought, his phone suddenly rang, interrupting his musings.

Glancing at the caller ID, he saw it was his university roommate. Naturally, he didn't bother with formalities. "Hey, what's up?"

"Dude, can't you use a different greeting?"

"What's going on?"

"I heard you threw a tantrum and got fired. Is that true?"

"Yeah, it's true. Just got fired today. Now I'm home playing games."

"Alright, I'm not going to lecture you. I found you a job—security at the Emperor's Garden, 7,000 a month. They want someone with decent skills. Are you interested?"

Emperor's Garden was famous, the most luxurious community in Still City. It was a place where only high-ranking officials or wealthy people lived.

Grayson then relaxed. His roommate knew that he had some skills, so that's why he recommended the job.

He thought for a moment before replying, "Sure, I'll give it a try."

"Great, I'll tell them you're coming."

Actually, when they graduated, his roommate had told him to just join the company his family owned.

Grayson understood that it was out of good intentions, but he felt that if money got involved between friends, their relationship might slowly deteriorate. So, he preferred to struggle on his own than to work at his friend's company.

After that, his roommate gave him some important details, and Grayson made sure to remember them.

The next morning, Grayson got up early, did some exercise, and worked out for a bit. After that, he began preparing.

After eating and getting ready, Grayson, unusually, put on a casual suit, hailed a taxi, and headed for the Emperor's Garden.