Chapter 4: Discovery

"Your past performance has been impressive, and I'm satisfied with your efforts. Those who have merits shall receive rewards. From today onwards, you won't be a beast slave anymore. I will call you into my ranks and you will become a distinguished Beastman Warrior." When Zhou Tian was unsure how to communicate with the Beastman Warrior, he didn't know if the warrior was uninterested in conversing or just regarded him as one of those unintelligent beast slaves. As soon as the warrior saw Zhou Tian, without waiting for Zhou Tian to say anything, he busied himself with conveying his arrangements to Zhou Tian.

After hearing the Beastman Warrior's words, Zhou Tian didn't even have time to react before his mind delivered a corresponding prompt.

Unlike the evolution prompt given by gaining enough experience, the information that appeared in Zhou Tian's mind indicated that the Beastman Warrior surprisingly held the power to force his unconditional evolution into a Beastman Warrior. As the Beastman Warrior made his decision, whether Zhou Tian agreed or not, he had already been thrown into the countdown towards evolution.

As a result, before Zhou Tian had time to fully recover from this sudden development, his body began to change, not long after the Beastman Warrior had dropped his declaration.

His previously slender body suddenly inflated and became strong, filling out like a balloon. His clothing, which was originally just a simple pair of shorts, transformed into a one-piece beast fur outfit. Along with the wooden club that appeared around his waist, Zhou Tian appeared completely different from before in an instant.

Evolution from being the lowest-rung wild monster and beast slave to a Beastman Warrior signified an elevated status, which should generally be considered a good thing. However, Zhou Tian wasn't pleased; he was so upset, he even thought of killing the Beastman Warrior, if only his power wasn't so limited.

Even though the actions of the Beastman Warrior were meant to help Zhou Tian, the feeling of losing control over his future was unbearable for him. If the Beastman Warrior wasn't as unintelligent as a beast slave, he would have probably figured out Zhou Tian's discontent just from his reaction.

Eventually, even if Zhou Tian had numerous thoughts and ideas, at that instant, he had no choice but to suppress them. After silently retreating from the Beastman Warrior's front, Zhou Tian shifted his attention to his physical changes.

Just as reported in the contents of the information, after Zhou Tian evolved under the Beastman Warrior's arrangement, he didn't consume the experience that he had painstakingly amassed. Meanwhile, the talent ability Zhou Tian obtained from evolving into an elite beast slave did not disappear either. Yet, presumably due to his physical strength increasing, Zhou Tian's originally outstanding Speed Talent downgraded to a normal Speed Talent when he evolved into a Beastman Warrior.

Zhou Tian wasn't surprised by the downgrade of his abilities, since Beastmen naturally move faster compared to beast slaves. The same auxiliary strength applied to different entities leading to reduced efficacy didn't seem unacceptable. Instead, the current situation at least proved one thing: the talent ability attained by Zhou Tian would not vanish even after he evolved into a stronger monster.

After accepting his new identity, Zhou Tian quickly integrated himself into the Beastman team.

Quite different from the scenarios depicted in most novels, the world Zhou Tian lived in was remarkably alike a game. Beast slaves, including Beastmen, lack any real intelligence. Normally, their duty is to patrol designated areas and kill any appearing NPCs. Apart from the patrol task, they behave like true digital beings, devoid of problems concerning sustenance that any ordinary living beings might encounter.

Even the propagation ways of the beast slaves and the Beastmen are bizarre. Upon Zhou Tian's careful observation, new Beastman Warriors and beast slaves seemed to appear from nowhere. Initially, Zhou Tian thought that these 'newcomers' were translocated from other territories. But after interacting with Beastmen and beast slaves, he managed to draw out some information from them.

It turned out that monsters aren't propagated sexually. At the apex of monster hierarchy, a few lords and high-priests each possess a Demonic Transformation Pool. By offering tributes, several million new monsters can be spawned from the pool each month. The existence of these Demonic Transformation Pools allows the monster clans, which otherwise wouldn't be able to reproduce, to fight against this world's NPCs and maintain a dominant position.

Of course, the breeding of monsters had no direct connection with Zhou Tian. At least for the current Zhou Tian, those matters were distant. Now, rather than focusing on these things, Zhou Tian contemplated how to improve his strength.

As Zhou Tian feared, although the monsters and NPCs were mortal enemies, encounters like previous battles were incredibly rare. Since his transformation into a Beastman, Zhou Tian had been on patrol for several months but had yet to experience a second instance of war.

After his initial anxiety, Zhou Tian came to terms with the situation. If he couldn't find a battle, he could only lay low for now, and focus on strengthening when the next opportunity arose.

Having accepted this, time, once a source of great anguish, seemed to pass faster than before.

As a result, Zhou Tian continued his patrol for almost another month.

Just when Zhou Tian was unsure how long he would continue patrolling, an unexpected discovery presented him with another opportunity to enhance his strength.

"Even though there are no enemies, why are they constantly making us small monsters patrol our territories? Is it merely the game world rules at work?" Zhou Tian pondered while continuing his usual path, like any other day.

After patrolling a certain district, Zhou Tian suddenly stopped.

"Something's not right. I remember there being more Beastman warriors here yesterday than today." Detecting the decrease in Beastman warriors in his patrol area, Zhou Tian immediately became alert.

Unlike ordinary Beastman warriors, Zhou Tian was fundamentally different. The average Beastman warrior acted instinctively, not having the capacity for thought. Zhou Tian, on the other hand, knew how to think upon encountering problems, allowing him to discern more issues from seemingly insignificant matters.

For instance, the decrease in Beastman warriors would be overlooked by other Beastmen and even Beastman warriors. They wouldn't bother wondering where they went or why they disappeared. But Zhou Tian was different. Knowing that some Beastman warriors had suddenly vanished, he was naturally aware of this situation.

Zhou Tian didn't believe that these Beastman warriors, devoid of the capability to think, would act on their own. Since they wouldn't act of their accord, their disappearance could only be from an irresistible circumstance.

And therein lay the issue.

Given that these Beastman warriors disappeared due to irresistible circumstances, what could have caused their silent vanishing act?