Chapter 1 Lin Su (Seeking Investment and Followers)_2

An era belonging to Beast Tamers thus descended upon us.

The hidden dimension within human brains, known as the Beast Taming Space, allowed humans capable of forming contracts with alien beasts to be called Beast Tamers, while the contracted alien beasts were known as Guardian Beasts, distinguished from their wild counterparts.

The Guardian Beasts living within the Beast Taming Space grew much faster than normal, with the help of the Beast Tamers, they could more easily access the various resources needed for their growth.

These advantages formed a mutually beneficial foundation between the Guardian Beasts and the Beast Tamers. Intelligent alien beasts began to willingly contract with humans to utilize the power of the Beast Taming Space for rapid growth and to break the limitations of their species to become stronger.

The community of Beast Tamers developed rapidly and flourished, and thus, humanity's counterattack against the alien beasts was sounded.

Beast Tamers were powerful, but alien beasts were no less formidable; the notion of regarding alien beasts simply as slaves like before the appearance of the Ghost Energy Stone had become impossible. The result of the counterattack was that humans regained their own territories, but also had to cede a significant portion as habitats for the alien beasts.

Divided according to geographic locations, human territories evolved into four safe alliances: Yanhuang, Sacred, Desert, and Free, with the Yanhuang Safe Alliance located in the Central Asian region of Blue Star, divided into seventy-two zones.

At this moment, Lin Su was in the 32nd zone of the Yanhuang Safe Alliance.

His parents had tragically died in a beast tide when he was only three years old. Lin Su, having no other relatives, had thereafter lived in a children's welfare home on the minimum living allowance provided by the alliance.

This had been his home for fifteen years.

Upon hearing the noise from the iron gate, a little girl who appeared to be only eleven or twelve years old quickly ran out, her eyes brightening with joy, "Lin Su, big brother, you're back!"

"Mhm." Lin Su raised his hand and affectionately tousled the little girl's hair. He then dangled the delicate paper bag in front of her before her cheeks could puff up in displeasure, "Tongtong, guess what I brought?"

"Yay!" The girl's displeasure was swiftly forgotten as she eagerly snatched the paper bag and hugged it to her chest, "It's Rainbow Candy!"

"I'm heading to my room now; don't eat all the candy by yourself. Remember to share," said Lin Su with a gentle smile, patting her head again before heading to his own room.

"Got it, got it, Lin Su, big brother, don't worry—I'll share, one for each person!" Tongtong nodded obediently and scampered off towards the children's yard.

One for Little Radish, one for me; one for Little Moon, one for me; one for Brother Feng, one for me…

Hehe!

…

Lying comfortably on his bed in his room, Lin Su's face revealed a sadness he hadn't shown before.

"The initial Guardian Beast distribution is tomorrow…" he murmured softly, a hint of reluctance in his eyes.

Now eighteen, Lin Su's Beast Taming Space had stabilized at the first tier, and he was now an apprentice Beast Tamer. Only by contracting with a Guardian Beast and obtaining certification from the Guardian Beast Co-operation could he register as an official Beast Tamer, enjoy the various benefits thereof, and gain the qualification to apply to Beast Tamer University.

Just as prestigious universities before the great calamity required sufficient test scores for admission, today's prestigious Beast Tamer Universities also had requirements for the strength of Beast Tamers, which for a high school senior who had just contracted their first Guardian Beast, was essentially equivalent to the strength of the newly contracted Guardian Beast.

In other words, the strength of the Guardian Beast he contracted tomorrow would directly determine whether he could get into a prestigious Beast Tamer University.

Alien beasts were classified into strength tiers, ranging from the lowest Juvenile Tier to the highest Immortal Tier, consisting of six tiers altogether; between them were the Elite Tier, Commander Tier, Sovereign Tier, and Emperor Tier, with substantial strength differentials between each stage.

All alien beasts started at the Juvenile Tier at birth, but due to differences in innate talent and potential, they had varying ceilings for growth. Some could only reach the Elite Tier when they grew up, while others could ascend to the high height of the Sovereign Tier or even the Emperor Tier.

Based on their developmental potential, alien beasts could be classified into four species: Elite, Commander, Sovereign, and Emperor, corresponding to the natural growth limits of each alien beast species. Moreover, each species level could be further subdivided into lower, middle, and upper tiers.

Early Beast Tamers could contract beasts from the Sovereign and Emperor species, but the emergence of the Immortal Tier alien beasts decades ago changed everything.

Beasts of the Immortal Tier had special powers that directly manipulated and controlled rules. To weaken the power of human Beast Tamers, three incredibly powerful Immortal Tier alien beasts combined decades ago to implant a special restriction known as the "Alien Beast Ban" in the bloodlines of other high-potential, high-species alien beasts, causing them to die instantly if they contracted with a human Beast Tamer.

Only the Elite species and lower levels of the Commander species were unaffected by the Alien Beast Ban and could still contract with Beast Tamers.

Humans had mastered the evolutionary paths of lower-tier alien beasts, allowing them to evolve lower-tier species into higher-tier ones, so the presence of the Alien Beast Ban did not completely leave Beast Tamers at the mercy of others.

Yet, this made Beast Tamer resources severely scarce, and the conditions for the new generation of Beast Tamers inevitably worsened.

At present, Lin Su wanted to contract a pet beast, and there were only two ways to do so.

The first way was to buy a contractible pet beast from the market and contract it by himself.

The second way was as a recent high school senior, to receive an initial pet beast allocation.

The difference between the two was that buying a pet beast oneself required paying the market price, whereas the initial pet beast allocation, as a form of league assistance, only required paying the basic breeding cost of the pet beast, which was several times lower than the market price.

The Green Eagle High School that he attended was a public high school that controlled the breeding channels for the lower elite species, the Green Feathered Eagle, and recent high school seniors could choose from various elite species pet beasts or opt for the Green Feathered Eagle as their initial pet beast. However, the breeding cost for a Green Feathered Eagle was twelve thousand league coins.

Lin Su's circumstances neither allowed him to choose the option of buying a pet beast himself nor contracting a Green Feathered Eagle.

He only had thirty thousand league coins, which he had saved from being frugal since childhood and continuously scrimping at amusement arcades.

Thirty thousand league coins were enough to cover the breeding cost of any elite species pet beast, but the Green Feathered Eagle was out of the question.

Without an initial pet beast from the lower elite species, Lin Su also had no way to be admitted to an excellent Beast Tamer University.

This made him, who had always been among the top achievers academically, especially unwilling to accept the situation, yet he was helpless.

At this point, feeling any more dissatisfaction was meaningless.

Resignedly sighing, Lin Su took out his communicator and glanced at it.

There were no unread messages.

Just as he was about to turn off the communicator, a pop-up notification suddenly appeared.

"Today, the league's chief researcher, Qin Yunzhang, held a press conference, unveiling a groundbreaking research discovery."

Qin Yunzhang?

The founder of the Guardian Beast Co-operation battle strategy?

Blinking, he couldn't help but click to read more.

"New research has discovered that the species classification of alien beasts might not be due to the natural mutation evolution under the stimulation of the Ghost Energy Stone's radiation, but rather the radiation specifically selects normal flora and fauna with extremely high similarity to fixed alien beast templates, directing their evolution into these templates, unrelated to the original flora and fauna species traits…"

"Researcher Qin stated that even if the Ghost Energy Stone were in a world completely different from that of Earth's organisms, there is a high probability that the same type of alien beasts would emerge. This research result overturns our fundamental understanding of alien beasts and introduces new problems; where these fixed templates originally come from…"

"For further developments related to this research, this news channel will continue to monitor. Stay tuned."

Scrolling to the end, Lin Su shook his head in disappointment, closed the communicator, and set it aside.

This research result sounded impressive, but it offered no help to his current situation.

Better to sleep and rest up, waiting for tomorrow's initial pet beast allocation.

Closing his eyes, a wave of sleepiness slowly washed over him.

Lin Su fell asleep.

Suddenly, he woke up again.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard a cry of surprise.

"Master! Madam! The young master has awakened!"

Lin Su: "???"

Since when did I become a young master?