Divination

After Yu Wan left, Luo Yu started rummaging through the research institute for something to eat. He didn't know whether the place had been robbed; after searching for ages, all he turned up was a bag of octopus feed and a bag of bread. “It could be worse.” Luo Yu wasn't picky. In the apocalypse, this stuff had been a hot commodity, worth its weight in gold—and on top of that, this bag was crab roe flavored. Once he'd eaten, he lay sprawled on the sofa like a salted fish, staring at the ceiling. “It's so good to have something to eat…” He never wanted to go back to the days when he couldn't even get his hands on prepackaged meals. Even with the zombie threat still hanging over the place, Luo Yu found he didn't mind much. “Oh, right—the official name for them now is supposed to be 'mutated corpse beasts.'” Luo Yu thought. The zombies of this age were all beast-form now. The humanoid zombies hadn't mutated fast enough to adapt to the sea and had been weeded out early; you could only see them in museums these days. “I need to keep digesting these memories…” Luo Yu closed his eyes, feeling he had to learn more about this era. That digestion took half a day. In the middle of it, he drifted straight off to sleep… He only woke when Yu Wan showed up again. “Teacher Yu Wan… you're here.” After inviting her in, he asked, “What did the leadership say?” “The Director said… if you're confident you can finish your parents' research on the inkfish, there's no problem with you using the institute for a while longer, but…” Yu Wan mulled it over. “But what?” Luo Yu asked. “But you'll have to go through the proper procedures… you need to meet the Mutated Creature Research Institute's minimum usage requirements.” “The person in charge of a research institute has to be a Beast Master, and needs a Breeding Qualification Certificate. That's the most basic requirement.” She looked at Luo Yu, curious to see what he'd do. Luo Yu nodded. It wasn't really an unreasonable demand. In fact, they'd already given him quite a few green lights—all he had to do was clear the “minimum bar,” and he wouldn't have to think about any unspoken rules. “Beast Master status and a Breeding Qualification Certificate…” Luo Yu thought it over. The standard for becoming a Beast Master was to awaken the Beast Taming Space ability and contract a mutated beast… He had already awakened his Beast Taming Space; he just hadn't contracted a pet beast yet. So he was only one crucial step away from becoming a Beast Master. That part was easy. Later he'd just go find a pet beast with top-tier talent and contract it. As for the “Breeding Qualification Certificate”… On Jingyue Island, a lot of important beast-taming work required a Breeding Qualification Certificate. Opening a pet beast hospital, organizing beast taming training venues, setting up a breeding farm… it was a kind of business license. And there was only one way to get a Breeding Qualification recognized by Jingyue Island's authorities… The Breeding Qualification Examination, held uniformly on the 20th of every month by the Jingyue Island Beast Master Administration. He remembered the exam had two rounds. The first round tested basic knowledge about Beast Masters and mutated beasts. The second round required appraising and analyzing the development condition of dozens of wild mutated beasts, then precisely picking out which one had the best aptitude and was most suitable for a human to contract. In short, only someone with a thorough understanding of all kinds of mutated beasts and real analytic discernment was qualified to work in a beast-taming industry on Jingyue Island. As the child of biologists, “Luo Yu” had a solid grounding in beast-taming knowledge thanks to his parents' elite education. So the first round shouldn't be a problem. What Luo Yu lacked was hands-on experience in identifying mutated beasts—the sort of thing Beast Masters usually built up over years of practice. But now that he had the Data Eye… it wasn't impossible to give it a try. “No problem.” Luo Yu agreed on the spot. “You're pretty confident.” Yu Wan smiled when the Breeding Qualification Examination didn't make him flinch. “Then I look forward to seeing how you do. Though I think this month's exam is the day after tomorrow—and you haven't contracted a pet beast yet, right? Is there time?” “Only Beast Masters can register for that exam… Maybe wait for the next one?” “There should be time.” Luo Yu thought about it. “…So have you decided what kind of pet beast to contract? Don't tell me you're planning to contract those inkfish.” Yu Wan asked. Because she figured Luo Yu's parents must have taken a great deal of money with them when they went to buy pet beasts. Even if they'd left some for Luo Yu, it couldn't have been much. Could he afford a suitable pet beast to contract… “I haven't decided yet, but it probably won't be inkfish.” Luo Yu added, “I'm planning to go take a look at the pet beast shops. Does Teacher Yu Wan have any recommendations?” Yu Wan had only asked in passing, but Luo Yu's words lit up her interest at once. “How about I cast a divination for you? See what type of pet beast suits you.” “Divination?” Luo Yu was surprised. Divination sounded pretty unscientific, but this world was already fantastical enough, and things like astrology had genuinely come into existence by borrowing such supernatural powers. Yu Wan nodded calmly. “Don't let the fact that I'm just a clerk now fool you. A few years ago I was out adventuring on the seas, serving as a navigator. Astronomy and astrology… those are exactly what I'm best at.” “More than once, I used the stars to help a fleet find the right course… In the Old Era, I suppose that would have been called a celestial navigator.” “Then I'll leave it to you.” Luo Yu's eyes brightened. Next, Yu Wan excitedly pulled a huge pearl from her backpack… At her expression, Luo Yu was briefly taken aback. Why did she seem… not very professional? “This is the pearl left behind when a star shell dies. It has the power to commune with the starry sky,” Yu Wan explained. The star shell was an Upper Common Species, but because of its rare attribute, it could draw on the power of the stars to create illusions. It was the most valuable creature among the Common Species, close behind the Monarch Species. Luo Yu's parents had actually gone to Canglan Island hoping to buy a top-grade pet beast just like that. Luo Yu cooperated through all of it, answering every question she asked. Yu Wan fiddled away for ages, then finally, like some fortune-telling charlatan, stared solemnly at the glowing pearl. In the end, the silhouette of a black-and-white animal appeared on the pearl's surface. It looked like some kind of bovine. “This is… a dairy cow?! How is it a dairy cow? I narrowed the range to Jingyue Island… There can't be many places left with creatures like dairy cows, can there?” Yu Wan was baffled. Luo Yu looked at her, his suspicions confirmed. She really was an amateur. She wanted to do divination for him out of sheer addiction. If she were actually any good, would she have ended up running errands at the Beast Management Bureau? A pet beast dairy cow… was she telling him to go open a ranch? Yu Wan sank into thought, then said apologetically, “Sorry… let's try again.” “Sure…” Before long, another black-and-white animal appeared on the giant pearl. Luo Yu fell silent, and so did Yu Wan. It was a mutated orca. Luo Yu smiled. Orcas counted as apex predators of the ocean; mutated, it would surely rank at least as a Monarch Species. Was he worthy of contracting it?! “Third time's the charm—we're nearly there. See? It's landed on a sea creature already…” “Last time!” Yu Wan said gravely. “This one's bound to work.” As if refusing to accept defeat, she cast again, sweat already soaking her hair and clothes. A moment later, another black-and-white figure appeared on the pearl… This time it was an inkfish—an apparition with eight tentacles, each gripping a white ice blade… Finally a little more reliable! But not entirely reliable! A little more reliable, because it was at least a sea creature you could find on Jingyue Island. But it was… the eight-legged weakling Luo Yu had ruled out early on… and with such a bizarre design. “I get it…” Yu Wan looked at Luo Yu sheepishly. “Maybe the ocean's magnetic field has been too chaotic lately. You can tell just from the weird signs of activity those zombies are showing.” “It's interfering with my astrology… with my spiritual power as it is now… I can't seem to filter out the magnetic interference…” “It's fine, it's fine.” Luo Yu said. “That damned magnetic field, holding back my progress.” “I wish you luck. I won't disturb you any longer.” Her divination having failed, Yu Wan slunk away. “What a weirdo. I knew it was useless, but still…” Watching her departing back, Luo Yu's gaze suddenly sharpened. That last divination… Eight-Blade Style inkfish? Back in the backyard pond… wasn't there an individual with exactly that Eight-Blade Style talent! “What are you doing, Luo Yu? Are you seriously buying into that divination?” Luo Yu shook his head a moment later. Forget it. Business first… Next… it was time to go find his own pet beast. And then, the Breeding Qualification Examination. A whole round of hoops, a bit of a hassle, but at least now there was a way to keep the institute… Soon the divination result was pushed to the back of Luo Yu's mind. Eight-Blade Style was only a high-grade talent—one in a hundred, admittedly, but he still hoped to pick up something with top-tier talent, to start from higher up. “I'll try the purchase route first.” Before long, Luo Yu dug up a “small fortune” in the research institute—roughly 1,100 Alliance coins. He was broke right now, but not completely penniless; his parents had left him some living expenses. He ran the numbers in his head. In this era, the bloodline lineages of mutated beasts had long since been divided into strict ranks. Common Species, Monarch Species, Abyss Species, Cataclysm Species… an almost insurmountable gulf separated each rank from the next. And within the same species rank, there were further divisions of lower, mid, and upper. The higher the species rank, the greater the potential and the stronger the abilities. On the little land that remained, the powerful wild mutated beasts had long since been cleared out for the safety of humanity; what was left was basically Common Species. As for Monarch-rank pet beasts… across the whole of Jingyue Island, there were only a few. The white whale he'd seen right after transmigrating had been one of them. Still, even for a Common Species, this much money seemed like it would only buy the weakest-potential Lower Common Species. But the thing was, there was no need to buy Lower Common Species at all—the pet beasts the island handed out for free were all Lower Common Species. “Water-type mutated beast · Dewfall Spider.” “Water-type mutated beast · Greenwater Turtle.” “And water-type mutated beast · Wave Dog.” As the three species the island had selected, they were far better suited to contracting than the lower mutated beasts in the wild. “Lower-tier is lower-tier in the end. When there's a choice to be made, higher species rank is definitely better…” “I remember there's one pet beast shop that's a bit special—its Mid-tier Species seem relatively cheap.” There were three pet beast shops on the island selling Mid-tier Species mutated beasts. One of them sold a Mid-tier Species that could undergo species evolution as its life level rose, one of the rare few. In other words, it had a pre-evolution form—its lower stage—and only after certain conditions were met could it evolve into a Mid-tier Species. That was why the expensive part was the evolution resources; the creature itself wasn't pricey. Worth a look. … Wheeling his Fathead Fish-brand bicycle out of the research institute, Luo Yu headed onto the Ring Island Highway and rode off along the route marked on the map… At the same time, everything about Jingyue Island struck him as wonderfully new. Memories were still just memories. It was only while riding down the road, seeing with his own eyes flocks of mutated seagulls flying beneath the blue sky and white clouds delivering mail, and drip-rain butterflies watering the roadside plants, that he truly felt alive again. The New Era… “So much better than… the early days of the apocalypse.” Luo Yu sighed. Just looking at the streets, you couldn't tell this was a post-apocalyptic world at all. But he understood that this era was still very dangerous. The Tide Zombie Cataclysm Yu Wan had mentioned weighed heavily on his mind. If a great many zombies really did break through the island's defenses, then facing that endless ocean, there'd be no way for him to run. “Once I become a Beast Master, I'll have to get stronger fast…” “First turn out research results to make money, then use the money to raise powerful pet beasts.” “By then, even if Jingyue Island becomes unlivable, I'll have the ability to sail out and leave, to some other safe place…” “But raising a powerful pet beast takes a fair amount of time… Apart from that, becoming a biologist with strategic value as quickly as possible seems like another way to improve my safety.” Having lived through the apocalypse, Luo Yu felt this keenly. In the rainstorm apocalypse, the ones who got rescued first and brought out of the disaster zones had been, aside from the rich and powerful, the top experts in every field. As for ordinary people—they'd definitely be the last to be looked after. And zombie sea beasts were only one of many threats. For instance, when Luo Yu passed near the plaza by the harbor, he saw a great many wanted notices on the street walls. On the yellowed notices were bounties posted for many of the region's most dangerous pirates and mutated creatures… Luo Yu gave them a quick scan. There were far too many things out there that could be called a threat… Then, all at once, he braked and pulled up in front of one notice. The notice carried a portrait: a mutated beast with wavy blue fur, two tails, and the general shape of a lion. Odd heterochromatic eyes—one azure, one golden. Its name was Two-Tailed Cangni. The description said the creature had likely mutated and evolved from a Maine Coon; species rank unknown, life level unknown. It was wanted by the merchant guild for destroying a fully loaded merchant ship out of Canglan Island. “It's him… it's really him.” Luo Yu couldn't help speaking aloud. At the place he used to work, they had bred a Maine Coon—but due to a genetic mutation, it had been born with a congenital double-tail deformity. That Maine Coon had also had blue and gold odd eyes. It looked fine on the outside, but its hearing and movement had both been severely affected by the genetic defect. In the end, that Maine Coon was adopted and cared for by a young girl who worked at the shop, and he had often given it checkups and fed it too… “Probably the same one… odd eyes and a double tail—you probably couldn't find a second one like it in the whole world.” Luo Yu's heart stirred. Could this Two-Tailed Cangni be the pet beast he was fated to have? It looked strong at a glance… But soon he gave up that bold idea. Because Luo Yu was the one who had performed the neutering surgery on that cat.