It Was a Rainstorm

Luo Yu stayed up very late. The Ground Penguin also stayed up very late. It also held a book, though it recognized no characters, and gnawed on it stubbornly. Of course, it was looking at an illustrated book, or perhaps just at the pictures. "It's time to head back." After the sky grew dark, Luo Yu dragged the reluctant little penguin home on his bicycle. After sleeping through the night, Luo Yu arrived early the next day for the Breeding Qualification Examination. As for July, it was obviously still asleep. Outside the examination venue, Luo Yu also saw twenty-some other examinees wearing admission tickets like himself. They were mostly in their twenties and thirties. Wait? There seemed to be a peer too. "Luo... Luo Yu?" The other person also noticed Luo Yu—it was Chen Bo. "About yesterday, I'm sorry... I really didn't know Uncle and Auntie had met with misfortune." He came over, speaking incoherently. "It's fine. How about you pay me 100 Alliance coins?" Luo Yu was grown up; he couldn't quibble with a child. It was just that the exam registration fee stung a little... "100 Alliance coins? I don't have any money." Chen Bo looked completely bewildered, wondering what was meant. "Pay me back when you have money." Luo Yu chuckled. Chen Bo fell silent for a while, guessing Luo Yu must have gone crazy. "Speaking of which... why are you also taking the Breeding Qualification Examination?" Chen Bo changed the subject. He was very curious—after suffering such a great blow, how could Luo Yu still have the mind to take this! Still, he did not doubt Luo Yu's strength. Luo Yu's mother, and Chen Bo's mother, were both notorious pushy parents on Jingyue Island; neither was willing to let their own child lose out, and their control over their children was utterly inhumane. "I want to inherit Luoshui Research Institute and plan to rename it Luo Yu Research Institute." Luo Yu stated his purpose for taking the exam plainly. "This..." Chen Bo sucked in a breath. He was only his father's lab assistant now; could Luo Yu already inherit the research institute? Awesome! How nice... He began calculating: if his own parents died unexpectedly, what inheritance could he get... At that moment, inside the examination hall, the three examiners were flipping through the examinees' files, whispering among themselves. "Not many applicants this time." "The youngest is Luo Yu, son of Scholar Luo Shui..." "Next is Researcher Chen Zhuo's child, Chen Bo, 16 years old..." "This Chen Bo has taken it several times in a row. His ability isn't bad, but due to lack of experience, he frequently makes small mistakes. I don't know how he'll do this time." "If he passes, it would refresh the record." As the three spoke, the examination time arrived, and the many examinees entered the exam hall together. A moment later, the chief examiner standing in the middle raised his head and said, "Now distributing the exam papers. The exam time is 90 minutes." After speaking, a female examiner beside them handed out the exam papers one by one. After receiving the exam paper, Luo Yu quickly glanced over the questions. Four question types: multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and short answer! Judging by the questions, there were no particularly difficult ones; one could even say they were all basic common knowledge—basically free points. It was said that the first round of the Breeding Qualification Examination had a question bank of 3,000 questions, with questions randomly selected each time, so they were fixed knowledge points, at most varying the way they were asked. As long as one wasn't one of those who slipped through the nine-year compulsory education net, even if not getting a perfect score, one wouldn't miss too many. The hard part was the second round. "Question one: How many levels are there for Beast Masters currently..." Luo Yu counted in his mind: Apprentice, Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Monarch, Abyss, Calamity... "C, 7." "Question two: Under normal circumstances, how many pet beasts can each Beast Master contract..." "A, 1." Every human could awaken only one Beast Taming Space, and each Beast Taming Space could contract only one pet beast. But on the mysterious sea, there were many methods to increase the number of contracted pet beasts or Beast Taming Spaces. But since the question said under normal circumstances, it was 1. "Question three: After a Beast Master's contracted pet beast dies, about how long does natural recovery take before contracting a new pet beast..." "A, 1 year..." Soon, Luo Yu reached the true/false section. "Question one: Are mermaids born from the hybrid of beautiful women and fish?" "...False." What kind of questions were these? Pretty out there. "Question two: An evil pirate contracted a zombie sea beast, so it can be concluded that mutated corpse beasts are a virus-type pet beast and thus can be contracted." "...False." Cannot be contracted. Although some Beast Masters did contract zombie beasts, those zombie beasts were originally normal lives; they underwent wrongful evolution into zombies after special experiences. At this point, the contract wouldn't break, but zombie beasts cannot be directly contracted. "Question three..." Only at the fill-in-the-blank section did the difficulty increase somewhat. "The sexual maturity age of Wave Dogs is..." "The average annual precipitation of Jingyue Island is..." Luo Yu breezed through to the short answer section without stopping. This short answer section was also very simple. After the Rainstorm Apocalypse, someone discovered seven mysterious seas appearing on the ocean; their positions were not fixed, randomly appearing somewhere on the sea, and were the secret treasures sailors had always sought. Please write which seven great mysterious seas are included, and briefly describe which one you most hope to encounter, and why? This kind of question without standard answers, with very strong subjectivity, generally had a simple intent: to infer what kind of person the examinee was through their answer. "The golden ocean 'Evolution Sea' allows mutated beasts to unconditionally undergo evolution phenomena and raise their species rank." "The silver sea 'Contract Sea' allows Beast Masters to add a Beast Taming Space, gaining one more contract opportunity." "The black expanse 'Ghost Sea' allows one to find the souls of the deceased and remodel ships into treasure ships possessing a 'ship spirit'." "The white waters 'Eternal Sea': one day outside, one year inside, shrouded in mist; after entering, one can contemplate the power of time." "The gray sea 'Void Sea': after entering, one can contemplate the power of space." "The purple waters 'Mermaid Sea': after bathing, humans can become the special lifeform 'mermaid'." "The green ocean 'Dream Sea' possesses the most delicious marine ingredients in the world; any food can cause mutated beasts to gain a huge amount of life level." After writing the seven great mysterious seas, Luo Yu began thinking about how to answer this subjective question. This kind of question was like an essay; regardless of whether the examinee actually thought so, one had to be positive and uphold values to score well. Just like wanting to gain powerful strength, you couldn't write that gaining strength was for money or to build a harem—that was too direct and too blatant. You had to write that gaining strength was to better protect ordinary people and build the island—that way you could get a high score. Never mind whether you actually thought so in your heart; on paper, you absolutely could not make a mistake—it must be truth, goodness, and beauty. Luo Yu, of course, wanted to encounter all of them. If forced to choose one, then the Evolution Sea; he wanted the little penguin to evolve even stronger. On the island, a Beast Master had once luckily encountered the Evolution Sea, and their pet beast directly evolved from Common Species to Monarch Species. This was also one of the few opportunities for ordinary people to rise to great heights. But on paper, Luo Yu chose the Ghost Sea, after all he needed to fit the persona of someone who had just lost his parents. Besides, in the content of the answer, he had to stand out... "I'll choose the Ghost Sea." Luo Yu directly brought out his high school essay-writing skills. "I remember that day was a rainstorm... I had a fever... Mom carried me on her back to the hospital..." Several hundred words flowing freely; after all, he had written this template who knows how many times. He ended with an uplifting line: "The Ghost Sea—maybe I could see them again." At times like this, playing the pity card was right. Faced with an orphan who had just lost his parents, not giving a high score—was that even human?