Chapter 3: Reserve Investigator

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

This world of familiars was very special.

A few hundred years ago, beastmasters weren’t the mainstream of this world.

But one day, strangeness revived and the evil gods descended, and a dark fog enveloped the entire world.

In the dark fog, technology was rendered useless, and the evil gods in the shadows devoured human cities wantonly.

The various countries that were shrouded in the dark fog were annihilated one after another. At the critical moment, the mythological totems of the remaining countries were awakened!

The divine beasts that had awakened from ancient times signed the pet contract with humans, granting humans the power of talents and the pet space. Hand in hand, they fought against the evil gods in the dark fog, slowly building up a glorious beastmaster civilization.

Currently, there were only six human countries that had yet to be completely devoured by the dark fog.

Among these six countries, five had powerful divine beast totems, tenaciously resisting the devouring of the dark fog.

Only Dongli Country, which had once stood at the top of the world, had yet to awaken even a single divine beast totem.

Its territory was as thus gradually being devoured by the dark fog…

The country had relied on its powerful national strength, vast territory, and a large population to maintain a relatively peaceful social order by sacrificing countless lives and persevering till now.

The Investigation Corps was a special organization established by Dongli Country. Beastmasters that joined the Investigation Corps were sent to investigate the situation in the dark fog on their own initiative to save themselves.

“The Investigation Corps is basically a suicide squad. As long as I join the reserve army, I’ll be able to receive a high amount of allowance, and the only condition for applying is to have a pet with a star level. Those in the reserve army don’t need to enter the dark fog. Instead, I’ll only need to investigate the secret realms in the wild, which is relatively much safer. The only thing that is of potential danger is that if the dark fog comes, I’ll have to be of use if they need me to go forward to block it. That being said, It’s been more than ten years since the dark fog has come to Anping City. It should be very safe. Most importantly, if I perform well, it’s said that there’ll be chances to directly enter Beastmaster University for further studies,” Wang Ye sighed.

The original owner of the body had failed the college entrance exam. As such, there were very few ways left for him to go to a bigger city, a better university, and have more resources.

Dongli Country had limited resources, so there was no chance for him to sit for another exam. Besides, the beastmaster college entrance exam was extremely difficult. Wang Ye estimated that it was probably as difficult as the college entrance exam in the 1980s and 1990s.

In his previous life, he was only a failed author. He didn’t have any special skills.

If he just got a normal job to earn money, he probably wouldn’t be able to afford the expenses of his cheat in the future.

After deciding on his plan, Wang Ye let the green sparrow rest for the night.

The next morning, he brought the green sparrow with him and headed to the headquarters of the South City Investigation Corps in Anping County.

It was an ordinary-looking three-story building.

“Hello, this is the Anping Investigation Corps. May I know who you are?” In the hall on the first floor, a man wearing a dark green military uniform walked over and asked.

“I made an appointment online to apply to become an Anping County Reserve Investigator,” Wang Ye said.

The man looked at Wang Ye from head to toe and glanced at the green sparrow on Wang Ye’s shoulder. He then led Wang Ye through the procedures of filling in his personal information, pet information, and so on.

Ten minutes later, the man brought Wang Ye to a testing room, “Please wait a moment. We will have an investigator here to examine you and your pet.”

The room was very simple. There was only a table in it and the emblem of the Investigation Corps engraved on the wall before him.

The emblem was a crimson red eye.

After looking at it for a while, a middle-aged man walked in.

He had a square face, a buzz cut, and a tall figure. He was wearing a serious expression.

There was a round mechanical pet floating beside him. Between the pet’s brows was a gem-like light core that was inlaid there. It was like an eye, very dazzling.

The mechanical pet, Gem Pupil.

The moment it saw Wang Ye, its eye-like light core emitted a silver glow, scanning Wang Ye and the green sparrow.

Wang Ye felt as if seawater was surging at him from all directions, pressuring him. His heart could not help but tremble.

After about five minutes, until Wang Ye’s forehead broke out in cold sweat, the silver glow gradually disappeared.

Gem Pupil blinked at the middle-aged man beside him.

The middle-aged man nodded slightly and looked at Wang Ye, “My name is Tang Xiong, the instructor of Anping County’s Investigation Corps. According to our tests and your information, your pet is a one-star level-one pet, and your personal talent is called Deep Memory, which is quite suited for a reserve investigator. At the same time, your spiritual power is also quite outstanding. As such, you meet the requirements to be a reserve investigator. However, there’s one question, why do you want to be a reserve investigator?”

“Because I don’t have any money,” Wang Ye said without hesitation.

Tang Xiong was speechless.

Gem Pupil blinked again as if to say that Wang Ye was telling the truth.

Tang Xiong smiled, “Alright, you’ve passed.”

Wang Ye couldn’t help but let out a breath.

Although beastmasters could apply to join the Investigation Corps, the latter had the right to refuse.

If he was rejected, he could only go find a job.

“To be honest, those who want to join the reserve army usually do it for the sake of money,” Tang Xiong said with a smile, “But many of them try to give all sorts of other excuses, saying things like it’s for Anping County, for the investigation of the dark fog, or for Dongli Country’s rise. To think they came up with all sorts of pretentious excuses just to join. Not bad, young man. It’s a virtue, to tell the truth. Work hard in the future! Go and receive your life allowance. Based on your current ability, you will only get a pet allowance of 10,000 gold coins per month.”

Wang Ye was stunned, thinking that the allowance was really f*cking high.

The life allowance was a one-time payment and would be as high as hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Upon joining the Investigation Corps, one would have to give up on one’s life when necessary. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been such a high allowance.

Even a three-year-old child in Dongli Country knew about the danger of the dark fog. There was only an extraordinarily slim chance of survival.

Even ordinary investigations in the suburb were very dangerous.

However, there was also a pet allowance of ten thousand gold coins every month.

“I’m afraid it won’t be easy to earn this money,” Wang Ye thought.

In the current society, many jobs didn’t have such a high salary.

“Also, the Investigation Corps does not support idle people. A miniature secret realm has recently appeared in the north of Anping County. As a reserve investigator, you will need to follow the team to investigate and obtain relevant information in a week from now.”

“…”

As expected, the money was not so easy to earn.

Secret realms were special space zones formed after the revival of strangeness and dark fog shrouded the world.

There were many fierce beasts inside. If one encountered some strange things inside, the death rate would be extremely high.

A miniature secret realm should still be fine though.

After leaving the Investigation Corps, Wang Ye received a transaction arrival notice on his phone.

“Dongli Myriad Beast Bank, your account ending with 9527, a transfer transaction of 500,000 yuan to our account has been completed on 03/5, 9:20 am. Your balance is 500,054 yuan.”

The Investigation Corps was quite quick in transferring money.

Wang Ye was deep in thought. Without a word, he quickly returned to the rented house.

On the second floor of the Investigation Corps headquarters, Tang Xiong looked at Wang Ye’s back and muttered in a low voice, “Yesterday, that green sparrow’s spiritual energy value was just around 70-80 points. I didn’t expect it to break through 100 points today and become a one-star level-one pet. Deep Memory… could it be that the kid has been enlightened?”

—

After returning to where he lived, Wang Ye immediately placed an order on Dongli’s largest online trading platform, the Dongli Pet Forum APP.

He first purchased 100 mind-clearing pills, then 100 kilograms of spirit tassel rice as the green sparrow’s food, as well as 100 spiritual energy stones as daily cultivation resources.

100 mind-clearing pills cost about 10,000 yuan, one kilogram of spirit tassel rice was about 100 yuan, and the most expensive thing was the spiritual energy stones, which contained relatively dense spiritual energy and could be used by pets and humans for daily cultivation.

Each stone cost about one thousand yuan, so one hundred stones cost one hundred thousand yuan.

Orders placed in the morning would be delivered at noon if they were in the same city. The efficiency was extremely high.

Then, Wang Ye began to take the mind-clearing pills.

As a recovery medicine, one wouldn’t develop drug resistance to them as they could be considered a kind of recovery product.

After taking more than ten of them, Wang Ye felt his spirit gradually recovering and he was full of energy.

“Little guy, it’s time to play the game!” Wang Ye waved at the green sparrow.

“Chirp, chirp!” The green sparrow was pecking at the fresh spirit tassel rice. It was probably the first time it had eaten such delicious rice and it simply couldn’t get enough of it.

Hearing Wang Ye’s words, it immediately ran to Wang Ye’s side.

“This time, you have to do as I said. Don’t go swimming! Just practice the skill, understand? Don’t go anywhere. Just practice your Sky-dance!”

The green sparrow thought for a moment and nodded.

The light screen appeared again.

[Mental state has been completely restored. Simulation can be carried out.]

It was still a scenario simulation since the reality simulation was still unavailable.

[Pet information has been updated. The scenario is loading…]

[0 years old. The green sparrow has started to practice Sky-dance on the cliff. ]

[1 year old. The green sparrow’s Sky-dance has improved slightly.]

[2 years old. The green sparrow could not bear the loneliness and started to fly around the cliff. It was accidentally caught by a strong current and was seriously injured. It was unable to cultivate. ]

[3 years old. After recovering from its injuries, the green sparrow’s Sky-dance has improved slowly. ]

[4 years old. The green sparrow saw the mysterious bird beast that was emitting a dazzling light once again. It only took a glance and its eyes went blind.]

[6 years old. It took two years for the green sparrow’s eyes to return to normal, and it continued to practice the Sky-dance.]

[8 years old. One day, when the green sparrow was practicing the Sky-dance, it felt an additional surge of energy in its body. Its strength increased greatly, and it has grown to be very familiar with the Sky-dance!]

[10 years old. The green sparrow met an ordinary little green caterpillar on the cliff. The green sparrow, which had always lived on wild fruits and leaves, planned to give itself a meat feast. It was very brave and directly attacked the little caterpillar, but in the end, the little caterpillar flattened the green sparrow on the edge of the cliff with its tail. The green sparrow has died!]

[Acquired characteristic achievement: Weak.]

Wang Ye was speechless

Just like that?

What kind of scenario was this?

The one-star level-one green sparrow that had been cultivating for several years couldn’t even defeat a green little insect?

It had been sent flying with just one tail attack from the insect?

The green sparrow’s expression was as such: (·’w’·)

It was probably a little confused as well.

[The simulation has ended. The green sparrow has survived for 10 years. One of the following rewards can be obtained.]

[Proficiency level of the skill, Sky-dance]

[Genetic Characteristic: Weak]

[Ten years’ Six-dimensional Growth]

This time, Wang Ye pondered for a long time.

As a skill, Sky-dance seemed to be able to help the green sparrow grow and cultivate rapidly in the scripted world.

The higher the proficiency of the skill, the faster the growth. The longer the green sparrow lived, the better the rewards.

The genetic characteristic “weak” was useless.

But ten years of six-dimensional growth…

“Although the six dimensions of a pet will improve with its experience, how much can it improve in ten years? Forget it, let’s choose skill proficiency. The improvement of six-dimensional growth in ten years probably won’t be much. Its cultivation is still too slow.”

With that, Wang Ye still chose the first choice.

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