---Like my writing? Support me here with Bitcoin: donations are very much appreciated!
---
Although, on the whole, life was mediocre at best for Liu Fang at that point, he was feeling upbeat. He had just gotten a new white-collar job at a game company and was getting pretty close to the girl he liked. In addition to those things, he had finally paid off his college loans and was no longer living in a 500 sqft studio apartment and instead, living a 2000 sqft proper apartment. All in all, life wasn"t the best it could be, but it was mediocre at least.
As he walked on the street, he admired the sights of Chengdu. In the year 20XX, the smog had been fully cleared and everybody was driving electric vehicles on the street. There were only blue skies with the occasional white and fluffy cloud scattered throughout. At that time, there had also been a ban on any environmentally harmful energy sources, such as nuclear fission, coal, natural gas, etc. Cold fusion had long ago been developed for the ma.s.ses. The sounds of the city were soothing to the locals, and the shouts of hawkers had long been replaced with electronic billboards on any large flat surface there could be, each advertising a beauty product, new gadget, or game. The whizzing of drones overhead was familiar, as long gone were the days of slow and inefficient 1-day shipping, replaced with almost instant shipping, orders delivered in an hour or less by way of drone.
Liu Fang was on his way to a gaming parlour to meet his friends and game since he was still too poor to buy even the cheapest of betversion VR gaming helmets. *Sigh*. He wished that he could be a real-life exotic beast tamer, just like in his favourite VR game, Final Light. As he walked across the street, he looked both ways. Suddenly, as if appearing out of nowhere, a giant metal monstrosity of a truck appeared to the left of him. He heard the air rushing towards him and the frantic horns, and his last thought was "Huh? A truck? Truck-kun?!"
Coming to, his first thought was, "Ugh... what a disgusting smell. Where am I?" He opened his eyes.
"Argh!!! Why is it so bright?! My eyes!"
He saw a little girl"s face appear over him. "Oh, Big Brother Fang! You finally woke up! Let me go get daddy and mommy right now. They"ve been crying ever since they discovered you jumping into a lake!"
Liu Fang almost jumped out of his straw bed in fright. I jumped into a lake?! I have a sister?!?! How come I don"t remember any of this? He told the girl, "I don"t have any memories of my previous life, it seems. Can you tell them to come here in about 30 minutes?"
The little girl smiled and said, "Sure! I"ll tell them that. It"s sad you can"t remember anything though."
As soon as she went out, Liu Fang got up and explored his room for a bit. Then, he noticed that there was a bit of pressure on his hand and looked down at it. He saw a deep, inky gem that seemed like it had no beginning or end embedded in his hand. "Should I touch it?" he thought. Hesitantly, he touched the gem and felt a sucking sensation as he was sucked into it. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs or, at least, tried to. Not a single iota of sound escaped the suction of the gem, and he was sucked into the gem, even as he pulled against it relentlessly.
"Where the f*ck am I? I swear none of the stories I read about transmigration had this happen to the main characters."
"Welcome." The sudden cold and emotionless voice startled Liu Fang.
"Where the f*ck am I and why did you abduct me?" Liu Fang was panicked.
The emotionless voice said, "You are in the Exotic Beast Tamer System"s dimensional s.p.a.ce. As for the abduction part, you touched the gem..."
"Woah, a system? And a Beast Tamer one at that! My wish was granted by Truck-kun!"
Not even seeming to sense Liu Fang"s interruption, the system continued talking "You have a beginner gift pack to receive. Do you wish to open it?"
Ecstatic, Liu Fang said, "Yes! Open it!"
"Opening... You have received: 1x Silver-rank beast orb, 1x Fire dragon egg, 20x Beast food, 6x Beast bondage contract, 1x Quest card: Tutorial. Would you like to summon these items into the real world or leave them in the system dimension?"
Liu Fang was incredulous. He"d always read that systems were stingy and miserly, but how come the first gift pack he got was so good? In any case, he would have to take a look at the quest card. "Open quest card," he said.
｢Quest a.s.signed: Tutorial.
Quest description: This quest teaches you how to utilize the system"s functions.
Quest Success reward: 1 random skill draw, 10 Skill Points, 100 System Points, 10x Beast food, 1 random item draw, 50 EXP
Quest Failure penalty: None. (You can"t fail this quest unless you act like an absolute idiot.)｣
Liu Fang thought, "Oh. I guess I should start, then."
｢Tutorial task 1: Click on the character profile tab.｣
Liu Fang clicked on the b.u.t.ton indicated and there was soon a plethora of data in front of him.
｢Character Sheet
Name: Liu Fang
Age: 16
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Skill Points: 10
System Points: 100
Skills:
Tame Beast Lvl. 1 - Has an 80% chance of taming beasts Lvl. 5 and below - Uses 75 MP
Dodge Lvl 1 - Has a 50% chance to dodge any attack Lvl. 5 and below - Uses 20 Stamina
Subdue Lvl 1 - Intimidates a target at most 5 Lvls greater than the current skill level and makes it obey the caster"s commands completely, even if it is given the order to kill itself - uses 20 MP.
Beast tamer rank: Copper I
Level: 1
EXP: 1/100｣
"Why am I level 1 and so weak?" Liu Fang"s face was black and had almost discernable question marks floating around his head.
｢Tutorial task 1 complete! Task 2: Open the Inventory.｣
"Ok then... I guess." He begrudgingly opened the inventory, still unhappy about being at the lowest level and so weak. In his inventory, he saw the items that he"d been awarded from the beginner"s chest.
｢Tutorial task 2 complete! Task 3: Open the skill tree.｣
Liu Fang opened the skill tree. He saw his low-level skills at the very top and saw a lot more skills in the trees.
｢Tutorial task 3 complete! Task 4: Open the spatial beast dimension.｣
Opening the dimension, Liu Fang was given an explanation on its use.
"This dimension is used to store your tamed beasts. It is currently very plain and small, and that is a result of not having a tamed beast yet. With every tamed beast, you get a beginner"s habitat that suits the tamed beast"s natural habitat. You can upgrade the habitats with system points. You can call a tamed beast out from this dimension and put it back into the dimension as needed. Currently, at level 1, you can have a maximum of one tamed beast summoned at any time."
｢Tutorial task 4 complete! Task 5: Summon your dragon egg into the real world, hatch it, and contract it.｣
"Summon the dragon egg," said Liu Fang.
"Warning: Once summoned, the dragon egg will hatch in 10 minutes and may not be returned to the system storage dimension. Please confirm the summon."
Once again, Liu Fang said, "Summon it."
To his surprise, he was yanked out of the system world immediately. In his hands was a dark, red-scaled egg. As it rocked in his hand, he heard some noises of something sc.r.a.ping against the sh.e.l.l from inside.
"Alright," he thought. "So I just have to wait for this to hatch? Easy."
Soon, the 10 minutes were over and Liu Fang heard a cracking sound from the egg in his hands.
A dragon"s snout emerged from the egg, followed shortly by the main body and its wings, and then its tail. As soon as this happened, the egg turned into dust and scattered away, while the dragon jumped in surprise and landed in Liu Fang"s arms.
｢Would you like to contract this Fire Dragon?｣
"Yes, contract it!" Liu Fang was excited. A ray of blue light shot out from the gem embedded in his hand and scanned over the newly born dragon.
｢Beast contracted. 1x Beast bondage contract used｣
｢Tutorial Task 5 completed. Quest: Tutorial complete! Do you wish to receive rewards now?｣
｢New quest available. Check the Quest menu for details.｣
Stunned by the flood of messages, Lin Fang dropped the small dragon in his hands, which had put its head down to take a nap. It jumped up in fright and yelped.
Lin Fang said, "Receive rewards!"