On the top floor of a small apartment building, inside Room 902.
After putting Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai in their beds, Zeng Shen called softly:
"Prize wheel."
In an instant, a large virtual wheel that only he could see appeared before him.
The wheel looked like the interface of some card-drawing game, with a line of small print at the bottom.
[Friendly reminder: each draw costs 1,000 survival points. Rewards come in six card grades, ranging from common to supreme: white, green, blue, purple, red, and gold.] [Guarantee mechanism: ten consecutive draws guarantee a blue card, fifty draws guarantee a purple card, five hundred consecutive draws guarantee a red card, and one thousand draws guarantee a gold card.] [Total draws: 0]
"Draw cards. Ten draws."
Without giving it much thought, Zeng Shen went straight ahead.
The pointer on the prize wheel spun rapidly. Amid streaks of white and green light, a faint blue-and-yellow glow swirled into view.
"Holy shit, yellow in the blue! Am I getting a gold card on my first ten draws?"
A gold card was guaranteed only after a thousand draws. If he got one in ten, wouldn't that be an incredible bargain?
Just as Zeng Shen thought this, several notifications rang out in his mind.
[Congratulations, host. You drew 3 white cards: pheasant chick cards. They have been placed in your inventory.] [Congratulations, host. You drew 3 white cards: small rice seed cards.] [Congratulations, host. You drew 2 white cards: small open-pit iron mine cards.]
"What the hell are these cards?"
Bewilderment crossed Zeng Shen's face. He quickly opened his inventory and took a closer look.
[Pheasant chick card: deploy in your divine domain to obtain ten pheasant chicks imbued with divine energy, capable of breeding healthily within the divine domain.] [Small rice seed card: sow within your divine domain to obtain one mu of rice paddies imbued with divine energy, capable of reproducing within the divine domain.] [Small open-pit iron mine card: deploy within your divine domain to generate a small open-pit iron mine imbued with divine energy.]
"Looks like these three kinds of white cards are for my future divine domain."
Once he roughly understood what the eight white cards did, Zeng Shen was momentarily speechless.
These white cards really were as basic as they came.
They were completely fucking useless to him right now. He hadn't accumulated enough faith to form a divine domain yet, so they could only sit in his inventory gathering dust.
Fortunately, these white cards occupied only one inventory slot.
[Congratulations, host. You drew 1 green card: equipment card, divine energy rocket launcher.] [Congratulations, host. You drew 1 blue card: skill card, low-tier taming.]
As the two notifications sounded, Zeng Shen perked up and quickly turned his attention to the green card that had appeared in his inventory.
[Divine energy rocket launcher: green quality. Absorbs divine energy drifting in the air to launch an astonishingly powerful rocket.] [Taming: low tier. Consumes ten faith points or a certain amount of mental energy to tame an exotic beast.] [Notice: 1. Repeatedly select a skill card to learn its skill instantly. 2. Learning an identical skill card upgrades the corresponding skill. 3. The host may also place this skill card in the skill tower within the divine domain, giving believers a chance to comprehend the skill.]
"Damn, a divine energy rocket launcher."
"Just the name tells you this weapon packs a punch."
"Too bad the divine energy accumulated on Blue Star over billions of years hasn't erupted yet. I can't use it, or I could test its power."
"Looks like this one's going into storage too."
Zeng Shen murmured to himself, then shifted his gaze to the blue card, feeling a little comforted.
His ten draws hadn't produced a gold card, but at least he'd ended up with one he could use.
He immediately tapped the card several times in quick succession.
"Congratulations, host. You have learned taming."
Having played plenty of Pokémon since childhood, Zeng Shen had always had a soft spot for raising a group of pets with incredible potential.
He'd never expected to actually acquire such a skill.
"I have to find something to test it on."
Zeng Shen turned his gaze toward Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai, who were lying on the sofa. Focusing his mind slightly, he murmured to them, "Taming."
"Taming failed. The host cannot tame his own pets or intelligent races."
A notification sounded.
"Shit, you could've said that earlier."
"Looks like I'll have to find some other exotic beasts outside to try it on."
Muttering, Zeng Shen got up to make a meal, only to be struck by a sudden wave of dizziness. He dropped back onto the sofa, feeling as though a third of his mental energy had been drained away, leaving him as exhausted as if he'd stayed up half the night.
"It must be the mental energy I used on taming just now."
"Looks like when the catastrophe arrives, if I don't use faith to activate taming, my current mental energy will only let me use it twice a day before I need a good rest. If I use it more than three times, I'll definitely pass out."
Rubbing his head, Zeng Shen lay on the sofa and thought things over. Only after he felt his energy had recovered somewhat did he head into the kitchen to make something to eat. Then he hurried out, planning to visit Li Yuqing.
[Warning! Warning! The pedestrian street ahead is occupied by exotic beasts, with numerous dangerous deities lurking within. Please leave this area immediately.]
Listening to the notification in his mind and looking at the virtual panel before him, so red it was almost purple, Zeng Shen laced his hands behind his head and strolled leisurely toward the pedestrian street.
Meanwhile.
His eyes swept over everything around him, as though he were searching for something.
After walking for about ten minutes.
As the rear exit of the pedestrian street drew closer, Zeng Shen found himself speechless.
"Didn't you fucking say this place was crawling with exotic beasts?"
"How come I've been walking all this time without getting a single exotic beast notification? Where the fuck are they all hiding?"
[Congratulations, host. By proceeding cautiously, you safely crossed this perilous pedestrian street. Reward: +1,000 survival points.]
The moment Zeng Shen stepped out through the rear exit, the system notification rang out in his mind.
Sure enough, the first clear gives a thousand survival points.
With that thought, Zeng Shen quickly crossed to the office building opposite the pedestrian street and stopped. An urgent notification instantly sounded in his mind.
[Warning. The host is about to enter the territory of a tier-three Undead System deity and her followers. If discovered, the consequences will be unpredictable.]
"Li Yuqing is a tier-three Undead System deity. Looks like she claimed this office building for herself after the catastrophe."
"I wonder which intelligent races her future followers belong to."
Inside the elevator, Zeng Shen pressed the button for the thirteenth floor and stared at the virtual panel before him, lost in thought.
"Ding."
The elevator doors opened.
A sexy woman appeared before him, her long, fair legs clad in alluring black stockings and high heels, with a waist-length white gauze top covering her upper body.
Her skin was smooth as jade and her waist slender. The gauze hugged the pale curves of her waist and clung tightly to her voluptuous body, making her prominent cleavage especially enticing.
[Warning! Warning! The host has been discovered by a follower of the tier-three Undead System deity. Please flee immediately.]
Wasn't this Liu Tongtong, Li Yuqing's college roommate and one of Jinhai University's two campus beauties?
How had she become a member of an intelligent race?
And a follower of Li Yuqing's at that?
When Liu Tongtong saw Zeng Shen, surprise flickered in her slightly seductive eyes. "Shen, so you're the mysterious expert Li Yuqing was talking about."
Zeng Shen stepped out of the elevator, looking puzzled.
"What mysterious expert?"
"Li Yuqing told me this morning that a mysterious expert would be joining our Like Family Studio this afternoon. I didn't expect her to mean you."
Liu Tongtong laughed softly. Her hair fell over her shoulders as she laughed, swaying in the gentle breeze. Combined with her alluring charm, it made people want to draw closer and experience the seductive air she exuded without realizing it.
This girl was so tempting she could drive a man to crime. Zeng Shen swallowed slightly and said modestly, "She expects too much of me. I was only messing around back then. I'm not a professional."
"That's fine. Neither of us is a professional either." Her eyes glimmering, Liu Tongtong pointed down the corridor to the left. "Room 1314 was an empty unit Qingqing's family bought for her. It's our studio now. I have to go back to campus to pick up some things this afternoon, so I won't walk you over."
"Okay."
As he spoke, Zeng Shen casually cast Eye of Observation on Liu Tongtong as she stepped into the elevator.