The Apple That Hit Jiang Xing on the Head

[Ding ding! You successfully tamed a Buneary!]

[In the newly emerging Spirit World, people knew little about Intimacy, completely overlooking the emotions between humans and Pet Beasts, which were also evolution conditions for some Pet Beasts.]

[As someone who knows all evolutions, you cannot remain immersed in your existing achievements. You must use facts to tell people that the bond between Trainers and Pet Beasts is the greatest power!]

[You have received a task: Propose and prove the existence of Intimacy.]

[Cheat Sheet: The move Return is closely tied to Intimacy, and Lopunny is the only Pokemon capable of naturally learning this move.]

[Reward: Move Tutor (Return), Friendship Checker.]

Although the system called a dog a rabbit, which was really hard to stomach.

However, Jiang Xing gradually came to understand the system's thought process—

It might have wandered into the wrong setting and forcefully inserted itself into it, ignoring appearances, names, and everything else, focusing only on certain key elements before searching its database for a matching target.

For example, Golden-Veined Koi: carp, possessing the potential to transform into a dragon... all right, Magikarp.

For example, Li Lingyin: Novice Trainer, possessing battle potential... all right, Xiao Chi.

With that in mind, its behavior of calling a dog a rabbit became understandable.

Affection Evolution + Return move + base form... no matter what it looked like, this was Buneary!

The serious system had copied it at a glance.

"By that logic, in System Bro's eyes, I'm a rookie Oak."

Dr. Jiang expressed his understanding.

Back to the point: since the system did not hand out tasks without any logic, that meant the Purple-Black Puppy definitely possessed the corresponding traits described in the task.

Namely, [Affection Evolution] and [Return Move].

"Intimacy..."

This was one of the classic tropes of the Spirit World.

Jiang Xing thought carefully and was surprised to discover that the Beast Taming World truly had no corresponding theory.

How could that be? If Intimacy existed, it should have been easy to discover!

Jiang Xing frowned in thought. Then, seeing the Rainbow Dragon Cub floating nearby and secretly teasing the Purple-Black Puppy, he suddenly understood why.

It was not because it had been hidden too deeply and thus gone undiscovered.

Quite the opposite—it was precisely because it was too common that nobody had noticed it—

Take gravity, for example. It had always existed, and people had been able to sense it since ancient times, yet they had always taken it for granted until Newton discovered it in the seventeenth century.

Intimacy worked in much the same way.

In the Beast Taming World, Beast Tamers did not rely on tools to tame Pet Beasts, but on spiritual contracts.

And once such a contract was formed, it could never be canceled, even if one party died.

This spiritual contract made the relationship between Beast Tamers and Pet Beasts naturally close. Even "evil Beast Tamers" would be intimately connected with their own Pet Beasts.

Under such circumstances, as long as Beast Tamers raised them normally, Pet Beasts capable of evolving through Intimacy would naturally complete their evolutions, and nobody would realize there was another hidden condition.

On top of that, there was the [Heart Selection Theory]. People knew that a Pet Beast's thoughts could affect its evolution and strength...

Even if some Beast Tamers became curious, it would be easy to categorize the matter under the [Heart Selection Theory].

Thus, Intimacy naturally became a blind spot. It was clearly everywhere, yet no one could recognize its existence.

Only someone like Jiang Xing, who had a god's-eye view and knew that Intimacy existed, could be awakened by the system and break through this barrier of understanding—

He remembered now. Among the Howl Dog's racial moves, there was one called [Training Power].

Its effect was to unleash a powerful attack. The longer the Beast Tamer had trained it and the higher its proficiency, the greater its power...

If the concept of Intimacy were added to that.

The longer it spent with its Beast Tamer, the higher its Intimacy, and the greater its power.

Wasn't that just Return?!

Jiang Xing was stunned.

"So System Bro was playing dumb while actually being brilliant? It was just pretending to be sweet while setting me up?"

Putting aside Jiang Xing's newfound respect for the system, he had already confirmed that if Intimacy also existed in the Beast Taming World, then this was an entirely new, unexplored field!

Its importance might even surpass the Personality Conjecture!

After all, the Personality Conjecture was a conjecture proposed by Dr. Al. It already had a fairly complete theoretical framework and merely lacked empirical proof.

Although Jiang Xing proving it would be a major achievement, it would only be filling in the final piece of the puzzle.

Intimacy, however, was completely different. Aside from being somewhat related to the Heart Selection Theory, it did not involve any conjectures and had very little relevant knowledge.

Jiang Xing would effectively be opening up a brand-new field. It would help Beast Tamers better understand Pet Beasts and might even truly change the evolution system—

Many Pet Beasts believed to undergo "natural evolution" might actually be undergoing "Affection Evolution"!

"I have to begin researching this immediately!"

Jiang Xing was eager to return.

He left all the Energy Cubes he had brought with him for the Purple-Black Puppy and agreed to check its physical condition later and complete its Beast Taming Compendium entry.

Then, he activated the Secret Realm Core.

The scene before his eyes changed. When he came back to himself, he was standing on the street again.

Around him were many onlookers, as well as several uniformed Public Security Officers.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang..."

The Ultra-Micro Secret Realm descending upon Modu City counted as neither a major nor a minor incident.

As the parties involved, Jiang Xing and the fan's family were invited to the Public Security Bureau to cooperate with the investigation, mainly to give statements.

As for the Ultra-Micro Secret Realm Core, under the Beast Taming World's rules, ownership fell to Jiang Xing, its discoverer and recipient.

Of course, the reason everything had gone so smoothly was also because Jiang Xing was already a Reserve Researcher, making his status far from ordinary.

After leaving the Public Security Bureau, Jiang Xing signed autographs and took photos with the fan's family, encouraged the child a little, then hurried away with the two little girls.

After sending Jian Guoguo back to Master Jian, Jiang Xing did not even have time to study crafting knowledge before directly taking his leave.

Then, he dropped Li Lingyin off at the Battle Hall to play some matches while he entered the Grand Library with surging inspiration and began browsing the [Beast Taming Compendium]—

The Beast Taming Compendium was not fixed. It was continuously revised as Pet Beast Scholars published papers.

Moreover, there were simply too many Pet Beasts. Including evolutionary forms, there were more than a million species!

No matter how extensive someone's knowledge was, they would not dare claim to know every Pet Beast listed in the compendium.

Jiang Xing also had to browse the compendium and consult materials to complete his research topic.

First, he hypothesized that [Training Power] was [Return], searched for "all Pet Beasts possessing this racial move," and recorded them as potential candidates for raising.

Then, from among all the candidate Pet Beasts, he selected those "without conventional evolutionary forms."

After all, according to Jiang Xing's conjecture, Affection Evolution in the Beast Taming World should have been regarded as "conventional evolution." Meanwhile, Pet Beasts that naturally mastered Return were highly likely to possess evolutionary forms based on Intimacy.

If they did not, then those forms had most likely not been discovered.

However, Intimacy in the Beast Taming World was extremely easy to increase. If an Affection Evolution existed, it should have been easy for people to discover and record it.

Among more than a hundred thousand base-form Pet Beasts, Jiang Xing found only one.

[Name: Ugly Water Chicken]

[Attribute: Water Type]

[Talent: Ugliness / Slippery]

[Racial Rank: Mid-Transcendental]

[Racial Moves: Splash, Water Gun, Scary, Peck, Training Power.]

[Description: A waterfowl Pet Beast. Although extremely clumsy, it survived because it was so ugly that even predators did not want to eat it.]

In the Beast Taming Compendium's picture, the Ugly Water Chicken was a featherless bald chicken covered in bumps. Combined with its bizarre chicken head and habit of smearing mud over its body, it looked extremely Scary.

Not only that, it was also a rare low-level Pet Beast with no evolutionary forms whatsoever.

Researchers had once endured their disgust and raised a whole flock of Ugly Water Chickens, hoping to find their evolutionary forms. In the end, not only did they find nothing, they discovered that these clumsy Ugly Water Chickens learned even the simplest [Training Power] very slowly, and its power was exceptionally weak.

After several researchers reached the same conclusion, this clumsy and ugly Pet Beast was quickly cast aside.

After all, there were so many Pet Beasts available for research. Why waste effort on Ugly Water Chickens with no potential?

Until now, when Jiang Xing found them.

As he looked at the Beast Taming Compendium, inspiration sparked by the system flashed through his mind, along with the settings of the Spirit World.

Could these Ugly Water Chickens trigger a "Beauty Condition" task in addition to Intimacy?