A god's game

"Actually, for people like us from the Common, joining the authorities is already the best option."

"Of the Beast Tamers who have survived these past three years, the vast majority now work for the authorities. Their beast-taming levels are already very high, and they have information, experience, resources, and items that newcomers like us can hardly access. By joining an official organization, you can rely on that collective backing and enjoy some of those benefits."

"Then naturally, you have to fulfill certain obligations too, right?" Lu Ran did not believe in free lunches.

"It's not too bad. For example, if any civilian Beast Tamers start committing crimes, the official Beast Tamers are responsible for maintaining national stability and security..."

"As far as I remember, there are very few mandatory assignments. You can also choose an administrative role. Recruiting newcomers like I do was my own choice, and even this pays pretty well," Little White Dragon said with a chuckle.

"Well? Tempted yet?"

No thanks. Lu Ran politely declined. "I need to think about it."

"Uh, that's fine. Take your time learning about it."

"Then, do you have any other questions?" Little White Dragon did not belabor the matter and gave Lu Ran plenty of room to decide for himself, which left Lu Ran with a good impression.

Inwardly, however, Little White Dragon kept shaking his head.

One look was enough to tell that Lu Ran was a student.

He had never been beaten down by the real world.

Otherwise, he would have understood just how hard it was to come by such a secure job.

"I do... but there are so many that I don't know where to start. Could you tell me some things I ought to know right now?" Lu Ran asked.

"Sure," Little White Dragon said. "As you've seen, after passing the Novice Trial, you'll be teleported to the residential district when you enter Infinite City. The house you arrive in is your own home here. Only you can enter it; outsiders can't force their way inside."

"Outside the residential district, Infinite City has all sorts of facilities and covers a huge area. You can explore it yourself. But as far as I know, there isn't just one Infinite City-there are many. The Infinite Cities in Xia Country are separate from those overseas. Even within our own borders, there are seven Infinite Cities, divided by administrative region."

"If you want to visit another Infinite City, you have to use the teleportation arrays inside Infinite City. Activating those costs Crystal Coins. The facilities in each Infinite City are more or less the same; only some of the secret realms differ, so there's no need to go out of your way to travel between them."

"In Infinite City, you can meet other Beast Tamers and find shops run by them. At those shops, you can sell or trade the resources you obtain from secret realms, or use Crystal Coins to buy resources essential for raising your pet beasts. I suggest buying and selling resources at shops with official backing so you don't get ripped off."

"Also, fighting is forbidden in Infinite City. If you break that rule, the Patrol Beasts inside Infinite City will punish you. If you want to settle a dispute, you can go to the Arena."

"Right, next are the secret realms."

"The novice-type secret realm you just cleared is the easiest kind, without exception, because there are basically no pet beasts above level 5. Other secret realms aren't like that."

"If Beast Tamers want to become stronger, then unless they're incredibly rich and powerful in the real world and can buy all sorts of resources other Beast Tamers bring out of secret realms, training themselves in secret realms is the fastest way."

"Oh, there's something I should clarify here. I don't mean that you can 'kill monsters to level up' in secret realms."

"You probably noticed in the novice secret realm that killing monsters gave your pet beast experience toward its next level. But that's actually a special reward mechanism in the Newbie Trial Secret Realm. You'll rarely get perks like that in later secret realms."

"What?" Lu Ran froze. Killing monsters won't let me level up anymore? Won't leveling up be really difficult from now on?

"That's right," Little White Dragon said with a smile. "But in exchange, although the secret realms we can access are still projections, we can bring their resources out with us. Making good use of those resources is another way to strengthen your pet beasts, and it isn't necessarily slower than killing monsters to level up."

"So, apart from a tiny minority who aim to clear them, a large portion of the Beast Tamers entering secret realms only go there to gather resources. They don't care whether they clear the realm or not; they leave once they've collected resources. Of course, the rarer the resource, the harder it is to obtain. It's either guarded by powerful ferocious beasts or dropped by monsters..."

"There's one more thing, and it's good news. Unlike the Newbie Trial Secret Realm, later secret realms allow you to enter in teams with Beast Tamers in the same level bracket. That brings us to another benefit of joining the authorities: you can form organized teams with Beast Tamers who specialize in different areas, allowing you to train more effectively in secret realms."

Teaming up, huh...

Lu Ran muttered inwardly.

That was precisely why he did not want to join. Mostly, he did not trust strangers and wanted to avoid situations where he had to team up with people he did not trust.

He believed there were plenty of good people, but he did not believe everyone in the world was good.

For now, he did not want to expose the Divine Deer Pendant.

Little White Dragon continued his pitch. "The Donghuang Alliance's Secret Realm Strategy Team has cleared more secret realms than any other beast-taming team in the country. You could say it's packed with experts."

"But those are ordinary secret realms. The most important ones are the Breakthrough Secret Realms. When one of your pet beasts reaches a level that's a multiple of 10, a Breakthrough Secret Realm of the corresponding level will appear among the realms you can enter. Only by clearing a Breakthrough Secret Realm can Beast Tamers and their pet beasts break through their bottlenecks and keep leveling up. You'll also receive a new Contract Card, giving you the chance to contract a second pet beast... Currently, Breakthrough Secret Realms are also the only way to increase the number of pet beasts you can contract. Contract Cards are one of the few resources that can't be traded."

"So you understand now, right? These are the most important secret realms."

"Hmm... Public Secret Realms also appear alongside Breakthrough Secret Realms, but those don't have much to do with you, so you don't need to learn about them. Fighting over ownership of Public Secret Realms is the big guilds' business."

"All right, is there anything else you want to ask?"

"Yes." As Lu Ran absorbed the information, he asked, "These so-called secret realms... are they all projections? What places are being projected, exactly? Do other worlds really exist? Is this a game, or...?"

Little White Dragon pondered for a moment, then said, "Hmm, that question's a little beyond my expertise. I don't know either, but as far as I'm aware, all the secret realms we currently have seem to be projections."

"As for whether those powerful Beast Tamers have encountered worlds with actual living beings, I don't know."

"But I can tell you one pattern: ordinary secret realms generally don't let us encounter other civilizations. The novice secret realms and ordinary secret realms we enter are basically projections of wilderness areas in another world. There are no humans there. Only Breakthrough Secret Realms have a chance of containing humans from other worlds, giving us a chance to encounter human projections! Right now, Breakthrough Secret Realms are an important way for us to learn about Infinite City and this beast-taming system."

He shrugged. "In short, we still know very little about Infinite City and can only play by its rules. Figuring everything out is still far too difficult. Just think of it as a god's game, or the reappearance and revival of a lost, highly advanced supernatural civilization. Unless something unexpected happens, this game will definitely usher in a whole new era of beast taming on Blue Star."

"To one degree or another, the world we know will change because of it."

"Young man, your priority now is to seize the opportunities this new era offers and get stronger fast. You can make far more money doing this than dutifully going to school and working a regular job. I paid off most of my million-yuan mortgage just by selling one material. Can you imagine that...?"

"Of course, that material was something I didn't need. If a material is useful to you, it's better to keep it and invest in yourself. Oh, right, what was your secret realm rating?"

"You look pretty roughed up. It wasn't easy getting through, was it?"

"E?" He looked at Lu Ran.

"Uh, it certainly wasn't easy," Lu Ran said. "Oh, there's something else I want to know. How do I find out what attribute my pet beast has?"

"Oh, you know your stuff. All your questions get right to the point," Little White Dragon said with a broad smile. "There are Attribute Stones in lots of places around Infinite City. Just have your pet beast attack an Attribute Stone, then look at how the stone reacts to find out your pet beast's attribute."

"But awakening a pet beast's attribute requires an external stimulus. Usually, people use an Attribute Awakening Fruit. That's the most widely used method, but attribute fruits are all high-grade resources, so they aren't easy for newcomers to obtain."