Supernatural

Below the title was the poster's account:

[Here's what happened. About a day ago, I suddenly received a mysterious black card.

At the same time, a string of text appeared before my eyes, and I heard a notification. It told me to use this card to form a contract with an animal, capture it as my pet beast, and become a Beast Tamer.

At first, I thought I'd stumbled upon some incredible opportunity, just like the protagonist of an anime.

But it wasn't nearly that simple. After I followed the card's instructions and completed the beginner quest, I was teleported to an extremely dangerous place. There were wild beasts everywhere, and I almost died!

My pet beast was seriously injured protecting me, too. None of the nearby veterinary hospitals could treat it, and the doctors said it was beyond saving. What should I do?

I have a feeling we're already bound together. If my pet beast dies, something bad will happen to me, too...]

Besides the written account, the poster had attached a picture.

It showed a large cat whose body looked petrified. Its eyes had been gouged out, and it was missing a leg. It looked miserable, gray blood flowing all over its body. Its injuries were utterly bizarre.

Fang Lan looked serious. "Finished reading?"

"Yeah." Lu Ran nodded.

Fang Lan said angrily, "Something's off about those injuries. The picture must have been photoshopped. This person... I suspect they're some kind of extremist who abuses pets."

This shoddy, third-rate story was probably just a gimmick to get attention. It was so obviously made up!

Did they think they were one of the DigiDestined?

"Exactly," Lu Ran agreed with Fang Lan. There were plenty of people like that, but his gaze remained on the phone screen.

At first glance, this post really did look like an animal abuser's attempt to grab attention.

But Lu Ran was actually rather sensitive to this kind of news, even when it looked fake at a glance.

Supernatural phenomena...

An image immediately surfaced in his mind: a city invaded by countless monsters...

Was he thinking about that dream again...?

Lu Ran sighed inwardly.

In fact, Lu Ran paid extremely close attention to supernatural information like this.

The reason was simple. He had a secret no one knew.

He could clearly hear the "inner voices" of nonhuman creatures. He had a superpower akin to understanding animal speech and communicating with animals telepathically.

He had gained this superpower two years ago.

At first, he hadn't been very adept at using it, but after practicing, he could now hear the inner voices of many animals.

This superpower was also how he predicted the weather and dominated Green Sea City's insect-fighting tournaments.

And along with this superpower had come a strange dream.

Every so often, he would dream of the city being invaded by all kinds of monsters, and of himself dying horribly amid the chaos, before jolting awake.

Lu Ran had seen a doctor at first, but the examinations had found nothing wrong.

Without a doubt, though, he knew he was no longer normal.

Precisely because of his own abnormality, Lu Ran had always felt that there had to be something else abnormal about this world.

But after all this time, the only abnormal thing he had found was himself.

Even online, where supernatural stories and eerie rumors cropped up all the time, not a single one could ever be verified. They all seemed made up.

This time, although Lu Ran had briefly taken it seriously again, he soon shook his head. How many times had this happened already? He wasn't going to believe these casually fabricated stories anymore.

This world was still pretty firmly grounded in science...

"Let's eat first."

Just then, the server finally brought their food over. Seeing this, Lu Ran put down his phone and spoke to Fang Lan.

"All right." Fang Lan nodded.

The picture had actually been pretty gory, but Fang Lan hadn't seemed uncomfortable after seeing it. She certainly lived up to her family's background in veterinary medicine.

As they helped themselves to the dishes, Lu Ran asked, "Are you taking all your pets to Magic City, too?"

"Of course," Fang Lan said. "I still have to keep posting once a week. Otherwise, my fans will miss me."

Fang Lan was also a cute-pet blogger. She regularly shared her pets online, keeping herself off camera and showing only the animals.

However, Lu Ran had always taken issue with her calling herself a cute-pet blogger. After all, her pets were all snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and the like. How did any of those qualify as cute?

"Looks like you'll have to rent your own place." Lu Ran shrugged. He'd admit defeat if Fang Lan managed to get into a dorm with those "cute pets" in tow. Even if the dorm supervisor didn't care, her roommates would strangle her in the middle of the night.

Could you accept a roommate keeping pets in the dorm... especially scorpions, centipedes, and snakes?

"Fine by me." Fang Lan didn't mind. "Hurry up and get into a university there. Then you can split the rent with me."

"You make it sound like I like those pets of yours. They scare me, too." Lu Ran was speechless. He wasn't a coward, but Fang Lan had been frightening him with spiders and other creepy-crawlies since they were seven or eight. She'd practically scarred him for life.

How was she anything like a girl? She still hadn't changed... weren't cats and dogs cute enough?

They chatted back and forth, and before long, the rain stopped and they were almost finished eating.

Since Fang Lan had plans with her girlfriends that afternoon, she beat him to paying the bill and left the restaurant first, leaving Lu Ran to pack up the leftovers. She had only come to see him because she'd heard he had taken time off from school and wanted to check on him. Lu Ran knew that her whole family cared about him.

"Ugh, so boring..."

A little later, Lu Ran left the restaurant, too. Feeling the damp air and watching the rainbow on the horizon, his mood kept shifting.

High school was so dull. He barely had any free time to himself...

He stepped forward, eager to start university as well.

But before he could take more than a few steps, a sudden voice made him stop dead.

Then Lu Ran raised his hand and stared fixedly at the black card that had appeared in it without his noticing.

It was a black card the size of a playing card, with a plastic texture. It wasn't a membership card from the restaurant or an advertisement someone had slipped him. It had simply appeared in his hand just now, without any explanation or warning.

Besides that, Lu Ran was seeing and hearing things... In that instant, his surroundings felt both quiet and noisy, as though he had been cut off from the world.

The text kept refreshing, and the voice continued speaking. Lu Ran's expression grew increasingly incredulous.

[Beast Tamer aptitude detected...]

[Contract Card manifested...]

Beginner quest: [Please use the Contract Card to capture an animal as your pet beast and become a Beast Tamer!]

Tip ①: [Beast Tamer: a profession that involves forming contracts with pet beasts, raising them, and commanding them to work and fight!]

Tip ②: [Contract Card: an item that strengthens the user's mental power and is used to capture pet beasts; the Contract Card contains an internal space suitable for pet beasts to rest.]

Tip ③: [Contract Cards cannot be used on humans.]

Tip ④: [A Contract Card's capture success rate depends on the user's mental power and the quality of the Contract Card. Never attempt to capture a creature you cannot control, as this may destroy the Contract Card or cause the pet beast to turn against you.]

Tip ⑤: ...

"What is this?" Standing by the street with the black Contract Card in his hand, Lu Ran sensed the constant flow of people and traffic around him. He was certain this wasn't some animal's inner voice. This voice felt completely different from what he experienced when using his superpower.

Lu Ran took a deep breath.

A black Contract Card, pet beasts, Beast Tamers?

In that instant, he suddenly recalled the post Fang Lan had just sent him and the poster's account!

It was exactly the same!

Holy shit, had that person been telling the truth about everything?