Chapter 1: Surviving with Tamed Beasts

Beast Survival Game loading, please wait patiently.

A voice both familiar and strange echoed in Su Liu’s mind.

She paused for a second, but her body reacted faster than her mind. She rushed from the kitchen, clutching a small electric cooker and stuffing it with instant noodles and eggs. Then, spinning toward the storage room, she managed to grab a case of water just as darkness engulfed her vision—

Ding! Welcome to the Beast Survival Game. Please read the game rules carefully.

1. Each player may choose an initial spirit beast to be your companion at the start of survival. Choose wisely, as this will affect your entire journey ahead.
2. Players will begin on different terrain maps. To obtain survival resources, proceed along the road before you; resource crates of varying levels will be found at the roadside.
3. When night falls, danger lurks in the darkness. Keep your kerosene lamp lit and remain within a ten-meter radius, unless you wish to become food for the monsters.
4. Service zones may randomly appear on both sides of the road; you may choose whether or not to enter.
5. You cannot go back; no reversing or retracing your steps. You must complete the required kilometers each day, or else…the consequences are not something you’d like to know.
6. Normally, each road will host only one player, but roads will occasionally intersect. Players and monsters—which is more dangerous?
7. Travel time is from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Take care to manage your progress.
8. The first ten days are a newbie protection period; monsters will not attack players proactively. Cherish this “peaceful” time.
Finally, fate decides life and death, fortune lies in heaven. Death in the game is true death. Wishing all players a pleasant game!

Su Liu sighed after hearing this, never expecting she would get another chance to start over.

Fortunately, she had managed to bring the cooker, food, and water. At least in the initial protection period, even if luck turned against her, she wouldn’t simply starve…

Last time she joined the game, Su Liu had been reading a novel on her phone, so all she brought was a phone without internet…

As a seasoned novel reader, not reacting to the first prompt was a humiliation she could hardly bear!

Back then, she’d barely entered the game when regret overwhelmed her, wishing she could slap herself twice, but her fondness for her beautiful face stopped her hand.

Yes, Su Liu was a great beauty, and she knew it. This beauty, however, had brought her no small measure of trouble both in the real world and in the game.

Thus, not only did Su Liu dislike interacting with others in reality, she’d chosen the lone-wolf path last time as well. In the early stage, she developed well, maintaining a top hundred ranking almost every month—even making the top ten once!

—

But later, in the fourth year, the team-play mechanic suddenly appeared. Su Liu made a decision she would regret for life: she joined the squad of the top-ranked player.

That player was strong and decent enough, but one of his key members…

Not only did he lust after Su Liu, but after she rebuffed him, he became enraged, stabbing her in the back and trying to kill her.

In the end, when Su Liu made a last desperate counterattack on the verge of death, she seized the slimmest chance to enter the legendary nine-star dungeon that no one had ever beaten.

Whether she succeeded or failed, to this day, Su Liu still does not know.

But to have another chance—well, that counts for something. This time, Su Liu resolved firmly: human nature is not something she can afford to meddle with.

Taking a deep breath, she looked on the bright side: with last time’s experience, she should be able to gain an early advantage and fare much better.

Thinking this, Su Liu opened her personal game panel. Three different first-level spirit beasts appeared on the screen.

Please choose your initial spirit beast—

Last time, she picked the little water buffalo on the left. Her reasoning was that, on the grasslands, the water buffalo wouldn’t lack food, and if she couldn’t walk any further, it could carry her.

But…the buffalo was slow, and on the first day of the second year, each player got a random transportation tool. The buffalo wasn’t much help on the journey, and its combat ability was weak. Su Liu ended up trading much of her crucial early food resources for beast-healing potions.

It was rather a poor bargain.

So this time, Su Liu wanted to choose a different beast.

The black panther on the right was out of the question. Panthers grew strong, yes, but their early-stage food requirements were enormous. Many players who picked large carnivorous beasts—especially those assigned to barren terrain—nearly bankrupted themselves trading for beast food, and it still wasn’t enough…

Su Liu feared she might starve to death on the road with her beast companion before she even had a chance to grow.

That left the middle option.

A soft, white little bundle, with a fluffy tail that took up more than half its body. According to the option name, it was a small fox, though she wasn’t sure what its attribute was.

A little fox, then. It looked small and gentle, would need little food early on, and Su Liu believed that with her prior experience, she could handle the early-stage monsters alone.

Later, when resources grew abundant, she could not only raise the fox properly, but if luck favored her, she might acquire another beast egg and find a companion for her fox, journeying together to the game’s end!

—

Having made up her mind, Su Liu reached out and tapped the white little fox in the middle.

Unexpectedly, with a loud “pop,” a rainbow barrage flashed across Su Liu’s panel.

Congratulations, player! You have earned the title [Lucky Star] (Awarded for obtaining the server’s first legendary spirit beast).

!!!

Su Liu was stunned and hurried to check the spirit beast panel—

Nickname: None
Species: Nine-tailed Fox
Type: Versatile
Attribute: Space (can grow)
Level: One
Potential: Legendary
Talent: The contractor possesses a four-square-meter space (time flows equally inside and outside; inaccessible during combat; can expand with growth)
Skill: [Spatial Scar] (The beast can inflict spatial cutting damage on opponents; cooldown: 1 minute)
Affection: 30

Good heavens!

Su Liu looked at the tiny fox licking its paws on the ground—so small, yet it was a legendary spirit beast!

Spirit beast potential ranked in five tiers: Common, Excellent, Rare, Epic, Legendary. It was said that a legendary beast, given the right opportunity, could even evolve into a divine beast and transcend the class altogether.

Last time, Su Liu never saw a legendary beast until her death; she’d only heard in the chat hall that some top-ranked player from an unknown zone had a legendary beast—the Nether Phoenix, ferociously powerful!

Before Su Liu could even digest this surprise, the game voice sounded again—