Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 330 - 317: Unforgettable

「After a night of Cultivation.」

The next morning, Gu Ming and Lu You returned to work, falling back into their usual routine.

Gu Ming supervised the joint training of the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster and the Red Carp King. He also managed to find some downtime, taking advantage of Team Leader Da Fei’s absence to guide Cyan Treasure and the new Insect Baby in their Cultivation.

However, there was a plan for the Insect Baby’s development. The form it was generally expected to evolve into was the Illusory Color Butterfly.

The legendary Myriad Phenomena Butterfly, on the other hand, was an evolutionary form one could only imagine, but never actually achieve.

It was said that only one Beastmaster in history had ever managed it, and no one had succeeded since.

Therefore, most people believed that the emergence of a Myriad Phenomena Butterfly required both immense luck and unparalleled Talent.

Generally speaking, most considered the Illusory Color Butterfly to be the pinnacle for this type of butterfly.

Thus, the development plan Gu Ming helped create was designed around the evolutionary path to the Illusory Color Butterfly.

Of course, that could change if something unexpected were to happen in the future.

If, for example, Gu Ming discovered a method from his system to make it evolve further, that would be another story entirely.

For now, however, the system’s racial designation for the socially anxious student’s newly contracted Pet Beast was simply "Phantom Butterfly Insect Baby," which was quite a plain name without any special flair.

Gu Ming gave Lu You some pointers, then slightly modified the development plan from the system’s future timeline for the socially anxious student. With that, his work for the morning was complete.

The rest of his time was a chance for Gu Ming to sneak in some Cultivation using his Cyan Pine Skill.

However, just as he finished the development plan for the Insect Baby, Gu Ming couldn’t help but think of the little stray cat he had met last night. ’What exactly are Chaos Creatures?’

Gu Ming’s first impression was that they were of an extremely high order.

In this world, the Chaos Race was an incredibly mysterious existence.

The average Beastmaster’s perception of them was that they were extremely powerful, absurdly so, and utterly unbeatable.

Upon encountering a wild Chaos Creature, most people would turn tail and run, as there was simply no chance of victory.

Why was that?

Because there are no weak Chaos Creatures. The moment they appear, they are already at a considerably high Star Level, giving no one the chance to capture them as a One or Two-star cub and raise them from scratch.

For that reason, these creatures—synonymous with immense power—were extremely rare in the Pet Beast Realm.

It was only because he had encountered what the system described as a Chaos Creature that Gu Ming couldn’t get it out of his head.

Especially after seeing the development plan for the Phantom Butterfly Insect Baby; even an Insect Baby with such high potential was only given its plain, standard racial name by the system.

’In that case, wouldn’t the future potential of that little cat, which the system identified as a Chaos Creature, be even greater?’

At this thought, Gu Ming grew anxious, becoming more and more desperate to capture it.

But that wouldn’t be easy.

During work hours, Gu Ming asked his coworker, Yuan Ge, "Did you happen to see that little stray cat when you came in this morning?"

Yuan Ge shook his head, saying he hadn’t.

Yuan Ge thought for a moment. Seeing how concerned Gu Ming was, he figured he must have taken a liking to the stray cat.

’He just couldn’t understand why Gu Ming would be interested in this unwanted stray.’

Even if it had the aptitude to fit into the development system for Night-type Pet Beasts, that didn’t automatically make it a good candidate for adoption.

After all, from living in the wild with long-term malnutrition, its evolutionary potential would have long since vanished.

Who knew what kinds of strange illnesses it might have contracted?

Treating it could very well cost hundreds of thousands in medical fees, which was no small sum.

Stray cats like that generally don’t live very long.

In a world dominated by Beastmasters, after all...

...any wild Spirit Beast with the potential to become a Pet Beast would usually be spotted by a passerby and taken home to be raised.

If one meal didn’t win it over, they’d keep feeding it every meal.

Over time, even the most fiercely independent cat would likely soften up and become a Beastmaster’s Pet Beast.

But this little cat had been a stray for half a year without being caught, so there was definitely something special about it.

It probably preferred the wild and didn’t want to live in the human world. Catching a cat like that would be no easy feat.

Yuan Ge was a Three-star Beastmaster now; his abilities were on a completely different level than before.

If he were still a freshman, he would have tried to catch a cat like this a few times and then given up.

But now, as a Three-star, his Pet Beast’s combat power was in a different league. Catching a little cat that only had One-star abilities was entirely feasible.

And so, he came up with an idea and said:

"The next time I see it, I’ll help you catch it. We can see if it’s possible to raise it then. How does that sound?"

Gu Ming hesitated.

"I’m not so sure. If it’s unwilling, forcing it wouldn’t feel right."

He shook his head as he spoke.

’There was nothing wrong with a little forceful "adoption," really. It was just the last resort when a gentle approach failed.’

Gu Ming reviewed the system’s plot commentary again.

’It just confirmed it again. This cat was special. It shouldn’t be captured by force.’

’I have to win it over with kindness, move it with sincerity.’

’When Gu Ming took in a Pet Beast, he was serious about it. He didn’t want to just grab any random creature and break its spirit by taking away its freedom.’

’That wasn’t his way.’

"Why don’t we go look again tonight," Lu You whispered from the next workstation.

"It’s not like I absolutely have to catch it."

Although Gu Ming said that, when evening came, he still found himself leaving work with Yuan Ge and heading to the forest outside the Cyan Wood Beastmaster Academy campus.

Lu You could have gone back to her villa by herself.

Without Cyan Treasure siphoning away all the Spiritual Qi, Mouse Treasure could have cultivated to its heart’s content.

But for some reason, her feet seemed to have a mind of their own, and she followed Gu Ming to the Cyan Wood Beastmaster Academy.

"My Mouse Treasure can burrow into the ground and listen for sounds. It can help," she mumbled, her face flushing red, her voice barely audible.

Gu Ming waved a hand. He didn’t mind; an extra person and a Pet Beast might increase their chances.

The main search party, however, was still the Night Demon Cat.

The white cat twitched its ears, its pitch-black eyes scanning the surroundings. Its gaze seemed to pierce through the darkness, spotting the creatures hidden among the trees.

With its help, they only needed to walk a single loop through the woods outside the campus to survey all the stray cats wandering the area.

"Is it this one?" Yuan Ge asked.

"No." Gu Ming shook his head.

"This one?" Yuan Ge spotted one that looked very similar, with pointed ears and dark black markings.

Gu Ming hesitated, glancing at the empty air as if reading some invisible text description.

"Not this one either."

Every time the group found a stray cat, Gu Ming would take a look and then shake his head.

In the system’s eyes, they were all just perfectly ordinary little cats.

None of them bore the designation "Chaos Creature" like the one from yesterday, which had immediately put everyone on high alert the moment it appeared.

"Maybe it’s on campus," Yuan Ge suggested.

Gu Ming nodded and followed him onto the campus, where they made another circuit.

This search also yielded no results. It seemed they weren’t destined to find it today.

Yuan Ge grew thoughtful. ’Gu Ming seems to be really taken with that little cat that has the Shadow Escape ability.’

’But it’s at least six months old. Considering it’s a stray, its real age might be even older; there’s no telling how old it truly is.’

’The older it gets, the lower its potential for Evolution.’

’For Gu Ming to go to all this trouble... Yuan Ge felt it just wasn’t worth it.’

Lu You, on the other hand, was thinking more emotionally, contemplating deeper possibilities like fated bonds, an instant connection, or even just an inexplicable feeling.

’Maybe Gu Ming had come up with a new idea for Relay Cultivation,’ she mused. ’For example, cultivating a shared Attribute Spiritual Root across different bodies. Perhaps he could use that to compensate for another Attribute Spiritual Root in the cat’s body that had been snuffed out early in its development. That was a possibility, too.’