Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gao Peng intended to promote Da Zi’s monster grade, but after going through the prices of the materials he needed, he had no choice but to temporarily give up on this idea. The expenses from the meat to feed Da Zi everyday already burnt a large hole in his wallet. He was simply too poor.
Furthermore, the most expensive ingredient required to promote Da Zi, an electric type monster core crystal above level 10, was easily worth at least 10 alliance credits.
Alliance credits were a new form of unified, high-class currency introduced two years prior, when all the countries on Earth came together and formed a new global alliance. All forms of currency used in countries before this were scrapped. Everyone began to use the two forms of currency set by the New World Allied Government: alliance dollars and alliance credits.
Alliance credits were a form of high-class currency based on the alliance dollar. 10,000 alliance dollars could be exchanged directly for one alliance credit.
In the present, everyday citizens practically only used alliance dollars. The only ones who made use of alliance credits were Monster Trainers, various large financial corporations, and upper levels of the Allied Government. According to hearsay, in the eyes of the strongest and the most powerful people, alliance credits were just numbers. Those at the top only bartered for the items that they required.
Currently, the world was in the midst of a great new era. Monsters came with all kinds of strange and wondrous abilities. Furthermore, the materials that were derived from monsters far exceeded the capabilities of metals and various manmade materials.
The materials that came from the bodies of monsters fetched exorbitant prices, but obtaining them in the first place was no easy feat. This was no game, but actual reality. There was no resurrection or health potion that could be used. Death in the real world was permanent. In order to obtain materials from monsters, one needed to delve deep into the wilderness, or even into other worlds, and engage in mortal combat with these monsters.
If one was just a little careless in the journey into the wilderness, all kinds of accidents could easily happen because this was no mere copy of a game! Monsters would not have fixed spawn locations. It was possible to run into an emperor tier monster in the outskirts of a normal city; even though the odds of this happening would be similar to that of winning the lottery consecutively for an entire month.
As of now, one could only make informed guesses based on collected information and hearsay to deduce the area in which certain type of monster lived.
Gao Peng recalled a huge incident that shocked the whole world a year ago. One of Earth’s famous high-tech companies spent a fortune to hire the services of one of the top Monster Trainers at that time. This Monster Trainer possessed two extremely strong commander tier Monster Familiars.
All the company wanted was materials from an ordinary commander tier monster.
Two days after this Monster Trainer led his two Monster Familiars into a particular jungle, a horrifying roar erupted from the jungle. Through the video feed captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle, a terrifying giant beast could be seen rearing its head in the center of the densely packed jungle. It was a dragon!
Atop its forehead was a single metallic, black, spiraled horn, indicating that this behemoth was not a true dragon. According to the classifications in ancient Chinese mythology, having a single horn on its head made this a horned dragon.
Nonetheless, this footage captured by the unmanned aerial vehicle shocked the world.
A mythical beast from legend had actually descended into our realm!
This incident completely overshadowed all other important news that was going on at the time. Everyone was talking about it. Some were terrified, others agitated, and for some, this incident stirred up ambition. However, the Monster Trainer that went into the jungle that day never made his way out.
The center of that jungle remained a forbidden area. No one dared to venture in deep, and even those who had to travel around its periphery hurried their way past it in fear of the horror that resided at the center.
That went to show how difficult it was to obtain a monster’s core crystal, which would also explain why the price of monster core crystals remained so high.
Monster core crystals could be consumed by other monsters to promote their evolutions. This was a secret that was made known very early on; hence, no matter how many monster crystals there were, the supply would be insufficient.
The use of military missiles and artillery to wipe out monsters was practiced during the initial period after the cataclysm, when humans were still reliant on artillery to fend off monsters. However, it was quickly found out that these methods were only able to quickly eliminate intermediate and low-level monsters. Artillery simply could not contain truly powerful monsters, and only served to anger them.
Furthermore, using artillery to kill monsters usually reduced them to lumps of meat, destroying most of the usable materials. Only the toughest substances, as well as the monster core crystal, remained. Because of this, using artillery as a method to clear out large numbers of low-level monsters and obtain materials was not feasible.
Of course, it was obtaining of large amounts of core crystals that allowed humanity’s pioneer Monster Trainers and Familiars to quickly grow in strength, to fend off monsters together and protect humanity’s homeland.
Following the cataclysm, humans also realized that the Earth was also constantly growing and expanding. Because of the happenings at the beginning of the cataclysm, all the satellites that were sent into space were destroyed, preventing humans from observing the changes to the planet from outer space.
It was only two years after the cataclysm, when the aftereffects of the spatial turbulences in the sky began to gradually stabilize, that humanity began to send satellites into space again. Only then did they realize that the Earth had transformed into something foreign to them.
The surface area of the Earth had expanded multiple times! In fact, these numbers were still gradually increasing at a slow and steady rate.
Inhabited areas were largely unaffected by the change. The real transformations happened in the areas that humans rarely set foot on after the cataclysm. These were the jungles, rivers, valleys and uninhabited areas. From outer space, the Earth seemed to have transformed into a completely green planet.
All kinds of terrains experienced great changes, suddenly transforming the Earth that humans were familiar with into a foreign one.
Even more terrifying were the various rifts on the planet the led to other worlds. Although information regarding these other worlds remained highly classified, known only to the highest echelons of society, the knowledge of their existence hung like sharp sword above everyone’s head. It reminded humanity that disaster could befall them at anytime, and that they were never truly safe.
Carrying these unfounded worries in his head, Gao Peng drifted into sleep on the couch. At this moment, Da Zi’s pair of antennae waved around slightly. It then scuttled its way to the bedroom and, using its large maxillipeds, painstakingly dragged the blanket from the bed all the way to the living room. The segments of Da Zi’s dark purple carapace shook and rubbed against each other, making a crisp metallic creaking sound, like that of a bowstring being tightly drawn.
Da Zi shot into an upright position while holding the blanket tightly within its mouth. Then, with a tossing and pulling motion, it flung the blanket on top of Gao Peng.
Da Zi’s front limbs touched the ground and it promptly retreated back under the sofa in a swaying motion. Its thousand legs curled up towards its body as it hid on the cold floor.
Its pair of antennae grew limp and rested lazily on top of its head. Da Zi’s eyes slowly became dull as it fell into sleep.