"Su Yue, what's the date today?"
Su Bai turned to look at his younger brother, Su Yue. He was obviously very familiar to this person, yet he still felt a sense of unreal strangeness.
"It's March 6 today. What's the matter, brother?" Su Yue smiled at him, his eyes glinting with envy. "It'll be your birthday two days from now. At that time, you'll be able to have your own pet. Did you forget the time out of excitement?"
His younger brother chuckled and patted his arm.
"March 6, 2017?" He asked for confirmation again.
"Yes, otherwise? Brother, are you still drowsy from sleep?" Su Yue was puzzled.
"Okay, I might really be still drowsy. I'll go and wash my face now." Taking a deep breath, Su Bai squeezed the back of his neck and turned to walk into the bathroom.
He washed his face and silently looked at the handsome reflection staring back at him in the mirror.
He had never imagined that, after one sleep, he would wake up to a drastically different world.
After a moment of contemplation, he mostly understood that he had crossed to another self in a parallel world. Not only that; he was even four years younger.
Looking at his handsome self and thinking of his relatives who were still with him, Su Bai quickly accepted his fate.
Although it was a parallel world, the historical evolution was completely different. He found out from the Internet that this world had had a resurrection of spiritual energy a hundred years ago. Since then, plants and animals had undergone various mutations, and space cracks of various sizes had appeared on the surface. Countless monsters, hence, invaded the human world, extruding the human living environment.
Mankind had also given birth to the profession of Pet Tamer amid the crisis. It was because of the Pet Tamers' emergence that humans could survive.
It was rumored that in this world, every person would develop a spirit soul stone at the age of sixteen. If a spirit soul stone was blended into different things, a spirit egg would be obtained. Once hatched, a unique beginner spirit and a companion contract book could be obtained.
With the contract book, all kinds of pets and monsters could be contracted. The lowest-level apprentice Pet Tamer would then be born.
Cultivating pets and evolving them were parts of a Pet Tamer's duty. Pets were the only extraordinary power of human beings and the key to resisting foreign enemies.
After a hundred years, the Pet Tamers had fully integrated into all aspects of human life and had even formed their own systems.
Two days later, Su Bai would turn sixteen and become a trainee Pet Tamer.
However, he was panicking a little right now. His soul did not belong to this world, so could he become a Pet Tamer?
At this moment, his mother called, "Su Bai, did you fall in the toilet bowl? Come out to eat!"
"I'm coming!"
He quickly responded and turned to leave the bathroom. Although he had come to a parallel world, his parents had not changed in particular, and they still felt familiar to him.
When he reached the living room, his parents and younger brother were already eating breakfast. Beside Mother Su was a jellyfish-like blue spirit, its two slender tentacles holding a water-blue spirit crystal and slowly gnawing on it.
Its name was Water Ripples, a water spirit. It was Mother Su's beginner spirit pet and was said to be born by incorporating a soul stone into a piece of sea essence.
Su Bai looked at Water Ripples curiously. Was this the spirit with extraordinary powers? It looked rather cute.
As if sensing his gaze, Water Ripples looked up at him and tightened its grip on the spirit crystal.
He was speechless.
After breakfast, his mother glanced at the water spirit and gently caressed its head. "Xiao Lan, I'm sorry to trouble you. Use your water waves."
Splash!
Water Ripples touched her affectionately and then mobilized its spiritual power to roll up all the bowls and chopsticks on the table. A wave of transparent water appeared out of nowhere and rotated the bowls and chopsticks at high speed.
After a few seconds, the tableware fell back onto the table smoothly, now clean and tidy. The water waves disappeared into thin air while the leftovers fell into a ready trashcan nearby.
It performed all these movements at one skilled go.
"Okay, let's talk about you now, Su Bai. It'll be your sixteenth birthday the day after tomorrow, and that's when you can awaken and become a Pet Tamer. Have you thought about your future? What do you intend to do?"
"Tell me what you want to do without worrying about us. We'll try our best to support you regardless. Over the years, your mother and I have managed to save up lots of money," said Father Sue, who was seated across from Su Bai.
Su Bai looked at his parents and found that they appeared much younger than he remembered them to be. However, his gaze on them remained the same.
"Can I become a professional Pet Tamer?"
Upon hearing this, his father sighed. "I knew you would say that. I think I told your grandfather the same thing back then… A professional Pet Tamer seems to have no threshold, but it's far from what we imagine. A simple specialized professional assessment can eliminate most people…"
His father sighed and continued, "Of course, I don't mean to stop you; I just hope that you can take this matter seriously. Even if you don't succeed in the end, you can still gain much experience from it."
"Your mother and I have saved over one million through the years. You and your brother can each have 500,000 yuan. This is the support we're able to provide. I'll withdraw your share in a while; you can buy the beginner and incubation materials by yourself. I hope that you won't disappoint your own choice."
This so-called beginner material referred to the fusion material of a soul stone. Although it was said that no matter what a soul stone was integrated into, a spirit egg would be born, but the quality of the material still had an impact on its strength, spiritual power, physical fitness, and many other aspects.
A soul stone could be likened to a soul, while a beginner material was what would be incorporated into a sixteen-year-old's body. The quality of a beginner material would, hence, determine the strength of a beginner spirit.
As for the hatching material, it was naturally the material used to hatch a beginner spirit.
"Thank you, father." Su Bai nodded deeply.
He knew that his parents had always been easy-going people; they would not demand for him to do something, nor would they require him to act according to their wishes.
Although his parents in this world were a slightly richer than in his original world, their family situation could still only be considered moderately affluent.
The biggest reason was the spirits. Everything about spirits was extremely expensive. For example, the elementary spirit crystals eaten by Water Ripples cost 1,000 yuan, while the prices of other materials could reach tens of thousands. Excluding the skill books, advanced materials were even more expensive.
It was this invisible threshold that kept most people out. Cultivating pets consumed a terrifying amount of resources. A majority of the ordinary people could only stay away from it and, at most, raise beginner spirits.
"Dad, you can give my brother 300,000 yuan more. I'll only be sixteen in two years' time, so I'm planning to take a pharmacist certificate first. I don't need that much money."
Su Yue scratched his head. He knew that a good beginner material was the key to determining the starting point of a Pet Tamer. He hoped that his brother Su Bai could obtain a good enough beginner spirit.
As for himself, he still had two more years to go, so there was no need to worry now. If he could obtain the pharmacist qualification certificate within two years, then he would have money, and the pharmacist's poor beginner spirit would not matter, either.
The so-called pharmacist was a profession that specialized in making various pet medicines with ingredients like the spiritual plants.
"No, no. That 500,000 yuan is enough; keep the rest for my brother."
Su Bai quickly shook his head and rejected his younger sibling's kindness.
After some discussion, his parents finally gave him 600,000 yuan.
"Keep the money well and pick out the materials at the spirit market. Don't worry about your brother's share. We can still earn more in the next two years… Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. We have to go to work; we're almost late."
Father Su turned to leave.
On his way out of the house, he summoned a white and silver contract book. A big cyan bird, with a body length of more than two meters, flew out from between its pages and carried him and Mother Su to work.