“Are you sure about that?”
Joanna noticed that Su Ping was not joking. “You may want to do that but… I don't think you can sign contracts with Void State beasts!”
Even though Su Ping seemed to be quite powerful, she knew he had not reached the Ocean State yet. One could only take on battle pets that were one state higher!
“It's okay, as long as it doesn't kill me in the first step.”
Su Ping knew that once the battle pets were two states higher, the power of contract would be weakened and the beasts could devour him without having to be punished by the contract!
However… he just had to make sure that his brain would hold when he signed the contract!
Devouring him?
He could use his fists to discipline the battle pets!
He was sure that his brain would indeed collapse if he were to sign contracts with Fate State battle pets. Still, he believed he would be able to deal with those at the Void State.
He could cancel the contract when he went back to the store; he could then put away the masterless beasts inside the store's s.p.a.ce with force.
“Well…”
For a moment, Joanna didn't know what to say.
Su Ping did not explain anything else. He took out the temporary contracts and began to establish bonds with the beasts.
One, two…
Just as he thought, those Void State beasts didn't make his brain collapse. He just felt he was too exhausted to think.
Since he already had battle pets, Su Ping still had room for five more.
He would have to make the trip eight times!
Roar!!
A dragon that was covered in a ray stone armor roared at Su Ping the moment the contract was done. That was not how a battle pet should look at its master.
“Huh?”
Su Ping raised his eyebrows.
Bang!!
He punched the dragon's head into the ground and dusted off his hands. “Come here. Time to go,” he said to Joanna.
Joanna was speechless. She had never seen something this strange. Soon, the swirl opened up. Su Ping stored all the beasts in his contract s.p.a.ce and went into the swirl with Joanna. Before they left, Su Ping said, “We'll be back.”
The other G.o.ds stood on the spot, confused.
Su Ping took out the five battle pets and the temporary contracts failed as soon as they arrived.
Roar! Roar!!
The five battle pets were quite vocal and their bones were cracking. They were returning to their normal sizes.
“Go!”
Su Ping put them away in the store's warehouse s.p.a.ce.
Soon after, the five battle pets vanished from the store. At the same time, Su Ping then saw five cartoon-like avatars on the warehouse information page.
He could see each avatar's detailed information by clicking their icons, including their bloodline, rank, and skills.
There was a line that said estimated price, but there was a “?” next to the words “apt.i.tude evaluation.”
“If you want to do the estimating, you'll need to pay ten thousand energy points.” The system sounded quite excited. “You have to know that there can be very good battle pets among them. The price would increase if the beasts' apt.i.tude is tested to be high.”
Oh, see if I trust you! Su Ping complained inwardly. He paid no attention to the system. The point was to get all the beasts back.
“Let's go back to the DemiG.o.d Burial,” Su Ping said.
Soon, the swirl opened up as the energy points were deducted.
Su Ping and Joanna arrived at a strange place and once again, through her original self, she summoned G.o.d Warriors from her residence to go there and fetch them.
Su Ping signed contracts with five beasts more, then went back to his store.
In the meantime, in the West Ocean Continent.
The day was breaking over the West Ocean Continent. The first morning light was rising. That scorching ball would always deliver light.
A base city was on the verge of collapsing. The battles had stopped. Some battle pet warriors wearing military uniforms leaned against the wall, panting silently. Their uniforms were tainted red by blood. Some had lost arms. Some were putting bandages over their wounds. Some gazed at the first morning light, crying silently.
Blood had converged into a river outside that broken wall; they couldn't even see where the spread of corpses ended.
The first ray of morning light drove away the darkness, but it also shone light upon the hideous details.
There was no telling which corpses belonged to humans and which belonged to beasts. Most of the human corpses had been torn. There were rarely any complete corpses.
They saved the base city after a night's worth of deadly battles.
But… the price was heavy!
The base city was empty, utterly empty. Some newspaper pages and falling leaves were being blown across the streets. It was such a bleak thing.
The citizens were gathered in the shelter. At the end of the battle, there weren't enough people to go to the shelter to share the news.
“It's over…”
A t.i.tled battle pet warrior was leaning against the wall. The view of the h.e.l.lish scene of blood and death outside the wall had overwhelmed him. He didn't feel happy after surviving; he was in pain and misery.
Seven of his nine battle pets had died. One was heavily wounded and he quickly sent it back to the contract s.p.a.ce to rest, while the other one was… barely breathing. It was lying by his feet.
Woo, woo, woo~!
In the distance, someone was crying.
The sadness was contagious. The battle pet warriors who had survived were seized by sorrow.
The battle had been so tragic that they didn't feel excited, even after winning. They were just glad it was over; then, they felt nothing.
Ding!
Right then, they heard something like a drum beating
Dong, dong, dong~!! The tremors were getting clearer and clearer. The sobbing and crying ended. Everyone struggled to stand up and gazed at the view outside the wall.
The noise… came from the outside.
The battle pet warriors widened their eyes in terror. Dust had been stirred up; the noise was getting closer and closer. A chaotic shroud of darkness was coming. Beast! More of them!!
The battle pet warriors even wanted to give up.
They had struggled hard enough to survive even a single night; they had barely enjoyed thirty minutes of rest, but then, more beasts were on the way over!
They had run out of ammunition and food supplies. How could they go on?
Someone collapsed on the ground. The person slowly took out his weapon; he looked at that sharp blade and he used it to pierce his own heart. He killed himself.
He preferred to kill himself, instead of being torn apart by the beasts.
While the vibe of despair was spreading, suddenly, there was someone coming in the distance. That person generated a ray of red light from his hand and he smashed that red light into the crowd of wild beasts.
Bang. The wild beasts were scattered around. Reinforcements?
The battle pet warriors could barely hold back their joy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
That person hurled himself at the wild beasts.
Once the tremors ended, the beasts' roars also disappeared. From the dust came the person who was there to help.
The white haired old man announced solemnly, “Where's your leader? Gather everyone and leave.”
It was Gu Siping. He hurried over to the West Ocean Continent. he killed all the wild beasts he met along the way and then searched for any Fate State beast kings.
He had just arrived at the West Ocean Continent when he saw that group of wild beasts.
“Ah, a legendary battle pet warrior…”
The survivors gazed at the old man in a daze. They no longer heard the beasts; the old man had to be at the legendary rank to be powerful enough to deal with wild beasts like this!
He crushed the wild beasts, all by himself!
“Go. More beasts are coming,” the old man shouted.
Afterward, he directly flew away from that place.
The survivors were still in a daze after the old man left. They were unable to see Gu Siping by the time they came back to their senses. The survivors looked at each other in confusion.
Where?
Where… should we go?
Anyway, staying there would mean that they would have to deal with another wild beasts' stampede. Soon enough, the survivors sprang into action and began their preparations to depart.
In the meantime, Dragon Swamp Continent.
Close to noon time. The sun was scorching hot.
The Dragon Swamp Continent and the West Ocean Continent were not too far away from each other, while the time difference wasn't as big. The fires of war were raging all across the Dragon Swamp Continent at the moment. Many base cities had ended up becoming the wild beasts' lairs.
Humans were losing ground.
Most people in the Dragon Swamp Continent were staying in an ancient Cla.s.s A base city, the last stand for humans.
Several legendary battle pet warriors were gathered there. All the buildings in the heart of the base city had been flattened to the ground.
Standing on the open land was a dense crowd. There was a huge swirl opening up.
The people were standing in lines to enter the swirl.
“Do not panic. Stay in line and hurry!”
“Stay in order!”
Many people flew around above the open land to maintain the proceedings in an orderly fas.h.i.+on.
“I, I have money. I have to get in first. Let me go first!!”
“Get out of my way. Go away. Let me go. I'm a mayor. I'm the mayor of the Maya.”
There would be the occasional burst of chaos when some wanted to get into the swirl first.
The swirl was leading to the Subcontinent District. The communication channels in the Dragon Swamp Continent were currently failing due to the beast strike. But before that, all the TV stations and media were reporting the strikes. The civilians knew about the impending strike that could affect the entire Dragon Swamp Continent. There wasn't a single safe place in all of the Dragon Swamp Continent!
Finally, legendary battle pet warriors reached the evacuation point and that swirl was their only way out! “You, get out!”
“Come over here!”
The ones that were keeping order dashed toward the places where people were fighting and yanked the man who had started it.
“Get your hands off me. Don't you know who I am? I am the mayor of Maya and my brother-in-law is Master Trainer Carvalho. Do you even know Master Trainer Carvalho? You are just t.i.tled battle pet warriors. You would have to beg him to train your battle pets. Let go of me. Let me go in!” “Behave!”
“How come those insignificant people get to go before I do? Why do they deserve to live? What have they done? Make them go away and let me in!!”
While the mayor cried and shouted, the t.i.tled battle pet warrior grabbed him and threw him to the back of the crowd. Now and then, the t.i.tled battle pet warriors would yank troublemakers out; they would directly crush them to death if they weren't of high status. Blood would rain down, shocking the onlookers.
“This isn't going fast enough, it's not fast enough!”
Two legendary battle pet warriors were standing by the swirl; they weren't happy about the ongoing progress. The swirl was limited. Many people were going in but that wasn't fast enough!
“Where are the beasts?”
“I just heard that Mijer is leading a group of battle pet warriors to fight the beasts at Base City Campor. I don't know how long we have. I think the beasts will arrive in half an hour.”
“Half an hour? c.r.a.p!”
“How many people can get away in half an hour? d.a.m.n it!”
The streets were crowded right outside the open area; every place was tightly packed. That Cla.s.s A base city had never seen that many people in its entire history. There were still some with either wealth or power trying to use their resources to get ahead.
Longjiang Base City, Subcontinent District.
Pixie Pet Store.
Again, it was deep at night.
There would be some occasional glow in the store as if someone were turning a flashlight on and off.
Eventually, the glow stopped. The store was in complete darkness. Su Ping collapsed on the floor inside the store, panting.
He had moved forty Void State beasts and it had been an exhausting feat, both physically and mentally. He could not even think straight.
“Finally, all done.”
Su Ping took a deep breath. He rested for a while and then called Xie Jinshui.
The latter answered at once.
During those eventful times, it wasn't surprising that the mayor would go through sleepless nights.
“Mr. Su, how are things?” Xie Jinshui sounded concerned. He was worried that Su Ping was going to tell him some bad news.
“You're still up. How is it on your end?” Su Ping asked. Xie Jinshui was relieved to hear that question. “Nothing as of yet. I heard that the other continents were suffering. I think the wild beasts are focusing on those continents for now.”
He felt troubled. Their continent's doom would be right around the corner when the other continents fell.
Su Ping nodded. Once the Nordic Continent was destroyed, he knew that the same would happen to the other continents. But he was unable to help them. After all, crossing to another continent was time-consuming. He wasn't a Fate State Warrior yet; they could do long range teleporting. “Listen, I'm going to open my store for business.” Su Ping went straight to the point.