Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

The Zhou Capital at dawn should have been awakened by the rising sun and its gentle morning rays.

The air should have been filled with the scents of cooking smoke from the morning market and the crispness of the morning dew.

Yet now, looking up, what met the eye was a strange, encroaching twilight.

It wasn’t a natural dusk, but a weary and hazy scene, as if time had been forcibly fast-forwarded by more than half a day.

Patches of fog, thick and thin, mingled with the multicolored neon lights already lit throughout the urban jungle. This strange combination cast an illusory, unreal halo over the cold, hard steel structures, making even the air seem to turn viscous.

"Is it... getting dark?"

Gu Ming subconsciously looked up at the sky and muttered, his brow furrowed slightly.

He was cloaked in the Shadow Cloak formed by the black Cat Demon, Ah Ji. His figure, like a specter completely blended into the background, silently departed from Wenquxing University.

The shock he’d felt upon first arriving in the Zhou Capital six months ago was still vivid in his memory.

It was a cyberpunk vista filled with sharp, jarring contrasts: towering mechanical habitats that scraped the clouds, covered in flowing Runes, interwoven with a lower level of dimly lit, tightly packed, dilapidated shantytowns.

Like a vast, absurd panorama, it was deeply etched into his mind.

Ancient magic Runes and modern technological creations existed side-by-side. Luxurious sky-faring vehicles and lumbering beasts of burden passed each other at the same intersections.

This extreme contrast had once left the newcomer dizzy and fascinated, which was then followed by deep contemplation.

Now, though only a first-year student at Wenquxing University, he had already made a name for himself by publishing several papers in the top academic journal, *Peak*, that subverted the traditional system of Pet Beast Evolution. He had become a dark horse to watch in this year’s National University Beast Taming Competition.

Today was the official opening day of the competition.

As the star competitor promoted by Wenquxing University, his first battle had been deliberately scheduled by the organizers to be the center of attention.

It would take place in the Great Zhou Royal Sports Arena, which could hold a million spectators and would be broadcast live nationwide.

This kind of treatment was a world apart from that of most other contestants, who could only compete in unpublicized matches at various ordinary Dao Fields, secondary Sports Arenas, or even their own university’s training grounds.

Other people’s matches had no live broadcast or public attention; victory or defeat perhaps only concerned personal honor and their university’s points.

But his first day’s battle—and perhaps his battles in the coming days, and all his future battles—would likely be dissected under countless magnifying glasses. The pressure was on a completely different level.

He didn’t want to enjoy this kind of "luck."

Fighting under the real-time gaze of millions of eyes, every tiny mistake could be magnified infinitely.

This intangible pressure was far more suffocating than a thrilling private duel in a familiar training hall.

In contrast, Lu You’s match was fortunately scheduled to be at their own university.

She wouldn’t have to travel far or endure this immense pressure of exposure. She could be much more relaxed, which also gave Gu Ming one less thing to worry about.

Walking along the wide main road toward the Royal Sports Arena, Gu Ming calmly observed the city that had fallen into "night" at dawn.

The ground-level lanes for ordinary vehicles were already gridlocked. The blare of horns and the roar of engines wove together into a symphony of irritation.

On the roadside, a few Crystal-winged Birds with magnificent plumage, which should have been soaring through the sky, could only pace about anxiously, preening their slightly ruffled feathers with their beaks.

Their owner, a well-dressed Beastmaster, was red-faced and shouting at the driver of a luxury car next to them, spittle flying as they argued.

Gu Ming only had to listen for a moment to understand that the birds had been hit by the car when they landed to rest.

Gu Ming looked up at the sky and saw that the flight paths, which should have been relatively empty, were now in a state of serious "traffic jam."

All sorts of Flying Pet Beasts, from common Wind Sparrows and Cloud Geese to rare Thunder Wing Falcons and Illusory Light Butterflies.

They filled the sky as densely as a flock of migrating birds, but the cramped space made the scene utterly chaotic.

Huge shadows swept across the ground from time to time, accompanied by the flapping of wings and the cries of Pet Beasts.

It was a perfect picture of "birds jamming the sky, cars jamming the ground," fully displaying the clamor and chaos of the opening day.

At the same time, he also keenly noticed that although the sky had darkened for some unknown reason, the neon lights and holographic billboards on buildings throughout the city had all lit up early, as if it had already switched to night mode.

Massive ads for Pet Beast Spirit Medicine and projections of Beast Taming Equipment flickered erratically, casting bizarre colors into the misty air and further heightening the sense of temporal dislocation.

"It should be morning right now, shouldn’t it?"

Gu Ming felt another pang of doubt and glanced down at the miniature Spiritual Ability Terminal on his wrist. The screen clearly displayed:

8:32 AM.

According to the schedule, the opening ceremony had already started at 8:00 AM sharp and had been underway for over half an hour.

The schedule indicated that the entire opening ceremony’s performances and rituals would last about two hours, after which the competitors would officially enter the arena to battle.

As a competitor, he didn’t need to arrive as early as the audience or performers. He had calculated his timing to walk there at a leisurely pace, leaving him with more than enough time.

Gu Ming continued his unhurried walk, deliberately choosing a route that passed through an old shantytown district.

As he passed through alleys so narrow that only a few people could walk side-by-side, the scene was utterly different from the bustling main road.

Rusted pipes snaked out from mottled walls like dying pythons, dripping some unknown liquid.

A few electric mice with dull fur and wary eyes were rummaging through a pile of trash for food.

Their Beastmaster, clad in a tattered black robe that covered almost their entire body, leaned against a damp corner like a ghost. They toyed with a black, block-like object wrapped in coarse paper that gave off a faint, strange odor.

It was probably some kind of black-market item—a potent but low-quality Pet Beast stimulant or healing salve with extreme side effects.

Another small, thin Beastmaster with an anxious expression was talking to them in a low, subservient tone.

Their face was a mask of pleading and despair, as if the sickly-looking Pet Beast beside them wouldn’t survive the day without that "contraband."

Gu Ming didn’t release his Divine Sense to pry into the details of the transaction happening in the shadows.

He wasn’t interested in such gray-area dealings.

He was also well aware of how insignificant an individual’s power was in the face of the underlying rules of this massive city. He couldn’t possibly manage it all.

He simply committed the scene to memory, a true footnote to the city’s glamorous facade, then quickened his pace and left the area, which was thick with an air of decay and struggle.

About an hour later, the magnificent silhouette of the Royal Sports Arena finally appeared ahead.

It was a grand structure encircled by countless glowing Runes, its overall form resembling a giant crown.

Its architectural style stood in stark contrast to the somewhat old and worn-out urban districts around it. It was like a divine miracle from a higher-dimensional civilization that had descended upon this place, exuding an aura of majesty and mystery.

The massive parking lot outside the arena was already packed to the brim with all kinds of vehicles and Pet Beast mounts, completely gridlocked.

In comparison, the dedicated entrance for competitors was much quieter.

Only a few scattered figures were lining up to check in. Nearby, several sharp-eyed reporters with long-focus lenses were lying in wait, as if hunting for a specific target.

’Still, for such an important ceremony, most competitors hungry for exposure would have already gone inside to watch from the best seats. It’s just people like me who aren’t fond of formalism...’

’These people... surely they aren’t here specifically to ambush me, right?’

A flicker of doubt crossed Gu Ming’s mind, but he was immediately amused by his own slightly narcissistic thought and shook his head.

He took a deep breath, regulated his breathing, and at the last moment before stepping into the light of the check-in area, he sent out a Mental command.

The Shadow Cloak draped over him immediately receded like living black water, flowing downwards to coalesce at his feet into the elegant, agile form of the black Cat Demon, Ah Ji.

Ah Ji affectionately rubbed against his trouser leg, then its figure flickered and silently melted into the shadow cast by a building at Gu Ming’s feet, vanishing as if it had never been there.

And Gu Ming himself was suddenly exposed to the incredibly harsh glare of the media floodlights set up specifically at the check-in area!

"It’s Gu Ming!"

"That man... He’s finally here!"

It’s unclear whether a sharp-eyed reporter or a fan was the first to shout.

The once-lethargic check-in area instantly erupted into chaos, like a drop of water hitting a pan of boiling oil.

Even from inside the arena, several agile Beastmaster reporters rushed out in an instant.

Some carried heavy cameras, while others rode miniature nightmare horses whose hooves burned with faint blue flames, all of them racing over at astonishing speed, terrified of missing a single shot.

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