68 - I’m Surrounded by My Own Pets!

**The Royal Tier Nest, Central Hall of the Museum** As the golden-haired girl's delicate laughter faded, the maid-outfitted little fox stared in disbelief. This oddly-shaped high-tier rabbit gently flicked its drooping ears, leaving a distinct claw mark on the museum's solid floor. She couldn't remember how many years it had been since she had last felt such absurdity since advancing to the Royal tier... Even though it was just a virtual battle map, was there really a high-tier ant daring enough to challenge a Royal tier!? In the next moment, "Moon Embrace Hammer" answered with action. Through the intense contraction and stirring of its ears, it crushed the floor's stones into fragments and then assumed a fierce stance ready for a full-force throw. [Flexibility Increase, Sand Scatter, Moonfall, Frenzy, Violent Throw] "Boom!!!!!!" At this instant, when the maid-attired little fox examiner was still engulfed in shock, a gigantic force crushed the entire museum terrain. Centered on her, an area of a hundred meters in radius collapsed and shattered under the heavy atmosphere, instantly creating a semi-circular cross-section. Enduring an unparalleled pressure, she stared with bulging eyes as "Moon Embrace Hammer" swung its ears. Impossible! Was there really someone who would attack the Royal tier!!!! "Swish, swish, swish——!!!!!" In the next moment, accompanied by a deafening explosion. A barrage of stones broke through the entire map like a rain of bullets. The rumbling lasted for a full half minute before the surrounding dust dispersed, and the whole museum appeared battered and full of scars. Under this astonishing strike, numerous architectural terrains were unrecognizable, and even the ten statues of the Royal tier had half of them destroyed. "Huff~~~~" Just then, with a long, deep breath, the surrounding wreckage was violently swept away by a massive phantom white fox tail. The giant white fox tail elegantly unfurled like a flower, gracefully opening 360 degrees outward, revealing within it the unscathed maid-outfitted little fox. "Foolish ants who don't know their place..." "Don’t think you can do something like this and walk away unscathed!!" Standing atop the phantom white fox tail, the little fox snarled fiercely with a vicious roar. A few seconds later, scanning the now-empty museum ruins, her expression gradually turned confused. Wait, where was the person? Retreated, retreated...? Why???? In this case, there's nothing to be said about walking away unscathed; the opponent clearly just hit and ran!!!! Now she can't even vent by trampling that girl's virtual character? "Alright, alright, I’ll remember you..." "Boom!!!!" With red cheeks and heavy panting, the white fox tail she hovered on suddenly curled, sweeping away the entire map. In an instant, the entire Royal Tier Nest map was completely turned to ruins. --- --- [Moon Embrace Hammer has completely overcome the fear of the Royal Tier: 47→48] [Moon Embrace Hammer has attacked a Royal Tier Pet Beast: 48→49] The moment Moon Embrace Hammer attacked the examiner, the golden-haired girl decisively exited the Pet Beast Pokedex Museum map. Otherwise, if her hands got tied up, she wouldn't be able to click to exit the system settings. At that point, even if she was humiliated across the online connection, she'd have no way to resist, only able to wait for a forced logout after the 24-hour anti-addiction timer... That was close, so close, she nearly had a dark fall~~~ After returning to the player's private training space, she watched Moon Embrace Rabbit's skyrocketing level as if it were ignited like a rocket. A twinkle flashed in her eyes, revealing a delightful smile. Could it be? Could anyone really think she intended to defeat a Royal Tier pet beast? Moon Embrace Hammer followed an ordinary rare evolution path; how could it possibly meet the conditions to defeat a Royal Tier pet beast? Defeating a Royal Tier to evolve is a task only legendary rare types like Star Sand need to complete... [Sky Curtain Roll—Command Tier Evolution Condition] [Condition 9: Attack a wild Royal Tier pet beast, regardless of win or loss, but it must not be a virtual battle’s AI projection] Just at that moment, Moon Embrace Hammer’s ninth evolution condition of the Sky Curtain Roll, its command tier evolution path, had been completed. Because, as Lian Xing had said before, that little fox wasn’t a virtual NPC; it was an ownerless wild Royal Tier!! This evolution condition was tough precisely because it had to be wild! If it were a pet belonging to a beastmaster, kneeling down to beg for mercy after provoking might even offer a way out, but a wild Royal Tier would undoubtedly kill an ant that dared to challenge it. And so, this nearly impossible condition was cunningly fulfilled by Lian Xing. Virtual battles are absolutely genius, who gets it, family~~~ Of course, Lian Xing also wasn't worried about the opponent screwing up her copy's reward. A mere copy examiner absolutely wouldn’t have such authority. If she's not mistaken, this little fox should be the head of this virtual battle division, which means— Just a newbie village elder~~~ "......" "......" "Alright, now let’s begin the formal enhancement~~~" With light-hearted speech, Lian Xing put all of "Moon Embrace Hammer’s" attribute points into flexibility. [Moon Embrace Hammer's flexibility attribute reaches 30 points; choose a Three-Part Flexibility Mastery] [Mastery is generating randomly...] [Phantom: Greatly reduces the interval between attacks, significantly increases attack speed] [Harmonic: Perfectly enhances throw ability, greatly improving understanding of throw actuation allowing precise post-throw trajectory and redirection assessment] [Moon Wave: Grants the ear area a "flow" property, during a successful blocking pose redirects ranged attacks including energy and elements. Performing a special throw with Moon Wave on a surprise results in half max throw power] "......" "......" Upon seeing the generated masteries, Lian Xing immediately fell into shock. Why are there two instead of three? Because she couldn’t even see the top mastery, Phantom, anymore. What in the world is this absurd luck? Two top-tier masteries in one go...? Harmonic, the core enhancement mastery for throw capability. Mastering Harmonic will cause the Moon Embrace Hammer’s throwing ability to undergo a radical transformation, after all, this is “perfect” enhancement, meaning it's pushed to max effectiveness!!! Moon Wave, holding twofold features, the second feature is akin to an instantaneous throw without setup, appears less exaggerated in description. However, the first feature is terrifying, directly compensating for Moon Embrace Hammer's defensive shortcomings... Even seasoned Lian Xing couldn’t decide which to choose, standing there racking her brain for quite a while. Why bestow both of them upon me!!!! After a moment of reflection, a thankless Lian Xing complained. It's like choosing between enlarging your eyes or enhancing your bust—in such scenarios, normal people would most likely struggle with indecision. Might as well directly award her one of the rewards~~~ As for why not opt to elongate her legs further...? Honestly, altering Lian Xing's naturally curvaceous, pure natural beautiful legs by even a fraction would disgrace a national-level masterpiece!! Finally, after a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors with herself, Lian Xing made her hard-fought decision. --- --- Yulan Institute, 3 days after the public performance competition. In this period, the 36 Supernova underwent an intense ranking battle, finally... on the eve of the league preliminaries’ commencement, the entries were confirmed. At this moment, a total of more than thirty young girls gathered at the training hall’s center. Standing at the podium, a voluptuous middle-aged woman with fiery red hair, the head of Yulan Institute, faced the thirty elite students with a serious expression, speaking unhurriedly. "I trust everyone knows, this is our most hopeful year since Yulan Institute's establishment!!!" "For the sake of my three... No, for the honor and dignity of Yulan Institute, we must achieve results in this year's official league!!" "At this time on the day after tomorrow, there are two preliminaries; winning them ensures entry to the league site, showcasing your spirit before billions of viewers!!!" "As per usual, each academy has two entries, and this time, the members of Team One will be personally selected by our new captain, Lian Xing. The remaining will be automatically ranked according to performance into Team Two." Following the solemn conclusion of the Yulan Institute head's words. Amid the attention of all spectators, a golden-haired girl with twin odango buns, wearing knee-high white socks filled with exuberance, and star-patterned eyes gleaming, walked up to the stage. The girl gazed downward, lightly tapping her chin with her index finger as she surveyed the room with a subtle expression. Her tone, dripping with mockery, teased the assembly. “Can I really choose anyone I please?” “You know, this atmosphere and situation feels just like choosing concubines~~~” “......” “......”