Chapter 34: Reversal

Xie Sen moved his body towards Maine to see clearly. Maine had pulled down his collar, but his hand had already released it. The material of his clothes was very elastic, and blinked back to the original shape which covered his chest.

Xie Sen paused his approaching movement. Maine’s eyes opened abruptly at that moment. His eyes were slightly red, as if they were burning. He stared at Xie Sen, and his eyes fell subconsciously to his lips.

When Xie Sen saw that he was awake, he breathed a sigh of relief and silently pointed to his chest, and made a gesture to pull down his collar again.

Maine’s eyes showed a touch of surprise, and he didn’t do anything for a while.

Xie Sen was very anxious. He was worried that the changes on the beast pattern would disappear, so he simply reached out and grabbed the edge of Maine’s collar. The surprise in Maine’s eyes increased, but he didn’t stop him.

Xie Sen pulled the collar down, and when he saw the animal print, his head came closer. He was right. Maine’s beast tattoo had changed. A pair of golden feathers had appeared on both sides of the roaring lion. He looked up, ready to tell Maine about this discovery, when he met Maine’s complex and deep eyes.

He froze. He didn’t understand why his heart was suddenly racing, then realized that they were really close. He pulled back slightly, reached out to point at Maine’s chest, and gestured for Maine to look.

Maine withdrew his eyes from Xie Sen’s body. He sat upright when he saw the change in his beast’s pattern, and his back left the tree trunk. He hung his head for a long moment, then reached out and took Xie Sen’s wrist. Xie Sen acquiesced to his urging, and loosened his grip on his collar to let his clothes cover up his beast pattern.

When Maine looked up, his face was filled with uncontrollable excitement, even his fingers were trembling slightly with delight.

Xie Sen didn’t understand why it was like this, but he knew what it meant. Maine’s contract beast was no longer a giant lion beast, but a flying lion beast. He had changed from an A class to an S class.

No wonder Maine was so thrilled.

Xie Sen smiled. Maine’s contract beast, finally, was the same as in the book. He no longer needed to be puzzled by it.

His smile was soon replaced by worry. Now that what he knew was the same as in the book, what about Maine? Would he be as dark as in the book?

Maine saw him like this, and thought Xie Sen was worried about him. He patted Xie Sen’s shoulder, and shook his head with a light smile to signal that he was fine.

Xie Sen forced a smile on his lips, as he looked at Maine’s face, still white due to the poisoning. He couldn’t afford to kill the idea in the cradle. He could only keep an eye on Maine and stop him from turning black!

Maine patted Xie Sen’s shoulder again, and pointed to the tree trunk behind him to indicate that he should rest. Xie Sen nodded, leaned against the trunk, and closed his eyes.

At five o’clock in the morning, the forest looked like a stage had been set up and all kinds of birds and insects were chirping incessantly.

Maine had woken up at some point, and was looking at him. Their eyes met, and Xie Sen’s heart lost its rhythm for a moment.

How long has he been looking at me?! Xie Sen immediately moved his eyes away, but soon couldn’t help it and returned to Maine’s face, which had regained its color and looked fine. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.” Maine said. His voice was a little dry, probably from the fever.

Bai Jiao said, “The wound was well treated yesterday, so it’s not a big problem, but it’s best to go to the hospital to clean the toxins completely when you get out.”

Xie Sen blushed slightly. He hadn’t even noticed that Bai Jiao had woken up.

Long Teng jumped up from the ground, moved his arms and legs, turned his neck and said, “Ah, I didn’t have a midnight snack last night. I’m so hungry, what do we have for breakfast?”

“Roast meat.” Maine said. He took the raw meat he had saved yesterday out of his space.

Long Teng ran over to help Maine skewer the meat. 

Xie Sen asked Maine, “Do you have clean knives?”

Maine shook his head. His dagger had been used many times yesterday and wasn’t clean.

Bai Jiao said, “I do.” He took out a palm-length, clean knife, and handed it to Xie Sen.

Xie Sen took it, walked to Long Teng’s previous position, and moved the potato wall to the fire. He cut it with the knife into ten pieces, each about the size of two sheets of A4 paper.

He kept four pieces, and asked Maine to put the rest in his backpack.

Long Teng said curiously, “Why did you cut it up? Don’t you need to keep it for repair?”

Xie Sen looked into his pure eyes and suddenly felt guilty, as if he was lying to a child. He coughed lightly. “Sorry, I lied to you. This isn’t actually a tent. I can’t explain exactly what it is, but I’ve cut it into pieces to bake it and eat it.”

“It’s edible?” Long Teng’s attention was completely taken away by the words ‘bake’ and ‘eat.’

Xie Sen, helpless and amused, nodded his head. “It might not be very good.” He had never tried to make a potato this big, then eat it.

However, he was still underestimating the high quality of the food the System redeemed. When the potato was roasted, the space surrounded by potatoes was filled with the aroma of potatoes, which smelled tempting.

Long Teng, was holding the meat roasting in his hands while his eyes stared straight at the potatoes in Xie Sen’s hands. He waited until Xie Sen said they were cooked, and said, “I want to eat them!”

Xie Sen divided the roasted potatoes into four small pieces, and put them into the food box where he had put the dried meat before, then handed one piece to each of them. He took a bite, and a faint aroma instantly filled his mouth. The taste was so light that he wouldn’t have guessed it was potato, if he didn’t know it was potato.

But the texture was fragrant and soft, and the taste, although light, was also very good.

“Delicious!” Long Teng’s eyes glowed.

Maine and Bai Jiao both obviously liked it too, and quickly finished their potato.

Xie Sen and Bai Jiao continued to roast the rest of the potato, and by the time the potato was finished, the meat was also cooked.

Maine opened his personal bracelet, integrated the map information received by the information detector, sent a copy to each of the rest of the team, marked out the next route to take and said, “Let’s go.”

Xie Sen recalled the other potatoes. Long Teng looked at him with bright eyes and anticipation, “Can we have another wall for lunch?”

“No!” Xie Sen shook his head. If that wall hadn’t been accidentally broken, they wouldn’t have been able to eat it. He had to use less energy so he could activate the third plant as soon as possible. It was too inconvenient to have an uncontrolled body.

Long Teng’s smiling face fell, and Xie Sen laughed. “There are still leftovers in Maine’s backpack. You can eat at noon.”

Long Teng immediately smiled brightly. “Great!”

It was like he was injected with chicken blood, as he sprinted forward. Maine grabbed his shoulder, and turned him around. “It’s the other way.”

Long Teng laughed, and rubbed the back of his head, and Maine said, “You’re at the back.” Long Teng nodded.

Without Julos to make small moves, along with Maine’s detector, the rest of the trip went very smoothly for the four of them. Any beasts that came across them were either quickly dealt with by Long Teng, or ran away on their own.

Near the end, they walked into a foggy area where it was impossible to tell which way they were going, but with Maine leading the way, they had a particularly easy time. Xie Sen couldn’t help but smile when he thought of the strategy he had viewed on the forum before. They still took a half-hour break for lunch, and at 2:15 p.m., the four of them reached the finish line and swiped their personal bracelets on the recorder.

Qi Shao looked at the time record screen, then looked up, his eyes flicking over them. “You guys set a new time record without any damage. I’m starting to wonder if this island isn’t a suitable venue for the league.”

Long Teng smiled with an innocent face. “It’s quite simple.”

Xie Sen gave him a blank look. “You can walk out by yourself?”

Long Teng thought of the completely indistinguishable road inside, and immediately shook his head. “It’s still hard.”

Qi Shao nodded his chin towards the door. “You can leave the island first. The results of the competition will be announced directly on the Starnet at five o’clock this evening. The prizes will be sent out at the same time.”

Xie Sen politely thanked him, then the four of them took a small shuttle, and left Yu Chu Island.

Xie Sen asked Bai Jiao and Long Teng if they had any urgent business next, and both said no. He said to the pilot, “Go straight to the hospital.”

Maine gave him a look. “I’m fine. I’d rather go back and take a shower first.”

“No,” Xie Sen said seriously. “You have to go to the hospital first. You’ve been running a fever.”

He was a little uneasy. Maine had changed his contract beast, and who knew if there were any hidden side effects of that medicine.

Bai Jiao also said, “Better go to the hospital. Your temperature isn’t normal now.”

Maine compromised, and went to the hospital. Bai Jiao and Long Teng didn’t leave when they got there, and waited for Maine to finish cleaning up the toxins in his body before they said goodbye.

Bai Jiao pointed to his personal bracelet before he left. “Remember to keep in touch. I still have a lot of questions for you.”

Xie Sen nodded. Along the way, Bai Jiao had collected a lot of moving plants. In Bai Jiao’s words, those were raw materials for pharmaceuticals. He knew Bai Jiao was interested in his chili pepper bush and potatoes.

Xie Sen and Maine went straight from the hospital to the apartment, then each went to their room to take a shower.

Xie Sen changed into a pair of baggy pajama pants, came out of the bathroom with his hair scrubbed, and felt nothing but relief. After two days and nights on the island, he had sweated a lot along the way, and he had wanted to take a shower for a long time.

After he dried his hair, he flung himself into bed to catch up on his sleep. He didn’t wake up until his communicator beep sounded. He half-squinted at the time. It wasn’t 4:30 yet. He hadn’t even slept for an hour.

He rolled over and picked up, “Manager Sun, there’s–”

Before he could say it, he was interrupted by Sun Mao’s anxious voice, “Xie Sen, I asked Qi Shao. He said you’d come back. Come to the office quickly.”

Xie Sen was fully awakened by his tone, and got up from the bed while he got clothes from the closet and asked, “What happened?”

“The young master of the Cox family ran to the center, and forced a bond with the giant lion beast but was reversed. He was taken away by the Cox family. The giant lion beast was injured, and went crazy. It has injured several feeders. Please come quickly to try to calm him, if not, then we have to…” He paused. “Then we have to apply to the Institute of Contract Beasts and use extraordinary measures.”

He didn’t explicitly say, but Xie Sen knew that extraordinary measures must be very cruel.

Xie Sen thought of the giant lion beast that was as docile as a big cat in front of him, and became even more annoyed with Julos. “I’ll be right there.”

He had never met a more irritating person than Julos. He could completely guess Julos’ thoughts. Since he knew that he would definitely lose to Maine, he simply bonded with the giant lion beast in advance so that Maine could do nothing even if he was angry.

Each contract beast would only recognize one master, so as long as he and the giant lion beast contracted, Maine would be completely out of luck. It was a good plan.

He quickly got dressed and walked out of the bedroom. Maine heard his movement and opened the door, saw him fully dressed, made an ugly face and asked, “What happened?”

Xie Sen quickly told the story. “I’ll go first.”

“Wait, I’ll go with you.” Maine went back to the bedroom halfway through the sentence, and came out a minute later.

The two of them arrived at the Gold Medal Care Center, and headed directly to Zone 4, where four tense-looking security guards with hot weapons stood at the entrance. They stood in a different position than usual. All four faced the door with weapons in hand, and wary faces; as if ready to strike.

The door in front of them bulged outward, and the bulge was growing, while the ground trembled slightly with each expansion.

Xie Sen’s face changed slightly. He had long appreciated the soundproof effect of the buildings in the fourth zone. Now, although there was no sound, having seen this scene, it wasn’t difficult to guess that the giant lion beast was banging on the door.

“Here.” Sun Mao’s voice came from the corner on the left, and he waved towards Xie Sen.

Xie Sen went over, only to find several small shuttles docked behind the corner. In addition to Sun Mao, there were six other men, all of whom were very tall except for one short, well-mannered man.

Sun Mao quickly explained the situation, “The giant lion beast has been banging on the door trying to leave. At first our people went in to try to pacify it, but it attacked indiscriminately.” Sun Mao looked up. “We can only let you open the dome, and take a flying machine to go in. This time the situation is special. It’s very dangerous, so I will go in with you.”

Xie Sen pursed his lips. “What if it doesn’t work?”

Sun Mao sighed. “It won’t last long in the fourth zone. If it gets out in its current condition, it will cause a huge disaster, and in order to avoid disaster, we can only shoot it down.”

Xie Sen clenched his fist. “I’ll go and try.”

“I’ll go with you.” Maine originally wanted to persuade him, but seeing that he looked determined, he instead offered to go with him.

Xie Sen shook his head. “I’ll go by myself. I’m safer than you guys.” He knew in his heart that he had a natural aura that was pleasing to animals.

Maine frowned. “Go together, or you are not allowed to go. If I’m in danger, I have the ability to escape.”

Xie Sen was helpless. Sun Mao gave the two a look. “What time is it? Can you not show love together? He is very powerful, and you may be able to help.”

Xie Sen stared at him. “What are you saying? What show of affection–”

“Okay,” Sun Mao patted his shoulder. “I know you are thin-skinned. Let’s not talk about it. Let’s get on the shuttle.”

Xie Sen’s words got caught in his throat, and he swallowed them. The urge to beat up his boss came up again, but he gritted his teeth and followed Sun Mao to the shuttle.

Sun Mao turned back against his shoulder to stop him. “Let your boy friend go first, you last. Sit by the door, so it will be easy to calm the giant lion beast.”

He said boy friend, but when he heard Sun Mao say it, how was it different?

Xie Sen resisted the urge to explain. It really wasn’t good to explain, in case Maine heard it and thought he didn’t consider him as a friend. He knew too well how sensitive Maine was to the topic of friends. Maine got on the shuttle and moved to the middle seat, then waited to sit down until Xie Sen got on the shuttle and sat near the door. The staff outside the shuttle closed the door.

The pilot started the shuttle and raised it to the top. At the same time, the transparent dome separated from left to right. Looking down from above, it was like a pearl clam was slowly opening its shell.

The shuttle moved into the interior of Zone 4. Angry and ferocious beast roars instantly filled their ears, then the dome quickly closed again, and isolated the sound between the inside and outside. The shuttle descended slowly. Xie Sen saw through the window the giant lion beast kept hitting the door of Zone 4. The door was stained with blood, and his heart instantly seized.

Giant lion beast!

He couldn’t help but speak angrily, “What the hell did Julos do? How did he force the contract?”

When they first met, even if the giant lion beast was wounded, when confronted with Sun Mao’s contract beast, it was not the least bit crazy, and definitely not hurtful. But now it was in this state. It was definitely Julos who had done something very excessive!

Sun Mao’s expression stiffened, and he wiped his face, “It was my negligence. He bought off a feeder, and put a drug in the beast’s food. This drug will make the contract beast’s whole body weak. When a beast master can’t make the contract beast submit, they use this drug, and take the opportunity to force the contract. But he neglected to consider the power of an A class contract beast. The medicine given to the feeder wasn’t powerful enough, and the giant lion beast was so cautious that he ate very little at each meal except for the food you fed it before, so it recovered in the middle of the bonding, and made it backfire on Julos. It wounded itself, and went straight into a frenzy. Now it won’t trust people.”

“How did he get into the fourth zone?” Xie Sen looked at the giant lion beast, who continued to roar and bang on the door in distress.

Sun Mao was helpless. “He said he wanted to learn more about the habits of the giant lion beast, so that he could find his contract beast in the future. His reason was good, and with his status, we couldn’t refuse.”

Xie Sen gritted his teeth. “Is this thing just going to go away?”

“No,” Sun Mao’s eyes were firm. “Gold Medal will not give up.”

By this time, the shuttle had descended not far from the tail of the giant lion beast. Sun Mao turned the conversation to the present moment, and carefully admonished, “The door on your side will open soon. Pull the handle with your left hand.” He pointed to the handle above them. “The shuttle will fly next to its tail, then the shuttle will drive away quickly. You reach out and touch it. We’ll observe its reaction.”

Xie Sen nodded, reached out and pulled the handle. When the door opened, he subconsciously tightened his hand.

Suddenly, there was a warm touch on his waist. He was surprised, and turned around. Maine’s hands were around his waist, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll catch you. You won’t fall out.”

Xie Sen looked at the handsome face in front of him, and gulped. His heartbeat steeply accelerated, and fiercely turned his head to look at the door. “Hmm.”

Sun Mao silently touched his stomach. He was so full of dog food! He didn’t even need to eat dinner!

The pilot asked, “Are you ready?”

Xie Sen took a deep breath, crouched and moved out. “Yes.”

Xie Sen reached out his hand, and touched the giant lion beast in less than a second. The shuttle jerked up. His body fell backwards, and hit a solid chest.

The door closed at the same time. Xie Sen slowed down, and looked out the window.

“It worked!” Sun Mao’s voice was excited.

The original violent roar disappeared, and the giant lion beast stopped banging on the door. He twisted his head to look at his tail, didn’t see anyone, and raised his big head again.

Immediately afterwards, he opened his mouth, roared softly, and ran towards the shuttle.

The pilot’s hands shook with fear, and he hurriedly moved the shuttle upward.

Sun Mao looked at Xie Sen. “He should be looking for you.”

Xie Sen saw the change in the giant lion beast because of his brief touch. His heart welled up with indescribable emotion, and he nodded. “Yes.”

He looked at the giant lion beast’s big, bloody head and was very distressed. “Go down. Prepare the medicine, and I’ll clean its wounds.”

The pilot’s voice snapped, “Are you sure it’s not trying to attack us?”

Sun Mao looked askance at him. “Are you doubting my professional standards? I know better than you what the various reactions of contract beasts mean. Land!”

The pilot lamented, “I should have taken the day off!”

Sun Mao gave him a look,.”I’m here, so what are you afraid of? My salary is much higher than yours. Would I joke with my life?”

The pilot listened, and really calmed down. He landed the shuttle at the farthest position from the giant lion beast. As soon as it landed, he immediately opened the door, and shrank himself in the driver’s seat.

Xie Sen raised his foot to go out, only to find that Maine’s hand was still on his waist. He turned his head and Maine let go with his hand, but reminded him, “Still be careful.”

Xie Sen nodded. If he hadn’t been in contact with the giant lion beast, he would have been scared when he encountered this situation, but now, he wasn’t scared at all. This was the giant lion beast that would obediently lie down in front of him to let him play with his fleshy paws, and also because he was no longer insane.

After Xie Sen got off the shuttle, Maine and Sun Mao followed him, and also got off the shuttle.

The giant lion beast ran to the people, inclined his head to stare at Sun Mao, and made a dangerous warning sound in his throat.

Sun Mao took a few steps back. “It looks like it doesn’t welcome me.”

The giant lion beast looked down at Xie Sen, who jumped up and touched its chin, and it made a soft humming sound in its throat, as if it was very aggrieved. Xie Sen made sure it was treating him as usual, went to its front legs, patted it, and gently tugged at the mane that hung down its neck. The giant lion beast turned its head to look at him, and plopped down.

Xie Sen rubbed its neck again, and turned to Sun Mao and said, “Prepare medicine and water.”

Sun Mao breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll have someone arrange it right away.”

Xie Sen cleaned the wounds of the giant lion beast, and personally brought animal food for it to eat. During the whole process, the giant lion beast was very docile, but more clingy than before, and always wanted to be next to Xie Sen.

With the help of Xie Sen, Sun Mao gave the giant lion beast a full body checkup. After the checkup, he didn’t look good.

He looked to Maine, “I heard Qi Shao say that you won the championship. The Cox family has already paid for the contract beast, you can contract with it now.” He sighed. “Although he acts docile in front of Xiao Sen, we can’t ignore his previous frenzy. He backfired and injured his brain. His condition is very unstable. The safest and best way for him is to let him bond with a beast master who makes him submissive as soon as possible.”

Xie Sen’s heart tightened. He couldn’t be more clear, but Maine simply couldn’t make a contract with it since his contract beast wasn’t a giant lion beast.

Maine looked at Sun Mao, and lowered his head. “I can’t bond with it.”

Xie Sen’s eyes widened, Maine’s tone was aggrieved and frightened, it sounded heartbroken.

But, this wasn’t right, he was still excited about the change of the contract beast! Moreover, this tone of voice was really too un-Maine!

Sun Mao sighed heavily, and patted Maine’s shoulder. “It’s really hard for you, too. If you contract with it, Julos won’t let it go, and will definitely find trouble for you,” he said indignantly. “The Cox family is too much! Anyway, your last name is also Cox!”

Xie Sen, “?”

Manager Sun, are you sure that’s why Maine said no to the deed? But on second thought, it was best for Manager Sun to think that way, otherwise how would he explain it?

Something like a sudden change in the contract beast, it was best to let them think this instead,  since they couldn’t let people know easily.

“In that case,” Sun Mao mused, “I’ll contact the Aben family. He’s was the beast master with the highest synchronization rate with the giant lion beast next to you and Julos.”

Xie Sen had some impression of the tall, thin young man of the Aben family, but he didn’t know everything about him. He casually rubbed the neck of the giant lion beast and asked, “How is the young master of the Aben family? Will he be nice to it?”

Sun Mao lost his smile. “Even people who are bad will be good to their contract beasts.”

Xie Sen put his mind at ease, then worried again. “I wonder if he can make it submit.”

As it turned out, Xie Sen’s worries were not unreasonable.