Chapter 66: New Partners

Long Teng and Huo Feng had two ships. Xue Yue and Big Black were packed into their space buckles and didn’t occupy any space, so only the python and the giant armored beast were on the ship, and even had room to move around.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the ship landed on time at the Brandt Star Spaceport. As soon as the python and the giant armored beast appeared, they immediately caused a sensation. Luckily, Xie Sen had contacted Sun Mao in advance, and Gold Medal sent a large shuttle to pick them up.

Xie Sen calmed the two down, since they were in a state of emotional turmoil because of the onlookers, then brought them to the large shuttle and directed them to get on it so they quickly disappeared from the crowd’s view.

When Huo Feng saw that he had the contract beasts taken care of, he said goodbye, while  Long Teng followed Xie Sen and Maine to Gold Medal.

Twenty minutes later, Xie Sen brought the python beast and the giant armored beast to Zone 4-5. When they entered, the giant black leopard beast was just walking towards the corner, ready to turn off the live broadcast.

The viewers in the studio were instantly excited to see Xie Sen and the two contract beasts beside him, so when they saw the giant black leopard beast was walking towards the wall, they shouted in front of the live screen while typing rapidly, [Aaaaaah! Don’t turn it off!]

With the experience of the last two days, they already knew that this was the prelude to shutting down the broadcast.

The pop-up screen was immediately swept by [don’t turn off] messages.

[Don’t turn it off! This is the first time I’ve seen a giant python and a giant armored beast!]

The contract beasts, other than the giant black leopard beast, saw Xie Sen and immediately ran towards him on swift legs.

The giant black leopard beast was very professional. It glanced in that direction, resisted the urge to immediately rush over, continued to walk to the controls, lightly roared and then turned off the live stream.

[Wow! How come it’s still off! Let me look again!]

[Just forgot to send a gift, the giant leopard beast doesn’t even know our call!]

[Yeah, the live stream is run by the giant leopard beast. It doesn’t read the pop-ups! Is it too late for me to send watermelon rain?]

Obviously it was too late. The viewers only saw their own chagrined selves in the black screen of the live stream interface.

Xie Sen rubbed the contract beasts that rushed over one by one. The contract beasts were soothed and satisfied, then surrounded the python beast and the giant armored beast, who were barking softly and asking various questions, curiously.

The python beast good-naturedly answered one by one, while the giant armored beast had its head buried in front of its chest, as it rolled itself into a ball.

Xie Sen looked amused at the giant tiger beast that had come up to the beast’s head, and rubbed the side of its neck. “The giant armored beast is shy, so don’t scare it.”

The contract beasts looked at the giant armored beast in amazement. The contract beasts actually had a shy species?

Xie Sen touched the golden scales of the giant armored beast and soothed it in his mind, “Don’t be afraid. They are all very nice to get along with. They are so enthusiastic because they are welcoming you.”

The giant armored beast slowly raised its head and called out, its voice soft and gentle, “Hello.”

The contract beasts immediately returned the greeting, and looked at it curiously. The giant tiger beast said, “Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen a giant armored beast!”

The giant armored beast slowly lowered its head amidst the many eyes, and its voice was soft to the extreme, “Our clan spends a lot of time underground.”

The giant black leopard beast ran over, and turned its big head. “Isn’t there a flying dragon beast? Where is it?”

Xie Sen looked at it in surprise, “How do you know there is a flying dragon beast?”

“The feeder mentioned it during the chat.”

Xie Sen suddenly understood, and looked at Long Teng. “Release the flying dragon beast so they can get to know each other!”

Long Teng opened his space buckle, and the flying dragon beast came out with a long, relaxed roar, then excitedly greeted the contract beasts. Instantly they were chatting.

Xie Sen relaxed his smile. He asked the python beast and the giant armored beast their requirements for a resting environment, and immediately discussed it with them and the giant tiger beast. They determined a resting place for the two, and proceeded to make arrangements.

He looked at the contract beasts, thought for a moment, and said to Maine, “It’s not convenient for them to be in Gold Medal all the time. They have earned a lot of money from the live broadcast now, so let’s buy a bigger place to house them.” He smiled. “It would be nice if it was close to the apartment. A sort of guest house for special friends.”

Maine said, “The apartment is rented. I’m planning to buy a house.” He thought about it. “There’s a large area of vacant land not far from the apartment. The location of An Guang District is remote, and the land isn’t expensive. If we buy a large piece of land, we can design our own house and a space for the contract beasts to live, so how about new construction?”

Xie Sen’s eyes lit up. The residences of contract beasts in a typical house certainly didn’t meet the requirements, so new construction was naturally the best. For instance, the bathtub wasn’t needed at all, they could just build a large pool, but they could also have a drainage system, which would make it much more convenient.

But this was definitely a big project. He asked, “Will it take a long time?”

“Building a house is quick,” Maine said. “The house we live in plus the one the contract beasts live in can be done in a month.”

“That fast?” Xie Sen was stunned.

Maine nodded. “I’ll contact the land place tomorrow and check the price. As for how much area to buy and what kind of house to build, you decide.”

Xie Sen laughed. “Then I’ll look for pictures on the Starnet for reference.”

“A’Sen, are you going to make a house for us?” the giant lion beast asked.

Xie Sen nodded, “Mn. It’s not convenient to live here all the time. You guys earned the money for the house. You’re great.”

The giant lion’s tail wagged. “I want a tall tree!”

“I want one too!” Little Spot immediately rubbed Maine. “There are no trees to climb here. It’s not fun. I want to climb high.”

Xie Sen thought about it. “Trees may not work, but we can make high stairs, okay?”

The two were very satisfied, and the giant black leopard beast nodded. “Good, this is it!”

Xie Sen also asked the rest of the contract beasts what facilities they wanted, so that it was in the design in advance, to avoid having to make changes later. The contract beasts were all thrilled to put forward their requests, and extraordinarily excited about the prospect of having a real place of their own.

After asking all those questions, the time was already late. Xie Sen let the contract beasts rest early, and left Zone 4-5. Long Teng went back to his grandfather’s place, just in time to return with them.

Long Teng had barely reached the door of his apartment, when the door suddenly opened and a bright white light shone out from inside.

Long Teng smiled and hugged him. “Grandpa. Why are you back?” He looked at Long Yu and An Ming behind Xu Da, “Father. Dad. Why are you here too?”

“Brat. It’s such a big event, of course we have to celebrate!”

Xie Sen heard the voice from next door, smiled and followed Maine into their apartment.

They each went to the bathroom to take a shower. When Xie Sen came out of the bathroom, his bracelet rang with a message alert. He opened it and saw that it was for a transfer of 50 million dollars, sent to him by Long Teng. He was stunned and contacted Long Teng. “Why are you transferring so much money to me?”

Long Teng laughed. “Dad asked me to transfer it. I forgot before.”

Xie Sen, “No need for so much money. I didn’t do anything. Besides, the contract beasts have been staying at Gold Medal, and we haven’t paid!”

“For S class contract beasts, this price is very cheap,” a gentle voice said. Xie Sen recognized this voice, it was Long Teng’s dad, An Ming. “A’Sen, you take the money. This is your due.”

“That’s too much. I’ll take ten million.” Xie Sen said.

“If you’re embarrassed, take 20 million. This is an S class contract beast after all,” An Ming said.

Xie Sen finally compromised, ended the communication and transferred 30 million back to Long Teng. He looked at the account balance and sighed. He really hadn’t done anything, so to get that much money, it always came with some weakness in his heart.

“What’s wrong?” Maine wrapped his arms around his waist from behind, and brushed his chin against the side of his neck.

Xie Sen noticed the itch, and tilted his head slightly. He lifted his wrist to show him the balance. “Long Teng just transferred 50 million to me. I returned 30 million, since I actually did nothing.”

Maine took his hand in his, and squeezed his fingers. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t have closed the deed so early. To them, you’re the one who found the contract beast. It’s only right to pay the bill.”

Xie Sen sighed. “This is too profitable.” He thought of the contract beast peddlers he had heard about on Mining Planet A. “No wonder people are desperate.”

“Not every beast owner can successfully bond with a contract beast, and it takes time to find the right one.” Maine finished his explanation, and nibbled on Xie Sen’s earlobe.”You deserve this. Don’t think too much about it. Sleep.”

Xie Sen’s breathing suddenly went haywire. He was amused and helpless. Maine didn’t look like he was going to sleep. Maine kissed from Xie Sen’s earlobe to the back of his neck, then slowly pinned him to the bed, and kissed down his back all the way to Xie Sen’s curled up toes.

Xie Sen rolled over, propped his elbows on the bed, and hooked his feet over Maine’s shoulders. “Come on!” He was so hot from Maine that he couldn’t stand it.

Maine looked up at him. His eyes were deep, as if he couldn’t see the bottom of the sea, and the next moment, he jumped on him and kissed him heavily.

Xie Sen thought to himself, I like it so much! 

He slid his hand along Maine’s shoulder. “I can’t help it either. Let’s do it together.”

The two of them had a good time, and both of them went to sleep with a full stomach.

The next Monday, Xie Sen washed up alone to avoid Maine clinging to him again, and sent Maine off to make breakfast. After all, the two of them were young and vigorous. They couldn’t afford to tease.

He washed up, went to the living room sofa to wait for breakfast, and opened the System panel. The bottom of the fifth blank page showed 158/800. That meant that the fifth plant needed 800 energy to activate, and he was still 632 short.

Xie Sen thought about it. Counting the 8 energy Maine gave every day, the energy he got from working every day was about 20, so basically a day was around 30 energy when he had a double break.

In that case, the fifth plant would be activated within a month.

He asked Adam, “Adam, can you feel the location of the next energy now?”

Adam, “Yes. After retrieving two kinds of energy, my total energy is enough to sense the location of the rest of the energy. But it took a lot of energy to retrieve the earth energy, so I need to rest for two days.”

Xie Sen said, “There’s no hurry, so you rest well. I’ll just take the opportunity to collect more energy, and there are still things to take care of.”

Adam, “Mmmmmm. Sen is the best. I’m going to rest.”

Xie Sen opened his calendar. The year was 2288 on the astrological calendar. He came to this world on the 26th of March, when the energy hadn’t been recovered. He was safe for one year initially, and now that two types of energy had been recovered, he wouldn’t be in danger until the 26th of March, 2290.

After the earth energy recovery, his uncontrolled time went from every twelve hours to every sixteen hours. That was equivalent to complete safety for him as long as he doesn’t stay up all night.

He couldn’t help but smile. Both times the energy recovery went very smoothly, and took very little time. It made him confident that he could recover the remaining three energies in two years.

He had breakfast with Maine, who then personally walked him to work at Gold Medal.

After he finished punching his card, he headed to the office. He met up with Sun Mao, whose eyes lit up, and put his hand on his shoulder. “Wow, you’re amazing! You brought back three high-level contract beasts in two days, and one is an S class!”

Sun Mao sighed. “I’ve never seen anyone better at finding contract beasts than you. One contract beast gets you paid more than your lifetime salary, and you earn a lot of living money. I thought you’d be looking for me to quit.”

Xie Sen smiled. He had initially worked at Gold Medal to earn a living, but now it was all about collecting energy.

Although there was a lot of energy gained from going to the orphanages to spend time with little children, the number of orphanages was small. By going every day, the amount of energy gained would decrease, and it was tiring. Not to mention the fact that the contract animals were now at Gold Medal, and he could visit them from time to time while he was working.

He said, “I like this job.”

Sun Mao smiled. “I think so. There’s no one in the department who is more active than you.”

The two of them chatted for a while, then Xie Sen was informed of a job. He went to the trauma room to dress the wounds of a cranky wolfhound beast, whose owner surprised him by saying, “Xie Sen!”

Xie Sen smiled at him, calmed the wolfhound, and then treated its wounds.

Every job he got after that, whether it was giving injections, treating wounds or bathing contract beasts, he was recognized.

He truly felt that he was turning red.

Xie Sen was a disgruntled man who seriously explained that he had a boyfriend, then walked faster.

When he heard rhythmic, high-flying music as soon as he entered Zone 4-5, he thought he had entered the wrong place for a moment. He looked at the contract beasts. Except for the giant armored beast lying nearby to watch, the rest of the contract beasts were all swaying their bodies to the music. The two giant leopard beasts were in the forefront, and swayed their bodies in sync, but also from time to time, they swiftly exchanged positions.

Even the python beast, which had only arrived the previous night, joined them. Its long body was held up in the air, as it undulated in waves with the music. It even stopped for a moment to make a shape when the music hit a pause. The music was so loud that they didn’t even notice Xie Sen had come in. Xie Sen’s face was full of black lines, and he rubbed his forehead as he walked towards them.

Xie Sen stroked the giant armored beast’s phosphor armor. “How was your rest last night? Did you get used to it?”

“Fine. They’re all fine, and it’s fine here.” The beast whispered.

Xie Sen looked at the contract beasts as they danced vigorously. “They…Why have they suddenly started dancing?”

“The giant black leopard beast said that the content of their daily live broadcast was too monotonous. The audience is bored, and since they don’t need to hunt now, they are also bored. They wanted to make the live content more exciting. They went to see the rest of the popular live streams. Singing and dancing have a very high popularity. They said singing will scare people, so they chose to dance.”

The corner of Xie Sen’s mouth twitched. He also knew that singing would scare people, but, doing this live? Playing music? How did they figure it out?

He asked the question, and the giant armored beast’s voice was brisk, “This morning Big Black came to play with us. It’s beast master helped us tune the live program. The music was also his choice. Later he said he had to go deliver a plant to a friend, and took Big Black away.”

Xie Sen wanted to laugh at the grounded name of Big Black, and knew it was Long Teng who had come. He smiled. If the contract beasts had tuned it themselves, it would have been a real treat.

The giant tiger beast swayed, then spun in a circle. Halfway around it saw him. It immediately stopped spinning and ran to Xie Sen. “A’Sen, can you see if we danced very well?”

Xie Sen stifled a laugh. “Yes, it’s very good.” In fact, their muscles were strong and full of strength, so the visual sense of dancing really wasn’t bad.

Once the giant tiger beast moved, the rest of the contract beasts stopped dancing and came over. The python had it the easiest. Its head and body crossed over the other contract beasts. It formed a long arched bridge, then ended up directly in front of Xie Sen.

Xie Sen raised his hand, touched its head, and then rubbed the rest of the big guys. His mind was filled with versions of, “A’Sen, did I dance well?” The voices were all over the place.

Xie Sen’s answers were all ‘great,’ and the contract beasts wagged their tails in joy.

It didn’t take long for the song to end. The music stopped, and the voice of the gift announcements became clear, [‘Superb’ gave the anchor a watermelon rain. Hahaha, it’s great, you can even dance, let’s do it again!]

[‘Haha’ gave the anchor a watermelon rain. The anchor finally appeared again, the anchor went out this time, specially looking for a contract beast?]

Xie Sen opened the bracelet into the live room, while he smiled. “Not deliberately, just by chance.”

The pop-up screen was full of, [I don’t believe it. It must be deliberate. There is no such thing as coincidence!]

Xie Sen shrugged and didn’t explain. He asked the contract beasts if they liked dancing, and made sure they all did. Then he downloaded the music player on the terminal and moved it to the anchor interface. The top quarter of the interface was the rest of the buttons, the bottom three quarters of the left position was the player, the right was the live switch.

The giant black leopard beast quickly noted it all, but made a request, “We want to watch live streaming and TV when we are bored.”

Xie Sen thought about it, and changed it so the right side of the top had a button to watch live streaming. It was a common live streaming software across all platforms, with all the live streams arranged from highest to lowest popularity, while on the left side he put a TV button.

The height of the top was too high for the giant leopard beast to reach with its paws, so Xie Sen gave the task of watching live streams and TV to the giant python beast, who was smart enough to memorize it all at once.

Xie Sen and the contract beasts communicated with their minds. While the audience saw him and the contract beasts gathered in the corner, they didn’t understand at all what they were doing.

[Anchor, back to the middle, ah. Two days without a live broadcast, and the camera sense has become worse again?]

[Giant black leopard beast also goes there every time to switch the live. Curious what the anchor is doing?]

Xie Sen scanned the pop-ups, made sure the giant black leopard beast and the giant python beast took note of the buttons, then told them to go back to the middle, while he left Zone 4-5 to prepare for dinner, and then take a lunch break.

Zone 4-5 was originally used by Gold Medal to feed A and S class contract beasts, and was located at the far end, furthest from the office area.

Xie Sen wasn’t far out of Zone 4-5 when someone suddenly called out behind him, “Xie Sen.”

Xie Sen automatically turned around. A female, slightly taller than him, was close behind. At the same time, a hard object was pressed against his back.

Xie Sen’s pupils dilated. The female had delicate features, but his face was a bit white at the moment, while his eyes were filled with a mad hatred. Xie Sen recognized him as Julos’ dad, Soria.

“Don’t move, or I’ll trigger the switch immediately.” Soria said darkly.

Xie Sen said, “You’re crazy. This is Gold Medal. There’s surveillance everywhere. You think you can get away with this?”

Soria, “I’m crazy! He killed Julos and framed Sotoko. I won’t let him get away with it. Do you think he’ll come to your rescue?”

Xie Sen instinctively felt something was wrong. If Soria wanted to get back at Maine through him, he would have done it long ago instead of warning him not to resist. “What do you want when he comes?”

Soria laughed nervously. “To have him die of course! Cut the crap. Now, contact him and tell him to come over.”

Xie Sen hesitated, and Soria pushed the weapon in his hand tighter against his waist. “This is the latest model of a Dispersion Particle Cannon. Don’t try to escape, or it will shoot through you in the next second. Of course, I don’t mind shooting you through the legs first, if you don’t do as you’re told.” He whispered, “If I didn’t want Maine to see me torture you from start to finish, I would have done it the first time I saw you. You were so insensitive to refuse Julos.”

Xie Sen cursed as he raised his hand. He looked around, while he blinked frantically, in the hopes that the security officer that was sitting in front of the monitors would pick up on his distress signal.

However the security officer in front of the monitors was busy contacting the maintenance department with a puzzled look on his face. “The surveillance footage for the outer perimeter of Zone 4-5 has suddenly disappeared. Can you go and see what’s going on?”

“Hurry up,” Soria urged as he sneered. “Don’t get any ideas. Do you think I’m going to let the security cameras get in my way?”

Xie Sen saw that he was finished. He thought of how the last time the parking lot surveillance was destroyed, so he guessed Soria had done something to it. He dialed the communicator, and thought fast about how to use the plants in the System to ensure his safety.

He had just pressed the communicator when a sudden muffled grunt came from behind him, and the object that was held against his waist fell away at the same time.

He turned around in surprise, and was greeted by a pair of large hands holding a wet towel. He saw a tall man with inch long hair, but before he could hold his breath, he lost consciousness.

The inch-haired man heard an inquiry coming from the communicator, so he quickly turned off Xie Sen’s bracelet and left it in a dead state.

“Hey, boss, this man did us a big favor by taking care of the surveillance.” A tall, thin, light gray-haired man kicked Soria, who had collapsed to the ground.

The inch-haired man, Sun, said in a deep voice, “Hurry up and take the man away. Someone will soon notice something is wrong.”

The light gray-haired man summoned his contract beast, a huge kangaroo beast, then carried Xie Sen to the kangaroo’s pouch and asked the inch-haired man. “Boss, what about him?”

“Take the weapon he’s holding, it’s good stuff. Just leave him alone.”

The two men took the kangaroo beast toward the Gold Medal gate, with a look of having finished nursing the kangaroo beast.

At lunchtime, the flying eagle beast, which had gone back to Zone 4-5 to collect its food, watched the two men’s movements from the sky, although Xie Sen’s face was covered with a handkerchief, so it didn’t get a good look.

It looked at the direction where its food was placed, hovered in the sky for a moment, then flew higher with a flap of its wings to follow the two.

On the other side, Maine didn’t hear Xie Sen’s reply. When he got the alert that Xie Sen’s bracelet was off, his expression instantly turned very ugly. He cut to the location interface and saw that Xie Sen’s position was moving towards the intercity transportation station. He jerked up and walked out of the room.