Huang Kingdom · Jinyang City · Johor District
Qiming School · Infirmary
On the hospital bed by the window sat a girl with a dazed expression.
She stared blankly outside, her eyes hollow, looking like someone freshly heartbroken and questioning life.
"You don't need to worry too much. The physical test is just a basic reference."
"Duh~"
"Though... someone like you, fainting before even running a hundred meters, in all my years of teaching—this is a first."
"Duh~"
"Failing doesn't mean you won't awaken..."
"So there's no need to worry..."
The teacher beside her kept rambling patiently, though the message had begun to loop: Don't worry.
The girl wasn't listening at all. She turned her head to glance at the "beast" beside her, which kept repeating "Duh."
Its name was Daibeili.
Did I… reincarnate in the womb?
I got younger?! And ended up in a world with beast tamers???
The moment she woke up, memories from her previous life rushed into her mind like someone had hit the play button.
Her last memory was working late into the night in her office, typing up a proposal…
Her vision blacked out—and then, nothing.
So I died from overwork?!
Dying so pathetically is bad enough—
But the worst part is, the money I spent over a decade saving... I didn't even get to use it! All. Gone!
I'm bleeding from the heart.
Still, at least her parents in her past life lived long and passed peacefully, and she had no kids—no attachments.
But what was even crazier was:
This world was nothing like the ordinary, 9-to-5 grind she had known.
This was a civilization built entirely around beast taming.
From the moment humans discovered they could form contracts with supernatural creatures, the beast-taming system had evolved over nearly three millennia.
All resources, power, and social class now revolved around one profession: Beast Tamer.
But not everyone could become one.
To be a beast tamer, you had to awaken your Beast Codex before the age of 16.
The Beast Codex wasn't just a contract vessel—it was a personal domain, a symbol of one's potential, growth, and even destiny.
Like how an athlete must at least be able to run—
Those who never awaken would remain at the very bottom of society, marginalized by the system, with no hope of rising.
But then something strange happened—
At the same time her past-life memories came flooding back, something else entered her mind.
Golden light shimmered.
A glowing book hovered silently in her spiritual consciousness.
Her current memories told her exactly what it was:A Beast Codex.
Reina tentatively turned to the teacher who hadn't stopped chirping:
> "Sir... I think I may have awakened on my own."
> "Huh?" The teacher froze. "Self-awakening? The last student in our school to do that was... 50 years ago, I think? She..."
He kept talking to himself.
Then added, "But don't worry! Even if you don't awaken on your own, external magnetic stimulation works too... Though the chances are—"
Completely missing the point.
Reina stared at the glowing book floating silently in her mind—visible only to its owner.
No mistake—
It was indeed a Beast Codex.
"Sir, I… I really think I awakened on my own," Reina repeated.
"....."
"....."
"....."
The air fell silent.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
The teacher stared at her for three seconds. Then, without saying a word, stood up and walked toward the medicine cabinet.
"Let me get you some meds. Just rest for now."
Two steps later, he muttered under his breath: "Poor kid... must be hallucinating from the fever."
"Duh~"
Reina: "..."
————————
Being "officially" sent home by the school, well...
Even if it was due to possible brain damage from fever,
Reina didn't mind one bit.
After all, being allowed to skip school—with a medical certificate, no less—was something she'd dreamed of in her past life!
The moment she got home, before the door even fully creaked open, she heard a voice from inside—exactly like her old life:
"Why are you back? School's not over yet."
She froze.
Then instinctively looked up—at the oh-so-familiar face in the house.
It really was exactly the same.
Her brain short-circuited.
One half wanted to cry and yell "Mom! I'm back! Wahhh!", overcome with emotion.
The other half calmly remembered:
She'd lived with these people for 15 years.
Mom made breakfast, nagged about dinner, and washed her long johns every winter.
So she stood there frozen at the doorway, wearing a strange expression that said:
"Am I supposed to cry? But that'd be too fake..."
"What's with that weird face? Fever fried your brain?"
…Forget it.
Reina got straight to the point:
"Mom, I think I awakened on my own."
"Right, now come help me cut the vegetables."
Mom clearly didn't believe her.
Reina couldn't be bothered to argue.
She rolled up her sleeves, stood in the middle of the kitchen, and began forming hand seals.
The moment the seal was complete, the air pulsed subtly.
A faint glow surrounded her.
No beast had appeared, but the unique energy of an awakened one was unmistakable.
Her mom glanced at her, still holding the knife mid-slice.
"Whoa, that's actually pretty cool."
Reina puffed up like a proud kitten, chest out, beaming "Praise me!"
But the next words—
"That just means you can't slack off. Cut the carrots. Since you're awakened, your cuts should be straighter than before, right?"
Reina: "..."
Her dignity was diced and tossed into the carrot bowl within five minutes.
She had thought her "awakening" would stir up a storm at home.
Instead, her mom didn't even blink.
Not even an "Oh?"
She was instantly told to chop vegetables.
For a moment, Reina doubted whether awakening really meant much to adults.
Until the next morning.
Just like usual, she stepped into the kitchen to help, bored, and began forming seals again.
Mom, who was scrambling eggs, suddenly froze for two seconds.
Then she whipped her head around.
She stared at the spiritual glow forming in Reina's hands, pupils shrinking with visible shock.
Her expression shifted—from confusion to full-on shock.
Sizzling sounds came from the pan.
"...That's not special effects?!"
A second later, the scent of burnt food filled the kitchen.
The eggs were totally ruined.
——————
Next day
Neural Domain Testing Room
"Duh~"
Daibeili lightly waved her tiny hand, and a gentle glow poured from the ceiling, bathing the entire room in a warm light.
Daibeili, a Fairy-type contracted beast, was soft and small, pink all over—its appearance like a lightly puffed marshmallow.
She was a specially bred Fairy-type beast by the Beast Tamer Center, designed specifically for assisting in medical and psychological treatment.
That's why she could often be seen both in the school infirmary and the beast centers.
Reina stood at the center of the testing platform as a holographic screen slowly lit up in front of her, accompanied by the machine's startup beeps—
"Beep—Beep—"
Next to the machine stood a researcher wearing round glasses.
"Please stand in the center of the platform. Relax. Try not to think too much."
"Can I think about what to eat for lunch?"
"...Sure. Just not in too much detail."
With that, he pressed the power switch.
The machine whirred to life.
A soft blue light scanned slowly from the top of Reina's head to the tips of her toes. It paused briefly behind her head—then gave a "ding," and the entire system turned green.
"Congratulations. Awakening was a complete success."
The researcher stood and handed her a printed certificate of awakening.
"Thanks."
"Make sure to rest more these days. No late nights. Avoid processed food."
"Also, after forming a contract with your beast, don't forget to register at the Beast Management Center."
——————
Once Reina got home, she immediately went to her room, opened her computer, and started searching for information.
In this world, Beast Tamer was the mainstream profession. Choosing the right beast was obviously important—after all, some people could only form a contract with one beast their entire life.
Beast Tamers were ranked from F all the way up to SSS.
The most basic F-rank Beast Tamer only needed to awaken their neural domain by age 16 and form a contract with one beast to qualify for certification at the Beast Center.
To advance to E-rank, one must complete a mission issued by a certified commissioner from the Beast Tamer Union. Only after successful completion would the level officially upgrade.
Of course, some people could advance by contracting a single, powerful beast—but as the levels increased, the difficulty rose as well.
To rise to higher tiers, it wasn't enough to just have more beasts—you also needed to complete increasingly difficult tasks.
That meant those who made it to the upper ranks generally had more highly developed neural domains.
Reina scrolled through the forums. As expected, the entire feed was beast-tamer related:
[After contracting a Thunderstripe Mink, I haven't slept in three days. Is that normal?]
[Help—my beast has set the dorm on fire twice practicing its skill.]
[Failed your awakening? Here's how I made my comeback.]
[Did the school hunk hit on me because my beast is OP?!]
Her eyes paused on the second-to-last one:
[Failed your awakening? Here's how I made my comeback.]
Seriously? You think you're some kind of novel protagonist?
Still, curiosity got the better of her. Reina clicked in, wondering if this person was also reborn like her, and awakened afterward.
The poster sounded super convincing, claiming he had delayed neural development and showed no beast-wave activity even after turning 16.
Then, one day while scrolling through short videos, he saw a "scientific research program" testing a drug. He spent 500 beast coins on a trial bottle of something called "Neural Domain Activator Drink Z · Improved Version."
The usage instructions were laughably "professional":
"Drink 5ml on an empty stomach during a full moon. Then wear a tin foil hat and stare at the moon for 8 hours.
During this time, you may experience brief twitching, spinning hallucinations, and hear the whispers of beasts—these are normal signs of neural synchronization. Don't panic!"
"I shouted 'I forge a contract with thee!' at a magazine cover of a beast... and actually heard it roar back at me. That's when I knew—I had awakened."
The comment section was in chaos:
[Bro, what you awakened was probably a delusion]
[I drank it and had diarrhea for three days. Almost got hospitalized. You owe me money.]
[It's fine to get scammed, but don't drag us down with you]
[Honestly... I bought one too. Waiting for results now (shaking)]
[LMAO not the tinfoil hat—you trying to block alien brainwaves or something?]
Reina scrolled through the comments, rolling her eyes.
It was obviously a scam, and yet so many people were asking where to buy it, how to use it, whether it worked...
But she got it.
The gap between Beast Tamers and regular people had long become an invisible canyon.
Even knowing there was a 99.9999999% chance of being scammed, some people would still gamble everything on that one-in-a-million shot.
Because that slim hope… might actually change your fate.
Even just a little.