"Dad, I'm heading back now!"
"Be careful on your way!"
"Goodbye, Uncle Sun!"
On the way, his father got into the driver's car. After saying his goodbyes to his father and the driver, Uncle Sun, Shen Fei started walking home.
The game was set to descend in just over a week, but he had given the people he'd borrowed money from a six-month deadline. This gave him some breathing room, just in case they were driven to desperation and did something rash ahead of time.
However, because of Uncle Yi's earlier behavior, he still told his father to be extra careful.
"Alright, head on back!" Father Shen smiled faintly and waved for Shen Fei to leave.
"Chairman Shen, the young master has really matured!" the driver, Uncle Sun, suddenly remarked. He was about the same age as Father Shen and had been with him since they were young, making him Father Shen's most trusted confidant.
"Yeah, he's grown up! He's been quite serious lately!" Father Shen said. "How's that boy of yours doing?" he asked casually.
"He's gone off the grid... I asked around. His friends said he was running bets in some game, lost everything, and has been on the run ever since..." Uncle Sun's mood soured at the mention of his son.
He knew his son loved to play games. Since Shen Fei also played games, he hadn't been against his son's hobby before. But Shen Fei had turned over a new leaf in the last half-month. He had even hoped his son would take a page out of Shen Fei's book. After all, the two of them used to get along and play together well. Moreover, his son was close to the Shen Family, and he himself had gone through thick and thin with Father Shen back in the day, forging a life-and-death bond.
But Uncle Sun never expected his son would dare to act as a bookie in a game. And he ended up losing big... The amount wasn't small, either. Thankfully, it was an unsanctioned operation run on an online forum, so he was able to slip away before things got worse. Otherwise, he would've had to start making arrangements to sell his house...
***
Tower-Carrying Beast!
After returning home and telling his mother he was going to rest, Shen Fei went back to his room and logged into the game again.
Sleep? Who needs sleep! Time to keep spending!
He resumed the "pet" spending spree he had paused earlier.
Since Tower-Carrying Beasts were a new feature, the number one spot on the Tower-Carrying Beast leaderboard was currently held by a two-headed sheep, a Sixth-Tier Demon Beast. The names Shen Fei recognized, like "Taiyi Zhenren" and "Immortal Emperor llllllll8," were not on the Tower-Carrying Beast leaderboard.
Clearly, no one had gotten around to dealing with pets yet.
But now, Shen Fei was about to.
Like in many other games, pets in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* were hatched from pet eggs. There were many ways to obtain these eggs. You got one for the daily sign-in. They could also be earned by completing daily quests. Pet eggs could also be a potential reward after defending against a wave of monsters.
But none of these methods suited Shen Fei. He bought them directly from the shop!
Pet eggs didn't have a quality rating; you just had to mindlessly open them. Whether you got a Mortal Beast, a Demon Beast, an Immortal Beast, or a Divine Beast was all down to luck. The better the quality, the lower the drop rate.
"A ten-pull guarantees a Fierce Beast!"
"A hundred-pull guarantees an Exotic Beast!"
"A thousand-pull guarantees a Demon Beast!"
Like most games, the pet system in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* had a pity system.
Without a second thought, Shen Fei spent 50 million Gold Coins to buy nothing but pet eggs. Instantly, his backpack was stuffed full of them. Each slot was stacked with 9,999 pet eggs...
A million-pull guarantees a Divine Beast, so what about a ten-million-pull?
A single pet egg cost 5 Gold Coins from the shop. Shen Fei had spent 50 million in one go, purchasing ten million pet eggs.
Open!
Without another word, after buying the pet eggs, he started opening them all.
[DING!]
[You have obtained Mortal Beast 'Rolling Bull' ×6,341!]
[DING!]
[You have obtained Immortal Beast 'White Feathered Crane' ×217!]
[DING!]
[You have obtained Demon Beast 'Six-tailed Fox' ×891!]
[DING!]
[You have obtained Divine Beast 'Black Phoenix' ×4!]
As Shen Fei clicked, his system channel was instantly flooded with notifications. Even his computer lagged for a good while. The massive wall of text scrolled for a full ten minutes before it finally stopped.
He had bought ten million pet eggs in one go, but there were only just over five thousand pet templates in *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*. As a result, he obtained hundreds or even thousands of many pets in an instant. He even acquired 13 different Divine Beasts of the highest grade all at once.
A million-pull guaranteed a Divine Beast. And he had just done a ten-million-pull. With over a dozen Divine Beasts in hand, he could take his time choosing!
[DING!]
[Congratulations to player Skyrocketing for completing a ten-million-pull and unlocking a hidden reward: the game's only Tower-Carrying Holy Beast—"Black Tortoise"!]
Just as Shen Fei was wondering which Divine Beast to choose, a game-wide announcement appeared.
The only one? A Holy Beast? A Black Tortoise?
Shen Fei's eyes lit up as he read the new announcement. He never expected that above the "Divine Beast" level, there was a hidden, unique Rank of Tower-Carrying Beast—the Holy Beast. And what's more, this Holy Beast was a Great Xuanwu, born to carry mountains on its back. After all, in all sorts of myths and legends, it's always a turtle-like creature that carries towers, steles, mountains, or even cities...
SWISH!
He immediately clicked on the most brilliantly glowing item in his inventory.
Instantly, a majestic and imposing creature with fearsome horns, the head of a dragon, and the body of a turtle appeared in the game next to his Tower Master avatar...
[Name: Black Tortoise]
[Rank: Holy Beast (Unique)]
[Level: First Tier, Stage One (0/1,000)]
[HP: 5,000]
[Attack Power: 250–500]
[Skills: None (Activates with level ups)]
The Black Tortoise's Attributes were displayed before Shen Fei.
This one requires experience from killing monsters to level up, just like Crystals... I can think of it as a Defense Tower with special abilities! But this Defense Power is insane!
He marveled at the fact that the First Tier Black Tortoise already had 5,000 HP. That was higher than the Durability of some Ninth Tier Defense Towers.
After reviewing the Black Tortoise's Attributes, Shen Fei waved his hand grandly and began purchasing items from the shop again.
"Buy Tower-Carrying Beast Experience Pills!"
"Buy Tower-Carrying Beast Talent Refining Pills!"
"Buy Tower-Carrying Beast Skill Upgrade Books!"
"Buy Tower-Carrying Beast Enhancement Pills!"
Another 50 million Gold Coins went down the drain as he bought a huge quantity of items needed to upgrade his Tower-Carrying Beast. The Attributes of a First Tier Tower-Carrying Beast were already this powerful; he was eager to see the stats of a Full-Tier Black Tortoise!
SHING!
SHING!
SHING!
Soon, as Shen Fei worked, the Black Tortoise in the game began to shimmer with all sorts of lights.
He refined the newborn Black Tortoise's Talent from "Ordinary" to "Perfect."
Then, after using tens of millions worth of Tower-Carrying Beast Experience Pills, the Black Tortoise's level shot straight to Tenth Tier MAX.
Finally, the Black Tortoise was also Enhanced to the max value of +10.
With its level, Talent, and Enhancement raised, the nine super skills the Black Tortoise had activated were all boosted to their max, Ninth-Tier level.
Fueled by a massive amount of Krypton Gold, the Holy Beast, which would have normally taken over half a year to raise, instantly reached its final form...
[Name: Black Tortoise (+10)]
[Rank: Holy Beast (Unique)]
[Level: Tenth Tier]
[HP: 170,000,000]
[Attack Power: 3,857,499–9,999,999]
[Skills: Cloud Riding, Water Manipulation, Carrying Mountain, Tower-Carrying, Defense Blessing, Rebound Aura, Heaven-Splitting Claw, Profound Water Arrow...]
Shen Fei nodded repeatedly as he looked at the Black Tortoise's new attribute panel.
With that much HP and that much Attack Power, he felt the Black Tortoise alone could match a hundred Tenth Tier Defense Towers. With the Black Tortoise complete, his Combat Power increased by another twenty million. One super Tower-Carrying Beast had pushed his total Combat Power to one hundred and twenty million.
The Black Tortoise's most important skills are Cloud Riding, Water Manipulation, and Carrying Mountain... Shen Fei mused, looking at the Black Tortoise's ten max-level skills.
The "Cloud Riding" skill allowed the Black Tortoise to fly directly in the air.
The "Water Manipulation" skill allowed it to move freely through any liquid.
The "Carrying Mountain" skill allowed it to carry many things on its back...
Shen Fei couldn't help but smile as he glanced at the full-screen announcements that had exploded across the server because of his newly acquired "Black Tortoise."
Because he had opened ten million pet eggs in one go, the pet leaderboard was now his domain. The top spot was his Black Tortoise, with a Combat Power of 20 million. Meanwhile, the second through ninety-ninth spots were all occupied by the other, unleveled pets he had just hatched. His Divine Beasts took places 2 through 14, and his Immortal Beasts filled out the ranks from 15 to 100.
He alone had dominated the entire leaderboard!
Ignoring the flood of compliments scrolling by in the server-wide chat, Shen Fei quickly turned his attention to another feature—the Homestead.