Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 295 - 286: The Promise

The delay stretched on for a week, and still no news came.

The competition’s start date drew ever closer.

No news came from the front lines, nor from within the school. The higher-ups simply told the competitors to wait.

Gu Ming could only wait. During this time, he also made a trip back home.

After learning that his parents weren’t being excessively harassed by outside corporations, he returned to school with peace of mind to continue studying for the competition.

Just yesterday, Teacher Zhang had made a special trip to the international competition venue to investigate the situation for Gu Ming.

When Gu Ming got back to school, he reviewed some practice questions with Lu You before glancing at the system’s plot commentary for the day.

"Today’s forecast: torrential rain and dark clouds. The international competition venue remains flooded."

If Gu Ming were to scroll up the feed, he would see that in the system’s plot, every single day had been plagued by storms.

Sometimes it was a torrential downpour, other times a violent thunderstorm, and occasionally, it even snowed.

And every time the weather was mentioned, it would add that the international competition venue was submerged by floods, as if the entire city had been buried by the abnormal weather.

This was actually quite counterintuitive.

This year’s international competition was scheduled to be held in the Cloud Country, an island nation perpetually shrouded in colossal cloud formations.

It was true that it rained often in the Cloud Country, but the nation’s Beastmasters weren’t just for show.

Their Eight-star masters had Dragon Beasts capable of controlling the wind and rain, making it easy to manage the weather over tens of thousands of miles. There was no way they would let their own event venue be flooded by a storm.

Unless it was a Celestial Tribulation from a higher level of Power, but that was unlikely.

If a Celestial Tribulation had occurred, news would have surely gotten out. It wouldn’t be a complete surprise with no time to react.

All in all, Gu Ming didn’t believe they were incapable of handling the situation.

Besides, their country also had a Water Element Divine Beast presiding over it; the kind of cataclysmic rain described by the system, which flooded the entire land, shouldn’t be possible.

As for the actual news, there was no mention of torrential rain, only a pitch-black dome of energy.

It was so vast that it encompassed an area of nearly a hundred thousand miles, including the Capital where the competition venue was located.

After discussing it, the local teachers found the matter peculiar.

Very little news came from the scene. There were barely any photos online, only written descriptions.

It was hard to imagine how a country as large as the Cloud Country could suppress information so thoroughly, unless everyone there was dead.

The Cloud Country had been out of contact with the rest of the world for many days. The blackout began on the very night the international competition was set to open.

At that time, some contestants had already gone to the venue ahead of schedule to scout the area and acclimate.

But those like Gu Ming, whose families didn’t have the means, could only make their way to the Dragon Gate right on the day of the competition.

Fortunately, he was late and hadn’t been affected by the anomaly in the Cloud Country.

The currently oblivious Gu Ming could only contact Teacher Zhang to ask about his on-site investigation.

「Another day passed.」

Teacher Zhang finally reached the outer islands of the Cloud Country and sent back news from the scene.

"There really is a giant black dome. It’s so huge that even the clouds can’t hide its form."

"The Cloud Country officials lied. This black dome extends all the way to the nation’s borders. It’s clearly covering more than ninety percent of their entire country."

"This year’s international competition will probably be called off. Maybe you can start contacting university professors now to discuss the genius clause."

Teacher Zhang sent back three messages, making Gu Ming so anxious he couldn’t help but ask, "What about photos?"

It wasn’t that Teacher Zhang didn’t want to send a photo. But in his eyes, the giant black "lid" was so bizarre that the thought of taking out his phone to photograph it didn’t even cross his mind.

Teacher Zhang looked at his phone, then raised his head again to stare at the celestial anomaly in the distance, his mind jumping back and forth between taking a picture and just spacing out.

With great effort, he managed to bypass the mental shackle that had appeared in his mind and pressed the voice message button on his phone to say:

"There’s a huge problem with this dome. I can’t take a picture of it."

"Anyway, all you need to know is that the Cloud Country is finished. The competition can’t be held. They’ll either have to change the venue or cancel it altogether."

"Considering that geniuses from several countries went in early and haven’t come out, the higher-ups from every nation are probably about to be very busy. They won’t have time to organize it in another country."

After this analysis, Teacher Zhang’s thoughts cleared up a bit.

He shook his head. Ever since arriving on this island and looking at that black dome, his head had felt a bit heavy.

’If even I, a mere Three-star, feel this dizzy just facing this thing,’ he thought, ’I can’t imagine what it’s like for the contestants who went directly into the epicenter, or the people living on that land. Did they just pass out instantly?’

’Or are they fine, witnessing a completely different scene?’

Fear and curiosity warred in his mind, causing him to linger instead of leaving.

After a while, he spotted some major figures from his own country. Although the big shots didn’t know him, Teacher Zhang recognized them from TV and short videos, and his spirits lifted.

"I’ve already seen many Eight-star Level Beastmaster masters on this island. They’re preparing to organize the fourth investigation team to go inside."

"I’ll scout around a bit more and then leave. I’ll see what other information I can get."

The above were the last messages Teacher Zhang sent to Gu Ming on the day of his arrival.

At first, Gu Ming didn’t think much of it when Teacher Zhang went silent after sending the messages.

It was only after asking for an update several times that night and still receiving no reply the next day that he grew suspicious.

In the following days, he and Lu You waited for news together. He also asked the school and the Ruan Family to help look for information about Teacher Zhang.

「Several more days passed.」

Worry and anxiety constantly swirled in Gu Ming’s mind.

He stopped studying and no longer went to school.

The Ruan Family passed on an unconfirmed rumor: this year’s international competition was supposedly canceled for good. The national competition would be the final one, and Gu Ming’s title as its champion would make him the representative of the strongest high school students in the country.

Logically, he should have been ecstatic. Countless academies were extending olive branches to him, with terms he could pick and choose. He had achieved the perfect result his parents had always dreamed of, and it was the outcome Gu Ming himself was most satisfied with.

But, thinking about Teacher Zhang being missing, Gu Ming couldn’t bring himself to be happy.

Although Gu Ming and Teacher Zhang only had their high school memories together and were nowhere near as close as family, the companionship and guidance built up over the past half-year had earned the teacher a place in Gu Ming’s heart.

Lu You was just as upset. Without Teacher Zhang’s enthusiastic guidance, she would have had at least half the confidence and accomplishments she had now.

"Teacher... he should still be alive, right?" Lu You said to Gu Ming during a phone call on the last night of May.

Gu Ming was silent for a moment. As far as he knew, the news agencies had announced two hours earlier that the Cloud Country was now in a Different Space, and no more rescue teams would be sent in.

He also knew that the children of several imperial relatives and two grand-disciples of a Grand Beastmaster had entered the Cloud Country for training beforehand. Now that Great Zhou had given up, it meant that the upper echelons of Great Zhou had also accepted the situation, believing a rescue was impossible.

"Definitely. I believe he’s still alive," Gu Ming said firmly. "When we’re strong enough in the future, we’ll go and rescue him."

Lu You heard the unspoken meaning in his words, and her body swayed.

After a moment, she gripped her phone tightly and responded with a heavy "Mhm."

"Mhm! We’ll rescue Teacher Zhang together in the future!"