Virtual Idol in the Beast World: Five Clans Fight Over Me

Alex took a deep breath, holding it as he picked up the fluorescent tube from beside Gu Ning’s pillow and shined it on her injury.

Seeing the blood seeping from between the little female’s legs, Alex froze and leaned in for a closer look.

"..."

After a long moment, Alex slowly sat up straight, his eyes filled with worry and confusion.

His terminal flashed, and a message from Lanuo popped up:

[How is she? Any external injuries?]

Alex lowered his gaze to his blood-stained fingers and swallowed hard.

The little female’s symptoms didn’t look like an external injury, but why was she bleeding from... there? ’Could it be an internal injury?’

Alex stared at the blood spreading across the gray-white bedsheet, his heart sinking.

After a moment’s hesitation, he opened his chat with Lanuo and typed: [She’s injured. She’s not a Beast cub, she’s an adult female.]

Just as the word "female" left his fingertips, another message popped up on his terminal.

Alex’s fingers paused. He glanced at the sender’s name. After several days, Watson had finally replied.

Watson:

[I just got back from the reserve. Didn’t have my terminal.]

[Why the sudden questions about females? Didn’t you go to Zone 19?]

Alex closed his chat with Lanuo and opened the one with Watson:

[Teacher Watson, under what circumstances would a female’s genes not be entered into the gene bank?]

Watson replied quickly:

[Aside from the Sea Area and Sky Watch Point, all newborn Beastmen on the Beast Alliance side are entered into the gene bank. There are no exceptions whatsoever.]

Alex’s gaze fell upon the little female’s face.

He had vaguely considered the Sea Area and Sky Watch Point before, but without any concrete proof, he couldn’t draw any conclusions.

Now that Watson had mentioned them, his theories about Gu Ning’s identity resurfaced.

One thing was certain now: she was not a female from the Central Continent’s Beast Clans.

Alex brought his blood-stained fingers to his nose and sniffed. She carried no scent of any Beast Clan.

Before, her scent had been suppressed by that Dog Clan Mixed Breed, and her personal information stated she was from the Wolf Clan, so he had assumed she was a Wolf Clan female.

He had been blinded by his preconceived notions, deceived by her personal data.

Ever since he’d met her, she hadn’t shown a single characteristic of the Land Beast Clan.

If Gu Ning wasn’t a Land Beast Clan female, then she could only be a female from the Sea Area or Sky Watch Point.

This was not good.

The Sea Area Beastmen were proud and ferocious. They refused to join the Beast Alliance, were not under its jurisdiction, and did not have to obey its laws. Therefore, Beastmen born in the Sea Area were not entered into the gene bank. They rarely interacted with the Land Beast Clan, with most living on deep sea islands and the closest only inhabiting coastal areas.

Furthermore, females from the Sea Area were even rarer than those on land. On the rare occasion a Sea Area female came ashore, she would be protected by swarms of Sea Area Beastmen.

Gu Ning showed no characteristics or scent of a Sea Area Beastman.

Although Sea Area females were a rare sight, they were sometimes invited to the Central Green Area. When Alex was still by the Beast Mother’s side, he had seen one or two Sea Area females.

Gu Ning’s appearance and personality matched none of the characteristics of a Sea Area female.

That only left Sky Watch Point.

Sky Watch Point...

Alex’s expression grew more and more somber.

He asked Watson:

[Teacher Watson, have you ever seen a female from Sky Watch Point?]

Watson:

[A Heavenly Beast Clan female? I saw them twice when I was young, following my revered Beast Mother. That was almost forty years ago. Their females are delicate and timid, more fragile than flowers. The slightest illness could be fatal to them.]

[The last time I saw a Heavenly Beast Clan female, I heard the revered Beast Mother say that they had hardly any females left. It’s been decades since Sky Watch Point cut ties with us, so who knows how their females are doing now.]

[Those Heavenly Beast Clan members are evolving into emotionless monsters, and their females are getting weaker and weaker. They never should have messed with gene technology in the first place.]

[By the Beast Mother, we should follow the laws of nature.]

Alex could almost hear Watson’s sigh. His grip on Gu Ning’s wrist tightened for a second, and the boiling blood in his veins ran cold.

The sweet, metallic scent of blood lingering in the air became the little female’s death sentence.

’Is Gu Ning from the Heavenly Beast Clan?’

Alex’s heart filled with even deeper doubt.

If Gu Ning was a female from Sky Watch Point, how did she end up stranded in Zone 19?

A long, deep abyss and a No Man’s Land separated Sky Watch Point and the Central Continent, flanked by oceans on both sides. Due to conflicts over females years ago, the Heavenly Beast Clan and the Central Continent had little interaction.

One would only encounter them when going deep into the No Man’s Land.

Because they had tried to snatch females years ago, both the Land Beast Clan and Sea Area Beast Clan had an extremely poor opinion of them. Conflicts would erupt on sight.

These Heavenly Beast Clan members were physically powerful and formidable in combat, yet emotionally detached—the complete opposite of their clan’s females.

Alex stared at Gu Ning’s face, his thoughts a tangled mess.

Putting aside all other factors, Gu Ning did indeed fit the description of a Heavenly Beast Clan female.

Delicate, petite, prone to illness...

Seeing that Gu Ning was still bleeding, Alex pushed aside his other concerns and quickly told Seth and the others to find something to stop the bleeding.

After sending them the message, he also asked Watson about the symptoms of illness in Heavenly Beast Clan females.

Watson was brewing coffee.

He had just returned from the reserve and had a lot of materials to sort through.

Steam curled aromatically from the spout. Watson lifted the coffee pot and poured himself a fragrant cup.

As he came out of the break room with his coffee, his terminal buzzed incessantly with messages. Watson leisurely took two sips before opening the messages to check.

Seeing Alex’s string of questions, Watson sat down at his desk, placed his coffee down, and replied to Alex:

[What’s gotten into you lately, kid? Why the sudden interest in females? And Heavenly Beast Clan females, at that. Didn’t you take a mission from the Military Department to go to Zone 19? How’s the job going?]

After sending the message, Watson picked up his coffee and began flipping through the work notes he had written at the reserve while sipping it.

DING—

Watson glanced at another message that had just arrived from Alex:

[I found a female.]

[I think she’s from the Heavenly Beast Clan.]

Watson: "...?"

"TSS!"

The coffee spilled all over Watson’s lap.

Ignoring the need to wipe away the coffee stains, Watson replied:

[What nonsense are you spouting, you brat?]

After sending it, without waiting for Alex’s reply, he immediately tried to call him.

He knew Alex; the kid wasn’t the type to make baseless jokes.

The call was disconnected.

A message from Alex arrived immediately after:

[Sorry, Teacher Watson. She’s sleeping. It would wake her.]

Watson:

[Is it really a female? A Heavenly Beast Clan female?]

Alex:

[I can only confirm that she’s a female for now, but she fits your description of a Heavenly Beast Clan female.]

Watson could no longer sit still. Judging from the series of questions Alex had been asking, there really was a female with him.

Whether or not she was from the Heavenly Beast Clan remained to be verified.

As a diplomat with decades of experience, Watson was much calmer and more worldly than those young Beastmen. He wasn’t one to be easily shocked.

But no matter how much he had seen, this situation with Alex was a first.

Watson reread Alex’s messages from the very first inquiry to the most recent one. After he finished, he paced back and forth in his study for a while before choosing to trust Alex.

He sent a message to Alex:

[You have to protect this female. Regardless of whether she’s a Heavenly Beast Clan female or not, you must bring her back to the Central Green Area safely.]