Chapter 1

“Beast cores, beast cores… Dig, dig, dig!”

In Planet F268’s Moonfall Forest, a girl in black combat gear stood atop the head of a mountain-sized mutated beast by a shimmering pool of water.

In her hand, blue lightning condensed into a 6.5-foot-long lightning blade.

Sparks crackled as she drove it cleanly into the beast’s skull.

“Fourth-ranked beast core, secured!

“I struck it rich!

“Go, go, go! Move faster, useless hands. One more fourth-ranked beast core, and I can go back and claim nine gorgeous husbands.”

As she spoke, she jumped off the beast’s head.

The blade flashed again, and the massive fangs of the mutated Red-Fang Beast hit the ground.

Lara had transmigrated here five years ago.

She still remembered it clearly. That summer after her freshman year, she returned to her hometown to visit her grandmother’s grave.

On the way down the mountain, she slipped.

When she got back up, the world had changed, and a winged pig lunged straight at her.

She was lucky. A hunter squad happened to be nearby and was hunting mutated beasts.

They saved her and even took her back to the city.

Only then did she realize she had transmigrated.

She had arrived at an interstellar empire filled with beastkin.

As a human from Earth with no abilities and standing among towering beastkin, she felt no joy at all.

All she felt was confusion, helplessness, weakness, and fear.

Right after arriving, Lara wanted to smash her head against a wall to see if she could go back.

Before she could do that, she heard something else.

Apparently, females here received exceptional treatment.

There were many males and very few females in the interstellar era. As a result, females were cherished.

The Imperial Government provided villas and a monthly living allowance. Most importantly, the empire issued husbands.

If a female awakened as an esper, once she turned twenty-three, the Beast God System would assign her nine partners at once.

Matching occurred every two years.

There was no limit to the number of matchings.

No limit meant that as long as she could handle them, she could have countless husbands.

Countless husbands. Okay. Respect.

Lara had never dared to dream that big.

She was not greedy, after all.

Also, she did not need that many partners.

Nine partners were perfect.

With her small frame, she could not manage more anyway.

So, she had to awaken. She had to!

The Interstellar Association’s Esper Awakening Office distributed one Sacred Tree seed to every interstellar citizen for free.

The day after finishing her registration, Lara went to the government office and received one.

They said the Sacred Tree was a companion tree of the Beast God living in the Divine Realm.

The beastkin who consumed its seed had a sixty percent chance of awakening.

Those who awakened were called espers and lived 800 to 1,200 years.

Those who failed were classified as sub-beastkin and lived only 120 years.

Lara was lucky.

Within a month of consuming the seed, she awakened.

She even awakened lightning and water abilities. She had gained dual abilities.

The day after her awakening, the Imperial Government relocated her from the empire’s fringe, Planet S1231, to Planet F268.

Originally, she thought she could rely on the subsidies provided by the Imperial Government and slowly raise her rank. Then, she could wait until she turned 23 for the empire to assign her her nine husbands.

She had planned to live every day in a government-issued villa, spending government-issued star credits and watching the handsome partners matched by the Beast God System dance for her. It could have been her dream life.

But after arriving on Planet F268, Lara heard other female espers say that low-ranked females could only match with low-ranked espers.

An esper’s appearance changed as their rank increased. The higher the rank, the better the physique and looks.

Some low-ranked male espers from certain races were simply hard to look at.

Lara cared about looks. She could tolerate being poor, but she could not tolerate ugly husbands.

So, she had to work hard to raise her rank before the match.

If an esper wanted to advance, they had to absorb beast core energy from mutated beasts or insectoids.

Female espers in the Interstellar Empire all had family resources to support their training.

As an outsider, Lara had nothing.

At first, she wanted to team up with other espers to hunt mutated beasts, but no one was willing to do it. After all, they saw that she had no family backing and had just awakened.

With no other choice, she went alone into forests filled with mutated beasts, doing her best to kill them and obtain beast cores.

She was afraid at first, but thinking about ending up with nine ugly husbands motivated her, and she was no longer frightened.

Over the course of five years, she was nearly eaten several times by mutated beasts and almost died from severe injuries.

Thankfully, she made it through.

Once she found one more fourth-ranked beast core and returned, she would be able to break through the fourth rank smoothly. A fourth-ranked female esper could match with fifth-ranked, sixth-ranked, or even seventh-ranked male espers.

She had once seen a seventh-ranked esper.

That face… Tsk.

She could not find the words to describe him.

It almost knocked every thought out of her head.

Just imagining being at home, with nine gorgeous men surrounding her, cajoling her to eat and sleep and even singing and dancing for her, filled her with joy.

Boom!

A loud explosion snapped Lara out of her thoughts.

A massive energy fluctuation shook her crappy old hover vehicle violently in midair before it plunged straight toward the ground.

In the next second, a huge water sphere wrapped around the hover vehicle and lowered it safely to the ground.

Lara got out of the vehicle without even checking its condition.

A violent beast roar came from deep within the forest.

Then, a blond man ran out. He was too far away, and he was covered in blood. She could not see his face clearly.

Her gaze fell on the fire-breathing mutated beast behind him.

The beast looked somewhat like a rhinoceros from Earth, but it was over twice as large. One horn glowed red as flames poured continuously from its mouth.

Wherever it passed, trees and vines instantly turned into a sea of fire.

This was a fourth-ranked mutated beast.

Lara’s eyes lit up instantly.

She had just been thinking about finding another fourth-ranked beast, and it had delivered itself into her waiting arms.

Without any hesitation, Lara charged forward.

The blond man, who was barely holding on, looked at her in disbelief.

‘A female?’ he thought.

“Get—”

Before he could finish, a massive blue water sphere filled with violent lightning slammed into the beast.

When the water sphere hit it, the lightning split into countless thin blades and pierced the beast’s body.

“Roar!”

The beast let out a distressed roar that shook the ground.

The lightning condensed into a giant blade in Lara’s hand as she rode a column of water and lunged toward the beast’s head.

Five seconds, that was all it took!

In just five seconds, the beast, which was over twice the size of a rhinoceros, was beheaded and crashed to the ground.

Luke Gold stared blankly at the petite female standing in front of the beast’s head.

He had never seen such a ferocious female before.

“You—”

Just as he was about to speak, Lara extracted the beast core with swift movements.

She skinned and dismantled it next. She moved so fast and swiftly that it left him speechless.

Lara stored the beast core and placed the remaining hide, bones, and meat into her dimensional preservation ring.

The beast core was enough for her. The remaining materials would sell for another 100 thousand star credits.

Today was truly her lucky day!

After tidying everything up in a good mood, Lara turned to look at the blond man who had collapsed nearby.

She walked over and saw that he was not moving. She frowned and nudged his leg with her foot.

“Are you okay? Do you need help?”

He was covered in blood, with one arm hanging at an unnatural angle.

His eyelids trembled as he slowly opened his eyes. He raised his uninjured arm, revealing a third-ranked beast core in his palm.

“Please, save me.”

This one knew what he was doing.

Lara immediately took the beast core, then quickly pulled out some medicine from her spatial ring and fed it to him.

“This is the best I can do for now. Hold on. I will fix the vehicle and take you to the city hospital.”

She did not know how he had ended up like this.

But she had taken his payment, so she had to save him in return.

Fixing vehicles was no big deal for her.

The battered hover vehicle was quickly repaired.

Lara lifted him into the vehicle and drove away from Moonfall Forest at full speed.