Chapter 51 - Captain Doofus’ Origin Story

In the Demon Cat Forest, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus were unaware of the situation outside, but they had already predicted that they had re-entered the Heavenly Familiar List! If they couldn’t reach the top of the Heavenly Familiar Rankings, Lu Ran vowed to join Captain Doofus in trashing the rankings someday.

"Not only are the resources trash, but the crystal coin reward is low too." Lu Ran sighed as he collected the reward.

A perfect run only let Lu Ran earn back the entry fee. Life wasn’t easy, so Lu Ran decided not to return to Limitless City immediately and to instead earn some more money. After clearing the secret realm, the challenger could stay until the time limit expired.

"Captain Doofus, let's collect more resources," Lu Ran suggested.

Since he had plenty of time, Lu Ran felt he could still salvage something from this trip.

Woof~!

Captain Doofus’ tail perked up. It wanted to eat the Woodscale fruits!

"Ok, I’ll go pick some for you."

Besides gathering some resources, Lu Ran actually had another goal in mind. It was to check out the tent he found the first time in the secret realm. It was possible that secret realms had things like secret missions, but he had never looked into it.

Now that they were invincible in the Demon Cat Forest, it was worth searching for more clues.

***

A few hours later, Lu Ran and Captain Doofus emerged from the secret realm and returned to their private room. Lu Ran appeared tired. Captain Doofus did, too, at first but was suddenly rejuvenated.

Lu Ran had a decent physique, largely due to Captain Doofus taking him on walks. It was pretty buff even before it evolved, so walking became a real ordeal.

"What a pity."

After some more exploration, Lu Ran felt a little dispirited. It turned out that he was too optimistic. The SSS score really was perfect. They stopped just short of digging up the place and still couldn't trigger a hidden quest.

"I can't believe it."

Lu Ran refused to give up.

He attributed it to the secret realm’s rank being too low. Perhaps, when he entered other secret realms with bigger maps, he could take the next step on his adventure.

Secret realms were built on top of each other. For example, the beginner secret realms he could challenge now might be included as part of higher-ranked secret realms. All secret realms were partial projections of another world, so there were naturally overlaps.

Woof, woof, woof!

Unlike Lu Ran, Captain Doofus didn't care about any hidden missions. After coming out, it looked at Lu Ran expectantly, wondering what its current spot on the Heavenly Familiar Rankings was. Last time it placed tenth, so it couldn’t be tenth again this time.

"Let me see..."

Lu Ran didn't need to go to Beastmaster Square when he could just open his communications. Sure enough, his few friends bombarded him with messages again.

[Surfing White Dragon: Holy shit! You’re my big bro!]

White Dragon was shocked.

Didn’t Lu Ran just finish wrapping up the Golden Hill incident? How did he become first on the Heavenly Familiar Rankings? What happened?

Lu Ran's growth speed was too frightening.

[Pig farmer: Uh...]

[Rain Dancing in the Wind: Boss! I had eyes but didn’t recognize Mt. Tai. Please help me! Are you single? We have recently hired a lot of hot singles at our cafe, and I can introduce you to all of them!]

Even Rain from the Cat Maid Cafe sent him a message this time.

Lu Ran laughed.

"First place! Take that!"

Captain Doofus curled its lips up in disdain.

It turns out that the Heavenly Familiar Ranking wasn’t all that.

"I don’t think you will keep that spot for long. A familiar could surpass you if it reaches level 10, obtains a trait, or awakens a new attribute."

Ruh?

Captain Doofus was offended.

"Moreover, the Heavenly Familiar Ranking is only based on a comprehensive evaluation of combat performance. Although it represents strength to a certain extent, it does not mean that the top of the list is the strongest. Don't be overconfident." Lu Ran lectured the dog.

Woof!

Captain Doofus showed a wise expression.

That doesn't matter. I’m number one. No one can look down on me.

"Fine, fine, you’re number one! There is more than half a month before the ranking is finalized. If we want to stay first, we must reach level 10 as soon as possible and obtain a trait.”

I don't know if we have enough time, though.

Lu Ran contemplated.

"Let's go to Cat Maid Cafe and gather some information to find out if there is a secret realm that can let you level up quickly."

***

Limitless City #3, Cat Maid Cafe.

Lu Ran was here once again. Manager Ying said it would collect the bounty on his behalf and give it to him here.

When Lu Ran opened the door, he saw a couple of young cat-eared maids chatting and giggling, but not Manager Ying.

"Welcome~!"

"I’m looking for Rain?”

The catmaids welcomed him as they saw him come in. Most people didn’t know Lu Ran, so the staff received him as an ordinary guest. Luckily, Rain was in the store. When she noticed Lu Ran, her eyes widened.

"No way! You actually came!?"

She had sent that message jokingly, but Lu Ran actually came to find a girlfriend?

"Do you know Rain? Then I'll have her serve you."

The other maids let Rain take over once they realized the two knew each other.

Rain put aside the broom and quickly ran over.

"Amazing! You’re number one! I didn’t know you had it in you," Rain whispered as she blushed.

"Fine, I'll keep my word. I'll secretly give you the rundown on all the single maids at the cafe. For free!"

Huh?

"What? No! I’m here to look for someone!" Lu Ran quickly explained, afraid that Rain had misunderstood him.

"Oh, you already have someone in mind!? Who is it?"

"Your Manager Ying, but that has nothing to do with your message. Is it here?"

Lu Ran's expression sank. This girl really wanted to introduce him to someone.

What a joke... Get in line.

There were so many cats and dogs in Green Sea City who wanted to introduce Lu Ran to their owners, especially since Lu Ran was very generous. When he went out on walks, he often dropped high-quality pet treats.

Those animals had even formed Lu Ran's Green Sea Beasty Fan Club!

"Huh?” Rain was a bit surprised.

Manager Ying? I’ve never even seen Manager Ying in person before! I only know it by name.

"No need to look for me. I’m right here."

At some point, a cat appeared on the bookshelf and blended in with the cats around the cafe without attracting attention. When Lu Ran heard that arrogant voice, he immediately smiled.

Rain stared at the talking cat in shock.

Crap! I just admitted to contacting a customer outside of work and intending to leak private employee information in front of the boss!

More importantly, I was going to give the info away for free! I’m screwed!

Ying glanced at Rain.

"Go back to work. Lu Ran, follow me, you little brat."

As soon as it finished speaking, it and Lu Ran vanished on the spot by teleporting away, surprising Rain.

Simultaneously, Lu Ran plopped on a sofa in the cafe’s VIP room.

"Manager Ying, next time you teleport, please give me a warning. It's frightening." Lu Ran bitterly smiled.

"Yeah, I’ll remember next time," Manager Ying snorted.

"Okay, the reward for arresting the necromancer is here. It's a total of 10,000 crystal coins."

"So much?” Lu Ran was amazed.

"It's okay. Catching a necromancer, even if it's just an apprentice, is much more profitable than challenging secret realms. After all, there aren’t many necromancers and anything rare is valuable."

Are you applying supply and demand to this?

Lu Ran mocked.

Manager Ying unexpectedly smirked.

"However, taking these crystal coins may not be easy for you."

What?

"What are you talking about?" Lu Ran's mouth twitched.

Do you want to keep it? Didn't you already agree to give it to me?

Although Lu Ran wouldn’t get upset even if it kept the money.

"Don't be nervous. I don't care about the 10,000 crystal coins. They are yours," Manager Ying said.

"It's just that I have some information you should be interested in, but it won’t be cheap."

"What information? I was actually planning on buying some."

"No rush. Let me give you some context. You found that husky, right?"

"Yeah...?" Lu Ran frowned.

This cat investigated me? And after a single night, it even dug up the fact that I adopted Captain Doofus?

"Your husky should be different from other dogs. For example, when it gets in a fight, it can go berserk and lose its mind while gaining immense strength. It is more ferocious and powerful than some large dogs, or even fighting dogs. It’s almost comparable to a wolf king, right?"

Lu Ran was speechless. How was this cat’s investigation so thorough?

"So, what information do you want to sell me?" Lu Ran inquired.

Manager Ying smiled

"You must have looked into the husky’s past yourself but couldn’t find anything. Aren't you curious how a husky can possibly possess the fighting power of a wolf king in that berserk state?"

"You know where it came from?"

Lu Ran stood up with a serious expression. What the cat had mentioned was indeed something he had investigated but with no results. Captain Doofus was gifted. Even Lu Ran could only explain it as a special bloodline trait or atavism. He didn’t know for sure, but he thought he would find the answer if he knew where Captain Doofus came from.

"Will you buy it?"

"Yes." Lu Ran gritted his teeth and decided.

Damn information dealer.

"Okay, I'll deduct 1,000 crystal coins from your reward. It wasn’t easy to get this information."

"Okay."

Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. He thought the cat would scalp him, but it seemed to have the basic ethics of an information dealer.

"Now, can you tell me about Captain Doofus’ past?"

"First of all, its genetics are indeed excellent. It’s not bred to be a pet. It was born into the wild in the northern tundra."

"I gathered as much. The guy's bloodline is very close to an Arctic wolf. This shouldn’t be all, right?"

"Of course not. This only explains why it appeared in Xia. Your parents were both biologists, so you should have heard of the name Yun Han."

Lu Ran was startled.

"Dr. Yun Han?"

He had an impression of this person. That person was allegedly some genius scientist. Even Lu Ran's parents admired him. When Lu Ran was a child, he often heard his parents mention him. Most importantly, that person seemed to be from Green Sea City.

"Yes, and he learned about the existence of beastmasters two years ago. Since then, he has been committed to his research, hoping to develop the most powerful familiar through biotechnology and genetic modification.

"He utilized his connections and rounded up a group of animals with good qualifications from all over the world. Your husky is one of them."

"You’re telling me that Captain Doofus is a lab animal?"

Lu Ran's expression was stern. He never thought that Captain Doofus was a subject of genetic modification.

"Then how did it end up on the streets? Shouldn't such an important specimen be under constant supervision?"

"Who told you that it’s important? Isn’t it possible that it wasn’t properly handled because it's a failure? Without your abilities, who would be able to tame a dog that often goes berserk? Obviously, it's not suitable for being a familiar.

"Yun Han's Green Sea Biological Research Institute had a major incident in which many experimental subjects escaped. Most of them have been recovered, but some inevitably slipped through the net."

After a moment, Lu Ran asked, "Is Dr. Yun Han still in Green Sea City now?"

"That was a long time ago. He is now in a different country. He joined the technologically advanced Eagle Federation with his research and has even started a dinosaur revival project. He shouldn’t have the time or attention to care about a failed experiment, so you can rest assured about keeping it."