“Hahaha! Kid, from today on we’re in the same boat. Together we’ll make Stormveil even greater!”Draven laughed heartily, clapping Cole on the shoulder a few times before telling Kirk to take him to pick up the basic membership kit—badge, Pip-Boy app download, the works.On the way, Cole flipped through the Stormveil handbook on his wrist.“Hey, senior, you’re Level 3, so you should be in the real leadership tier, right? These files don’t list any special perks for core members above Level 2… what’s the actual deal?”Kirk gave a mysterious smirk.“You hit the nail on the head. On paper, our benefits look almost the same as yours, but there’s one ultimate privilege you Level 2s don’t get.”He leaned in and whispered, “Every three months, true core members get a solo entry quota into the stabilized Phantom Realm zone—Floating Cloud Sea, accessed through the Floating Cloud Bridge.”Most rifts in the world pop up randomly, but a few have been artificially locked down and controlled. Anyon

Looking at the long string of zeros in his bank account—three million dollars straight—Cole’s heart raced with excitement.With that kind of money, if he were just an ordinary person, it would last him a lifetime of comfort.He’d originally made a whole list: new clothes, a new phone, finally taking Cherry to the amusement park she’d been begging to visit… But the moment he thought about the terrifying costs of evolving phantom beasts, those three million suddenly felt like pocket change.“Set aside a hundred grand for emergencies and to finally live a little. Everything else goes straight into beast cultivation.”After a moment’s hesitation, Cole made up his mind.A hundred thousand was more than enough to bump their quality of life up several notches. All the plans on his list were now doable: a better Pip-Boy, a bigger apartment, and most importantly, making sure Cherry got to eat her favorite foods every single day.He could even buy some awakening-aid potions for her. Sooner or l

Glowbug clearly sensed the disdain rolling off Kirk. It buzzed its wings in irritation, the low thrum sounding almost like a growl as it glared at the older man.Cole just gave a helpless chuckle at Kirk’s “you’ve lost your damn mind” expression. He fed the last pinch of the custom blend to Glowbug, calming it down, then wiped his hands and shrugged.“Senior Kirk, I know Glimmer Beetle’s bloodline is trash-tier in most people’s eyes.” Cole spoke frankly. “But for me right now, it’s the most realistic choice. The Alligator-Armored Tiger has way higher potential, sure, but it’s also a money black hole. Feeding and evolving that thing costs several times more than Glowbug. The ten-million prize package looks huge on paper, but if I dumped it all on the tiger, it wouldn’t even be close to enough.”Kirk fell silent for a long moment. Finally he sighed, tone careful. “I forgot your… financial situation is a bit different. If that’s the case, I’d honestly recommend dropping the dragon-lineag

Inside the Beast Space, faint starlight began to drift from Glowbug’s body. Its already striking silver carapace now looked almost dreamlike, bathed in a soft, ethereal glow.Cole could feel it—an energy surge far greater than anything before was raging through the little beetle, tearing it apart and rebuilding it from the ground up.An hour crawled by.When the light finally settled, Glowbug hadn’t grown bigger. It had shrunk.First to the size of a basketball, then down to barely the length of a hand—small, exquisite, almost like living jewelry.Yet something was off. Cole had expected obvious draconic traits—horns, wings, the works. Instead, the only change was a scattering of star-like specks across its shell.The energy inside it gradually calmed.Did the dragon transformation fail?【Evolution Complete!】【Glimmer Beetle has successfully evolved into: ???】【Bloodline Tier: 3】【Level: 0】【Attributes: Wind / Light】【Race: Dragon】【Skills Updated: Silver Armor (Passive), ??? (Transfo

Cole floated in a boundless void.Streams of starlight and fractured shards of light drifted around him.Where… was this?The silence was oppressive. He could hear his own heartbeat—and the soft, familiar buzz of Glowbug’s wings.So it was here too?A dream.Just a lucid dream. He’d had plenty as a kid.Calm again, Cole focused ahead.Not far away hovered an enormous cocoon of light, wrapped in delicate silver threads that glimmered with faint starlight.Inside the cocoon, curled like a sleeping infant, was an adult woman—curves graceful even in repose. A pair of small, elegant dragon horns rose from her forehead.A dragon maiden.The sight didn’t feel foreign at all.Not because he’d seen her before, but because of a deep, instinctive sense of kinship—like she, Glowbug, and Cole himself were bound by the same blood.“Who…?”A soft, bewildered murmur echoed somewhere impossibly far away, tinged with longing.“So warm… Why does my dragon blood burn so fiercely inside him…?”…“Ding. Co