The Doctor's Beast Tamer System: Apocalyptic Survival

Ch 1 Swing And Wasp

Bast clearly remembered a car running a red light and crushing his body.

Yet the very next second, instead of the Grim Reaper welcoming him, he opened his eyes only to find a thick wooden club swinging viciously right at his face.

WHOOSH!

"Die, you bastard!"

With pure survival instinct, Bast jerked backward. The wind from the swinging wooden club blew hard, practically caressing his nose.

'Hold on a second, what's going on? Didn't a car just obliterate my body? Why is it only my forehead throbbing in pain now?' Bast wondered in utter confusion.

Before he could even process his situation, his head tensed up—assaulted by a barrage of foreign memories. Fragments of memories that were... honestly, incredibly humiliating.

As a forty-year-old traditional medicine doctor with a flawless reputation in his past life, his current situation was a blatant insult.

This new body's original name was also Bast. The difference?

This version of him was twenty-four years old, his breath reeked of cheap wine, and—oh, here's the kicker—he just caught red-handed trying to drag his own little sister to the city to sell her off for gambling debts!

"Myra, wait! Take it easy! Put the wood down!" Bast yelled, throwing both hands up as the very club that just gave him a lumpy forehead kept swinging.

The disheveled girl standing before him—twenty-year-old Myra—looked entirely uninterested in negotiations. Despair and fury dyed her teary eyes red.

Her hands maintained a death grip on the thick wooden club she had picked up from god-knows-where on the edge of this forest, winding up for a second swing.

"Don't lie to me again! You said we were just going to gather firewood, but you're trying to sell me to the city, aren't you?! You piece of trash brother!" Myra screamed, her voice hoarse and trembling violently.

Bast swallowed hard and cursed internally once again. 'Seriously? Selling your own sister? What kind of coward's body did I just possess?'

"I... I suddenly came to my senses!" Bast tried to conjure a spontaneous excuse, slowly stepping backward. "Greedy controlled my brain earlier! I'm sane now! Really! I won't sell you!"

"Just die along with your shitty brain!" The girl lunged forward. Her horizontal swing this time looked genuinely lethal.

"This is insane; she actually intends to split my head open!"

Bast leaped back. However, a thick root tripped his foot, completely destroying his balance. He staggered backward. Right at the second his back was about to slam into the ground, his sharp eyes caught the silhouette of three silver, serrated leaves.

Silver Vein Leaf!

His medical instincts reacted faster than his fear. He knew perfectly well that the leaf's sap extract was a high-grade natural coagulant; it could instantly numb any deep wound and relieve inflammation. He absolutely couldn't crush such a precious plant!

Bast forcibly twisted his body mid-air. Instead of falling flat on his face like a foolish drunkard, he landed in an efficient roll to minimize injury, then instantly stood up with a sharp, calm gaze—the calculated reflex of a mature man.

Myra, fully prepared to swing her club, naturally froze. Her swing halted mid-air.

Her brother, who usually acted weak and would fall over from a mere gust of wind, suddenly looked surprisingly agile.

[Ding!]

[Target 'Myra' experiences awe. Reputation Points acquired: +0.5]

A transparent blue virtual screen suddenly flickered in front of Bast's dirt-smudged face.

Bast blinked. 'A system? A Reputation System?'

Thrilling news, but unfortunately, the euphoria in Bast's heart didn't even last two seconds.

Before he could even complain about that pathetic point value, the sound of furious footsteps approached once again. Apparently, Myra wanted to kill him much more than she wanted to harbor any awe.

"Don't pretend you're tough!" Myra roared through her tears, hoisting her wooden club high once more.

"Wait... Wait!" Bast still wanted to act agile, but tall grass snagged his foot, causing him to fall flat on his back instead.

This made it much easier for Myra to target his head, and her intention became crystal clear as her hands swung down faster.

"MYRA..."

At that exact moment, a thumb-sized forest wasp flew casually right in front of Bast's nose.

[Forest Wasp detected. Does the Host wish to tame it?]

Under the threat of a wooden club about to crush his skull, Bast only had one answer.

'Tame it! Tame anything that can save me from my sister!'

[Tamer System activated. Taming process initiated!]

Instantly, Bast felt a warmth in his head—a brief floating sensation, and then it was over.

[Taming complete]

Bast blinked, and the thumb-sized wasp that had just been flying casually suddenly shot forward like a bullet, slamming directly into the arm Myra used to swing the club.

"Aaakh!"

Myra shrieked loudly. The wooden club slipped from her grasp and hit the ground with a heavy thud.

She staggered backward, clutching her arm as it swelled red in mere seconds. Her tears now flowed from physical pain, not just fury.

Bast could finally breathe a sigh of relief. That wasp proved useful. He quickly stood up, dusting off his shabby clothes.

"Myra, listen! I'm truly sorry! I promise I won't repeat all the terrible things I did!" Bast said, using the most convincing tone he could muster.

The girl still sobbed, clutching her throbbing hand, glaring at him with a look composed half of hatred and half of disbelief. "You're a liar... You actually had the heart to sell your family..."

Bast winced. 'Damn it. I was a respectable doctor serving powerful people. Now? I'm at the absolute bottom of the human food chain thanks to the actions of this drunken bastard,' he complained internally.

"I know you don't believe me. My mind was completely messed up earlier. As an apology... I'll... um..." Bast pointed at Myra's swollen, reddened arm. "I'll treat that first."

Myra stepped back and snorted disdainfully. "Treat it with what? Spit?"

Ignoring his sister's mockery, Bast turned and walked quickly toward the spot where he had fallen earlier. He plucked the three Silver Vein Leaves he had managed to save.

Without hesitation, he popped the leaves into his mouth and chewed them to a pulp. The taste was exceptionally bitter, like bile, making his face scrunch up, but Bast endured it and spat the mashed leaves into his palm.

"Give me your hand," Bast ordered. This time, his tone turned calm yet firm—exuding the dominant aura of a senior doctor accustomed to handling stubborn patients.

Myra froze for a second. Her brother, who usually only had the weary gaze of a cowardly drunk, suddenly sported an intimidating glare.

And before she realized it, Bast had already grabbed her swollen arm.

"Ow! Let go—"

Bast immediately applied the mashed leaves directly over the red spot left by the wasp sting, holding it in place with a gentle yet steady pressure.

Myra squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for worse pain or possibly a deadly poison.

However, the opposite happened. A refreshing, cooling sensation slowly spread, penetrating her skin and instantly suppressing the agonizing throb.

In less than ten seconds, the pain completely vanished, leaving behind an incredibly relieving numbness.

The girl opened her eyes in amazement, glancing back and forth between her slowly shrinking swollen arm and Bast's face.

"This... the pain is gone? What did you put on it?" Myra murmured, her tone losing much of its angry thorns.

"Just a medicinal herb I happened to know the effects of," Bast replied casually, lightly tapping his sister's arm to keep the poultice in place.

[Ding!]

[Target 'Myra' feels amazed. Reputation Points acquired: +1.0]

Seeing the notification and noticing the hostility in his sister's eyes beginning to fade thanks to the tangible proof of his medical treatment, Bast smiled faintly.

This was the perfect opportunity to earn more points by accomplishing another impressive task.

"Well, since your wound is doing better... wait here a moment and take a seat," Bast coaxed, pointing to a large boulder nearby.

"As further proof that I'm sane, I'll find you a present from inside the forest. Don't go anywhere." Besides needing the gift as a bribe—so Myra wouldn't keep trying to kill him—Bast simply wanted to slip away to process everything that had just happened in his new life.

Still a bit dazed by her miraculously vanished pain, Myra slowly backed up and sat on the rock.

Holding the mashed leaves against her arm, she stared at her brother's back as he walked to the edge of the forest, her feelings completely conflicted.

Once he felt he was out of Myra's sight, Bast stopped in his tracks.

'System?'

The system interface lit up, displaying the list of beasts he had just tamed—a wasp. Just one, and it had drained most of his points.

"Damn it!" Bast grumbled, and that was the result of him holding back. If he could, Bast wanted to curse and swear out loud upon realizing he had just done something incredibly stupid.

The memories of this original body had just finished processing completely. He realized just how insane this world he had stranded in truly was.

The civilization was backward; he lived in a poor village where his parents had to farm and hunt, putting their lives on the line just to eat.

Worse still, various vicious creatures and highly dangerous beasts infested this world!

In a world like this, selecting which monsters to tame was the absolute key to survival.

The system he possessed was incredibly powerful—if only he could rack up more Reputation Points and save them, he might be able to tame a massive beast to act as a guardian.

And now? He just threw his points away to subdue a single wasp!

That very wasp now perched on his shoulder, rubbing its antennae together as if proud of saving its master.

Bast let out a long sigh. "Alright, don't panic. Let's put my proven genius brain to use."

Bast also realized regretting it was pointless; right now, all he could do was survive. The method: restore his reputation in his sister's eyes by finding a gift so Myra wouldn't actually smash his head in, while simultaneously generating more points.

A good gift should easily boost his reputation.

"You, Wasp." Bast pointed at the flying creature, gathering all his existing knowledge about insects.

Biologically, several species of forest wasps were carnivorous hunters or, at the very least, possessed razor-sharp nectar-tracking instincts.

"Hey, little buddy. Do you know where the honey bee hives are?" Bast whispered to the insect on his shoulder.

The wasp buzzed, flew in a circle in front of Bast's face, and then darted off to lead the way through the thicket. Without hesitating, Bast followed.

It proved a bit difficult since the wasp didn't care about gentle paths or foot-piercing thorns, but Bast did his best to find safe routes to avoid accumulating more injuries on his body.

Not even fifteen minutes into tracking along the forest edge, Bast caught the scent of a rich, sweet aroma.

Hanging from the branch of an old oak tree was a giant beehive the size of a rice sack. Golden honey dripped slowly from its crevices

Bast's eyes sparkled. Drawing from the original body's memories, Bast knew honey was a super rare commodity. In his village, no beekeeping technology had succeeded yet, making pure forest honey costly.

Naturally, this high cost was due to the fact that harvesting honey often resulted in death from wild beast attacks. Therefore, that honey was the absolute perfect redemption gift for Myra.

"Your job now is to keep those guard bees busy. Lure them away," Bast commanded.

The wasp darted out like a kamikaze, triggering a massive commotion around the hive. An angry swarm of worker bees immediately chased it away from the branch.

Using that opening, Bast climbed nimbly. His new body was skinnier than his old one but still capable enough to handle a climb.

Armed with a rusty dagger he found in his pants pocket—the very one he used earlier to threaten Myra into following him—he carved off a chunk of the honeycomb with extreme precision.

As a doctor who relied heavily on natural medicine approaches, Bast knew the ethics of foraging in nature. He made sure not to touch the center of the hive where the queen bee resided, intentionally leaving the larvae-filled sections intact.

Bast smirked as he landed back on the ground. With a chunk of honey this large, his reputation in Myra's eyes would surely skyrocket, and his points would multiply, letting him tame a much stronger beast later.

Bast carefully wrapped the nearly three-kilogram chunk of honey using broad taro leaves he had picked along the way.

'There, Myra will definitely forgive me with this gift,' Bast thought with satisfaction.

BZZZT!

Bast hadn't even taken a step when his pet wasp suddenly dive-bombed toward him in a sheer panic.

The tiny insect buzzed incredibly loud, flying in wild circles above Bast's head as if sounding an emergency alarm.

Then came the sound of a snapping branch.

CRACK!

A massive shadow blotted out the sunlight piercing the forest canopy. The metallic stench of blood and rotting meat immediately assaulted Bast's sense of smell.

Bast's back instantly ran cold. He knew danger had arrived even before he laid eyes on it.