Chapter 98: This is the Reason

When Annie heard Hash kidding with Giles, she felt like her inner thoughts had been exposed.

She then turned her head slightly, not daring to look in Hash and Giles’ direction at all, afraid that their eyes would meet.

The redness on her face quickly spread from her cheeks to her entire face. Even her ears were red.

After she had snapped out of her daze from Giles’ words, the reason for the happiness in her eyes and the slight blush on her cheeks were because her thoughts were exactly as Hash had speculated.

Not long after she returned to this base city yesterday, Hash had gone to the Spirit Beast Chamber of Commerce and found her, asking her to come to Starlux Gym this morning.

After the person in charge of the Spirit Beast Chamber of Commerce, Mr Gars, made the introduction, Annie, who did not understand what was going on, realized that this sleepy-looking Big Sister Hash was actually the youngest Elite Beast Tamer!

Since her goal was to participate in the Global Beast Tamer Tournament, Annie took this opportunity to have a chat with Hash to understand the specific situation.

When Annie learned that Giles’ act of giving her the Starlux badge was a violation, the first thing that she was worried about was not that her badge might be taken back by the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters.

Instead, she agitatedly asked Hash what the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters punishment for violating the rules was.

Hash told Annie that the purpose of the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters sending Annie to Starlux Gym was to let her challenge Giles, and this was a test of whether Giles was qualified to become the Acting Gym Leader.

When Annie learned of this situation, she was also feeling conflicted and struggled internally.

This was because she had previously learned from her elder sister, Alina, that when Giles participated in the Beast Tamer Friendly Match held in the Decker Mountain Range, the few spirit beasts he had were all severely injured in the battle with the Beast Blood Sect.

Annie had also confirmed this with Hash, but Hash told her that Giles still had a Silver-rank spirit beast, the Metal-feathered Eagle, that could fight against her Green-tailed Cat.

Although Annie had only been a Gold-rank Beast Tamer for less than a month, she already had a clear understanding of her commanding abilities and the Green-tailed Cat’s actual combat abilities.

Therefore, even if Giles had won the Beast-taming Gym Tournament before, Annie did not think that her Gold-rank Green-tailed Cat would lose to the Silver-rank Metal-feathered Eagle. However, Annie actually did not want to challenge Starlux Gym.

The reason was very simple. If she defeated Giles and prevented her Starlux Badge from getting retracted, Starlux Gym would continue to close the evaluation section because Giles had not passed the ability evaluation.

Furthermore, in Annie’s opinion, after Giles lost to her, he might even be severely punished by the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters for violating the rules and giving her the badge.

Therefore, after struggling internally for a few seconds, Annie told Hash that she did not intend to challenge Starlux Gym again.

Then, Annie took the initiative to hand over her Starlux Gym badge to Hash, hoping that Hash would take back the Starlux Gym badge on behalf of the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters.

However, to Annie’s surprise, after she made this decision, Hash had told her that if she really chose to do this, it would be equivalent to pushing Giles towards the edge of a cliff.

This was because in the view of the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters, her actions were equivalent to admitting that there was a problem with the recording of her challenge against Giles.

Even if Giles had given Annie the badge via the normal process, he would be severely punished by the Beast Tamer Association’s Headquarters because of Annie’s decision.

Upon hearing the reminder from Hash, who was an Elite Beast Tamer, Annie also realized the importance of this ability evaluation to Giles.

This was no longer a situation that could be resolved simply by her refusal to challenge Starlux Gym.

Thus, Annie could only accede to Hash’s proposal and challenge Starlux Gym this morning.

She had come over so early today so that she could discuss this matter with Giles in person.

However, to Annie’s surprise, Hash, who looked like she could never get enough sleep, arrived at Starlux Gym very early as well.

She had not even had the chance to mention to Giles the reason why she wanted to challenge Starlux Gym before Hash answered first.

What Annie did not expect was that when Giles heard the content of the ability evaluation, he actually chose to turn it down like her!

Could it be that Giles did this because he doesn’t want the Beast Tamer Association’s headquarters to take back my badge?

The moment this thought surfaced in her mind, Annie looked at Giles with joy and her cheeks flushed.

Hash happened to catch sight of this scene, which was why Hash had reminded Giles in a joking manner.

“Sister Hash, Miss Annie, did you guys misunderstand something?”

Giles couldn’t help but feel puzzled that Hash had said such a strange thing after being stunned for a while.

However, when he saw Annie’s shy expression after hearing Hash’s words, even if Giles was a clueless idiot about relationships, he realized that Hash and Annie must have misunderstood his words.

However, even though Giles realized this, he couldn’t imagine how much his words had affected Hash and Annie’s thoughts.

“Misunderstanding?”

Giles’ words caught the attention of Hash and Annie once again.

They looked at Giles curiously.

“Giles, so what’s the reason that you can’t accept this ability evaluation now?”

Click! Click! Click…

Giles had originally planned to use the reason ‘the Metal-feathered Eagle’s body has yet to recover and is temporarily unable to accept the challenge’ to postpone the ability evaluation.

However, before he could explain to Hash and Annie, all the lights in the reception area suddenly went out.

“Ah!”

Seeing the entire reception area fall into darkness in an instant, Annie, who was focused entirely on Giles, subconsciously cried out.

“Miss Annie! Don’t panic!”

Compared to Annie, Hash, who was an Elite Beast Tamer, was very calm in the face of such an unexpected situation.

“This should just be a temporary problem due to the spiritual energy supply. Let’s head out first.”

After sensing the concentration of spiritual energy in this area, Hash quickly passed a judgment and led Annie out of Starlux Gym.

Hah, will I be able to make it through in the end? Sure enough, I can’t operate too many devices at the same time!

Giles, who was following behind Hash and Annie, sighed helplessly.

“Under normal circumstances, even if the spiritual energy supply in the nearby blocks has been cut off, the spiritual energy supply in Starlux Gym wouldn’t have any problems.”

After Hash walked out of Starlux Gym, she discovered through her spiritual perception that there were no problems with the spiritual energy supply in the other areas, so she asked Giles.

“However, the situation now is the opposite.”

“Giles, looks like there’s one more thing you need to explain to us.”

“Um, Sister Hash, these two matters are actually the same thing.”

Seeing that Hash already knew that the spiritual energy supply at Starlux Gym had been cut off, Giles, who could no longer hide it, could only scratch his head and awkwardly take out the payment notice from the spiritual energy supply station.

“This is why I can’t accept this ability evaluation right now.”