Chapter 1

Mu Huiyue awoke, chilled to the bone.

The cold was relentless, stabbing through her like icy knives. Her head throbbed, and her entire body ached, as though she had pulled three all-nighters in a row and then ran a ten-kilometer marathon right after.

As her consciousness slowly returned, so did the fragmented memories. Yes, she had been working late. After finally finishing her shift, she had left the office and was heading toward the subway station. She remembered pulling out her phone to do some routine tasks in a game she played—then nothing. She must have misstepped, her vision went black, and she lost consciousness.

Lesson learned: don’t play with your phone while walking. You never know how hard you might fall.

Mu Huiyue shifted slightly, wincing in pain. A sharper, more intense agony shot through her leg. It was then that she noticed a large, swollen area, unnaturally bent. It was unmistakably the shape of a fracture.

Did she get hit by a car after she fell? That didn’t make sense. She had tripped, sure, but it shouldn’t have caused such a severe injury. Besides, no cars ever passed down that narrow path…

She suddenly froze, her thoughts coming to a screeching halt.

Her hand was clutching the hem of her skirt.

A soft, lace-trimmed dress—something no self-respecting office worker would ever wear to a night shift.

Lifting her head, she took in her surroundings. This wasn’t the place where she had fallen.

She was inside a decaying, eerie room. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all riddled with cracks. The once-opulent decor was now covered in layers of dust, with enormous cobwebs draped across the corners. Dim, flickering blue flames hovered in the air, casting the only light in the room.

The entire space was filled with a clammy, oppressive cold that far surpassed the chill of any damp, dark room. It was this unsettling cold that had jolted her awake.

Where… am I? The Necromancer’s Castle… secret chamber?

Random words floated to her mind, and with them came a sharper pain in her temples. Memories that weren’t her own—along with strange, unheard-of knowledge—flooded Mu Huiyue’s brain.

Lesson learned: don’t walk while playing with your phone. You might end up falling into another world.

Piecing together the flood of foreign memories, Mu Huiyue finally realized the unthinkable: she had transmigrated.

The girl whose body she now inhabited looked just like her, but she was only seventeen and still in high school. Coincidentally, she had also fallen and lost consciousness around the same time as Mu Huiyue, and now, she too had woken up in this strange place.

However, this girl’s fall had been far more disastrous. She had tumbled from a second-floor ceiling, resulting in multiple fractures and cuts. The leg injury seemed the most severe—if it got infected in this hostile environment, she wouldn’t last long.

As for why a high schooler had ended up in such a perilous place… Mu Huiyue, sifting through the unfamiliar memories, began to understand.

This was the Necromancer’s Castle—a secret realm. The castle’s name was something her new self had come up with. The key lay in this strange and dangerous realm.

In the memories of her new self, Mu Huiyue learned that this world wasn’t so different from her own. Humanity had also experienced a technological revolution and entered the modern era.

The one key difference, however, was the existence of secret realms. These mysterious, independent spaces began appearing roughly a thousand years ago, merging with the planet and permanently altering its landscape.

The fusion of these realms introduced unprecedented resources to the planet, and with them came extraordinary creatures wielding supernatural powers. These creatures—modeled after animals, plants, insects, elements, and even pure fantasy beings—emerged from the secret realms and reshaped the planet’s ecosystem as they integrated into it.

Over the millennia, humans made great strides in studying these phenomena and the creatures they produced. In time, humans themselves began awakening powers influenced by these secret realms. Now, about 60% of the population would awaken a “Beast Space” and “Beast Taming Talent,” enabling them to bond with these extraordinary creatures and become Beast Tamers, gaining immense strength and powerful partners.

The appearance of these secret realms never ceased. Governments around the world established special agencies to contain and manage them, ensuring public safety in towns and cities where realms suddenly manifested. While the exact mechanism behind their appearance remains a mystery, their frequency in populated areas has drastically decreased, thanks to the containment efforts.

Of course, that didn’t stop some unlucky individuals from having realms materialize right in front of them—like the unfortunate Mu Huiyue.

She had merely planned to meet someone at a small park on the outskirts of town. Instead, her meeting was a no-show, and she found herself face-to-face with the rare event of a realm’s descent. Worse still, the realm that descended was the Necromancer’s Castle.

The castle earned its name because it was teeming with dark and undead-type creatures—two of the most dangerous and mysterious categories of supernatural beings. And Mu Huiyue, still an unawakened, ordinary girl, had stumbled into this nightmare-filled fortress. The odds of survival were not in her favor.

In fact, her original self’s last memory was being chased by a twisted, decaying corpse in the park. Panicked, she had misstepped, fallen from the second floor, and crashed into this very room, losing consciousness.

Now, exhausted, hungry, wounded, and with a broken leg, Mu Huiyue could only wait for rescue. But how long would it take for the local agency to even find the realm’s entrance? By then, she might be delirious with fever from an infected wound or devoured by one of the undead creatures wandering the castle.

She instinctively glanced at her phone—no signal, of course.

She let out a long sigh. What kind of hellish start was this? Whether she was a transmigrator or just a regular high schooler, she couldn’t think of any way to save herself.

Suddenly, a noise came from behind the door. Mu Huiyue looked up, her voice steady but soft, “No point in hiding. I’ve already noticed you.”

She had sensed something moving behind the door when she first woke up, but the pain in her body and the overload of foreign information had kept her distracted. The sound had been timid, nothing like the menacing undead creature in her memories, so she had initially dismissed it as some harmless, small animal.

But thinking about it now, there shouldn’t be any ordinary animals in a secret realm. It had to be some kind of weaker supernatural creature.

The noise behind the door paused, then the door creaked open slightly. A small, white figure cautiously peeked through the gap.

It was… a tiny skeleton.

Not a baby’s skeleton—those are far more disturbing with their underdeveloped bones and haunting rows of teeth. Mu Huiyue had once seen a photo and had nightmares for weeks.

This one, however, was more like an adult skeleton, scaled down and slightly cartoonish. Its skull was oversized, its neck bones thin, and its large, round eye sockets gave it an almost endearing appearance. The usual terror of bones was significantly diminished.

Mu Huiyue quickly matched the creature to her newly acquired memories.

Name: Little Skeleton
Attributes: Dark-type, Undead-type
Rank: Low-level Elite
Innate Skill: Reassemble

While dark and undead creatures were often mysterious and dangerous, the Little Skeleton was among the weakest of them. Unlike terrifying creatures like zombies, ghosts, or mummies, the Little Skeleton was only about knee-high. Its large eye sockets made it look harmless, and its only skill was the ability to piece itself back together if it shattered.

Most Little Skeletons were naturally timid, but this one didn’t run away after being discovered. Instead, it cautiously took a few steps forward.

Mu Huiyue found it amusing and waved at the creature.

Nearly all supernatural creatures had intelligence far beyond that of normal animals—or at least an emotional awareness that allowed them to interact with humans. Even without a formal contract, many supernatural beings could understand human behavior and communicate. As a result, those who hadn’t awakened as Beast Tamers often lived alongside harmless lower-level creatures.

This Little Skeleton was the first supernatural being Mu Huiyue encountered in this world, and she was curious about why it hadn’t fled.

Encouraged, the Little Skeleton clacked its way over, its tiny legs tapping the floor as it approached.

It stopped in front of her—and then, with a loud crack, collapsed into a pile of bones.

Mu Huiyue: “…?”

A dark, mist-like substance swirled around the scattered bones, lifting them off the ground. One by one, they floated back into place, reassembling the Little Skeleton. The tiny creature looked up at Mu Huiyue with its empty eye sockets, which, despite their hollowness, somehow conveyed a sense of hopeful expectation.

Is that its racial skill, “Reassemble”? Mu Huiyue tilted her head, puzzled as to why the creature had demonstrated this ability right in front of her.

She glanced at her own crooked, broken leg, then back at the eager Little Skeleton. An idea popped into her head. “Did it see me wake up after nearly dying and… think I’m one of its kind?”

The Little Skeleton nodded rapidly, then scurried a bit closer. It pointed at Mu Huiyue’s deformed leg and the bloodstains on her waist and abdomen. Then, with a sudden crack, it shattered the same parts of its own body, only to reassemble itself in a cloud of dark mist. Its empty eye sockets glimmered with excitement as it looked back at her.

Mu Huiyue couldn’t help but laugh, finally understanding the Little Skeleton’s intentions.

“Reassemble” wasn’t exactly a rare skill. Most undead-type supernatural beings had similar abilities. The Little Skeleton seemed to be suggesting she could heal her wounds by using the same skill.

“Sorry to disappoint,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m human, not one of your kind. I can’t use those kinds of supernatural powers.”

She gestured at her still-throbbing injuries to emphasize the point.

The Little Skeleton froze, visibly deflated. Its head drooped in disappointment. But a moment later, it perked up again. Dark mist swirled around its body, as if it had come up with a new plan. Nodding confidently at her, it turned and clattered out of the room.