Beast Taming Patrol

As for Qiuqiu, it had already taken advantage of the chaos to grab Lin Su's access card and go to the intelligent training room for training. When it left, it was even holding a communicator, sporting a mysterious look.

Lin Su guessed that the little guy was probably planning to study special methods to deal with Ghost, so he let it be.

"Sister Nan, what's going on here? Do they all know?"

"Yes, they all know." Qin Nan shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the doorplate of the laboratory in front of them, "Don't blame me, blame it."

Seeing the words "Class A Species Rank Evaluation" in hot-stamped gold on the laboratory doorplate, Lin Su scratched his head.

This place was not ordinary; it was filled with a large number of precision instruments used for calibrating assessment skills and was the highest-level species rank evaluation laboratory, even connected directly to the Alliance Central Brain. Even within Mountain City University's research institute, there was only one such lab.

It could not only detect the species rank of entirely new initial species but was also used for testing newly evolved species ranks, but each activation required advance application, and it depended on the situation.

Previously, Qin Nan's Divine Light Butterfly research project, the medium monarch Phoenix Pattern Holy Butterfly, wasn't eligible to use it to test species ranks, but Lin Su's evolved Xue Henqing used it exceptionally once because it exceeded three minor ranks.

Now, this laboratory was used again, still because of Lin Su.

"I applied overnight to use the Class-A evaluation room, disturbing quite a few people in the institute." Qin Nan shrugged helplessly, "As you know, a brand-new initial species is indeed of great significance to us researchers; even Grandpa Du called to inquire after he found out."

"So today, they are blocking you, eager to get an early look at the true face of the trickster clown. That's quite normal."

Listening to Qin Nan's explanation, Lin Su understood.

"Sister Nan, shall we go in now?"

"Let's go." Qin Nan stretched languidly, "After we test and submit the report, I need to go back and catch up on some sleep."

She sighed lightly, "It's a pity; Ghost is already your pet. If it were still a masterless beast, I would really like to study it. I just hope we find the second trickster clown soon."

"Cough cough, it should be soon." Lin Su coughed lightly, his gaze meeting Ghost's, his expression turning strange.

Qin Nan might not live to see that day.

"Ghost." Following Qin Nan into the evaluation room, Lin Su reminded it again with telepathy, somewhat anxiously, "Always remember to hide your abilities, don't let the Central Brain detect any issues."

This was the Alliance Central Brain, possessing unmatched computing power even integrating supernatural resources. Although it was unlikely to use all its computing power on monitoring Ghost, it would most likely allocate only a small portion, but it was still not to be underestimated.

"Understood!" Ghost responded with telepathy as well.

Soon, the two of them and the pet entered the evaluation room. Ghost walked into a compartment by itself, while Lin Su and Qin Nan waited outside.

...

"Let me check the results."

About half an hour later, Ghost came back out, and Qin Nan, curious, went to a nearby console, downloaded the evaluation results, and started to check them.

She looked at it only once, her expression turning somewhat strange.

Low-level commander species?

Qin Nan glanced at Ghost, who was quietly communicating with Lin Su, and thought back to the fight between the Gray Feathered Lion Hawk and Ghost last night, her eyes filling with doubt.

Considering its three skills, it should at least be a mid-level commander species, right?

This was not quite what she had expected.

Shadow Concealment and Substitute, skills that were in the database, along with Ghost's never-seen-before Flying Knife Skill, definitely should not have scored so low.

With this in mind, Qin Nan's gaze shifted to the detailed data report within the evaluation results and fell on the skill named "Flying Knife Skill," causing several lines of frustration to appear on her face suddenly.

Hiding one's lesser skills, huh?

The overall score for the Flying Knife Skill was shockingly low; having seen the Flying Knife Skill in action yesterday, Qin Nan was certain this was not a normal score.

The only reason was that Lin Su had previously instructed Ghost to intentionally hide its skills.

She looked at Lin Su speechlessly, her feelings mixed.

She had hinted yesterday at this young man to be careful in his actions, and today he had heeded that advice, which was comforting.

But... what use was it to downplay the trickster clown's species rank? As soon as the second and third trickster clowns appeared, the discrepancy would be easily discovered, right?

Unaware of Qin Nan's troubled expression, Lin Su asked after communicating with Ghost, "Sister Nan, how did it go?"

Knowing Ghost's performance in the compartment, a weight in his heart suddenly lifted.

Among Ghost's three skills, Shadow Concealment and Substitute were indeed rare, but they were definitely present in the Central Brain's database. In other words, the combined score of these two skills was fixed, regardless of how Ghost performed.

So, all Ghost could do was to try to minimize the overall score of the Flying Knife Skill, thereby attempting to deceive the Central Brain.

This skill, unseen even in Shénwǔ, was unique as the trickster clown's specialized racial talent.

The comprehensive score for this skill would be evaluated based on how Ghost had performed.

This was the plan for concealing skills that Lin Su and Ghost had discussed in advance.

Now that Ghost had followed his instructions to drastically lower the score of the Flying Knife Skill, whether it could change the medium commander species evaluation was yet to be seen.

"Low-level commander species." Qin Nan looked at Lin Su, who smiled upon hearing her words, feeling ever more certain that the young man had intentionally concealed skills.

Although she did not explicitly say it, she thought for a moment and then added, "The racial rank of the trickster clown is provisional, only finalized after evaluating more than five samples."

The implication was to remind Lin Su that such concealment was futile. Once subsequent tests on other trickster clowns were conducted, the deception would eventually be exposed.

"Understood." Lin Su nodded, his expression still calm.

Qin Nan: "..."

Did this guy really understand what she meant?!