Astral Pet Store

“Hey, little guy, remember that it was your owner who sent you here,” Su Ping said as he approached the Phantom Flame Beast while cracking his knuckles.

The creature gave him a sluggish glimpse, not sure what this human was up to.

Su Ping’s smile grew bigger.

“Come. Let’s have some fun.” Su Ping went to take it to the pet room.

The Phantom Flame Beast slapped his arm to warn him not to get too close. Though it didn’t actually resist Su Ping’s move because it had grown familiar with Su Ping’s scent after all the “spooky mornings” when it often rested under Su Ping’s warm blanket.

Su Ping selected the “dragon king’s heritage ground” from the system window, then picked another pet stored in the shop and brought both pets inside.

Of course, he had to sign a temporary pet contract with the Phantom Flame Beast beforehand. The power of the contract further helped the beast warm up to Su Ping instead of hiss at him whenever he touched it.

The anguished howls of the Phantom Flame Beast echoed across one of the dragon scale lands thanks to Su Ping’s “intensive care.”

A moment later, they reappeared inside the shop. As soon as the Phantom Flame Beast recognized the quiet and monster-less room, it rolled over on the floor and gasped rapidly as if it had just escaped from a terrible nightmare. Which was… almost correct.

Su Ping grinned.

He picked up the beast, found another pet to be trained, and entered the heritage land again.

“YWOOOOL-“

This was repeated until the next morning.

After “working out” inside the heritage ground for an entire night, which was equal to several days in reality, the Phantom Flame Beast had taken on a completely new look; its once plump form that looked like an inflated balloon had turned slim and robust like that of a wild black cat. Several strands of flame-red fur stood out in its coat like small embers which further added to the creature’s brightness.

Using the Pet Identification skill, Su Ping had confirmed that the Phantom Flame Beast had reached a Combat Strength rating of 6.5, when it had been 4.9 the day before. It would be strong enough to protect Su Lingyue in a Class C barren area. As soon as Su Ping terminated their pet contract, the creature carefully glimpsed at Su Ping, rested its head on the floor, and stayed that way without making a sound, like a depressed kid in distress.

When Su Ping gave it ridiculous orders such as jumping into a pit or fire or attacking another mighty monster, it did try to resist. Though it soon learned not to do such a thing after getting beaten by Su Ping, which felt worse than suicide missions. The beast didn’t feel happy when it regained its freedom. It just remained quiet to reminisce its life; there was no happiness when Su Ping was around.

Su Ping checked the window and noticed it was almost time to open up business. Though he didn’t plan to welcome any customers that day. After returning all the trained pets to their respective owners, he would have to begin preparing for the coming task.

The shop was in pretty good shape right then. Losing a day’s revenue or two wouldn’t hurt. After dragging the Phantom Flame Beast into a nursing pen, he found something to drink and began checking the system shop. It was already time for a daily refresh. Among the five new items presented that day, he saw a middle-rank beast-catching ring again. It seemed this ring was one of the most common items that would appear in a level-2 system shop.

He simply paid the points to buy it without giving it too much thought. He then had about 400,000 energy points stored, which was far from enough to level up the Incubation Pool. Although buying some random items was not a problem.

Since the remaining four items didn’t look so good, he chose “refresh” to discard them.

A small fruit called “Crimson Pip” caught his attention. It seemed to be a useful drug that could improve fire-based abilities, which meant he might need it when training his Solar Bulwark next time.

The fruit cost him 20,000 points. Another refresh.

There were no more valuable discoveries. He wasn’t going to keep refreshing because the next try would require 500 energy points. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get any skill books or force pellets that day.

Let me see… I need enough drugs to raise the Solar Bulwark to the next rank. Now I already found three different types, which are… not enough. By the end of the expedition, I’ll use the merit points to buy something from the settler base.

He closed the system window, found a piece of cardboard, wrote “CLOSED” on it and went to hang it on the door.

But before he could do it, he saw a dozen people already waiting in the chilly morning air, when the horizon had barely lit up.

“Mr. Su!” The customers called in surprise as they expected Su Ping to show up later than this. Almost immediately, they formed a line and looked at Su Ping with gleaming eyes.

“Why are you up so early today, sir?” a short-haired man at the front of the queue questioned, after which he suddenly saw what Su Ping was carrying. “Closed?? What gives?”.

“Aw, man. Did something happen?”

Su Ping put the sign in place while explaining, “Sorry, you all. I have other jobs to do, so… I’m not accepting new orders today. The shop’s only open to those who are here to retrieve their pets.”

The customers were clearly annoyed for having their time wasted, though no one protested.

As Su Ping returned several stored pets one by one, more customers arrived; they saw the situation and left in disappointment.

By noon, Su Ping had freed up most of the occupied nursing pens. It seemed the owners of the remaining pets would go there later that day for various reasons.

Su Ping checked the currently almost empty shop in satisfaction, before he walked to the Incubation Pool and checked his energy point balance.

He managed to persuade himself away from the stirring idea in his mind when thinking about the terrible success rate of incubation attempts. He had decided to wait until he could get the pool to level 4; by then he would need a lot of points to play the lottery.

When he prepared to head out for lunch, a luxurious car stopped in front of the shop, from which Xu Kuang hopped off. Alone this time.

Xu Xuang would never take his sister there again, after what happened the other day. Besides, Xu Yingxue had already returned to her setter team to get ready for the expedition.

“Oh! Hello, Mister Su!” Xu Kuang saw Su Ping at the door and quickly went there. “I’m really sorry for the trouble yesterday. That sister of mine never figured out who she was dealing with.”

“It’s okay.” Su Ping had already put that matter in the back of his mind. “Are you—wait, the shop’s closed today? Why? Oh no, did my sister scare your customers away??” “Nonsense. That woman can’t do a thing to my shop.”

“I—I see. Then why are you—”.

Su Ping sighed. Why did everybody keep asking him useless questions?

“It’s nothing. Just need to head somewhere for work.”

“Where exactly are you going?”

“I’m not sure yet. Maybe it’ll take me to the jungles. Heh.”

“Jungle? Hey, I’m pretty good at jungling. Want to team up? I’m a super top laner too.”

“Get lost.”

Su Ping shooed Xu Kuang away and found a nearby restaurant to fill his stomach. After his meal, he spent the entire afternoon inside the heritage ground until he finished cleansing the 90th scale, while his three pets had also visibly improved.

As agreed with Su Lingyue, she would go there at night to pick up her Phantom Flame Beast.