Astral Pet Store (WN)

“Will the aptitude assessment aid in increasing the price?” Su Ping asked the system after he went through the basic information of the battle pets.

The system replied, “That will depend on whether the aptitude is good or bad. It’s not shown right now. Without seeing that data, the customers can only rely on the combat strengths to see if the battle pets are good enough or not. But, if you allow the aptitude to be tested and shown, the customers will be able to tell in a more straightforward way whether a certain battle pet is average or poor, or something else.”

“So, the aptitude assessment is used to obtain more comprehensive data.”

“True.”

The system… was such a profiteering merchant! Su Ping felt glad that he had not paid the ten thousand energy points yet. He could see if the battle pets were good enough by comparing their combat strengths with the average combat strength of beasts of the same kind. Why would he have to pay extra money to see that?

“You cannot tell for certain. Some people just don’t bother to do the math. It is better to show them directly. Let’s say some battle pets have a high combat strength. But how can you say for sure if they’re among the good ones or the poor fellas of the same family?” “Let’s take some dragons with very outstanding bloodlines as an example. A dragon may be at the later stage of the Void State with a combat strength of 40 or even 50. Still, would you say that the dragon’s aptitude is above average? The truth can be that this dragon only has a poor aptitude compared with other dragons of the same kind!”

This system… is snooping around again… Su Ping was still unconvinced. “What’s the difference? If you put all the battle pets together, I would have still chosen the dragon even if its aptitude was poor. I would choose the battle pet with the best combat strength. I want to get the one that is cost effective.” “Your vision is limited,” the system corrected him, “Some battle pet warriors only go for the battle pets with the best aptitude. Say you have a dragon and its combat strength is way above beasts of the same rank, but the dragon is quite poor when compared to the other dragons. What would I want the dragon for? I want the best dragon, a dragon that is more powerful. Don’t you see?”

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. He understood this point.

Some battle pet warriors who aspired for outstanding battle pets would pay attention to the aptitude assessment.

However, such standards weren’t as useful on the Blue Planet.

After all, combat strength was everything on the Blue Planet. No matter how good the aptitude was, the battle pet would have to be trained and developed. What if the battle pets got killed before they could grow? Good aptitude would not help.

“Let me try this with one.” Su Ping chose the beast king with a 38.7 combat strength, the strongest of all.

“Are you sure?” “Yes.”

-10000!

Ten thousand energy points were deducted from Su Ping’s account. In the meantime, in front of Su Ping’s eyes, the avatar of that beast king began to light up with a colorful glow; the light disappeared a second later and everything quieted down.

Su Ping clicked on the avatar and he saw some additional information related to that beast king.

Aptitude: Poor

Poor…? Su Ping was surprised. That was not the result he had expected. He thought that it would at least have an average aptitude. However, it turned out that the beast king was not even that good.

“This Blue Crystal Dragon’s bloodline is at the Star Rank; it has also consumed many miraculous herbs and has been mutated a little bit. The dragon is off to a good start so this combat strength is not surprising. Also of note, the Blue Crystal Dragons with above average aptitude can usually kill Fate State beasts when they’re at the Void State,” the system explained.

а

Su Ping suddenly realized something. He quickly looked at the price.

The price had dropped from 38.8 million energy points to 34.83 million.

The price dropped!

Su Ping glared at the price.

What the f*ck!

After the assessment, the highest price had dropped by a few million. Su Ping did a rough calculation. The price dropped by 10%! “Just as I said, the price would increase if the aptitude evaluation turned out with a good grade. On the other hand, the price would drop if the aptitude was inferior.”

The system went on, “Since it’s the best pet store in the entire universe, you cannot sell battle pets that are not good enough. The price won’t change if the battle pets’ aptitudes are average. The price will go up if the aptitude goes up and vice versa.” “You didn’t tell me about the price drop!” Su Ping bit his teeth. He was sure of that!

“Really? I guess that can happen. But you should have thought of this when you heard me talking about the aptitude evaluation. If a good aptitude can increase the price, a bad aptitude would make the price drop. That is a reasonable rule. Price increases and decreases go hand in hand!” The system sounded quite calm. It didn’t sound remorseful about “forgetting to mention the drop in price.” Su Ping: “…”

Su Ping took a few deep breaths to clear out all the angry thoughts in his mind. “So, the battle pets sold in this store should have at least an average aptitude to be qualified for the store.”

“Yes. You learn fast.”

“Then I won’t assess the aptitude of the other battle pets,” Su Ping said.

“No problem.” The system knew that Su Ping was hopping mad. “When you find such battle pets and you have no confidence about their aptitude, I suggest you don’t make the aptitude show, in case selling the battle pets would embarrass the store. Just let the customers choose by themselves.”

Su Ping was speechless.

He was selling those beast kings at such a low price. He was doing the customers a favor. However, the system was making it sound like he was scamming his customers’ money as it

was.

Never mind…

Su Ping decided not to check the aptitudes of the other battle pets. Even that dragon’s aptitude wasn’t good enough. He didn’t have the courage to do another check again.

“Maybe you’ll find a beast king with low combat strength and a poor bloodline but a good aptitude.” The system was trying to tempt Su Ping.

Again with the snooping around… Su Ping had become used to it. He snorted, “I’ll think about this after I’m able to understand beast kings better!”

He realized that he didn’t have enough knowledge about the beasts.

He had seen more kinds of beasts than anyone else on the Blue Planet.

Still, the question was that he had seen them but he didn’t know them; he didn’t know anything about their bloodlines or their combat strength. If he wanted to be confident and save some money when he tried to evaluate the battle pets’ aptitudes, he would have to pick up some knowledge in that

regard.

Soon, Tang Ruyan arrived at the store. She looked at Su Ping who appeared to be in high spirits and Joanna who was standing outside the pet room quietly. Tang Ruyan pouted and complained, “Why are we opening up the store at this hour? I thought you would cultivate at night. What is wrong with you today?”

“I would be in danger if you really knew my patterns. I am breaking the norm, you know?” Su Ping made up an excuse.

Bah… Tang Ruyan curled her lips. She looked at the night sky and asked, “Who would come at this time? How about I be your first customer? Train my battle pets. I want to make some contributions since the wild beasts are striking everywhere in the world.”

Su Ping was about to say no when the system gave him a warning. He had to accept her order. “Get ready to pay the fee.” Refuse no one. That was a rule from the system, not Su Ping’s. But… with the system in the picture, he couldn’t have set any rules himself.

“I cannot believe the time for you to serve me would come. Now, Su, give me a big smile.” Tang Ruyan was overjoyed since Su Ping agreed to it. She knew asking Su Ping to train her battle pets wasn’t easy. When comparing the effects of his training, the money she would have to pay him was nothing.

“Piss off.” Su Ping rolled his eyes.

The system said that he had to accept all customers, but it didn’t say he had to sell with a smile.

Tang Ruyan chuckled and stuck her tongue out. She then quit fooling around and summoned her battle pets, choosing the professional training.

She had four battle pets of the ninth rank in total; the professional training fee was one million for every pet!

The price for professional training was one hundred times higher than the average training. She had to pay four million in total! Tang Ruyan didn’t mind that amount of money. She transferred the amount to Su Ping without batting an eye and soon, the beautiful beeping sound reminded Su Ping that money had entered his account.

“What? Since when did you have this much money?” Su Ping was curious. When did this girl become rich?

Huh, surprised, aren’t you? I’m the family head right now and I have much more money! Tang Ruyan grinned. She soon remembered the past dispute between Su Ping and the Tang family. Her grin vanished after that.

“Recently, after the strikes began, the Tang family anticipated that the world could change drastically and many major forces would be re-organized. The Tang family asked me to be the family head several times. I said no, but the situation is critical at this time. Even though the Tang family is… Anyway, some of the family members were there when I grew up. I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to them.”

“So, you’re the family head now?” Su Ping raised his eyebrows. That girl was the family head of one of the four ancient families in that Subcontinent District.

“Just for now. I will quit when a suitable person is found, either by me or by them.” Tang Ruyan bit her lips.

She stole a glance at Su Ping. Compared with the position of a family head… she preferred to stay there as a temporary employee.

“Good for you and for me. See, you have money now and you can support my business,” Su Ping said casually. He didn’t want to increase her burden. What happened between him and the Tang family was in the past and he no longer minded that. If he were still obsessed over it, he wouldn’t have allowed her to go back and lend them a hand.

“That is not the point.” Tang Ruyan stomped her feet.

“Yes.”

“Hmm, you’re clever. Wait a minute… Yes to what?!”

Right then, they heard some people coming. Su Ping said to Tang Ruyan, “Now, be a good girl and entertain the customers.” “I am also your customer!” Tang Ruyan shouted at him.

Su Ping told Joanna to take Tang Ruyan’s battle pets to the pet room and replied to Tang Ruyan, “But you’re also my employee, a temporary one.”

“You don’t have to stress that!” Tang Ruyan was clenching her teeth. They then heard a gentle voice. “Mr. Su, Miss Tang.” Qin Duhuang arrived at the store. He cast a glance at the purple rat that was sleeping soundly by the feet of one of the dragon statues and went into the store.

Tang Ruyan knew that Qin Duhuang had reached the legendary rank. However, she was no longer that wary of them ever since she went back to the Tang family and saw a legendary battle pet warrior get killed with her own eyes.

Tang Ruyan pushed down her fury against Su Ping and went to greet Qin Duhuang, “Mr. Qin, how come you know we are in business at such a late hour?”

“Mr. Su told me,” Qin Duhuang said to the girl with envy, “Miss Tang, you’re still young and yet you’ve already been named the family head. I might have had to bow to you if I weren’t lucky enough to have reached the legendary rank.”

“You know about that?” Tang Ruyan raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, I do. It’s kind of hard for me to ignore the fact when your family has sent over quite a few titled warriors.” Qin Duhuang laughed. Right then, Zhou Tianlin and Xie Jinshui arrived.

“Hi, you’re all here.” Xie Jinshui was surprised to see such an ensemble. Indeed, those people would always show up whenever Su Ping opened his store for business.

Zhou Tianlin felt frustrated since he had to compete against all of those people for battle pets. He hurried to greet Su Ping and then saluted Qin Duhuang.

He didn’t have to be so polite around Qin Duhuang in the past. But he had to act respectfully since the latter had reached the legendary rank.

“Mr. Su, where are the battle pets that you’re going to sell?” Qin Duhuang went straight for the kill.

Su Ping said to his customers, “Have you gotten the money ready? I have placed the battle pets in the showroom and you can choose anyone you like. But you can only buy the battle pets for yourselves. You will also have to sign the contracts right here.”

Su Ping took his customers to a side hall. The light was bright and on the wall hung a screen upon which many battle pets’ images were being projected. In the middle of the showroom were the holographic images of the available battle pets. The projections allowed the customers to see all their details.

Of course, the projections were only a dozen meters tall, instead of hundreds of meters tall.

Everyone widened their eyes in astonishment as they saw the rotating projections. Those projections were quite lifelike; the violence in their eyes was clear. They could tell right away that those were all beast kings! It was also the first time that Tang Ruyan had seen those battle pets. Her jaw dropped. It was an amazing feeling to be surrounded by that many battle pets.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Two more people arrived.

“Mr. Su?” someone shouted in the store.

“I’m here.” Su Ping recognized that it was Venerable the Blade’s voice. He arrived with Wu Guansheng in tow.

Following the voice, Wu Guansheng and Venerable the Blade soon arrived at the showroom. The projections took them aback as soon as they stepped into the room.

“All those battle pets are on sale. You can choose anyone that you like. Basically all of them are at the Void State, which works perfectly for you,” Su Ping briefly introduced.