Astral Pet Store (WN)

“Beast kings?”

The naughty girl’s teasing worked. Those people were startled. Tang Ruyan was chuckling but she sounded serious. Was she telling the truth?

They could hardly believe it. “Beast kings? Are you teasing us…?” “Seriously?” They would have pulled long faces at any other person for making such an inappropriate joke.

However, that girl was at the titled rank… They didn’t know much about her; as such, they were afraid to provoke her. After all, they had just moved to Longjiang. They were completely unfamiliar with the place and the people. “Of course I’m telling you the truth. Our store doesn’t lie,” Tang Ruyan said with pride, “But whether you can buy them is dependent on whether you’re powerful enough.”

“What?”

They looked at each other speechlessly.

Tang Ruyan didn’t elaborate further. She showed them to the display room with a mysterious grin and said, “You can choose any of the beast kings here.”

The display room was quite spacious and the lighting effect added a certain futuristic feel to it. Many large 3D projections were shown in the middle of the room.

“This…”

Those people had never seen that style of decor which surprised them. Tang Ruyan then taught them how to use their astral powers to see the information of each beast king.

Following her instructions, they walked to a beast king’s projection and poured in their astral powers.

Information popped out soon after. The four were dumbstruck.

Beast king? Later stage of the Void State?! Since the crisis was at hand, many legendary battle pet warriors would move around in public. Many titled battle pet warriors had learned about the different states of the legendary rank. What the four were seeing in the information came as a complete shock.

“Tang, don’t be naughty,” Su Ping said grumpily.

Tang Ruyan smiled embarrassingly and stuck her tongue out. “The only battle pets available at the moment are those Void State beast kings. You have to be at the legendary rank if you want to buy them. If you want pet training, please come this way…” The four put away their astral powers and the information vanished in front of their eyes. They looked at each other and they began to understand what was going on. So, all the beast kings were at the Void State; they could buy them but they would be unable to sign contracts. So, this girl… was making fun of them.

They pulled long faces at the thought.

They didn’t know the girl and what she was capable of, but they would not allow themselves to be teased like that.

“I knew that they couldn’t have beast kings on sale. Those are just projections. What a big load of nonsense!”

“I don’t know where they got those fancy devices but I cannot believe this is the best pet store in the Longjiang Base City. You’re only using those things to fool us!” “Hmm, we came here to buy pet food. I didn’t know your store was like this. Don’t think you can bully us just because we’re not locals!” “Let’s go. So this is Longjiang Base City… How disappointing!” Once angered, those customers dropped all politeness. They were no longer in the mood to buy anything there.

Tang Ruyan was at loss; that was just a spur of the moment. There were so many Void State battle pets there, she was so excited that she wanted to show off. She didn’t know she would get in trouble. She started to panic; she then turned to look at Su Ping, afraid that he would blame her.

He didn’t blame her though; he merely rolled his eyes at her. She knew at once that she had truly screwed up!

“Well, good sirs… I didn’t mean it. This is just a joke. We have some of the best high-quality pet food you can buy. You won’t be disappointed.” Tang Ruyan tried to save the customers. She finally understood that her job was not an easy one.

Customers would even beg to get Su Ping to train their battle pets in the past. As such, she had also become the target of such buttering-up efforts. However, those four at the titled rank had never been there before; it was unlikely that the four would surrender to her pretty looks at once.

“Hmm, this is your marketing scheme, right?”

“You have a girl at the titled rank to greet customers and you pretend to be all mysterious. Then you showed us all those useless things. Huh…” Two of the four titled warriors showed their contempt. They believed they had seen through the store’s methods.

All bark and no bite. Just the same old, same old.

They were so familiar with the customer tricking schemes with fancy overlays to rip them off. The four had run some family businesses themselves and they knew all about it.

Tang Ruyan was panicky. “This isn’t a lie. The battle pets are real and they are on sale. It is just that you’re not at a high enough rank to sign the contracts. Our stuff is real!”

“Humph, let’s see how long you can keep pretending. Everyone can manipulate those projections. Why didn’t you write down Fate State while you were at it?” A short middle-aged man snorted.

“Forget about it. Let’s go.” The middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader of the four was more composed. He didn’t argue with Tang Ruyan; he believed it was best for them to simply leave. That store had a girl at the titled rank as the greeter and was known as the best pet store in all of the base city; the store had to have some secrets. Probably the source of their funding came from the five major families.

Since they had just moved in, it would be to their best interests not to get into any conflict with the five major families.

The other three knew what their leader was thinking about. They stopped arguing.

It wasn’t like the store could rob them directly.

“You…”

Tang Ruyan was worried since they were leaving for good. She wanted to ask them to stay but didn’t know how to go about it. Should I beg? But she could not bring herself to do that. She was at the titled rank and she was the head of the Tang family. She would feel humiliated to be servile just to appease them.

“Wait a moment, please.”

Su Ping stepped forward.

He frowned at Tang Ruyan who was still hesitating. He didn’t scold her; he would deal with her later.

“I am the owner of the store. I am sorry if my employee has offended you. I apologize on her behalf.” Su Ping stood in their way and apologized sincerely. Next, he bowed to them.

Tang Ruyan was dumbstruck. She would have never believed this.

She always thought Su Ping was a man of pride. He had never treated anyone differently, not even when it came to his recurrent customers. And yet, he was at the moment apologizing to some titled battle pet warriors.

Just two hours before, Su Ping had promoted two people to the legendary rank! “Huh?”

The middle-aged team leader frowned; Su Ping’s apology made him feel a bit better. “You don’t have to apologize. We have other things to do, we won’t be taking any more of your time.”

He didn’t mention the fact that they had been teased. It wasn’t necessary.

Su Ping shook his head. “My employee has offended you but she didn’t mean ill. Also, all the items you saw on sale in the store can be bought as long as you are qualified to buy. Like the battle pets you saw, only legendary battle pet warriors can buy them. But you can enjoy the pet food and the pet training services.”

Again? Enough is enough!

The middle-aged man was getting impatient but he controlled himself. “I see. We were just window shopping. We didn’t find anything particular we wanted to buy.”

He gave a look to Su Ping that said, ‘you cannot force me into buying anything.’

Su Ping knew what the four had to be thinking. What a troubling problem. “To show you how sorry I am, each of you can enjoy something for free, but the spending cannot exceed ten million astral coins.”

Ten million?

The four were astounded. A pet store could only offer so many services and none of them should be that expensive.

Ten million… It would be like a super annual card that could allow them to enjoy all services for free till the end of their lives.

“I am sorry but we don’t need anything.” The middle-aged man shook his head.

He was determined to cut all possible ties with the store.

Free stuff wasn’t easy stuff. The store could hunt them down and make trouble for them! Staying away from the store is the safest option. As long as the store owner isn’t crazy, he wouldn’t badger us like a crazy dog. That was what the middle-aged man was thinking.

Su Ping immediately guessed what the middle-aged man was considering. He heaved a sigh inwardly and said to them, “I see that you don’t trust my store. I have no other choice but to let them out and meet the customers.”

The four raised their guards, livid with rage.

Is this guy going to resort to violence?

What a gangster store! He was trying to coerce them in broad daylight… well, night light… but still!

How dare he force them in broad moonlight!

They readied themselves for a fight and fixed their eyes on the door. They would be safe as long as they could make it out the door. They believed that the Longjiang Base City would still aim to uphold law and order!

Internal strife among humans would be frowned upon at that critical time!

However, the next second, the four felt chills running down their spines.

There was something sinister, terrifying, vicious and it was… right behind them.

They summoned the courage to turn their heads, only to see something that scared them out of their wits.

It was a beast that was over a dozen meters long crawling on the ground. The beast turned its spine-covered and black-scaled head toward them; they smelled a foul stench coming out from that mouth.

Horrifying! This was the beast they had seen the projection of!

But that was not a projection. It was real!

“The beast is shrunk while it is inside the store. If you still doubt me, I can let the beast go out of the store and you will be able to see its true form,” Su Ping said with a sigh, “We never practice fraud in the store. I sincerely hope that you can trust me.”

Sincerely? Sincerely! They were so frightened that their legs were shaking.

The beast was too close to them. They could smell that fetid odor and feel that warmth. Of course they would believe it was real!

What is up with this store?!

Seeing that the four were pale with fright, Su Ping said to the beast, “Go back.”

In a blur, the beast went back to the projection. That overwhelming stress vanished, but the presence of the beast had already left a mark on the minds of those four.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Su Ping said with pure-heartedness.

The four titled warriors came back to their senses. They tried to turn around to look at Su Ping, only to find that their necks had been rendered stiff from the shock. Finally, they were able to see him; the sincere look on his face made them feel a spread of warmth. Their hearts started to work again.

“Was that…?”

“Really?”

Two of the four started to talk but they seemed to have lost their ability to articulate.

“Yes, really.” Su Ping was patient. “It was my employee’s fault; she has an attitude so she unwittingly misled you. But everything in the store is the real deal. I can promise you that.”

The four looked at each other. They had to believe him after seeing that vicious beast.

But… that beast was at the Void State. Is it really on sale?

The four no longer dared to ask another question under Su Ping’s gaze. They were afraid that he would get that beast out again so they would “trust” again.

“Well, we understand.” The middle-aged team leader was still pale. He had a strong mind but he was nevertheless merely at the titled rank, way weaker than the Void State beast king. That beast was more violent than any other beast kings they had ever seen.

“I heard that you were looking for pet food. I wonder what you want. Maybe I have it,” Su Ping asked but he was focused on what the system had just said.

Mission to save the store’s reputation was completed!

The reward is… Elementary Rules of Wind!

That was a great reward!

Just then-when those men were leaving while questioning the store—the system got pissed and gave him that mission. Of course, he gladly obliged.

He hadn’t received any side missions like that one ever since his store had become famous.

A long time before, he noticed that the system would get angry and give him some missions every time someone questioned the credibility of the store or his training skills.

However, later on, his reputation became so good that all the customers became regulars. No one ever questioned him again.

It wasn’t as if he could just go and ask someone else to challenge him. The system would read his mind all the time and the challenges he begged for would not count.

That being said, even without the system giving him a mission, he would not have allowed the four to leave just like that. He cherished the reputation that he had worked so hard to build.

At the end of the day, he had to strengthen the employee training Su Ping darted a glance at Tang Ruyan who was peeking at him; she immediately looked away when she noticed he was looking at her. She interlocked her fingers nervously. She was getting ready for some reprimanding. “Well…” The four titled battle pet warriors looked at each other. They had to think twice before saying no under the circumstances. They were still panicking because of that beast.