Astral Pet Store (WN)

“Little White?”

Mia was quite suspicious.

The tiger turned upon hearing the familiar voice; it looked at Mia, and the aggression in its eyes gradually melted. It roared and then jumped to her, nuzzling against her feet hard.

What a pair of familiar legs!

The tiger almost burst into tears of joy; it finally remembered who its real master was.

As for the guy next to it… It glanced back at him and then quickly looked away.

He’s a devil!

“You really are Little White…” Mia was in a trance as she felt the familiar nuzzling. The tiger became soft and cute again, not nearly as aggressive as it had been a moment earlier.

Was it an illusion?

She took out her equipment and scanned the battle pet by her feet.

Then, her eyes widened with disbelief.

Little White’s results were surprisingly good and had been significantly increased. The P value alone had been improved by 2.7, which was almost as good as that of the Frost Blood Star Dragon’s after consuming two seven-thousand-year Heaven Frost Crystal Fruits in a row!

“H-How did you do it?” Mia was rather stunned. It was amazing. Based on the data, only three hours had passed and the combat ability of her pet had been improved by at least fifty percent!

What did a fifty-percent improvement mean?

Little White’s combat ability had only just reached the advanced phase of the Void State among her many battle pets recently. However, it had become much stronger, enough to kill most of the battle pets in the advanced phase of the Void State!

With such a combat ability, it was almost her strongest battle pet!

“It was able to perceive three skills. You can check them in the test room next door. Anna, show her the way,” said Su Ping.

Joanna stood up after hearing that.

Mia was stunned. She asked with widened eyes, “It perceived three skills?”

She wondered whether Su Ping had fed any illegal drugs to her battle pet in order to make its data soar, even though the data would fall sooner or later with other side effects. However, he claimed that Little White had perceived three skills? Skills couldn’t be faked!

There were no drugs in the Federation that could make a battle pet perceive new skills.

The only way was through training!

“Let it try its best. The test room can take it.” Su Ping chuckled.

Mia was dazed for a moment, while Joanna was already leading the way. “This way, please.”

Mia felt troubled as she looked at her. She didn’t expect the woman who beat her so easily to be that obedient to Su Ping and work as his employee.

She followed Mia with Little White in tow.

Layne was about to tag along, when Su Ping extended his hand and stopped him.

“They’re going to test the pet. Wouldn’t you get to know everything about the pet if you went with them?” Su Ping looked at Layne casually. It was his responsibility to protect his customers’ privacy.

Layne was rather angered after hearing that. He withdrew his gaze and stared at Su Ping coldly after seeing that Mia had already walked away with Joanna. “I don’t know how you managed to do this, but remember that you’ve pissed off the Ryan family today. We are the rulers of this planet!”

“Is that so?” Su Ping raised his eyebrows. Had he pissed off the local landlord the moment he arrived?

Speaking of which, he didn’t know the first thing about the region he had moved into.

“The host has just moved to a new region. Would you like to scan the region and acquire the map of the nearby area?” asked the system casually.

“Just tell me how much it costs.”

“Ten thousand energy points.”

“You’re not entirely ungrateful.” Su Ping was relieved.

Ten thousand energy points meant a million astral coins. Even the Heaven Frost Crystal Fruits he sold earlier were worth six million.

A lot of information flowed into his head after accepted the offer.

Several seconds later, Su Ping finally had a better understanding of the environment.

The planet he was on was named Rhea. It was a tier-3 planet, and a tier-3 economy according to the system.

His random relocation draw, ranging from tier 1 to tier 3, had unfortunately sent him to a tier-3 region.

Rhea, along with eight other planets, belonged to a solar system named Zeruprun, which was a component of the Silvy Galaxy.

Su Ping learned that the Silvy Galaxy was a major solar system controlled by Ascendant State experts. It consisted of many lesser solar systems, Zeruprun being one of them. Silvy was dominated by the Laiyefa family!

Su Ping didn’t expect to make an enemy of a scion from the Ryan family, which controlled the planet his shop was on, or to strike a deal with someone from the Laiyefa family, which controlled the entire solar system, on his first day setting up shop in that place.

He had a lot of mixed feelings, but he wasn’t scared. He would be safe as long as he stayed inside the shop. Not even Silvy’s Ascendant State experts could hurt him, let alone that the leader of Rhea wasn’t even a Star Lord; he wasn’t afraid of taking him on.

“What’s the level above the Star State?” Su Ping looked at Layne and asked him curiously.

Layne: “???”

He was rather dazed to see the sincerely intrigued look on Su Ping’s face.

I was threatening you just now. Why are you suddenly talking about irrelevant stuff?

You’re making it impossible for me to vent my fury! I’m angry!

“What do you mean? Everybody knows that the Star Lord State and the Ascendant State are above the Star State. Even novices below the Ocean State know that!” snapped Layne.

Su Ping asked in surprise, “Are those the only levels? The Star State, the Star Lord State, and the Ascendant State?”

“Humph, there are naturally higher levels above the Ascendant State, but it’s useless for you to know that. You can’t even look up to such heights, much less reaching them!” Layne sneered in disdain.

Su Ping raised his eyebrows and realized what was going on.

The Legendary level consisted of the Ocean State, the Void State and the Fate State.

The Star level, on the other hand, included the Star State, the Star Lord State, and the Ascendant State.

There were also higher states above the Ascendant State. Those had to be the ranks of the bigshots in the Federation. Maybe the ultimate gods in the Demigod Burial who were stronger than Joanna were on that level!

“A Star Lord can control a small solar system. A stronger Star Lord controls a larger solar system. Those in the Ascendant State control major solar systems…” Su Ping mumbled to himself and learned more about the Federation.

So to speak, the man who supervised Rhea was probably a Star State warrior at best.

Since it was a tier-3 planet, it meant that the Star State leader of the Ryan family wasn’t bad. The leaders of tier-1 planets were very likely stronger, possibly with potential to become Star Lords!

Su Ping gave a bitter smile as he was reminded of the Blue Planet, wondering when the Blue Planet could be upgraded from tier 5 to tier 1. It would require the strength of the planet’s lord and the economy on the planet itself.

Then again, the economy usually depended on the lord’s strength.

Only the lords who were strong could funnel resources and revenues to their planets. Most trades depended on human factors; nobody was willing to do business on a tier-5 planet. Their lords had to beg and pull strings in order to boost the economy.

It seems that I’m not a qualified lord at all. It’s inappropriate to let Nie Huofeng and the others do all the work. I should try to find some patrons for the Blue Planet, Su Ping thought.

He had been elected as the lord anyway, and he would feel guilty if he shirked all of his responsibilities.

“What are you mumbling?” Layne frowned when he heard Su Ping whispering to himself. He said coldly, “Maybe I’ll forgive you if you apologize right now.”

Su Ping came back to his senses and looked at the man, before he asked curiously, “You said that the Ryans dominate this planet. Then, how many young men like you are there in your family? Are you the only one?”

Layne quickly became gloomy and stared at Su Ping coldly. “What do you mean?”

What Su Ping had just mentioned was exactly a painful spot in his heart.

The Ryan family was enormous; there were a thousand juniors in it, with almost ten young men as talented as him. He had many uncles and granduncles; the factions within the family were extremely complex.

He and his cousins knew that, even though they seemed powerful as members of the Ryan family, they were simply luckier than most people on the planet; it was hard for them to do things that they weren’t allowed to.

After all, while the Ryan family was intimidating as a whole, it didn’t necessarily apply to their power as individuals. They could only use their own faction’s power as leverage for their personal interests, which wasn’t as strong while it sometimes could work against them.

Being a descendant of a major family wasn’t easy, either!

That was also why Layne had been courting Mia. His position in the family would soar if he could become Mia’s boyfriend, even if they didn’t get married. He could distinguish himself among his peers!

“Nothing. You talk about your family all the time. I’m quite interested in finding out if your family will give my shop a hard time just because of you.” Su Ping chuckled.

His disrespect made Layne blush and clench his fists.

He was replete with wrath. However, his upbringing kicked in, letting him suppress his urge with rationality. While he was infuriated by Su Ping’s attitude, he could not help but wonder about what was behind the man’s arrogance.

He wasn’t a useless man, or he couldn’t have become a legendary warrior at such a young age, or enter the same school as Mia did. The school was one of the five most renowned academic establishments in Silvy!

Anyone who graduated from that school had the potential to reach the Star State!

“Who are you?” Layne stared at Su Ping.

The guy didn’t get mad nor did he yell at him. Is it because he’s scared of my fearlessness? Su Ping chuckled. It seems that this guy isn’t completely worthless.

He smiled, choosing not to reply.

Since you’re scared of me, you can just do your work and guess my identity.

He didn’t mind finishing the guy off if the latter really caused trouble for him.

Layne frowned when he saw Su Ping’s reaction, but he didn’t say anything. He had expected that Su Ping wouldn’t reveal a thing. So, he might as well investigate him on his own.

The Ryan family’s intelligence network could easily help him find out what color Su Ping’s underwear was as long as he stayed on that planet!

Mia and Joanna returned right then.

Mia was obviously excited. She scurried to reach Su Ping the moment she saw him and said, “Boss, your training is truly miraculous!”

Her expression was enough to tell that she had just confirmed the tiger’s skills. He chuckled and said, “I’m glad you’re not disappointed.”

“No, of course not.” Mia quickly waved her hand, almost dropping her ladylike demeanor. After all, she always held her pets dearly. In other words, she was the kind of person who didn’t feel much about other people’s friendliness, but liked those who were nice to their pets.

“It’s—It’s amazing to see that a training that costs a hundred million can be this effective!” Mia had never been an eloquent person and didn’t know how to describe her feelings.

A hundred million was a large number that most people couldn’t make in their entire lives!

It wasn’t too much, or too little, for the training of a Void State battle pet, but the effect of Su Ping’s training was absolutely worth it. She felt like she might not have achieved the same effect even if she paid a billion somewhere else.

Besides, Su Ping’s training had only taken three hours.

It was wonderful!

Su Ping chuckled and said, “It’s not very surprising. The first training session is always effective. The second one will produce more moderate results, but it will still allow your pet to learn at least one new skill. Otherwise, I’ll train it until it picks up a new skill.”

Mia trusted Su Ping completely by then. She nodded quickly and said to him with a strange brilliance in her eyes, “Boss, could you help me train my other battle pets?”

Su Ping was about to offer just that. After all, his quest was to have her spend ten million energy points, and the hundred million astral coins she paid for the tiger’s training were only a million energy points. He had to somehow make her pay for nine additional training sessions.

“No problem.” Su Ping nodded.

“Really? Thank you so much, boss!” Mia was so thrilled that she even curtsied to Su Ping according to the Laiyefa’s etiquette.

Then, she said with unease, “About the price…”

“The price will still be a hundred million for each session, if the battle pets are still in the Void State,” said Su Ping, allaying her worry.

With glowing eyes, Mia exclaimed, “Boss, you really are a good guy!”

Su Ping felt the urge to facepalm. Why does it sound like you’re refusing my love confession?

There was a slight change in Layne’s expression, feeling somewhat awkward after seeing Mia’s exquisite face; she was flushing with excitement and an alluring charm. However, he was tempted at the same time, all the more determined to conquer that woman.