Astral Pet Store (WN)

“Is this the registration office?”

Su Ping went to the place to register.

He saw nothing but people and heard nothing but noises.

At least a hundred thousand people had gathered in the vast square; many carried their pets, having been temporarily miniaturized.

Some of the pets stood on the shoulders of their masters like petite elves.

“Boss… It’s that you?” someone asked, equal parts surprised and suspicious, while Su Ping was observing the crowd. He turned around, only to find that it was his customer Filius.

“Huh?”

Su Ping raised his eyebrows.

He remembered the guy as one of the early customers of his shop.

What surprised Su Ping was that he had made slight changes to his appearance before he left the store, all in order to make himself less attractive. Still, the guy recognized me that easily?

“Is it really you? Your clothes look familiar…” Filius was delighted and excited to see Su Ping’s reaction. He didn’t expect to run into the latter in that location.

Su Ping was undoubtedly the most famous and important person in Woffett City.

Being a Star State expert supported by a grandmaster trainer, he was someone that not even Rhea’s ruler would dare to piss.

Few were able to meet Su Ping, unless they visited his shop for business.

“Clothes…”

Su Ping looked at his clothes and instantly realized what happened. He was speechless, not expecting to be exposed because of his clothes; he had been paying too much attention to his pets and ignored that detail.

“Don’t say anything.”

Filius nodded excitedly.

“Boss, are you here as a judge?” asked Filius carefully with awe and gratitude in his eyes. He had chosen to continue having his pets trained every time he went to claim them.

He already had multiple Class A pets. One of them had been trained three times and already had an A+ aptitude!

That was also why he was confident about entering the contest!

Had it not been for Su Ping, he wouldn’t have dreamed of securing the city-level championship. It was his goal, but he knew that he could hardly accomplish it.

However, he was quite confident of his victory at the moment.

His family had also found out that he was training his pets in Su Ping’s shop. This in turn made his position in the family soar.

He also received a great amount of money, which allowed him to request professional training for his main pet.

The family had also spread the word everywhere. The organizations and moguls who had taken advantage of them earlier had become much more respectful.

Other people might have considered him crazy if he would have said it, but Filius knew that all the changes were caused by the news of him training his pets in Su Ping’s shop.

As long as he had the money, he could choose to continue training every time he claimed his pets.

If he gave up that streak, he would have to wait in line if he ever wanted to train his pets again.

Considering the current length of the queue outside the shop, how long would he have to wait?

“No, I’m here to sign up for the contest,” said Su Ping.

“?”

Filius was baffled by his answer. He asked in a daze, “Y-You’re here to sign up? But, no Star State pets are allowed to participate in the Pet Contest…”

But before he finished, he suddenly realized that Su Ping didn’t have to use his own pets!

The boss could use uncontracted or unowned pets. After all, nobody cared to whom the pets belonged.

Filius suddenly became nervous, as Su Ping was obviously going after the championship.

Su Ping looked at him and shook his head. He didn’t say anything to him.

At this moment, a soft voice was heard. “Boss?”

Su Ping was startled by it; he turned around and found that it was Mia.

“It’s really you, Boss Su!” Mia was quite delighted to see Su Ping. “Are you here as a judge?”

“…” Su Ping was at a loss for words. Why does everyone think I’m a judge? Can’t I be a contestant?

Filius promptly offered to answer the question, seeing that Su Ping was silent.

Mia found it hard to believe. “Are you really here to participate?”

She then realized that her attitude was inappropriate. She quickly smiled and said, “Then, let me congratulate you in advance for your victory, Boss Su. The Transcendence Fruit will surely be yours.”

“Yes.”

Su Ping nodded, not seeing this as flattery, but as fact.

Mia became even more envious, seeing how confident Su Ping was. She had also gone there to sign up, wanting to have some fun before she returned to her academy. She wasn’t really hoping to get a good result.

There was also the rise of Class A pets in Woffett City because of Su Ping’s shop. She had Class A pets of her own, but she wasn’t confident of beating all the others.

She only hoped that her pet could gain more battle experience from the contest.

…

Very soon, the queue progressed and Su Ping’s turn to sign up arrived.

He summoned the Little Skeleton, the Dark Dragon Hound, the Inferno Dragon, the Purple Python and the white-scaled Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon.

Apart from the Little Skeleton and the Dark Dragon Hound, his other pets also managed to shock everyone in the surroundings—

But then they felt they had overreacted when they saw that the giant beasts were just dragons and pythons with lesser bloodlines.

The white-scaled Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon, however, attracted a lot of attention. Everybody was surprised by the mutant dragon whose scales were all white.

There was no telling whether the mutation was good or bad.

Some mutations would be regressive and make the creature weaker, which wasn’t unusual.

Exclamations came from other places. Other people had pets with powerful bloodlines, also drawing the attention of countless people.

“Are my eyes deceiving me? Does he intend to sign up with that python?”

“It doesn’t seem to even be an Ocean State beast.”

“Do you see the skeleton over there? Is it even presentable?”

“As far as I recall, there aren’t any strong skeleton races, are there?”

Mia and Filius were standing next to Su Ping; both began to sweat after hearing all the whispers. Do they even know whose pets they are questioning?

However, the current situation also came as a surprise to them.

They had thought that Su Ping would participate in the contest with other people’s pets, but he had actually summoned all his pets.

It was quite unusual for a Star State expert to have that many low-level pets.

“Do you want to sign up?”

The judge in front of Su Ping was a Fate State old man, who narrowed his eyes when he saw the battle pets that Su Ping had summoned, especially the short skeleton in the front of the line.

Even though the skeleton didn’t unleash any aura, he had goosebumps by merely gazing at it, with its empty eye sockets; it seemed as if a terrifying creature were hiding in those deep, bottomless holes!

“Yes.”

“Please ask your pet to do a mental engraving. Also, give your pet an awesome name,” said the old man.

He took out a crystal badge, which was meant to keep a mental mark for the registration.

Su Ping instantly asked the Little Skeleton to leave a mark on the badge. He thought for a moment and said, “Just call it Little Skeleton.”

“Little Skeleton?”

The old man was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting Su Ping to come up with such a random name.

However, it was none of his business, so he kept his opinions to himself. He asked, “In what level do you want to participate?”

“The Fate State,” said Su Ping.

He had already looked up the rules; the Little Skeleton could be signed up for matches against beasts of higher levels. However, people would only sign them up for same-level matches under normal circumstances, because challenging enemies from higher tiers would likely end up in failure!

After all, all the battle pets in the contest were of high quality.

While a pet could secure the championship while being in that level, it might encounter a stronger pet and be defeated, which could also be lethal!

Furthermore, many people would even lower the levels of their pets in order to win prizes. Even though it was bad for the pets, they could make up for the loss with the prizes; the exchange was usually profitable in the end.

“Fate State?”

The old man slightly narrowed his eyes but wasn’t too surprised. The skeleton gave him a very dangerous vibe. He sensed that it was only an Ocean State creature, who knew whether or not it was in disguise?

The Little Skeleton was registered right away.

“Just have it go to the arena when the match begins. Its identity has already been registered,” the old man said to Su Ping.

“Sure.”

Su Ping nodded and then signed up the Dark Dragon Hound and the Inferno Dragon for the Fate State.

He later registered the white-scaled dragon up for the Void State category.

The Purple Python was signed up for the Ocean State.

Su Ping wanted the championships of all the three ranks.

The old man taking care of registrations asked, confused, “I don’t think your battle pet has reached the Ocean State, has it?”

The gap between a beast king and a beast below it was quite obvious to notice. He didn’t think it was a disguise, and found it perplexing that Su Ping would still keep low-level pets when he could already control Fate State pets. Shouldn’t he have already abandoned them for other Fate State pets?

“No. Can it be registered?” asked Su Ping.

The old man didn’t expect that he would admit it so frankly. After being stunned for a moment, he frowned and said, “Yes, of course. But I think it will hardly be able to pass, or even survive the screening phase of the match considering the level gap!”

“Okay then.”

“…”

The old man was speechless after seeing how it seemed that Su Ping didn’t pay attention to what he had said in the end. He could only shake his head and go through the sign up process.

He was only sorry to see a pet following the wrong master.

…

After going through the pet sign up, Su Ping retrieved his pets and left the queue.

Exclamations were heard, coming from the other registration desks.

Su Ping looked at the source of those shouts, only to see a gigantic dragon covered in black scales that was releasing demonic flames.

“It’s a Demonic Extreme Asura Dragon!”

“What a rare pet! It’s even more horrifying than a Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon!”

“I wonder what aptitude it has.”

“I heard that someone assessed a Demonic Extreme Asura Dragon with a straight A aptitude a few days ago. Was it this one?”

Many people whispered.

Su Ping suddenly found the dragon familiar; he soon remembered it had trained before. It was one of his customers’ pets.

The pet in question had followed the Dark Dragon Hound and the Little Skeleton like a sidekick would.

Su Ping shook his head, no longer eager to watch any longer.

“Boss, are you going to participate in the contest with those pets?”

Filius and Mia were waiting for Su Ping right outside of the crowd. They were quite astonished when they saw the pets summoned by Su Ping.

None of the other pets seemed to have remarkable bloodlines, with the exception of the mutant Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon.

“Yes.”

Su Ping didn’t talk to them much, simply said, “I have to go back to work. See you tomorrow.”

There was a lot more that they wanted to say to Su Ping, but they didn’t dare to ask him to stay, and could only say goodbye.

Su Ping returned to his shop and continued his training after leaving the registration office.

“Which race do you think the words on this piece belong to?” Su Ping asked Joanna.

Joanna didn’t recognize the words etched on the training technique; it was either an incomplete scroll.

“They look even more ancient. Maybe someone in the primordial age knows them,” Joanna ventured.

Su Ping was rather tempted. Even more ancient? Maybe they could be understood by some of the living creatures in the Archean Divinity, or the Chaotic Realm of the Undead.

Once he found free time available, he could go to the Archean Divinity with Joanna and ask around.

…

Soon after, another day arrived.

Much fewer customers were waiting outside of the shop at the moment, but the queue was endless.!

Many of the customers had gone straight to the Pet Contest venue, but those who knew they couldn’t distinguish themselves in that event, were simply waiting dutifully.

It was the day of the concert. Su Ping returned the trained pets to their respective masters and published the business hours in the afternoon. He closed the shop and sent his pets to the arena in Woffett City.

The arena had three realms that floated above the city.

There was an extremely magnificent mountain inside each of the three realms, which could be seen even from the suburbs of Woffett City.

Su Ping moved closer to the entrance to the realms, which was the central square of Woffett City; it was quite enormous but crowded with people at this moment.

Su Ping was quite amazed after seeing the number of contestants.

“The screening phase will last four hours!

“From eight o’clock to twelve o’clock!

“Whoever keeps the flag on the Pet King Mountain and lasts more than four hours will be qualified to enter the next phase!”

The screening phase rule was quite simple and straightforward: whoever captures the flag would be the winner!

It had already been eleven o’clock in the morning. There was only one last hour to go.

Su Ping had learned the rules in advance, and his pets could enter the competition at any time before twelve. Entering the battlefield too early might not necessarily be a good thing. After all, pets had to defend the flag after claiming it!

“Let’s go in.”

Su Ping instantly summoned his pets and sent them into the battlefield.