Starfire Foster Shop

Xu Ran had never imagined that the first skill granted by his seemingly unremarkable Pet Beast Boarding System would let him acquire and teach Contract Beast skills.

Even though he did not have a Contract Beast yet.

This body had the talent for beast taming. Its contract power had already reached tier one, allowing him to contract his first Contract Beast.

But suitable Contract Beasts were not so easy to obtain in this world.

In the earliest days, beast tamers mainly contracted wild plants and animals that had awakened into supernatural creatures. It was largely a matter of luck.

By now, fewer and fewer new types of supernatural creatures were awakening. With supernatural creatures now recognized as distinct species, beast tamers had come to rely on breeding those species for their Contract Beasts.

Supernatural creatures had more difficulty reproducing than ordinary animals, so suitable Contract Beasts were hard to come by.

After receiving his memories of this world, Xu Ran had already wanted to become a beast tamer.

Now that he had the Fur Plucking skill, that desire grew even more urgent.

Suppressing his excitement, Xu Ran looked again at the text that had changed before his eyes.

[Host: Xu Ran

Contract power: Tier one

Contracted Contract Beasts: None

System skills:

[Fur Plucking (D-rank)] (0/100)

Happiness Points: 742

System upgrade experience: 50/1000]

[Novice Mission 2: A first test (Incomplete)

Quest description: Use the system skill [Fur Plucking] ten times.

Quest rewards: System skill [Drugging], system upgrade experience +100]

After reading through everything, Xu Ran's gaze settled on the rewards for the second quest.

Xu Ran had thought [Fur Plucking] was a powerful system skill with a somewhat dubious name. Now that he had something to compare it to, the name suddenly seemed quite respectable.

What the hell was Drugging?!

He was going to give this Drugging a thorough critical examination!

For no other reason than his sense of justice!

Besides, he was very curious about what abilities the second system skill would bring him.

Each grooming session allowed him to use [Fur Plucking] once.

That meant he only needed to perform ten grooming sessions to complete Novice Mission 2.

With that thought, Xu Ran made up his mind.

His gaze finally landed on the Happiness Points.

When he had first received the system, the Happiness Points had completely baffled him.

After one grooming session, he now understood that grooming could earn him Happiness Points.

By that logic, the other services should earn him Happiness Points too.

However, those services had not yet been unlocked. For now, the shop offered only grooming.

Now that he knew how to earn Happiness Points, one important question remained.

What exactly could Happiness Points do?

Once his Happiness Points had risen above zero, an exclamation-mark icon had appeared in the upper-right corner of the panel.

Perhaps that held the answer.

[Notice: Reach 1,000 Happiness Points to unlock a new feature.]

A new feature?

Xu Ran perked up.

The system had dangled a carrot in front of him, but it seemed well within reach.

Grooming one Contract Beast had earned him over seven hundred Happiness Points.

One more should be enough.

Thinking of food made him realize he was a little hungry.

The sun was already high, and it was time for lunch.

After locking the shop, Xu Ran pocketed his money and headed to a nearby block.

The Contract Beast foster shop the system had given Xu Ran had not appeared out of thin air.

The previous owner's parents had both died, leaving him nothing but a storefront.

To save on rent, the previous owner had converted the second floor into living quarters, leaving the ground-floor storefront unused.

From the memories Xu Ran had received, the previous owner had intended to rent out the ground-floor storefront and save the rental income to buy himself a Contract Beast.

But before he could register it with an agent, he and Xu Ran had swapped lives.

After binding to him, the system had automatically remodeled the unused ground-floor storefront into the current Contract Beast foster shop to accommodate its functions.

So while the shop was new, Xu Ran was familiar with the surrounding area.

Xu Ran's foster shop was called Starfire.

As someone who had crossed into another world, he harbored a romantic desire to change it.

A single spark could set the plains ablaze.

That was probably the ambition he had felt the moment he received the system.

For now, though, all he could do was bathe Contract Beasts.

Other people's Contract Beasts, at that.

Setting the plains ablaze could wait.

The Starfire Foster Shop stood on a fairly bustling commercial street with plenty of restaurants.

After finding a reasonably priced place, Xu Ran tucked into his meal.

But an unexpected visitor soon interrupted him.

"Meow~"

Xu Ran turned and saw a stray cat.

It was a long-haired cat, but even its long fur could not hide how thin it was.

It stayed in a corner just over a meter away from Xu Ran, staring wide-eyed at the dishes on his table.

Yet it did not dare approach. Its body was slightly arched in wariness, ready to flee if someone tried to chase it away.

When it saw that Xu Ran had noticed it, the stray cat called again.

"Meow~"

Perhaps because it reminded him of himself, Xu Ran felt a pang of sympathy. He picked up the food on the table and walked toward the stray.

The stray sprang away from Xu Ran, but did not go far, merely keeping a safe distance from him.

Picking the meat out of his dish and placing it on the ground, Xu Ran returned to his seat and resumed eating.

Cats were highly wary of strangers.

Once he had set down food for it, there was no need to pay it any more attention. It was best not to keep staring.

As Xu Ran moved away, the stray crept back to its original spot.

Despite its hunger, it did not immediately dig in. Instead, it leaned toward the meat on the ground and sniffed, as though checking for anything harmful.

A moment later, it stole a glance at Xu Ran, who was engrossed in his meal, before it began eating.

Noticing it out of the corner of his eye, Xu Ran turned to look.

The stray was clearly starving. It ate so quickly that half the meat on the ground disappeared in moments.

Yet even as it ate rapidly, its movements seemed rather elegant.

Cleaned up, this cat might turn out to be feline nobility.

Xu Ran shoveled the last mouthful of rice into his mouth, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

He was only a few hundred Happiness Points short. Why not give it a try?

It was an ordinary creature, but perhaps it could provide Happiness Points too?

He looked at the stray cat.

Having finished the meat, the stray raised its head to look at him, seemingly asking whether there was any more.

Their eyes met, and Xu Ran gave it a mysterious smile.

"That's all, but if you come with me for a bath, how about I buy you some canned cat food?"

As soon as he said it, he felt he had wasted his breath.

Awakened supernatural creatures might understand human speech, but how could this stray possibly...

Watching the stray walk toward him, Xu Ran fell into thought.

Had this cat actually understood him?

"...Two cans of cat food?"

Xu Ran rubbed his eyes. The stray seemed to have quickened its pace.

"...Three?"

The stray leaped to Xu Ran's feet, caught his trouser leg in its mouth, and gave it a tug, as though urging him to get moving.

People said cats understood humans. Today, he had seen it for himself.

"I'll take you for a bath right now!"