Chapter 1: Xiao Mi Stopped Moving
“Sis, you should just sell the shop.”
Su Wudeng was just about to head out when she unexpectedly received a call. It was her younger sister, Su Yulan.
She sighed. “Why bring this up all of a sudden?”
“Don’t lie to me,” Su Yulan’s voice carried a hint of urgency. “I know everything.”
“Xiaowei told me. The shop’s business has been terrible lately. She was just trying to be nice and help you sell it, but you chased her away with a scolding, didn’t you?”
Su Wudeng said helplessly, “It’s not what you think. She didn’t tell you the whole story.”
Glancing up at the time and realizing she was running late, she hurriedly said, “Look, I’m rushing to catch the subway right now. Wait until I get off work, and I’ll explain it to you in detail.”
Hanging up the phone, Su Wudeng quickly gathered her things and hurried toward the subway station.
A month ago, she had inexplicably transmigrated to this world and gained a ‘younger sister’.
Their parents were divorced. She stayed with their mother in Haicheng, while her sister, Su Yulan, went to Jingdu with their father.
From then on, their circumstances became vastly different. Her sister had a bright future ahead of her and was admitted to Jingdu’s most prestigious Beast Taming Academy.
She, on the other hand, had it worse and worse. When their mother passed away, she was left with a pet beast shop, which she now relied on for a living.
Fortunately, the two didn’t live together; otherwise, she was really afraid she might blow her cover.
As for Xiaowei, she was their childhood playmate, but she was now much closer to her sister. After all, her sister was a proud genius of the Beast Taming Academy, while she was just the manager of a failing little shop on the verge of bankruptcy. It was obvious who anyone would choose.
But regarding the matter of selling the shop, it wasn’t out of the kindness of Xiaowei’s heart like she claimed. She was clearly just acting as a lobbyist for her boyfriend.
Now that their attempt to force a buyout at a low price had failed, she actually dared to use her sister to pressure her. Did she really think Su Wudeng was made of clay, completely without a temper?
It was only because the original owner of this body had few friends that she had always treasured her friendship with Xiaowei.
Furthermore, because of a past “favor of a single meal,” no matter how far Xiaowei crossed the line, as long as she acted cute and coaxed her afterward, the original owner would eagerly forgive her.
But she wouldn’t spoil her like that. A friend like that wasn’t worth keeping.
Flowing with the crowded stream of people, Su Wudeng mechanically grabbed a handrail. The chatter of the surrounding passengers and the roar of the running subway intertwined in her ears.
No matter which world it was, the fate of a wage slave remained the same.
Maybe Yulan is right, she thought to herself, her unfocused gaze staring at her blurry reflection in the subway window.
This was the end-stage era of the Beast Taming world. The natural ecosystem was on the verge of collapse, and living pet beasts were endangered to the point of extinction.
People could only rely on mechanical pet beasts for emotional substitution, cloud-raising electronic pets.
The pet shops seen everywhere on the streets were filled with mechanical pets gleaming with a metallic luster.
They were cold, precise, and intelligent, capable of satisfying most people’s needs for a pet beast.
In contrast, the cheap mechanical pets in her little shop were completely uncompetitive.
I have no capital, no connections, and I can’t even afford a decent mechanical pet…
At this rate, even if I keep holding on, how much longer can I last?
Suddenly, a crisp Ding-dong! echoed in her mind.
[Suitable Pet Shop Host detected. Pet Shop Management System has been downloaded!]
[Binding in progress… Binding successful.]
[The system will be fully activated after receiving your first customer!]
Su Wudeng’s eyes snapped wide open. She almost blurted out a curse.
This wasn’t a hallucination, was it?
She glanced around, relaxing only after confirming that no one had noticed her unusual reaction.
Su Wudeng cleared her throat and tentatively asked in her mind, Pet Shop Management System?
[Yes, Host.]
[This system is the Pet Shop Management System. Primary scope of business: Pet beasts with real life.]
[In this era flooded with cold machinery, your shop will become a sanctuary for warm life.]
[Start from a small pet shop, gradually expand your scale, and ultimately build a massive empire of real pet beasts!]
Su Wudeng: …You’re starting to feed me empty promises now, aren’t you?
But ignoring the grandiose promises at the end, this was a genuine golden finger!
She instantly became energized. If there hadn’t been people around, she would have screamed out loud. She wished she could rush out of the subway this very second, sprint to her little shop, and activate the system immediately!
Oh, Grandmother Heaven, you’re finally looking out for your dear granddaughter! You have no idea how I’ve survived this past month.
When the subway finally arrived at her station, Su Wudeng practically leaped out of the carriage.
Entering the local pet street, mechanical beasts ran rampant.
A three-meter-tall steel mammoth slowly strode past, causing the ground to tremble slightly.
Nearby, a silver-gleaming mechanical cheetah elegantly wove through the crowd.
Overhead, a flock of bionic birds swooped by, their metallic wings shining brilliantly under the artificial light.
People walked nonchalantly among these mechanical behemoths as if it were the most ordinary sight in the world.
In the past, Su Wudeng would have slowed her pace to admire these precise and beautiful mechanical masterpieces.
But right now, her mind was entirely filled with soft, fluffy little kitties and puppies.
She had to activate the system first so she could get a pet cat, give it a good petting, and satisfy her cravings!
Hurrying through the pet street, Su Wudeng finally arrived at her own little shop.
The weather today wasn’t great. The air was thick with smog, making this metropolis made of steel look even more dismal and dim.
Neon lights flickered beneath the grayish sky. Su Wudeng’s pink-decorated pet shop, “Pet Love Home,” looked completely out of place amidst the forest of reinforced concrete.
Su Wudeng skillfully turned on the lights, sat at the cash register, and stared blankly at the street view outside the shop window.
And then, she waited for a customer to walk through the door.
On the street, pedestrians wearing colorful respiratory filters walked in a hurry.
On holographic billboards, an advertisement for the latest model of mechanical pets played on a continuous loop: “The perfect companion. Will never betray you!”
Su Wudeng looked down, fiddled with a mechanical puppy on the counter, and sighed.
She had forgotten one crucial detail: in the month she had been open, she’d had hardly any customers.
And the system needed a customer to activate.
“Welcome to Pet Love Home!” The shop’s automated greeting chimed as a customer pushed the door open and walked in.
Su Wudeng’s head snapped up, her eyes lighting up. Is my luck really this good today?!
The person who entered was a little girl, about seven or eight years old, holding a mechanical cat in her arms.
She recognized this little girl. It was Coco, the daughter of the grocery store owner next door.
“Coco, what’s wrong?”
Coco’s eyes were red and swollen; she had clearly just been crying. In her arms was a robotic cat that was continuously emitting smoke.
“Big sis, please help me! Xiaomi… it stopped moving…”
Su Wudeng crouched down and gently took the mechanical cat.
The cold, metallic touch made her heart tremble slightly.
She expertly popped open the mechanical cat’s maintenance panel and carefully inspected its internal structure.
“I’m sorry, Coco,” Su Wudeng said with difficulty a few minutes later. “Xiaomi’s core processor has burned out. It can’t be fixed.”
“We could replace the core processor, but all of its memories would disappear. It wouldn’t be the same Xiaomi anymore…”
Hearing this, Coco’s tears spilled over immediately. “N-No… It can’t be. Xiaomi said it would always stay with me. How could it just leave me like this?”
“It wouldn’t lie to me!”
Su Wudeng sighed, feeling a surge of bitterness in her heart.
Mechanical pets had long become the emotional anchor for people, but this fake warmth was so fragile.
How could these cold metals truly respond to human emotions? It was all just programming.
And the merchants who manufactured these mechanical pets, purely for the sake of profit, deliberately designed their software to break down on a schedule so people would have to update them at an even more exorbitant price.
“Maybe… I can swap it for a new one?” Su Wudeng pointed at the shelves. This was far cheaper than replacing a single specialized part.
Coco shook her head and cried, her tears dripping onto the cat’s cold metal casing. “None of them are Xiaomi. I just want my Xiaomi…”
Su Wudeng sighed again. She squatted down and gently wiped the tears from the little girl’s face. “Coco, don’t be sad.”
Watching Coco tightly hug the lifeless mechanical cat, she felt an unspeakable ache in her chest.
In this technologically advanced world, a little girl’s closest companion was actually just a pile of cold metal and circuitry.
Su Wudeng wanted to tell Coco the truth—to tell her that this was nothing more than a pre-programmed setup that could never truly understand or respond to her feelings.
The only way to get the “original” Xiaomi back was to spend a fortune buying Xiaomi’s cloud backup.
But how was that any different from deceit? Wouldn’t she just become an accomplice to those merchants?
Su Wudeng just couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“Mom and Dad are always so busy. Only Xiaomi kept me company…” Coco said softly, fresh tears welling up in her eyes.
“But now, Xiaomi is gone too…”
Coco tightly clutched the Xiaomi that had lost its “life,” turned around, and ran out of the shop.
Su Wudeng watched the little girl’s back disappear into the smog, her heart twisting into a knot.
In this era, mechanical pet beasts were divided into two categories. One type was programmed with emotions for companionship, just like Coco’s Xiaomi.
The other type was programmed with absolute rationality, meant purely for combat.
Yet, the mechanical pets originally designed to accompany people had ended up deceiving the purest emotions of children.
Want the original Xiaomi and its emotional memories? Spend a fortune buying the cloud backup!
But the pet beasts that truly kept people company shouldn’t be like this.
They should have vibrant life, unique warmth, and the most sincere emotions.
They shouldn’t be tools used by merchants to extract profit.
Right at that moment, the system’s voice echoed in Su Wudeng’s mind:
[Ding-dong! Pet Shop Management System successfully activated!]
[Respected Shop Owner, you have earned the opportunity to travel to the Great Prosperity Era of the Beast Taming World. Rely on your efforts to obtain the most authentic pet beasts!]
[Every time an animal finds its suitable master, you will receive generous rewards.]
[The system is now gifting you three traversal opportunities. Wishing you a pleasant management experience!]
Su Wudeng’s eyes lit up. The Great Prosperity Era?
She had read introductions to this era. It was a time when nature hadn’t yet been ravaged by the Great Cataclysm. Pet beasts were everywhere, visible wherever you looked.
Did that mean she could travel to the Great Prosperity Era to obtain those living, breathing, and real pet beasts?
Su Wudeng was practically shedding tears of joy. Who else could understand the cold, miserable feeling of reaching out in the morning only to stroke a lump of iron!
What she wanted was a fluffy, warm little creature! The bliss of having a hot little body pressed tightly against her, rubbing its wet nose against her cheek, and purring affectionately!
System! Take me there right now!
