001 - Buying a Pet Shop

Around 30 years ago, a new unknown particle is detected on earth. At the start, no one knows what particle is it, where it comes from, and why it comes so suddenly. After a few years of research, it is found that the new particle is affecting all living things, including humans.

The most known effect is the evolution of animals and plants to new kinds of living things. They are called as magical beasts and spirit plants respectively. In the first few years, it can be seen that the animal affected by mana particles is becoming stronger. Some aggressive creatures are also becoming more aggressive, giving headaches to all the security forces in the world.

s of now, there is still no indication that the new particle affecting humans immediately. But, there are still many things unknown about the particle, there may be some effect on humans or maybe not in the long term.

This new particle that takes the world to storm is called the mana particle.

***

Today. In front of some shop around 4 PM.

"Once again thank you." A young woman said this while bowing a little toward the man in front of her.

"No no, I should be the one to thank you," replied the man. He is a young man in his early twenties that tried to start his own business by buying this shop from a woman in front of him.

The woman is the daughter of this shop's late owner. She decided to sell this shop after his dad died two months ago and there is no one that can continue the business. With the shop sold, she can now focus on her own career without minding about other things.

"Now then, I should go now. If there is some document that I forgot, please contact me. I will bring that to you. I hope you can succeed in your business." The woman bid farewell and hoped for the man's success.

The man waves toward the leaving woman for a bit before going inside the shop. He then walks around his now-owned shop, looking at all the room. There are many cages for small animals of different colors lined up on the shelves in the front room. Other than that, there are also many pet equipment like pet bowls, pet toys, and many more. Not only that but there are also many kinds of food for pets that are stored on another shelf.

Yup, this place was a pet shop and not just a normal pet shop, this is a pet shop that specializes in magical beasts. 20 years ago, there is a sudden craze for magical beasts as a pet. The craze started when it is found that some pets that evolved into magical beasts become more intelligent. The more intelligent pet is very attractive as they can become partners to humans.

Many pet shops then started to offer magical beasts as one of a purchasable pets. Not only that there are many people that tried to follow the money by opening pet shops. Of course, as the demand is not unlimited, many pet shops can't continue the competition and closed their business. This pet shop can be said as one of the winners from that 'warring' time.

"It is actually impressive that this shop can endure the competition for more than 20 years," The young man muttered to himself.

"Well then, let's start with listing all the remaining items here." There are many things left in here as the late owner's daughter doesn't want to bother disposing of things like magical beast food. Of course, she also doesn't have any space to store all the pet equipment, so most of the pet equipment is also abandoned here.

After listing all of the items for an hour or two, the young man takes a little break. His laptop is opened and music can be heard from it, playing in the background.

"Most of the items can still be sold, only a few bags of pet food need to be disposed of." The young man thinks for a bit, "Will this really be alright? I suddenly get a little nervous about this decision to open a pet shop.

"Well, I have been doing all the paperwork and legalities. Not only that, there is also the loan... I have decided to try this, so no turning back now, I can only try my best to survive.

"Also, I still have the secret weapon that made me start this whole thing. It will be okay..."

This young man is called Evan Cross. His reason for starting a business in this industry that has hard competition is because of some happening six months ago.

*****

6 months ago

Evan is lying on his bed with a painful expression on his face. "Ugh, my head..."

A white bird with a streak of blue on each side of its wing fly toward Evan's head.

Evan caresses the white bird gently before saying, "Milky... Can you put the medicine back on the table?"

The white bird picks up the plastic bag containing the medicine using its beak to the table. It put down the bag and fly back toward Evan. At this time, Evan suddenly noticed that there is some kind of box beside Milky. It also becomes bigger when Milky comes closer to Evan.

"What is this?"

He tried to touch it, but there is no sensation in the box like nothing is there. He then tried to focus more on the box, and he can read some words.

"Hmm? I want to look more detailed but..." Feeling like his head getting thrown all over the place, he decided to not care about the weird floating box for now.

Evan took an entire day sleeping on the bed before he can move again.

"Milky! Milky~"

A white bird flew from the other room and landed on Evan's head.

"Did you eat something yesterday?"

Milky replied by flapping its wing and chirping happily. Evan then sees the remaining of fruit that Milky eat yesterday scattered on the floor.

Evan then wants to check about the box he saw yesterday so he picks up Milky from his head and brings it in front of his face.

"As expected, there is a box here."

The box gives information about Milky. Things like name, age, species, and even the real-time condition are listed there.

Not only that but there are also many menus on the box. Evan tried to concentrate on picking the training menu.

"Ah, another box appeared. Let's see...

"Intelligence training, Speed training, Strength training...

"What is this?"

Evan then checked the other menu on the boxes. He found that there are many pieces of information that are still not known by ordinary people. from how to train, raise, and even how to evolve magical beasts.

"Can I see the other animal's box? Or I can only see Milky's? Or am I finally going crazy?"

Later that day, Evan decided to go to the hospital to check if there is something wrong with his body. Logically thinking, there is no way this kind of thing can be explained by science. A floating box that can only be seen by me? On top of that, it contains many kinds of information that Evan never heard before.

In the end, there is nothing wrong with his body. The only anomaly is the mana density on his body is higher than an average human. There is also nothing that the doctor can do as there are many things still not known about mana. Evan only get a suggestion to contact the hospital if something happened.

On the way back, Evan goes to a pet shop before going back home. He wants to try looking at other animals and see if he can see the weird box.

The result is...

'I can see the box, the training menu is also here. This... I think I can make money with this.'

And that is how the idea of buying a pet shop started to manifest in Evan's mind. After that, he tried to buy a pet shop with the intention to offer training for pets. It is only six months later that he get the pet shop he wanted.