Cultivation Pet Shop

After having fun at the old man's expense, Lin Fan headed back into the store and closed all the curtains before heading back out.

He let the system do what it did best and in just a few minutes, the shop had been completely decorated in the same way as the other stores.

Now the only thing he had to do was stock up the ingredients and open the next morning.

Of course, there was something else he had to do as well since this store was being opened in a different situation compared to the rest.

Instead of having a backer that helped him promote the store, this time he started with nothing. Well, it wasn't exactly nothing since he had already set up another business and a spy network in the city already, but it was still much less than having the ruling family of the city support you.

Not to mention that if he attracted too much attention, he would attract the attention of the Jiang Family before it was time.

So Lin Fan did something that was different compared to before, he actually advertised his store, but he didn't use normal advertisements. He went on the forums of this city to advertise using a challenge.

He had his subordinates make multiple posts about his store on the forums.

The gist of it was, "I've heard that there is a pet store that will offer you twice the fee if you're not satisfied with their training." Then they also added the price of the training to their post. With how high Lin Fan's fees were, naturally there would be many people who would be enticed by this.

So Lin Fan let things stew under the surface while he went to the house that his subordinates had prepared for him to rest up for the night.

When he arrived at the store first thing the next morning, he had been expecting to see a crowd forming outside his store, but he was proven wrong.

Rock Mountain City was a S Rank City, but unlike the other S Rank Cities, this city's economy was much worse.

In the other cities, there were two forces that balanced each other, which meant that no power could hold a monopoly in that city. Not to mention that the ruling families were actually kind families that cared about developing the city, so they did their best to improve the economy and share the wealth. However, it was different here in Rock Mountain City.

The Jiang Family was the sole ruling force in this city, so naturally they could form a monopoly on all business in the city. But of course, no family could rule alone, so they gave advantages to the family that supported them. In the end, that meant that all the families that supported them flourished while the other families that defied them were all chased out.

The Jiang Family was unlike the other Legendary Realm Families who cared about developing their cities. The Jiang Family only cared about their own benefits, so they didn't distribute the wealth with the citizens of the city, keeping most of it for themselves.

That meant that Rock Mountain City operated on a noble caste system where one was ranked based on their heritage and family power. The rich became richer while the poor suffered in their poverty with the middle class not doing that much better than the poor.

However, two thousands crystals was a large amount, so naturally it had drawn in a few people in the end.

But not a single one of them used Lin Fan's service in the end.

That was because unlike in the other cities, most people in this city had to rely on their strength to survive, so the average level of cultivation was much higher than the other S Rank Cities.

Most of the people who came to the store were all in the Bronze Realm and it cost a thousand crystals to train their pets.

Even if they were tempted by the two thousand crystals that they could get from just testing this training once, in truth, they weren't able to afford it at all.

Most of them didn't earn more than a few crystals a month, so there was no way they would have a thousand crystals just lying around.

Some of them had the idea of grouping together and then splitting the profits between themselves, but most of them couldn't find enough people who they trusted to do this with.

Rock Mountain City wasn't just poor, it was also lacking in public security since the Jiang Family that ruled it didn't believe in investing in public services. All they did was maintain a certain part of the city where the nobility lived while the other parts of the city received no support at all.

Other than the main shopping areas which had a few guards around, there were no other guards found all over the city, which greatly decreased public security.

So most people either had close friends or they didn't associate with people at all since no one was certain what the other person would do.

The only reason the main shopping area was even guarded was because the nobles had invested in some stores there, but the guards only guarded the stores of the nobles and didn't care about what happened on the streets at all.

When Lin Fan had been exploring yesterday with Angela and Song Shu, he had been targeted by pickpocket four times in a row. Of course, none of them had been able to steal a single thing from Lin Fan and had all received a harsh lesson, but that proved just how bad the security in the town was.

But Rock Mountain City never fell into chaos because it was a city that was guarded by a Legendary Realm Family. No one was crazy enough to pick a fight with a Legendary Realm Family since they represented the peak of the Blue Star World.

Other than petty crimes, no one dared to do anything too serious.

Of course, there was another reason for why the city was never completely filled with chaos.

It was because there was the Seeker Guild branch that was near Rock Mountain.

Rock Mountain was filled with many minerals, but it was also filled with many rock type beasts that were very dangerous.

In order to take care of these beasts, seekers would be sent into the mines from time to time to clear out portions before workers would be allowed into the mines for work.

The main thing was that the leader of this branch was a powerful man who had grown up in Rock Mountain City, so he had a deep connection to the city. If anyone ever took it too far, he would always stop them personally.

The Seeker Guild was an organization that was on the same level as the Monster Trainer Union, so even if he was only the leader of the branch, no one would offend him for no reason.

With these two deterring forces, the situation in Rock Mountain City never reached a point where it was considered bad, but it definitely wasn't considered good.

Lin Fan spent the entire day waiting in the store, watching as people came and left.

There were even a few that had tried to shoplift, but Lin Fan didn't even need to do a thing since the moment they tried leaving with their stolen goods, they would bump into an invisible wall.

This happened several times and there were even a few who had tried to break through with force, but the only thing that happened was that they were slammed into the ground by the force of their own attack.

Eventually, rumours began spreading about Lin Fan's store and soon no one dared to steal from it again.

But even with these rumours and with the enticement of his offer, he still couldn't get anyone to use the services of his store.

Lin Fan had sat there for an entire day, watching various people come in and out of his store, but not a single person had come to the counter to talk to him.

All of them wandered around for a bit before leaving the store and by the end of the day, he didn't have a single customer.

Lin Fan didn't know what to do, he never thought that the situation in Rock Mountain City would be this bad.

After thinking about it, Lin Fan decided to use money to solve his problem.

That night, most of the posts on the forum had changed and now they were offering four times the compensation.

That's right, it had gone from two thousand crystals to four thousand crystals if they weren't satisfied with the service.

​ Four thousand crystals definitely wasn't a small amount, it was an amount that a family could live a frugal life on without ever having to work, but still it didn't work.

When Lin Fan came to the store the next day, there were certainly more people that had shown up to check out his store, either coming because of the enticement of the posts or after hearing the rumours of what happened yesterday.

However, even with all these people showing up, not a single person was an actual paying customer.

Most of them had come to check out either Lin Fan or the store and had left after wandering around.

It wasn't until the afternoon when Lin Fan was seriously pondering if he should change something that the first customer for this branch appeared.