Chapter 17 – A Scam?
Sarah saw that the Pasken Pet Nursery had just opened their business a few hours ago based on the balloons and banner at the front of the shop. Sarah decided to check out the shop. Since she had money now, her worried about Saow was gone. All she needed to do was find a pet nursery to heal Saow.
There were quite a lot of people crowding in front of the nursery. Sarah stood in the crowd and asked a girl standing in the crowd there, "Is this nursery good? Why are so many people here? I thought this nursery just opened this morning?" Sarah asked.
"Hmm?" The girl looked behind her and saw Sarah. "We are not sure if this nursery is good or not. If you read the services they offer and the effects mentioned by them…" the girls paused for a few seconds and Sarah was confused.
'Why is she pausing? Tell me more,' thought Sarah.
"It is a bit ridiculous," the girl said while smiling. She did not detest or had much doubt about what had happened. She also thought that the nursery was probably hyping too much and she also thought that it was normal for a new business to talk big about their business.
"Ridiculous? Why?" Sarah asked.
"Just read the signboard at the front and you will understand it," said the young girl.
"Didn't someone try it? Try it first and then you can judge it yourself," said Sarah.
"No one dares to try because we all know that it is too exaggerating and possibly a scam too," said the young girl.
"Then… Why are you all crowding here?" Sarah asked. She thought that it did not make any sense for them to crowd the nursery. Since they did not believe it and dared not to try it, why waste time crowding the front of the nursery?
"Well… we are waiting for someone to try first and see if what they say is the truth. Also, I am just here to see if there will be an interesting show to see," said the young girl while smiling.
"…" Sarah was speechless. 'What in the world are these guys? Aren't they the one that is ridiculous now? I thought that they want to attack this nursery that is highly likely trying to scam people but none dare to try it,' Sarah shook her head.
She had no idea what made none of them dared to try the service but she decided to try it herself. As a high school teacher as well as a strong tamer, she was not scared of trying. If the nursery was a scam, she just needed to file a report and everything else would follow naturally.
Sarah braced through the crowd and got to the front of the nursery. She saw the sign board hanging at the side of the front door listing the services and effects of the services they provided.
"Pet foods, market price… We guarantee that all of them are fresh…" Sarah read the signboard. 'Okay~' thought Sarah.
"Nursing Service, 100 Peto per hour. The healing time will be based on the injuries suffered by the pet. Any physical and internal injuries can be healed including re-growing limbs," Sarah frowned when she read the nursing service descriptions.
'… 100 Peto per hour and can regrow limbs?' Sarah knew why everyone felt like the nursery was a scam. It was not impossible to regrow pet limbs but the treatment for that was super expensive. It reached millions but with only 100 Peto per hour, they could regrow pet limbs?
Sarah continued reading, "Care service, 50 Peto per hour. Our care service can help heal pets' mental illness. Not only that, with our care service, but there is also a high chance for pets to increase their talent. We guarantee that in a few hours of our care, your pets will be rid of their mental illness and their talents will increase," Sarah scratched her head.
"… This is too exaggerating. The girl is right," said Sarah. She said this out loud.
It was not impossible to heal mental illness and increase pet talents but it could not be done in a few hours. Impossible. The fastest to increase pet talent by 1% was half a month of eating many good pet foods. To heal mental illness would take a much longer time.
"Training service, 10 000 Peto per session. One session is one hour of training. We guarantee that no matter the potential and tier of the pet, within one session, the pet will at least have an increase in stat by 0.1 points," Sarah sighed. She shook her head.
"This is a scam. I better try it to get evidence and report it after this," said Sarah. There were more words below the list of services and Sarah read them too. "At the moment, we will only accept Newborn Stage pets. In the future, our service will be opened to higher stages of pets."
After reading that, Sarah decided to try the service. She entered the nursery and was shocked to see the space in the shop became spacious. She saw a lot of chairs around and knew instantly that it was the waiting area.
"Space room?" She started doubting what she thought earlier. There was no way a scam business to use the space room because they were super expensive.
'Perhaps they labored money to make this believable. Will they use dangerous drugs on my pets,' Sarah turned serious. She had a feeling that the nursery was done by a powerful criminal organization possibly to test on their newly made drugs.
"Welcome~" A sweet female voice welcomed her. Sarah's demeanor changed when she thought of the possibility of a big criminal organization trying to do something bad. Even so, when she heard the sweet voice, she looked at the person behind the counter and Sarah smiled sweetly. She was acting. If by chance the criminal caught on her, it would be dangerous.
Sarah walked to the counter and said, "Is what you listed at the signboard true?" Sarah asked while smiling.
"Yes. All of them are true. You can try them first and if you are not satisfied, we can refund your money," said Katheryn while smiling. "Which service do you want to try?" Katheryn asked.
'This old woman is good at acting. Look at that smile. It looks genuine and sincere!' thought Sarah. Katheryn was 49 years old but she did not look that old. She looked like someone in her mid-30s.
"My furball lost her appetite for the past few days. Which service do you think is the best for her?" Sarah asked while looking worried.
[The care service can help the furball. It will improve the furball's mood and increase her appetite] Sery sounded in Katheryn's mind.
"The care service can help your furball to improve her appetite," said Katheryn while smiling.
"Oh, then, I want the care service," said Sarah while smiling.
"We will need your pet in card form," said Katheryn.
"Ok~" Sarah turned on her system and there were about 13 pet cards in her disposal. One of them was a gold furball. She took out the gold furball's card and gave it to Katheryn. Katheryn put the gold furball's card on the scanning machine and the card was scanned.
All of its stats were shown on the monitor but Katheryn frowned. The status showed that it was healthy. 'Sery?' Katheryn asked in his mind.
[Just play along with this woman. She thought that we are a scammer and tried our service to collect evidence. She has good intentions. Once her furball improves, she will know that we are not scammers] said Sery.
'You know this from the beginning?' Katheryn asked in her mind.
[Yes. Everything that happens in my territory will be known by me. Their thoughts, intentions, feelings, everything is in my grasp. That is why this building is the safest place for our family because I am the best bodyguard] said Sery.
"It will take one hour to improve your furball's appetite," said Katheryn. Sarah nodded. "We need your ID for registration," said Katheryn while smiling.
Sarah gave her ID and Katheryn scanned the ID on the scanning machine. Sarah's data was added to the Pet Nursery System and Katheryn asked for the service payment. She paid 50 Peto with her e-wallet and decided to wait for one hour. Sarah sat on the chairs in the waiting area and played with her phone.
Katheryn brought the gold furball's card to Room No 2 and set it in the normal pet playground for one hour. Once the time ended, she would get the notification in her system. Katheryn got back to the counter and sat there while waiting.
An hour later, Katheryn got the notification that the care service for the gold furball had ended. She went back to Room No 2 and picked up the gold furball that was happily playing in the pet playground. She turned the gold furball into the card and brought it back to the counter.
"Miss Sarah, your pet is here," Katheryn called Sarah. Sarah stopped playing with her phone and went to receive her gold furball. Katheryn gave the pet card back to Sarah. "Please check your pet to see if they are fine. If you are not satisfied with our service, we will refund your money back," said Katheryn while smiling.
Sarah put the gold furball's pet card in her system and checked its status. Sarah was stunned because all three of her gold furball's talent had slightly increased. 'What the? How is this possible?' Sarah could not believe it.
She checked the status properly to see if there were an indicator of an unknown drug presence in her gold furball. If there were foreign substances in the pet's body, the system could detect it and showed it in the status screen but there were none.
Sarah was shocked. Her gold furball was extremely fine and there was no foreign substance found in her body. The system had never failed in detecting this kind of thing, so the nursery couldn't use a drug that was untraceable by the system.
Sarah decided to summon her gold furball. The gold furball appeared in front of her and it looked extremely fine. Not only that but Sarah could feel from her connection with the gold furball that its mood was extremely happy.
'Unbelievable!!!' Sarah was screaming in her mind. 'Are what written on the front board the truth?'
"We are not a scammer. Please don't report us to the authorities. You have seen the results yourself our dear customer," said Katheryn.
"Huh?" Sarah was stunned. She looked at Katheryn and saw Katheryn smiled bitterly. "… You know?" Sarah asked. Katheryn nodded.
"There are only four of us in the nursery. Me, my father, and my two children. We are from Wiuyi City," said Katheryn and she looked sad. When Sarah heard Wiuyi City, she immediately knew what Katheryn was trying to say.
The incident that happened in Wiuyi City was well known all over the world.
"My husband passed away when a strong monster attacked our city. We moved here a few days ago using the compensation money given by the government. My father is a retired pet trainer. He decided to use his experience as a pet trainer to open this pet nursery. We just use our knowledge to start a new life here," said Katheryn, and her eyes were filled with tears.
"… Well, what you write there is a bit too much. Everyone thinks that you are a scammer. Also, even if your father is a retired pet tamer, it is impossible to raise pet talent this fast," said Sarah.
"That is a family secret. So, I cannot tell you but you can see yourself that we are telling the truth. We did not use any medicine or drug to increase your gold furball's talent," said Katheryn.
"…" Sarah did not know why but her heart hurt when she heard Katheryn mentioned 'drug'. She felt guilty for having that thought but she was not at fault. Everyone, including her, felt the nursery was a scam when they read the list of services. What was written there was too much.
"Well… I am sorry for doubting this nursery but is what you listed at the front board real?" Sarah asked for confirmation. She had experienced the care service and she wondered if other services were true too.
Katheryn wiped her tears and said, "Yes, we are telling the truth. We can do what we wrote on the board."
Sarah thought for a bit. "You can get a refund if you are not satisfied," said Katheryn.
When Sarah heard that they were victims of the monster attack, her heart softened a bit. She did not fully trust them yet but decided to give it another try. She had witnessed what happened to her gold furball which was currently happily bouncing around in the waiting area. The gold furball's mood was at the peak after it had tasted the care service.
Sarah decided to try healing Saow there. Since she could get a refund if she were not satisfied, there was nothing wrong if she gave it a try. Sarah gave Saow to Katheryn and bought the nursing service.
Katheryn scanned Saow's card and the monitor showed that it would take two hours to fully heal the Snow Samoyed. When Sarah heard that, she was stunned. 'That fast?' but she decided to do it.
Katheryn went to Room No 1 with Saow's card in her hand. "That was easy. When she heard that I have children and we are victims of the monster attack, she softened quickly," said Katheryn while smiling. "She is a kind teacher. Maybe I can introduce Lucas to her."
[… Madam is scary���] thought Sery.