"Brother, time to get up."
Eh?
"Who is calling me?"
"Wait a minute."
"Wasn't I sleeping alone? Who's talking?"
Surprised and bewildered, Lin Fan quickly opened his eyes. He turned around to take a look. But he was surprised he found that he was in an unfamiliar room.
He turned around.
At the foot of the bed stood a delicate and cute girl with bright eyes and white teeth, wearing orange pajamas with cartoon characters. She was pretty.
'What is going on? When I went to sleep I was in my room and I was alone at that, now here I am in an unfamiliar place.' Lin Fan thought to himself.
Suddenly, as if space and time were quivering...
Lin Fan's vision blurred. Like flood currents, countless pieces of information were surging in his head from all sides.
"Lin Fan? Lin Xue?"
"Celestial Pets?"
"Another world?"
The information that came in a continuous stream was confusing and overwhelming. Lin Fan felt his head was about to explode, and the pain was unbearable. He had to clench his teeth to somewhat hold back the urge to utter a sound.
He didn't know how long it took before the messy storm of information in his head gradually quieted down. Some clips of memory emerged in an orderly manner along the timeline.
He had been transported to another world...
Lin Fan came to the realization. No wonder he was in this unfamiliar room with that strange girl.
"However, I was just curling up at home to sleep! How could I be transported to another world like this?"
"Was it because I used my hand for some pre-sleep exercise?"
Inside, Lin Fan was smiling bitterly. He began to sort through the memories in his mind.
"This is a world similar to Earth. But the technology is more advanced, already having entered the era of interstellar travels, reaching far beyond the earth. At the same time, the focus here is not technological development, but the unique Celestial Pets!"
"Celestial Pets come in great variety and have everything to do with human society. There are Tool Pets who are in charge of infrastructure, transportation, and work in daily life, even in scientific research! Battle pets are responsible for pioneering new frontiers amongst the stars and they also offer support in wars. When it comes to battles and status classification of major countries, the might of the battle pets is the decisive factor!"
"Celestial Pets..."
Lin Fan indulged himself in those memory clips. The more he knew, the more shocked he was.
Once he finished browsing through the memories of his body's original owner, Lin Fan found this life both funny and annoying. This brother and sister were such a quarrelsome pair; they mutually couldn't stand the sight of the other since young. At first, Lin Fan was the one who often played pranks to bully and scare his younger sister. However, the tables had turned as they grew up. It was Lin Fan's turn to spend his days on tenterhooks.
The trigger for such a change was that they had entered different schools when they were twelve.
One of them went to a common trade school.
The other went to the Academy of Celestial Pet Warriors!
In a world that was centered on Celestial Pets, not everyone could become a Celestial Pet Warrior. Only the ones that were well-endowed at birth could build contracts with Celestial Pets!
It was determined at birth that the former "Lin Fan" didn't have such talent, which meant that he was destined to be a normal person.
But, in their childhood, this pair of brothers and sisters didn't understand this concept. Therefore, the talented Lin Xue had always been the one on the receiving end, being constantly bullied by Lin Fan who had no talent to train Celestial Pets.
Once they realized the difference between them, the disastrous life for Lin Fan had finally begun.
This younger sister of his was not one to be taken lightly. She harbored a bitter resentment due to all the times she had been bullied by her big brother. She had been repaying him that kindness by several folds over the years.
In the present day, the gap between them had widened even more. One of them was a genius girl who was enrolled in a famous school, with a promising future ahead of her, while the other couldn't even get into an average university. He would have to drop out of school to help out the family in the business.
It was determined at birth that the former "Lin Fan" didn't have such talent, which meant that he was destined to be a normal person.
"Well, what are you doing there? You didn't damage your head with the fall, did you?"
Lin Xue felt something unusual as she stared at the dumbstruck Lin Fan who was sitting on the ground. She frowned since she remembered that he fell head first.
She wasn't worried about Lin Fan's safety, but their parents might blame her for this.
"Eh?"
Lin Fan came back to his senses. He threw a look at the proud girl who was there holding her head high with her arms folded in front of her chest. He didn't know what to do with her. "Don't play pranks like this anymore," said Lin Fan.
Since he had taken over this body, he didn't want to continue with the practical-joke-revenge living arranged by his sister.
Lin Xue was taken aback.
"Wouldn't he usually jump right up and give vent to a torrent of abuse to call me a shrew?
"Why is he so quiet today?
"Could it be...
"He thinks I could become soft-hearted just because he wants to submit?
"Hmm!"
"As long as you haven't become dumb. Well, truth be told, maybe you can become smarter with your head smashed, given your poor intelligence." Lin Xue sneered. She turned around and left right away. "Don't dawdle. Hurry up and get down for breakfast. Don't make Mom tell me to come up and get you again!"
Slam!
She smashed the door behind her.
Lin Fan produced a forced smile. Why was his younger sister so violent when other people's sisters were cute and lovable girls?
Whoosh!
The door was pulled open again.
Lin Fan was startled. It was Lin Xue who had returned. She hid her spooky face behind the door as she added, "Also, don't tell Mom on me. Or else..." Then she made a cutthroat gesture.
Slam!
The poor door had to shoulder another strike before Lin Fan could give a reply.
"..."
Lin Fan sat there for a while and crawled back up after he was sure no more sounds were coming from outside.
He glanced around the room and saw many action figures and posters of Celestial Pets. While he was a normal person in this world, he wasn't inferior to the average Celestial Pet Warriors regarding the studies on Celestial Pets.
Of course, this didn't stem from his great love of Celestial Pets. This bro hated Celestial Pets. He was only delving in such studies to find a way to defeat Celestial Pets as an average person!
To be more accurate, to find a way to defeat his sister's Celestial Pet!
However, many years had passed; he was still on the receiving end of maltreatment and contempt without the ability to fight back. One could only imagine how difficult his life had been, for him to have researched this much.
Lin Fan had a surge of mixed feelings after he reviewed the 18-year life of this man. Not only was he a good-for-nothing, but he had also offended the only powerful person he could have latched himself to. He had been mischievous since he was a kid. He created so many troubles and fooled his sister many times. He would put caterpillars in her lunchbox or scare her in the dead of night by dressing up as a ghost. He was practically the cause of her childhood trauma.
Look at the results. He had turned the girl whose coattails he could ride on into his foe. Besides, this sister of his was not a kind person. She had become his adulthood trauma for a change.
Lin Fan definitely had to find a chance to reconcile with this powerful sister. Otherwise, he would be traumatized or his nerves would be wrecked after a few more rounds of peculiar scares.
Lin Fan got himself ready, then he put on his slippers and headed downstairs.
"What took you so long? The congee is getting cold. Hurry up," his mother, Su Yun, said. She seemed to be in her forties, gentle and refined.
Lin Xue had already dug in and remained by the table.
"Mom, I'm done. I'll be heading to the academy now." Lin Xue was no longer in the mood to stay. She finished her breakfast quickly and bid farewell to her mom.
When she was about to leave, Su Yun stopped her, "Xiao Xue, wait."
"Ah?" Lin Xue turned around.
"Recently, your brother's store hasn't been performing very well, it's not quite popular. How about you put Death Cat there just to put on the dog?" Su Yun tried to sound her out.
Lin Xue was surprised. She threw a glance at Lin Fan who was swallowing down the congee. She rolled her eyes and grumpily reasoned with her, "Mom, the business has been worsening day by day since you let this guy take over. Why do you think that is? The reason is that this guy is not attending to his proper duties. Do you still remember when someone almost filed a complaint against us at the Association of Celestial Pets?
"Someone left a 'Messenger Bird' there for the boarding service. However, it started saying 'f*ck you dumb**s' to all the people it met, and it would blurt out all kinds of curse words, all in less than a week. A few days later, the bird was beaten to death and this case remained unresolved!"
"Do you have the courage to have my Death Cat be raised by him when he can't even take care of a Messenger Bird? There is hope that Death Cat can advance to a Celestial Pet of the eighth rank. If you don't mind, I won't, either. After all, you were the one that bought me Death Cat."
Su Yun was rendered speechless. She opened her mouth but ended up sighing.
If it weren't for the fact that she had to rest quietly to recuperate since she was under the weather, she wouldn't have asked Lin Fan to take over the store so early.
Lin Fan could sense his sister's unkind glare but decided to keep silent. He lowered his head and continued eating the congee without paying attention to Lin Xue.
"Hmm!" she snorted, after sensing that Lin Fan knew how to behave in a delicate situation. She picked up Death Cat who was still eating bones and went back to her room to get changed and head out.
A moment later, Lin Fan had also finished his breakfast. As per usual, after Su Yun told him to take care, he rode the bike to the store.
It was a Celestial Pets store.
Lin Fan was a dabbler trainer. His work was more related to Celestial Pets' servicing than to actual training.
After all, the real master trainers could change the potential and rank of a Celestial Pet. The master trainers enjoyed similar, or even higher positions than Celestial Pet Warriors!
Along the way, Lin Fan saw high buildings and large mansions, just like on Earth. The only thing different was the peculiar-looking Celestial Pets walking alongside most of the pedestrians.
"I am indeed in another world..." Lin Fan exclaimed. Everything was like a dream but it was every bit as real.
Soon, he arrived at his family's Celestial Pet store.
The store was at the end of a commercial street, a relatively remote location, but it used to be pretty popular. Lin Fan's mother Su Yun was an official Celestial Pet trainer of the Federation. While she was only an elementary trainer, she was more than capable of opening a small store like this. She had loads of repeat customers.
But things turned south quickly when Lin Fan took over the store.
Could anyone expect that a person who disliked Celestial Pets would take good care of them?
Crash~!
Lin Fan opened the roller shutter door. He could see dust stirring up in the air when sunshine reached the interior of the store.
It seemed the store hadn't been cleaned in a long time. There was a pungent smell of animal urine and feces coming from the inside.
Lin Fan frowned and held his breath for a bit.
All of a sudden, cold mechanic sounds emerged in Lin Fan's mind.
"A suitable soul was detected within the target range. Performing contract detection..."
"Contract completed. Adding to the system..."
"Completed... Ready to launch..."
"System?"
Lin Fan paused for a second. Then, a glow burst out from his eyes.
What should come was coming...