"Boss, your 'fortune cat' doesn't seem to be working."
A clear female voice rang out at the door.
Xu Mo looked up and saw Lin Xi— the girl from the milk tea shop next door— leaning against the doorframe, tilting her chin toward the motionless ceramic cat by his hand.
"Maybe it's out of battery," Xu Mo replied listlessly, flicking the cat's arm to make it sway stiffly up and down.
His pet shop, named "Cute Pet Home," was located on a quiet snack street near the university town. He'd originally thought many students would come here to buy pets.
As it turned out, business on this street was terrible.
Today, he hadn't made a single sale again.
"Don't be so down," Lin Xi handed him a cup of lemon water. "Here, buy you a drink. Think of it as an early wish for you to make a fortune tomorrow."
"Thanks, but I bet it'll just keep collecting dust tomorrow too," Xu Mo said, nodding toward the cash register.
Lin Xi was about to say something else when the order buzzer in her shop went off. She had to wave goodbye and leave.
Xu Mo took a sip of the cold lemon water, let out a long sigh, and slouched back into his chair. He pulled out his knockoff smartphone— its screen was a bit yellowed, but it still worked for scrolling through short videos.
He flicked aimlessly through his phone, watching pet bloggers get hundreds of thousands of likes on random clips. Glancing at his empty shop, he felt a pang of frustration.
"Sigh, other people's dogs can even do backflips, but my life can't even make a splash."
He was about to swipe past a game ad when his finger froze.
A shoddy ad pop-up had taken over the entire screen:
[Tired of your monotonous, unchanging life?][Want to feel your heart race?][Shanhaijing GO— take you to explore the other side of the world!]
"What the hell is this?" Xu Mo frowned and skillfully tapped the red "X" in the top right corner.
Nothing happened.
He tapped it several more times, but the red cross might as well have been just a sticker. The back button didn't work. The home button was useless. He locked and unlocked the screen— and the ad was still there.
"Damn it, rogue software!" Xu Mo grew annoyed. "Are there still ads you can't close these days?"
He tried pressing and holding the screen, but only one option popped up: [Download Now].
Xu Mo struggled with it for five minutes, and finally gave in.
"Fine, you win. I'll download it, okay?"
He sighed and tapped [Download], thinking he'd uninstall it later and leave a one-star review on the app store.
The progress bar moved quickly; the app finished installing in a few seconds. A shabby ink-wash style icon appeared on his home screen— it looked like a Bagua diagram.
Under the icon were three characters: Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas).
"They even cut out the 'GO'— really skimping on costs," Xu Mo muttered as he opened the "culprit" app.
No flashy opening animation, no exciting background music.
The phone screen flickered, and he was taken straight to the game's main interface.
At the top were a few function buttons: [Compendium], [Backpack], [Quests]— all grayed out, unclickable.
The core of the interface, though, was a map.
"Hey, this map..." Xu Mo sat up straight.
The map's style was just as shoddy, like something from an old electronic map a decade ago. But every street, every building on it was identical to the city he lived in.
He could even see the location of his own "Cute Pet Home"— a small, unremarkable gray square.
Most of the map was calm, but in the northeastern corner of the city, inside the outline of a park, an icon was glowing. It was the silhouette of an animal with several tails trailing behind it.
Curious, Xu Mo tapped the icon.
[Mythical Creature Name]: Juvenile Nine-Tailed Fox[Rank]: Mortal Grade (Extremely Weak)[Description]: Descended from ancient divine beast bloodlines. Stranded in the mortal world for unknown reasons, with depleted spiritual energy and critical vitality.[Coordinates]: Qingfeng Park, Abandoned Botanical Garden Area, Under the Third Pagoda Tree.
"Juvenile nine-tailed fox?" Xu Mo almost laughed. "Keep making this up. Qingfeng Park? It's right behind my shop— how come I never knew there was a fox den there?"
He thought the game was treating him like an idiot. He'd seen plenty of these shoddy AR game gimmicks before: you go to the designated location, scan with your camera, and a poorly modeled "mythical creature" pops up on the screen for you to take a photo of and post on social media.
"Boring."
Xu Mo said that, but he glanced at the glowing coordinates again.
At six o'clock in the evening, he closed his shop on time. The setting sun dyed the sky orange, and the number of pedestrians and cars on the street gradually thinned out.
Instead of going straight home, he took a detour toward Qingfeng Park.
"Just a walk," he told himself. "Let's see what this lousy game is up to."
The abandoned botanical garden area of Qingfeng Park was almost deserted. Weeds grew wild, mosquitoes swarmed, and a few dilapidated greenhouses stood there— looking a bit eerie in the dusk.
Xu Mo brushed away cobwebs blocking his path while checking the phone map. The blue arrow representing him and the glowing mythical creature icon slowly overlapped on the screen.
"Under the third pagoda tree..." He stopped and looked up.
In front of him was an old pagoda tree with a thick trunk but yellowing branches and leaves. Beneath it were waist-high bushes— dark, with nothing visible inside.
Just then, his phone screen changed. The map disappeared, replaced by a simple 3D scene: the patch of grass in front of him.
A line of large text popped up:
[Arrived at capture location. Throw a "Spiritual Connection Ball" to capture?]
Below were two options: [Yes] and [No].
"Looks like they put some effort into this," Xu Mo chuckled. Out of curiosity, he tapped [Yes] on the screen.
He expected the phone to vibrate or play a capture animation.
What happened next, though, completely exceeded his comprehension.
A faint beam of light actually shot out of his phone screen and quietly sank into the grass ahead.
"Huh?" Xu Mo froze, thinking he was seeing things.
Then, a tiny, whimpering sound came from the grass— painful, like a newborn kitten mewling.
Xu Mo's heart tightened.
No longer hesitating, he pushed aside the bushes and stepped unsteadily into them.
Deep in the grass, by the light of his phone screen, he saw a small, snow-white fox curled up on the ground.
It was barely bigger than a cat. Its fur was caked with dirt and dried blood, and one of its hind legs was twisted at an unnatural angle— clearly seriously injured.
What made his breath catch, though, was the three fluffy white tails trailing behind the little fox.
"...Is this real?" Xu Mo's mind went blank.
He squatted down slowly and reached out, wanting to touch this creature that only existed in myths and legends.
The little fox seemed to sense him. It lifted its head warily, its eyes filled with fear— but it didn't even have the strength to bare its teeth, only letting out weak whimpers.
Xu Mo's fingertips gently brushed the soft white fur on the fox's forehead.
"Buzz—"
The phone in his pocket suddenly began to vibrate violently.
Bright light flashed on the screen, and lines of large text popped up one after another:
[Capture Successful!][Target Detected: Juvenile Nine-Tailed Fox (Divine Beast Bloodline)][Target is extremely weak; vital signs below 10%][To ensure target survival, "Symbiosis Contract" automatically activated!]
The moment the contract took effect, a warm current suddenly emanated from the little fox. It traveled up Xu Mo's fingertips and spread through his entire body in an instant.
The tiredness and irritation he'd felt all day vanished. He perked up, as if he'd drunk an energy drink.
The feeling was so real!
And the little creature under his hand seemed to feel better too. It stopped whimpering, and its tense body slowly relaxed. With all its strength, it lifted its small head and carefully licked Xu Mo's finger.
That warm, moist touch softened Xu Mo's heart.
But after the shock, a big problem hit him:
"...How do I take care of this?"
He looked around. The little fox was so badly injured that it needed treatment right away. But could he take it to a pet hospital?
Dare he say to the vet, "Hello, doctor. This fox has three tails— can you take a look at it?"
He'd probably walk in the front door and be dragged to a special research institute as a lunatic, with the fox in tow.
Even if he could get treatment for it— what did it eat? What did it drink? He couldn't just feed it dog food, could he?
It was a mythical creature! A living, breathing mythical creature! Nothing in his pet shop would be useful for it.
For the first time, Xu Mo didn't know what to do. He realized that the peaceful life he'd lived for over twenty years had come to an end the moment he met this little fox.
He took a deep breath, carefully took off his jacket, gently wrapped the weak little fox in it, and tucked it into his arms.
The little fox nuzzled against him, then fell into a deep sleep.
"Screw it— let's take it back to the shop first," Xu Mo decided.
He held the little creature and turned to leave. But just as he did, his phone screen lit up again, and a blood-red warning box popped up:
[Novice Quest Unlocked: First Meal][Quest Description: Your new companion is running out of energy. Find "spiritual energy"-infused food for it within 1 hour.][Failure Penalty: Symbiosis Contract invalidated. Juvenile Nine-Tailed Fox will die completely.]
Beneath the quest description, a bright red countdown began ticking relentlessly:
[59:59][59:58]
Staring at those blinding numbers, Xu Mo felt his scalp go numb.
"Spiritual energy?!"
"Where the hell am I supposed to find spiritual energy?!"...