The mascot of the wishing shop is a cat.

After buying what they wanted, Lingjiu and Lingyan didn't go back immediately, but instead browsed around Lin Xiyue's shop.

Lin Xiyue's jewelry is made from cute anime characters from Earth, such as Pokémon, Starry Night, Little Lily, and Baby—all adorable and simple anime figures, as well as some cute chibi-style characters. Because Lin Xiyue has some basic drawing skills, the shop even offers simple customization services, so girls who have bought things from her before often recommend it to their friends.

"This is so cute (〃'▽'〃)! Even I, a grown man, think it's cute."

Lingyan held a cute red-eyed rabbit hair clip, admiring it so much that she turned around and showed it to Lingjiu.

"Do you think Lingji would like this if I gave it to her?"

"Oh? Oh, I think so. It's very cute."

"You haven't gotten used to it yet? Then let's go back first. I'll buy this hair clip and take it back to give to Lingji."

Noticing Lingjiu's unease, Lingyan decided to head back first. With that, he took the red-eyed rabbit hair clip and walked towards the counter.

"Young Master Lin, how much is this?"

Lin Xiyue looked up at him, and Fugui, who was sitting next to her, also looked at him, staring at him for a long time without blinking before lying down again.

"This is thirty-eight. If you want to give it as a gift, I have a gift box that I can help you wrap it."

"Okay, thank you for your help, Mr. Lin~ (*?w＜ ) "

What color packaging do you like?

"Ah, blue, I guess."

"Okay, here you go. Scan the code here for thirty-eight."

"Okay, thank you. d(′w｀*)"

Soon, Lingyan paid the bill and left with Lingjiu. After they left, Lin Xiyue didn't pay any attention and continued making the small jewelry she had designed earlier.

Meanwhile, Lingyan and Lingjiu, who had already gone far away, arrived at a safe resting spot.

"How were you? Did something feel off in the store?" Lingyan was still concerned about her youngest teammate, but it was hard to say anything before they met in the store.

"I've discovered a problem. The lair in the Otherworld is located right here at the Wishing Shop. While I can't pinpoint the exact location, it's definitely there, and the lair covers an extremely large area. I feel like it encompasses the entire shop."

Lingjiu was somewhat serious; once he got into work mode, he became exceptionally reliable.

"That is a problem, but we can't just doubt Boss Lin like that. She has helped us many times, and when we checked the information before, we found that there were no problems with her previous records. She only discovered that she had superpowers after the alien street murder incident, and it was even an ability that our staff helped her fully develop."

“I didn’t say that Ms. Lin had a problem. I can tell that she’s a good person and doesn’t have any bad intentions. I was referring to her cat.”

"Huh? A cat? Kittens are so cute. Boss Lin even dressed one up in a little cape. If our jobs weren't unsuitable for keeping pets, I'd want one too."

Lingyan was quite surprised, because in his opinion, apart from being particularly cute and aloof, there was nothing wrong with that cat.

“You know, I’m particularly sensitive to energy fluctuations. When you were talking so casually to Boss Lin, that cat glanced at you, and I immediately sensed a fluctuation. Moreover, I have a feeling that neither of us can beat it.”

"!! What! I wasn't being frivolous, I always talk like this, I like quick wit!! (╯°Д°)╯!"

Lingyan's hasty rebuttal missed the point.

Lingjiu rolled her eyes, suppressing the urge to hit him, and said, "What I mean is, I suspect that the nest is related to the black cat next to Boss Lin. According to the information, Boss Lin picked up that black cat. And according to the timeline, the nest appeared not long after she picked it up, and then Boss Lin moved and opened a shop, and the nest moved for the first time and hasn't moved since. In fact, because the nest is in that area, the surrounding underworld is much safer. Look at this map."

Lingjiu superimposed the two light screens displaying maps onto Lingyan and showed them to her, circling the location where the nest first appeared and the current location of the nest.

Because the inner world is eight times larger than the outer world, the map of the inner world is shrunk, but you can still roughly see that the locations do overlap.

"What do we do now? Will Boss Lin be in any danger?"

"Probably not. Do you remember the meeting we had before? The higher-ups told our elite team that the alien races have royal families. Their intelligence is similar to, or even higher than, that of humans, and their combat strength is also higher. However, they don't care about those lower-level alien races. In their eyes, the lower-level alien races are like chickens and ducks to us."

"You mean, that black cat might be royalty? Then why is it staying by Boss Lin's side? What's its motive?"

"I don't know. All we can do is tell the captain when we get back and let him decide what to do next."

"Ah, these are truly turbulent times..."

"boom--"

The door opened, and the other team members came in.

"What's going on? Why did you suddenly call us here? Weren't you just going to buy some things? Even if you didn't buy anything, it's not a big deal."

Lingji asked the question as soon as he entered.

"Well, I bought something useful at the store today, it's this."

Lingjiu took out the card to show everyone and continued, "In this respect, this card suits me very well. I tend to make mistakes when I encounter many people or people I don't know. This card increases my margin for error, increases the probability of our mission being completed, and reduces the potential casualties caused by mistakes. In this respect, I still support continuing the cooperation. Moreover, we have also developed new instruments using the card we rented last time, which can better identify alien races. This is good news for all mankind."

"That's true, and the last report showed that she's a well-educated but somewhat naive young girl. In popular parlance, she still has the air of a bright-eyed, foolish college student."

Lingji nodded in agreement, and she seemed quite interested in studying the card. However, since it was an ability card, she didn't realize that it was merely a medium and couldn't be used to research anything.

"However, I called you here for something else. I've discovered that her cat might be royalty from another race. That's what I figured out..."

After two hours of explanation and discussion, Captain Ling Ye made the final decision: "They are safe for now. Since that royal family member is hiding his identity and is close to Lin Xiyue, it means he won't expose himself. He even cleared out the surrounding alien races, so we only need to make contact periodically. I will report to my superiors and apply for our team to be temporarily stationed in this city. Anyway, there have been more spatial rifts in this area recently than in recent years, so it's reasonable to have a team stationed here. We'll also have a legitimate reason to make contact frequently, so everyone can keep a calm mindset. However, the specific people who will make contact are tentatively Lingji, Lingyan, and Lingjiu. There must be at least two of you each time you go."

"Yes."

"Follow your orders.o(*￣3￣)o"

"Yes."

Lingji and the other two accepted the order and then dispersed. After all, they would be stationed there from now on, and a stationed team would have an easier time than a team that only needed to deal with the area around the city in the early stages.

..............................

Evening, at the wishing shop.

Lin Xiyue's business was quite good today. The girls who came to buy jewelry earlier brought a whole bunch of friends, some of whom even brought their boyfriends. Some of them, after hearing that they could customize and make their own jewelry, happily ordered their desired designs and wrote down their requirements in the sketchbook that Lin Xiyue had been sketching recently. Others, on a whim, went to the crafting area with their boyfriends, planning to make couple rings or necklaces together.

So, Lin Xiyue was busy all day until evening. Luckily, she had leftovers from yesterday's cooking, so she just heated them up and ate them before heading to serve the next group of guests. However, she still made a nice cat meal for Fugui.

After finally seeing all the customers off, Lin Xiyue wearily closed the shop and collapsed onto the sofa.

"Waaah, I'm so tired."

Lin Xiyue hugged a Mianyang pillow and shouted in a cathartic manner on the sofa.

"Meow~"

"Fugui'er is right! I need to think about how much I made today! How wonderful!"

Lin Xiyue didn't really understand what the cat was saying; she just wanted to find an excuse to get up, otherwise she wouldn't have the motivation to stay on the sofa for any longer.

I opened the terminal and saw that today's gross profit from transfers was almost two thousand. After deducting material costs and my own time costs, the profit was probably close to one thousand. (I just wrote down these numbers randomly because I've never run a store and don't know the exact figures.)

"Hehehe, I love money! Money loves me! Money comes from all directions! (～￣▽￣)～"

Lin Xiyue hummed a song happily, only remembering the first few lines of the lyrics, but she was still happy. This was a large sum of money she had earned since transmigrating without relying on the system; who wouldn't be happy?

"Ding-dong-"

A system message interrupted Lin Xiyue's humming. She clicked on it and found it was a friend request. The profile picture was of a black night sky dotted with stars. The name was a single character—Dream.

After casually clicking "agree," the person sent me the first message.

(Dream: I am Meros.)

Me: You actually had the nerve to add me?! Last night I told you to come back to the wishing shop with me because I had something to ask you, but you disappeared halfway there!! (〃′皿`)q

Dream: Baby, I didn't mean to, please forgive me. o(￣▽￣)d I suddenly had an emergency, it wasn't intentional. Baby~( ? ?w?? )? Please forgive me~)

Wow! This guy is so good at acting cute! This is unbelievable! Wasn't he quite aloof when he first arrived at the private room last night?!

Lin Xiyue blushed deeply, covering her face as she stared at the chat interface on the terminal. The image of Mo Luosi lowering his eyes to input psionic energy for her yesterday seemed to appear before her eyes. His dark, tousled hair seemed to shimmer under the light, along with his long eyelashes, high nose bridge, and slightly pursed thin lips.

Well!

Lin Xiyue felt like she was about to get a nosebleed if she kept thinking about it.

How could I be so lecherous! But I don't smoke or drink, so what's wrong with being a little lecherous! If I were rich, I'd go to a male escort club, have women on both sides, and have someone sing for me—how great would that be!

Lin Xiyue, who initially felt embarrassed, became increasingly self-righteous the more she thought about it.

(Dream: Why is my baby ignoring me? ヽ(。ゝw?。)? Please don't be angry with me, okay?)

Dream: Baby, baby, baby! (Baby? Baby)

Dream: Look at me! ┭┮﹏┭┮）

In just a short while, Moros felt like his screen was about to be flooded with messages. Lin Xiyue quickly shook her head to clear her mind of the strange fantasies before replying to the messages.

(Me: Oh, I was just thinking about something. So, are you free now? Would you like to come to my shop for a bit? I have some questions for you. You can also come and eat here. Although I'm not a particularly good cook, I can cook some home-style dishes. I also wanted to thank you for helping me last night.)

Meng: Not now, ???. It'll have to wait a few days; I'm having some trouble here. Can I come to your house for dinner in a few days? I'll bring my own food; I eat a lot.

Me: Sure, let me know in advance when you've finished, so I can prepare. (*￣︶￣)

Dream: Then we're friends, right? (A cat cautiously peeks out.jpg)

Me: Yes, we're friends now. (?′▽｀)??

Dream: Now that we're friends, can I share parts of my life with you whenever I want? ヾ(????)?“

Me: Yes, that should be fine.

Dream: Yay! (o′?｀o) Okay, let me tell you, I ate chicken today, I love it so much, it's so tender. (????)

Me: I haven't eaten yet. I'll show you when I eat.

Meng: Okay! ~Then go eat quickly! (Cute.jpg)

Me: Okay, goodbye.

Dream: Okay! It's getting late, let's go eat. (|3[▓▓]Lying down and living the life of a young master.jpg)

Me: Okay.

After chatting, Lin Xiyue was preparing to cook cat food for Fugui when she realized that Fugui was nowhere to be found. Ever since Lin Xiyue brought Fugui home, Fugui had always been in a place where Lin Xiyue could find it at a glance; this was the first time she had lost track of it.

"Fugui'er~ Where have you been! Time to eat~"

While calling out to the cat in a coaxing tone, I searched for it in places it might have gone.

"Meow~"

Just then, a meow was heard. Lin Xiyue looked in the direction of the sound and saw Fugui sitting in the half-open cabinet of materials. There was a black cloth under its bottom, which was why Lin Xiyue hadn't seen it at first glance.

"Baby, what are you doing here? Let's go eat!"

Lin Xiyue walked over, picked it up, and prepared to take it to its seat where it ate. Because she was in a hurry to eat, Lin Xiyue didn't notice that there was a necklace-like terminal hidden under the fabric.

After preparing the food and putting it down, I was just about to eat when I remembered that I had promised to tell Moros what I wanted to eat. I paused for a moment, then took a picture with my terminal and sent it to him.

(Me: Image.jpg)

Me: Tonight's dinner.

After waiting a while without receiving a reply, Lin Xiyue stopped paying attention and focused on her meal, not noticing anything amiss. Fugui, however, quietly glanced back at the black fabric. The fabric provided excellent light blocking, and the terminal lit up twice before going out again.

……