Down on luck (1)

The morning breakfast service had just ended and Maria had already prepared for the lunch service, so there was nothing for her to do this morning.

Since she had nothing to do, she decided that she would go out for a walk with Xiao Bai, the new cat she had named Xiao Miao, and the new wolf that she had named Xiao Lang.

Xiao Miao and Xiao Lang had already been completely trained by Xiao Bai and at this point, they were completely obedient to him.

But the way that they went along really made a strange sight.

A cat and a wolf following this cute little white dog…it really looked strange.

It was just a good thing that they were cute little animals as well.

So no one actually felt that it was strange and they were quite happy seeing this.

Cute really was justice after all!

As long as something was cute, it was easy for people to accept.

She put all three of them on collars and headed out from the store.

As they went along, Xiao Miao and Xiao Lang couldn't help looking around with curious looks.

Since they had come to the store, they hadn't really left the store because Maria had been busy during this time. So the furthest that they had gotten was to the alley where the dumpster was when they followed Maria out to throw out the trash.

Of course, there was one funny thing that had happened when they had gone out to the dumpster with Maria.

The dumpster there was a gathering place for the stray cats of the area.

Even if they were cats, they recognized that this place was the place that had the most delicious food. Once they had a bite of the leftovers from Maria's cafe, they knew that they couldn't live without it.

At the same time, the cats that ate Maria's food recognized that they had grown stronger from eating her food, so there was a fierce struggle for control over this dumpster.

Eventually, they had settled on a hierarchy where the strongest cat was known as the king and ruled over the dumpster. The one that was known as the king had the right to freely distribute the food that was found in the dumpster.

If anyone ever wanted to take over the position as king…all they had to do was defeat the current king in a battle.

Whether it was a group fight or a duel, as long as the current king was defeated, the one who did it would take over as the new king.

So there was fierce competition over this dumpster.

When Xiao Miao, who had taken the form of a cat, appeared by the dumpster with Maria, the current king who had been there thought that he was a challenger.

So the current king immediately started harassing Xiao Miao.

It knew that without being able to maintain its prestige, it would never have a stable rule. Now that this random cat had appeared out of nowhere and approached his domain so freely like this, if he didn't teach this random cat a lesson, it would be a serious blow to his rule.

At first, Xiao Miao completely ignored the boss cat.

That was until the boss cat started harassing Maria as well.

He did things like hiss at her and made threatening gestures, but for Maria, it just seemed like it was acting cute. She just stared at it with a happy look on her face, as if she wanted to pet it.

But Xiao Miao didn't take this lying down.

"Daring to hiss at miss Maria? It seems like you don't want to live anymore."

Xiao Miao said in a very calm voice.

The boss cat was about to say something to what he thought was a cocky upstart, but there was a pressure that suddenly fell onto it.

It was at that moment that he felt like he was about to die.

When the fear of death fell onto him, the boss cat didn't maintain his strong appearance and immediately submitted. The boss cat did the only thing that he could think of, lying on the ground and turning around to show his belly.

When Maria saw this, she felt like she wanted to scream.

It wasn't a bad scream, but rather a scream filled with happiness.

Before this, the cats had always avoided her when she came out to throw the trash, so she had never been able to approach them. Let alone having something like this happen.

There was only one meaning for this cat to show her his stomach…it was clearly to let her pet him!

It seemed like it had paid off leaving those few good scraps of food out for them.

She happily petted the boss cat and the other cats that he called over while they all suffered the pressure that came from Xiao Miao.

Finally when she was satisfied with petting them, Xiao Miao finally let them go.

When the pressure disappeared, the cats looked like they had been spared from death. They didn't hesitate at all to submit to Xiao Miao, offering him the best pieces from the dumpster.

But Xiao Miao was able to enjoy the food directly from Maria's restaurant, so of course he wasn't interested in the scraps.

Still, it was just like this, Xiao Miao became the king of all the stray cats in the city.

That was because all of the stray cats in the city recognized the ruler of Maria's dumpster as their ruler.

As they walked away from the restaurant, they headed towards one of the smaller shopping centers.

Since she had the free time today, Maria decided to go and buy a few things that she needed. Of course, she didn't like going to big malls in the first place, so the first place that she chose was the shopping center that she normally went to.

This was a place that not many people went to, but for the people that knew quality, this place was the best place to shop.

When she arrived, she walked down the street and the shopkeepers that she passed all greeted her. She was very familiar with the people that ran the stores here because she would normally come once a week and she was a very friendly person.

It was hard to be rude to a cute girl who had a smile on her face.

For the shopkeepers who normally had dull lives, Maria was like a bright ray of sunshine, so they were happy to greet her.

Many of them even gave her discounts that hurt their business just because they wanted to see her happy.

That was the power of Maria's smile.

It didn't take her long to finish buying all the things that she wanted to buy, but she didn't head back to the cafe that quickly.

She could see that Xiao Miao and Xiao Lang were having fun, so she wandered around the shopping center even more. From time to time, she bought things for them to eat that one would normally eat with their significant others…

It was almost like she was on a date with these pets of hers.

As she walked along, she eventually made her way to a park where she sat down on the bench as she let her pets run around.

After she sat down, she suddenly heard a sigh coming from beside her.

She couldn't help jumping off the bench in surprise.

When she turned around, she saw that there had already been someone sitting on the bench, but she hadn't noticed because she had been too focused.

But that person didn't notice her either since it was clear that they were too focused on their own problem.

She couldn't help taking a closer look at this person.

This person was quite disheveled and he wasn't that young, looking to be in his early thirties. As for his appearance, it could only be described as normal since every part of him seemed normal.

Seeing how down on his luck this person seemed, Maria couldn't help feeling sympathy for this person.

That was just how she was.

If she saw someone that was down on their luck, she would want to help.

So after hesitating a bit, she suddenly asked, "Are you alright?"

That person suddenly jolted from shock when they heard this voice and it was only then that they noticed Maria beside them.

But even then, they still gave a sigh and didn't say anything.

Maria didn't mind as she just waited there for them to say something.

Seeing that Maria wasn't leaving, that person suddenly said, "Please leave me alone, I just want to be alone."

Maria couldn't help reaching her hand out to pat this person on his back before saying, "I know that it might seem hard now, but you'll feel better if you talk about it."

That person looked up at Maria with a strange look as if he couldn't understand what she was doing…However, he still said with a sigh, "Do you really want to listen to my story?"

Maria gave a nod in response.

That person still had a strange look as he looked at Maria, but he started telling his story.

It was a very common story for this age.

He had been working hard to gather up money for his awakening, but when he awakened, he found that he only had a F Rank skill.

If it was a useful skill, he still might be able to accept it, but it was just a useless skill.

The skill that he had awakened was the "Knife Sharpening Skill".

This was a skill that would never allow him to awaken his dreams of becoming a S Ranker and protecting the world.

The reality of it all had crushed him and he was now in denial.

Maria had naturally heard all about this before, so she patted his back and said, "Come to my store and have some soup. I'm sure that you'll feel much better afterwards."

This person couldn't help looking at Maria with a strange look still, but he also felt a strange feeling that was telling him to go with her.

There was no reason for this feeling, it was just a random feeling that told him this.

By no right should he follow this feeling, but…

In the end, he decided to go with her.