Ch 72: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World

In Yuheng City, the rain had been pouring for nearly half a month, and the air was thick with the damp smell of mildew.

The 955 Building towered in the city’s most bustling commercial district. Officially, it was the headquarters of an information technology company, but in reality, it housed the 955 Special Department, a unit dedicated to monitoring and investigating phenomena that defied scientific explanation. One of their key focuses was the “Park Game,” a game that only a select few seemed to know about.

Xiao Zhou, holding a stack of documents, was about to submit them to the director when she ran into Xiao Tang from the monitoring division in front of the office. She raised a hand to greet him, but Xiao Tang hurried past her, oblivious, and headed straight into the director’s office.

“Director, we detected that anomaly point again last night,” Tang Qi said, his voice filled with urgency and excitement. “Based on past patterns, I’ve been closely tracking the data, and it’s reappeared. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the energy point is quite close—possibly in Kaiyang City or somewhere in Yaoguang City.”

Hearing this, Xiao Zhou glanced down at the documents in her hand, thinking it was quite the coincidence. She knocked on the door and stepped inside. “Director Lin, I have some special documents for your review.”

Lin Yan, the director, was in her thirties, efficient and reserved. Two years ago, she had been parachuted into the 955 Special Department, taking charge of all matters related to the Paradise Game observation team. Rumor had it that before joining the department, she had been part of the special police force.

Lin Yan was reading a file and didn’t acknowledge Tang Qi or Xiao Zhou right away. After about five minutes, satisfied with what she had read, she signed the document and finally looked up. “Xiao Tang, let me know once you’ve pinpointed the exact location of the energy point. Xiao Zhou, what do you have for me?”

Tang Qi, still brimming with excitement moments ago, calmed down in the face of the director’s composed demeanor. The anomaly had first appeared three or four months ago and had now reappeared for the third time, each time flaring up briefly before vanishing. They had yet to pinpoint its location.

Xiao Zhou stepped forward and handed over the documents, explaining, “Recently, someone paid a large sum in taxes through a very unusual channel. Since it was an unconventional method, the records were sent to us for review.”

After scanning the documents, a rare flicker of interest appeared in Lin Yan’s usually calm eyes. “Yaoguang City, suspected Paradise Game administrator, and a non-standard method of paying 1.2 million in taxes. Interesting. Xiao Tang, get the monitoring equipment ready. We’re heading to Yaoguang City for a field trip.”

Tang Qi, who had been about to return to the monitoring room, finally caught on. “Director, do you think this taxpayer is connected to the anomaly?”

Lin Yan didn’t confirm but turned to Xiao Zhou. “In all these years, have there been similar cases?”

Xiao Zhou shook her head. “The monitoring team picks up several phantom ring transactions every week, but we’ve never seen anyone pay taxes on them, let alone using such an obviously unconventional method.”

Lin Yan smiled as she stood up. “Let’s go meet this interesting taxpayer.”

Xiao Zhou quickly followed. “Director, I’d like to request to come along.”

Lin Yan glanced back.

Xiao Zhou added, “A taxpayer this bold—I’d love to see them for myself.”

Lin Yan smirked, suppressing a chuckle. “Alright, let’s go.”

…

Yaoguang City, an abandoned shopping street.

Lu Yao pushed open the door to her blind box shop.

Since the shop was brand new, there were only two blind box machines and a special machine for exchanging tokens. The store space was large, with the machines lined up along the wall, leaving vast empty areas that made the shop feel sparse.

But Lu Yao wasn’t in a rush. With a new shop, it was always a step-by-step process. She’d been through this before.

The immediate priority was to determine the contents of the blind boxes. Although “surprise doll” blind boxes were all the rage, Lu Yao wasn’t planning to stock them just yet.

The popularity of collectible blind boxes heavily depended on well-known intellectual properties (IPs), and abruptly introducing them in a new area could result in poor sales due to cultural differences. She needed to assess the situation first.

According to the hints she received, the world this shop would cater to might be unstable—not necessarily in a bad way, but perhaps fast-paced, highly dynamic, or even technologically advanced, with both opportunities and challenges.

The rules of the Dream Fulfillment System dictated that Lu Yao had to decide on the shop’s core product before opening the portal. After some thought, she figured that since this new world might already feel like a blind box, she may as well open a blind box shop.

This approach allowed her maximum flexibility while also letting her enjoy the thrill of curating mystery items. After all, anything could be turned into a blind box; there was no need to limit herself to specific categories.

The store was still quite empty, so she sectioned off an area in the middle. Later, she’d head over to Emerald Town to buy some tables and chairs to create a cozy area for customers to open their blind boxes on-site.

The nail salon had earned quite a bit of gold coins, but none of that currency could be brought into this world, so it had to be spent there.

With the store almost set up, Lu Yao pushed open the door.

Outside, it was pitch dark, with no light to be seen, as though the entire world had fallen into eternal night.

She rubbed her eyes and stepped back inside. Through the window, the outside world still appeared bright and sunny, so it wasn’t her vision.

Pulling out her phone, she turned on the flashlight and cautiously stepped outside again.

Yaoguang City was well into summer—sunny skies, scorching heat. Today, Lu Yao was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and wide-legged black pants, but as soon as she stepped outside, a cold wind hit her, causing goosebumps to rise on her arms.

She wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath, trying to quell the unease.

This world felt cold and empty.

The sky was pitch black, with no sign of light anywhere. The surroundings were equally dark, the night so thick it seemed to swallow everything.

The store’s new location appeared to be in a wide-open area. The ground was covered in a grid of dotted tiles, and the nearby buildings looked like a shopping mall—but dilapidated and desolate, as though abandoned for years.

The light from her phone wasn’t strong enough to fully illuminate the area, so Lu Yao only took a quick look around before retreating back inside the store.

Lu Yao tapped into the system: “Turn on the shop sign and install a streetlight on either side of the door.”

System: “10,000 popularity points to exchange for an LED shop sign module, and 5,000 points per streetlight, totaling 11,000 points. Confirm exchange?”

Lu Yao: “Yes.”

Completing the ultimate mission in the nail salon had earned her one million popularity points, and she still had over 1.7 million left. After spending 200,000 on the shop renovations and the blind box machines, and now 110,000 on lighting, she still had more than 1.3 million points left.

Once the blind box shop was up and running, it wouldn’t take long to earn back the points she spent.

With a flicker, the sign above the door lit up, and two streetlights, shaped like flowers, stood on either side about six meters apart.

The lamps were bright and white, casting a strong glow.

From a distance, Lu Yao’s blind box shop looked like a glowing fish in the deep sea, especially eye-catching in the darkness.

Lu Yao stepped outside again, surveying the area with a satisfied nod. “Not bad at all.”

Upon further inspection, the surroundings resembled a rundown version of her own commercial street—derelict, with no signs of life. The buildings were similar to what she knew, and off in the distance, she could see an out-of-service elevator. All the nearby storefronts had been smashed, the windows shattered across the ground, yet the streets were eerily clean, with no litter in sight.

It was all very empty. Very empty.

Everything seemed to have been scavenged thoroughly, as if the place had been looted again and again.

This must have once been a world of modern civilization.

Or rather, it once had modern civilization.

Lu Yao returned inside, tidied up her things, and closed the shop door behind her.

System: “Where are you going?”

Lu Yao: “To stock up.”

Leaving the blind box shop, she first stopped by her nail salon, then headed to the carpenter’s shop at the end of the street to order four sets of tables and chairs.

The aesthetic of Alexander Continent was quite different from here, but the advantage was that it was cheap.

Lu Yao suddenly realized that stocking up the blind box shop could also end up being costly. The assets from other worlds couldn’t be directly monetized, so she would have to rotate goods between the different worlds.

After leaving the carpenter’s shop, she bought a lot of ingredients from the street market and headed to the snack shop.

Recently, she had been busy with the final mission at the nail salon, and the night menu at the snack shop had been delayed. Yesterday, she had talked to the supply managers at the market to increase the orders, and now the night menu was finally about to launch.

Chi was in the process of carrying supplies into the shop and greeted her with a cheerful, “Boss.”

A few days ago, Xiao Qie’s assistant manager card had expired, and it was now Chi’s turn.

The delivery guy was surprised to see Lu Yao. He had always doubted whether this shop had any customers at all, but the order volumes were consistent, and different staff members would come out to receive the goods each time. Every time he peeked inside the shop, he got an eerie feeling, sending chills down his spine.

Still, the orders were large, and payment was always prompt. Making an extra delivery trip meant extra income, so he never questioned it further.

Lu Yao stood by the entrance, waiting for the deliveryman to unload, while Chi easily stacked and carried two boxes at a time into the shop.

As soon as the deliveryman left, Chi lifted three to five boxes, each weighing dozens of kilograms, with one hand and effortlessly carried them inside.

The snack shop’s staff were excited to prepare for the night menu launch.

Lu Yao unloaded the ingredients she had bought from Alexander Continent into the first-floor kitchen, where the staff busily organized them.

She found Qi Shen, who was cleaning glasses and preparing for the evening shift on the second floor, and handed him a list.

Qi Shen had always dreamed of opening a café during his lifetime, and working as a staff member here was the fulfillment of that dream. Every day, he happily experimented with desserts and drinks, leading a peaceful life.

He looked over the list and asked curiously, “What’s this?”

Leaning against the bar, Lu Yao replied with interest, “I just opened a new shop. These are some products I want to test out for sale. Can you make a few for me, and I’ll take them over later?”

Qi Shen’s eyes widened in disbelief, realizing he had completely underestimated Lu Yao. It had only been a few months, and she had already opened another store.

“Is the new shop a bubble tea store?”

Lu Yao shook her head.

“What is it, then?”

“A blind box shop,” Lu Yao replied.

Qi Shen was puzzled. “Blind boxes… You’re selling food in a blind box? Is this shop really okay?”

Leaning her chin on her hand, Lu Yao smiled. “Everything can be turned into a blind box. Never underestimate human curiosity and the thrill of gambling. This is just the first batch of products, a trial run.”

The ingredients were all in the kitchen, and the items Lu Yao wanted weren’t complicated—just ten of each. With one more staff member helping, they could finish quickly.

As she sat nearby, folding packaging boxes, Lu Yao worked with illusion magic to create these boxes. In any world connected by the star gate, these magic-crafted packaging boxes would disappear after use, leaving no waste behind.

Whenever she brought boxed meals from the snack shop to the nail salon, she used these kinds of boxes.

However, illusion magic could only be used in Dreamland, not in other worlds.

Xiao Qie came upstairs to help. Seeing Lu Yao folding boxes, he sat down beside her.

Qi Shen glanced back after brewing the tea and chided, “I asked you to come up here to help me, not her.”

Xiao Qie retorted, “This stuff only takes you minutes to finish. Stop being so delicate. The boss is always so busy—let her rest. I’ll handle the boxes.”

Qi Shen: “…”

Double standards Qie.

The first batch of products for the blind box shop consisted of hot drinks. Lu Yao prepared four different beverages, sealing each one in a box. As long as the boxes weren’t opened, the drinks wouldn’t go cold or spoil.

When Qi Shen finished the last one, he looked up and asked, “Which one of these four are you planning to make the hidden item?”

Lu Yao paused for a moment, realizing she had completely forgotten about that. The “hidden item” holds an irresistible allure for blind box enthusiasts because of its rarity and exclusivity.

However, since all four drinks were made in equal quantities—ten each—it didn’t make sense to select one as the hidden item.

After thinking for a bit, Lu Yao said, “Make one more, this one will be the hidden item. Just a single portion.”

Qi Shen thought this approach was a bit too casual, but he couldn’t argue with her. Dutifully, he made one extra drink.

Now, there were forty-one drinks, all wrapped in identical packaging, making it impossible for even Lu Yao to tell them apart.

She handed Qi Shen another list. This time, it was for the full set of blind box hot drinks, totaling ten types: eight regular items, one minor hidden item, and one major hidden item.

“Twenty portions of each regular item, four of the minor hidden, and two of the major hidden. I’ll pick them up in the afternoon,” Lu Yao said, leaving with the forty-one boxed drinks and heading back to the blind box shop. She stocked one of the machines by the door.

The blind box machine had been customized by the system, using Lu Yao’s allocated points. Each machine had a capacity of 200 items. Regardless of the size or weight of the product, as long as it had a magical packaging, it could be loaded directly into the machine.

Next to the machine was a coin slot where customers could exchange local currency for tokens to use in the blind box experience.

At Fairy Tale Plaza, a three-person team was hiding in the street corner, keeping a close watch on the brightly lit blind box shop in the distance.

Fourteen-year-old Wei Dong stared at the glowing shop sign in amazement. “It’s so bright—did they burn a pile of energy crystals for that?”

Tang Ling, a year older than Wei Dong, crouched behind him and asked curiously, “Lu Yao’s blind box shop? What’s a blind box? I’ve never heard of that before.”

The squad leader, Yu Li, in his thirties, stared at the shop sign and the street lamps for a while, a complex expression crossing his face. “That shop isn’t using energy crystals. It seems to be powered by electricity.”

Wei Dong turned his head. “Electricity still comes from energy crystals, right?”

Yu Li shook his head. “This isn’t crystal-generated electricity. Twenty years ago, before the appearance of energy crystals, day and night were distinct, and there were stores like that everywhere at night.”

Wei Dong, part of the new generation born after the Evernight event, had never seen what Yu Li was describing and couldn’t imagine it. His face showed only confusion.

Suddenly, Tang Ling whispered, “Someone’s coming out.”

A tall, thin girl walked out of the shop and placed a sign by the door.

The words on the sign were lit up by custom white fluorescent lights, clearly visible: New Product Trial – Hot Drink Blind Box, 15 Yuan per draw.

“Hot drink?” Wei Dong read the words aloud and couldn’t help swallowing, turning to Yu Li. “Captain, that shop has hot drinks.”

Tang Ling licked her lips and asked, “Hot drinks… Does that mean sweetened hot water?”

If that were true, it would be incredibly luxurious.

Tang Ling recalled the one time she had tasted warm sugar water. The memory of the slight sweetness still lingered on her tongue, making her mouth water.

Yu Li stared intently at the blind box shop, torn with indecision. The sudden appearance of this shop seemed too much like a trap, evoking a dreamlike nostalgia for twenty years ago.

But then again, they didn’t have much to lose. If they couldn’t find food on this trip, they’d starve before Evernight ended.

Yu Li’s expression hardened as he made a decision. “Wait here. I’ll go check it out. If there’s no danger, I’ll signal for you to come.”

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