Ch 131: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World II

Lu Yao rubbed the two slips of paper between her fingers, already guessing the source of the “Help!” note.

The Dream Fulfillment System, currently out for “advanced training,” had likely been caught in a trap, forced to seek her assistance.

Though it was a call for help, the note contained no other clues, leaving Lu Yao perplexed. Even if she wanted to save the system, she had no idea where to start.

Meanwhile, after clearing her eighth store, she had also received a clue note. Following the usual process, choosing a location and submitting the clue note would open the stargate to a new world.

With the proxy robot, Lu Yao could continue running stores and completing tasks even without the Dream Fulfillment System.

Yet, thinking back to her store on the Floating World Continent, if the Dream Fulfillment System had been by her side instead of the proxy system, things might have turned out much better.

Though the Dream Fulfillment System was tricky to deal with, it was still far more useful than the uncommunicative proxy robot.

Its skills—danger alerts, popularity exchange services, and information processing—had all proven highly effective.

After weighing her options, Lu Yao reluctantly acknowledged the system’s irreplaceability and decided to prioritize finding it.

As for how to proceed, she had a faint idea.

The rescue signal from the system was carried by a medium resembling the clue note, suggesting it might also serve as a subtle hint.

—The game rules haven’t changed.
—Hurry to this world and open a store to save me!

Lu Yao took out the Regulation Rod, holding it by the shaft and revealing the handle.

Shrouded in black mist, the two statues on the rod faced away from each other, both with their heads slightly lowered, emotionless.

With a thought, Lu Yao caused the black mist to disperse slowly. The side facing her revealed a grotesque demon’s face.

If she still had her memories, she would immediately recognize that the statues on the rod were identical to the one she had encountered while unconscious in the Endless Abyss.

Unfortunately, Lu Yao had forgotten, relying solely on instinct as she wielded the rod.

The demon’s mouth opened slowly, and Lu Yao inserted the clue note she had received after clearing the eighth store.

The demon swallowed the note, retreating back into the mist.

The handle was once again wrapped in pitch-black, gauzy mist, concealing the statues entirely. From a distance, the rod appeared to be an oddly-shaped chunk of iron with a peculiar aesthetic.

The portable storage space was a product of the Dream Fulfillment System. Having fallen into too many pitfalls recently, Lu Yao began to doubt its security.

She had been gradually transferring important items to a more secure location.

However, the Regulation Rod’s capacity was limited, reserved for only the most critical objects.

Lu Yao stored the rod and held onto the system’s “Help!” note as she stepped out of the hot spring inn. Turning right, she passed the pet cafe and the cinema, stopping next to Employee Office No. 1.

She decided the new store would be located here. But with only the word “Help!” as a clue, she couldn’t yet determine what kind of store to open.

Pushing open the door of the vacant shop, she was greeted by a cloud of dust that made her cough uncontrollably.

Raising her hand to brush off the dust, she held up the narrow white note. On the front, the words “Lu Yao, Help!” were scrawled, but as she flipped it over, she noticed faint golden lines shimmering at certain angles on the otherwise blank back.

Lu Yao blinked, thinking the system wasn’t entirely useless.

Adjusting the angle repeatedly, she finally discerned the pattern on the back—a dense and eerie golden web covering the entire note. Within the gaps of the web were raised golden eyes, and scattered along the delicate gold threads were clusters of curling tentacles.

What is this?

A golden octopus covered in compound eyes?

The strange pattern was filled with ominous implications.

Lu Yao found it abstract yet unnervingly vivid. The lifelike image of the eyes, seemingly in constant motion, and the swaying tentacles was enough to send a shiver down her spine. Staring too long could indeed make one lose their sanity.

Thankfully, the slip of paper was small. Lowering her gaze, Lu Yao rubbed her aching eyes and casually crumpled the paper before tucking it into her pocket.

Once the soreness around her eyes subsided, she looked up again to inspect the vacant shop, the location for her next store. A faint idea began forming in her mind.

In a new world filled with uncertainty, with the Dream Fulfillment System missing and the proxy system prone to betrayal, Lu Yao had to tread carefully. The experiences from her eighth store served as a stark reminder. Both Harold and Budu might face rejection or restrictions on their abilities in the new world.

At such a time, her only reliable resources would be her artifact and the experience she had accumulated over a year and a half of running stores.

The new store needed to be flexible and grounded in her strengths. After some thought, her plans began to take shape.

She realized that a single shop space might be too small for her needs.

Lu Yao stepped out and opened the door to the empty shop adjacent to the first one. Combining the two spaces should be just right.

Although the internal space could be expanded using extradimensional upgrades, this store required a slightly larger operational area from the outset compared to her previous ones.

Unlike the more extravagant cinema next door, merging these two shops was primarily to create separate rooms for different operations.

Lu Yao meticulously repeated her opening preparations for the tenth time: measuring the dimensions, confirming the total space, planning the interior design, submitting the clue note, opening the stargate, and upgrading the extradimensional space.

Store upgrades and maintenance still required 24 hours, with no room for error.

When the preparations were complete, Lu Yao stepped out of her ninth store.

The proxy system collected the clue note without error and immediately began working.

Lu Yao had a sense that the system wasn’t unaware of her actions. Instead, it seemed to tolerate her deviations with an unspoken approval.

That wasn’t surprising.

Perhaps the note itself was a trap, leading her into an unregulated alternate world.

An unregistered world not part of the task system could likely exist beyond the system’s rules.

Even if the note was genuinely a cry for help from the Dream Fulfillment System, the fact that it had trapped an entity as abstract as the Dream Fulfillment System meant this world was far from ordinary. For a mortal store owner to enter would be akin to walking into a trap.

Standing before the store’s entrance, Lu Yao pinched her trembling fingertips, attempting to suppress the fear welling up within her.

She had never been the type to seek out conflict, but this hesitation wouldn’t do—her journey might soon come to an end.

Not the end of her wishes, but the end of her time.

Raising her hand, she tapped the void, bringing up the store owner’s page.

Store Owner: Lu Yao
Age: 22
Stores: 9
Staff: 297
Popularity Points: 62,359,500
Assets: 9.15M
Wish Progress: 54%
Storage Slots: 50

(Shopping Street Map)

The new store was still under maintenance, so the store count hadn’t increased.

The café currently housed over twenty human and non-human staff members.

Among them were thirteen sparrows, who had undergone training in the Heavenly Ladder during the battle against the Evil God. Six of them successfully took on human forms.

Influenced by Tales of the Six Realms, their transformed appearances resembled scout sparrow demons from the game, as if they were siblings of the same family.

Additionally, disciples of the Six Realms Sect were loosely affiliated with the café as unofficial staff members.

After the battle, the sect flourished.

Despite Xiao Zhong’s strict selection process, which prioritized gaming aptitude, the sect’s disciples now numbered forty-nine.

The second office had recently hired new writers and a programmer. Along with Liu Yixi and Mei Xue, the total number of new staff members across the shopping street had grown to seventy-three.

With the Dream Fulfillment System absent, the popularity points remained stable.

However, the purchase of new equipment and other stores’ daily expenses had caused her assets to shrink yet again.

Lu Yao felt a pang of heartache. Even with her occasional sales of rare items and services on the internal network, she hadn’t been able to curb the outflow of money.

Fortunately, yesterday Ji Zhixin told her that the development of Tales of the Six Realms in Yaoguang City was nearly complete. At most, it would take another half month to launch.

Hopefully, the game would hit the market successfully and bring in some revenue.

Lu Yao skimmed through the basic data, then clicked on the shopping street map at the bottom of the interface. She reviewed the stores one by one. When she exited, her gaze inevitably returned to the store owner’s status bar.

Her birthday had already passed this year.

But the age in her profile hadn’t updated.

Lu Yao didn’t think this was a system bug.

The memories Budu retained were enough of a hint. Yet, it all seemed unimportant now.

The real puzzle lay in what happened after time had stopped.

Night fell, and the streetlights on both sides of the small road lit up.

Lu Yao closed the system panel and turned back toward the hot spring inn.

She was feeling a bit hungry.

…

The next afternoon, when the shopping street staff got off work, they discovered that the vacant shop next to Office No. 1 had quietly been fitted with a new sign.

Mei Xue crossed the street and looked up at the sign. “What a dazzling sign—I like it.”

The new copywriter, a delicate-looking woman with rimless glasses who had just been made permanent a few days ago, was still adapting to her new workplace. “The colors are a bit much. It feels oddly noisy.”

Liu Yixi also came over, unable to resist adding, “Isn’t this that thing… you know, what’s trending online lately? Uh… dopamine something?”

Mei Xue replied, “No need to force the connection. The style is definitely different from before.”

The new programmer, who hadn’t planned on speaking, stood at the back observing. Seeing that no one else brought up the topic he was curious about, he couldn’t hold back. “Can we go in and take a look?”

He hadn’t been here long, but he was already completely captivated by the magical street and was incredibly curious about the new world behind the door.

…

Lu Yao, who had been staying at the hot spring inn recently, was eating dinner when she heard that some staff weren’t going home after work but were standing by the road gawking at the new store. She walked to the door and called out, “The new store’s situation is unclear. Everyone, go home.”

For this store, Lu Yao decided not to bring Budu or Harold along.

Reluctantly, the staff shuffled off, their curiosity unsatisfied.

After finishing dinner and once again reassuring Budu, Lu Yao turned and stepped out.

She was curious about the new world behind the door, too.

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