Ch 64: My Multiverse Supermarket

One moment, the small supermarket was surrounded by swarms of aberrations; the next, the courtyard outside was so silent and empty it was as if they had never been there at all.

Lü Chui stared blankly, muttering, “What kind of monster is this shopkeeper!?”

Even an S-rank player couldn’t do that.

No—he was certain now. Not even an S-rank player could manage this.

So this unremarkable little shopkeeper… was actually some ultra-S-rank powerhouse?

He whispered to the dazed An Yixiao, “Guild leader?”

An Yixiao lifted her gaze. “I understand now.”

Lü Chui blinked. “Understand… what?”

“Dawn Village’s day and night are two separate worlds,” she said. “That means there are two sets of rules. None of those rules were false—it’s just that breaking some of them at the wrong time doesn’t trigger punishment…”

Lü Chui was thoroughly lost.

An Yixiao walked over to Zhou Li, who was eating an ice cream to calm her nerves, and asked, “Shopkeeper, when Zhang Xiulan came to register her membership card, was it daytime or nighttime outside?”

“Daytime,” Zhou Li replied without hesitation.

Once night fell, the whole village turned silent—no one ever came.

An Yixiao asked again, “How did you find out Dawn Village was competing for the ‘Five Beauties Village’ award?”

“The villagers mentioned it while shopping,” Zhou Li said.

Lü Chui sighed. “The shop by the village gate really is the best place to pick up gossip. Shopkeeper, got any more intel for us?”

“Nope.”

An Yixiao turned to him. “You should get a membership card too.”

Zhou Li said, “It won’t do you any good.”

An Yixiao smiled. “We’re not getting it for information.”

“In that case, sure.”

Following her lead, Lü Chui pulled out a shiny blank card and recharged it with eight thousand points.

That mirror-bright card was part of a 54-card set.

Each card could replicate one ordinary item.

To use it, you tore the card, and the copied item would materialize.

Since it only worked on ordinary, non-enchanted objects and could be used just once, most players considered it useless.

If it hadn’t taken up no inventory space, he wouldn’t have carried it at all.

Selling it to Zhou Li now worked out perfectly.

Instead of putting it on auction, Zhou Li bought it outright.

She asked the system, “For this plane, ‘ordinary items’ means anything untouched by the Game’s special properties, right? So artifacts don’t count?”

The system replied, “Correct.”

“Then orka energy from the interstellar plane should count as an ordinary resource. If I find an orka mine and replicate the ore vein, I could have endless orka! Or I could sell it to the interstellar city hall—it’d be worth way more than eight thousand!”

System: …

What kind of “sweet potato” idea was that?

The shopkeeper had turned into a full-fledged profiteer.

“I could even sell it to the government,” Zhou Li went on excitedly. “Think about it—replicate a nuclear warhead, and that saves billions!”

System: “Why not just replicate an entire planet while you’re at it?”

Zhou Li’s eyes lit up. “Good idea. Hey, you got any more of those cards?”

Lü Chui shook his head. “No. They originally belonged to another player who wasted most of them and later died in a dungeon. The rest were looted and scattered. I only managed to get three. Used two—this one’s the last.”

One of those two had been used to copy Blue Owl Guild’s backup headquarters—so if their main base was ever destroyed, they’d still have another stronghold ready.

Once Lü Chui finished registering his card, An Yixiao took out two portraits and asked Zhou Li, who was in a good mood, “Shopkeeper, recognize these two?”

Zhou Li examined them carefully, then suddenly recalled, “Oh, them! I don’t know their names, but they often came here with Wang Hui to buy snacks. Oh, and that one who was chasing you earlier.”

“Zhang Pu?”

“Yeah, that sounds right. Though it was always Wang Hui who paid.”

Just then, the sky outside began to lighten.

An Yixiao felt she’d confirmed something important. She thanked her. “Appreciate it.”

“Come again anytime.”

An Yixiao smiled faintly. “No need. But, shopkeeper, let me pre-order some goods. I won’t take them now—if you ever open your store in the public hall, and a member of Blue Owl Guild shows up, just let them pick it up.”

Zhou Li asked, “Aren’t you worried I won’t make it to the public hall?”

“I believe you can reach anywhere,” An Yixiao said. “Whether we meet again depends on luck. If we don’t, it just means fortune wasn’t on our side.”

Zhou Li’s favorability toward her shot up instantly.

What a smooth-talking big sister—knew exactly how to handle people.

An Yixiao placed a preorder worth 300,000 yuan—enough to clear out nearly a third of the supermarket’s stock.

After she and Lü Chui left, Zhou Li sighed admiringly. “Beautiful, rich, and emotionally intelligent—no wonder she’s the leader of the number-one guild.”

The system asked, “How do you know she’s the leader of the top guild?”

“I don’t care. To me, Blue Owl Guild is the number-one guild.”

System: “…”

*

With the fog gone, villagers once again came to shop.

They seemed to have completely forgotten about the chaos from the previous night. Instead, they nitpicked about product brands being off-label and tried to haggle down prices.

Zhou Li said, “Auntie, this isn’t an open market. All prices are clearly marked—I can’t give discounts.”

“The Little Runfa store sells two packs of salt for three yuan! You’re charging two yuan for one—more expensive than the big supermarkets!”

“How can my costs compare to big chains? You know how remote your village is—it costs me a fortune just to bring goods here!”

The aunt opened her mouth as if to argue, her black eyes saying, Do you even know where you are right now?

Zhou Li pressed on. “Tell me, besides that tiny shop that never has anything in stock, have you ever seen another supermarket like mine here? Can you name a second one?”

Auntie: …

“It’s not easy for me to even get here, you know!”

Left speechless, the aunt paid and left with her bag swinging.

The system said, “Your skin gets thicker by the day.”

Zhou Li replied, “And these villagers are loaded underneath that thick skin.”

Even an old lady with mobility issues could casually pull out a C-rank item to pay.

By ten p.m., when An Yixiao and Lü Chui still hadn’t returned, Zhou Li locked up and went upstairs to rest.

When she woke the next morning, the sunlight was already blazing outside.

She had just opened the shop when a man dragged a teenage girl inside.

“Boss, what do we need to buy for boarding school?” he asked.

“For boarding? Washbasin, bucket, toiletries, towels, bedsheets, pillow, blanket—if it’s cold, you’ll need an extra quilt…”

The girl was on the verge of tears. “Dad, I don’t want to go to Mingde School!”

The man scowled. “You don’t get a choice! You’re always skipping class. Your mother and I can’t handle you anymore—let the instructors at Mingde whip you into shape!”

Zhou Li glanced outside.

The archway still read “Dawn Village.”

“Yup, same dungeon… so what’s this new story arc?” she muttered.

Ignoring her, the man bought the supplies and prepared to leave with the girl.

Zhou Li called after him, “Girls need a few extra things for boarding.”

“Like what?”

“Sanitary pads.”

The man froze.

Then Zhou Li belatedly realized, “Wait—do aberrations even have periods?”

The girl: …

Suddenly the girl bolted behind the counter.

“Boss, please help me! I don’t want to go to Mingde School—it’s not a place for people!”

The man shouted, “That’s because you’re not people!”

Zhou Li: …

The girl was dragged away crying.

Not long after the father and daughter left, An Yixiao appeared again.

Compared to yesterday, she looked far more battered—her long hair matted with blood, her glasses cracked, faint black tendrils crawling across her face.

She asked, “Shopkeeper, you didn’t open yesterday?”

“I need rest too,” Zhou Li said. “Where’s your partner?”

An Yixiao was silent for a moment. “I sent him away.”

Lü Chui had only been an A-rank player. Without her forcing him out of the dungeon using her ability, even his healing skill wouldn’t have saved him.

“So now you’re on your own?” Zhou Li asked.

“Shopkeeper, are you worried about me?” An Yixiao countered.

“You’re one of my biggest customers, after all,” Zhou Li replied.

An Yixiao pulled out the cigarettes she’d bartered from the two eerie youths, about to light one, then remembered where she was. Instead, she bit off the end of a nicotine-free stick and held it between her teeth.

Zhou Li suddenly asked, “Hey, do you know Mingde School?”

An Yixiao bit the tip clean off the stick and chewed it thoughtfully. “I do. It’s an S-rank dungeon. Why?”

“Just now, a villager came in with his daughter, said he was sending her there. The girl didn’t want to go… even aberrations don’t want to go there. Figures—it is an S-rank dungeon.”

An Yixiao straightened abruptly, as if realizing something crucial.

【Author’s Note】

The next chapter will wrap up this dungeon arc!

☢️☢️☢️