Ch 94: My Multiverse Supermarket

Zombie World

The moment Zhou Li received her new premium feature, she couldn’t wait to lock herself away and study it in detail.

But An Fengxuan kept hovering nearby, clearly wanting something.

“What is it?” Zhou Li finally asked.

An Fengxuan rubbed her palms nervously. “Boss, can I see what an Orka looks like?”

This world seemed easier for her to adapt to than the previous one—she’d realized she could understand two languages here.

Yes, both Lian (the local lingua franca) and Federation speech.

To her ears, they sounded just like Chinese and English.

That meant she could talk freely with Lin Jianshan and also understand most of what the residents said.

From their conversations, she’d already picked up bits and pieces about this world.

Still, instead of being fascinated by the high-tech gadgets, she was more intrigued by those glowing coins.

If these “Orka” were simply money, why could they be exchanged for supermarket points?

And why weren’t game coins, which were also a form of currency, accepted the same way?

Zhou Li handed her one Orka coin. An Fengxuan studied it for a while, then returned it.

“See anything special?” Zhou Li asked.

“Not really,” An Fengxuan said. “Just that it’s useless to me.”

Zhou Li explained, “It’s a currency minted from a mineral called orka.”

An Fengxuan nodded—so it was like gold coins.

After a pause, Zhou Li suddenly asked an off-topic question. “I’m curious—don’t you people have cell phones in your world?”

“We used to,” An Fengxuan said. “But they all broke down. Later, someone built ‘listening devices’ based on the communication tools used by the monsters in the game. It’s the only device that works inside the public hall.”

Zhou Li thought for a moment. “So even if high-tech products from this world ended up in yours, they probably wouldn’t work, right?”

“Most likely not—but things from the supermarket seem to be an exception.”

Zhou Li pondered that.

The Game, after all, was an unknown force that had invaded the world where An Fengxuan lived. That world had its own plane consciousness—and it was that same will that had granted Zhou Li permission to open her supermarket there.

Therefore, The Game’s rules didn’t apply within the supermarket itself. Even when the shop appeared inside Mingde Academy, where she had to follow some of the local world’s rules, Zhou Li still found ways to bend them and avoid punishment.

But back to the point—

The reason phones and other communication tools couldn’t function in the public hall was most likely because The Game had occupied that space, cutting it off from the world’s original plane consciousness. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. As a result, all products born of that world’s order became inoperative.

Still, one thing puzzled her: why could items created by The Game be used freely in other worlds?

She threw the question at the system.

The system replied, “You can think of The Game as a colonizer—it’s a form of plane consciousness itself.”

In the system’s logic, as long as something originated from a plane consciousness, it wasn’t bound by isolation barriers.

Any limitations were due to differences in technological eras or production levels.

For example, you couldn’t make phone calls in the ancient world.

But if someone moved a full modern cellular tower there and set up two phones, those two devices could communicate just fine.

Zhou Li’s eyes lit up. She uploaded her phone to the auction house.

【Huawei Mate60】
Age: 2 years
Date of Manufacture: August 29, 2023
Owner: Zhou Li
Starting Bid: ¥899 (suggested)
Buyout Price: ¥2899 (suggested)

Zhou Li: …

She quietly took the phone back.

The fact that the listing included suggested prices meant there was a market for it—there were definitely modern humans from near-contemporary worlds among the buyers.

And since the buyout price was roughly the same as current secondhand prices in her own world, it meant the auction house was filtering for buyers from worlds close in time and tech level—possibly even her own.

Setting aside the thought, Zhou Li sent An Fengxuan off to rest, then went upstairs to shower and tinker with the new “bidding” feature.

Opening the [Bidding] tab, she found the interface clean and minimal. Aside from the headers for [Item Name], [Bid Price], and [Buyout Price], there was only a small search icon in the corner.

“Why is it empty?” she muttered.

“Because there are currently no items open for bidding,” the system replied.

Zhou Li remembered how every time she’d listed something for sale, it was instantly snapped up at the buyout price the moment she hit confirm. The competition must be intense.

Her jaw tightened—how could she ever out-click someone like that?

Still, she didn’t regret choosing this upgrade. Who knew—maybe someday she’d snag something incredible.

After her shower, Zhou Li reviewed her outstanding orders.

Then, on a sudden inspiration, she decided to modify one of them—turning it into a purchase request list.

She printed it, filed it neatly in a folder, and uploaded it to the auction house.

The system automatically listed it as [A Procurement List].

It wasn’t worth much, but Zhou Li still entered a buyout price of ten yuan—printing did cost money, after all.

This time, it stayed on the auction block for quite a while with no bids.

Zhou Li didn’t mind. She finished her work and went straight to bed.

The next morning, she checked again. Still no movement. She shrugged and let it be.

…

Perhaps afraid the Good Life Supermarket would pack up and vanish amid the Richter–Wolf conflict, every resident with a membership card rushed over to stock up on supplies.

They were afraid that if they recharged too much, the remaining points on their membership cards would go to waste, so they decided not to top up any further.

Zhou Li was happy to have a bit of peace and quiet.

She planned to stay in this world for only three days before returning to her original world to restock supplies.

During that time, she chose the zombie world as her next target for expanding interplanetary trade operations.

…

Three days later, Zhou Li sent An Fengxuan back to the Infinite World.

When the supermarket returned to her home world, aside from the usual daily notifications from the system, there was also a surprise message from the auction house—
someone had bought her procurement list.

Zhou Li blinked. “I can’t believe someone was actually bored enough to buy something like that.”

The system deadpanned, “Then what does that make you, for putting something that boring up for sale?”

After a pause, a very familiar card suddenly materialized in front of her.

【Good Life Supermarket Membership Card】
Cardholder: Zhou Li
Points: 9.5 yuan

Apparently, that was her profit after the auction house’s transaction fee had been deducted.

Zhou Li frowned.

Why did she even get a card? Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Couldn’t the money just be transferred directly?

But after thinking it over, she realized why.

For customers from other worlds to make purchases, they first needed currency recognized by Earth’s world system.

And to make those transactions legal and traceable, the money had to pass through an account—so it was deposited into a supermarket membership card.

To streamline the process, the system simply did it automatically.

So even Zhou Li herself, when earning funds from the auction house, would have the money deposited straight into a membership savings card.

She sighed deeply.

Never mind—it wasn’t much anyway. She might as well keep the card as a souvenir.

Instead of closing the auction house, Zhou Li opened the [Bidding] tab to see if anything new had been listed.

What she saw nearly made her doubt her eyes.

“There’s actually something up for bid!?”

【Item Name】Self-heating Instant Meal (Mixed Flavors) ×999
【Bid Price】7,992 yuan
【Buyout Price】8,000 yuan

There were more listings below—all self-heating meals, all in bulk sets of 999.

That meant she couldn’t just buy one or two boxes—it was wholesale or nothing.

“Perfect,” Zhou Li muttered. “Wholesale is exactly what I want.”

Buying them one by one would take forever.

Just as she was about to confirm her purchase of the 999-box set, she realized how much space it would take up.

She decided to wait and observe a little longer.

If the product was really in high demand, she could always bid again next time.

After all, even if she couldn’t win the auction, she could still order directly from the manufacturer—at an even better price.

As for the batch she did buy, the system automatically stored it in her warehouse.

Zhou Li didn’t stay long in her home world this time.

After restocking, she picked up An Fengxuan from the Infinite World, and together they set off for a brand-new plane.

*

【Zombie World】

On the boundless sea, a small wooden raft drifted slowly with the current.

At the back of the raft, two sun-darkened women strained at their oars.

On the roof of the shack in the middle of the raft, a young boy held a telescope, scanning the horizon.

Not far away, several severed heads floated on the surface of the water, drifting closer and closer, as if hoping the raft would slow down.

“Nothing!” the boy shouted weakly from above.

One of the women suddenly stopped rowing.

“Fang Qin, what are you doing? Keep rowing! The drowned ones are catching up!” the other woman yelled in panic.

“There’s no supply drop out here!” Fang Qin screamed, breaking down.

The other woman’s strokes faltered too.

After a brief pause, she said, “Even if there isn’t, we can’t stop.”

“There’s nothing here! Where can we even go?” Fang Qin cried in despair.

“Stop talking nonsense!” the woman snapped, then shouted to the boy, “A-Lu, get down here and take over!”

The boy clambered down, licked his cracked lips, grabbed the oar, and started rowing with all his strength before the floating heads could reach them.

Fang Qin was already suffering from heat exhaustion, but she refused to die at sea. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to keep going.

Fang Qin lay flat on the raft, letting the blazing sun roast her body.

Suddenly, she spotted a few seabirds flying overhead.

Instinctively, she reached for her gun to shoot them for food—
but then she remembered that most animals were infected. They didn’t go rabid like zombies, but eating them could still be fatal.

She froze, then abruptly sat up, eyes following the birds.

“Quick, follow them! Those are red-billed gulls!”

The woman and the boy both turned to look in the direction she pointed and began rowing harder.

Red-billed gulls rarely strayed more than twenty kilometers from shore—so following them meant land had to be close.

“Forget rowing, start the engine,” Fang Qin urged.

“But we’re almost out of fuel,” the boy said. “If we don’t find land even after following them, we’ll die out here.”

“Then we gamble.”

Decision made, the woman poured the last of their diesel into the engine and yanked the cord.

Moments later, the motor roared to life, and the floating heads, drawn by the noise, began moving faster.

The propeller spun up, pushing the raft forward with a rush, riding the waves toward the distant horizon.

Fang Qin steered, while the boy took a gulp of water and climbed back to the roof with his telescope.

Finally, after several refuels that drained the last drops from their barrels, the boy’s voice rang out, bright with joy.

“Land ahead! And there’s a supermarket!”

☢️☢️☢️