Ch 95: My Multiverse Supermarket

Zhou Li had just finished warning An Fengxuan that the world they were entering would be dangerous and that she shouldn’t leave the supermarket—only to be instantly slapped in the face by the scene outside: blue skies, vast ocean, and a sun-drenched beach.

An Fengxuan gazed at the glittering sand and rolling waves, struggling to resist the urge to rush outside.

The sea!

She hadn’t seen the ocean in three years, much less gone swimming.

Still, she decided to listen to Zhou Li’s instructions and only asked curiously, “Boss, what exactly makes this world dangerous?”

Zhou Li: …

She slowly countered, “Ever heard of zombies?”

An Fengxuan nodded. “Before The Game descended, zombie movies and novels were super popular.”

She looked around. “But it doesn’t look like there are any zombies here.”

Zhou Li said, “Zombies always show up when you least expect them.”

An Fengxuan instinctively glanced up at the ceiling of the supermarket—thankfully, there were no grotesque bio-mutants dangling from above.

Zhou Li, meanwhile, wasn’t relaxing. She muttered to the system, “Is this location for real? Does this world have something special about it again?”

Other people’s supermarkets always appeared in bases or densely populated cities, but hers was on a beach… In peacetime, a store by a resort would be perfect business—but this was the apocalypse!

System: “This is a standard zombie-apocalypse world. If there’s anything unusual, it’s the geography. Oceans cover ninety-five percent of the planet. The landmass is mostly archipelagos—over four hundred and thirty thousand islands, by incomplete statistics.”

Zhou Li recalled that Earth had around fifty thousand islands.

That meant this planet had eight times as many—but the land still made up only five percent of the surface?

She said, “With that geography, it should’ve been easy to isolate the infection. The apocalypse shouldn’t have happened… unless— the zombie virus can spread through seawater.”

Good thing she hadn’t gone splashing around out of curiosity.

But it was only a theory; the system gave no reply.

Suddenly, An Fengxuan tensed. “Boss, something’s approaching.”

“Where?”

After a few seconds, Zhou Li finally saw it—something like a boat speeding toward them.

As it drew closer, she realized it wasn’t a boat but a raft, with a low wooden shack built on it.

The raft stopped roughly a hundred meters from shore. Someone was standing on top of it, peering toward them.

An Fengxuan said, “Boss, I’ll go take a look.”

She pulled a gun from her “elementary school backpack” and slipped outside, careful not to step beyond the supermarket’s protective boundary. Then she took out a high-powered telescope.

Perhaps noticing that she was alive, the people on the raft began paddling closer, until the waves finally pushed the raft up onto the beach.

Three women disembarked.

One looked weathered, probably in her thirties.

Another was muscular and moved with sharp, efficient motions.

The third was a girl of about fifteen, short and still in the midst of growing.

Each carried a weapon—rifles or machetes—and all of them scanned their surroundings warily after leaving the raft.

After a quick huddle, the young girl stepped forward as the negotiator.

She stopped about twenty meters from the supermarket.

“Hello, we’re from Ansu Island,” she called out. “We’d like to settle here. How much does it cost to stay on your island?”

An Fengxuan said, “Hold on, I’ll ask.”

She turned back inside and relayed the message.

Zhou Li said, “Let them come in.”

It would be safer to talk inside the supermarket.

An Fengxuan shouted back, “You can all come over!”

The three hesitated, whispering among themselves for quite a while.

Then—after spotting something behind them—they panicked. Grabbing their belongings from the raft, they bolted toward the supermarket.

Sensing their sudden fear, An Fengxuan glanced toward the forest behind the store—and her face went pale.

“Boss! Zombies—real zombies! They’re coming!”

There were only two or three of them, but even that was enough to send a chill down her spine.

The monsters in the Infinite World were far more grotesque, but they didn’t spread infection through bites. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Even the few that could “pollute” players only did so under specific conditions.

Zhou Li said calmly, “Don’t panic.”

Then, in a lower voice to the system: “It’s up to you now, pal.”

System: …

The three women moved fast and reached the supermarket within moments.

Fang Qin swept her eyes over the store and signaled subtly to her companions before they stepped inside.

An Fengxuan noticed the exchange but said nothing.

Zhou Li greeted the new arrivals with her usual poise—the first customers in this world. “Welcome to the Good Life Supermarket.”

The newcomers were tense. One secretly surveyed the interior, another watched An Fengxuan by the door, while the youngest handled the talking.

“Excuse me,” the girl asked, “what island is this?”

Zhou Li said, “I don’t know.”

She only knew it was most likely uninhabited—
because the system would never pick land that already had owners.

“Ah?” The three women froze in shock.

Could these people be outsiders, just like them?

But… this was a supermarket!

Inside were rows of neatly arranged goods—everything from food and daily necessities to farming tools.

Since the zombie virus outbreak, they hadn’t seen a single store this clean, orderly, and well-stocked.

This supermarket was definitely not ordinary.

Fang Qin was about to say something when the muscular woman beside her suddenly froze. “Wait—zombies—”

Before she could finish, they saw An Fengxuan raise her gun and, in a few sharp shots, took out the zombies that had emerged from the treeline and exposed themselves in full view.

Her movements were crisp, efficient, and her aim—deadly precise.

As she walked back into the store, Zhou Li clapped lightly. “Nice work.”

Receiving praise from the boss for the first time, An Fengxuan couldn’t help but grin. “Basic ops, nothing fancy.”

The three newcomers exchanged wary glances.

Seeing that they had entered the supermarket and posed no immediate threat, An Fengxuan relaxed a little and introduced herself. “Hello, I’m the security guard here. My name’s Fengxuan.”

Since she had introduced herself, the three women returned the courtesy.

“My name is Fang Qin. I’m from Ansu Island.”

The muscular woman said, “Qi Jiayu, also from Ansu Island.”

The young girl added, “I’m Lin Le, a middle-school student.”

After introducing themselves, all three turned to the only person who hadn’t revealed her identity—Zhou Li.

Zhou Li smiled faintly. “I’m the owner of this supermarket. You can just call me Boss.”

The three women: …

Since they were on someone else’s turf, they didn’t press the issue.

Fang Qin, still cautious, asked, “So… is this an unclaimed island?”

Zhou Li shook her head. “That’s outside the supermarket’s service scope. I’m afraid I can’t answer.”

The three exchanged a look. What a strange supermarket.

Lin Le, relying on her youth to appear harmless, smiled sweetly. “Sister, do you actually get customers here?”

Zhou Li smiled. “Of course I do.”

Her gaze lingered pointedly on them.

The three women: …

Lin Le’s attempt at small talk fell flat, so Qi Jiayu stepped forward.

“Boss,” she said, clearing her throat, “everything in the supermarket is for sale, right? No restrictions on who can buy?”

“Of course,” Zhou Li said, beginning her usual explanation of the store’s rules.

When they heard that they needed to exchange for supermarket membership points before purchasing anything, none of them were surprised.

Since the zombie outbreak, society had collapsed. The powerful seized control of islands and imposed strict lockdowns.

Any outsiders who wanted to land had to undergo health inspections first—and pay to stay overnight.

Some island leaders even created their own currencies to prevent people from leaving. Each island’s currency was unique and couldn’t be used elsewhere; the leaders controlled exchange rates, trapping residents who couldn’t obtain other islands’ money.

Fang Qin and her companions assumed the supermarket’s “membership points” were just another form of local currency—albeit with a strange name.

“In your opinion,” Qi Jiayu asked, “what counts as valuable?”

“That’s hard to say,” Zhou Li replied. “I’d have to see it to judge.”

Lin Le opened her pack. Inside were pots, bowls, and other basic items.

After rummaging for a moment, she pulled out something red.

Zhou Li’s eyes narrowed. Well, I’ll be damned. Red coral—nice.

“Is this worth anything?” Lin Le asked.

She had not only red coral but also blue and black pieces.

To save time, she dumped them all out.

Zhou Li: … That’s a lot.

Still, she quietly listed one on the auction house to check the price.

【Momo Red Coral (55g)】
Year: 211
Origin: —
Owner: Lin Xiaole
Starting Price: 33,000 (suggested)
Buyout Price: 40,000 (suggested)
Note: The auction house strictly regulates the harvesting and sale of red coral.

Like tiger pelts, coral was restricted but not outright banned.

In Zhou Li’s country, red coral couldn’t be exported—but if bought abroad with proper certification and declared in advance, it was legal to import.

So she wasn’t surprised to see a listed price.

Still, the auction house’s “restriction” clearly drove the price down. A specimen of this quality would normally fetch around 2,000 yuan per gram, but the auction only valued it at 600.

Zhou Li said, “This one’s worth 33,000 points.”

She glanced at Lin Le but didn’t expose her fake name.

“Thirty-three thousand…” Qi Jiayu and the others quickly compared that to the supermarket’s prices and grasped how valuable that was.

“I’ll trade,” Lin Le said, pocketing the blue and black corals and offering only the red one.

Zhou Li issued her a membership card.

Since she was the first member in this world, Zhou Li kindly added a reminder. “By the way, violence is prohibited inside the store. Theft isn’t advised either—trigger the alarm, and you might get blacklisted.”

Fang Qin and her group exchanged glances.

No wonder this boss had let three armed strangers inside so casually—she wasn’t relying on the security guard for protection at all.

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