Ch 120: My Multiverse Supermarket

As one bandit after another fell in eerie silence, fear finally crept across Ebus’s face.

He screamed, “That’s shadow magic!”

The bandit leader froze, his heart turning cold. “Shadow magic? How could there be a shadow mage here!?”

Shadow mages were zealots who worshiped the Goddess of the Nether Moon and revered the power of death.

They commanded the undead, making them their slaves.

Beyond that, they spread plague and disease, turning the living into corpses and the corpses into death knights.

“Why couldn’t there be one?” Ebus snapped through gritted teeth. “This wasteland’s full of shadow creatures anyway. It’s perfectly normal for a shadow mage to hide among them, pretending to be human!”

That “witch” had been far too cunning—none of them had sensed even the faintest surge of shadow energy before!

Between all the gods’ followers, Ebus considered the Nether Moon’s worshipers the most dangerous.

After all, human life was short, and no one could escape death.

Humans feared death—and in their hearts, they all believed in the Goddess of the Nether Moon who ruled the underworld. Even though she was never popular, her power had never waned. Even at its weakest, it still surpassed that of most gods.

And the place with the most followers of the Nether Moon wasn’t the magic-worshipping Maielia—it was the science-driven Atmos!

Because Atmos’s exploitation had never stopped. The nobles, lawmakers, rich merchants, and landowners had turned steam into a tool for greed.

They ignored the suffering of the poor, treating human lives like dirt. In Arca Company’s mines, logging sites, factories, and brothels, people died daily—from hunger, overwork, disease, abuse, or workplace “accidents.”

Though the government of Atmos had outlawed worship of the old gods, in its dark and forgotten corners, people still prayed in secret.

Shadow mages saw this despair as fertile ground. They disguised themselves as ordinary citizens, whispering to the dying—tempting them into sacrifice rituals before death.

Across the provinces of the United Kingdom of Atmos, countless unresolved cases were tied to shadow mages. But the ruling class suppressed the truth to prevent the masses from falling into fear and reviving faith in the old gods. They invented stories of deranged killers who had escaped capture.

But such lies only fooled the uninformed poor.

As the intelligence director of Arca Company, Ebus knew far more than most.

“No wonder those Maielian bastards came here!” he muttered, thinking he had grasped the truth.

The surviving bandit leader looked around in confusion. “Ebus, the shadow mage isn’t following us.”

“Forget it!” Ebus barked. “We’re going back. I’ll send troops to wipe this place off the map—burn it all to ashes!”

His voice trembled with fury, trying to mask the fear and humiliation of the night’s failure.

*

When Zhou Li woke up the next morning, she found over a dozen unconscious bodies lying around the supermarket.

She didn’t need to think twice to guess who they were—she even recognized a few faces from Ebus’s gang.

“Boss, what should we do?” An Fengxuan asked.

In the zombie world, they could have dumped the problem on Major Xu. Here, there was no cleanup crew.

Zhou Li frowned. Leaving them would mean slow deaths—or getting eaten by beasts. But she couldn’t just let corpses pile up outside the store. What would that make her shop look like?

“Move them under the tree,” Zhou Li said. “Give them some water. If Rebecca and her people come back, we’ll hand them over.”

She still had gemstones in stock; if Rebecca didn’t return, someone else from the Black Raven Legion surely would.

That was the plan—but she waited all day, and no one came.

…

The next morning, the bodies were gone.

“Could they have been eaten by shadow creatures?” An Fengxuan guessed.

Zhou Li shook her head. “The first night, Rebecca’s group fought rogues here—they cleared out most of the undead and beasts. The second night, when Ebus came, they did another sweep. It’s too soon for new ones to appear.”

Unable to make sense of it, Zhou Li checked the surveillance system.

And what she saw made her skin crawl—

The earth had swallowed them.

No—that wasn’t quite right. Someone had used shadow energy to silently engulf them, making it look as if the ground itself had eaten them alive.

“Could there really be a shadow mage nearby?” An Fengxuan whispered.

Zhou Li asked the system, “Would the defense system activate against such power?”

System: “Please rest assured—no extraordinary or technological force can breach the supermarket’s protection.”

Zhou Li thought grimly: back in the Infinite World, even she had to obey the system’s rules. That meant outside power could challenge its limits.

And this world’s gods, according to the system, were a headache even for it.

Still—if a god-level being really came, resistance would be pointless. Best to lie flat and accept fate.

So as long as no deity personally intervened, she wasn’t worried.

Just then, a carriage drawn by three black goats appeared on the wasteland.

The driver was wrapped entirely in a white robe.

The goat-drawn carriage stopped in front of the supermarket. The figure pulled down their hood, revealing white hair and a pale, frail-looking young face—no older than twelve or thirteen.

It gave Zhou Li a strange feeling, like seeing a dying child who somehow walked perfectly fine.

One thought flashed through her mind—shadow mage.

“Hello,” the youth said, extending a hand as thin as a twig.

Zhou Li’s mind drifted absurdly: white robes really did make people look bulkier.

She didn’t dare take the hand. In this world of magic, who knew what that gesture could do? So she simply smiled. “Welcome to the Good Life Supermarket.”

Seeing she wouldn’t shake hands, the youth withdrew it and turned to study the shelves of gemstone packets.

Zhou Li noticed her eyes lingered longest on the shadow-element gemstones.

Then she pulled several vials and bottles from her robe.

“Alchemy… potion… trade… for… gems.” Her voice was halting, like a wind-up doll.

Zhou Li wasn’t surprised that the girl knew how exchanges worked—clearly, she’d been watching the shop for days.

Zhou Li scanned the potions into the trading interface: a Basic Healing Potion, a Hardening Elixir that gave a body the toughness of steel for two hours, a Night Vision Potion for seeing in darkness—

And one bottle of Corpse Oil.

Zhou Li: …

She quietly removed the corpse oil from the trade and told the girl—whose name was Natisha—“That totals 573,400 points.”

Natisha looked too young to be shopping alone. Zhou Li wondered if her parents would demand a refund, so she said gently, “Shadow gemstones are rare. You don’t need that many points if you’re only buying those.”

Natisha said nothing—and made no move to change her mind.

“Alright,” Zhou Li said. “Just so you know, every customer gets one chance to refund unused points.”

Natisha got her membership card and bought out every remaining shadow gemstone.

She also filled her basket with ordinary goods.

Zhou Li remarked to the system, “I thought the only thing I’d sell this time would be sea fluorite.”

That would’ve made this her worst-performing world yet.

Luckily, there were still people here who needed to eat and drink.

Natisha paused for a long time at the fridge filled with drinks and beer. She reached toward the beer, but Zhou Li said, “Minors can’t drink alcohol.”

Natisha: …

In the end, her basket was full of drinks—cola, orange juice, coconut milk, iced tea, sour plum soup, and more.

And food, plenty of it.

Zhou Li doubted that goat carriage could fit everything, but such things didn’t seem to trouble a mage.

Natisha drew a magic circle on the ground, sprinkled powder, and chanted a spell.

One by one, figures emerged from the circle—

The missing bandits from the night before.

So she was the shadow mage.

The bandits now moved like puppets, obeying only Natisha’s commands.

“Thank you,” Natisha said.

Zhou Li blinked.

“Very… good… servants,” Natisha added.

Zhou Li: …

Was she thanking her for knocking the bandits out—making it easier to collect fresh undead?

“You mean you couldn’t handle them yourself?” Zhou Li asked.

Natisha frowned. “Guns… troublesome.”

Zhou Li understood instantly—the rogues had firearms.

She hadn’t expected it, but it made sense. Even shadow mages had poor physical defense; just like in games, mages were glass cannons—high magic resistance, low bullet resistance.

Before leaving, Natisha offered a warning. “They… Boulder Town… will… return.”

“You mean,” Zhou Li said, “there’s a town called Boulder on the Emerald Wasteland, and these bandits came from there? Some escaped that night, and they’ll come back for revenge?”

Natisha nodded.

“Thanks for the tip,” Zhou Li said. “I think I’ll pack up and run tonight.”

Natisha: …

Zhou Li laughed. “Kidding. I’m just closing the store for a while—maybe a few days, maybe longer. You still have points left. If you’re afraid I’ll vanish, you can get a refund. But once refunded, you can’t rejoin the membership. If not, come back tomorrow—or in ten days.”

She’d allotted five days for this world, and four had already passed.

Natisha nodded silently, making no move to refund.

*

On the fifth day of the “Steam and Magic” world, the supermarket’s daily revenue hit a new record low—zero.

Zhou Li decided not to waste more time.

The system’s stored energy was now enough to support frequent plane-jumping, and she had to make every second count.

At least this world hadn’t required much restocking—hardly anyone here bought normal goods.

She jumped to the Ancient World to clear out old inventory, then to the Infinite World, where demand for spices was always high.

After giving An Fengxuan a day off, she returned to the Earth plane to refill supplies, then set off once more—

This time, back to the Zombie World—
just in time to run straight into an attack from the Li family.

☢️☢️☢️