Ch 127: My Multiverse Supermarket

On the second day after the little supermarket returned to the Emerald Wasteland, Zhou Li had already prepared all the wood and stone Lamanda needed to build her house, neatly stacked in the clearing out front.

Lamanda gasped. “My lady boss—did you use a teleportation array? The kind of array that could transport this much material must be a masterpiece!”

Zhou Li didn’t understand why Lamanda was so shocked. Natisha used teleportation circles to move goods all the time; she’d thought such arrays were as common as delivery stations.

Come to think of it, if this world had teleportation magic, why was the transportation industry still so developed?

The steam faction made sense, but even the magic faction relied on airships and mounts. It didn’t quite add up.

True to her inquisitive nature, Zhou Li asked, “So… why don’t you just use teleportation arrays for transport?”

Lamanda was briefly speechless.

Was it that they didn’t want to? No—it was that they couldn’t!

She had originally assumed the shopkeeper was some great archmage. What kind of archmage would ask such a question!?

Finally, Lamanda explained, “Even during the Age of Magic before the Waning Era, teleportation arrays were never easy to build…”

The formulas were extraordinarily complex and required immense magical power just to study. Without divine “Enlightenment,” most scholars would lose themselves in the forbidden sea of knowledge.

“Enlightenment” was a divine blessing. It protected the mind from corruption when approaching forbidden truths—keeping one from falling into madness.

So only mages could learn teleportation formulas, and only mages could construct the arrays.

After the Waning Era began, fewer and fewer mages could sense divine blessings. Most could only make small teleportation circles. Only the most powerful, enlightened archmages could build large ones.

Constructing a teleportation array was the hardest part—but once the channel was stable, anyone who knew the activation rite could use it.

That said, teleportation couldn’t move just anything.

It didn’t physically relocate matter—it deconstructed the object, transmitted its essence through an elemental energy field, and reassembled it at the destination.

That process required an incredibly stable energy field.

The larger the array, the more magic energy it needed.

When elemental energy was too scarce, or the field unstable, teleportation could fail—often catastrophically.

“Once,” Lamanda said grimly, “someone tried it out of curiosity… and ended up as a puddle of flesh.”

An Fengxuan cut in, “So does that mean Natisha’s an archmage?”

At the mention of her student, Lamanda sighed. “No. Not yet.”

“But she can draw arrays on the fly and summon shadow creatures.”

“That’s because,” Lamanda corrected, “what she draws aren’t teleportation arrays—they’re summoning circles.”

Teleportation arrays required elemental gemstones or divine relics to sustain a stable energy field.
Summoning circles didn’t.

Those were unique to shadow mages. The Goddess of the Nethermoon had granted them knowledge and power to commune with shadow beings.

These entities existed in their own realm, and summoning circles acted as gateways for them to cross through.

When Natisha “transported” materials, she was actually using shadow creatures as living conveyors—carrying goods between locations.

Of course, this method had its risks; sometimes, shadow beings simply devoured the cargo.

To prevent that, one had to “feed” them first—so they’d lose interest in the goods being transferred.

Zhou Li didn’t fully understand all the magical theory, but she grasped one point clearly: “So Natisha’s a genius, huh?”

Lamanda nodded. “She is—but she lacks restraint. Using summoning circles too often drains her deeply.”

“Maybe that’s why she needed so many shadow-elemental stones,” Zhou Li said.

Lamanda sighed. She couldn’t stop Natisha.

The girl was an adult now, with her own convictions. A teacher could worry—but not interfere.

Zhou Li steered the conversation back. “So, how are you going to move all this stuff?”

“I’ve found some help,” Lamanda said, pulling out a flute.

She played a series of rolling notes.

Moments later, something appeared in the sky—a massive bird resembling an eagle, but twice as large.

It circled overhead before descending.

Lamanda approached, fed it a vial of alchemical potion, and gestured at the piles of timber and stone.

The bird screeched, gripped a log in its talons, and spread wings over two meters long before taking flight.

Its speed was astonishing; the heavy beam looked like a toy in its claws.

An Fengxuan asked, “Is that your mount?”

“Of course not,” Lamanda said. “That’s a blood hawk. Wild and untamable—it never lets anyone ride it. Its wings and claws are so strong that it can carry objects over ten times its own weight for hours!”

An Fengxuan thought, If I could catch one of those as a pet, what monster would I ever fear again?

But more than a pet, what she really wanted… was to learn magic.

With that thought, she returned to the supermarket and asked Zhou Li, “Boss, can I go help Lamanda?”

Zhou Li asked, “Have you really thought this through?”

“Yes. I can protect myself.”

Every time Zhou Li sent her back to the Infinite World, An Yixiao gave her new tools—but here in the supermarket, she’d never needed them.

Zhou Li didn’t ask why she was so eager to help Lamanda. “If you’ve decided, then I’ll give you half a day off.”

“Thank you, boss!”

An Fengxuan joined Lamanda outside, chatted briefly, then pulled out her Elementary School Backpack and began loading it with stone.

Zhou Li could hear Lamanda’s amazed exclamations all the way from inside.

When the two of them left on horseback, Zhou Li asked the system, “Since you can track staff locations, can you also monitor their safety?”

“Yes,” the system said. “But once outside the protective range, I can’t guarantee physical safety.” It hesitated. “You’re really letting her go that far?”

Previously, An Fengxuan had never strayed more than a hundred meters beyond the perimeter.

Lamanda’s site, however, was several kilometers away.

Zhou Li replied, “If I don’t let her go, how can she truly learn about magic?”

She already guessed An Fengxuan’s intention—either to study magic or alchemy.

Once mastered, magic could still be used in the Infinite World—as long as she had enough elemental stones.

As for alchemical potions, they worked across dimensions just like game items.

Carrying healing potions was like carrying recovery tools—but since they weren’t products of The Game, they might not count toward her item limit.

Besides, Zhou Li reasoned, if there was a Wisdom Potion that improved focus and learning, maybe there were also potions that could heal the mind.

The Infinite World’s “contamination” was spiritual in nature—could alchemy potions reduce its effects?

She didn’t know if the theory was valid, but it was worth trying.

…

With An Fengxuan and the blood hawk’s help, Lamanda quickly finished transporting the materials.

Just as Zhou Li thought things might quiet down again, a caravan arrived at sunset.

Seeing the flag’s emblem, Zhou Li read it aloud: “…Thorn Independent Consortium?”

Another company like Arka, perhaps?

She wasn’t afraid of corporations like that, but the thought of wasting time on negotiations made her tired already.

Yet when the caravan drew close, she noticed the wagons were pulled by exotic beasts—not steam-powered vehicles.

That meant they likely weren’t aligned with the steam faction—or at least, not entirely.

A woman at the head of the convoy paused outside, then stepped into the supermarket. “Excuse me, do you sell elemental stones here?”

Zhou Li explained the membership rules as usual.

The woman smiled. “We’ve heard about your rules already.”

Instead of buying a membership, she asked, “Besides elemental stones, do you have any… hidden items?”

“Hidden items?” Zhou Li thought for a moment, then grinned. “Of course. Ever heard of a telephone?”

“A telephone?” The woman’s curiosity was instantly piqued.

Zhou Li took out an early-model telephone she’d purchased from the auction hub. “No magic, no spells. Once you set up the phone network, you can talk over great distances instantly.”

The woman asked, “How is it different from a telegraph?”

“Sending a regular telegram takes hours to arrive, and it’s one-way. A telephone lets you talk in real time, with almost no delay.”

The woman was astonished—not at the instant communication, since spellcasters could already manage that—but at the fact that the device required no magic at all.

“This is… a technological product?” she asked.

“Yes,” Zhou Li said.

The woman smiled wider. “A store that sells both elemental gemstones and industrial goods—now that’s my kind of place.”

She introduced herself: “Forgive me, I forgot to give my name. I’m Luna, a mergers and acquisitions specialist from the Thorn Independent Consortium. Would you consider selling this shop?”

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