…
A dirty young girl lay on the parched ground, her face pale, her eyes tightly closed, and a gruesome wound gaping across her neck.
An eerie, guttural rasp echoed through the surrounding air, making one’s scalp tingle with dread.
“Wake up, Host! If you don’t wake up now, you’re going to die a second time!”
System 098 felt that if it had a brain, its temples would be throbbing in sheer agony right about now.
It had taken so much effort to pick a host who had just kicked the bucket, rush to transfer her to a randomly selected plane, and hastily choose a piece of cannon fodder to overwrite with her data.
Yet, mere seconds before the binding could finish, that cannon fodder had gone and slit her own throat!
098 sighed deeply and dipped into its own pocket to repair its very first host’s body—life as a system was truly hopeless. Before it had even earned a single cent, it was already losing its shirt…
The wound on the girl’s neck was mending at a pace visible to the naked eye. Before long, both the dried blood on her face and the gash on her neck vanished completely.
The problem now was that it had to rouse its host immediately and get her to bind with it, or it would be powerless to help any further.
098 took a deep breath and howled at the absolute top of its lungs:
“Thunder strikes! This divine power shatters the sky and earth, Purple Gold Hammer! Purple lightning…”
“Shut the hell up! You’re deafening!”
Lin Nian snapped her eyes open and scrambled up, cursing under her breath.
Who on earth was playing that cheap, tacky noise?!
The next instant, a magnified face appeared right in front of her. The deathly pale mug was smeared with fresh blood, its flesh ripped and peeled outward, leaving only a single bloodshot eye to faintly suggest it had once belonged to a human.
It opened its mouth wide to reveal razor-sharp fangs, blasting a foul, sickening stench right into her face.
“Holy shit!”
Without a second thought, Lin Nian spun around and bolted for her life.
Is that a zombie? The kind from the movies? Why is it staring right into my face?! And why am I even here?!
“You were selected by this system after you died and randomly transmigrated to an apocalyptic plane. Hurry up and bind with me!”
That same loud voice from the song was bellowing again. Lin Nian sprinted while stealing glances around, trying to figure out where the person telling her to run was hiding.
The surrounding land was barren and cracked, with not a soul in sight. Behind her, a few zombies dragged their mangled bodies in hot pursuit, throat-rasping terrifying noises from their mouths. Where was any human supposed to be?!
Wait a minute, why are these things so fast?! They aren’t slow like the ones on TV at all!
“Host! Quickly bind with this system!”
“Then bloody bind it already! How do I bind it?! Am I supposed to tie myself up with a rope or something?!”
Lin Nian sprinted with everything she had, running until she was nearly out of breath. Seeing the zombies closing in, two streams of tears spurted from her eyes, flung backward into the wind as she ran.
Sob, sob, sob! What gives?! Other people get transmigrated to enjoy fine dining and luxury, but I get transmigrated to run a track race against zombies in the middle of nowhere!
*Ding! Would you like to bind with the Invincible Supreme Shopkeeper System?*
Lin Nian didn’t have time to roast the ridiculous name and shrieked at the top of her lungs, “Yes, yes, yes, YES!”
A gust of chilling air struck the back of her head. Lin Nian instinctively dived forward and took a nasty faceplant into the dirt. Not only did she get a mouthful of mud, but her teeth were hit so hard they throbbed with sharp pain.
A zombie’s claws scraped past her shoulder by a hair’s breadth.
Lin Nian clutched her mouth, tears streaming down her face. It hurt—it really, truly hurt!
Watching the zombie’s claws draw closer once more, Lin Nian thought in utter despair: *It’s over. I’m completely toast.*
*Ding! Binding successful. Invincible Mode activated.*
A flash of brilliant white light erupted before her eyes, blasting the leading zombie backward and incinerating it into fine ash right in midair.
Immediately after, the remaining zombies trailing behind were swept up in the exact same trajectory and posture, dissipating into thin air.
Lin Nian’s mouth gaped open in shock, forming a perfect, round “O”. “Th-what on earth is this?”
“Phew, made it just in time. That scared the absolute daylights out of this system.”
“Ah.” Lin Nian blinked, closing her mouth as she realized that this voice claiming to be a system was speaking directly inside her head.
“The essential cheat code for transmigrators… Mr. System?! Wait, what is an apocalyptic plane?”
Lin Nian’s small mind was filled with massive doubts.
“Ahem. I am the Invincible Supreme Shopkeeper System 098. I exist within your consciousness, Host, so you can communicate directly with me through your thoughts.”
098 composed itself, trying its best to sound professional and serious:
“This is an apocalyptic plane. After you died, you were chosen by this system and brought to this place.”
“Oh.” Lin Nian accepted the explanation surprisingly fast. After all, she had read plenty of web novels and watched plenty of movies.
She just hadn’t expected such a thing to actually happen to her, and a strange wave of excitement washed over her.
Lin Nian had been just an ordinary college student. While taking a shower in the communal bathroom, her foot had slipped, and the back of her head had slammed against an iron nail meant for hanging clothes, causing her to bleed to death.
Recalling her embarrassing and pathetic demise, Lin Nian felt a wave of gloom—she hadn’t even been wearing any clothes when she died, boo-hoo…
“No need to worry. This system has erased every trace of your existence, and your original body has vanished completely,” 098 said triumphantly.
“That’s fantastic, thank you so much…” Lin Nian patted her chest in relief before suddenly remembering something. “Wait, what about the owner of this body I’m in?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, a sudden wave of dizziness hit her, and memories belonging to the original body flooded into her mind.
The original owner was also named Lin Nian. She had survived in the apocalypse for a year alongside her teammates. Because her superpowered ability level was uselessly low—stuck permanently at Tier 1—she was constantly looked down upon by the rest of the team.
However, because her family had hoarded a vast amount of supplies before the apocalypse and she possessed a Water ability, she had served as the team’s mobile faucet.
And their ultimate pushover.
Once the supplies she hoarded were completely consumed, her standing in the team plummeted. When a new Tier 4 Ice ability user joined their ranks, she was cast aside entirely.
Ultimately, during a run outside, her teammates abandoned her in this barren wasteland after stripping away her very last piece of food.
Heartbroken and despairing, the original Lin Nian bumped into a few zombies. Knowing she couldn’t win, she simply slit her own throat.
When Lin Nian transmigrated over, the girl had only just breathed her last.
*Tsk tsk, talk about bringing trouble upon oneself,* Lin Nian commented to 098 in her mind, before shifting the topic. “098, what did you mean by running a shop?”
“Oh dear, you got me so distracted I almost forgot!”
Right after, a sequence of clear chimes echoed through Lin Nian’s mind.
*Ding! Invincible Supreme Shopkeeper System activated. Starter Gift Pack has been issued.*
*Ding! Congratulations to the Host for receiving: 1x General Store, 1x Shopkeeper’s Wooden Cabin.*
*Ding! Congratulations to the Host for receiving items: Steamed White Buns, Soy Milk.*
*Ding! Teleportation countdown: Three, two, one…*
A bright flash of white light consumed her sight, and in the next moment, she found herself standing in front of a small wooden cabin.
Beside the cabin stood a matchbox-like general store spanning roughly fifteen square meters. The surrounding terrain was flat and bare, devoid of any other buildings.
“Whoa—!”
Lin Nian touched this and inspected that in sheer excitement, pulling open the wooden door to peek her head inside.
The wooden cabin was around fifteen square meters in size, consisting only of a small two-square-meter bathroom and a main living space.
Inside the living space were a spring mattress bed, a wooden wardrobe, a wooden table, two wooden chairs, a wooden trash can, a compact refrigerator, and a microwave oven.
The fridge was stocked with some microwaveable ready-to-eat meals, fresh fruit, and even ice cream and yogurt!
Opening the wardrobe, she found several sets of women’s clothing, undergarments, a few pairs of socks, and a pair of slippers.
The bathroom contained only a wooden toilet, a sink, and a showerhead mounted on the wall, with no visible piping anywhere.
On the sink rested a set of toiletries alongside various women’s personal care items.
Lin Nian turned on the faucet to test it, and crystal-clear tap water gushed out. But since there were no pipes, where was the water coming from?
“It’s a system product, Host, so rest assured! Water, electricity, and gas are fully connected, and items will automatically restock once used up~”
“Wow, 098, you’re awesome!” Lin Nian clapped her hands merrily. “Having a cozy little house of my own in the apocalypse is just amazing!”
“Everything here can be upgraded. As long as you complete your tasks diligently, you’ll unlock even more features.”
“Ah~ got it. Standard corporate drone grind, right? Easy peasy! Give me a little spoiler, what kind of features are we talking about?”
“Please explore that on your own, Host. However, this system can tell you with absolute confidence that it will exceed your wildest imagination!” 098 bragged smugly.
Lin Nian walked into the small shop next door and found that the entire space contained only two rows of shelves, a crude checkout counter, and a wooden stool.
Sitting prominently on the shelf were a plate of steamed white buns and a cup of soy milk.
“Will these automatically restock too?”
“Of course! Now, come up with a catchy name for the store so we can open for business!”
“A catchy name? How catchy should it be? How about ‘Badass Supermarket’?”
098 responded deadpan, “Ha ha.”
Lin Nian scratched the back of her head and thought for a moment. “Then let’s call it ‘Anhe General Store’!”
*Anhe*—tranquility and peace.
The moment the words left her mouth, the characters for “Anhe General Store” magically appeared on the signboard above the entrance.
098 seemed to approve of the name as well, speaking in a quite complimentary tone: “Hurry and wash up, change into fresh clothes, and let’s start our business!”
“Alrighty, the ultimate corporate worker is online!”
098 nearly tripped over itself in her consciousness.
*What am I supposed to do with a host this playful? Should I beat her up first?*