After nearly a week of buzz, almost everyone in Vista City knew about the mysterious shop in the Abyss.
The news even began to spread, attracting travelers from nearby cities hoping to catch a glimpse of the demon and buy some goods.
Vorris was one of them, but unlike the others, he was a traveling merchant.
Upon hearing about the shop, he immediately gathered his men and headed for Vista City.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, the man roared in a rough voice, “When are we getting there! Is that general store a scam?”
“That Abyss is a hellhole rumored to be teeming with monsters. Who would be so foolish as to open a shop there?!”
He took a swig of wine, eliciting a burst of laughter.
“Don’t worry, boss, we’re almost there. We’ll find out for sure once we get there,” someone reassured him.
Sure enough, they soon saw the massive city gate ahead with the four golden characters of Vista City prominently displayed.
They decided to rest in the city for a while before continuing their journey the next day. The group, weary from their travels, stopped their carriage outside the city gate.
After a quick wash, the merchant’s experience told him where to gather information, and Vorris turned and went into a run-down pub.
As soon as he entered, a wave of heat hit him. The crowd was boisterous and laughing, playing drinking games and making a ruckus—it was utter chaos.
Vorris ordered a beer and sat down at a small table to listen to the conversation around him.
These burly men rambled on about incoherent things, and it took him a while to glean any useful information.
“Hey, did you go to that shop in the Abyss to buy a Coke?”
“Of course I went! If I hadn’t leveled up a few days ago, I would have been killed by the Nine-Headed Bear long ago. Sigh, these demonic beasts are getting stronger and stronger, earning a single gold coin isn’t easy.”
“Yeah, thankfully ‘that’ shopkeeper is there helping us lowly warriors, otherwise we’d be doomed.”
The topic gradually veered off course. The burly man spat out some water and began to complain again about the high-ranking nobles who didn’t treat them like human beings.
Vorris got the information he wanted, silently drank his wine, and was about to stand up when someone stopped him.
The man had short, blond hair, and a short sword at his waist. He was clearly Abel, the first person to discover the general store.
Since his high-rank advancement, he had been incredibly powerful during the beast tide, arming everyone in the Star Mercenary Group to the teeth and rapidly raising the group’s level.
Now he can take on B-rank missions, earning several times more per mission than before.
Abel never forgot the Demon Lord’s instructions, and remained devoted to that person, attributing all his changes to him.
Vista City was already filled with the Demon Lord’s prestige but it wasn’t enough. He longed to find the other cities, even the main city of Caldera, to gain the faith of those high-ranking mages and nobles.
Having heard that the famous traveling merchant, Vorris, had arrived, he had been waiting there for a long time.
The two exchanged a glance and left the bar in tacit agreement, one after the other.
*
After seeing off another group of customers, Lu Sinian slumped into a chair, rubbing his temples and complaining to the system.
“There are just too many customers. I’m busy every day, and I’ve even accumulated tens of thousands of energy coins. Ugh, so annoying.”
His tone, however, was quite pleased as if he were still in Versailles.
The system flickered, seemingly confused by Lu Sinian’s tactics. Its mechanical voice awkwardly tried to comfort him: “Master, when we have more energy coins, we can hire AI to collect the money.”
Lu Sinian shook his head, disapprovingly saying, “How can we delegate collecting money to others? This is such a meaningful thing, my dear, you don’t understand.”
Sizzle…
The system experienced some internal turmoil. It froze for a long time, unable to utter a single word, before disappearing.
Lu Sinian was unaware of the impact his words had on the system. He easily stood up, took an apple from the refrigerator, and took a bite.
He opened the system panel to check his energy coins and existing goods.
[Energy Coins: 45800]
[Cola: 119 bottles remaining]
[Potato Chips: 78 bags remaining]
[Durian Candy: 312 pieces remaining]
[Band-Aids: 125 sheets remaining]
Now that he had quite a few energy coins, Lu Sinian had long wanted to spend 10,000 to unlock new items.
He looked at the grayed-out item boxes and decided to unlock one randomly.
[Spend 10,000 energy coins to unlock a new item?]
With a light tap, a pleasant clinking sound of gold coins rang out, deducting 10,000 energy coins, and the new item appeared.
[Taro Ball Pearl Milk Tea: Cost price 100 energy coins, selling price 1000, equivalent to 100 gold coins (Note: Fully sweet milk tea, guaranteed to be extremely sweet. If you’re not afraid of gaining weight, you can drink several cups)]
Hiss, Lu Sinian took a soft breath.
This price wasn’t cheap. Lu Sinian knew the prices in this Western fantasy world, one gold coin was equivalent to 1,000 RMB, so 100 coins were equivalent to 100,000 RMB.
Who would spend 100,000 RMB just for a cup of milk tea, especially one that was supposedly cloyingly sweet?
He could only blame his bad luck that he’d unlocked a useless item. He wondered if people in this Western fantasy world would even be used to milk tea.
Gritting his teeth, Lu Sinian, like someone addicted to gacha pulls, couldn’t resist trying again.
He told himself, “I still have over 30,000 energy coins. I’ll try one more time, I refuse to believe I won’t get something useful this time.”
His finger tapped lightly again, and his wallet suddenly shrank, the sound of coins falling audible.
[Steel Biscuit: Cost price 30 energy coins, selling price 300, equivalent to 30 gold coins (Note: Hmm… the taste is indescribable. If you’re not afraid of breaking your teeth, you can consider eating this, but I still advise against it.)]
Alright, the goods seem even more peculiar now. Lu Sinian decided to give up and stop trying to challenge his unlucky streak.
At least the previous ones were edible, but this one was terrible. It was a cold, iron-like biscuit as hard as a rock.
The milk tea wasn’t cheap, so Lu Sinian bought 30 and then stopped, deciding to test the market first.
As for the steel biscuits, he hesitated for a moment, then tentatively bought about ten.
Many customers came that day, but none of them chose to buy any new items.
First, there was the milk tea. Just 100 gold coins was something most people couldn’t afford. They were just ordinary warriors struggling to make ends meet, and trying to live as well as possible. Saving enough money to buy some band-aids and cola was already emptying their wallets.
As for that steel biscuit, they already regarded Lu Sinian as a demon in their hearts, and they were all terrified like chicks when buying things.
Things that looked unusual at first glance—who knew if they were even meant for human consumption?—they dared not take the risk.
But the Floating Life General Store was already famous throughout Vista City, while they dared not buy, many others were eager to try.
In no time, news of the demon shop’s new arrivals spread quietly.