Before bed, Shan Nai lay on her bed and checked the system backend, confirming the next stage’s leveling-up requirements.
Accumulate points and complete ten random tasks.
“That’s quite a lot of tasks…” Her small hand kept swiping through the task list on the interface.
「Sell 10 small flashlights, 0/10」
「Reach 100 registered members (7/100)」
「Serve 50 customers in the dining area (6/50)」
「Hidden task: Advertise the supermarket. Completed.」
「Hidden task: Grand opening promotion. Completed.」
「Customer satisfaction 60/1000」
「……」
“Haha, advertising the supermarket was a hidden task too? System, you really are something. Love you.” Shan Nai closed the interface, smiling sweetly, tugging at her ice-silk air-conditioned blanket.
【These tasks are all randomly generated by the supermarket, it’s not something the system can control.】
“Mm-hm, got it. Good night, system.” She’d prioritize picking tasks with time limits.
【Good night.】 The system quietly turned off her little cat-shaped nightlight for her.
…
【Host, Host, wake up, there’s a customer at the door!】
On this new day, Shan Nai wasn’t woken by an alarm clock, but by the system.
Shan Nai opened her eyes with great reluctance, glanced at the clock on the table, and pouted, muttering, “Doesn’t our supermarket open at nine? It’s only eight-thirty…”
With that, she buried her face back into the soft pillow.
【But the customer has already been waiting over an hour. The temperature’s already past 40 degrees now.】
Opens at nine, and still not up at eight-thirty, a little longer and the person would lose patience and leave, and there go the points, you lazy little kitty!
But the system kept the rest of that thought to itself, it still doted on its Host quite a bit.
Shan Nai figured her system was just being kind, worrying about the waiting customer, which made her feel a bit embarrassed. She rolled herself up and rubbed her cat ears.
“I’m doing this for the points!” With that, she quickly started dressing and washing up.
The system said nothing back, just smiled faintly to itself.
Same old, same old.
To save time, Shan Nai tied her hair into twin pigtails again, the style suited her well with the two cat ears on top.
Fortunately, her fuzzy cat ears weren’t very large, small and soft, looking just like an accessory, not out of place at all.
“Sigh, when will I be able to turn back into my true form? Being a little orange cat is great too…”
Looking at the cat-eared girl in the pale yellow dress reflected in the mirror, Shan Nai thought back to the days when she could freely switch forms.
She really wanted to groom her own fur.
She really missed her own paws.
She really wanted to play with her own tail.
【Don’t be impatient, Host, who knows, as the supermarket keeps leveling up, you might just be able to turn into a little cat.】
“You’re peeking into my thoughts again.” Shan Nai rolled her eyes mentally at the system.
She browsed through the “Boss’s Private Kitchen” in the backend, casually picking “scallion pancake wrap with soy milk” from the three breakfast options, then went to fetch it from the food counter.
Taking a bite of the still-steaming scallion pancake wrap, she calmly went to open the supermarket’s front door.
“It’s open, it’s open!”
“I told you it opens after nine, but you just had to come this early.”
“What if we come too late and there’s nothing left, you idiot!”
Two identical-looking young men were crouched in front of the warning sign outside the supermarket, bickering with each other.
“Morning, pretty little boss lady.” Xu Nuo waved enthusiastically at Shan Nai.
This little shop owner, tsk tsk tsk, so young, and with looks this stunning, back in the old days, wouldn’t she have taken the entertainment industry by storm? Undoubtedly the nation’s little sweetheart.
Her features were unreasonably delicate, her little dress worn beautifully, cat ears perched on her head, adorable through and through.
Meanwhile, the young man beside her, Xu Yan, stared unblinkingly at the scallion pancake wrap in Shan Nai’s hand, practically drooling. “Bro, I want a scallion pancake wrap too…” he said, even stretching out a grubby hand.
“Eat your own face!” Xu Nuo scowled and smacked his younger brother’s hand hard.
The day before yesterday, passing by the city entrance, they’d spotted the Lucky Supermarket’s big advertisement. At the time the two brothers had been skeptical and hadn’t come right away.
But the past couple of days, searching for supplies while dodging zombies, they’d combed through the entire city.
Yet in those abandoned supermarkets and shopping buildings, aside from a few mutated giant rats, nothing remained.
The giant rats were about the size of rabbits, and one had nearly bitten Xu Nuo.
With truly nothing left to eat, they’d finally remembered the Lucky Supermarket, hence why they’d come to try their luck first thing this morning.
“Sorry about that, boss, my brother’s an idiot.” Xu Nuo said with a chuckle, deliberately teasing.
Xu Yan glared at him irritably, feeling his own behavior just now had been embarrassing, and glanced at Shan Nai with a touch of shame.
“Well, that’s a bit pitiful. Come on in.” Shan Nai took another bite of her fragrant pancake wrap, her gaze drifting sympathetically toward the top of Xu Yan’s head.
Xu Yan, speechless, secretly gave his brother’s lower back a hard pinch, both of them in their twenties, and he was still acting this childish.
The two of them shoved each other through the door, feeling the instant cool air, and as they took in the neatly arranged rows of goods, both brothers suddenly fell silent.
“Unbelievable, unbelievable…” Xu Nuo looked at Shan Nai with an expression of pure admiration. “Boss, you’re really something!”
He kept his surprise and curiosity bottled up inside, he’d read the warning sign posted out front loud and clear.
Anyone with eyes could tell this shop owner was no ordinary person. His goal was to buy supplies, nothing else concerned him or his brother.
“Not really, not really. Customers, please take a look here.” Shan Nai pointed to the shopping notice.
These twin brothers were pretty young, and the older one seemed to have good sense, unlike previous customers who’d pestered her with endless questions, looks like the warning sign at the door had done its job.
After reading it carefully, Xu Yan took out all of their combined assets from his backpack.
“Bro, this is all the crystal cores we’ve got left. This gold bracelet should work too, right? It says rare metals count.”
“Yeah, put it up there.” Xu Nuo nodded gently.
He had no special ability, but he’d been a fitness trainer before, so his physical condition was solid, while his younger brother was a fire-type ability user, together, the two of them had managed to survive the apocalypse.
Shan Nai looked at the crystal cores and gold jewelry on the exchange tray, her cat ears twitching happily. “Customers, you two should top up your points separately, the cards are registered to individual names and can’t be shared.”
“Right, right, thanks for the reminder, boss.” Xu Nuo split the items back into two piles, one for each of them.
Tier-one crystal cores, gold and silver bracelets, and a jade necklace were divided into two batches and placed on the tray.
Xu Nuo successfully exchanged for 550 points, and Xu Yan got 620 points.
Quite the wealthy pair, Shan Nai thought, propping her chin on her hand with a faint smile.
The two brothers pocketed their cat-shaped membership cards and dove straight into the shelves with a shopping cart, starting to stock up.
Xu Yan took charge of loading up water, milk, and fruit-vegetable juice. He excitedly opened the refrigerator door and, seeing the bottles beaded with cold condensation, burst into tears on the spot.
“This… can you believe this?! There’s still milk at a time like this! Fruit juice… waaah…”
“Amazing, bro, look, there’s fruit here too! Bread! Marinated eggs! Wet wipes… let’s grab some of those too, good for wiping down!…”
Xu Nuo’s eyes sparkled with excitement, his mouth never stopping, but his hands kept just as busy, quickly tossing every item into the cart.
Shan Nai suddenly remembered the task to sell 10 small flashlights, hopped down off her stool at the checkout counter, and walked over to Xu Nuo with a smile.
“Customer, we’ve also got small flashlights here, it gets pitch dark outside at night, how about grabbing one? Waterproof, fireproof, compact and sturdy!”
Shan Nai held up a palm-sized black flashlight, introducing it to Xu Nuo.
Xu Nuo saw the price tag, 30 points, not too expensive at all, especially compared with other ways of exchanging for supplies, everything in this supermarket was a great deal.
But how much battery life could a flashlight really have? It’d probably die out after a few days of use. They’d made it through darkness these past few years without one, did they really need a flashlight now?
“The battery’ll probably run out fast…” Xu Nuo scratched his head, his voice a little quiet.
Shan Nai quickly waved her hands. “Not at all, this uses the supermarket’s specially made ultra-efficient battery, guaranteed to last 360 hours of continuous use! And I sell the batteries too, not expensive at all, 5 points a pack.”
360 hours? Half a month?
That… seemed way too exaggerated. Could such a tiny flashlight battery really be that powerful?
Xu Nuo was deeply skeptical in his heart.