After a few hours of effort, all the broken tables, chairs, and stools in the little shop had been hammered and repaired by her hands.
【Renovation task complete.】
【Task reward: one lottery draw! Discovered goods: bottled water, chocolate teddy bear cookies, instant noodles, toilet paper, small flashlight. Food: braised vegetable stew, steamed buns, pending unlock.】
“A lottery draw? Bring it on, bring it on! I’m a lucky little orange cat! Meow-ha~”
At the mention of a lottery, Shan Nai excitedly rubbed her small hands together, not even bothering with the other discovered goods for the moment.
The words had barely left her mouth when a transparent screen appeared before her.
High technology!
Shan Nai tapped “Start” in the middle of the lottery wheel on the screen.
【The host can control it with their thoughts, you know.】
“That’s different, I’ve got lucky little hands.”
Shan Nai wasn’t bragging.
Back in the day, whenever she’d sneak down the mountain to play, even buying a bag of instant noodle snacks, she’d win a free extra bag. All the small appliances in her house had been won from prize drawings.
The dazzling wheel spun rapidly.
After several rotations, it slowly came to a stop.
The needle landed on first prize.
“Yes! System, system, did you see that~” Shan Nai bounced in place, her little blue skirt fluttering in the wind.
【Mm-hm, well done, Host. First prize is a grand gift package plus a meteoric iron golden baseball bat.】
The system felt a little thrill of its own, this host really was quite adorable, and lucky too. Looked like it might just be saved this time.
“A baseball bat?”
Was this for going out to fight? But the supermarket was invincible, and she had a protective shield on her too, oh… Shan Nai understood now. It must be for hitting people!
That’s right, that had to be it. If the reward had been a submachine gun instead, what would she do if she ran into an unreasonable customer, she couldn’t just spray them down, could she?
【Host, you’re quite lucky. This is a self-defense tool made of special materials, very practical. Give it a pat.】
Shan Nai smacked her lips, holding the smooth, round golden baseball bat.
Perhaps accounting for her height, it was a 21-inch model, weighing only two or three pounds, printed with the words “Lucky Supermarket.”
She gave it a few practice swings, the feel of it was quite good.
“Please open the gift package for me, thanks.”
【Grand gift package: daily necessities x1, specialty clothing x20, body-strengthening and beauty-nourishing fruit tea x1.】
Shan Nai was curious what this fruit tea was, so she tapped to collect it.
As a result, she got a face full of towels, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, bathing supplies, clothes, and underwear, all raining down on her at once.
Then the fruit tea got poured into an oversized thermos jug, pour whenever she wanted to drink, automatically refilling and keeping it fresh.
By the time she finished sorting through all these things, she remembered the goods that were still pending unlock.
Shan Nai found that this system was actually pretty good.
It didn’t rush her to work, came out to answer questions whenever there were any, and otherwise left her free to do as she pleased, a truly reliable little companion.
“System, how do I unlock and stock items? And the food too.”
【Using points. Each item requires 20 points to unlock. Please select the goods and prepared food to unlock.】
Shan Nai looked at the various items on the screen, frowning slightly, she had trouble making decisions and needed to think it over.
“There’s even a prepared food dining area… how professional.”
This reminded her of the big supermarkets from before, the kind that had everything, so convenient for daily life, she’d always loved browsing supermarkets.
She only had 100 points total. Steamed buns and stew were essentials for the prepared food section, so those definitely had to be unlocked.
“In the apocalypse… food probably comes first. So water and cookies are needed, toilet paper can wait a bit, I mean, at a time like this, tree leaves would work fine too. The flashlight… next time.” Shan Nai muttered quietly to herself.
In the end she tapped to select bottled water, cookies, instant noodles, steamed buns, and braised vegetable stew, “Unlock.”
【Unlocked. Points -100, remaining 0】
“Hmm… what if it all sells out? How do I restock?”
【Rest assured, Host. All goods are one-time unlocks. The first allocation is one case each. Once the shop sells out, the system will automatically restock the storeroom, no need to worry about the source of supply.】 The system said this with real confidence.
Shan Nai saw two boxes of goods appear on the floor of the shelves on the left, while over on the right, the food pass-through window suddenly had a large serving tray and several steamer baskets of white steamed buns appear out of nowhere. She was thoroughly convinced now.
“Can I eat the food in the shop?” The food smelled amazing, and just the scent of it made her hungry.
【Of course, Host, you’re the owner of the supermarket, with the highest level of management authority, so you can eat for free! As long as you run the business well and work hard to level up, the final reward will be huge!】 The system’s tone lifted with enthusiasm.
“The way you’re talking… there isn’t some kind of scheme going on, is there?” Shan Nai was a little suspicious. Did good things really just fall from the sky? Surely the system wasn’t trying to trick her…
【The system swears, there is absolutely no scheme of any kind. The host was only able to be reborn by binding with the supermarket system, and by completing the supermarket’s final upgrade, there will be a mysterious grand prize, and the system will benefit alongside the host too. That’s all there is to it!】
The system sounded a bit flustered.
Alright, she understood now, mutual benefit was normal enough.
Maybe she’d just been overly suspicious.
She’d already had terrible luck getting struck by lightning, and the system had kindly used its own energy to save her, yet here she was doubting it, that wasn’t very fair of her.
Besides, she was the owner now, and all she had to do was level up the supermarket, that was already more than enough.
“Sorry, I was overthinking it. Please look after me from now on.”
【Mm-hm.】
Shan Nai arranged all the goods on the shelves.
One case of bottled water held 30 bottles, one case of chocolate cookies held 50 bags, and the instant noodles were chicken broth flavor, 24 bags to a case.
Every product was stamped with “Produced by Lucky Supermarket.”
“Nice, I’ll reward myself with a bag of teddy bear cookies!” Shan Nai looked at the neatly arranged shelves and tore open a bag of cookies.
“Delicious!” Rich milky aroma, crisp and delicious, with a white chocolate filling.
【New task unlocked: reach a monthly revenue of 1,000 points.】
Hearing this, Shan Nai ruffled her hair, this task had a time limit.
She went over to the shelves to check the prices.
Bottled water/bottle, 6 points. Chocolate teddy bear cookies/bag, 10 points. Chicken broth instant noodles/bag, 5 points.
Large steamed bun/each, 2 points. Braised vegetable stew/serving, 13 points.
She opened up the system interface again and carefully read through the new hire’s guide.
“Zombies and mutated beasts have a chance of dropping crystal cores from their brains, which are the materials needed to upgrade the supermarket. Different grades of crystal cores contain different amounts of energy, and they’re also what supernatural ability users need in order to level up…”
“Looks like the specifics will have to wait until customers actually show up.”
Shan Nai read for a little while, then her stomach started growling with hunger.
She went over to the prepared food window, grabbed a tray, ladled herself a bowl of the stew, took a steamed bun, and sat down at a seat by the window to eat.
“Mmm, so good~” Shan Nai slurped up a mouthful of glass noodles dripping with sauce, her face full of contentment.
The braised stew had a rich variety of ingredients inside.
Pork belly, napa cabbage, glass noodles, green beans, potatoes, and aged tofu, seasoned just right, with a hint of spice, every bite full of savory richness.
The steamed bun was piping hot too, full of wheaty aroma.
She’d never been a picky eater, but she never expected a single pot of mixed stew to taste this amazing.
【The prepared food in our supermarket’s dining section uses only the highest quality raw ingredients, nothing ordinary, and it stays at peak flavor the whole time.】
Shan Nai nodded as she ate, thoroughly convinced.
Because it really was that delicious, her little supermarket had a bright future ahead of it.
Once she’d eaten her fill, she set the tray down on the rack beneath the pass-through window, and the system would automatically bring it back to the kitchen to be washed and put away.
Shan Nai crouched there watching for a good while, grinning foolishly, thinking to herself that this system was just so thoughtful.
Working a job? Not a chance.
She really was the boss here.
“System, you’re really something.”
【Mm-hm, glad you know it~】
Full and satisfied, Shan Nai decided to take a little afternoon nap.
There was a window by the desk in the bedroom. Shan Nai secretly pulled back a corner of the old curtain and peeked out through a small gap at the street outside once more.
Under the scorching afternoon sun, some zombies were still wandering slowly along the road looking for food, while others were locked in fights with mutated beasts, tearing at each other.
Shan Nai glanced out for a moment, then pulled the curtain shut. “Good thing I’ve got a little supermarket…”
She looked over at the small bed sitting in the middle of the room and decided to push it up against the wall.
Sleeping with her back to the wall would make her feel a lot more secure.