Humming a tune, Shan Nai rode a hundred meters off, then tapped “Return to Supermarket” on the screen.
In the blink of an eye, with a whoosh, both cat and scooter were teleported back.
At the supermarket entrance stood a lanky figure, a messenger bag slung across his shoulder, craning his neck to peer through the crack in the door.
“This is so strange, where did this supermarket come from… and it can even attack…” Song Ze scratched his head, muttering to himself.
At his leg trotted a large black wolfhound, tongue out, pressed close to its owner.
Song Ze had gone out early that morning and spotted the Lucky Supermarket flyer stuck to a street corner. Without much thought, bored, he’d peeled it off, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it away.
But the next second, Big Blackie had fetched it right back to him.
Song Ze threw it away several more times, annoyed, and each time Big Blackie brought it back, treating it as a game with his dog.
The wad of paper got more and more mangled the more Big Blackie played with it, until it ended up hanging off his mouth.
Suddenly, the image of the tomato-and-egg rice bowl on the flyer caught Song Ze’s attention.
He hurriedly took the now torn, hole-riddled flyer, laid it flat on the ground, and thought it was strange. Out of curiosity, he followed the location marked on the flyer, bringing Big Blackie along, and arrived in front of the Lucky Supermarket.
The supermarket door was clear glass, and inside there really were a lot of goods stacked up. Song Ze stared at the bottles of mineral water and instant noodles, his heart pounding with longing.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to just break the door down and go in.
But he didn’t expect—
The moment he slammed into it, he was bounced back by a jolt of electric current.
“Hello there, would you like to come in and shop?”
Shan Nai had just put away her scooter when she spotted a young man and a dog sprawled face-down at her supermarket’s entrance.
Song Ze was startled by the voice behind him and instinctively reached for the dagger at his waist.
“Woof, woof, woof!” Big Blackie barked along, shielding his owner behind him.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m the owner of this supermarket, come on in.” Shan Nai pressed the button on the door, and it opened easily. She looked at Song Ze politely.
Song Ze was stunned and quickly glanced at Shan Nai.
This person hadn’t been knocked back!
Was this supermarket really hers? Someone had opened a supermarket, at a time like this?
Was this girl even fifteen?
By the looks of it, she must be well protected by some powerful figure, spotless from head to toe, pretty and adorable.
Song Ze noticed the girl’s gaze landing on him and suddenly felt a flash of embarrassment, his eyes darting around uneasily. He looked down at his own filthy state and his dust-gray dog, and an inexplicable pang of inferiority welled up.
Survivors of the apocalypse were all somewhat malnourished. Nineteen-year-old Song Ze had no special ability, the only reason he’d survived this long was his own fists and the black dog that accompanied him.
Under the blazing sun, Shan Nai watched the young man, already drenched in sweat, still standing there frozen, the greasy strands of hair on his forehead dripping. “There’s air conditioning inside.”
If you won’t come in, I will!
Shan Nai shrugged and walked off toward the bedroom on her own, it was too hot outside, and she just wanted to change into a little dress and cool off.
To be honest, in the apocalypse, sometimes living people were scarier than zombies or mutated beasts.
At least that’s what Song Ze thought.
He was an orphan, and naturally suspicious by nature.
But Shan Nai seemed far too harmless, giving off no sense of danger at all, and besides, he really did desperately need supplies.
Song Ze lifted a corner of his shirt, wiped the sweat off his face, and decided to go into the supermarket. “Big Blackie, wait here.”
Big Blackie, having been given a pat by his owner, stuck out his tongue and sat obediently by the door.
Shan Nai had changed into a blue slip dress, washed her hands, and hurried back out. Seeing Song Ze staring intently at the shelves, she cleared her throat and said, “The shop just opened, we’ve got a 20% off promotion running these past few days.”
Song Ze carefully looked over every single item, planning to grab a bit and run. It was the apocalypse now, he had nothing of value, and the feeling of hunger was enough to drive anyone mad.
He licked his cracked lips, thinking to himself that there was only this one girl here, if he grabbed things and ran, he’d surely have a chance.
Right after that.
Shan Nai, watching Song Ze’s grimy face, saw him bolt straight for the shelves. “Customer—”
Before Shan Nai could finish explaining.
The next instant, Song Ze was struck mercilessly by the supermarket’s defense system’s punitive shock.
“Woof, woof~” Big Blackie watched his owner collapse to the ground, eyes rolled back, foaming at the mouth, convulsing nonstop, and rushed in anxiously, nuzzling against Song Ze’s face.
“Customer, please respect the shopping notice. Goods from the supermarket cannot be taken without paying in points, if this happens a second time, you’ll be thrown into a pile of zombies.”
The veins on the young man’s neck bulged, and the high-frequency current lasted a full three minutes. It wouldn’t kill him, but it was enough to make him wish he were dead.
Three minutes later.
“Cough, cough…” The pain finally faded, and Song Ze scrambled up in a panic, retreating to the corner of the room.
Big Blackie glared furiously at Shan Nai, but one look from her sent him fleeing out of the supermarket in fright, where he could only crouch at the door, head hung low, whimpering nonstop.
Shan Nai’s lips curved with amusement, a fairly loyal dog, at least.
But back in her day, she’d been the undisputed boss of the deep mountains, an ordinary little dog like this, faced with a cat who’d cultivated for a thousand years, had no choice but to run.
“Customer, please take a look at the shopping notice.”
Shan Nai fixed her gaze on Song Ze and pointed toward the area behind the checkout counter.
Song Ze swallowed. He wasn’t stupid, living in the apocalypse, he knew some people had awakened abilities.
This girl, no, this boss, was probably a formidable ability user.
He slowly stood up, head bowed, and walked over to the checkout counter, carefully reading through the entire shopping notice.
“Crystal cores…” After reading it, Song Ze dug around in his messenger bag for a good while and pulled out a few gray crystal cores he’d been saving for a long time, handing them over to Shan Nai with trembling hands.
Shan Nai lit up with delight. “Please place them on that exchange tray.” Excellent, though the crystal cores in his hand were bloodstained and grimy, that didn’t diminish the fact this was a solid haul.
【Exchange successful】
【Card balance: 500 points】
A cat-shaped membership card was spat out as well, reading “Song Ze.” Shan Nai gave it a glance.
“Alright. I noticed your bag looks a little small, would you like a supermarket-exclusive shopping bag? Compact and handy, this bag actually has one cubic meter of storage space inside, usable only at the Lucky Supermarket~”
Shan Nai took out a small pouch printed with the Lucky Supermarket logo and asked.
“How much?” Song Ze thought to himself that this was awfully thoughtful, he had no spatial ability of his own, and exposing his supplies out in the apocalypse was far too dangerous.
“50 points.”
Song Ze hesitated a bit, 50 points could buy several bottles of water.
But without a space bag like this, he really wasn’t confident he could keep hold of whatever supplies he was about to buy.
Besides, the goods at this supermarket were an absolute bargain.
A single bottle of water only cost 6 points, he’d once bought a bucket of clean water at another base and it had cost him three whole gray crystal cores. Thinking back on it now, what a rip-off that had been.
“I’ll take one!” Song Ze decided to get one.
Shan Nai scanned the tote bag and handed it to him.
Song Ze then began carefully budgeting his purchases.
For someone without an ability like him, crystal cores weren’t easy to come by, after all, they weren’t a guaranteed drop, it was pure luck.
Looking at the goods on the shelves, Song Ze’s heart raced with excitement. Every item he picked up made his hands tremble uncontrollably, this haul of supplies would be his lifeline going forward.
It really was such a great deal, and there were even fresh apples!
Three years, and this was the first time he was seeing fresh fruit again.
This Lucky Supermarket was truly… amazing.
Song Ze prioritized buying half his points’ worth in water, the remaining points were still enough for quite a few chocolate cookies and packs of instant noodles, and finally, apples.
He was overjoyed.
“Woof, woof, woof!”
Big Blackie seemed to sense his owner’s joy too, wagging his tail and bouncing around at the door.
Big Blackie’s barking reminded Song Ze, hadn’t there been a tomato-and-egg rice bowl in the ad flyer too?
“Boss, is the tomato-and-egg rice bowl in the ad real?”
Song Ze packed everything into the supermarket’s special space bag, then tucked the space bag into his own messenger bag.
“It’s real. Would you like a serving? It’s 12 points.” Shan Nai said sweetly.
Looks like the advertising had worked!
Shan Nai figured the rice bowl was probably cheaper because it had no meat and was fairly plain, a bit less than the big braised stew from the day before yesterday, though the flavor was still excellent.
Song Ze couldn’t wait any longer. “I’ll take two!”
He’d give one straight to Big Blackie and keep one for himself.
“Could you please put one in this lunch box?” Song Ze pulled a beat-up plastic container out of his bag.
Shan Nai packed up both servings for him, and Song Ze walked to the door and set one bowl down in front of Big Blackie.
“Big Blackie, today’s like New Year’s for you, dig in!” He rubbed the dog’s head and grinned.