Cheng Xu roughly explained why he’d come to this city and how worried he was about his wife and son, asking Shan Nai if she could help check whether the mother she’d mentioned was really his wife, Yang Liu.
Shan Nai glanced at the membership backend, sure enough, it was Yang Liu.
Since they were family…
Shan Nai hesitated for a moment, then nodded gently, confirming that yes, she had indeed come by.
“Wonderful… wonderful, thank you so much, boss! No wonder it’s called Lucky Supermarket, what luck to run into you! I’ll be off now! See you again, little boss!”
Cheng Xu was overjoyed.
His face lit with excitement, he grabbed his membership card and backpack and dashed out of the supermarket, eager to go find his wife and son somewhere in the same city.
Over the following days.
Three more customers holding flyers came by in succession, and after eating and drinking their fill, they happily left with bags large and small.
Shan Nai looked at the backend showing 1224 points, a smile spreading across her face. “Wonderful, the 1000-point task is complete!”
She clicked to submit the task.
【1000-point task complete.】
【Supermarket upgraded to level 2. Floor area expanded to 100 square meters. Unlocked: 4 new shelves, 2 dining tables, 1 beverage refrigerator, 5 shopping baskets/carts each.
Reward unlocked: small flashlight, tissues. New items discovered: pineapple bread, sausage links, daily nuts, purple sweet potato rice cake, marinated eggs, milk, fruit and vegetable juice, bananas, sanitary pads, wet wipes. The deli counter can now display two dishes at once.】
In the blink of an eye, the small 50-square-meter supermarket grew noticeably larger.
The floor became much brighter, the surrounding walls turned snow white, the central air conditioning split into two units on either side, and the ceiling gained a decorative pattern of stars and moons.
Just inside the door, along the left wall, sat a row of shopping baskets and carts.
Four brand-new empty shelves were neatly lined up beside the original two, and a double-door beverage refrigerator stood next to the checkout counter.
The dine-in area had expanded too, there were now four tables, and the food counter had room for an extra set of dishes.
【Wow, Host, you’re amazing, you leveled up! Time for another prize draw too.】
“System! You’re finally back?! Let’s hold off on the prize draw for now.” Her cat ears perked right up, she really had missed hearing the system’s voice.
It had been silent for several days, and Shan Nai had grown a little worried.
【Yes, Host, as long as the supermarket has revenue coming in, the system regains energy.】
She understood the implication, she’d manage the supermarket well going forward.
After all, the two of them were good partners now, and Shan Nai had always valued loyalty above all else.
“Leveling up to level 1 was pretty easy after all.” Shan Nai blinked her round eyes.
【That was just the beginning, really more of a tutorial for new hosts. Reaching level 3 will require both points and completing 10 random tasks.】
Shan Nai nodded, her small fist clenched. “Okay, got it!”
She sat at the checkout counter, clicking through the backend to unlock items. “Upgrading the supermarket cost 1000 points, leaving 222, let’s spend it all on unlocks. And there’s the tissues discovered earlier too, just enough! The small flashlight’s covered by the reward, saving me 20 points…”
Shan Nai recalled that unlocking the small flashlight would normally cost 50 points.
Regular items cost 20 points to unlock, while small appliances cost 50, understandable, given they ran on the supermarket’s special ultra-efficient batteries, so a higher price made sense.
“And sanitary pads too, how thoughtful…” Shan Nai stocked all the newest items onto the shelves one by one.
Tissues and wet wipes were 2 points each, sanitary pads were 4 points a pack, the small flashlight was 20 points each, with a pack of flashlight batteries at 5 points.
Bananas, sausage links, and marinated eggs were 3 points each, purple sweet potato rice cake and pineapple bread were 8 points a bag, daily nuts were 15 points a bag, milk and fruit-vegetable juice were 10 points a bottle.
Once she’d finished stocking everything, Shan Nai put the water, milk, and juice into the refrigerator, then stretched and rubbed her slender waist. “Phew, all done, the prices are pretty reasonable too…”
【You’ve worked hard, Host. Once the supermarket reaches level 3, you’ll be able to unlock an automatic stocking robot. Keep it up!】
“For real… a robot? Then I really would be the boss, meow-ha-ha-ha!”
While working just now, she’d been thinking, as the supermarket kept growing bigger, wouldn’t running it alone wear her out?
The system’s words were exactly the motivation she needed for her next goal.
A robot that stocks shelves automatically?
Bring it on!
It was afternoon now. After eating, Shan Nai suddenly remembered the supermarket’s floor space had grown, surely her own room would upgrade too?
She hurried back to her room. “Well… it didn’t get bigger, but there’s more furniture!”
The walls of the twenty-some-square-meter room were now papered in a pale green that looked fresh and pleasant.
The old furniture had all been replaced with brand new pieces, the bed even softer than before, and there was now a wardrobe and a vanity table too.
“The overall style’s pretty cozy, not bad, system.”
Shan Nai wanted to wag her tail, only to remember she didn’t have one anymore, and could only give her cat ears a few pats instead.
【It’ll only get more comfortable from here.】
Shan Nai figured the system was just dangling a carrot in front of her, a big, fat carrot!
“Ding-a-ling~”
The glass door was shoved open with force.
“Boss, there’s a supermarket here? Whoa! There’s air conditioning inside too! Tch, what a rare find.” Wang Xin swaggered in first with a cheeky grin, his face full of astonishment.
The past few days, the three of them had been trekking around searching for supplies, so thirsty they were nearly ready to drink their own piss. Truly, just when the road seemed to end, a new path had opened up. [1]the willows and flowers reveal yet another village (liǔ àn huā míng yòu yī cūn, 柳暗花明又一村) – cultural reference, from Lu You’s poem about hiking through mountains until … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3034099_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3034099_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
“Welcome.” Shan Nai walked out at the sound.
In walked three burly men, their hair looking like it had been chewed on by a dog.
Li Dahai and Zhang Peng followed right behind, their eyes just as wide with delight, already scanning the supermarket, seemingly oblivious to Shan Nai’s presence.
“Boss, boss, we’ve struck it rich! There’s mineral water here!”
“Instant noodles and sausage links!”
“Bread!”
“Damn, there’s even apples and bananas, what a find!”
“Second brother, there’s steaming hot noodles over here too, with meat in it!”
Wang Xin and Zhang Peng darted back and forth through the store, whooping with delight nonstop.
“Hold up, hold up, brothers, good times came a bit too suddenly, calm down a second, third brother, pack it all into your space!” Li Dahai muttered sideways into Zhang Peng’s ear.
“You got it, boss!” Zhang Peng said smugly, he had a small spatial ability, and normally handled keeping their supplies safe.
Shan Nai sneered coldly, her eyes glinting with a chill.
Well, well. These three men in tank tops and shorts had barged straight in and started running their mouths, not even giving her a chance to speak, clearly a gang of thugs.
Shan Nai kept sneering. “Purchasing goods requires topping up points first.”
“What?”
All three turned in unison to stare at Shan Nai, dumbfounded.
They’d been too excited a moment ago to notice there was such a pretty little beauty in the shop.
“Yo, yo, yo, little sister’s quite the looker, and those cat ears are so cute, heh heh.” Li Dahai stared at Shan Nai with a foolish grin.
“Tch, it’s the apocalypse and you still want us to pay up? Points? What the hell are points?” Wang Xin pulled out a large machete, narrowing his eyes.
Li Dahai raised a hand to stop him. “Put that away, don’t scare the little sister~” He grinned lecherously, stepping closer to the checkout counter, throwing flirtatious glances at her the whole way.
“A cute little sister like you is in real danger out here in the apocalypse, how about following us big brothers, we’ll protect you, huh?” Li Dahai wiggled his eyebrows at Shan Nai insistently.
Shan Nai’s face twisted with disgust. “Get lost.”
“Feisty too.” Li Dahai smirked, his intentions clearly foul.
Shan Nai’s delicate brows knit together, her fine features written all over with disgust, did this guy not realize his own breath reeked?
In the apocalypse, survivors already didn’t pay much attention to personal hygiene, nor did they have the means to.
But these three were especially foul-smelling, thoroughly overpowering.
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