"Please explain how this came to be", Fang Shi commanded the system as he opened the system tab. Looking at the (Wallet) tab, he quickly noticed that his personal funds had decreased significantly.
[This unit will take the time to double check your account…done. Primary responsibility for the expenditure of funds was rental of two Divinity Ascension realm cultivators imprinted onto puppets, and the activation of the protective array.]
"Wait", he was stunned, "Why am
I responsible for paying for those services?"
[Since the host requested it and wasn't in danger, the host is responsible for operational costs.]
"How can you say I wasn't in danger?", he protested, "I'm only at the Foundation Establishment stage, I can't fight five Nascent Soul elders and two spiritual beast ancestors."
[Should enmity have been directed at the host, this unit would have activated protective measures.]
"I understand", Fang Shi sighed.
He had forgotten a fundamental fact, the system treated him as a merchant. Since he made the request, he was responsible for services rendered. Luckily, he was able to afford the cost but it nearly drained his four years of savings. Under the current system, he was paid 1% of the store's profits and once he completed the next task assigned to him, his reward for a 5% raise. Due to a reward had already received from the system, all rewards were doubled. So instead of going from 1% to 6% in profits, it should go to 11%.
"At least there's time before the new year", he consoled himself.
With the arrival of new customers, his wallet should recover enough to complete his personal flying boat to his specifications. Now that he understood the situation, he put off the design of his boat and shifted to another task. Since being informed of his impending departure, Fang Shi has been using his personal time to prepare a list of resources and items he needed for the opening of the new store. Looking at the ring on his finger, he felt satisfied knowing he had collected everything on the list.
According to the task assigned to him, Fang Shi had a time limit of three years. He guessed things would never be easy but all the materials had already been collected, so he turned his attention to the next problem. Even though he could be absent from his two locations for a limited amount of time without worries, three years was too long. Once his absence was noticed, it wasn't difficult to imagine a situation were an employee might feel emboldened to steal. Even if that didn't happen, the chance that the higher level powers could attempt to take the shop was higher than zero. He knew he had to set up the management of each branch in a way that would prevent this from happening.
Fang Shi decided to use the simplest method to solve this issue, he picked one puppet from each shop to act as his proxy. Next, he covered them in fake skin and set their appearance to mirror his own. Then came the most important part, he took the puppet's core and inserted a jade slip into the proper open socket. This jade slip carried the behaviors and instructions that puppet would need to imitate him. He was particularly proud of this idea as the jade slip not only contains his daily routine, but also he used the scenarios he had read in light novels from his past life to cover situations that might happen. There was another problem this jade slip was meant to solve. Since he was tasked with setting up another shop after the new year's celebration, he wasn't sure how long it would take to arrive there and how quickly he would be able to connect to the shop's network. To alleviate this, he also included instructions on the jade slip of the games, shows, and movies he had planned to release in the future. In his absence, these puppets would be responsible for releasing everything on schedule in the event he was sent too far away and unable to communicate.
Ten days have passed allowing Fang Shi to complete his preparations, but also both branches have decorated for the New Year. Snow has fallen across the continent as usual, but both shops have their own look. Blue Moon city's branch has the charm of an upscale shopping district, as well as a frozen pond that currently has mortals skating around. Tianbao stands out in the forest as a rustic hunter's lodge with snow piled high. It was also Fang Shi's sixteenth birthday. It's been four years since opening his first shop, but he dint feel compelled to celebrate. In this world, you're considered an adult at twelve. After that birthdays might be celebrated by close friends or family members, but he had to admit that he had neither. His parents still lived but they had left him when he turned twelve to return to the mortal world. And as far as friends, he was always friendly with guests and had frequent contact with small number of them, but he had never considered them more than that. And as far as his employees, he was the boss, a friendly boss, but the boss all the same.
In his room, Fang Shi reflected as he ate a hearty dinner and drank wine.
"Maybe this next task is a chance to improve myself", he let his inner thoughts out.
In his prior life, he was slightly introverted and worked at a convenience store. Even though his felt had changed somewhat since coming to this world, some things about himself were still the same. He started thinking about all the novels he read and shows he watched that featured various types of protagonists, some started weak, some had bold personalities, and some were plain crazy.
"I don't want to be them though", he reasoned with himself, "They are just characters from a story. I just need to stop being a fake me."
Today was the last day he would spend here before leaving to take on the next challenge. By tonight, his personalized flying boat will be ready so he decided to take one last look around the premises. He started on the first floor of the main hall. It no longer served as a shop, but instead had the appearance of a office lobby. Couches, tables, and chairs were strategically positioned to offer seating to guests without troubling visitors who were passing through. The walls were tastefully decorated to be aesthetically pleasing, but also included light screens that played advertisements for various products and services offered by the store.
Fang Shi nodded to guests as he walked upstairs. Entering the restaurant, he went to the hostess station and reviewed the tables. When the pavilion first opened its doors, the restaurant predominately served spirit beasts. Human cultivators were more interested the cultivation hall, and even when resources were readily available, they still didn't desire to practice body cultivation. That changed over time, when they witnessed the spirit beasts advancing in strength faster than expected. Also cultivators from Tianbao regularly had discussions with cultivators from Blue Moon city. After hearing that many of the cultivators had broken through bottlenecks without the assistance of pills due to a healthy diet and the cultivation of body and mind, the percentage of humans eating in the restaurant increased.
Fang Shi checked the tea house on the third floor next, and everything was normal. Some enjoyed the peace and quiet by themselves, others sat with friends, and there were those that sat and played chess or go. Even though there was a dedicated floor for table top games, he never removed the few boards that were set up in the tea house.
The lounge was next on the fourth floor, and opposite of the quiet tea house, Fang Shi could hear the festive atmosphere as he entered. Cultivators and spirit beasts enjoyed spiritual wines, beers, and liquors as they talked and laughed. Music played in the background as dancers entertained the crowds. Unlike other shadier establishments, the dancers here didn't have expose too much skin or personally entertained guests which had caused some discontent among the customers in the beginning. Even the presence of the 'Senior' couldn't deter drunken fools from trying their luck. The problem was solved once he had puppets serve as bouncers, and further incidents were almost nonexistent. Just like the first and third floor, the lounge also had screens adorn its walls. One corner of the lounge still had a few arcade artifacts that were occupied as guests competed with each other.
Fang Shi entered the fifth floor and he was greeted with a full room of people. The fifth floor was one of two floors that acted as a game room. On this floor, tables were spaced out evenly and each one had a separate game on it. There was an area for chess, go, or risk, and players of all ages were competing against each other. Just like the restaurant, this floor has windows on all sides giving players access to beautiful scenery.
The sixth floor was the opposite of the fifth. No windows, and arcade artifacts packed the room. The only thing the two floors had in common is that were more players than tables or artifacts. But the people that weren't currently playing would simply wait and watch those who were. Another obvious difference between the two floors was the age of the players as older cultivators tended to favor the fifth, and younger ones favored the sixth.
The seventh floor was his home so Fang Shi went to the commerce hall next. The floors for this hall were split up with noncombat products sold on the first four floors, and combat equipment and goods sold on the fifth floor. The first floor was a grocery store, the second sold building supplies and do it yourself materials, and the third floor was where artifacts for home use were sold, such as refrigerators, light screens, etc. The fourth floor held products for the home such a rugs, curtains, and furniture but also the clothing store. The fifth floor was the main floor for talismans, artifact refining, alchemy, and arrays. When he arrived on this floor wasn't surprised to see that there was only a moderate amount of visitors. Consumables like pills and talismans were always needed by customers, but arrays and weapons would only need to be replaced when they could no longer perform their their function.
Finally, Fang Shi went to visit the cultivation hall. There wasn't a need to visit every floor because each floor was the same, filled with cultivation pods. At the very least, he felt a familiar feeling when he heard people discussing various topics with each other. Some argued about which was the best girl, others shared 'secret' knowledge of they found in a particular game, others discussed which game was the best to use for cultivation, and he even overheard a cultivator in distress due to the Xuanwu season sale currently underway. This brought back old memories of his past life when he went onto forums to have the same discussions, or when a certain company named *team would have summer or winter sales for all their games.
Fang Shi returned to his floor without visiting the bathhouse or hotel, there was no purpose in going there and he had already knew the answer to the question in his heart. As he visited all the stores today, he knew everyone's name but that was it. That would change tomorrow once he opened the new branch. This thought uplifted him as he sat down at his table, and checked his personal storage space. Sitting inside was his new flying ship.
As a man who once live in modern times, Fang Shi wasn't particularly fond of the flying boats he saw the sects and big families use. When he was designing his personal flying boat, he decided to make it appear as futuristic recreational vehicle with folding wings. It was sleek and elegant with the exterior and interior featuring artistic inspiration from ancient China. The exterior was painted white with side panels painted to give it a luxurious appearance. The interior was warmly decorated with efficiency in mind. It had a small kitchen, a bedroom, and shower, but used storage spaces to accommodate everything he needed for the journey.
Fang Shi headed to the lowest level of the store where the teleportation array was located, and pulled out his spiritual boat. He step inside and sat in the driver's seat.
[Ready to launch?]
"Wait", he replied, "Activate my puppets."
Two puppets, one in each store location immediately went from a lifeless state to standing straight.
"Initiate the three year protocol", he continued, "First is store safety, Second is store profits, Third is new product release schedule, Fourth is secret realm acquisition, Fifth and final is acquisition of 3rd, 2nd, and 1st ranked production inheritances. Begin."
[Permission to Proceed?]
"Yes", he nodded.
Fang Shi looked at mirror like teleportation array when he noticed nine circular arrays began spinning, causing the surface to ripple. It started with one ring array, and when that one reached a certain speed, another started to move. The portal which normally appeared like a calm lake in the morning, rippled with increased intensity as each ring array started to move. When all nine were in motion, the portal warped with such intensity that he felt afraid it would collapse. The nine rings moved with incredible speed until the one on the outer edge slowed down. A few moments later, it stopped and a set of runes in the ring array lit up. One by one, each ring repeated the process as the first, slowing down before stopping with glowing runes. As each ring stopped the portals surface would gain stability until the last ring stopped, and it became a mirror again.
[Destination selected at random, Launch!]
In the driver's seat, Fang Shi watched as the dashboard illuminated but the symbols on it were different than the dashboard of the car he had in his previous life. Luckily, he didn't need to worry about it. He directed his senses to the dashboard, and all the information on how to operate it entered his mind. With a thought, the boat rose into the air and stayed aloft.
"I don't know what awaits me", he contemplated, "But I look forward to it."
Fang Shi gave the command, and the flying boat charged into portal.
End of Volume 2