Returning home, he set aside his coat and lay on his bed, absentmindedly scrolling through his system log.
It had been a month since his transmigration. At first, he had appeared in this empty house with countless unanswered questions. After gathering enough courage, he stepped outside and asked around.
After some digging, he found that all of his neighbors believed he had always lived in this house, claiming it was an inheritance from his late parents.
Glancing at the mirror, he examined himself again. Hmm, it was indeed him.
Ruling out the possibility that he had possessed someone else—phew—at least he didn't have to pretend to be somebody else. That left only one explanation.
Some damn god was playing with him. Who else would have the audacity and power to transport someone from another world without reason?
In a generic trope, he would have been the protagonist summoned to cleanse the world of the "black tide" or the "greatest evil." But no—he was just plopped down in the Luofu and left to fend for himself.
During the month he had been here, he decided to read up on the lore of this world and discovered many things.
First, there were a lot of gods—not the religious kind worshipped through scripture, but real, living beings.
Each held a domain of their own: Nanook of Destruction, Aha of Elation, and so on.
Especially Aha. Qin Shaoqing paid close attention to him after reading about his deeds and suspected it was Aha who had dragged him into this world.
But what could a human's complaints do against a god's amusement? You never hear an ant complain when its nest is crushed, and similarly, his whining would never reach Aha.
Another thing he noticed was that physics here was far stranger. Boats flew through the sky—called Starskiffs—and people conjured fire and ice as if it were nothing.
He even saw two girls on the street who screamed and managed to shatter a sturdy stone with a toy hammer. Hmm… maybe the stone was weak, or the hammer was filled with iron to make it legitimate.
Nevertheless, Earth's old physics no longer applied here. A new physics update had dropped—woo!
Ahem. Anyway, there was much more he discovered, but recounting every detail would be boring.
Glancing at the clock, he saw it was almost time to set up his stall. Qin Shaoqing groaned, wishing he could sleep a little longer, then got up and stretched.
Grabbing all the ingredients from the fridge, he loaded them into his stall cart and made his way toward Aurum Alley.
During the day, it was an ordinary street with a loading dock for transporting goods. At night, it transformed into a bustling market.
This was where he earned most of his credits to pay for rent and food.
Setting up his stall in a corner of the street, he turned the valve as the stove came to life.
Mixing sugar, corn syrup, water, and red food coloring, he stirred until the mixture bubbled, then lowered the heat. He dipped apples into the syrup and let them cool.
Along with whole apples, he also prepared apple slices mixed with orange slices, as well as sticks made purely of orange slices.
"Evening, Qin Shaoqing. Early as always." His stall neighbor, Bai Ming, approached with her own stall.
"Well, the early bird gets the worm, and I stand by that principle. By the way—" The two conversed and bickered like old friends.
They had met exactly two weeks ago, when Qin Shaoqing was searching for a place to make a profit using a stall he had bought cheaply with all the money he could find in the house.
Bai Ming, who clearly saw him as a newbie, taught him the ropes of the business, and they quickly became good friends.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" Qin Shaoqing asked when he noticed a troubled look on Bai Ming's face.
"It's nothing. My father's friend came over and complained about some guy who almost swindled them out of a full warehouse of goods. Ugh, people these days—really hard to trust." Hearing the almost familiar story, Qin Shaoqing feigned a shiver before returning to normal.
After chatting a bit more, they noticed more people flowing into the street and decided to focus on their work.
As Bai Ming began advertising her products, Qin Shaoqing leaned back and played on his phone.
"Mommy! I want that candied fruit!" Hearing a child's voice, he looked up to see a Foxian mother and child approaching his stall.
"Welcome. How blessed am I to be greeted by such a lovely pair?" Qin Shaoqing smiled politely.
"Hello, young man. Haha, I'll take the candied apple, please." The Foxian mother bought the one her child excitedly pointed at.
"That'll be 600 credits. And as a bonus for being my first customer, I'll add an extra stick—just for you." Qin Shaoqing grabbed another stick and handed it to the child.
"And please don't refuse—a woman as beautiful as yourself has already made my day with your presence."
"Oh my, aren't you a smooth talker? I'm sure you're quite popular with the girls." They chatted briefly before the pair left, the child torn between the apple and orange, unsure which to eat first.
"Hmph. Just a smooth talker with a good face, nothing more." Hearing a cold snort beside him, Qin Shaoqing turned toward Bai Ming.
"What? Jealous?" Qin Shaoqing smiled as he grabbed another stick and offered it to her.
"Hmph. At least not just a smooth talker with a good face." Bai Ming accepted the stick and returned to attracting customers.
With no more customers passing by, Qin Shaoqing returned to playing on his phone. His merchandise was nothing special, and he wasn't particularly eye-catching, so sales were sparse.
He could try to be more proactive, but the results were too insignificant to be worth the effort. Instead, he relied entirely on his natural appeal while lazing around.