11:53 PM.
Lin Wu stood behind the counter, using a ballpoint pen to cross off the last near-expired bento box in her ledger.
She had a habit. Every time she balanced a set of accounts, she would tap the counter three times with the cap of her pen.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Like putting a period at the end of the day.
Suddenly, her phone screen lit up. A sixty-second voice message from [Wang Defa].
Lin Wu glanced at it and hit "Convert to Text."
"Lin Wu, what's wrong with you today? Why are the near-expired items moving so slowly? Also, I'm letting you know: night shift bonuses are cancelled this month. The store isn't doing well; everyone needs to show some understanding. You're young—don't just fixate on a few hundred bucks all day. Try to have a bigger perspective..."
Lin Wu watched the text scroll by, her face an emotionless mask. She flipped the phone face-down on the counter.
Then, she leaned over and wrote a single line at the bottom of her ledger: The Boss owes me 800 in night shift bonuses.
After writing it, she tapped three more times.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She didn't hold grudges. She just kept accurate records.
"Mist Convenience" was an old shop left by her grandmother. The storefront was small, and the location was mediocre. Two years ago, the tenant had skipped town, so Lin Wu took it over herself. It was manageable during the day and cheaper at night—mostly because she was young, resilient, and, most importantly, free labor.
Outside, the streets were slick from the rain that had just stopped. The pharmacy across the road was already dark. In the distance, a streetlamp began to flicker—a stuttering, dying pulse.
Lin Wu looked up, feeling a strange tightness in her chest.
It was too quiet.
The kind of silence that precedes a storm, where the clouds hang low and the air tastes of damp iron.
Her phone vibrated again. It wasn't the boss this time. It was a barrage of urgent news alerts.
[LOCAL: UNIDENTIFIED ATTACKS REPORTED IN MULTIPLE DISTRICTS. CITIZENS ADVISED TO STAY INDOORS.] [EMERGENCY ROOMS UNDER CRITICAL PRESSURE; AVOID HOSPITALS UNLESS NECESSARY.] [EXPERT WARNING: DO NOT SPREAD RUMORS; REMAIN CALM.] [REPORTS OF VIOLENT ASSAULTS IN WEST DISTRICT; FOOTAGE UNDER VERIFICATION.]
Lin Wu tapped the first link. Load failed. She tapped again. Still failed.
At that moment, a short, sharp scream erupted from outside. It sounded like someone's mouth had been clamped shut, followed by a sickening, snapping sound.
Lin Wu's head snapped up.
At the end of the street, several silhouettes were stumbling toward the store. One person lost a shoe, tumbled to the ground, scrambled back up, and kept running—looking back as if something worse than death was at their heels.
The next second—
Snap!
The lights for the entire street went out.
It wasn't just the streetlamps. It was the entire district. It was as if a giant, invisible hand had pinched the power line. Apartment buildings, shop signs, billboards, car lights, traffic signals... everything died in an instant. The city sank into a deep, lightless ocean.
As the darkness surged forward, the sounds of screaming, screeching tires, impacts, and distant wailing exploded all at once.
The world had descended into chaos.
But at Mist Convenience, the lights stayed on.
The fluorescent tubes on the ceiling remained steady. The cash register hummed. The freezers stayed cold. The security monitors flickered with life.
In a district swallowed by shadows, her thirty-square-meter shop shone like a white bone embedded in a ruin.
Lin Wu stood frozen, her back tensing inch by inch.
"...Damn it."
She hurried to the door and flipped the master switches. No response. The power wasn't "uninterrupted"—it was as if it had been forcibly taken over by something else. The light was eerily stable. Even the air had changed.
Outside, it was damp and cold, smelling of copper and mud. Inside, the temperature was perfect, the air as fresh as a forest after a mountain rain. Even the low hum of the freezers carried an unnatural sense of security.
It was as if this shop had been sliced out of reality itself.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Someone was pounding on the glass door. A middle-aged man was pressed against the glass, face drenched in cold sweat, his suit jacket torn. He was shouting frantically:
"Open up! Open the door! Someone's gone crazy out there! Let me in! Hurry—"
The moment Lin Wu recognized the face, her gaze turned a degree colder.
Wang Defa. Her "big perspective" boss.
Ten minutes ago, he was lecturing her on how to be a better person. Now, his jowls were shaking, and he was pounding on the door like a man ready to beg on his knees.
"Lin Wu! It's me! Open the door! Open the goddamn door!"
As he spoke, a twisted figure lunged from the other end of the street. Its movements were fast—too fast to be human. Limbs stiff, neck tilted at an impossible angle, a raspy roar vibrating in its throat like a beast with half a breath left.
Wang Defa looked back, his face turning ghostly pale. He began to smash the door with his fists. "Lin Wu! I'm ordering you to open up! Do you hear me? I'm the boss! You still want your paycheck or what?!"
Lin Wu stood inside, watching him silently.
She remembered last month when she had a fever and worked the night shift; he said young people should embrace "the blessing of hardship." She remembered at 2:00 AM when she was moving heavy crates alone; he said girls shouldn't be so "fragile." She remembered the 800-yuan bonus; he said she needed "perspective."
Slowly, she reached out and clicked the final lock on the rolling shutters.
Click.
The sound was faint, but to Wang Defa, it sounded like the hammer of a judge's gavel.
"LIN WU!!!"
In that exact second, the lunging monster slammed into the glass door.
Vroom—
A ring of pale gold patterns shimmered around the doorframe, as if a sleeping set of laws had been activated. The moment the monster touched it, it didn't even have time to scream. Its body was ground into wisps of black ash by an invisible force, vanishing into the rain.
No blood. No mess. Only a bone-chilling sense of absolute, inviolable power.
Wang Defa collapsed to the ground, his trousers soaked—it was impossible to tell if it was rain or something else.
Lin Wu's pupils shrank. The next moment, a translucent screen floated before her eyes.
[WORLD ORDER COLLAPSE DETECTED.] [FULL OWNERSHIP OF "MIST CONVENIENCE" VERIFIED.][ADAPTIVE CARRIER DETECTED: SMALL RETAIL SHOP.] [MULTIVERSE TRADING SYSTEM: BINDING SUCCESSFUL.]
Lines of text flickered across the screen like cold, solemn decrees.
[Store: Mist Convenience] [Owner: Lin Wu] [Level: 1] [Status: Absolute Safety Zone] [Current Permissions: Basic Shelves, Basic Value Conversion, Multiverse Customer Filtering] [Current Energy: Infinite Electricity (Novice Period)] [Current Defense: Rule Barrier (Level 1)]
Lin Wu stared at the words "Infinite Electricity," her breath hitching. Then, more greyed-out options flashed in the depths of the screen.
[PLANNED REALMS: WASTELAND APOCALYPSE] [PLANNED REALMS: LOW-MARTIAL WORLD][PLANNED REALMS: CULTIVATION REALM] [PLANNED REALMS: ABYSSAL TERRITORY] [PLANNED REALMS: MECHA CITY] [PLANNED REALMS: FORBIDDEN MAGIC ZONE] [...]
It wasn't a hallucination. It wasn't a dream. As of tonight, this little shop of hers no longer belonged to this world's jurisdiction.
Outside, the pounding grew more frantic. Wang Defa had completely broken down, his face pressed against the glass, tears and snot mingling. "Lin Wu, I was wrong! I'll give you the bonus! Double! No, ten times! Just let me in, please, I'm begging you—"
Lin Wu looked at him and let out a very soft, thin smile.
"Boss Wang." "Realized that 'perspective' won't put food on the table?"
Her voice wasn't loud—it was almost calm. But that calmness only made Wang Defa's despair heavier.
Bang! More monsters lunged from the shadows nearby. This time, it wasn't just one. Twisted silhouettes surged like a swarm of insects drawn to the light. They hit the invisible rule barrier three paces from the door and were instantly reduced to black ash.
Outside the shop: darkness, roars, despair, and agonizing cries. Inside the shop: brilliant light, tidy shelves, and bottled water gleaming cleanly under the tubes.
It was as if a single door had sliced heaven and hell into two halves.
The tension that had been coiled in Lin Wu's chest finally began to unwind. She didn't open the door. She had no intention of opening it. She suddenly remembered something her grandmother used to say when she was alive:
"To run a business, you look at the person first, then you open the door."
Ding-dong—
The crisp chime of the welcome bell rang inside the shop. But the glass door hadn't moved.
Lin Wu spun around.
Where the promotional drink rack had been, a new door had appeared. The frame was as black as night, but its edges glowed with a silver-white light, like a higher-level law tearing a hole through reality. Behind the door wasn't the warehouse or the back alley—it was a stranger's street covered in swirling snow.
The snow was heavy. The sky was leaden. Between the ruins, abandoned skyscrapers stood like tombstones in the wind. The scent of rust and gunpowder wafted in.
The system panel updated again.
[REALM CONNECTED: WASTELAND APOCALYPSE] [FIRST CUSTOMER ARRIVING.] [OBJECTIVE: MAINTAIN TRADING ORDER.] [REMINDER: WITHIN THIS SHOP, THE RULES ARE SUPREME.]
Soon, a figure emerged from the snow. A teenager, tall and thin, wearing a ragged black thermal suit and a worn tactical pack. His right hand gripped a broken, notched blade; his left clutched a glowing blue crystal.
He radiated alertness and starvation. But when he saw the bright, warm, fully-stocked convenience store, his footsteps faltered.
For a second, the shock in his eyes looked like he was seeing a god.
He stood before the counter, his throat bobbing as he spoke in a raspy voice:
"Owner." "How many cups of instant noodles for a Level 1 Crystal?"
Lin Wu looked down at the blue crystal. The system immediately provided a valuation.
[TRADING ITEM: LEVEL 1 ENERGY CRYSTAL] [SUGGESTED PRICE: 8 CUPS INSTANT NOODLES, 4 BOTTLES WATER] [FIRST TRADE OPPORTUNITY DETECTED. COMPLETE TO UNLOCK NOVICE GIFT.]
Lin Wu's finger tapped the counter. Once. Twice. Thrice.
It was her sign that she was ready to do business.
She looked up, glanced at the boy, then at Wang Defa still sobbing on the ground outside, and finally let her gaze fall back on the crystal. A faint but incredibly bright spark appeared in her eyes.
It wasn't fear. It was the instinctual glint of a merchant seeing a profit.
"I can do that."
She curled her lips into a smile, her tone as warm as a truly good boss.
"But in my shop, we talk rules first." "First: No trouble-making." "Second: No credit." "Third—"
She placed a cup of Braised Beef Noodles on the counter and tapped it.
"Once the trade starts, there are no regrets."
The boy stared at the noodles, his breathing hitching. Seconds later, he slammed the crystal onto the counter.
"Deal."
The moment the crystal landed, the system chime rang clearly.
[FIRST TRADE COMPLETE.] [REWARDS: CONSTITUTION ENHANCEMENT x1, INFINITE WATER MODULE x1, NOVICE SHELF REFRESH VOUCHER x1.]
A surge of warmth rushed from Lin Wu's palms into her limbs. It was hard to describe—like a frozen person stepping toward a fire, or a perpetually exhausted body being repaired cell by cell. Her vision grew sharper, her breath steadier, and her grip strength surged.
Simultaneously, the wall behind the counter split open silently, revealing a silver-white water purification device. The light at the bottom turned on, marking the connection of an infinite water supply.
The city was out of power. The city was out of water. The city's order had collapsed.
But her shop was brilliantly lit, the water was flowing, and her goods could be sold to the multiverse.
Lin Wu looked at her palm and slowly tightened her fist. Then, she looked up at the uncontrolled darkness outside. For the first time, she realized—
This apocalypse was a disaster for others. For her, it was a grand opening.