"The location of this General store really piss me off," a youth recently turn 20 complained as he drove the van into a rural area. Seated beside him is a middle-aged man in his fifties, who is also the uncle of the youth.
"Xiao-Feng, you know uncle have no kids to inherit my business, so it will be yours in the next few years when uncle retired," Zhang Hao Ming said.
"But this place is totally out of reach! Look around us, there's nothing except two to three houses here!"
"The internet network is not available in this area too, I'll be bored to death here!" the youth continue to complain while his uncle is ignoring him.
"No internet connection? I can get into MiChat, Qiqi, ThisApp, and even Viewtube without any problem!" Zhang Hao Ming continues to scroll up and down on his outdated smartphone that doesn't even have a logo on it.
"My phone must be broken then!"
Zhang Qin Feng throws his Tri-Star model 10s aside as he put all his attention to driving. But in his mind...
"Even my Tri-Star Model 10s can't connect to the network, how can uncle's cheap imitation of some two years ago model do it."
"Wait! Uncle is watching the newest episode of [Billionaire and I] on his lousy smartphone?"
"WADEPAK?"
The youth could only keep complaining as the driving trip continues for another half hour.
...
...
The uncle and nephew finally reached the General Store out of nowhere.
Although spacious, its location of being nowhere near the city, villages, or people made Zhang Qin Feng doubt how it can be profitable. Added with the two weird-looking generators near the parking spot, it made the youth feel much more miserable.
"The power supply doesn't even supply to this place! I have turned on the generator daily!" he kneeled on the ground, blaming his bad luck.
"Cmon boy! Quickly move the stock into the store!" Zhang Hao Ming carries two boxes of canned food and made his way quickly into the General Store.
Even weirder, the store doesn't look like one.
It was more to a warehouse compared to a shop. The business area only consisted of a small counter where it was enough to see the first and second person queuing, but not those further behind.
The counter is quite fortified from how it looks.
"What is the reason for reinforcing the cashier? Don't tell me there's gonna be the tiger and bears attacking the shop when it is on business?" Zhang Qin Feng took a few glances around the store but did not ask his uncle for clarification.
After they are done moving the inventory from the van to the store, Zhang Hao Ming continued with unpacking and transferring the goods into separate shelves.
"Uncle, are you doing business with bandits and mercenaries? How can the packaging of your items are all without proper labels?"
"Look at this!" the youth grabbed a random canned food and read what was written.
[Beef Stew]
"Are we doing shady business?" Zhang Qin Feng asks the question.
...
"We're not. The packaging is for our own protection, but you'll get to understand it once we're open for business." the canned beef stew is set on the shelf again. After he has done replying to Zhang Qin Feng, Zhang Hao Ming went to the cashier spot and waved at Zhang Qin Feng to come over.
"Here, we're not dealing with People's Nation Dollar but crystal beads." Zhang Hao Ming took a few out from the case hidden below the table. It was filled partially with blood-red beads and some lighter-green version of the same thing.
"Our customers mainly do the transaction with these. The red version equals 1 credit, and the green version worth 10 credits. Each and every item we have in our General Store is priced at 1 credit."
"Some of the clients will trade with us using goods instead of crystal beads. You won't be handling the inspection as we have a server to do that, but we'll have to issue the payment. The example of their payment slip is like this one here..."
Zhang Hao Ming then shows a paper-like slip to his nephew.
== == == == ==
HAO-MING GOODS TRADING
-
Deposit:
[1] Leishen Model A-11 Rifle/Broken **1**
[2] Leishen Model M-66 Circuit Board/Broken **1**
[3] Leishen (Trash) Battery **1**
-
Issued:
(3) Red Meteorite Core
== == == == ==
"So... The red thing is called as Red Meteorite Core? What can we do using them? And what the hell with the Leishen crap, all the goods come from this company..." Zhang Qin Feng, being young and clueless, asked plenty of questions as he gets deeper into this.
Power generator that works using the by-product made from Red Meteorite Core. A workshop with a few types of machinery to process the Red Meteorite Core. Contacts to a few small-size Cannery Factories, Dried Goods, Confectionaries, and clothing.
This General Store that doesn't have a good impression on him actually deals with quite a lot of goods. Although most of them are long-lasting food or dried, they're still food at the end of the day.
"Perhaps, uncle is doing business with refugees and escapees from some neighboring countries?" Zhang Qin Feng convinced himself that his uncle is indeed not operating a shady business.
Furthermore, since the target market is different from what he assumed earlier, it somewhat convinced the youth for its "Special" location.
...
...
...
"I actually forget about drinks." Zhang Hao Ming suddenly remembered that they forget about beer and snacks for later.
"Do you want a few drinks? Uncle gonna go out and pick up some drinks and food." Zhang Hao Ming asked as he grabs the key to the van outside. The time is also turning to 9pm, right where the time is just right for a late snack.
"I want four Tsingtao Beer. And... Some grilled lamb sticks," Zhang Qin Feng ordered.
"Noted!" Zhang Hao Ming turned and left in a hurry as if he's running away from being chased by loan sharks.
"Boy! If there's anything happen, just remember to stay inside the store! Unless you're gutsy and much more daring than your uncle, then feel free to go out and loiter around!" Zhang Hao Ming drove the van and left.
"What the hell?" Zhang Qin Feng's face turned ugly as he shows his middle finger at his uncle. Unfortunately, the target has left the store's vicinity in a flash.
"Ding!"
"Ding!"
"Dingggg..."
A bell rang from somewhere unknown to Zhang Qin Feng. It shocks the youth for a moment.
But as he turns his view back to the front of the store, his expression turned ugly.
It was no longer woods surrounding the General Store, but ruins from collapsed buildings, skyscrapers, and burnt or rust vehicles. The sky turned blood red, along with plenty of rotten corpses lying or walking around.
"WTF is this Sh*t?"
Almost unable to control his emotion, Zhang Qin Feng is both surprised and excited. Too bad for him, the sound of somebody banging on the cashier's glass panel caught his attention.
"Hey, brat! Are you doing business or not? If you're open, quickly bring me a soft roll and can of Chicken Curry!" the client, a male in his thirties and dressed with homemade scrap plate armor, shouts.
"Brat!" the shabby armored male slapped the cashier table for having to shout.
Walking over to the bread shelf and food shelf, Zhang Qin Feng grabbed the two products ordered by the client and returned to the cashier.
"Here! Two credits!"