"Fuck! Fuck! There really is a supermarket! Am I dreaming, Brother Chi? Pinch yourself to see if it hurts." Lin Murong, after seeing the Galaxy Supermarket, kept exclaiming in surprise.
Chi Yan: "..."
He wasn't an idiot.
"So... there really are a lot of tasty things!" Lin Murong, as a food lover, thought of this first.
"But..." he seemed to lack gold bars, so he couldn't exchange, could he? Recalling how he ridiculed Chi Yan for taking those gold bars before departing made Lin Murong's face heat up.
But luckily, he was shameless enough.
"Brother Chi, you see I've carried your stuff all the way..."
Chi Yan didn't speak but simply held up two fingers.
"Yay! Brother Chi, you are so nice!" Lin Murong got excited and tried to hook his arm around Chi Yan's back again.
Chi Yan moved forward two steps, just managing to avoid him.
"I smell something good, it must be something you'd like."
"Really? Let me smell." Lin Murong sniffed the air and indeed caught a delicious scent.
"So fragrant, so fragrant! Let's go, let's go." Lin Murong, smelling the aroma, felt like crying.
So fragrant.
Even more fragrant than the steamed buns we just snagged.
Craving to eat.
Successfully diverting Lin Murong's attention, Chi Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
With Lin Murong being the rough sort of person he was, every time he hooked his clothing, one garment would get ruined.
Although he had stored many clothes in storage space before, clothes for him were consumable items,
The kind that couldn't be replenished once worn out.
Eventually, they would run out.
Since meeting Lin Murong, he was averaging ruining three outfits a day.
At this rate, he wouldn't die but would end up without any clothes to wear.
He didn't want to run around naked.
When calculating, he forgot to account for mishaps.
Although Lin Murong seemed brainless around Chi Yan, outside, he was quite clever.
Even before entering Galaxy Supermarket, he had pulled aside two Superpower Users to get the details clear.
The two Superpower Users who were stopped initially didn't want to stay, eager to bring back the good things they exchanged to share with their families.
But seeing it was Lin Murong, their reluctance disappeared completely.
This was Lin Murong, after all.
With Lin Nianbei, a high-level officer at the base, as his uncle, and Lin Murong's own powerful abilities, everyone gave him some respect.
The two excitedly explained everything regarding Galaxy Supermarket.
Lin Murong learned from them that to shop inside, one had to first exchange gold bars with the store owner for money, and after getting the money, shopping could begin. The money had to be spent completely because no change was given.
Change?
It had been a long time since he heard that term.
He was somewhat nostalgic.
After the apocalypse, the order crumbled and the original currency system was in chaos. For a long time, barter was the way of trade.
Only when the base was established did Contribution Value points come into existence, but at first, base inhabitants, fearing the base might suddenly vanish, didn't dare use it, and still opted for bartering.
Fortunately, Sun Base lasted a long while and gradually, Contribution Value was accepted by people.
There was no such thing as change with Contribution Value either.
As for the money that could be obtained in exchange for gold bars, it was also random, all dependent on the mood of the owner.
"Depends on mood?" Lin Murong asked again, so it was that casual?
"Yeah. If she's in a good mood she gives more, if not... one Superpower User had it bad, accidentally angered her, and a gold bar this big…" the speaking Superpower User gestured the width and length, "only got fifty yuan."
"But there was a Superpower User," he lamented, "who got one thousand yuan in exchange for just one little gold bead." As he spoke, deep envy was evident in his eyes.
He just hadn't encountered the shopkeeper when she was in an exceptionally good mood.
When he made his exchange, the shopkeeper was in a so-so mood; the amount he got was neither too little nor too much.
But at least he fared better than the Superpower User who had annoyed the shopkeeper.
His son could have a nice meal today.
He had bought instant noodles and a braised egg.
His wife and son would definitely be happy.
"Thank you," said Lin Murong to the pair, and then he let them leave.
After asking his questions, Lin Murong returned to Chi Yan's side, putting his hands together, beginning to pray.
Lin Murong muttered incessantly, "Please bless, please bless, the shopkeeper must be in a good mood! Instant noodles, braised eggs, sausages…"
Chi Yan, hearing what he was mumbling, was speechless.
He had brought a backpack full of gold bars; even if each could only be exchanged for fifty yuan, that was still a lot.
Chi Yan couldn't understand why Lin Murong was worried.
He forgot, the backpack full of gold bars may not be few, but they were all his. Lin Murong only had two bars given by him.
Su Yinhe was not in the best of moods.
Previously, she was very busy at the cash register since she had to exchange money and check out purchases.
But later she realized that she could exchange any amount of money at her discretion. As for checking out, after scraping by for years post-apocalypse, starving people learned how to gather the exact amount of money needed. They dared not take more than they could pay for, especially after learning what happened to the first wave of troublemakers.
And the first wave had done a fine job of spreading the word about Su Yinhe's uncanny powers.
They hadn't really exaggerated. At most, they said Su Yinhe waved her hand, and the head of the troublemaking Gold Element Superpower User was gone.
But as the tale was told and retold, it changed.
It turned into: with a simple wave of the hand, the shopkeeper of this supermarket could erase dozens of Gold Element Superpower Users from existence.
That's why everyone who came to shop was like a quail.
Extremely well-behaved.
Even if people thought that Su Yinhe was too nonchalant when exchanging money, no one dared to complain.
After all, she was the shopkeeper.
This was the only supermarket; what if they angered her, and it disappeared?
Everyone had heard that the supermarket could fly and could relocate in a blink.
There were still so many things in the supermarket they hadn't explored yet.
Exchanging money was pretty easy; those who came to buy items conscientiously gathered the exact amount.
She even found a feature on her tablet that automatically detected if someone took extra items out.
With that feature, she didn't need to worry about people taking extra items, having to check each one individually.
Strictly speaking, all she had to do was exchange money. She really didn't have to handle the checkout at all.
If people took extra, they couldn't leave, and less... no, they wouldn't take less.
People who had suffered through hard times, how could they waste a single bit?
Each time they picked up their items and were about to leave, they would count over and over again to ensure what they had was exactly right.
Just like how she used to gather items for promotions.
Whenever Su Yinhe witnessed this scenario, she would remember when she was just a corporate drone, squeezed by her boss to the extent that she didn't even have time to go downstairs for a meal, forced to order takeout and eat while working.
Her salary was measly, so she couldn't afford expensive takeout, and had to order with colleagues to meet the minimum for delivery.
And every time they gathered items, they would find out at the last moment that they were slightly over or under, and then she had to give up the takeout she initially wanted.
She'd then reluctantly order something she wasn't interested in, just because it helped meet the exact amount needed.
How miserable, Su Yinhe truly pitied her past self.
Luckily, she wasn't the miserable one now.