A figure of average height entered through the door and paused in the doorway.
It was a woman with slanted features and slightly dull gray eyes. Her hair was as black as the darkness of the world behind her, but her features seemed to have been crafted by a master artisan.
Her beauty was unique, but her expressions revealed laziness; she seemed to be struggling to stand upright.
Zaid looked up. 'Juliet Lawrence?'
He recognized her as they studied together. That sleepy, lazy expression was characteristic of the most carefree woman he had ever seen, the famous gamer nerd of the Lawrence family. This was the first time in a year that someone from Black River Sky had entered the store.
'Her soul is identical, even in expression, to her body.' Zaid couldn't help but assess her that way.
Juliet stared at it for several seconds before looking away at her surroundings.
"A store?" A sleepy voice that struggled to come out of her mouth softly rang out, and she approached the shelves.
She saw the door when she was moving through the Dimension of the Echo and thought she had found something amazing in a dimension that had nothing.
The name shining above the door, "Interstellar Dragon Superstore," immediately caught her attention, so she went inside.
But the last thing she expected to find was a... a convenience store?
As she approached the shelves, her gaze was immediately drawn to a figure floating in a white ball. It didn't look very big from the outside, but as she stared at it, the figure grew gigantic in her mind.
A huge white tiger with purple stripes roared at her. It was over 2 meters tall, and its roar was so loud that it even ruffled her true hair.
Interest flashed across her expression for a second before fading, and she looked at the only other person in the store.
"Is it a Soulbeast?" he asked. Although it seemed like an obvious question, everyone who had entered the store before had asked it.
The feeling they experienced was that of a Soulbeast, but was it really one? Saying that someone could sell such large and powerful Soulbeast sounded like a risky and impossible claim.
"It is," Zaid nodded. "Below is its description and cost."
Juliet looked away. Just below the orb was a floating window with information, very similar to the software systems of her phone.
Purple-Striped White Tiger: Earth Rank with the ability to evolve to Dragon Rank.
Powerful and untamable, yet loyal and willing to sign a contract with you when you purchase it.
Only three left; take it home for just 5,300 Aexther Coin!
She tilted her head and turned to look at Zaid again... She had many questions in her mind, but didn't know how to phrase them, so Zaid had to use his sales skills to understand them.
'I didn't own a store for 20 years on Earth for nothing.' He stood up and approached her.
"Aexther Coins are the store's currency. They cannot be acquired by any means other than through the store. Not even with money from your world," he stated.
"Huh? Then how am I supposed to get it? Should I sell you items?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"The store does not purchase any items, not even the most valuable treasures in the world," he declared firmly.
'Not even the most valuable ones? Is he telling me that you would refuse even if I came with a National Treasure to sell to you?' She raised an eyebrow, shocked.
She couldn't believe anyone would refuse to buy something like that.
Zaid didn't have mind-reading powers, so he didn't know what she was thinking. He simply continued. "They are obtained through missions issued by the store itself. Have you ever visited a Quest Guild?"
"I have."
"It's similar, but these quests pay in Aexther Coin, which you can spend on our store items. Soulbeast, cultivation methods for them and for you, etc. Everything you can see."
This was the main problem with this famous Interstellar Dragon Superstore.
Yes, it sold wonderful things. Damn, after learning how those Soulbeast are obtained in this world and how difficult it is to obtain the resources to cultivate them, he was amazed at how great this was.
But it was useless if you had to complete missions to earn money from the store before you could buy anything.
In a store of dubious origin, in the Dimension of the Echo of Lethargy, how did the store expect anyone to agree to do those missions?
It wasn't even possible to use the money you were earning for anything other than shopping in the store, and there's no way for anyone from outside to exchange outside money for money in the store.
Would anyone be stupid enough to go on missions that could possibly kill them, just for that? The answer is a whole year of loneliness, in which no one has bought anything.
[Only the chosen ones will complete the Super Store missions.]
'Well, it's been a year, we've had lots of visitors, and so far there isn't a single chosen one, is there?'
[Patience...]
'Shut up.' Zaid didn't want to get angry, so he chose to silence the system; he wasn't in the mood to listen to its usual nonsense.
Juliet frowned, sensing the complications and losing interest almost instantly.
As a good salesman in his day, Zaid had learned to distinguish certain facial movements to understand his customers. Therefore, he immediately noticed the loss of interest; it wasn't the first time this had happened to a customer.
He was about to curse the system for its ridiculous way of selling when suddenly Juliet's expression lit up, a change that did not go unnoticed by him.
She ignored him completely and rushed past him, almost running, until she reached the other side of the store, where a gacha machine was waiting for someone to play.
Even so, she couldn't get too close; an external force prevented her from advancing beyond a certain line. She immediately revealed a trace of confusion.
"Only store members can play, miss." Zaid came up behind her and pressed a button on the game machine, causing a system window to pop up. "You can win many prizes, but you'll have to use Aexther Coins to play. Prizes range from small consolation prizes to large dragon-rank Soulbeast."
Juliet's sadness was genuine when she realized that no matter what she did, she couldn't get any closer. As a devoted lover of games, it was the greatest misfortune to want to play a gacha game in a different world, under strange circumstances, and in a mysterious shop, and not be able to do so.
But upon hearing his final words, even she, a wealthy woman, was stunned.
Dragon Rank Soulbeast in a gacha game... the drop rate must be too low, but if anyone had the chance to get it, even if it meant spending the entire family fortune, they would try.
The prestige and potential of having a Soulbeast of such exalted rank were enough to climb the social ladder and reach the top immediately. The most powerful organizations would open their doors to you and welcome you with praise.
'Even though I already have a Soulbeast, I can't look for another one,' Juliet thought with some regret.
But... that gacha.
It was of the highest level.
She needed to play it.
As a gacha-loving gamer, she couldn't just stand by and watch.
"How do I join the system? How do I get its missions?"