Lin Yao sat behind the counter, legs crossed, delicately peeling the foil wrapper off a small square of chocolate.
She let the chocolate melt on her tongue, closing her eyes in bliss.
[Host, please refrain from making those noises.]
"You're just jealous because you don't have taste buds," Lin Yao mumbled, licking chocolate residue from her thumb. "Or a mouth. Or joy."
She glanced at the holographic clock. It was early morning. After her first sale to the machete-wielding woman yesterday, the store had been quiet. The "Daily Essentials" section had unlocked, stocking the shelves with exactly three items:
Floral Scented Shampoo (500ml)
Honey-Glazed Chocolate Bar
Minty Fresh Toothpaste
It wasn't exactly a Walmart, but compared to the outside world where people brushed their teeth with ash and salt it was a treasure trove.
Just as Lin Yao reached for a second piece of chocolate, the glass door chimed.
The automatic doors slid open. A gust of wind blew in, but the store's barrier filtered out the smell of rotting flesh, leaving only the scent of ozone and dust.
She was tall, lithe, and moved with the silent grace of a predatory cat. Her gear was high-end tactical stealth armor, matte black and scuffed from years of crawling through debris. A jagged scar ran from her ear to her jawline, giving her a dangerous allure.
This was Su Ling, a lieutenant of the "Silent Walkers," a mercenary group known for their stealth and ruthlessness.
Unlike the desperate survivor from yesterday, Su Ling didn't look starved. She looked efficient.
She stood in the entryway, her hand hovering over the dagger strapped to her thigh. Her eyes, sharp and calculating, swept the room.
She had been tracking a mutated Runner when she saw the lights. She expected a trap. She expected a high-level illusion.
She did not expect... this.
The floor was so shiny she could see the mud on her own boots reflected in it.
And behind the counter sat a woman with skin like porcelain, wearing... were those silk pajamas?
Lin Yao swallowed her chocolate and put on her best "Customer Service" smile.
"Welcome," she said, her voice smooth. "Please, try not to track radioactive sludge on the tiles. The mop is on backorder."
There was no desperation in her voice. No fear.
Su Ling narrowed her eyes. In the wasteland, a lack of fear meant one of two things: you were insane, or you were powerful enough to kill everyone in the room.
Su Ling decided to play it safe. She relaxed her stance slightly, though her muscles remained coiled.
"This place..." Su Ling's voice was cool, husky. "It wasn't here two days ago."
"We had a soft opening," Lin Yao lied effortlessly. "Grand opening is pending the end of the apocalypse."
She walked deeper into the store, her boots making soft thuds on the floor. She felt out of place. She was a creature of the dark, covered in gore and dust, standing in a room that felt like a sanitized operating theater mixed with a girl's bedroom.
Her eyes scanned the shelves.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
Except for one shelf on the left.
Su Ling walked over. She saw a row of pink plastic bottles. They were shaped like curvaceous drops of water, with a label depicting roses blooming in slow motion.
"Silky Rose Shampoo - Volume & Shine."
Su Ling stared at the bottle.
Shampoo. Real, liquid shampoo.
She remembered shampoo. She remembered the feeling of lather. It was a memory from ten years ago, before the world ended, before her hair became a tangled, matted mess that she kept aggressively cropped short just to manage the lice and grease.
She reached out, her gloved fingers trembling slightly, and picked up a bottle.
It was heavy. Full.
She flipped it over to check the price.
Her eyes widened. Her jaw tightened.
"Two crystals?!"
She turned sharply to face Lin Yao. "Two Mutant Crystals? For soap?"
Lin Yao sighed internally. Here we go again. The sticker shock phase.
She rested her chin on her hand, looking every bit the bored shopkeeper. "It's not just soap. It's shampoo. And yes, two crystals."
"Do you know the market rate?" Su Ling asked, her voice rising in disbelief. "For two crystals, I could buy a working assault rifle. I could buy a crate of protein blocks. I could hire a bodyguard for a month."
She held up the pink bottle like it was an offending piece of evidence.
"This is just bubbles. It doesn't kill zombies. It doesn't heal wounds. It doesn't fill your stomach."
"True," Lin Yao admitted.
Su Ling slammed the bottle down on the shelf (gently, because she was actually afraid of breaking it). "Then why is it priced like a relic?"
Lin Yao looked at Su Ling. She looked at the woman's hair greasy, caked with gray dust, sticking to her forehead in clumps. She looked at the grit under her fingernails.
"Because," Lin Yao said softly, "it makes you feel human again."
"And," Lin Yao added, pointing to the bottle, "it has a detangling formula. You look like you need it."
Su Ling: "..."
The mercenary opened her mouth to argue, but the words died in her throat.
She raised a hand and touched her hair. It felt like wire wool. She hadn't felt clean truly clean in a decade.
She looked back at the bottle.
Volume & Shine.
The words mocked her. But they also sang to her.
Su Ling was a practical woman. She survived by being smart with her resources. Spending two crystals on vanity was stupid. It was suicide.
But...
She had just finished a high-paying contract. She had three crystals in her pouch.
She looked at the shopkeeper's hair. Long, glossy, cascading over her shoulders like a black waterfall.
Su Ling gritted her teeth. Is this a mental attack? Is she a psychic mutant using vanity against me?
"If I buy this," Su Ling asked, her voice suspicious, "does it come with water? Or am I expected to use it with spit?"
Lin Yao smiled. It was the smile of a trapdoor spider.
She pointed to a sign on the wall behind the counter.
[Store Policy: All hygiene products come with a complementary session in the Testing Room.]
"Testing Room?" Su Ling frowned.
"Buy it, and you'll find out," Lin Yao said, tapping her fingers on the counter. "But decide quickly. I have a chocolate bar with my name on it, and I prefer to eat without an audience."
Su Ling stared at the pink bottle. Then at the clean floor. Then at her own dirty reflection in the glass.
She reached into her pouch and slammed two glowing red crystals onto the counter.
"Take it," Su Ling snapped. "But if this is just colored water, I'm coming back to shatter every window in this place."
Lin Yao didn't even flinch. She swiped the crystals into the system's intake box.
Beep! [Transaction Complete. Revenue: 2 Mutant Crystals.]
"Pleasure doing business," Lin Yao said cheerfully. She pushed the bottle of shampoo toward Su Ling.
Su Ling grabbed the bottle like it was a grenade. She looked at it, then at Lin Yao.
"Now what? Where's this 'Testing Room'?"
Lin Yao pointed to a sleek white door in the corner of the shop that had previously blended into the wall.
"Through there. The system is automated. You have thirty minutes of hot water. Don't drink the tap water, and please don't try to steal the towels. They dissolve if they leave the building."
"Hot water?" Su Ling stopped dead. "You have... hot running water?"
"Scalding, if you like," Lin Yao said with a wink.
Su Ling didn't wait. She marched toward the door, clutching the shampoo bottle to her chest.
She opened the door and stepped inside.
A moment later, a muffled, high-pitched scream echoed from the room.
"OH MY GOD, IT'S TILE! IT'S REAL TILE!"
Lin Yao chuckled and picked up her chocolate bar again.
[Host, you have successfully exploited the customer's desperate need for hygiene. Your capitalism level is rising.]
"It's not exploitation," Lin Yao corrected, popping the chocolate into her mouth. "It's providing a premium service. Supply and demand, System. Supply and demand."
She leaned back, listening to the faint sound of running water starting up in the other room.
"Besides," Lin Yao mused, looking at the crystals in the balance counter. "I need to save up. I saw the 'Entertainment' tab unlock at level 5. I am not living through the apocalypse without Netflix."
The door to the shower room opened slightly, and Su Ling's head popped out. Her tactical mask was off, revealing a face that was stunned, red from steam, and looking five years younger.
"Hey!" Su Ling shouted.
"Yes?" Lin Yao asked.
"Do you have..." Su Ling hesitated, looking embarrassed. "Do you have conditioner? My ends are splitting."
Lin Yao grinned. "Next time," she said. "Bring more crystals."