Chapter 002 Interdimensional Trade​​

“Nobody here?”

“Doesn’t matter if there is or not. Try prying it open first. Such a fine house must have good stuff inside.”

“But it won’t budge! We’ve been prying so long, and that weird door hasn’t budged an inch. Can we even open it?”

“If no one’s inside, try smashing it with a rock.”

“I’ll do it!”

The unguarded conversation drifted through the window. Qin Qing immediately bent down, fumbling for her phone beside the bed. Frowning, she unlocked it.

Security had been good for years, even in small towns. She couldn’t believe someone dared try to pry open a door in broad daylight.

Just as she pressed ‘110’ and was about to dial, a heavy THUD came from outside. Her hand jerked, pressing the dial button.

"Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and try again..."

"Ahhh—!"

Qin Qing suddenly realized something. She scrambled out of bed, ran to the window, and flung it wide open.

The sound of the impact was wrong. The back door of the downstairs supermarket was a metal door. Why did it sound so dull?

The window opened. Instead of the familiar river, she saw a forest. A vast, densely wooded forest.

​​[Interdimensional Supermarket System initializing... Initialization successful... Newbie Gift Pack issued...]​​

​​[Interdimensional Supermarket System Defense: 100 points]​​

​​[Interdimensional Supermarket System Attack: 100 points]​​

​​[Location: White Lion Kingdom - Sunset Forest]​​

​​[Open Newbie Gift Pack? [Yes] or [No]]​​

Qin Qing stared at the electronic screen hovering before her, then looked down at the unfamiliar forest outside the window. She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she turned and hurried downstairs.

The downstairs looked exactly as it had during the day. She flipped on the supermarket lights and quickly walked to the back door. The metal door was still there, unchanged. Being a rear entrance, it was small, barely wide enough for one person.

She reached out and opened the metal door. Beyond it, she saw the familiar river.

An illusion?

Qin Qing pondered this, her gaze shifting back to the persistent electronic screen. The existence of supernatural abilities didn’t surprise her, but this so-called Interdimensional Supermarket System was entirely new.

The blinking ​​[Yes] or [No]​​ seemed to demand her attention.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, resolve hardening in her gaze.

​​[Yes]​​

​​[Newbie Gift Pack opened. Congratulations! Acquired: Level 1 Supermarket Space1, Level 1 Fully Automated Smart Vending Machine1]​​

As the notification flashed, her surroundings vanished. A new space materialized before her, containing a single vending machine.

Qin Qing stepped through the doorway and approached the machine. She tapped the interface, quickly absorbing its functions.

It looked like a standard vending machine, but its purpose was more profound than she’d imagined. Its “vending” property worked for both seller and buyer. As the owner, she could stock items for sale. As customers, visitors could also sell items to the machine to earn corresponding currency, which they could then use to purchase goods she stocked.

What the customers could buy or sell was up to her to define.

Currently, both buying and selling sides of the vending machine were limited to one type of item. Meaning, once she selected a specific item, both parties could only trade that one thing; there were no other choices.

Qin Qing turned, spotting another door within the supermarket space. She walked over and cautiously opened it.

The moment it opened, she saw several people sprawled on the ground. Above them hung the twin full moons, and beyond stretched dense, seemingly endless trees.

Simultaneously, a familiar rustling sound reached her ears, identical to what she’d heard upstairs just before waking. As she tensed, a small head cautiously peeked out from behind a large tree nearby.

Qin Qing jumped. The person behind the tree seemed equally startled; the head was instantly yanked back.

She gripped the door handle tightly. “If I stay inside this supermarket, outsiders can’t harm me, right?” she whispered.

​​[Interdimensional Supermarket System Defense: 100 points]​​

​​[Annotation: The owner of the Interdimensional Supermarket is considered part of the system...]​​

Qin Qing scanned the annotation carefully. It confirmed that as long as she remained within the supermarket space, no one could inflict any harm upon her. A wave of relief washed over her.

She looked up at the unconscious men on the ground and the people still hiding fearfully in the trees. “Are these men with you?” she called out.

“No! No! They’re bad men! We… we’re refugees hiding here! Immortal, spare us!!!” The voice trembled.

At these words, people began emerging from behind the trees. Scattered, about twenty in total—adults and children—all painfully thin. Without exception, they fell to their knees, kowtowing towards Qin Qing. Fear radiated from them, their bodies shaking uncontrollably, likely terrified by what had just happened to the attackers.

Seeing this, Qin Qing swallowed the words she’d planned to say. “I won’t harm innocent people,” she stated calmly. “Since they are bad men, come and bind them. Handle them as you see fit. You may rest nearby. It’s late; you should get some sleep.”

With that, she turned, closed the door behind her, and stepped back into her familiar supermarket.

Standing once more among the familiar shelves, she took a deep breath. Any lingering sleepiness was completely gone.

Back upstairs, she lay down, propped a pillow behind her head, and focused on reading the Interdimensional Supermarket System’s introduction.

The system was indeed an interdimensional supermarket. It would appear in a new location periodically, though the specifics of how or why weren’t detailed. She had no clue.

The supermarket system could be upgraded. Initially limited to one tradable item, it would unlock more over time.

The worlds it could connect to were random—it could be an ordinary world, or it could be… special.

Qin Qing’s gaze lingered on the word “special.” She bit her lip, her thoughts racing. If I can trade for valuable things in different worlds… could the future of this world still be saved?

She tossed and turned all night, only finally drifting into a fitful sleep around three or four in the morning.

“Mama, it’s so pretty.”

Yu Niang hadn’t slept well all night. First, the forest was teeming with wild beasts; she feared sleeping too soundly might leave her child vulnerable. Second, there were bad men; not long ago, because they refused to hand over their meager possessions, several in their group had been killed.

The voice beside her made Yu Niang snap her eyes open, instinctively pulling her daughter closer.

“Mama—look over there—”

Yu Niang stared blankly at her daughter for a moment before finally following the pointing finger. What she saw then was the most beautiful building she’d ever laid eyes on.

Others scattered nearby, resting fitfully, were gradually roused—by the voices or by the shifting light. One by one, their gazes turned towards the singular sight.

A house with a sharply pointed triangular roof, covered in glazed tiles that shimmered under the sunlight. It didn’t seem like a structure that belonged in the mortal world.

“Is this… the Immortal’s dwelling?”

“Truly an Immortal’s home! Looks finer than even the emperor’s palace in the capital, from what I’ve heard.”

“Look! Over there, a huge flat clearing! And a stream! Nobody lives there. The clearing’s overgrown with weeds—we could settle there!”

“Surrounded by trees. We could start gathering materials for shelters right now.”

“But… will the Immortal allow us to stay?”

“Mama, I’m hungry.” The child finally tore her envious gaze from the house and tugged at Yu Niang’s sleeve.

“Alright, Mama will get you something to eat,” Yu Niang said, lifting the child and heading towards the nearby stream. Other women, similar in age and also burdened with children, trailed behind her.

“Yu Niang, how much grain do you have left?” one asked quietly.

“Only half a coarse cake,” Yu Niang replied, pulling the meager ration from her bundle. “Later, we can search the forest together. If we find edible berries, we’ll pick them. If not, we’ll dig for edible wild greens.”

“But I heard the berries and greens in this part of the forest… they’re poisonous.”

Yu Niang’s hand, about to break off a piece of the cake for her child, froze.

She broke the coarse cake in two, giving the larger piece to her child and keeping the smaller one for herself. The gnawing hunger in her own belly would have to be silenced with gulps of water from the stream.

Qin Qing’s first action upon waking was to check if the Interdimensional Supermarket System was real. Confirming it was, she let out a long sigh. The suffocating weight that had settled on her chest since her rebirth finally began to lift.

As long as there’s a chance… I still want to live.

Sitting on the edge of the bed for a moment, she heard faint crying drifting from outside. She looked towards the window overlooking the back door.

She stood by the window for a while, hand hovering, but ultimately withdrew it. After washing up and changing, she went downstairs and opened the small metal door leading to the Interdimensional Supermarket.

The door to the beautiful house swung open. The soft weeping and despairing murmurs stopped instantly. Every head turned.

“What happened?” Qin Qing asked.

She saw a man lying in the center of the group—one of yesterday’s attackers. Struck by the supermarket’s defense system, he’d fallen into a deep coma. His current state suggested he was dead. But according to the refugees, he was a bad man. His death shouldn’t have caused such collective grief.

“Immortal,” Yu Niang stepped forward, bowing respectfully. “We are refugees, driven to this place with nowhere left to turn. We hoped to find sustenance in this forest, only to discover its berries and wild greens carry deadly poison. This man died from eating forest greens. We weep… for ourselves. Without food soon, we shall all perish here.”

“Why… are you refugees?” Qin Qing inquired.

“The world is in chaos,” Yu Niang’s voice was low. “War rages everywhere, bandits run rampant. We had no choice but to flee our homes. We escaped the ravages of war… only to face the cruelty of nature.”

“I can give you food,” Qin Qing stated.

The moment she spoke, every eye locked onto her.

“But on one condition,” Qin Qing continued, recalling the information she’d just reviewed. She pushed the door fully open. “This forest holds a kind of white stone. Pure white, quite noticeable, but it requires focus to find. Bring me these white stones, and I will give you food. More stones mean more food.”

“Truly?” Voices mingled, hesitant yet hopeful.

“Truly,” Qin Qing confirmed.

She didn’t know the white stones’ purpose, but their listing as a ‘Key Ore’ for this dimension meant they held significant value. And coincidentally, this very forest held the largest deposits in the entire White Lion Kingdom.