Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - chapter 101

Gu Huaiwei’s breathing hitched so faintly it was almost imperceptible. From the corner of her eye, she swept a glance at Professor Feng and saw he didn’t seem to be lying, so she forced herself to calm down.

Whenever she ran into something she couldn’t be sure about, Gu Huaiwei spoke less-so her lack of confidence wouldn’t give her away.

Seeing that Gu Huaiwei didn’t show any particular reaction, Professor Feng continued. “Even though Oasis Hotel is in that distant aboveground Radiation Zone, I’ve always known about that hotel-and about you.

“Long ago, before the hotel even upgraded, I was already paying attention to you. Paying attention to the hotel’s upgrade progress.”

Professor Feng paced around the room, sinking into his own little world and unable to pull himself out.

“I know you might be surprised hearing this.

“But as you can see, you aren’t unique.

“This world has already had other Dimension Operators. You, your sister, me, and that Nun from the Steel Ring-we’re all people Paradise selected.”

Gu Changge had hired people to inflate orders, made a quick haul of money from this dimension, and left.

After Gu Huaiwei expanded Oasis Hotel, she would also choose to leave.

The Nun from the Steel Ring didn’t complete the operation task and died in this dimension; her body was buried beneath the church.

And the Professor Feng in front of her-he stayed at the Black Spiral Research Institute, playing his childish power games.

What Professor Feng said was proof of exactly what Lin She had said.

“You matter to them, but you’re not irreplaceable.”

Paradise would discard Operators who were no longer useful.

And let newcomers take their place.

Gu Huaiwei watched Professor Feng pacing back and forth in front of her. She pressed her lips together and asked, “Have you chosen to stay in this world for good?”

There could only be one Dimension Operator in a world.

Gu Huaiwei was still operating Oasis Hotel, which meant Sister Changge had already left this dimension-and it also meant that Professor Feng had already lost his status as a Dimension Operator.

“Isn’t staying a good thing?” Professor Feng’s tone rose slightly. He stared at his palm, then clenched it into a fist, his expression twisting a little. “Only in a world this materially impoverished can you feel it-that feeling where you give someone the tiniest favor, and they treat you like a savior.”

A mouthful of fresh water, a tube of foul-tasting Nutrient Solution, and those people who couldn’t survive would sell their lives to him.

“How many dimensions have you been to?” Gu Huaiwei felt this man’s horizons were narrow, and his sense of superiority far too strong.

He looked down on ordinary people struggling to survive in this world. Staying here was nothing more than wanting to play slave master.

“Two.” Professor Feng instantly calmed down. Expressionless, he looked at Gu Huaiwei. “I have no interest in that so-called Paradise, and I don’t want to help those people who can’t show their faces operate any shops.

“Rather than chase an illusory future, it’s better to seize benefits you can actually hold.

“Miss Gu, stop worrying about that Oasis Hotel. No matter how many Gold Coins the hotel makes, none of it belongs to you.

“Stay. Stay in this world with me. We’ll build our own power base and have the people here offer tribute to us.

“With me, you’ll get to taste the exquisite pleasure that power brings.”

Back then, Professor Feng had invited Gu Changge the same way.

They had even established the Black Spiral Research Institute together.

It was just that Gu Changge only wanted to scoop up a huge amount of gold from this world, bring Other World items back to the Real World, and cure Gu Huaiwei’s bone cancer. She had no interest whatsoever in power or status.

Gu Huaiwei looked at the hand Professor Feng extended toward her. She drew her own hand back into her sleeve, lowered her eyes, and smiled. “Professor Feng, let me think about it.”

Thinking about it was just a stalling tactic.

Before she ever came here, Gu Huaiwei had already made her choice.

A mere small world wasn’t going to keep her.

Professor Feng thought his words had moved her. He straightened the collar of his white lab coat, his gaze sliding down along Gu Huaiwei’s arm and stopping on her slender wrist. The corner of his lips pulled into a cold curve. “You’ve been through at least two dimensions too, haven’t you?”

“And what makes you say that?”

“That thing on your wrist is a spatial bracelet. I have one as well.” Professor Feng smiled without warmth and pointed at Gu Huaiwei’s Jade Bracelet. “Your order of operating dimensions should be the same as mine.”
“My first world was the Cultivation World. There were simply too many extraordinary people there. We were like ants in their eyes.

You’re smart. You didn’t stay in a world like that.

Over there, you might have a chance at immortality-but at the same time, you’d lose the locals’ awe of you.”

Professor Feng hadn’t intended to hide anything from Gu Huaiwei. He’d shown more than enough sincerity, hoping to persuade her to stay.

So fragile.

All Gu Huaiwei could see was a man who looked tough on the outside but was hollow within, propped up by a brittle pride.

He only dared to curl up in a Low-Martial Small World like the Wasteland World, playing house inside the Black Spiral Research Institute.

The moment he was thrown into a higher-martial plane, he’d become timid and hesitant.

Someone like this probably hadn’t even brushed the edges of Paradise.

Gu Huaiwei soothed Professor Feng with a few placating words, saying the matter was of great importance and she needed some time-she would think it over carefully.

After Professor Feng left, Xiao Youqi-who had been playing dead the whole time-opened his eyes.

Staring up at the ceiling, he asked, “Immortality? A Cultivation World? What is that?”

“So you heard all of it.” Gu Huaiwei had thought Xiao Youqi was still unconscious.

His condition had been getting worse lately. He was passing out for longer and longer stretches, and the moments when he was awake and able to speak were becoming fewer.

Professor Feng had ordered everyone else out of the room and ignored Xiao Youqi because, in his eyes, Xiao Youqi was already a dead man with no remaining value.

And if he was dead, there was no need to keep anything from him.

Because it didn’t matter.

Dead men couldn’t leak secrets.

“Yeah. I heard everything.” A greedy light surfaced in Xiao Youqi’s gray eyes. Like a sudden last flare before the end, he wasn’t even coughing when he spoke.

To Xiao Youqi, there was a layer of fog between him and Gu Huaiwei. If he could peel it away, he could step into her world.

“If you have the ability to leave, don’t stay here.

I don’t understand what you two are talking about, but I know what immortality means. If you have a chance to live forever, go to that world.

Take me with you too! As long as you can cure the radiation in my body, I’ll be your dog for life-never betray you!”

Xiao Youqi rarely regretted anything he did.

But right now, he felt annoyed with himself.

He thought back to the first time he’d met Gu Huaiwei-he hadn’t seized the chance.

He should’ve gotten closer, worn down her wariness, stuck to her like a burr. If he’d done that, maybe she would’ve been willing to take him to a world where one could live forever.

Gu Huaiwei had no way to take people from this world with her.

Xiao Youqi had enough ambition, but his luck was a little short.

She didn’t respond.

No matter how many pleasing words Xiao Youqi whispered by her ear, she gave him no promise.

Yet Xiao Youqi clung to it like his last lifeline, frantically trying to prove that if she would only take him away, he could offer up everything-his very soul included.

Gu Huaiwei simply watched him in silence as he spiraled.

At his current state, before she left, she might even get to witness his death.

The academic seminar upstairs had long since ended.

When He Xueyi was escorted into the glass laboratory by the secretary, Gu Huaiwei honestly wanted to pry his head open and see what he was thinking.

Those tiny silver handcuffs-Gu Huaiwei could’ve snapped them herself-yet he kept them on, letting the secretary shove him along.

When he was pushed inside, he even shamelessly put on a show of struggling in pain, saying things like, “Let me go already.”

“Couldn’t you just kill all of them and come back to the Oasis Hotel with me for the time we have left?” Gu Huaiwei was utterly speechless at He Xueyi’s performance.

He Xueyi simply wanted Lin She to stew anxiously at the Oasis Hotel while he and Gu Huaiwei toured the Black Spiral Research Institute.

He could already picture Lin She’s gloomy expression.

It delighted him.

“Killing is wrong.” After the secretary left, He Xueyi casually tore the handcuffs apart, then looked at Gu Huaiwei with an innocent, harmless face. “We should oppose violence and love peace.”