Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - chapter 108

Contract Rings come in two types.

The first is the Newborn Ring. In this world, every newborn baby is assigned an Alien Caretaker.

The Keeper puts this ring on the baby, establishing a guardianship relationship. The Keeper is responsible for raising the child and ensuring they grow up safely.

The second type is the Bonding Ring.

After a human reaches adulthood, the Newborn Ring falls off automatically and the guardianship relationship is terminated.

At that point, the human can choose to live independently, or choose Bonding with an Alien.

Once a Bonding is established, the Alien will put the Bonding Ring on the human, forming a spousal relationship. The Alien must provide for the human until death.

In other words, the Newborn Ring is equivalent to establishing a guardianship relationship.

And the Bonding Ring is equivalent to establishing a spousal relationship.

Gu Huaiwei and Lin She clearly weren’t buying anything, yet they kept asking a whole bunch of questions.

One played the bad cop, the other played the good cop.

One acted like they wanted to buy, while the other insisted it wasn’t suitable and dragged the “buyer” away.

At first, the clerks were still enthusiastic about pitching their products.

But later, when other shops saw them wandering around for ages with empty hands, the staff became much less willing to answer questions.

You couldn’t just keep milking the same sheep.

Gu Huaiwei nudged Lin She with her elbow and whispered, “Let’s go. We’ve pretty much covered this section-let’s switch to another area and keep asking.”

“Mm.” Lin She diligently recorded intel along the way, cooperating with Gu Huaiwei’s act.

Gu Huaiwei was the thick-skinned type.

Lin She, on the other hand, was the type who simply didn’t register the emotion known as embarrassment.

They took the elevator down.

The doors opened.

In the shops on both sides, Gu Huaiwei spotted something extremely familiar-Nutrient Solution.

She walked into the store, glanced at the price tag, and her eyes lit up instantly.

Good lord. It was selling for a fortune.

In the previous world, Gu Huaiwei had stocked up quite a bit of Nutrient Solution inside the Jade Bracelet.

Now she could trade it for some Magnetic Value first, and actually spend money in this world.

At the same time, she thought about the issue of private trading.

She figured she’d better ask the boss for instructions before doing anything like that-so she wouldn’t end up triggering another public trial, with a whole crowd showing up to denounce her.

Gu Huaiwei went down to Basement Level Two.

Back on Basement Level One, in that shopping mall, the Alien Salesperson quietly started gossiping.

“That girl’s human, right? Why isn’t she wearing a Contract Ring?”

“Looks like it. Maybe she’s an adult who’s pursuing independence.”

“If she hasn’t done Bonding, she can only earn Magnetic Value on her own. Poor thing-she’ll age fast.”

“And what is that guy next to her? He’s not like us, and not like a human either.” As she spoke, the female clerk’s arm stretched unnaturally long as she put the merchandise back in place.

Someone else guessed, “Maybe an Advanced Pseudo-Human.”

“That girl’s scent is so tempting. If only I could Bonding with her…”

“With the tiny bit of Magnetic Value you’ve got? Keep dreaming.”

…

Gu Huaiwei and Lin She spent the entire day walking around the mall, and they managed to dig up quite a lot of useful information.

This world operated under a Human Curfew System.

After ten at night, humans were not allowed to be outside.

By the time they were done, Gu Huaiwei’s feet were aching. She took out a bottle of orange juice from the Jade Bracelet and sat on a bench to rest.

“My feet are killing me. You’re driving on the way back.” Gu Huaiwei tipped her head back and chugged a mouthful of icy orange juice. Sweat slid down the curve of her neck. “It’ll take three hours to drive back. Let me sit for five minutes, then we’ll head out.”

“Okay.” Ever since coming down the mountain, Lin She had been in a constant, tightly wound, attack-ready state.

He’d noticed that although those Pseudo-Human weren’t staring at Gu Huaiwei directly, the aggressive aura they gave off made him instinctively disgusted.

He didn’t sit. He stood beside Gu Huaiwei, timing the minutes down to the second.
As soon as the time was up, he reminded Gu Huaiwei to leave.

Gu Huaiwei had nothing to say about how meticulous he was.

On the way back, Gu Huaiwei sat in the back seat and fell asleep with her eyes closed.

Maybe because she was exhausted, the bumpy mountain road felt more like a gently rocking cradle.

When the car reached its destination, it came to a stop.

There were no lights at the entrance of the Oasis Matchmaking Agency. The night here had no moonlight either. Wind swept through the trees with a rustling hiss, like something whispering.

Gu Huaiwei’s head rested against the window. Her long black hair spilled down, her glasses perched on her nose; from this angle, her lashes looked thick and long.

Lin She didn’t wake her. Instead, he watched her quietly through the rearview mirror.

The car was pitch-dark with no interior lights on. He sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for Gu Huaiwei in the back to wake up on her own.

If He Xueyi hadn’t knocked on the window, Gu Huaiwei probably would’ve slept a while longer.

“We’re here?” Gu Huaiwei was jolted awake. She rubbed her bleary eyes; her voice was thick with a just-woke-up nasal tone. “Why didn’t you just call me?”

Lin She didn’t answer. He got out of the car, and in a night utterly devoid of daylight and rain, he opened that red umbrella and went back into the shop.

Gu Huaiwei felt like Lin She was a little neurotic. He liked staring at her, but when she talked to him, he hardly knew how to respond.

He Xueyi opened the rear door for Gu Huaiwei and reached out to steady her. “Manager, be careful. The ground by the entrance is uneven-don’t twist your ankle.”

“Thanks.” Gu Huaiwei took his wrist and stepped out.

“My honor.”

He Xueyi had already moved the Matchmaker God statue back to the front of the Matchmaking Agency. He hadn’t bothered to properly cut the weeds; he simply pressed the Matchmaker God statue down on top of them, pretending there had never been any grass there to begin with.

It was getting late. Gu Huaiwei yawned, wanting to rest first-and also organize the information she’d gathered today.

The senior staff dorm from the previous world, along with the room from the Paradise-themed amusement park, had been brought into this world together.

The Oasis Matchmaking Agency didn’t have an initial staff storage room like the Oasis Hotel.

That would only come later after upgrades, when a new staff rest area became available.

The Paradise room was far too filthy. The floorboards were cracked, the walls were moldy, and cockroaches crawled everywhere. There was no way a person could live in it.

Lin She and He Xueyi lived in the staff dorms, which only had two separate suites.

On her first night in this world, Gu Huaiwei took a folding bed out of her Jade Bracelet, planning to make do and sleep in the Matchmaking Agency’s lobby for now.

When He Xueyi saw her setting up the folding bed in the lobby, he walked over and offered softly, “Manager, don’t sleep out here. Sleep in my room. I’ll switch with you.”

“No need.” Gu Huaiwei didn’t pause what she was doing. She didn’t look up, turning down his kindness gently. “Moving things back and forth is a hassle. Once the Matchmaking Agency gets upgraded later, I’ll move into the new staff rest area.”

“But if you sleep here, there will be many customers outside who won’t be able to sleep all night.” He Xueyi’s lips curved into a faint smile as he lightly tapped Gu Huaiwei’s shoulder.

Only then did Gu Huaiwei stop and look up at him.

“Look.” He pointed outside the Matchmaking Agency, his voice as light as a warm spring breeze. “Manager, you’re practically fresh live bait. You went out for only half a day, and you’ve already hooked so many fish back.”

“Hm?” Gu Huaiwei followed where he was pointing.

To her horror, she found several Pseudo-Humans standing at the entrance of the Oasis Matchmaking Agency. The strange radiance of the otherworldly phenomenon in the sky fell over them, making them look especially eerie and mysterious.