Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 238

Chapter 238

What Gu Huaiwei had just told He Xueyi was that the customer surnamed Wu had stolen the Sunflower He Xueyi had left in the lobby, and that after the Contract ended, He Xueyi should deal with Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu still wanted to keep pestering Gu Huaiwei, but she was giving a simple pre-employment training session to the newly hired caregivers. With so many people around, he had no way to cut in.

Two o’clock in the afternoon was when his room fee expired.

Xiao Wu hid back inside his Recovery Room, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Originally, the balcony outside his room had been bathed in bright sunlight. But the moment two o’clock arrived, the scenery beyond the window abruptly changed. It became a real street. It became that gloomy, fog-shrouded Gray Mist Town.

Even the entire room grew much colder.

The traces of his life in this Recovery Room seemed to vanish in an instant.

Xiao Wu panicked. He locked the door from the inside, ready to play the shameless card. No matter who knocked, he would not open the door. He absolutely refused to check out.

The doorknob turned.

He used all his strength to brace himself tightly against the door.

His ten toes dug into the floor, and he pressed his entire weight against it, yet he still couldn’t withstand the force pushing the door open.

He fell to the ground and looked up like a rat whose tail had been stepped on, staring in terror at the pure-white youth walking in.

The youth’s features were as delicate as a painting. Dressed in a white robe, he looked utterly out of place in the dim gray room. He Xueyi reached out to him, a Red Fruit resting in his palm. Its vivid crimson color was like rich red wine, carrying a strange temptation.

Under He Xueyi’s faint smile, Xiao Wu, as if possessed, ate the Red Fruit.

At first, he felt nothing.

Only in his stomach, it seemed as if something tiny had split open.

At a certain instant, Xiao Wu suddenly thought of his wife.

For some reason, he remembered when they had first started dating: Zhao Lianxin’s collagen-rich skin, and the innocent smile in her eyes.

When had those things disappeared?

It seemed to have been from the moment she got together with him.

She had become so tired.

She seemed to age especially quickly.

After they got married, she became nagging and bitter all day long, radiating exhaustion at every moment.

He had come to dislike her more and more.

But at a time like this, with his head dizzy and swollen, he thought again of Zhao Lianxin, the woman he had despised the most.

If only she came back.

Then the room fee could be renewed.

The sunlight outside the window could rise again.

He did not want to face this cruel world after the pollution descended, and he did not want to leave this Sanatorium where food and drink were guaranteed.

He missed his old hag of a wife a little.

…

Gu Huaiwei was playing training courses for the newly hired caregivers.

Because last time, Oasis Sanatorium had rewarded her with the ability to write three Rules.

Today, she put up the first of these Rules.

She used processed Gray Crystal Ore to form the words, then hung them in the lobby. The curse of the Gray Crystal Ore did not take effect inside the Sanatorium.

“A Contract has mandatory binding force and cannot be violated.”

Although the people in this Dimension were particularly sensitive to words written in black and white, Gu Huaiwei still needed to establish these Rules. It would prevent certain customers like Xiao Wu, as well as hired staff members, from breaching their Contract and causing trouble when she tried to hold them accountable.

Gu Huaiwei sat at her workstation and looked through the lobby glass toward the garden outside.

In a pit freshly covered with soil, a new tree was growing beside the fence, lush, green, and flourishing with thick branches and leaves.
The Sunflower in the garden seemed even more vivid than before.

Xiao Wu had vanished completely, becoming part of the garden.

No matter how rotten his heart had been, his body still made excellent fertilizer. It nourished the soil, giving rise to green plants that symbolized life.

After receiving treatment, Fang Zhao was fortunate enough to wake from his coma.

He and Zhang Wenwu sat side by side in wheelchairs, basking in the sun in the garden.

Zhang Wenwu was the man from the previous Instance who had used one of his hands to replace the damaged leg of the bookshelf.

Like Fang Zhao, he had been through the Library Instance. The two of them had plenty to talk about and were exchanging their experiences as ordinary people clearing Instances.

Bai Yuzhen, meanwhile, was chatting with Zhang Wenwu’s pregnant wife, Qin Yuhuan.

Inside Oasis Sanatorium, there were no Instances and no pollution. The days were peaceful and quiet.

Gu Huaiwei burned the papers containing Lifespan. Wisps of white smoke curled into her body. Her body showed no change at all; only her remaining life increased.

Compared with the Magnetic Value from the previous Dimension, Gu Huaiwei liked this Dimension’s Lifespan much better.

She needed time.

Because she did not know how many lamps she would have to light before she could open the gates of Paradise.

Even Gu Huaiwei herself had not realized that the more minor Dimensions she experienced, the farther she was beginning to drift from the Real World.

When a person became utterly fixated on one thing, they were destined to neglect many others.

In the Real World, Mu Lingxi, who was preparing her graduation thesis, tossed aside the pen in her hand. She looked out the window at the people doing their morning exercises and sighed, wondering when Gu Huaiwei would come back.

The white glow of the computer screen illuminated Gu Huaiwei’s profile.

She scrolled with the mouse through the next stage of upgrade missions.

[Oasis Sanatorium: Three-star]

[Next-stage marketing mission unlocked: Invite the Mayor of Gray Mist Town, no fewer than three well-known local merchants, and the Number One on the Heavenly Ranking to visit Oasis Sanatorium and write a promotional article.]

Mayor of Gray Mist Town (Not invited)

Well-known local merchants (1/3)

Number One on the Heavenly Ranking (Not invited)

[Note: This stage’s upgrade has a chance to trigger a hidden reward.]

Gu Huaiwei looked at the well-known merchants section on the computer. One slot had already been completed. That person should be the Library Director.

The well-known merchants would be easier to handle. There were not many shops in this small town. Aside from the public-interest Library, only Hot Spring Mansion, the chemical plant, the school, and the hospital remained.

Of course, there was also one merchant Gu Huaiwei had been hearing legends about ever since she arrived in this town.

That was the Black-hearted Merchant, the root cause of the pollution in this town.

The previous round of the Mine Instance had already ended, but Zhou Yizhi had yet to come stay at Oasis Sanatorium. Zhao Lianxin, who had been with him, was also unaccounted for. It was unknown whether the two of them had died in the Instance.

Xiling You, on the other hand, appeared a few days later. She checked into an Advanced Recovery Room and signed a six-month contract.

Gu Huaiwei planned to bring Lin She into the Hot Spring Mansion Instance and invite the mansion’s owner out.

On the night before their departure, the small town that was shrouded in fog year-round was suddenly swept by lightning and thunder. Bolts of lightning tore through the heavy clouds like sharp blades, thunder rolled like war drums, and rain poured down in torrents.

Outside business hours, someone knocked on the door of Oasis Sanatorium.

Gu Huaiwei had pulled the blanket over her head and was sleeping soundly.

Lin She, He Xueyi, and Bai Miemie, who had all been resting, opened their eyes at the same time.