Chapter 8: Special Commodity

Chapter 8 Special Items

"I am this shop’s proprietor, so you are..."

Su Bai surveyed his surroundings once more. Viewing the shop from the perspective of its "owner" seemed to cast it in an entirely new light.

When he first realized this shop had been trailing him from the real world, even following him into the nightmare, Su Bai knew it was uncanny but had no other leads. Later, the child before him began using the vows from the marriage contract to capture Su Bai's attention. Only then did Su Bai realize the shop was connected to the terrifying entity on the other side of the contract, leading him to suspect its purpose was to claim his life.

But in the end… this shop turned out to be a gift from that entity?

An empty shop with not a single product beyond its shelves?

"Madam—no, Boss, my name is… Xiao Wu, as in the number ‘five’." The child hesitated for some reason when introducing himself. "The master arranged for me to assume human form so I could stay in the shop to help, and he instructed me to obey Madam—no, Boss—your commands from now on. So, please allow Xiao Wu to remain here and work in the shop."

Looking at the child’s adorable appearance, Su Bai decided to probe further: "So, that means I can refuse to let you stay in the shop?"

The child’s red eyes widened like a startled rabbit, seemingly caught off guard by Su Bai’s refusal. He froze for several seconds before looking up at Su Bai with a crestfallen expression. "The master didn’t just assign me tasks; he also gave me abilities to handle the shop’s work. So, Xiao Wu is very useful."

"Useful in what ways?" Since he’d been told that time inside the shop was frozen, Su Bai began to engage with Xiao Wu step by step.

"Xiao Wu is the ‘person’ who knows this shop best. At the very least, please allow Xiao Wu to introduce you to this Mist Shop." Xiao Wu seemed to steel himself, mustering his energy and even rising onto his tiptoes.

Su Bai nodded. Although his obsessions and goals had nothing to do with "running a shop," he had to admit that the shop’s persistent presence had piqued his curiosity.

"The master cannot appear in person for certain reasons, but like Xiao Wu, he cares deeply about you, Boss, and hopes to help you gain strength quickly in the nightmare." Xiao Wu emphasized the word "both" and then said with a lighthearted laugh, "So, after you entered this Mist Shop, your power has been bound to the shop’s power. Your fates are now intertwined—your fortunes rise and fall together."

Just entering the shop counts as binding?

Su Bai raised an eyebrow in surprise, but considering that the unseen entity on the other side of the marriage contract had chosen to give him a gift rather than devour him, denying him a choice now seemed like typical behavior for such a creature. Perhaps the entity’s goal… was to fatten him up before eating him?

For Su Bai, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As he spoke, Xiao Wu conjured a beautiful, translucent glass jar from behind him. Struggling a bit with his short legs, he placed the large jar on the nearby counter and explained, "The white sand in this jar represents the power you and this shop possess. As long as you operate the shop well and continuously stock the shelves with products, your power will grow quickly, and the white sand in the jar will keep increasing."

Su Bai walked over to examine the jar. At first glance, it seemed empty, but upon closer inspection, he noticed a sparse layer of white sand at the bottom—so little that it would probably take only a few minutes to count each grain.

So weak.

"Ahem." Su Bai cleared his throat to mask his awkwardness. "If one day the white sand fills the jar, will my power surpass your master’s?"

Xiao Wu looked at Su Bai strangely. "How could that be? Boss, you must be joking. There are several more jars like this in the storage room."

"…" Su Bai silently comforted himself, thinking it was just a matter of a few more jars.

"So, how should this shop be operated?" Su Bai steered the conversation elsewhere.

Su Bai looked at what Xiao Wu called the "Mist Shop." Although there were six shelves of varying heights, not even a toothpick could be found on them, making it impossible to tell what the shop even sold. Was it a grocery store? A bookstore?

"Madam—no, Boss—do you know that some seemingly ordinary items in the nightmare can possess special powers and functions?" The child’s height only reached about Su Bai’s waist, so he had to stand on his tiptoes and look up to meet Su Bai’s eyes. His appearance was indeed very cute, but his tone sounded rather mature.

"In the nightmare, an ordinary ballpoint pen might be the Pen Spirit from human legends, a broken watch might pause time in a certain area or even trap it in a loop, and a shard of mirror might drag someone into an unknown space." Xiao Wu’s voice was youthful, but his tone was that of a mentor. "Red Moon’s power will gradually seep into every item in the nightmare, and even humans will slowly gain Red Moon’s power."

"Indeed." To Su Bai, what Xiao Wu was saying sounded very suitable for new players who had just entered the nightmare world. For a returner feigning ignorance like him, these were just familiar, oft-repeated topics. "But there aren’t many items that possess special functions."

Perhaps because the mocking voice in human players’ ears always referred to this nightmare world as a "game," humans couldn’t help but use game terminology to describe everything in this nightmare world. For example, they called themselves "players" and referred to the special items they could find as "props."

This kind of self-hypnosis occasionally allowed people to forget that this was a dimension that devours humans, overrun by evil spirits.

Just as Xiao Wu said, every grain of sand in the nightmare world would be tainted by Red Moon’s power, but most items remained impervious. At most, they were coated with a thin layer of power, but the sand remained just useless sand.

However, occasionally, some items would be thoroughly saturated with Red Moon’s power, even developing anomalous powers. For example, a beach might mutate due to Red Moon’s influence, causing any humans or entities who stepped on it to be swallowed by quicksand. A book might mutate, sucking any humans or entities who opened it into its world. A pen might mutate, occasionally writing incoherent prophecies of unknown truth.

That patch of quicksand only meant danger to players, but if players obtained that book or that pen, they could become important props to help them survive the nightmare game.

It was also one of the few ways humans could stand against the supernatural.