After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH19

Chapter 19

Staring at those planet-owner-exclusive signboards with the planet emblems, Xie Xingchen shed tears of envy.

“Let’s go, sweetie.”

Holding the child’s hand, Xie Xingchen walked out of First Avenue, turning back every few steps. He planned to check out other areas and do some more scouting.

After all, opening a store in the holographic mall cost money—and not a small amount!

It was basically moving a physical storefront online, except the fees were still charged at physical-store prices.

Well… not exactly. In the interstellar era, there were so many habitable planets that—aside from the especially developed, bustling ones—housing prices on most planets weren’t even as high as the price of a virtual storefront in StarNet Mall.

This virtual mall’s profitability was downright terrifying!

Thinking of that, Xie Xingchen grew even more envious.

But—who could blame them? They had the technology and the backing.

StarNet Mall was built by an alliance of more than a dozen civilizations. With official endorsement, of course they were rolling in money!

Back when he’d felt uneasy about “ripping off” the mall for over a billion star-coins during a shopping festival… now he only felt one thing:

I! DIDN’T! RIP! THEM! OFF! ENOUGH!

With holographic mall storefront prices like this, who in the entire interstellar world could possibly out-earn them?

From First Avenue to Seventh Avenue, Xie Xingchen walked through street after street—no matter which avenue it was, everything was ridiculously prosperous.

“There are way too many people here, sweetie!” He bounced the solid little “weight” in his arms and sighed.

Then he lowered his head, poked Randy’s chubby cheek, and teased him: “Sweetie, aren’t you here as a spirit-body? Why are you so heavy?”

After saying that, Xie Xingchen switched arms to hold the kid.

He’d only meant it as a joke, but honestly, Randy’s weight really did feel unscientific.

But that wasn’t the main point. The main point was—

“Since we’re already talking about this,” Xie Xingchen said, “I have to ask—sweetie, are you still not logging off?”

The child had accompanied him for three whole hours already.

Normally, only people with at least D-rank mental power could enter the holographic network. And even B-rank users could only stay inside the holographic network for ten hours at most.

They’d already been together for more than three hours. And based on what Xie Xingchen knew, before meeting him, the kid had stayed in a toy shop for at least two hours!

So the question was… why did little Randy still look so energetic?

Randy tilted his head. One chubby hand hooked around Xie Xingchen’s neck, while the other played with his hair.

After a long pause, the slow little kid finally spoke. “Nope. Randy can stay even longer!”

Randy’s baby voice was adorable. Even more adorable was how, despite being so young, he spoke clearly. Every sentence came with a tiny trembling lilt at the end—so cute it could melt a person on the spot.

Unable to resist, Xie Xingchen lowered his head and kissed the child’s soft little cheek, chuckling under his breath. Then he deliberately said, “Wow, sweetie—you’re amazing, aren’t you?”

And just like that, the kid—thinking he was being praised—instantly puffed up his chest in pride.

“Pfft.” Xie Xingchen laughed again.

He rubbed the kid’s head, talking gently to him while keeping an eye on the flow of people around them.

After another hour of wandering, Xie Xingchen arrived at a public resting area.

Sitting down with the child in his arms, he opened StarNet Mall’s leasing section.

The leasing section’s homepage showed a bird’s-eye view of the holographic mall. Once you clicked in, it displayed street numbers—from 1 to 19,580—meaning the holographic mall currently had 19,580 streets.

At first glance, nearly twenty thousand streets sounded like a lot. But once you remembered that this was formed by more than a dozen civilizations, Xie Xingchen suddenly felt it was… not much at all.

Because this was a monopoly.

Aside from those with F-rank mental power, the Alliance still had tens of billions of citizens.

These days, who actually went to physical stores to buy things? Some people still chose physical malls, sure—but mostly for dates or get-togethers.

In most cases, everyone shopped through StarNet Mall!

The system’s street numbering didn’t represent how prosperous a street was. It only represented the order in which the streets were established.

There was one exception, though: First through Seventh Avenue.

Those seven avenues were the most prosperous areas in the entire holographic mall!

Especially First Avenue. For years, it had sat firmly on the throne as the “center avenue boss.” No matter how hard the other six tried, they couldn’t surpass it.

And Mechanical Commerce—the place Xie Xingchen had visited—was the biggest shop on First Avenue!

When he thought about Mechanical Commerce, he couldn’t help thinking about that adorable customer service guy, 001. And thinking about 001 made him think about how much money 001 had helped him save.

So whenever Xie Xingchen thought of 001, his mood instantly improved.

Randy lightly patted Xie Xingchen’s arm. His little mouth puffed up, looking a bit unhappy. “Big brother isn’t paying attention to Randy…”

Only then did Xie Xingchen snap out of it.

He stroked Randy’s head and apologized gently: “Sorry, sweetie. Big brother got distracted just now. Can Randy forgive big brother?”

Randy nodded seriously. Those cat-like almond eyes looked solemn and earnest—so cute it was deadly.

In his baby voice, Randy nodded. “Okay! Randy forgives big brother~”

Xie Xingchen: Randy’s wavy little ending tone is too adorable!

Just as Xie Xingchen couldn’t resist cuddling and squishing Randy, a small pigeon appeared out of thin air and flew to Randy’s side.

Xie Xingchen recognized it—it was a messenger dove, meaning someone had sent Randy a message.

Sure enough—

Randy opened his message panel.

But after reading it, his mood visibly dropped.

He stole a few glances at Xie Xingchen. Finally, in a small voice, he said, “Big brother… my big brother is home. I have to log off now.”

Hearing that the kid’s family was looking for him, Xie Xingchen could tell Randy didn’t want to log off—but he couldn’t possibly keep him.

He gently rubbed the kid’s hair and coaxed softly, “That’s good. Kids should spend more time with their families. When big brother’s flower shop opens, I’ll send you a beautiful bouquet, okay?”

Randy’s mouth fell open. “Really?”

Big brother Xingchen was going to open a flower shop—wow, that was amazing!

Randy instantly cheered up, happily circling around Xie Xingchen. When he logged off, the corners of his mouth were still lifted high.

No longer needing to look after a child, Xie Xingchen chose to teleport directly to the mall’s leasing center.

The leasing center had various types of spaces. Once customers entered, they could choose the lobby, a shared room, or a private room.

Xie Xingchen wandered around the lobby first, then took a look at the shared room. After finding nothing special about either, he chose a quiet private room.

In a holographic world—meaning the holographic mall—store location was important… but not that important.

Because this wasn’t a traditional physical shop where location determined everything. Here, distance wasn’t a problem. If you wanted to go somewhere, you simply opened the map and selected the street.

As long as your product made a name for itself, it didn’t matter if your store was on a deserted street. People would still find you. And as long as your products got onto the sales rankings, favorites rankings, share rankings, and so on—even those too lazy to search could just place orders directly through their light-brains.

Even so, stores that “rose from the bottom” were a minority. If you chose a quiet, cheap storefront, your chances of making money were obviously lower than choosing a store in a bustling street.

But Xie Xingchen had no money!

Aside from the 16.5 billion star-coins already deducted in advance by the Planet Trading Center for starport construction, he only had ten million left.

That ten million still had to cover plant nutrient solutions, cultivation fluids, growth fluids, vitality potions, delivery robots, all kinds of jars and containers, wrapping paper for bouquets, ribbons, satin, tulle… and so on.

Once you did the math, there was barely anything left!

And Xie Xingchen didn’t want to lease a store—he wanted to buy it outright. Even though buying would cost far more than leasing, he felt it was worth it.

Because the rules here were ridiculous: leased shops could only be rented one year at a time. It was basically the mall screaming at everyone to just buy.

Some people even thought the mall operators were bad at business.

In reality?

They were insanely good at it.

Why did they want you to buy instead of rent?

Because the mall’s biggest profit wasn’t the rent money—it was the money you spent after buying the shop: renovation.

Research showed that people who bought shops were more willing to spend on decorating them!

No construction crews, no waiting. System renovation was instant—think it, and it was done. As long as you had money, you could renovate once a day if you wanted. This renovation section alone probably made them an absurd amount every year.

And then there was the killer feature: shop expansion!

The mall was devious. Every initial shop had only one basic size. Not enough space after you buy it? Then expand! Expansion wasn’t cheap—another huge payday.

As for leasing shops—could renters also renovate and expand?

Heh. Who would bother?

Even if it cost only one-tenth the price… you were still building it for someone else.

When your lease ended, if someone camped the spot and bought your location, then everything you invested would be wasted.

After picking and choosing for hours, Xie Xingchen finally spent one million star-coins on a basic store (one hundred square meters) located at the end of Street 123.

Street 123 was also called “Blue Heart Road.” Although its number was relatively early, its traffic didn’t seem to have grown much since its establishment.

Most of the people who opened stores here were “retirement-type” players who didn’t lack money—whether business was good or not didn’t matter.

[StarNet Mall Leasing Center: Please name your store.]

Xie Xingchen almost blurted out Earth Flower Shop, but just as the words reached his lips, he suddenly thought of Mechanical Commerce. Then he remembered he’d chosen the management route—maybe “flower shop” wasn’t accurate?

Not wanting to spend money to change the name later, Xie Xingchen thought for a moment and decided to imitate the naming style of Mechanical Commerce.

“Let’s call it… Earth Commerce.”

[StarNet Mall Leasing Center: Name “Earth Commerce” is available. “Earth” confirmed as the customer’s affiliated planet. Naming successful.]

[StarNet Mall Leasing Center: Planet name automatically locked. Planet-owner emblem automatically generated. Please confirm whether to display the “Earth” emblem on your signboard.]

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