Chapter 318
Tang Yu’an blinked at the information on the panel.
Had the system… woken up?
“Intelligent system?” he tried calling out.
[…Here]
The words were simple, yet they somehow conveyed a sense of weakness.
“Do you have enough energy?” Tang Yu’an asked.
[Energy remaining: 40%]
Tang Yu’an was stunned. Wasn’t there 48% left after breaking the punishment of the deity? Why did it deplete so fast…
That “punishment of the deity” probably referred to what that god beside Lang Ze had done to the system?
He remembered the system briefly waking up last time, but after interrupting and getting scolded by the deity, it hadn’t appeared again—likely due to being punished.
Tang Yu’an looked at the last few messages on the panel. Could the energy have been consumed by a self-diagnosis?
The repeated bug checks had all come back clean, which gave him some relief.
It seemed their use of the protective barrier was within the system’s allowed rules.
After all, the safety of nearly a million people depended on that barrier. If the system reclaimed it for being a bug exploit, that would be disastrous.
He still remembered clearly—last time a bug was detected, all the points they had earned from exploiting it were taken back.
Thinking of this, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but laugh.
“System, thank you,” he said sincerely.
Without the Doomsday Grocery Store system, he and Zhou Qi would’ve died under a meteor long ago.
Let alone now—not only did they have all kinds of amazing powers, but they’d also saved many people and reunited with their family!
“You really didn’t lie to me.”
Tang Yu’an said, “Becoming a top-level planar merchant—that’s how I can fulfill my dream!”
“I may not be top-level yet, but I can already do so much.”
And the props and skills he got from the system played a huge role.
Back at the beginning, if it hadn’t been for the Cat Teaser Wand and Dog Frisbee, he and Zhou Qi would’ve already been eaten by mutant creatures.
[…Stop talking]
Tang Yu’an blinked. He didn’t expect such an emotional response from the system.
Wasn’t it just an AI?
But then again, even round-headed housekeeper robots had different personality settings. For a mysterious and powerful system like the Doomsday Grocery Store, having emotions was probably normal.
“You’re not happy?” Tang Yu’an asked curiously. “We’ve opened a lot of new branches, you know.”
Including the two new ones in Qingmu Fortress, they now had 24 branches in total!
Excluding the ones mainly used as teleportation points, 15 were thriving and generating huge amounts of points and experience for him every day.
And there would be more in the future!
[Happy. I’m very happy]
That didn’t sound like it was happy at all… Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but complain to Zhou Qi—
Of course, afraid the system would see it, he didn’t use the message board. Instead, he sent a message through his neural link.
Zhou Qi was helping out in the kitchen not far away, well within signal range, and soon received his message.
The system’s awake?
Seeing the system’s response as relayed by Tang Yu’an, Zhou Qi’s mouth twitched slightly.
The system’s warehouse had probably been drained dry. How could it be happy?
Some systems looked like they were still running, but had probably “left” a while ago.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment and messaged Tang Yu’an:
[We just finished a mission. Do we still have any lucky spin attempts?]
When they arrived at Qingmu Fortress in their flyer, just like before, they triggered a rescue mission. One of the rewards was spin attempts.
Tang Yu’an: [Yeah, we have three left.]
Zhou Qi curved his lips slightly and replied:
[Then use them all. Let’s see what you get.]
Tang Yu’an: [Oh, okay!]
Inside the magic tent, Tang Yu’an obediently opened the Lucky Spin panel to draw.
Just as he was about to click, the spin panel suddenly closed. At the same time, a new system message popped up.
[“Lucky Spin” under maintenance, please wait]
“Maintenance?” Tang Yu’an asked, puzzled.
[New prizes added]
Wait, really? That’s amazing!
“Wow, thank you!” Tang Yu’an said happily. “So when can I spin?”
After a while, the Lucky Spin panel reappeared.
Tang Yu’an rubbed his hands together and clicked the spin button, watching nervously as the pointer spun around and finally stopped at…
[Congratulations! You won a special item: “Dancing Marble”]
[Dancing Marble]
Description: A marble from the “wondrous” series. Let’s dance!
Status: Bound.
“Wow! Another wondrous marble!”
Tang Yu’an took the marble out and, seeing its pink shimmer, thought it was absolutely beautiful.
He said joyfully, “System, you woke up and I got a great prize right away. That’s awesome!”
[……….]
The system only responded with a long string of ellipses. Then—
[System self-check… No errors found! No errors found!]
[System self-check again… No errors found! No errors found!]
Even though the prizes had increased, the probability of winning a special item had dropped to one in a billion!
Why?!
How could he still win?!
Seeing the system entering self-check again—without understanding why it was breaking down—Tang Yu’an didn’t think much of it. He just started sharing the new item with Zhou Qi.
Of all item types, his favorite was the wondrous marble series.
After all, not only were the marbles powerful—able to handle even giants—but they also returned to him after use, so there was no risk of losing them!
When Zhou Qi saw that Tang Yu’an had actually drawn another good item, he felt no shock—only calm resignation: Of course he did. 🙂
He asked:
[How’s the system doing?]
Tang Yu’an: [No idea what’s wrong, it started self-checking again.]
Seeing the reply, Zhou Qi chuckled softly.
Looks like he was right—the system really wasn’t too thrilled about An An winning so many good things…
Tang Yu’an: [I think this marble might make people dance. I’ll try it later!]
Zhou Qi: [Can you ask the system?]
Oh, right! Now that he had the intelligent system, he could just ask it directly if there was something he didn’t understand!
So, Tang Yu’an called out to the system and asked about the function of the Dancing Marble.
After a long while, the system sluggishly replied:
[Anyone who comes into contact with the Dancing Marble will be granted the Power of Dance and automatically begin performing a random type of dance. Duration: 10 minutes]
[Note: Each contact automatically extends the duration by 10 minutes]
As expected, having an intelligent system was great! No need to experiment with special items to figure out what they do!
“What kind of dance?” Tang Yu’an asked.
[The dance type is random]
“No time limit? So each touch just adds 10 more minutes?”
[Yes]
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but suck in a breath, but then—
“What happens if I use the Paralysis Marble and the Dancing Marble at the same time?” You couldn’t possibly be frozen and dancing at the same time, right?
[Effects are determined by the order of activation]
“What if they’re touched at the exact same time?”
[You can try it]
Well, touching both at exactly the same time would be a bit tricky.
Tang Yu’an didn’t press the issue. He cheerfully stored the Dancing Marble into his personal inventory.
No matter what, he now had a new crowd control item! With two more chances left, Tang Yu’an spun the lucky wheel again.
[Congratulations! You won 10 points!!!]
This time, he got points. The system didn’t respond, though the announcement felt oddly overenthusiastic.
Tang Yu’an shook his head and spun the Lucky Wheel again. The pointer stopped at…
[Congratulations! You won the special skill “Tornado Lv1”!]
“Wow! A wind-based skill!”
Tang Yu’an didn’t have many offensive skills—only an enhanced version of Wind Blade.
So could this Tornado be an attack skill? Instead of checking his skill panel, he asked the system directly.
[Intelligent system is in shutdown mode. Please check manually]
Huh? It had only just woken up and was already shutting down again? Tang Yu’an had no choice but to check the skill panel himself.
[Tornado Lv1]
Type: Magic-based skill
Lv1 Effect: A group attack skill that summons a tornado, pulling up to three targets into the air and dealing damage. Power varies depending on the targets’ defense.
Cooldown: 60 minutes
Hehe, just as he thought—a group attack skill!
Tang Yu’an quickly shared the good news with Zhou Qi. And upon hearing that the system had shut down again, Zhou Qi was very satisfied.
Just then, Tang Xueyun walked over and sat beside Tang Yu’an.
“What are you so happy about?” she asked.
Tang Yu’an told her about the great prizes he had just drawn.
“That skill that lets you retrieve items remotely—was that from the lucky draw too?” Tang Xueyun asked curiously.
“Yup.”
Tang Yu’an then listed out all the things he had won so far. Tang Xueyun was amazed, and even Tang Yuxin was drawn in by the conversation.
“All those great items, and the system just gave them to you?” Tang Xueyun asked.
“Yup.”
“Then where does the system’s energy come from?”
Tang Xueyun had always been curious about this. After all, the items they traded for never actually disappeared—and they could even exchange points for more resources.
So what exactly did the system gain during these trades?
“Yeah, Zhou Qi and I discussed this before too.” But because the system had gone dormant, they never got a clear answer.
Now that it was awake again, they could just ask!
Apparently this was a question the system couldn’t let users figure out on their own. After Tang Yu’an asked, the “shut down” system slowly responded:
[Upon completion of a trade, the Doomsday Grocery Store system has already obtained the energy it requires. Most physical goods hold no value to the system.]
Tang Yu’an nodded.
So probably only special items or skills like summoning techniques mattered to the system?
“Then what exactly is this energy?”
[Insufficient permissions. Cannot view.]
Tang Yu’an pouted and sent the system’s response to Zhou Qi.
While they were on the topic, he started a voice call with Zhou Qi—knowing he’d definitely be interested.
“So the system gains energy at the moment the trade is completed… that means…” Zhou Qi murmured, “…the power of transaction?”
Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up.
“The power of transactional rules!” he exclaimed. “I remember that deity mentioned something like that, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” Zhou Qi nodded.
“Intelligent system, the energy you obtain—is it the power of transactional rules?”
[Insufficient permissions. Cannot view.]
Alright then.
Tang Yu’an didn’t push it. With Zhou Qi’s reminder, he moved on to prepare for upgrading the main store.
That’s right—now that he had reached Level 30, he finally met all the conditions to upgrade the store to Level 4!
