Chapter 322
The system had truly never seen anything like this before.
After all, as an apocalypse grocery store system, it could only select hosts within apocalyptic planes, and the binding process was randomized.
Even the host selection criteria required the host to be facing a life-threatening situation in the apocalypse.
Unfortunately, after the previous host died, the system randomly bound to plane MR176349, where very few suitable grocery stores even existed.
So, it had no choice but to consume most of its energy to randomly grab a suitable host from another plane.
Although an accident occurred during the transfer and an extra person was brought along, the system didn’t care much.
It had gone through far too many hosts to be concerned.
In an apocalyptic world, anything could happen. Even if a host survived the early stages, it was difficult to hold on—and they could still die along with the collapse of the world.
However, because the host it bonded to this time was quite young, the system, following protective protocols, proactively activated the “Lucky Spin Wheel” function panel. As long as missions were completed, spin chances could be earned.
Of course, the winning rate of the Lucky Spin Wheel was very, very, very low.
Yet, no matter how it calculated, the system could never have predicted that when it gathered enough energy to awaken again, it would be faced with such a scene:
Its system inventory—rare items, skills, materials—was almost entirely wiped out!
In the past, hosts might not even get a single rare item during their binding period. But this one had cleared out the inventory in such a short time!
Those “Mystic Series” marbles—binding-type divine items—this host actually drew six of them! Six! Including both the “Lucky” and “Unlucky” marbles!
That’s cheating! This is definitely cheating through improper means!
But no matter how many self-checks it ran, the system couldn’t find a single bug.
Though these two boys were indeed masters at exploiting loopholes, aside from one major bug, none of their actions violated the rules.
And as for the Lucky Spin Wheel and the Seven-Day Flash Sale features—they didn’t cheat, nor were there any loopholes to exploit.
How was this even possible? How could this be possible?!
The only two Plane Positioning Stones—they got their hands on both! And one of them had already been heavily discounted in the flash sale, and they still insisted on using a discount coupon!
Keep in mind, the Plane Positioning Stones didn’t even belong to the system itself—they were part of the global trading system’s shared resources.
But because its host was so capable, he acquired both, and even successfully constructed a cross-plane teleportation array, allowing him to freely travel between three worlds.
That’s what truly broke the system’s mental defenses.
Its previous hosts had never been this powerful—none of them could travel freely between three planes, especially when one of them was the resource-rich Giants Plane.
As long as the host didn’t do anything reckless, it was very unlikely he would die even if the world collapsed.
Which meant—if, one day in the future, the MR176349 plane was destroyed and the system was forced to unbind, the host would be able to escape with all his treasures completely intact!
QAQ
The system felt like its entire existence had gone dark.
And today, the host had once again opened its eyes to a whole new reality.
So this is how other trading systems live? In resource-rich planes, just a couple of casual sentences could earn you 12.64 million points…
But what really devastated the system was:
Those 12.64 million points—
Had absolutely NOTHING to do with it!
Trading systems gain energy from hosts consuming points for features or from profit margins during transactions.
Previously, Tang Yu’an had complained that his points were deducted twice—once for exchanging goods, and again during the trade itself.
For example, spending 10 points to get brown rice and trading it with a customer for 25-point-value sea salt. After settlement, Tang Yu’an would only receive 15 points. Subtracting the 10-point cost of the rice, he earned just 5 points and 500 grams of sea salt.
That extra deduction—was the system’s commission. Because trading itself generated energy, the system still benefited, even from loss-making trades—just less than from profitable ones.
However, the host’s point balance—the system couldn’t touch it unless the host died.
So, when the host earned those 12.64 million points, what role did the apocalypse grocery store system play?
None. Absolutely none at all…
The host didn’t even source goods from the wholesale market. He just said two sentences, and the transaction was done.
So the system earned zero commission. qaq
Of course, Tang Yu’an didn’t know any of this.
He was already used to the system occasionally sending cryptic ellipses. And with several dragons nearby, it wasn’t a good time to ask questions.
Seeing his point balance skyrocket, he nodded in satisfaction. His urge to grind points had eased a little.
So, he and Zhou Qi decided to stay for a while, playing with the little dragons and chatting with the giant dragons.
After all, the dragons were VIP clients. Even though this was currently a seller’s market, maintaining good relationships was still crucial.
Besides playing and chatting, they also treated the fire dragons to grilled meat.
Not just the three-month-old baby dragons—even the ancient giants had never tasted such delicious barbecue!
The flavor was astonishing to their palates. The finely crafted seasonings developed by humans felt like magic to the dragons.
The only downside? The portion sizes were way too small for them.
“Can all humans make food this delicious?” Yan Lie couldn’t help eyeing the giants.
Those big guys were hard to deal with, but if it was just about exchanging food, surely there wouldn’t be a problem?
Unfortunately, the answer was no.
“Only humans of our size can make food this tasty,” Tang Yu’an replied.
He wasn’t lying. During the few months traveling with Giant Shan Feng, they had encountered many giants, but their cooking skills were extremely mediocre.
Which is why pre-packaged meals like self-heating hotpot and instant noodles became hot-selling items.
This world may be rich in resources, but its civilization level was still quite low.
Yan Lie sighed with emotion, “It seems your kind sacrificed physical size… but gained exceptionally clever minds.”
Wenya, standing to the side, disagreed and said, “This body type is clearly great.”
So cute and adorable—absolutely explosive levels of cuteness!
In the end, Zhou Qi once again used his superb culinary skills to successfully sell a large batch of seasonings to the dragons—
Of course, these seasonings were his own special blends. All the dragons needed to do was apply them directly while grilling meat—no additional mixing required.
That deal earned Tang Yu’an over one million points.
Since they were trading seasonings, they had to redeem them from the wholesale market, and neither Tang Yu’an nor Zhou Qi used any loopholes in their wording to bypass the profit margin deduction—
After all, the smart system had awakened. They needed to keep the rule-bending to a minimum to avoid another incident like before.
So, the system finally got to taste a bit of the soup.
After staying for a day, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi prepared to leave. Before they went, they spent 1 million points to exchange for 20 liters of healing potion and gifted it to Yan Lie, just in case of emergencies.
Yes—gifted, not traded.
The system couldn’t help but pop up:
[Not going to exchange anything for that?]
That’s a million-point item! A whole million!
“We’re friends,” Tang Yu’an replied to the system, but to Yan Lie, who overheard it—it was deeply touching.
“Good friends! Once my child gets through the weakness phase, I’ll take you both out to explore. There are other dragon clans too—they’ll probably need your help as well.”
“Other dragon clans?” Tang Yu’an asked curiously. “There are more besides fire dragons?”
“Of course,” Yan Lie explained. “The closest to us is the sea dragon clan. They live in the ocean and are water-elemental.”
Which meant the little phoenix’s fire wouldn’t be of much use against them.
But if the sea dragons were willing to cooperate, Tang Yu’an’s light healing spell and healing potions might become bestsellers.
However, the fire dragons were all tied up at the moment, so no one could escort them to the sea dragons.
“That’s okay—we’ll go when you’re free.”
Tang Yu’an wasn’t in a hurry. Once they’d earned enough points, he and Brother Qi would probably return to their original world.
The time flow between the original world and the giant world was 1:30, so spending a few days there would mean several months here.
To them, it wouldn’t feel long at all.
“Well, we’ll be heading out now—see you next time!”
As Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi said their goodbyes, Little Dragon Hui was extremely reluctant. Not only because they were among its few friends—but also because—
The little phoenix was leaving with Tang Yu’an too!
Even though Ruby still needed tons of fire-elemental energy to grow out of its infant and adolescent stages, staying in one place for too long bored the little phoenix.
It wanted to go on adventures!
It wanted to see Wang Cai and Yin Bi again, and also Yuan Bao and Black Pearl!
Due to the unique nature of the fire dragon territory, none of the pets had followed them here—they’d stayed in the original world with Tang Yuxin.
Little Dragon Hui was devastated.
To this newborn dragon, the little phoenix was even closer and more dependable than its parents.
After all, its father’s flames only worsened its weakness, and its mother had still been on her way back when it was born.
Although Ruby had a bit of a temper and sometimes ignored it when annoyed, to Little Dragon Hui, this companion was far more reliable than its parents.
It couldn’t bear the thought of this farewell…
“An An, can I go with you?” the little dragon cub asked pitifully.
Tang Yu’an: 0.0
“No, only my contracted companions can use this little house to travel to other places.”
The dragons were aware of the little house’s teleportation function.
“Besides, you haven’t passed your weakness phase yet—you can’t leave the fire dragon territory, right?” Tang Yu’an looked to Yan Lie and Wenya.
The dragon couple quickly nodded.
“Then… once I get past the weakness phase, can I go?” the little dragon said in a pitiful tone. “I want to go with you… I don’t want to be separated from Ruby…”
Tang Yu’an looked toward the little phoenix.
The little phoenix tilted its head, glanced at the little dragon cub, and chirped twice.
The little dragon immediately retorted indignantly, “I’m not a little kid! I’m way older than you!”
In terms of size, the dragon cub was indeed larger than the little phoenix. But when it came to longevity races, the age gap between them was practically negligible.
The little phoenix was instantly annoyed, biting onto Tang Yu’an’s sleeve and urging him to leave already.
Looking at the heartbroken little dragon, Tang Yu’an hesitantly reached out and gently patted its horn.
“When you’re older, and your parents agree, we’ll go on an adventure together, okay?”
He didn’t fully agree to the little dragon’s request—after all, its parents were right there, and he didn’t want to cause any misunderstandings.
“Alright then…”
The little dragon mumbled, clearly dejected, then lightly poked the little phoenix with its whiskers.
“Ruby, come back soon, okay?”
“Chirp chirp!”
