Chapter 323
Thousand-Layer Forest Grocery Store.
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi appeared on the teleportation array, with the little phoenix fluttering excitedly around them, chirping nonstop, clearly overjoyed.
Fresh air drifted in through the window, carrying a hint of coolness—far more comfortable than the underground magma environment they’d just left.
But for some reason, the room was unusually dim, with barely any sunlight filtering through.
By logic, it should be daytime in this alternate world—the light shouldn’t be so dull. Tang Yu’an walked to the window and looked outside. His line of sight, which was originally level, instinctively tilted upward.
There, just outside the little house, stood the giant Shan Feng and his girlfriend Sasa, both squatting and staring longingly in their direction.
Even though the Thousand-Layer Forest Grocery Store was officially closed, the protective barrier’s stealth feature didn’t work on giants.
“When are those two little guys coming back?” Sasa’s voice rang out.
“I don’t know. They didn’t say,” Shan Feng replied.
“I want to eat hot pot, grilled meat, candy, chocolate…” Sasa said mournfully.
Shan Feng was also drooling.
“Stop talking—you’re making me hungry.”
The two little guys had only been gone for three months—a short time by their past standards—but now it felt like an eternity.
Especially after they ran out of the food they had traded for.
Their taste buds had been spoiled. They never used to think their own cooking was bad, but now they found it nearly inedible.
Listening to the giants’ conversation, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi exchanged a glance, smiles in their eyes.
Then they opened the door and stepped out together.
“Shan Feng, Sasa—long time no see!” Tang Yu’an greeted them.
The two giants were stunned at first, then pinched each other in perfect sync.
“Ow! That hurt! Not dreaming!”
“An An! Zhou Qi! It’s really you—you’re back!” Shan Feng and Sasa cheered.
Their cheers practically shook the earth. Fortunately, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi were still within the protective barrier and weren’t affected.
“Did you bring something tasty this time?” Shan Feng quickly calmed down and asked.
Sasa chimed in, “Yeah, I’ve collected a lot of purple Thousand-Layer leaves—are you still buying?”
“We are, we are.” Tang Yu’an nodded quickly.
Each purple Thousand-Layer leaf was worth 100 points, and with the new threat of the aberrations, their demand had surged.
Using these leaves as trade goods was absolutely perfect.
In the end, Tang Yu’an traded self-heating hot pots, frozen dumplings, frozen buns, and the largest sizes of all kinds of snacks for 10,000 purple Thousand-Layer leaves from Shan Feng and Sasa.
The leaves were neatly stacked in bags, carefully collected by Sasa.
Tang Yu’an stored the leaves in his portable warehouse, planning to have the home robot grind them into powder before taking them back to the original world. With the time flow difference between the two worlds, they could take full advantage of it.
“Chirp chirp chirp—”
The little phoenix happily flew around the Thousand-Layer Forest. After three months underground in the magma world, it had been thoroughly stifled.
Seeing that it wasn’t calming down anytime soon, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi decided not to leave immediately. Instead, they stayed to chat with their two VIP clients—maintaining the relationship and checking whether they had new needs.
Although the giants weren’t as rich as the dragon clans, each deal still netted tens of thousands of points, making them very valuable customers.
Sure enough, they managed to close several new deals.
Since Sasa had forgiven Shan Feng and he decided to stay in the Thousand-Layer Forest, he needed to stock up on daily living supplies.
Now that Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi were back, they could provide exactly what he needed.
Sasa was very curious about modern daily-use products and had no resistance to them. Before long, they completed the transaction.
As a result, Tang Yu’an’s account balance increased by over a million points again.
The system had grown numb to it by now—it didn’t even bother to pop out to make its presence known.
After all, this time the host used actual goods to make the trade with the giants, not just a few smooth words to earn points.
That meant… the system could earn too!
They stayed in the Thousand-Layer Forest all morning. By noon, the little phoenix began to feel bored again.
Due to the forest’s bug-repelling properties, there wasn’t a single insect around. And although bugs were annoying, without them there were no small animals for food either.
Besides the Thousand-Layer trees, the forest had very few other plants—much like the Lanhu Forest they’d seen before. But thanks to the rich spiritual energy in this world, the forest didn’t suffer from nutrient deficiencies.
Still, given their past experience and the importance of this location, Zhou Qi felt they should keep an eye out for potential risks.
Since Sasa and Shan Feng would be living there, Tang Yu’an asked them to help watch over the place.
He initially wanted to offer them compensation, but Shan Feng refused.
“If you really want to thank us, then come trade with us once every two months,” Shan Feng said pitifully. “Set a fixed time—don’t make us wait so long.”
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi began to discuss it.
Currently, the time flow between the alternate world and the Wasteland world was 10:1, so a trade every two months here would mean once every six days for them.
That wasn’t too frequent—but if they returned to their original world, it would mean traveling back here every two days. They couldn’t guarantee they’d always be free…
[Message Board – Private Chat]
[Eastern Sweet Tang]: How about assigning someone to handle the trades instead?
[Handsome Zhou]: Don’t think we have anyone suitable.
In the Wasteland world, the person they trusted most was Grandpa Li. But he was already quite old, and this kind of task would only accelerate his aging.
And not everyone had the courage to do business with giants.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment, then suddenly looked at the two giants and typed in the private chat:
[Handsome Zhou]: What if we hire Shan Feng as an employee?
Since they could recruit staff in the original world, there was no reason they couldn’t hire someone in this giant world too.
Transactions between giants were far superior to theirs in both communication and safety.
Besides, they didn’t need Shan Feng to develop more customers—just trading with Sasa alone could earn them a fortune in points.
On the other hand, Shan Feng and Sasa would also have constant access to supplies and wouldn’t have to wait endlessly for Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi to show up.
Whenever An An needed points, she could simply make a trip to the alternate world to settle accounts—much more convenient, wasn’t it?
[Eastern Sweet Tang]: We’ve already built teleportation points in several other giant-inhabited areas. It’d be super convenient for Shan Feng to travel for trades too!
Giants liked to live in dispersed locations—aside from partners or family, they rarely lived together. This made communication quite inconvenient. But with teleportation arrays, it was a whole different story.
At that moment, the system notification panel popped up.
[Attention: Giants using teleportation arrays will be charged additional points.]
Tang Yu’an was stunned and couldn’t help but run back into the little house, complaining, “Didn’t I already spend points to unlock permanent usage? Why are there still extra charges?”
No one had ever hired a giant as an employee before!
[Giants in this dimension possess an anti-magic constitution and require special methods to teleport successfully.]
Only then did Tang Yu’an remember this unique trait.
True—all spiritual energy failed near giants, and only specific tools could be used to interact with them.
“How many points per use?”
[2,000 points.]
Tang Yu’an pouted but reluctantly accepted it.
After all, he only planned to hire one giant employee—Shan Feng—as long as he didn’t teleport too frequently, the points should be manageable.
He explained the situation to Zhou Qi, who had returned to the house with him. Zhou Qi nodded and said, “Then there’s just one problem left.”
“What is it?”
“How do we pay Shan Feng’s salary?”
Previous employees had received a starter task for their first month. For every profitable transaction completed, they earned 1 point, and bonuses were distributed at the end of the month.
Obviously, this model didn’t suit Shan Feng.
Tang Yu’an scratched his head, then asked, “System, do you have any suggestions?”
[The host’s level is about to reach 32.]
Tang Yu’an blinked in confusion. “And?”
[Once you reach Lv32, there might be a more suitable solution.]
The system didn’t elaborate, but Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up: Could it be that a new function unlocks at level 32?
The system remained silent in response.
Tang Yu’an didn’t mind. He was already very close to Level 32, and once he leveled up, he would naturally understand what the system meant.
So, they didn’t hire Shan Feng just yet. Instead, they took the teleportation array back to their home world.
They had been away for two days, but in this world, only five hours had passed—still felt like quite a while to Tang Yu’an.
After settling the employees’ experience points, he once again returned to the original world.
Only an hour and a half had passed there, but he was already just one step away from leveling up. After the experience settlement, the system notification popped up:
[EXP full. Merchant level +1]
[Merchant level reached Lv32. New items added to the store: salted duck eggs, sausages, seaweed, glutinous rice balls, hair dryers, space heaters. See the “Wholesale Market” for details.]
[Portable warehouse slots +3, total slots: 47, authorized slots +1, current authorized slots: 13]
[Vending machine +1]
[Wholesale Market 20% Off Coupon +1]
Tang Yu’an scanned the lines one by one until his eyes landed on the second-to-last line.
Wow! A vending machine!
His eyes lit up instantly.
He quickly chose to accept it and summoned the newly acquired vending machine.
The machine looked very simple—just a rectangular box with a control panel, and nothing else. No glass display like the vending machines he’d seen before, no visible item slots or product windows.
Curious, Tang Yu’an opened the control panel.
First, he noticed that the vending machine’s size could be adjusted, with a maximum height of 5 meters. Still a little short for giants, but definitely usable.
Customers had to register and log in the first time they used it, then they could log in by facial recognition going forward.
The interface showed the account’s point balance—
Yes, customers first had to offer goods, which the vending machine would scan and appraise, converting them into points. Then, they could use those points to buy whatever items they needed from the machine.
And if they didn’t use up all their points this time, they could save them for next time!
