Chapter 333
Upon hearing Tang Yu’an’s proposal, Zhou Qi thought for a moment and nodded.
“In that case, I think we can directly donate this branch store to the state,” he said seriously.
Although outsiders saw them as coming from another world, they were very clear that from beginning to end, they were Chinese.
“Just like the previous vending machines — let the government decide who gets to travel to the other world. The extent of this store’s protective barrier should also be controlled by the government.”
In fact, some of the outer regions had already fallen. The national borders were no longer what they once were.
Whether to establish protective barriers at the border or to build them around the safe zones first and slowly reclaim the land — that should be for the government to consider.
“Yes, that’s a great idea!” Tang Yu’an agreed.
“This way, we also don’t have to deal directly with government officials, reducing the risk of being exposed.”
Tang Yu’an was very self-aware. They were good in many areas, but lacking experience in mainstream society made their thinking and actions a bit immature.
If they were in contact with the government for too long, someone would eventually notice something — and who knows what kind of trouble that could bring.
“Then we’ll go with your suggestion and donate to a branch store,” said Tang Yu’an. “How should we do it?”
Zhou Qi thought for a bit and said, “Let Uncle Tang and Aunt Tang appear as Divine Envoys. They’ll explain in detail how to use and expand the protective barrier. As for the store manager, the state can appoint one.”
Although the manager would be appointed by the state, they would still need to be supervised by them.
They could even include clauses in the employee code such as “must not betray the country” and “must not act against the interests of the people” to restrict the manager’s behavior.
After all, the manager would hold significant power.
This might be manageable during the apocalypse, but once it ends and corruption begins, things could become dangerous.
“Okay, I’ll talk to Mom and Dad!”
Wasting no time, Tang Yu’an quickly contacted their parents to discuss the matter together.
Tang Sheng and Tang Xueyun were, of course, very supportive.
“I’ll contact Liang Jin and have him make the arrangements,” said Tang Sheng.
“Great!”
Since all existing stores were built in disaster zones, and this new store was meant to defend the border against mutated invaders, it had to be constructed on the outskirts of the safe zone — meaning a new store needed to be built.
During their three-month journey through the disaster zones, for easier communication, Tang Sheng had hired Liang Jin as an employee.
Now, to reach him, they only needed to make a voice call through the employee forum.
And the best part — after three months, they could finally change their nicknames!
Since Tang Yu’an had leveled up and unlocked new forum aliases, they created two new masked identities: “Mysterious Merchant – SilverLight” and “Mysterious Merchant – Dai Yi,” which they authorized for others to use.
When contacting the government, Tang Sheng mainly used one of these aliases.
When Liang Jin received a voice call from “Golden Light,” he was already a little surprised. Hearing the offer to donate a branch store to China left him even more stunned.
“Divine Envoy Silver Light, are you serious?”
“Yes. You need to quickly decide on a store location and appoint a manager, who will be granted full authority over this branch,” Tang Sheng said. “The Peace Trading Company promises that unless requested by the government, we will not interfere with this store in any way.”
“As for the store’s protective barrier — how it’s established and expanded, and what function it serves — I believe you’re already familiar with that.”
Indeed, back at the Northern Shelter, due to the store’s limited level and available sleeping slots, they had built protective isolation zones to fend off the mutated invaders.
As the highest commander of the shelter, Liang Jin understood this better than anyone.
“Of course I understand. But… is the Peace Trading Company really going to donate such a valuable store to China?”
“I believe I’ve made myself very clear.”
“But why?”
If it were a matter of exchanging benefits, Liang Jin could understand — after all, they came from different worlds with different governments, even if they shared a common language and writing system.
“If I must give a reason…”
Tang Sheng paused and said, “Your rescue efforts are too slow. Every second, lives are being lost. Are you sure you want to waste more time?”
“…”
Liang Jin had no words.
“The Peace Trading Company’s kindness and righteousness — we will always remember it!”
He then rushed to report to his superiors.
Given the significance of the matter, the government responded quickly. That very afternoon, Liang Jin contacted Tang Sheng again.
“We’ve finalized the location and the branch manager!”
Whether because Tang Sheng’s words had struck a nerve or not, everything moved extremely smoothly — like getting green lights all the way.
So, Tang Sheng and Zhou Qi once again donned their Silver Light and Dark Moon disguises and took a flying craft to the outskirts of the safe zone.
From above, they could see that beyond the safe zone, the land was completely overrun by mutated creatures, and the border defense had no moment of rest.
Just as Tang Sheng had said — every moment, soldiers were falling. They couldn’t afford to waste time.
After landing, Zhou Qi and Tang Sheng quickly went to the location designated by the government and established the 49th Peace Grocery Store.
The construction of a single branch store now cost 200,000 points, and the cost of the protective barrier and teleportation array was also high.
But when they looked at the soldiers risking their lives to protect the nation, such costs seemed trivial.
Since the branch manager needed to be at least Level 5, which was easy to achieve, the position was temporarily assigned to Liang Jin to save time.
He had built a shelter in the disaster zone and led over 100,000 people through more than six months of hardship. His capability and loyalty to the country and its people had earned full recognition.
After Zhou Qi messaged Tang Yu’an, she remotely transferred Liang Jin to the 49th store, promoted him to manager, and granted him full access to the store’s functions.
With that, Zhou Qi and Tang Sheng’s mission was complete.
Just as they promised, they no longer involved themselves in any follow-up affairs and left Store No. 49 directly.
In fact, this time, Tang Yu’an had secretly followed along as well, but he hid under a shadow-concealing umbrella and was never discovered.
After the three reunited, they immediately joined the battlefield.
Besides them, Tang Yu’an had also dispatched the pets.
He had already equipped Black Pearl, Yuan Bao, and the others with collars made of Purple Thousand-Layer Fabric. With this layer of protection, he no longer had to worry about them being parasitized.
As for Little Phoenix and the Flame Dragon baby, they didn’t need to worry at all.
The mutated creatures would only flee at the sight of them.
“Dear heavens, I think I just saw a dragon and a phoenix?”
An exhausted soldier sat down in disbelief as he watched the tide of mutated creatures surge forward—only to retreat like waves again.
The holy fire of the phoenix blazed brightly, and golden metal daggers flew through the air, tearing apart every mutated creature they touched.
Palm-sized spiders appeared from nowhere, spraying webs at the mutated creatures…
Every time a dark shadow flashed by, a soldier who had fallen behind enemy lines would be pulled back to safety…
The power on display was overwhelming, and it drastically reduced the pressure on the defensive line within several hundred meters, giving the soldiers a much-needed breather.
Tang Yu’an cast healing light spells to treat the wounded soldiers.
Then he suddenly paused and looked at the large dog following him.
“Yinbi, I don’t need you to protect me here. Go fight the mutated ones.”
Yin Bi whimpered in protest, its big round eyes staring up at him with grievance.
Those mutated creatures were so ugly! So scary for a dog!
It absolutely didn’t want to play with them!
Tang Yu’an patted the soft, thick fur on its chest and sighed, “Alright then, just stick with me and see if there’s anything you can do.”
“Woof woof!”
Yinbi immediately grinned, wagging its big tail happily.
The battlefield here was quickly cleaned up, and just as they were about to move on, Tang Yu’an suddenly sensed something and looked toward Store No. 49.
Store No. 49 was a building about ten meters tall.
From it, a protective barrier emerged, forming a wall about ten meters high and one meter thick. It began rapidly extending along the border in both directions.
If one could overlook the land of Huaxia from a systemic aerial view right now, they would see a transparent barrier rapidly spreading like a corridor — and within moments, it had enclosed the area!
Because the border zones and safe zones were poorly defined, it wasn’t possible to completely exclude all mutated creatures.
However, mutated creatures outside the barrier could no longer enter — unless they managed to climb over this ten-meter-high air wall.
As for those already inside, they would be completely wiped out in due time.
Upon seeing this, Tang Yu’an finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although the clean-up work ahead was still grueling, at least they no longer had to worry about the number of mutated creatures growing faster than they could eliminate them.
Of course, it still wasn’t time to slack off.
They moved on to the next battlefield. During the journey, Tang Sheng received another video call from Liang Jin.
“Divine Envoy Silverlight, mission accomplished!”
Liang Jin’s face was flushed, looking excited as if drunk.
He had just received word — congratulatory messages were pouring in from safe zones across the country. The tide of mutated creatures flooding in from outside had finally been blocked!
With this layer of protection, the nation would definitely survive this crisis!
“Don’t let your guard down yet,” Tang Sheng said. “You need to find a way to increase the height of the branch store.”
At just ten meters tall, even non-flying mutated creatures could potentially climb over.
Only by continuing to raise the height of the store—and therefore the barrier—could they prevent ordinary mutants from breaching it and truly relax.
“I understand. Please rest assured, great China will handle this perfectly!”
While they spoke, Tang Yu’an and the others had already reached the next battlefield.
Using the map to locate red light points, they confirmed a large number of mutated creatures were still active here. But for Tang Yu’an and his team, it was no challenge at all.
And so…
Watching the battle unfold through Tang Sheng’s video feed, Liang Jin’s jaw dropped.
So the rumor that the Peace Trading Company kept dragons and phoenixes… was true?
At this speed, the mutated creatures looked like paper targets — no wonder they were being criticized for being too slow! But the real question was:
Was this level of power really something mortals could possess?
