Another One...

"Damn it, damn it! Idiot, idiot! He actually hung up on me!"

The moment they ran out of the school, Suzumiya Haruhi saw that the connected call had been unilaterally disconnected from the other end. The timing was perfect—it had happened just as they climbed over the school wall...

"I've decided! Starting tomorrow, the SOS Brigade's goal is to find that place! We have to make that damned shop owner pay!"

"Ah..." Scratching his head, Kyon wondered whether he ought to seek out Yuki Nagato for a serious talk. Did a place like that really exist? Of course, it was also possible that Haruhi had lost her phone and some nasty person had picked it up.

No matter what.

It seemed he would never get his phone back before Suzumiya Haruhi bought a new replacement.

All in all, that was a truly unfortunate fact.

"Haruhi, can you give me my phone back?"

No matter what, if he did not try, he would truly have no chance. Kyon attempted to ask for it back, and sure enough...

"Not yet! We'll talk tomorrow. I'm leaving first."

Suzumiya Haruhi turned and stormed off, clearly having been maliciously provoked by someone.

"Uh, you really are persistent."

Watching the incoming call alert constantly ring on the phone, Jiu Ming shook his head. After thinking it over, he pressed the power button...

Kyon and the others, who had not gone far, heard another furious roar. In any case, certain espers in this world would be very busy tonight.

Over the next few days, Jiu Ming realized he had seriously underestimated Suzumiya Haruhi's persistence. As long as he dared turn the phone on, an incoming call would immediately arrive. The numbers even took turns, as if the other side had made up their minds to carry phone harassment through to the bitter end.

Had they even formed a nonstop harassment group over there?

What the hell was this? It was only a lost phone, wasn't it?

Well, whatever. He had been quite bored lately anyway. With this "Divine Artifact" of a phone in hand, Jiu Ming no longer had to worry about falling short of his "business quota" at the end of the month. Without that pressure, he became completely lazy. He even had time to go out specifically to get a charger for the phone...

He could not pay the phone bill in this world, but someone else could pay it for him! As for the fact that the phone had an owner... that would be easy to settle given the temperament of the person on the other end!

Aside from his daily meditation and training, Jiu Ming was happy to chat nonsense with her.

The SOS Brigade clubroom would occasionally erupt with enraged roars as well. If Suzumiya Haruhi truly hated someone, the consequences...

In her world, one really had to weigh whether offending her was worth courting death. If she genuinely came to hate you, then prepare yourself to face an endless stream of "Final Destination" incidents every day. Let's see how many days you can survive!

Every day, Jiu Ming could feel the overflowing malice from the other end of the phone. Unfortunately, he still ate well, slept well, and lived exactly as he pleased.

"Kyon... this can't continue." Taking advantage of Suzumiya Haruhi's inattention, Itsuki Koizumi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Closed Space has been appearing more and more frequently."

Wasn't that so? Kyon could see that Itsuki Koizumi, once such a sunny and handsome young man, now had dark circles under his eyes. Even his face was turning pale, looking as though he had masturbated too much. Just how frequently did those spaces have to appear to exhaust someone this badly?

He had seen Itsuki Koizumi and the people from his "Organization" deal with Shinjin before. It did not seem especially difficult for them...

"But we can't exactly stop Haruhi from answering the phone, can we?" Kyon spread his hands, wearing the same helpless expression. The mysterious person on the other end had no idea what was happening in their world.

The reason he answered the calls seemed to be more for everyday amusement. Was life over there really that boring?

Now, everyone in the SOS Brigade clubroom was continuously dialing on their phones. The instant someone got through, Suzumiya Haruhi would decisively rush over.

She looked like a drowning person clutching at the last straw, utterly unwilling to let go.

Of course, they could choose not to do this. But then there would be consequences. "I want to find that guy right now and beat him senseless. I haven't gotten a proper rest in days... Koizumi?"

He had actually fallen asleep? Looking at Itsuki Koizumi, who was hugging his shoulders with one hand still holding his phone, Kyon's eye twitched slightly. Compared to him, his own complaints were nothing but whining over nothing!

"I say, you really are persistent. Want to listen to some music?" After half a month, Jiu Ming had truly been frightened by Suzumiya Haruhi's unyielding spirit. At this rate, so long as he kept this phone, her "harassment" would never end, would it?

"Of course! Hurry up and obediently tell me where you are!"

Sigh... here they went again. Kyon let out a long sigh, no longer even having the urge to complain. Privately, every one of them had tried contacting Jiu Ming, but without the factor of the "Suzumiya Haruhi aura," they had obviously all failed.

"You've got me there. But I really don't know where I am." Jiu Ming shrugged. How should he put it? The location of the Mysterious Shop was simply impossible to pin down. It was like a grain of sand in a sand pile. Though he was the "owner" of that grain of sand... how was he supposed to find that one grain in the pile?

"Then how do I get to your place?!" Seeing that Jiu Ming had given in enough, Suzumiya Haruhi immediately pressed him for an answer. In her heart, she was already quietly considering how to deal with him once she found him.

"That's easy. Luck. If your luck is good enough, you can come here just by going up or down some stairs, or walking through a door." As Jiu Ming spoke, he summoned Panel-kun and carefully searched through the various details of the Mysterious Shop.

At last, he found one. For customers who came to the Mysterious Shop and possessed considerable potential for growth, this place could provide something called an "Invitation Card." Of course, since they were customers with potential, they needed the capital to deserve that assessment. Every use of an Invitation Card required payment of 100 points of Origin Power. Other items could be converted for payment, or things from one's own body could be used to make up the difference—for example, Life Force, limbs, organs...

Well, generally speaking, anything traded through the Mysterious Shop in a mutually willing and fair transaction was the sort of thing that could not be restored. The Mysterious Shop's transactions worked at the level of one's essence. For example, if someone bought one of their arms from Jiu Ming.

Then that arm would be like one severed by the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. No matter how powerful their regenerative ability was, it would be useless.

So unless someone had been driven mad by poverty, they should never trade parts of their own body. Nor should they rely on having superhuman regeneration to make such a deal with Jiu Ming, even though the "parts" such beings could trade could be converted into more Origin Power.

Jiu Ming did not want to conduct that kind of transaction either. Why would a perfectly fine person sell parts of their own body for no reason? Only after losing something would they understand the pain, just like Jiu Ming's current situation.

Delicious food... was beyond his reach. That alone had troubled Jiu Ming for quite a while. What could merely smelling it do besides stir up cravings? As for eating?

How was that any different from a skeleton eating a lollipop?

"Nonsense! I've tried so many times already. It's nothing like what you said!" Suzumiya Haruhi refuted him loudly, her face filled with anger. "You're fooling me!"

"Deceiving customers isn't good. What I said is the truth. Getting angry too easily makes you age faster... Ah, a new customer is here. I'll hang up first. We'll talk later."

With that, Jiu Ming hung up first, leaving Suzumiya Haruhi full of grievances. Itsuki Koizumi, awakened by the phone's vibration, helplessly looked at the message on the screen. Clearly, Closed Space had appeared again.

If this continued, a few people would be worked to death sooner or later. By the end, it would not merely be a matter of someone dying from exhaustion. They could just wait for the world to return to chaos and let Suzumiya Haruhi create heaven and earth anew.

They had to find a way to contact that guy proactively, preferably without Haruhi finding out.

"Yo, hello, customer. What can I do for you?"

Jiu Ming smiled at the man who walked out from behind the door. He wore a red mandarin jacket and white shorts, with a small bundle of hair tied behind his head and draped to the left. He had a somewhat adorable, youthful face, and beside him was a miniature panda. After confirming it several times, Jiu Ming was certain it was alive!

Nor was it the sort of oddity that looked like a panda but was actually an immature puppy. It was a genuine... baby panda.

He had the feeling this was another remarkable customer. Hey, hey, at most he was still a rookie who had just left the beginner's village. Sure, his starting point was far higher than those who had to train, level up, claim land, and slowly build themselves up.

But he still retained the rookie title. Having such big-name customers arrive once or twice was putting a great deal of pressure on someone like him, who had barely any stock and only possessed a card sealed with fifty days of Life Force.

That fifty-day Life Force card... how should he put it? If he traded with some shut-in gamer, the other party would probably complain that it was a real-life version of a game time card...

"Give me ten dozen!"

"Eh, this isn't my home. Did I walk through the wrong door?" The man's voice sounded incredibly gentle. He had to be good-natured, and also... an expert!

"..." But was this another scatterbrained person? He had not noticed what Jiu Ming had just said at all. What a waste of the perfect welcoming smile Jiu Ming had put on earlier.

"But I am a little tired from walking, so thank you." With that, the man unceremoniously sat down on the sofa. Visible to the naked eye, the sturdy sofa sank deeply under him!

Just how heavy was this guy?!

"Customer..." If Jiu Ming did not have to worry about everything here, he would truly have felt heartbroken for the sofa he had slept on for so long.

"Oh—? This is a shop? You really can't tell at all." The man seemed half a beat slow, or perhaps simply absentminded. Jiu Ming had only just opened his mouth when he belatedly returned to the previous topic. "I can't see any products at all. Do you sell furniture here?"

The man smiled gently. "My name is Wang Yao." He then pointed at the "small" panda beside him. "This is Gun Gun~"

The panda waved its tiny paw at Jiu Ming.