Special merchandise

"I'm the owner of this shop, so you're..."

Su Bai looked around again. Viewing the shop through the eyes of its "boss" seemed to give him a whole new perspective.

When he first realized that this shop had been following him since the real world, even trailing him all the way into the nightmare world, Su Bai had known it was a supernatural entity, but had no other clues. Later, when the child before him began using the vows from his marriage contract to catch his attention, Su Bai finally learned that the shop was connected to the terrifying entity on the other end of that contract. He began to suspect that the shop had come to claim his life.

Yet... this shop was actually a gift from that entity?

An empty shop with nothing but shelves, without a single item for sale?

"Madam-no, boss, my name is... Xiao Wu. Wu as in five, after one, two, three, and four." For some reason, the child hesitated when introducing the name. "Master arranged for me to take human form so I could stay in the shop and help out, and told me to obey all of Madam's-no, your orders from now on, boss. So please let Xiao Wu keep working here."

Looking at the child's adorable appearance, Su Bai chose to keep probing. "In other words, I can refuse to let you stay?"

The child's red eyes widened like a little rabbit's. Apparently never having expected Su Bai to refuse, Xiao Wu froze for several seconds before looking up at him with a wounded expression. "Master didn't just give me a task. Master also gave me some abilities to handle the work in the shop, so Xiao Wu is very useful."

"Useful in what ways?" Having been told that time stood still inside the shop, Su Bai began working through the conversation with Xiao Wu one step at a time.

"Xiao Wu is the 'person' who knows the most about this shop. At least let Xiao Wu introduce the Mist Shop to you first, boss." Xiao Wu seemed to give a little internal pep talk, making an effort to perk up and even rising a little higher onto tiptoe.

Su Bai nodded. Although his obsession and his goal had absolutely nothing to do with "running a shop," he had to admit that the way this shop had followed him had piqued his curiosity.

"For certain reasons, Master can't appear in person, but both Master and Xiao Wu care very much about you, boss. That's why Master hopes to help you grow stronger in the nightmare as quickly as possible." Xiao Wu emphasized the word "both," then smiled and continued in an offhand tone, "So the moment you stepped into this Mist Shop, your power became bound to the shop's power. You prosper together, and you suffer together."

Just entering the shop counted as binding himself to it?

Su Bai raised an eyebrow in surprise. But on reflection, his supernatural betrothed, whom he had never met, had chosen to give him a gift rather than eat him. Taking away his right to choose now was fairly standard behavior for a supernatural being. Perhaps his betrothed's aim... was to fatten him up before eating him?

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Su Bai, either.

As Xiao Wu spoke, a beautiful, crystal-clear glass jar appeared out of thin air from behind the child's back. Moving on short little legs, Xiao Wu struggled to set the large jar on the nearby counter and explained, "The white sand in this jar represents the power you and this shop possess, boss. As long as you run the shop properly and keep stocking its shelves with merchandise, your power will grow very quickly, and there will be more and more white sand in the jar."

Su Bai walked over to inspect the jar. At first glance, he thought the transparent jar was empty. Only after studying it closely did he discover a sparse layer of white sand scattered across the bottom. Counting every grain probably wouldn't even take a few minutes.

So weak.

"Ahem." Su Bai gave a light cough to hide his embarrassment. "If the white sand fills the jar one day, will my power surpass your master's?"

Xiao Wu gave Su Bai a strange look. "How could it? Don't joke around, boss. There are several more jars like this in the storeroom."

"..." Su Bai silently consoled himself. It was only a few more jars' worth of difference, after all.

"So how am I supposed to run this shop?" Su Bai took the initiative to change the subject.

Su Bai surveyed what Xiao Wu called the "Mist Shop." Although there were six shelves of varying heights inside, he couldn't find so much as a toothpick on them, leaving him with no idea what the shop sold. Was this a general store or a bookshop?

"Madam-no, boss, did you know that some very ordinary-looking objects in the nightmare can possess special powers and functions?" The child only came up to about Su Bai's waist, and had to strain up onto tiptoe to look him in the eye. Judging by appearance alone, Xiao Wu was certainly adorable, though the tone of voice sounded rather mature.

"An ordinary ballpoint pen in the nightmare might be a pen spirit from human folklore. A broken watch might stop time in a certain area, or even trap it in a loop. A fragment of a mirror might drag people into an unknown space." Xiao Wu's voice was childish, but the tone was that of an instructor. "The Red Moon's power gradually seeps into every object in the nightmare. Even those humans slowly gain the Red Moon's power."

"True." To Su Bai, everything Xiao Wu was saying would have suited a new player who had just entered the nightmare world. But for a returnee like him, merely pretending to be new, it was all familiar, well-worn information. "But there aren't many objects that develop special functions."

Perhaps because the snide voice in human players' ears always called this nightmare world a "game," humans inevitably used gaming terms to describe everything within it. They called themselves "players," for instance, and referred to the objects they found with special functions as "items."

That sort of self-hypnosis did occasionally let people forget that this was a man-eating alternate dimension overrun with evil spirits.

As Xiao Wu had said, every grain of sand in the nightmare world became tainted with the Red Moon's power. But most objects refused to absorb it. At most, a thin layer of power coated their surfaces, while sand remained nothing more than useless sand.

Occasionally, however, the Red Moon's power thoroughly permeated an object, even giving rise to strange, mutated powers. A stretch of beach might mutate under the Red Moon's influence, and every human or supernatural entity that stepped onto it would be swallowed by quicksand. A book might mutate under the Red Moon's influence, and every human or supernatural entity that opened it would be drawn into the world within its pages. A pen might mutate under the Red Moon's influence, occasionally writing cryptic prophecies whose truth was impossible to judge.

For players, that stretch of quicksand meant nothing but danger. But if a player acquired the book or the pen, it would become an important item that helped them survive in the nightmare game.

It was also one of the few ways humans could hold their own against supernatural entities.