Interstellar Mall

Biodata

Power Progression

The Mall’s software and assistant upgrades are separate from its users’ membership ranks and grower designations.

Background

The Interstellar Mall binds to Qing Mengzhu while he is drinking with Zhao Hexi after losing his job. Its electronic announcement grants him a seller slot described as nontransferable and void upon expiration. After accepting notices referencing interstellar law, he becomes an “agricultural and pastoral area” seller. Access to the Mall helps persuade him to return to his hometown and pursue farming 1 5.

Its creator remains unidentified. Although its catalogue includes products from cultivation and interstellar planes, this does not establish who operates it. Qing Mengzhu later speculates that it might come from Earth’s future and have traveled through space and time; Ming Chunxi considers present-day Earth technology incapable of producing it 119 296.

Access and Interface

Bound Interface

The Mall presents itself in a format familiar to its user, initially resembling a shopping application with a bright red border 1.

• Mental and phone access: Qing Mengzhu can open it in his mind or use its phone application 1 223.
• Concealment: Without his consent, other people cannot see it, and Earth’s technology cannot detect it 1.
• Visibility controls: Changing its status from hidden to visible allows Ming Chunxi to see the application 119.
• Separate authorization: Visibility alone does not permit entry. Qing Mengzhu must designate Ming Chunxi as an auxiliary user before he can access it 119.
• Personalization: An intelligent recommendation system selects products; after the major upgrade, recommendations better match the users’ purchasing power and shopping habits 60 223.

Membership and User Levels

User level, purchasing membership, and grower rank are distinct classifications.

Junior membership opens access to spiritual fruits, spiritual liquids, beginner intelligent machines, and Growth Liquid. Its advertised skill-book allowance includes five beginner books at 20,000 Star Coins each and five intermediate books at 60,000 each 109 110.

Trading Rules

Selling Goods

Registered sellers sell to the Mall itself, rather than directly to individual customers 1.

• Eligibility: Qing Mengzhu’s household furnishings and electronics cannot be sold. Produce he gathers or grows can qualify 2.
• No reselling: Gifted dried mushrooms, leaves picked from other people’s lotuses, and recently purchased pepper seedlings are rejected as resale goods 2 8 11.
• Gathered materials: Ownerless fruit and wild mushrooms qualify, including poisonous mushroom species 3 12.
• Minimum transaction: Initially 10 Star Coins; reduced to 1 Star Coin after activating the Mall Assistant 6 17.
• Quality-dependent pricing: Gutted crucian carp receive a higher appraisal than intact fish 6.
• Freshness matters: A vegetable haul drops from 4.3 to 3.1 Star Coins overnight. Older, dried bamboo husks likewise lose much of their value 3 182.

Collection and Residue

A sale can extract useful substances without removing the entire item. Early vegetable sales leave the greens limp, discolored, and nearly rotten; later sales confirm that drained vegetables are no longer edible and must be composted 4 110.

• Not all transactions leave residue: Sold fermented fertilizer disappears from its containers, and the submitted Dragon Rosy Cloud Fruit seedling also vanishes 48 85.
• Texture is not necessarily valuable: Bamboo-shoot tips and tough bases receive the same price of 1.8 Star Coins per jin. Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi attribute this to similar substance content 139.
• Separating materials can improve returns: One winter-shoot harvest is valued at 26 Star Coins per jin peeled, 12 unpeeled, and 9 for fresh husks sold separately 182.

Purchase Restrictions

• Regional and planar limits: Some listed products cannot be purchased in Qing Mengzhu’s region or plane, even when he can view them 4 60 174.
• Minimum orders and shipping: Low displayed prices may conceal large minimum quantities or expensive delivery charges 4.
• Changing stock: Both discounts and available products change. Savage Marsh Shrimp eggs disappear before Qing Mengzhu can buy them 40 66.
• No live animals: The Mall does not offer live shrimp or geese, but viable shrimp eggs and fertilized bird eggs can be available 8 73.
• Product-specific safeguards: Lotus-seed instructions state that the variety will not cause biological invasion. Savage Marsh Shrimp are described as reverting to ordinary marsh shrimp over several generations without biological contamination 4 8.

Abilities and Services

Appraisal and Analysis

The Mall Assistant identifies goods and evaluates their agricultural or commercial usefulness.

• Original functions: Reports quality, variety, value, and other item information, without limits on scanning scope or number of uses 11.
• Quality grades: Documented forage listings span six grades from Good Grade− through Fine Grade+; Superior Grade materials also appear elsewhere in the catalogue 79 147.
• Intermediate analysis: Adds composition lists and the percentage of active ingredients still needed to reach the next grade 223 224.
• Example result: Fine Grade Luring Grass weighing 357 grams is valued at 28.55 Star Coins and requires 39% more active ingredients to reach Fine Grade+ 224.
• Information limits: The assistant sometimes supplies unfamiliar terminology rather than an explanation the users can understand 328.
• Human assessment: After Qing Mengzhu becomes an Intermediate Grower, it successfully identifies Ming Chunxi’s artificial-intelligence and quantum-computing proficiency as master level 340.

Skill Books

Skill books use interstellar technology to accelerate learning and transfer practical expertise 87.

• Crop-specific training: A basic cultivation book applies to one chosen crop. It cannot improve a skill already at that level 87.
• Direct absorption: Applying a beginner book to bamboo cultivation envelops Qing Mengzhu in light rather than producing a physical book first 88.
• Physical strain: Absorption can cause dizziness and discomfort; the accidental half-book of soil science leaves him unwell into the following day 88 175.
• Purchase cooldown: After completing Elementary Soil Science, he is barred from buying further skill books for three months 193 194.
• Redundancy checks: Once he possesses junior agricultural knowledge, junior books become unavailable because they would have no effect 202.

Grower Assessment

The personal center tracks agricultural knowledge and advancement separately from purchasing membership 202.

• The upgraded Mall supplies guidance on the skills needed for Intermediate Grower advancement 223.
• Staple-crop cultivation contributes experience: a rice harvest reduces Qing Mengzhu’s remaining advancement requirement from 56% to 39% 313.

Advanced Cultivation Advice

The Advanced Mall Assistant responds through a glowing icon and a pleasant female voice. It recognizes Ming Chunxi as the second user and answers his preparation questions 328.

• Explains that water quality is the most important factor when preparing Seed Gene Agent.
• Adjusts recommended water temperature and quantity to the water’s quality.
• States that sufficiently high-quality water can sometimes help the agent raise a seed by an entire major grade 328.

Notable Products

Tasks, Events, and Rewards

Relationships

• Qing Mengzhu — Bound agricultural and pastoral seller. His sales finance access to improved crops, agricultural treatments, and skill books; the Mall also records his grower advancement 1 109 202 340.
• Ming Chunxi — Authorized auxiliary user who helps evaluate purchases, plan sales, and investigate the Mall’s functions. The Advanced Mall Assistant recognizes him as its second user 119 193 275 328.