The end of the world is approaching, I'm handing myself over to the country.

[This is a fictional world; please do not take it personally.]

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[If a grocery store cannot open normally within one day, it will be shut down!]

[If the number of transactions is less than 10 within three days, the account will be automatically suspended.]

[If a grocery store's inventory is less than 50% complete within five days, it will be wiped out!]

[If sales fail to reach 3000 points within seven days, the entire operation will be wiped out!]

【...】

Lines of blood-red text floated in the air.

The font is large.

It carried an undeniable sense of oppression.

Lin Mo stared at the semi-transparent virtual panel, his chest heaving violently.

All around were endless deserts and ruins, with countless mutated monsters in the distance, and a musty, rotten smell permeated the air.

It stretched as far as the eye could see, without a single person in sight.

In a place like this, let alone opening a shop, even keeping a mouse would be considered beneath you.

"What the hell are you talking about?! Holy crap! Is there anyone else in this world besides me?"

Lin Mo suddenly kicked the dusty counter in front of him.

boom!

The counter remained motionless, but a piercing pain shot through my toes.

He hugged his foot and jumped around twice, his facial muscles contorting slightly from the pain.

This broken system is seriously ill.

Open a shop in a post-apocalyptic ruin.

Fifty years after the apocalypse.

Human civilization is a thing of the past; the outside world is full of mutated monsters.

living person?

There wasn't even a ghost in sight.

In this environment, would you allow him to open a shop?

Are we also going to assess sales revenue?

What's the difference between this and throwing a eunuch into a brothel to boost his sales performance?

"Holy shit, you've transported me to fifty years in the future, to the end of the world, and you want me to open a shop here? Who's going to buy from me? Ghosts?!"

Lin Mo looked at these rules and was utterly speechless, immediately bursting into a tirade of curses.

Answer me!

"Look in my eyes!!!"

The air was silent for two seconds.

Only the blue orb of light—the so-called general store itself—floated up and down in mid-air.

According to the rules, the host must complete the guidance task within the specified time, otherwise...

"Otherwise what?!"

Lin Mo directly interrupted its emotionless mechanical voice.

"You bastard! If you want me dead, just say so! Why bother with all this roundabout stuff to annoy me!"

His temper is angrier than the outside radiation level.

Time travel is out of the question.

Binding to the system is fine too.

But this game started in hell mode.

There's no newbie gift pack, no invincible cheat codes, just a bunch of deadly countdowns.

Erasure, erasure, and more erasure.

This isn't a system; it's clearly a death-bringing ghost sent by the King of Hell.

Lin Mo took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to crush the ball of light.

"Look outside."

He pointed to the drafty, broken wooden door.

"Within a fifty-mile radius, there are only zombies and mutated beasts. Who do you expect me to sell to? Sell to zombies so they can fix their brains?"

The system fell silent.

It seems to be calculating the feasibility of this logic.

After a while.

According to the scan, the number of human vital signs within a 50,000-kilometer radius is 0.

Lin Mo was so angry he laughed.

"You know it's 0? Then where the hell am I supposed to get those 3000 points of revenue for you?"

"Can't I just buy and sell myself? Transferring money from my own hand to my own?"

Malicious order placement is strictly prohibited; violators will be permanently banned.

"You idiot! I'll f*** you!!!"

Lin Mo felt his blood pressure surge to the top of his head.

Since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well die a quick and painless death.

"I really want to know who designed these ridiculous rules. Choosing between living for the moment and seizing the day, isn't that genius in itself!"

Lin Mo's mouth, like a machine gun, fired at the system for a full five minutes, using the organs as the center and his parents as the radius.

The sheer volume of his vocabulary and the sheer amount of "mother" in his writing are as if he were possessed by a top scholar from Zu'an.

The blue sphere of light, which had been floating stably, began to tremble violently.

The light flickered.

It's like a light bulb with unstable voltage.

Sizzle... sizzle...

A piercing crackling sound of electricity echoed through the cramped shop.

The program is malfunctioning; the cause is unknown...

[Logical conflict... Abnormal emotional fluctuations detected in the host...]

The core algorithm has been attacked by unknown logic...

The ball of light flickered wildly, and finally a wisp of black smoke emerged.

Lin Mo was taken aback.

???

So... he's cursing the computer for crashing?

This system has such poor mental resilience!

[System restarting...]

The compensation process has been initiated.

The mechanical voice sounded again, but this time it seemed to carry a hint of guilt.

[The time and space coordinates are fixed, and the store location cannot be changed. However, this system can provide compensation by giving the host one opportunity to contact any person at any time.]

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow.

Contact person?

What kind of compensation is this?

"Could we open the store at a different time?"

Obviously not.

"You're kidding me. What do you mean by that? Are you planning to make me give my last words before I die?"

Lin Mo complained irritably.

"Call home? What should I say? Dad, Mom, I'm doing fine in the apocalypse, but I'm about to be wiped out. You two should hurry up and have another one."

Lin Mo gave a mocking laugh: "What's the point?"

"Unless you can get me to bring back helpers from the past, this is impossible. You might as well just kill me."

He gave up.

He shrugged and said, "Whatever."

The system's light sphere spun twice.

The request cannot be fulfilled; this does not comply with system specifications.

Lin Mo rolled his eyes.

"I knew you were a piece of trash."

He casually picked up a piece of gravel from the ground and tossed it around in his hand.

Sudden.

His movements stopped.

My gaze fell on a line of small print in the corner of the panel.

Shop Level: Lv1.

[Maximum number of employees: 10.]

Current staff: 0/10.

A crazy idea flashed through my mind.

Since you're opening a shop, isn't it natural to hire employees?

Since the system allows him to contact people from the past, does that mean...?

Lin Mo suddenly stood up and pointed at the line of rules.

"Doesn't your rule state that a level 1 general store can hire 10 employees?"

The system instantly understood Lin Mo's meaning: [This doesn't conform to...]

"What do you mean I don't fit your criteria?!"

Lin Mo became enraged again, pointing at the ball of light and cursing.

"You set the rules, it's written in black and white that you can have 10 employees! I need to hire employees now! Unless you can conjure up ten people for me!"

"Otherwise, you'll be breaking the rules!"

The system's light sphere trembled violently once again.

Clearly, its simple core logic cannot handle this kind of "unreasonable yet seemingly justified" rogue logic.

Moreover, that burst of output just now did indeed cause the system to crash somewhat.

Notice!

Even a leader has his pride!

There was a long silence.

The system seems to have compromised.

【Well... okay.】

[Given the current special circumstances, the system has granted special permission for the host to conduct remote recruitment through this call.]

This is a one-time opportunity only.

Have you decided who to contact? You can only contact one person: your father or your mother?

Lin Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

It became.

But this is only the first step.

Who should I contact?

This is also a problem.

Contact your parents?

They were his closest people. Perhaps the idea of ​​being reborn was absurd, but Lin Mo was confident he could make them believe it.

but!

In this situation, contacting them would be of some use.