The First Store System

Chapter 767: Assistant Selection(4)

Evelyn, like other participants, appeared in a store in a dying area filled with tragedy and impoverished people.

The power level of the world for every participant was the same. It was up to participants to live for five hundred years since the lifespan for the majority in the world was set at a hundred years old. At the same time, the participant started at the age of seventeen years old, so they only had eighty-three years to live if they failed to buy a life-extending medicine for them.

Evelyn’s store sold medicines, and the area she was in was close to a dirty location, creating a conducive environment for diseases to thrive.

The number of people with the disease was higher than the number of coins the people in the area could put out, so Evelyn was aware of her circumstances.

“Look, a new medicine store.”

Evelyn was thinking of ways to solve her difficult situation when she heard a weak voice approaching her store.

Evelyn peeked outside from the counter, only to see a group of children walking toward her. They were even struggling to walk.

Evelyn wondered how the children suddenly appeared here when they were so weak, but she couldn’t think about it as one of the children crashed outside her shop.

The other children in the group began to make a fuss seeing one of them falling to the ground, but as if an infectious disease had attacked them, in only a few seconds, all the children were crashed onto the dirty street.

Evelyn had seen many scenes several folds crueler than these children crashing to the ground from diseases, so she maintained her calm. She didn’t step out of her shop since she didn’t know what disease had attacked the children. If she somehow got infected, then she would fail the contest and wouldn’t even know what to feel.

“S…s…save m…me!”

Evelyn was going to wait when suddenly she felt her heart skip a beat as a weak childlike voice rang into her ears.

She turned in the direction of the voice, only to see a child who looked to be around seven or eight years old, struggling to stand up and asking for help.

The real Evelyn wouldn’t have cared about the plea since the scene looked to be a setup for the start of a terrible situation, but here the world was different. The contest wasn’t just going to move the way the participants wanted.

It was going to be as arduous as possible for them to become an assistant to the store.

Evelyn felt a pang in her heart as the child looked at her. She subconsciously stood up from her chair. At the last moment, she controlled herself and only left the store after wearing gloves.

Evelyn wanted to stay in the store and wait for the situation to reveal itself, but the more she waited, the uncomfortable the feeling became in her heart.

Evelyn then rushed toward the child and grabbed him. Since Evelyn had appeared here, she had gotten basic knowledge of the world around her. It included disease as well.

The disease attacking children was prevalent here, so in no time, she judged the source behind the children crashing to the ground with weakness.

Only one child in the group was ill from a different disease, and it was the child that had asked Evelyn for help.

Evelyn’s store had the medicine to help the children. But for some reason, she only had seven vials for Ghaorat, and one tablet for Rutarat, the exact number of children on the ground corresponding to their disease.

(A/N: Random words to make diseases.)

If Evelyn gave the vials to the children, her store would be left with nothing to sell. At the same time, she would also get no money from this group of children.

Evelyn fell into a dilemma of what to do. The more she thought, the more uncomfortable her heart felt. In the end, Evelyn hardened her heart and gave the vial of Rutarat to the conscious child, pleading for help.

As for the other seven children, Evelyn hardened her heart and ignored them.

The vial of Rutarat cost ten times the cost of a single vial of Ghaorat, so Evelyn consoled her heart by thinking that she was donating the most expensive medicine.

As Evelyn’s actions predicted, the seven children died due to not being able to get the medicine on time, while the eight children fell asleep due to the heavy sedating effect of the vial.

Evelyn also found out how those children had appeared out of nowhere near her store. There was a large hole that was infested with garbage.

Evelyn didn’t find the hole while sitting inside the store since the entire area was filled with a rotten smell.

Evelyn then closed the hole since she didn’t want to find herself in the same dilemma again. It was crucial for her quest that the vial was not given to those seven children, but her heart wouldn’t let her feel comfortable.

Evelyn then returned to the store with the surviving child. As for the seven dead children, she used them as the cover for the hole.

When Evelyn returned to the store, the first thing she did was vomit and wash her face as the faces of those dead children began to haunt her.

‘What a shitty start!’ Evelyn helplessly thought in her heart as she returned to her chair.

Evelyn’s medicine store couldn’t even be considered a decent store since it was only fifty square feet. With only the presence of Evelyn and the child, the store became overcrowded.

Evelyn then took a book from the single counter that covered half the store. It was a book related to medicine. It would help Evelyn to grow in the medical field, so she began to study it.

***

It had been twenty years since the contest began in the blink of an eye. Every participant was facing a different situation. Some were having good luck and seeing growth, while some were still there where they were at the start, and there were some who had seen negative growth in these years.

“Are you sure this is the store?” The law enforcement officer asked the complainant.