The survivors hit the door like a wave breaking against rocks.
"OPEN UP!" The woman in business attire hammered on the glass with both fists. Behind her, the dog-spider thing was gaining ground, its eight legs skittering across broken asphalt with horrible speed. "PLEASE! WE'LL DIE OUT HERE!"
Chen Yifeng's hand hesitated on the lock. The system interface helpfully provided information he didn't ask for:
[POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS DETECTED: 4]
[ESTIMATED DESPERATION LEVEL: CRITICAL]
[RECOMMENDATION: HIGH PRICES, LOW SYMPATHY]
[DESPERATE PEOPLE PAY PREMIUM RATES]
He unlocked the door.
They tumbled inside like drowning people breaking the surface, gasping, wild-eyed, smelling of sweat and blood and fear. Chen Yifeng slammed the door shut behind them just as the dog-spider crashed into the invisible barrier surrounding his shop. There was a flash of golden light, and the creature recoiled, shrieking.
[TERRITORY DEFENSE ACTIVATED]
[NIGHTMARE ENTITIES CANNOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION]
The four survivors collapsed against the shelves, heaving for breath. Chen Yifeng took inventory:
The woman who'd been pounding on the door was maybe thirty, her expensive blouse shredded and one heel missing from her designer shoes. Corporate type. Her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't hold her phone steady.
Next to her, a university student, early twenties, wearing a hoodie with anime characters on it, glasses cracked and askew. He was bleeding from a gash on his forehead but seemed unaware of it.
The third was a delivery driver still wearing his uniform, though the company logo was obscured by dried blood that probably wasn't his. He was the oldest, maybe forty-five, and the only one who didn't look like he was having a complete breakdown. Military bearing, Chen Yifeng noted. Ex-soldier, probably.
The fourth was a teenage girl, sixteen at most, school uniform torn, one arm cradled against her chest at an unnatural angle. Broken. She was crying silently, tears cutting clean tracks through the dirt on her face.
[FEAR DETECTED (MULTIPLE SOURCES): +200 DC]
[RELIEF DETECTED: +50 DC]
[PAIN DETECTED: +30 DC]
[CURRENT BALANCE: 807 DC]
"Thank god," the businesswoman gasped. "Thank god, we're safe, we're—" She looked around at the convenience store's intact shelves, the working lights, Chen Yifeng standing calmly behind the counter. "How is this place still standing? Everything out there is..."
"Magic," Chen Yifeng said flatly. "The answer to every impossible question tonight is magic. Now, are you customers or are you just loitering?"
Four pairs of eyes stared at him in disbelief.
"What?" the student said.
"Customers or loiterers," Chen Yifeng repeated. "If you're customers, welcome to Midnight Convenience. If you're just hiding, I'm going to have to charge you a shelter fee."
"Are you fucking serious?" The businesswoman's voice climbed an octave. "The world is ENDING and you're talking about MONEY?"
Chen Yifeng gestured at the windows, where the dog-spider was still prowling outside, occasionally testing the barrier with one leg before getting zapped. "Out there, the world is ending. In here, capitalism persists. Speaking of which—"
He pulled up his shop interface and realized he had a problem. The system had unlocked selling features, but he didn't actually have anything supernatural to sell yet. Just regular convenience store inventory: instant noodles, bottled water, cigarettes, chips, the usual.
Except...
[TIP: MUNDANE ITEMS GAIN VALUE IN APOCALYPSE SCENARIOS]
[RECOMMEND: DYNAMIC PRICING BASED ON DEMAND]
[CURRENT EXTERNAL CONDITIONS: CATASTROPHIC]
[SUGGESTED MARKUP: 500%]
Five hundred percent. Chen Yifeng almost laughed. Then he looked at the four survivors, desperate, traumatized, with nowhere else to go, and felt that cold weight in his stomach again.
The delivery driver spoke up. His voice was steady, controlled. Definitely ex-military. "You have supplies. We need supplies. What's your price?"
"Depends what you need," Chen Yifeng said.
"Water," the teenage girl whispered. "Please. My arm... it hurts so much..."
The student was staring at the shelves of instant noodles like they were the last meal on earth. Probably hadn't eaten since before this started. The businesswoman had her phone out, trying to call someone, husband, probably, based on how frantically she was hitting redial.
"No signal," Chen Yifeng told her. "Cell towers are down. Or corrupted or being used as nest material by things with too many teeth."
She lowered the phone, and something broke behind her eyes. "My son. He's at my mother's house in Haidian. I need to get to him. I need—" Her voice cracked. "I need to know if he's alive."
[DESPAIR DETECTED: +100 DC]
[MATERNAL FEAR DETECTED: +150 DC]
[CURRENT BALANCE: 1,057 DC]
Chen Yifeng was making money from her breakdown. The system was literally paying him for her suffering.
He should feel worse about that than he did.
"Look," he said, keeping his voice level. "I have supplies. I have a safe location. I can probably even help you get to Haidian eventually. But nothing in this new world is free. So here's how this works—"
"We don't have money," the student interrupted. "My wallet is... I dropped it when the street started eating people. I don't have anything."
"Money's worthless anyway," the delivery driver added. "Who's going to honor payment when reality is collapsing?"
Chen Yifeng smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "I'm not asking for money."
He pulled up a new interface option that had appeared:
---
[CONTRACT GENERATION]
- CREATE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT
- CREATE SERVICE CONTRACT
-CREATE DEBT CONTRACT
---
"I'm asking for a contract," he said.
The delivery driver's eyes narrowed. "What kind of contract?"
"The binding kind. You want water?" He looked at the teenage girl. "You sign a contract promising to work for me for one week once your arm is healed. You want food?" He nodded at the student. "Two days of labor. You want me to help you reach Haidian?" He met the businesswoman's desperate gaze. "That's a longer conversation about what you're willing to trade."
"That's insane," the businesswoman said. "You can't just, people don't work that way anymore! There are no labor laws in the apocalypse!"
"Exactly," Chen Yifeng said. "There are no laws at all. Which means the only thing binding any agreement is..." He tapped his temple. "...whatever power enforces it. And I have that power."
To demonstrate, he pulled up one of the contracts he'd seen in the shop interface and modified it:
---
[SERVICE CONTRACT]
- PROVIDER: Chen Yifeng, Merchant of Midnight Convenience
- CLIENT: [NAME]
- TERMS: Provider will supply one (1) bottle of water and basic first aid. Client will provide three (3) days of labor performing tasks as assigned by Provider, beginning when physically able.
- BINDING: This contract is enforced by the Calamity Merchant System. Violation will result in [REDACTED].
- DURATION: Three days from start of labor, or until Provider releases Client from obligation.
---
The contract materialized as physical paper in Chen Yifeng's hand, glowing faintly with that same golden light that protected his shop.
The teenage girl was staring at it, her face pale. "What happens if we violate it? What does 'redacted' mean?"
"I don't actually know," Chen Yifeng admitted. "This is my first day with cosmic horror powers. But given what I've seen so far, I'm guessing it's not a stern warning and a fine."
"This is extortion," the businesswoman said, but her voice had lost its conviction. She was looking at the bottled water on the shelves with the expression of someone dying of thirst.
"This is reality," the delivery driver said quietly. He stepped forward. "I'll take that contract. For myself and the girl. She's not old enough to make binding agreements."
"Uncle Zhang, no—" the girl started.
"Six days total," Zhang continued, ignoring her. "Three for me, three for her. You give us water, food, and you set her arm properly. We work for you when this is over, if there is an 'over.' Deal?"
Chen Yifeng studied the man. Zhang had positioned himself slightly in front of the girl despite his own injuries. Protective. Principled. Exactly the kind of person who'd try to defend a random teenager in the apocalypse.
"Deal," Chen Yifeng said. "But I'm adding a clause: you don't deliberately sabotage my business during your service period."
"Obviously."
The contract updated automatically, splitting into two copies. Zhang signed both without hesitation, then helped the girl sign with her good hand. The moment their names appeared on the paper, the contracts flashed golden and vanished.
[CONTRACTS ESTABLISHED: 2]
[LABOR ASSETS ACQUIRED: 2]
[PAYABLE: 6 DAYS TOTAL]
[+200 DC SIGNING BONUS]
[CURRENT BALANCE: 1,257 DC]
Chen Yifeng grabbed a bottle of water and a first aid kit from behind the counter. "Set her arm first. Do you know how?"
"Field medic, Afghanistan, 2012," Zhang said, taking the supplies. "I can manage."
While Zhang worked on the girl's arm, she bit down on a folded magazine to keep from screaming, the student cleared his throat nervously.
"I... I'll sign too. For food. And maybe..." He glanced at the windows, where more nightmare creatures had gathered, drawn by the golden light like moths to flame. "...for protection? Can you do that? Keep those things away?"
"As long as you're in my shop, yes," Chen Yifeng said. "Outside, you're on your own unless I send an employee with you."
"You have employees? In this?"
"One. She's a ghost. Currently on a delivery run."
The student laughed, a touch hysterically. "Of course. Why not. Everything's insane anyway." He signed the contract, three days labor for a meal and 24 hours of shelter.
[CONTRACT ESTABLISHED: 1]
[LABOR ASSETS ACQUIRED: 1]
[PAYABLE: 3 DAYS]
[+100 DC SIGNING BONUS]
That left the businesswoman. She was still staring at her phone, hitting redial compulsively even though she knew it wouldn't work.
"My son is eight years old," she said quietly. "His name is Xinyi. He likes robots and hates vegetables and he's terrified of thunderstorms. There's a storm happening right now except the thunder is made of screaming and the lightning is purple and wrong, and he's alone with his grandmother who can barely walk." She looked up at Chen Yifeng. "What do I have to trade to get to him?"
Chen Yifeng considered. Haidian was fifteen kilometers away. In normal times, a thirty-minute drive. In the current situation, it might as well be on another planet. The streets would be crawling with nightmare entities. Buildings collapsing. Reality itself breaking down in patches.
"I can't get you there tonight," he said. "But when my employee returns, I can send her with you. She's fast and strong enough to fight through most threats."
"What's the price?"
"One month of service. After you confirm your son is safe, you work for me for thirty days."
"And if he's not safe? If he's already..." She couldn't finish the sentence.
"Then the contract is void," Chen Yifeng said. "I'm not going to bind a grieving mother to servitude. I'm mercenary, not a monster."
The distinction felt thinner every minute.
The businesswoman, her name was Liu Mei, Chen Yifeng learned when she signed collapsed into one of the plastic chairs near the magazine rack. Zhang had finished setting the girl's arm and was fashioning a sling from his uniform jacket. The student was devouring instant noodles he hadn't even bothered to cook, just crunching them dry while tears ran down his face.
Chen Yifeng's first customers.
His first contracts.
His first steps into becoming something other than a convenience store worker waiting to die.
The dog-spider outside had given up and wandered off to find easier prey. But other things were gathering. Drawn by the light, by the scent of living humans, by whatever instinct nightmare creatures possessed.
[WARNING: ENTITY CONCENTRATION INCREASING]
[CURRENT COUNT: 23 ENTITIES WITHIN 100M RADIUS]
[BARRIER HOLDING: 89%]
[RECOMMEND: ACQUIRE DEFENSIVE ASSETS]
"Hey," Zhang said, finishing with the girl's sling. "You said you have an employee who's a ghost?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Because there's something trying to come through your ceiling."
Chen Yifeng looked up.
The ceiling tiles were bulging downward, distorting like something was pressing against them from above. Something large. The fluorescent lights flickered. A foul smell, rotting meat and industrial chemicals, began to seep into the store.
[WARNING: C-RANK ENTITY ATTEMPTING ENTRY]
[CEILING ROT SPAWN - THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME]
[BARRIER EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST PHASE-SHIFTING ENTITIES: 34%]
[IT'S COMING THROUGH]
"Fuck," Chen Yifeng said with feeling.
The ceiling tiles exploded inward, and something that looked like a tumor given consciousness and malice dropped into his shop, trailing pustules of corruption.
His customers screamed.
His barrier flickered.
And Chen Yifeng realized that owning territory meant more than just collecting rent.
It meant defending it.
With his own two hands if necessary.
---
[CURRENT STATUS]
- Dread Coins: 1,257
- Rank: Street Vendor
- Employees: 1 (Bai Ling - Returning in 7 minutes)
- Contracts: 4 Active
- Territory: Midnight Convenience (Barrier: 89% → 34%)
- Customers: 4 (Terrified)
- Immediate Threat: CEILING ROT SPAWN (C-RANK)