The First Store System

Chapter 1458: A New Day in the Store(1)

Unaware of the skeleton's reaction, Aakesh returned to the store. The meditation mat and the pouch were already on the ground, waiting for him.

Since Aakesh exited Panagea, he stopped worrying about what was going on there and sat down in a meditative posture. He then pulled out a purer, ordinary Sacred stone and began his meditation.

Time flew by, and six hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Boom!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A sudden, small explosion rang in the store as the Sacred stone exploded after losing all its energy, and immediately after that, a cracking sound began to emerge from Aakesh's body.

At that moment, Aakesh was having a breakthrough, and after a few minutes, the process finally ended, and he stepped into the peak Divine Lord level.

Aakesh nodded in appreciation, looking at his increased strength. He then pulled out a new, purer stone and returned to meditation.

***

[Host, the sun is about to rise on Thorr City!]

The system's emotionless, mechanical alert woke Aakesh up from his meditation. He looked to his left and found the blue screen waiting there for him.

It had been several decades since Aakesh had stepped into the Sacred Dimension, and his growth during those years had also been rapid, looking at the difference between the absorption rates of the two phases.

Aakesh then waved his hands, and the blue screen disappeared. He stood up, and immediately after, the pouch and meditation mat disappeared, and the two returned to the system space.

Time flew by, and some time later, Aakesh climbed down the stairs from his room. The stairs and the door disappeared after he landed on the floor. Since a few minutes were still left before sunrise, Aakesh went to his chair and waited for the sun to rise.

The remaining few minutes passed by in a flash, and the sun rose on Thorr and its nearby cities.

As the first ray of sunlight pierced through the cover of darkness surrounding Seventeenth Street and touched the ground, Aakesh opened the store's door and was greeted with the sight of an overcrowded street filled with enthusiastic customers.

Aakesh didn't let the customers wait any longer and returned to his chair. Following his movement, the crowd entered the store like a raging tide.

In no time, the overcrowded street turned empty, devoid of any life, and packed inside the store. After walking inside, they noticed two new devices next to Aakesh's chair since any new thing in the store deeply impacted the lives of the store customers.

Aakesh also didn't immediately sit down on his chair but turned around and looked at the customers.

The customers in response had bated breaths since whenever the store owner acted like that, there were some impactful changes in the store.

"I have an announcement to make. From today on, Panagea and the Beast Summoner Device will have new applications.

Adventurers can now enter Panagea outside the store as well…"

Beast users can now upgrade their cards and have battle partners for them to improve their fighting skills…"

Aakesh announced the two updates to the crowd. When the crowd heard the first part of the Panagea update, their eyes widened in astonishment, but they soon calmed down upon listening to the additional details and limits.

The crowd then immediately looked around and found that there were more than 200,000 people inside the store already, and there were only 100,000 spots for Panagea recharge cards.

One customer took the lead, and in no time, a queue had formed in front of Aakesh, trying to get the Panagea recharge card before others. It was like an infection that immediately spread, but after a while, it slowed down.

The Panagea recharge card wasn't free, but it cost 1000 higher Sacred stones, which was several times more than the entire wealth of many customers inside the store.

In fact, many in the crowd who had hurriedly joined couldn't afford the recharge card at all.

If Aakesh were to sell recharge cards, it would take some time and it would affect the groupings of Panagea. Aakesh didn't sit down and announced, "The customers who want to purchase Panagea recharge cards form a line on the left. You will not enter Panagea but join the waiting list."

Immediately upon hearing that, many frowned since they wanted to enter Panagea and also purchase the card. But since they could do nothing to influence the store owner, they needed to make decisions.

100,000 Panagea recharge cards weren't a small number, but it wasn't that big for the adventurers to enter Panagea without worrying about it going out of stock.

Considering that factor, many formed the line, and it involved customers shrouded in golden lights. As soon as those customers joined the queue, the golden cover around them dissipated and enveloped the customers who had set foot after them but got luckier.

Following that, the customers who owned any of the three cards and couldn't afford the Panagea recharge card disappointedly walked toward the portal room. The customer, who neither owned any of the store cards nor was it possible for them to afford the additional boost, formed a queue in front of the store owner.

Those who couldn't get into the group and also couldn't afford the Panagea recharge card joined the waiting corner or went to other rooms to check out other products.

Once all the customers in the first group without store cards joined the line, Aakesh pointed at the group for the Panagea recharge card to join it.

Maria also wanted to buy the Panagea recharge card, so her streak of being the first person to greet the store owner broke that day.

Time flew by, and all the virtual portals in the portal room were filled to the brim. It was finally time for the customers to purchase their respective Panagea recharge cards.

Aakesh had already explained the pricing of the function, so the customers in line already had an idea of what they were going to spend.

"Store owner, I want the Panagea recharge card," Merlock requested Aakesh.

Merlock was one of the regulars of the store for the past several years and had the cultivation level of an early Sacred Emperor.

"Put your hand on top of the device and feed it a bit of your energy," Aakesh expressionlessly informed Merlock, pointing at the spherical device.

Merlock nodded and then walked to the device. He followed Aakesh's instructions. Immediately after, the blue edges around the device began glowing, and like a starry pattern, energy started flowing toward the card hole. It all happened immensely fast, so Merlock was unable to see it clearly. He wasn't much surprised since he had long given up on hopes of understanding things related to the store.

The next moment, a spherical card entirely dark in color flew out of the hole, and Merlock caught it.

He didn't try to study the card but only focused on the two screens. The first screen had '0' while the second screen detailed his status screen.

Merlock would daily check his personal status screen before exiting Panagea, so the numbers on the screen matched what he had last seen.

"You need to pay one thousand higher Sacred stones," Aakesh expressionlessly informed Merlock since the payment needed to be completed to activate the recharge card before recharging hours.

Merlock nodded and immediately after, the required amouny got deducted from his store card.

"Your Panagea recharge card has become active. How many Panagea hours do you want to recharge on the card?" Aakesh indifferently asked.

Merlock didn't need to think since he already had the answer. He replied, "Store owner, please recharge for the entire 1000 Sacred hours."

Aakesh nodded, and the next moment, the numbers on the first screen on the card changed and turned to 3000 since the card contained Panagea hours.

"You need to pay one million five hundred fifty-three thousand and seven hundred fifty lesser Sacred stones," Aakesh expressionlessly informed Merlock.

Immediately after Aakesh's words, an autonomous alert rang inside Merlock's head, requesting the payment.

Merlock accepted the request, and soon after that, the required amount of lesser stones was deducted from a higher denomination of currency since Merlock didn't have that many lesser stones stored.

"You can now enter Panagea from any place and anytime you want," Aakesh stated, and as if agreeing to Aakesh, the portal pattern on the card blinked.

"Thank you, store owner!" Merlock thanked the store owner and stored the Panagea recharge card inside his Ultimate Store Card since it stored any card available in the store.

He didn't immediately leave the line since he wanted to update his beast card as well. He then pulled out two beast cards from the Ultimate Store Card.

"Store owner, I want to upgrade both the beast cards," Merlock requested, passing the two beast cards to Aakesh.

Aakesh took the card and glanced at it. One card contained the details of a True God level beast, while the other was a peak Supreme God beast.

The Divine Lord beast summoned by Merlock was of ultimate quality, so after a few years, it achieved a successful breakthrough and stepped into the True God level.