The door of Leo's grocery store slowly opened, and a strange scene caught the eyes of the girl who entered from outside, with long pink hair and wearing a JK uniform.
The atmosphere she expected from a shop was completely absent here. Rather than a store, it felt as if she had stepped into a fortune teller's place.
With the help of the dim lighting, she sat down in the seat reserved for her across the table in the middle of the shop and looked at the curtain in front of her.
The curtain hanging from the ceiling concealed the identity of the person sitting on the other side of the table.
Alice curiously looked at a pair of slender male hands through the gap beneath the curtain.
For a while, no one spoke.
"Looks like you only have 18 minutes left. Why aren't you sitting here quietly?"
Alice was stunned by the calm and soothing voice. With the help of that voice, all the filthy looter thoughts lurking in a corner of her mind were washed away.
Who the person in front of her was remained unknown, but there was clearly not a trace of anxiety or fear in his voice.
Alice guessed that her increased stats would be nothing but a joke in front of this person. Having read plenty of light novels before the migration, she understood very well the rule of not becoming hostile toward NPCs unless absolutely necessary.
"Sir, my name is Alice."
"Hmm, hello Alice. I am a merchant. For now, I only have some basic food and drinks, but if you shop enough, you will gain access to more products."
As he said this, a question crossed Leo's mind. Fortunately, before Alice entered his shop, she had allowed the little dragon access to her thoughts. The moment the question formed in Leo's head, the little dragon sent a system screen in front of him.
[Master, the player in front of you has some ice train coins in her pocket. The value of the ice train coin she possesses is almost equivalent to system points. I recommend using this currency for trading.]
"What exactly can I buy?"
After receiving the answer from the little dragon, Leo had no more doubts. He slid the list he had asked the little dragon to prepare for him under the curtain toward the cute girl sitting across from him.
Preparing the lighting, the one-sided curtain, and the list of products from the system shop had cost 38 system points, but Leo did not care.
He believed that in order to earn much more money in this world, he first had to burn some money upfront.
Alice looked at the list for a while. She did not linger much on anything except the memory-erasing pill.
"Sir, how much is the memory erasing pill?"
"Normally, forty coins, but since you are my first customer, you have a special 75 percent discount on everything. That means only 10 coins."
Alice realized that the Ice Train coin she possessed was not as valuable as she had thought. After all, Leo was the first person she had seen trading with Ice Train currency.
At first, she thought she was rich with 40 Ice Train currency, but reality was not as pleasant as she had imagined.
"By units, you mean Ice Train coins, right?"
"Of course."
"Huh, I see. Then what about the other products?"
"Two ice train coins per item. Of course, once you decide on everything you want to buy, I will apply your discount to the final price."
"What if I only spend 5 coins? Would I pay two plus half an ice train coin? How would that work? Do we split the coin in half? Do you give change?"
Leo said nothing, thinking that the persona he was embodying would remain silent in the face of such a barrage of questions.
"You have 15 minutes left... If I were you, I would leave the station before the time the system gave me runs out."
"Why? Actually, I have been thinking about this for a long time; what happens if I stay at the station after the specified time runs out?"
Leo remained silent for a while and sighed before speaking.
"You should go, cutie girl... This is not a game. This is the apocalypse itself. Rules are the only here to protect you."
"What do you mean, sir? Do the system rules protect us? From what??? Sir."
Alice's voice was filled with great curiosity as she asked question after question. Still, Leo waited a full minute before speaking each time.
The silence felt like a suffocating ghost closing in on the young girl.
"Alice... You look like a cheerful girl. Your eyes are still full of hope. Listen carefully to this advice of mine; no matter what you do, do not fall behind."
"Did I tell you my name? Well, that doesn't matter. Why did you tell me not to fall behind, sir? What happens to those who fall behind?"
In that moment, the girl had even forgotten that she had just introduced herself. The oppressive atmosphere Leo created, and his manner of speaking, filled her mind with questions. She felt as if she could obtain information far more valuable than a few packs of ready-made food from this shop owner.
Leo saw a few pearl-like beads of sweat on the girl's neck behind the curtain.
"Do not ask too many questions. Just keep moving in that direction. Once, a pioneer I met told me this: On ne découvre pas de terre nouvelle sans consentir à perdre de vue, tout à fait et longtemps, le rivage. Meaning; one does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. If I had understood what he meant back then, I might be more than just me now... also, you have 11 minutes left. Getting your railcar out of the station will take you at least 5 minutes."
Under the pressure of time and Leo's words, the girl was on the verge of collapsing. She began firing every thought that came to her mind at Leo all at once. She had even forgotten why she came here in the first place. Now, the only thing she sought was answers.
"Sir. Where are you telling me to go? Where does the system want us to go? Also, what do you mean by the shore? Can there even be a sea in an ice age? No, that is not right. Maybe everywhere we step is the sea. Maybe there is a sea beneath our feet. But what does it mean to move away from the shore? Are you telling me to move away from the rails? But you said I should not break the rules. And I heard that a few people froze to death because they took their railcars off the tracks in the channel."
"That is enough, Alice! Just remember; La Passion."
Alice didn't know what he was talking about, but Leo's voice was slightly angry, so she couldn't ask any more questions.
"La passion?"
"Yes, La passion."
"Uhm... okey... sir."
"Okay, Alice, if you are not going to buy anything, please leave."
"I will buy something immediately, sir."
With her mind completely elsewhere, Alice bought a single sleeping pill.
The moment Alice paid, Leo immediately raised the system's level.
"Alice, new products have been added. If you want, take a look. Is there anything you need?"
Alice was a bit absent-minded due to the invisible weight on her shoulders, but since she still had money, she asked the first thing that came to mind.
"Do you have a steam engine?"
Leo's system shop had risen from level zero to level one. After a brief search in a level one system shop, Leo indeed found an old-style steam engine.
"Yes."
Alice quickly finished her shopping and turned toward the door again, but just before leaving, she stopped, turned back, and asked Leo one last question in a tired voice.
"Sir, I understand that you were probably once a player like us, but please allow me to ask this one question: does this path really have an end?"
"Safe to say..."