Chapter 076 A Wonderful Second Voice in the Hidden Corner and Desperate Dawn

The strange sound quickly dissipated, and everything returned to silence.

Li Cheng颐 frowned, looked at the counter, and quickly found a standing sign.

The sign was palm-sized, blue overall, with a black and white QR code printed in the center, obviously for convenient payment.

"I've scanned the code to pay," Li Cheng颐 said loudly.

Immediately, he took out his phone and scanned the QR code.

*Di.*

The phone made a crisp sound, but then froze, failing to jump to the UnionPay online payment program.

'No internet?' Li Cheng颐 narrowed his eyes, beginning to sense something was wrong.

He picked up his phone, pressed a few buttons, and scanned the code again.

Another *di* sound.

The screen remained stuck on the scanning interface, a green line constantly scanning from top to bottom, but not jumping to the payment interface.

He thought for a moment, quickly exited the scanning, and opened the browser.

*Shua*, the browser opened, showing a blank page with a little yellow dog wagging its tail and sitting on the ground in the middle.

Below was a line of text: Sorry, your network signal is weak, please check and try again.

Li Cheng颐 tried several times, attempting other apps, but there was no network.

He pressed the AR glasses again, but there was no signal either.

*Hu.*

He exhaled, feeling uneasy. He quickly turned around, ignoring the drink, and headed straight for the exit of the small supermarket.

*Bang.*

The glass door was pushed, making a crashing sound.

It wouldn't open.

'Locked?' Li Cheng颐's heart sank. He pushed hard several more times, but the door only made crashing sounds, showing no sign of opening.

Only then did he realize that the street outside the small supermarket had turned pitch black at some point.

There were no streetlights, no visible streets, and no other stores could be seen outside.

Only darkness.

No… he could still see a little.

Li Cheng颐 lowered his gaze and saw the cement floor at the entrance of the small supermarket reflecting a pale light.

The light was being projected from inside the supermarket.

The cement slab extended a little over a meter outward, with three small steps.

Below the steps was a small open space three meters long and two meters wide.

On either side of the open space was a rectangular green belt.

Beyond that, it was an extension into the invisible depths of darkness.

The green belts on both sides were the same, with the outer perimeter all pitch black.

The entire small supermarket was like a lonely light source in a silent darkness, or an isolated island floating in a dark ocean.

Li Cheng颐 looked towards the depths of darkness, the AR glasses silently entering engineering mode and activating the zoom function.

*嘶.*

With a soft sound, his vision had been magnified 100 times.

But the vision was still all darkness, and nothing could be seen.

'Activate night vision function,' he whispered.

The AR glasses clicked a few times, and then, with a *shua*, the entire vision turned gray.

It didn't work.

The depths of darkness were still dim, and nothing could be seen.

Seeing this, Li Cheng颐 understood that he had entered a dead corner again.

And this dead corner seemed even more subtle than the previous premonitions, so much so that he hadn't noticed when he entered.

Standing at the door, he thought for a moment, then suddenly raised his hand, a small golden sword silently appearing in his hand.

Holding the golden sword, he stabbed it fiercely at the glass door.

*Dang.*

The ever-victorious Jian Lan sword blade failed here.

'As expected… this is a dead corner.' Li Cheng颐 finally confirmed.

He put away the golden sword and stopped trying to get out of the small supermarket. Instead, he turned around and looked inside the supermarket.

'No wonder, when I was choosing what to drink earlier, all I saw were brands I'd never seen before.'

He remained calm. As a veteran who had entered dead corners many times, he knew that the most important thing inside a dead corner was not to rush around blindly, but to gather clues and information.

This way, after getting out, he could find the real-world prototype as quickly as possible and figure out how to escape.

Standing at the door, he looked towards the cash register again.

Behind the cash register, between two small shelves, a small piece of white wall was exposed.

There was a small, light green door.

The small door was rectangular, ajar, and unlocked.

From Li Cheng颐's perspective, he could see that it was dark inside, with no lights on.

'According to the general layout, the door should lead to a storage room or break room for the owner and employees.'

Li Cheng颐 stared at the small door.

'So… should I go in and take a look?'

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

'First, gather detailed information about this place. If there really are no other breakthroughs, then I'll come to the door.'

After deciding, he shifted his gaze and looked inside the supermarket.

In the bright white light, a total of five shelves stood still in place, unmoving.

On both sides of the shelves, against the walls, were several freezers and refrigerated drink machines, filled with various packaged drinks.

In the corner, more than a dozen boxes of pure water with red and blue caps were piled up messily, all brands he had never seen before.

Li Cheng颐 picked up the juice he had chosen earlier and looked at the packaging again.

This time, he looked very carefully.

After confirming that this was a dead corner, he tried to get more information from the packaging.

The juice bottle was cylindrical, sealed with a green plastic cap on top.

A circle of green plastic paper was wrapped around the waist, with some anthropomorphic strawberries huddled together on the grass, besides the logo.

Red strawberries surrounded by a circle of small apples.

Above these patterns, several lines of letters were printed in black ink, but the strange thing was that these letters were all unfamiliar to Li Cheng颐.

He adjusted his AR glasses, trying to parse them, but the glasses didn't respond at all. Clearly, after entering the dead corner, he couldn't access the database.

Li Cheng颐's heart stirred slightly. He quickly walked to the beverage area, put the drink back in the place where he had taken it, and then scanned the entire shelf with his eyes.

What made his heart tighten was that all the drinks on the shelf, up and down five rows, each row had packaging he had never seen before, text he had never seen before, and logos he had never seen before.

Li Cheng颐 stretched out his hand and took out bottles of drinks one row at a time.

Although he couldn't understand the text on the bottles, each row of the shelf had labels indicating the product name, price, and production date.

Li Cheng颐 scanned them one by one.

'Mixed vegetable and fruit juice, * yuan per bottle, production date: * year * month * day.'

Couldn't see clearly?

Li Cheng颐 initially thought he was seeing things, so he moved closer to look.

But even when his face was almost touching the label, the writing was still blurry, as if a layer of frosted glass had been smeared on it.

Apart from the name, nothing else could be seen clearly.

Frowning, he scanned all the surrounding drinks and found that all the labels were the same.

Only the name, all other information was blurred.

It was the kind of blur that made you feel like you could see clearly if you just got closer, but in reality, no matter how close you got, you couldn't see the writing on it.

Leaving the beverage area, he went to the freezer section and the daily necessities section, and found that they were all the same.

All labels were completely consistent.

*Pa ta.*

Suddenly, he seemed to step on something under his feet.

Li Cheng颐 lowered his head, bent down, and picked it up.

It was a piece of white paper that seemed to have been torn from a notebook. There were also words written on the paper, in a scrawled handwriting.

Fortunately, the words on the paper were familiar to him.

'I don't know if I'm lucky or unlucky. This dead corner is a type I've rarely seen before. A strange small supermarket, or rather, a convenience store.'

Li Cheng颐's spirit was lifted. This was obviously information left by someone who had been in the dead corner before, and he would definitely be able to get more information from it.

He continued reading.

'I call this place the Silent Shop.'

'If you see this piece of paper, it means that everything here hasn't been restocked and organized. Looks like you're in luck.'

'Remember, the goods on the shelves may bring you great benefits, but they may also bring you trouble and danger. I once guessed that they came from other different worlds. Of course, they may also be produced by demons, devils, angels, maybe aliens, some special monster, who knows?

In short, they have many magical effects and uses. If you're lucky, you might get a good item.

If you want to buy and take them away, you can pick up what you want.

Remember, you can only choose one item at a time, place it on the cash register, and then close your eyes and wait for one minute.

After one minute, the item will automatically be labeled as pending payment.

Then you need to...'

The writing at the end suddenly broke off, with only small red bloodstains scattered on the white paper, clearly visible.

The key information was suddenly gone.

Li Cheng颐's interest had already been piqued by the contents of the paper.

A dead corner small supermarket with various strange goods??

So, what are the effects of the so-called strange goods?

He reread the contents of the paper, making sure that nothing was missed, before withdrawing his gaze and looking at the shelf in front of him.

'What is used as payment for the goods here?'

This was the key to everything.

'In the Mist Street dead corner, the slot machine requires a part of yourself as the price for each spin. If it's the same here, then I might have to pay a great risk, and it's not worth rashly buying goods.'

'But if other prices are used as currency…'

Li Cheng颐 hesitated.

He thought for a while and began to wander around inside the small supermarket, looking for clues from one shelf to another.

He hoped to find a second note with hints.

But unfortunately, after searching for at least ten minutes, he hadn't found any new clues.

Taking back the mixed strawberry apple juice he had taken out earlier, he stood in front of the cash register again.

He gently placed the drink forward in the empty space on the glass counter of the cash register.

'Then, is it to close my eyes and wait?'

He squinted and stared behind the cash register, not closing his eyes, but trying to find other clues to determine what the cash register mode was here.

Time passed by.

*Pa ta.*

Suddenly, a subtle sound came from inside the small supermarket.

It seemed like someone ran past from the other side of the shelf.

Li Cheng颐's heart sank, and he turned his head to look to the left.

But his vision was blocked by shelves, and he couldn't see anyone at all.

*Bang!!*

Suddenly, a loud noise.

The loud noise came from the door on the right.

Li Cheng颐 turned his head again to look at the glass door, but there was nothing there.

Nothing could be seen outside the door.

*Da da da da.*

Rapid footsteps also came from behind him, as if someone was approaching quickly.

Li Cheng颐 felt his hair stand on end, instinctively sensing a strong danger. He turned around abruptly.

The same thing, nothing behind him.

*嘶拉*, a soft sound.

Just then, the cash register also made a sound, as if someone was quickly processing his bill.

Li Cheng颐 did not hesitate. A burst of golden light flashed on his body, and he put on the Jian Lan flower scale armor.

When he looked back.

On the counter, his bottle of drink had a white label attached to its surface.

The label clearly read: Pending payment, ten minutes.

'Ten minutes? What does that mean!?'