Guide to Running a Shop in Another World II

My new novel, "Daily Life Running a Strange Tales Shopping Street", is now available. Please add it to your collection!

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Lu Yao binds herself to an Otherworldly Shopkeeping Wish-Fulfillment System. By opening stores in other worlds, she can eventually make one wish come true.

Before long, an abandoned shopping street in the city quietly gets a makeover.

The shops belong to the present world, but they connect to parallel worlds.

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A snack shop, a nail salon, a blind-box store, a fluffy-pet shop, a super-temporal movie theater, a childhood tutoring center... Lu Yao's shopping street is lined with stores, and her shopkeeping journey is far from over.

In a primeval world,

a hot spring inn suddenly appears at the edge of the world, becoming a paradise for the Thumbelina Folk.

In a crevice on a cultivation continent, a strange store called “Super-Temporal Internet Cafe” quietly appears, drawing in creatures from all six realms.

Later, even the most renowned Immortal-Demon Tournament in the six realms is moved to this little shop.

Zombie worlds, interstellar worlds, virtual worlds, worlds of gods and demons...

Every shop Lu Yao opens in another world receives rave reviews and does brisk business.

But her warehouse is piled high with unlimited time she can't turn into cash, spatial rings, magical gemstones, natural weight-loss herbs, phones that can smell things... and not a penny to her name.

Lu Yao sighs. “I'm almost out of money to restock...”

[Ding-dong! The shopkeeper has completed an S-rank mission and unlocked this world's pocket dimension. Would you like to open a new store?]

Lu Yao: This world, the one I live in?

System: Correct.

Lu Yao: Can I sell that junk in my warehouse?

System: Only if there's a customer willing to buy it.

Before long, Lu Yao's new store, the Otherworld General Store, opens.

It's an online shop.

A chuuni teen happens across a store selling spatial rings online. Curious, he buys one, and his friends laugh at him for getting scammed.

A few days later, the chuuni teen receives his package. He follows the instructions, and a one-cubic-meter pocket dimension appears before him.

Lu Yao's Otherworld General Store becomes a hit!

And there's more waiting at the end of the journey...

Reader's guide:

1. The second book in "Guide to Running an Otherworldly Shopping Street". It still features the infinite-store format. The story takes place in a fictional world with countless original details. Please don't relate it to real-life situations.

2. A slow-burn, day-to-day shopkeeping story, not a female-power wish-fulfillment fantasy.

3. This story has a couple: BG, one-on-one romance, with more romance than the previous book. Readers who prefer no couples, beware.

4. Anti-piracy measures are in place, though they don't cover everything. Read or don't as you please; no need to tell me if you drop the book.

5. Please don't send writing advice or compare rankings.

Advance preview for "Daily Life Running a Strange Tales Shopping Street":

On her thirtieth birthday, You Xing does two things: quits her job at a C-rank Strange Tales Investigation Institute in the central city of the Second Star District, and breaks up with her boyfriend of three years.

Not long after, You Xing finds an easy new job: managing an apartment building in the Thirteenth Star District.

You Xing: “The pay is about the same as my last job. I just skipped thirty years of detours.”

After starting work, You Xing discovers that the apartment's residents are a little... unusual.

Resident 103 is always looking for their head while holding it in their arms. Every time Resident 250 has a breakup, they hide under You Xing's dorm bed to make little curse dolls. Resident 444 is haunted by regrets from their life and keeps stuffing dissertation defenses under You Xing's pillow...

With eight years of being an office drone behind her, steady emotions, and a firm resolve to lie flat, You Xing says, “Oh, so this is a haunted apartment building.”

The strange-tale residents can go berserk at any time. For the sake of a peaceful second half of her life, You Xing starts thinking of things to keep them busy.

You Xing, looking world-weary: “It's good to stay busy!”

A week later, You Xing submits a guide to building and running a strange-tale shopping street to her boss, the apartment building's manager.

The manager accepts with delight.

You Xing, wearing a sly smile: “Strange tales invading the real world? No, dear residents, remember what it was like to be ruled by reality. Just kidding.”

Opening a strange-tale shop requires two things: first, win over the target strange tale and obtain a permit to open a store; second, choose a business that suits the strange tale's nature and set appropriate operating rules.

You Xing starts winning over the strange tales possessed by the apartment's residents, steadily moving the strange-tale shopping street project forward.

One strange-tale shop after another opens. On a forum for people who investigate strange tales in the human world, eyewitness accounts begin appearing:

[A yoga studio opened in Building 38. A monster chased me until I ran inside in a panic. It was pretty lively in there, with more than twenty monsters following the instructor's yoga routine. I gritted my teeth and copied the poses. When I got out, my friends and family all said I'd lost weight. I got on the scale, and I'd lost a full twelve jin!!!]

[A bakery opened in the horror art gallery. I got curious and went in to buy a few things. Later, a ghost in a painting chased me. Feeding it bread slowed it down, and I even had a chance of getting a clue to escape. How does that work?]

[You can actually go into the shops in strange tales? Last time I ran into a small oden stall in a blood-red maze. It looked pretty legit, and some monster went over to steal a bite. I think it ran into some kind of manager and got beaten into a pile of meat paste. Scared the hell out of me!]

[Strange tales have managers?]

You Xing counts her two salaries, deposited right on schedule, and lies back in peace. “No one's going to ruin my quiet retirement!”

Theme: We can pursue freedom and romance anytime, anywhere.