“Want to buy time?” Bai Tang tilted her head behind the counter, carefully looking the Thousand-Handed Demon up and down once more.
After a moment of silence, she said earnestly,
“Sorry, dear customer. I didn’t quite catch your request. Could you explain it in more detail?”
Bai Tang leaned back slightly, gesturing for the Thousand-Handed Demon to look at the fully stocked shelves behind her.
“Or you’re welcome to pick out any other items that catch your eye.”
To get rid of the customer as quickly as possible while upholding the principle that serving the customer means serving God, Bai Tang kept a standard, sweet smile plastered on her face the entire time.
Back on Earth, this attitude would have made her a top sales performer in any mall.
Unfortunately, the tactic clearly did not work on the Thousand-Handed Demon.
“I don’t know what the thing I want to buy is called. I only know I want more time. Can you… heh… help me choose?”
“Visiting a general store in the middle of the night—you can definitely satisfy a customer’s needs, right, miss clerk?”
The Thousand-Handed Demon’s mouth stretched all the way to its ears. Its gaze locked onto the girl’s snow-white jade neck, eyes full of mockery and anticipation at soon tasting fresh human flesh.
As its emotions shifted, strands of black mist kept rising from its body while it greedily licked its cracked lips.
The Thousand-Handed Demon made no effort to hide its malice toward Bai Tang’s human identity.
So it really is deliberately making things difficult?
Bai Tang understood instantly. Her heart tightened, yet her expression remained perfectly calm on the surface.
If she could not produce a suitable item based on the request, she had zero doubt the creature would attack her and try to eat her.
In a situation like this, showing fear or begging for mercy would be even more useless. It would only make the other party drop its wariness toward her faster, undoubtedly speeding up her death!
Seeing the girl behind the counter standing frozen in place as if scared stiff, the Thousand-Handed Demon grinned wider. The thick veins around its eye sockets writhed like earthworms.
It lowered its head until its forehead was almost touching Bai Tang’s face.
“Why have you suddenly gone quiet? Are you afraid of me? Heh… am I really that scary?”
This question absolutely cannot be answered!
Faced with the Thousand-Handed Demon’s excessive pressure, Bai Tang dropped her previous sweet smile and furrowed her brows slightly.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath.
“Haa~~”
She expressed just the right amount of displeasure and helplessness one might feel when dealing with a rude customer.
Opening her eyes again, she stared calmly at the overstepping Thousand-Handed Demon.
For some reason, the Thousand-Handed Demon felt that the girl’s gaze toward it was the same one used to look at an uneducated wild monkey—disgust, impatience, and pity all mixed together.
“Sorry, customer, but nighttime is precious. The general store only serves guests who have genuine needs.”
Bai Tang’s eyes sharpened. Her fingers tapped the counter impatiently, producing thud thud sounds.
“If you’re here to cause trouble, I will throw you out!”
The Thousand-Handed Demon froze for a second. The human girl serving it showed no sign of being intimidated and even looked ready to jump down from the stool to drive it away.
It suddenly felt like a clown jumping around on stage.
Come to think of it, if the human in front of me really were as frail as she appears on the surface, how could she have survived this long and even established herself on Undead Street?
The Thousand-Handed Demon had seen humans before. The truly frail ones did not even need it to scare them—most would faint the moment they saw its face.
The slightly braver ones who did not faint on the spot still could not control their instinctive trembling when faced with something terrifying.
Never before had it encountered a human with this much confidence, one bold enough to confront it!
This forced it to be cautious.
“Wait!”
The Thousand-Handed Demon took half a step back, returning the counter space to Bai Tang. Realizing the girl was not as easy to bully as it had imagined, its voice grew weaker.
“I really came to buy something. I want…”
“I know what you want.”
Just as the Thousand-Handed Demon was about to name the actual item it had come to purchase tonight, Bai Tang raised a hand and cut it off.
The Thousand-Handed Demon blinked in confusion, staring doubtfully at the human girl behind the counter who was a full head shorter than itself.
“I said, I know what you want to buy.”
Thinking it had not understood, Bai Tang repeated herself.
[Your customer “Thousand-Handed Demon” has issued you the quest “Buy Time.”]
[Quest Requirements: Your customer “Thousand-Handed Demon” has recently fallen on hard times and overindulged in mutated water lilies, resulting in “hypersomnia.” Its irregular sleep schedule often prevents it from completing work on time. Please help it recover the time it has lost.]
[Quest Completion Reward: Experience +25, Ghost Coins ×100, Handwritten Positive Review ×1.]
Bai Tang calmly read the quest information that had appeared before her and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
“Those dark circles look pretty heavy. Have you been staying up late a lot lately?”
The Thousand-Handed Demon nodded blankly.
“You’re the first one to notice!”
The Thousand-Handed Demon grew even more certain that the human girl serving it was definitely not as simple as she looked on the surface.
She might even be a demon hunter deliberately playing weak to eat the strong!
Who could tell with a face as black as charcoal like that! Bai Tang complained inwardly. Can’t you just accept the answer without questioning the process?
“Because I’ve been having trouble waking up lately and I’m afraid of delaying things, I haven’t slept in a very long time.”
The Thousand-Handed Demon used its low, hoarse voice to explain its recent situation to Bai Tang.
“Cough, cough. So you need something that can wake you up on time when you’re supposed to wake?”
Though phrased as a question, Bai Tang spoke with absolute certainty.
“Wait a moment.”
Bai Tang jumped down from the stool, turned around, and searched the shelves behind her. Moments later she returned with a dark green glass jar in her hands.
She wiped the dust off the surface with a rag and set it on the counter.
The Thousand-Handed Demon leaned in for a closer look. Inside the glass jar was a pitch-black snake as thick as a chopstick!
“This is…?”
“A curse snake. Its feeding times have already been fixed through scheduled meals. Just keep it under the skin of your wrist. When it’s time to feed, it will wake you up by biting if you’re still asleep.”
“Outside of those times, it’s very well-behaved.”
Noticing the Thousand-Handed Demon’s expression stiffen noticeably, Bai Tang blinked and quickly added,
“Don’t worry, the curse snake’s venom isn’t very strong. It only occasionally causes diarrhea.”
“It has venom?!”
“Otherwise what would it be? But if you’re not satisfied, there are other options.” Bai Tang’s face showed a trace of impatience as she pulled out a shabby pocket watch from under the counter that did not even have a cover.
She placed the two items side by side on the counter.
“This pocket watch has an alarm function, aside from a fifteen-minute margin of error, but it costs 10,000 Ghost Coins. Would you like to buy it?”
“10,000 Ghost Coins?! You’re running a black shop!”
The Thousand-Handed Demon grew furious. Ghostly energy surged wildly around its body, and even the temperature inside the general store dropped several degrees.
In response, Bai Tang rolled her eyes in exasperation.
“So I recommend the first item to you instead.” Bai Tang pointed at the jar containing the curse snake. “Renting it for one month only costs 90 Ghost Coins.”
“Renting?! And you still say this isn’t a black shop!”
Its withered palm slammed heavily onto the counter. The Thousand-Handed Demon gnashed its teeth. If this continued, it was genuinely afraid it would lose control and attack the infuriating human girl in front of it.
Even though her heart was practically leaping into her throat, Bai Tang’s expression remained completely unmoved on the surface. Her tone stayed flat.
“Customer, you are a native of this place. I believe you understand the consequences of mixing up time in this world better than I do.”
“To avoid certain terrifying existences that only move during the long night, a ‘watch’ that lets you accurately tell white day from long night no matter when you wake up—this is its proper value.”
Seeing the Thousand-Handed Demon hesitate, Bai Tang did not wait. She pulled out a small rusty knife without hesitation.
“Action speaks louder than hesitation. Rent the ‘Little Watch’ now and receive free implantation service~”
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