Chapter 27: The Shop Owner Has Blacklisted You
“Creating disturbances and interfering with normal business operations is not permitted in my establishment.”
Faced with the black, gaping muzzle of the firearm, the terrified scavengers heard a calm, steady female voice ring out.
The others heard it too.
“Huh?”
It was as if Rong Na’s crew only just remembered there was an actual “proprietor” standing there. Hearing her words, not only did they keep the gun raised, but they burst into roaring laughter.
“Your establishment? Fine, fine, let’s say it is. Haven’t seen such a naive fool in a good long while,” Pat sneered, swaggering insolently in front of her.
Ling Jing cast a cool glance his way.
She remembered him—he was the shifty fellow who had been snooping around her stall yesterday.
“Watch your mouth with her,” Aulier interjected. Facing Ling Jing directly, he said, “You’re an Awakener with detox abilities, right? What a stroke of luck—we happen to need one. Fall in line and be smart about this; play your cards right, and we might even make you a squad leader.”
Though he spoke of “watching your mouth,” he hadn’t bothered to ask for Ling Jing’s input in the slightest. Every word dripped with presumption—”fall in line,” “follow us.”
Clearly, they considered their plunder an absolute foregone conclusion, viewing the woman before them not as a threat, but as a convenient tool to be claimed.
“This is your final warning: do not interfere with this establishment’s normal business operations.” Ling Jing’s expression remained completely impassive.
Her gaze toward Aulier was cold and utterly detached.
It was no different from looking at an ant crawling across the dirt.
Aulier seemed thoroughly provoked by that look.
Used to trampling all over the toxic strays, they had grown accustomed to running roughshod over everyone, revelling in the terror, helpless agony, and impotent fury of their victims.
Yet upon confronting Ling Jing, not only did she show zero intention of complying, but she actually dared to look at him like that.
“A warning?” Aulier sneered. “What did you say, woman? You think we haven’t seen Awakeners before? You think you’re some priceless treasure? Teach her some respect! Show her how our rules work!”
He lashed out with a vicious kick, sending a sack of toxic sweet potatoes—waiting to be exchanged beside the container—toppling across the dirt.
His lackeys moved at once, fanning out as they advanced menacingly toward Ling Jing.
“To hell with them! There are dozens of us—why should we be terrified of these bastards?!”
“They won’t let the boss sell, and they won’t let us buy! You’re trying to push us into an early grave, aren’t you?!”
“Get away from the boss! Damn it all, we’re barely clinging to life anyway—if we go down, nobody gets out alive!”
Seeing the thugs move on Ling Jing, the scavengers previously frozen by the shotgun snapped out of their stupor. Gritting their teeth, their survival instincts flared into reckless defiance as they surged to their feet.
“What’s going on here?!”
Beyond the perimeter of white light, a fresh wave of scavengers hauling sacks and basins back from the farm stumbled upon the chaotic scene, bewildered.
“Mad Dog? What the hell are they doing here?!”
“Boss! Boss, run! Don’t let them grab you—these bastards are ruthless to the bone!”
“We’ll hold them off! Get out of here, fast!”
Shouts urged Ling Jing to flee.
Meanwhile, a few people standing not far from Ling Jing were simply watching the spectacle with keen interest.
Long Shi covertly took another bite of his potato. “Hey, you think they’re about to get their teeth kicked in?”
“Who?” Long Ya asked.
“Mad Dog’s crew, obviously! Who else?”
“Oh. Then yeah, it’s going to be brutal.” Long Ya watched Rong Na and his men with icy amusement.
They had witnessed firsthand the fate of yesterday’s potato thief, and they had seen the boss effortlessly vaporize a lethal, high-tier mutated bamboo shoot without so much as batting an eye.
Had Rong Na and his thugs lost their damn minds? Coming here to raise hell at Boss Ling’s stall?
If Mad Dog’s gang went up against that mutated bamboo shoot, it was a coin toss whether any of them would make it out alive. They truly had no idea what they were up against.
The siblings wore identical, bizarre smirks dripping with sheer mockery.
“Shut your damn mouths, you worthless toxic trash!”
Seeing the crowd boil over, Rong Na raised the shotgun skyward and pulled the trigger to seize control of the situation.
A display of force to put the fear of death into them.
BANG—!
The gunshot was deafening, the crack ripping painfully through everyone’s eardrums.
The clearing fell instantly dead silent.
Yet what followed defied all comprehension—the discharged lead shot never soared into the heavens.
The moment it struck the canopy of white light overhead, with a faint fsshh—, it simply vanished.
Vanished into absolute nothingness.
A few scavengers rubbed their eyes, wondering if their vision was playing tricks on them.
What happened next, however, left every single jaw hanging wide in sheer disbelief.
—Especially those who hadn’t witnessed the “potato thief” the day before.
Mad Dog Rong Na, along with every single man he had brought with him, was instantaneously displaced from where they stood and deposited outside the white light.
In a fraction of a second.
In the mere span of a blink, the entire crew had been cleanly excised from the Chinese Restaurant’s operational boundaries.
Dead silence fell over the wasteland.
“This…”
Only after several long beats did someone finally find their voice.
Yet after uttering that single syllable, words failed them entirely.
They had never witnessed such a staggering sight in their lives. The shock left them tongue-tied, unable even to formulate a question.
Rong Na and his men were even more dumbfounded.
One second they were lunging forward to grab the woman by the scruff of her neck, and the next… they were standing outside the white light?
What kind of ungodly ability was this?!
Even the shotgun in Rong Na’s hands had disappeared.
Vanished into thin air.
Worse still… when they reached out to touch the white light again or tried to barge back in, the barrier was no longer like harmless air. It was an unyielding, impenetrable wall.
It rebounded them violently backward.
Ramming it with their full weight yielded the exact same result.
“This establishment does not welcome patrons who disrupt normal business operations. All contraband has been confiscated. The Restaurant Rules state very clearly: the restaurant’s interests are sacred and inviolable, and the manager possesses absolute authority over everything within the operational premises. I gave two warnings.” Ling Jing’s voice cut cleanly through the stunned silence.
Her tone remained measured, neither hurried nor strained.
As she spoke, her head remained lowered, her fingers tapping away at her floating interface.
“In my shop, only my rules are the law.”
Finishing her inputs on the panel, Ling Jing lifted her chin, her gaze locking dead onto Aulier and Rong Na just beyond the barrier.
“What?!”
It had been years since Rong Na had suffered such humiliation. Spitting out a venomous curse, he roared, “Get in there and smash her stall to splinters!”
Never had he lost face like this in front of so many people! And he had lost his prized firearm to boot!
In the apocalypse, working firearms were priceless treasures. God only knew the blood and sweat he had shed to secure that shotgun.
It was the very cornerstone that allowed him to command dozens of cutthroats in this territory!
With so many underlings watching, he couldn’t afford to take this lying down!
Bewilderment gave way to blinding fury.
Fear was there too, but the impotent often masked their dread with manic rage.
It was entirely futile.
When they lunged toward the white light again, the barrier bounced them right back onto their heels.
Furthermore, several lines of glowing text materialized directly before each of their eyes:
[The shop owner has placed you on the blacklist. Reason: Obstructing normal restaurant operations. To dine at this establishment in the future, you must pay the full fine. Fine amount: 99,999 City Coins.]
“?”
“???”
“????!”
How much?!
Watching their faces cycle through an exquisite spectrum of colors, Ling Jing felt a touch of regret.
She only regretted that the maximum penalty a [Rudimentary Stall] could levy on a blacklisted customer was capped at a modest 99,999.
