Dimensional Storekeeper

Chapter 182: Tragic Flashback Means Instant Job Offer

Flinter’s eyes nervously slid toward Hao’s just as Yushou Ya’er finished her little story about “escaping death.”

The two locked gazes.

And in that silent moment… Flinter realized.

Oh no.

It was them. They were the big bad guys.

He wanted to scream. Not because of guilt – he had none – but because this girl just casually revealed that they were the villains in someone else’s tragic flashback arc.

If it weren’t for the terrifying cat and this mysterious young man with that unnerving smile, Flinter swore on his last stolen crystal that he’d already lunged at Yushou Ya’er.

But before he could even twitch –

Thunk.

Little Liz stepped forward, placing herself in front of her master.

Her claws lightly clicked against the tile. Her body lowered. Tail rising. Pupils narrowed into vertical slits.

Even Flinter felt it.

That heavy, primal pressure.

She was one glare away from turning into a full-on boss monster and chomping him down.

“Aaah – ” Flinter barely breathed.

But Hao casually raised a hand.

‘It’s fine, Little Liz. This guy’s not gonna do anything under my watch.’

The air eased instantly.

Little Liz blinked once… then obediently pulled back.

Yushou Ya’er gave her pet a pat, then scoffed toward the two.

“Bastards.”

She turned, completely done with the drama, and began making her way toward the shelves to get whatever she came here for today.

The moment passed. The pressure lifted.

And now, it was time to get back to business.

“So.” Hao said, turning back to the squirming duo. “Where were we?”

The interview continued.

For quite a while, actually.

Though, with Flinter answering every question like a student who desperately wanted extra credit and a letter of recommendation, Hao had to pause more than once just to keep a straight face.

What made it even funnier was how he kept confirming each answer with Gou Jin, going back and forth like a fact-checker with a grudge.

And to his surprise, while there were definitely a few half-truths and shady omissions, most of their answers were actually kind of honest.

Suspiciously honest.

Was it the fear?

Probably.

Because every time Kurome so much as shifted her paw or flicked her tail, both of them would freeze up.

Even when she was just scratching her ear on the counter, they reacted as if she was about to vaporize them then and there.

The interroga – interview ended up going pretty smoothly after that.

Hao got a lot more information than he expected.

The two had been chasing the siblings under direct orders from the boss of their gang.

Blistering Teeth wasn’t some weak back-alley gang. It had more than two hundred active members, split across the Molten Ashlands region, each led by different group leaders.

Their main base was hidden near the Hollow Crag Ravine, buried in a twisting cave network filled with traps and warding talismans.

There were a few names Hao made sure to remember.

Hao squeezed every last drop of intel from them, and to be honest, it was more fun than he expected.

It reminded him of playing one of those visual novels where you had to pick the perfect dialogue options just to unlock the secret ending.

The problem was, after getting that ending… now what?

Hao scratched the back of his head as he stared at the two trembling sacks of regret in front of him.

He honestly didn’t know what to do with them.

Let Kurome handle it?

Maybe. That was Xiao Lianfeng’s job before, right? Handling troublemakers while looking cool and righteous.

Could he just toss them into Sovereign City?

Nah. First of all, they weren’t even from there.

Ya’er, then?

He peeked at her.

Nope.

She looked way too done with them. If Hao handed these two over, he was ninety percent sure Little Liz would chew them up like a piece of jerky.

Just as he was still debating, he noticed movement from the corner.

One of the injured siblings was awake.

Zhi, the older brother.

Hao tilted his head slightly and sent a quick mental transmission.

‘What do you think? Wanna handle these two yourself?’

Zhi blinked, then looked toward the captured cultivators. His jaw tightened.

“I…” he began, then paused. His eyes were filled with hatred, but his voice was calm.

“I don’t think I should.”

Surprising answer.

“I want to. I really do. But something about it doesn’t feel right. Not with my sister still recovering.”

“Not with everything that’s happened. Besides… I feel like Brother Hao wants me to say yes anyway.”

Hao coughed lightly. Not denying it.

Zhi exhaled. “Then let me say this: I hope they are eradicated. Not just because of what they did to us.”

“They’ve harmed many others too. And if they’re allowed to crawl back to wherever they came from, they’ll only cause more suffering.”

Reasonable.

Too reasonable.

Hao stared at him for a beat longer, then sighed internally.

If he overthought this any further, he was going to sprout white hairs and start monologuing about justice.

That sounded exhausting.

So he turned his gaze toward Kurome and gave the simplest instruction.

‘Kurome, take care of them.’

Kurome, who had been cleaning her paw in a relaxed manner, stood up with a light yawn.

‘Alright, Master. I’ll resume my guarding shift outside.’

Before either Gou Jin or Flinter could scream, plead, or start yapping again, a pool of darkness spread beneath their feet.

And they were gone. Swallowed by shadows.

Hao stood still for a moment.

He didn’t know exactly what Kurome was going to do to them.

He didn’t want to know.

Hao figured now was as good a time as any to check Yan Zhi’s background

A floating screen shimmered into his view as one of his crystals was automatically spent.

[Yan Zhi – Background]

From the dying settlement of Charfang Ravine, Yan Zhi was orphaned at twelve after a firestorm claimed his ash-weaver parents.

With no talent for qi, he turned to body cultivation. He trained under falling ash, lifting stone until his bones cracked and his hands bled. After ten brutal years, he reached the 1st Stage of the Viscera Refining Realm.

He wasn’t strong. Just enduring.

His only goal: protect his sister, Shu’er.

Then Shu’er stumbled across a Dragonglass Vein Cluster, buried beneath layers of ash near their home. Dragonglass was rare in the Molten Ashlands. It absorbed fire qi and could be refined into weapon cores, armor linings, and talismans.

Word spread quickly.

A scavenger must have seen them near the exposed crystal and whispered it to the wrong ears.

The Blistering Teeth came that night.

Their home was torched. Neighbors died. Shu’er was hit by a fire talisman, gravely wounded.

Yan Zhi fled.

He carried her across the cracked and burning land for three days, never stopping, never sleeping.

On the fourth day, they reached Scorching Soul City. Desperate and hunted.

By sheer chance, they stumbled into the alley where Kurome happened to be on patrol.

She saw them, bloodied and half-conscious. She guided them toward the outhouse door.

And just like that, they entered the Dimensional Convenience Store.

Hao scratched his head, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

‘So it was really about a rare resource.’

He mentally double-checked the interrogation logs from Gou Jin and Flinter. Everything lined up.

He groaned internally.

Why was it always like this?

“The shy younger sister with a tragic past just happens to find a jackpot, and boom – ruthless cultivators appear out of nowhere to snatch it. Classic webnovel bandit starter pack.”

He rubbed his temples.

‘If a fireball hadn’t already ruined their home, the plot would’ve.’

Still, the pieces fit. Shu’er found it. The Blistering Teeth noticed. Probably had some low-level thug spying on the ravine and saw her near the vein. Then, greed did the rest.

Cliché?

Absolutely.

But it didn’t make it any less real for the two siblings who got caught in it.

This Yan Zhi kid… really might be a good fit.

No grand background.

No secret bloodline.

No former sect status or buried god-soul.

Just a tired, stubborn, broken older brother who refused to fall.

And if he said yes, he’d be the first normal employee of the Dimensional Convenience Store.

That alone made Hao pause.

Tian Lu had a past drenched in blood.

Mo Xixi was a tsundere cult heir with enough power to evaporate small cities.

Kurome was… well, Kurome.

Yan Zhi, on the other hand, had low talent, cracked knuckles, and probably zero marketing sense.

But he worked. He endured. He cared.

And honestly, Hao found that kind of guy way more relatable than all the walking nuclear bombs around him.

Might be good for his own sanity, too.

Finally, someone absurd in a human way.

Hao closed the screen. He picked up a chair and carried it over to Yan Zhi.

Zhi tensed the moment Hao sat down across from him.

His gaze dropped. Shoulders tight. Like he was bracing for a blow that hadn’t landed yet.

Maybe this was it. Maybe he’d ask for payment now. Maybe the kindness had run out.

‘Yeah. This kind of guy probably had zero trust left in life.’ Hao thought, observing Zhi.

Hao glanced at him and held back a chuckle.

“You’re not in a cultivation novel where the kind, mysterious, devastatingly handsome man suddenly turns evil and wants to marry your sister.”

He didn’t actually say that, of course.

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