World: Lucky Koi Era Novel.  

The wind howled, and goose-feather-like snowflakes fluttered down relentlessly.  

Su Ling tightened her down jacket and trudged forward with her head down.  

Just an hour ago, she learned that the place she had lived in for over twenty years was actually a fictional world.

And she was just a background NPC.

The protagonist, a fake rich heiress, had used a devastating weapon in her quest to steal a man, directly causing the world’s destruction. Though the main system managed to salvage it at the last moment, the incident indirectly affected other worlds.  

So, when a subsystem branch offered to bind with Su Ling and send her to other worlds to gather energy, she agreed without hesitation.  

Are you kidding me?

Stay away from love-struck idiots, and your life will be stress-free.

Besides, after completing the missions, she could choose any world to retire in as a wealthy woman. Of course, she’d say yes immediately.  

……  

Following the system’s directions, Su Ling found an abandoned hunter’s cabin ahead and pushed the door open.  

The cabin was drafty from all sides, and the rickety wooden door had several missing planks, allowing snow to blow inside. It wasn’t much better than being outdoors.  

Just as Su Ling exhaled a sigh, a chubby calico cat poked its head out from her chest.  

“Awoo.”  

Su Ling: “…Real cats don’t make that sound.”  

The calico cat leaped out, but the moment its paws touched the icy ground, it let out another awoo and jumped right back onto Su Ling.  

“Host, you have arrived at the designated location. Please draw your starter gift pack.”

Su Ling stared at the spinning wheel in front of her, took a deep breath, rubbed her hands together, and pressed the draw button.  

The wheel spun wildly before gradually slowing down. Eventually, the needle stopped at the Medium Gift Pack.  

As virtual confetti burst in the air, a large gift box materialized.  

Su Ling opened it.  

Rewards:

– A brand-new, draft-free small wooden cabin ×1  

– A store sign ×1  

– A checkout counter ×1  

– A glass display case ×1  

– Fifty bags of premium rice (10 lbs each)  

– Fifty bags of flour (10 lbs each)  

– One hundred pounds of bulk aged rice (normal, edible, odorless)  

– One hundred plastic bags  

After a dazzling light effect, the dilapidated hunter’s cabin transformed into a small grocery store.  

The interior was lit by fluorescent lights, so bright that Su Ling had to blink several times to adjust.  

She turned around and saw that the broken wooden door she had entered through had been completely renovated into a new one, now fitted with glass panes that revealed the heavy snowfall outside.  

Opposite the door was the checkout counter.  

Next to it was a waist-high wooden gate. Su Ling pushed it open and stepped inside.  

The counter had a built-in scale and screen, with a small wooden drawer beneath it containing a key.  

Under the counter was an old-fashioned metal chair upholstered in red cotton fabric.  

Beside the counter stood the glass display case, stocked with rice, flour, and aged rice. Behind it, a wooden frame held a thick stack of red plastic bags—decent quality, by the looks of it.  

“This is the Medium Gift Pack?”

Hua Hua (the calico cat) jumped onto the display case. “Yes. The Low-tier Pack has no food. The Medium Pack includes rice and flour. The High-tier Pack adds frozen vegetables and meat. The Premium Pack has all of the above, plus daily necessities, air conditioning, heating… basically all the things that would make you cry with envy.”

Su Ling: “……”  

“Host, work hard! Once you start making sales, you can buy whatever you want.”

As soon as Hua Hua finished speaking, the system issued new tasks:  

Mission 1: Serve 3 customers and complete transactions (0/3).  

Reward: Five boxes each of three flavors of instant noodles.  

Mission 2: Serve 20 customers and complete transactions (0/20).  

Reward: A frozen meat section, with three types of meat to choose from.  

Mission 3: Serve 100 customers and complete transactions (0/100).  

Reward: A vegetable section, with ten types of vegetables to choose from.  

Su Ling: “I need a hundred customers just to unlock vegetables?!”

“Yes, Host. In this extreme cold, vegetables are especially rare.”  

Su Ling supposed that made sense.  

Hua Hua: “Please name your store.”  

After a moment’s thought, Su Ling said, “Let’s call it… Little Grocery Store.”  

[Store name updated: Tiny Grocery Store.]

Owner: Su Ling  

Employee: Hua Hua (Calico Cat)  

Current Revenue: 0  

Customers Served: 0  

The sky was still dark, but it was already 6 a.m.  

Su Ling pulled out the chair and decided not to rest. Instead, she sat down and waited for customers to arrive.  

……

Old Man Wang wore a sorrowful expression as he stared at the bowl of watery rice soup on the chipped wooden table—barely a few grains of rice floating in it—and let out a deep sigh.  

Liu Juhua nudged him, signaling him not to look so despondent.  

“Old man, take Eldest and Second with you into the mountains today. See if you can find any rat burrows.”  

Eldest’s daughter-in-law had just given birth, but the poor woman was so starved she had no breastmilk. The baby’s cries were as weak as a kitten’s, and it was truly worrying.  

Wang Baoguo, the eldest son, answered obediently, “Ma, we’ll search hard today.”  

His wife had no milk, his newborn son had no food, and his eldest daughter was so weak from hunger she could barely walk.  

Wang Congbing, the second son, who resembled Old Man Wang, also wore a grim expression. “The snow’s too heavy. Every household is short on food. There’ll probably be a lot of people going up the mountain today.”  

Just then, the kitchen door creaked open, and before the cold wind could rush in, Wang Guoqing, the youngest son at fourteen, bundled in his thin coat, hurried inside.  

“Dad, Ma, Eldest Brother, Second Brother—I’m coming too.”  

Wang Baoguo flatly refused. “No. You’re only fourteen. The mountains are dangerous.”  

“If the mountains are dangerous, and Dad and my brothers are all going, how can I just lie around at home?” Wang Guoqing argued.  

Wang Congbing frowned. “What kind of talk is that? If we all go, you have to stay and guard the house. Having no men at home would make everyone panic.”  

Grumbling, Wang Guoqing sat down, and Liu Juhua served him another bowl of rice soup.  

Once the three men finished eating, they gathered at the village entrance.  

A large group trekked up the mountain, their footprints quickly buried under the falling snow.  

By seven in the morning, the women and children were also up.  

The eldest and second sons were both married. The eldest had a daughter and a newborn son, while the second only had a daughter. The third son was still in school.  

Zhao Xing, the eldest son’s wife, had a ten-year-old daughter, Wang Mingzhu, and a newborn son called Dogdan.  

Lin Mei, the second son’s wife, had a five-year-old daughter, Wang Baozhu.  

Liu Juhua carefully portioned out the rice soup.  

Since Zhao Xing was still in her postpartum month, she got a little more rice—though not by much. Lin Mei helped carry the bowl over.  

Zhao Xing took the soup, but before she could drink, tears fell into the bowl.  

Lin Mei comforted her, “You have to eat enough, or what will happen to the child? They’ve all gone up the mountain today—maybe they’ll find something.”  

But even as she said it, she didn’t fully believe it. Times were just too hard.  

The snow was too heavy. They couldn’t even leave the village, let alone reach the town, which was also rumored to be running out of food. How were they supposed to survive?  

Zhao Xing finished the soup and tried to nurse her baby again, but still, nothing came.  

Outside, the wind howled, and even inside the house, there was little warmth. It felt like Heaven itself was against them, leaving no room for resistance.  

In the small kitchen, Wang Baozhu finished her bowl of rice soup, licked her lips, and rubbed her tiny belly.  

Wang Mingzhu watched her little sister worriedly. As the older sister, it was her duty to take care of her.  

“Baozhu, I still have some left. Do you want it?”  

Wang Baozhu immediately shook her head. “No, Jiejie (Older Sister), you drink it.”  

Once Wang Mingzhu finished, the two sisters bundled up in their thin clothes and retreated to their room, curling up on the bed. If they stayed still, they could hold out until evening.  

But suddenly, Wang Baozhu’s eyes snapped open—as if struck by a premonition—and she quietly slipped out to the woodshed.  

There wasn’t much firewood left, but in the corner sat a small bamboo basket and a hoe. Wang Baozhu grabbed them and sneaked out of the house.  

The snow was thick, wet, and biting, flurrying against her face as she trudged forward.  

She struggled through the snow, veering off the path without realizing it, until she no longer knew where she was. Then she picked a spot, brushed away the snow, and started digging desperately, hoping to find something—anything—to eat.  

Just then, inside the Little Grocery Store, Su Ling heard a sudden chime.  

“Ding—”

[The Golden Finger of the Lucky Koi Protagonist has arrived. The world is now fully operational.]