COZMART: Corner Shop of Visiting Gods

Midnight in Shanghai should've been velvet-black, scattered with neon.

Instead, Sector 24F was bathed in a sickly violet glow, like a bruise spreading across the sky.

Wind keened sharply through the abandoned factory rows—chic vintage bars now emptying out, mortals glancing nervously at the strangely vibrating air around them. Compared to the lingering weekend buzz, Eathan's blood felt like it had been dumped into an ice bucket. The ground beneath his boots vibrated slightly. Node stabilizers—hidden under utility hole covers, buried in street lamps—pulsed erratically like weak heartbeats.

[SYSTEM] NOTIFICATION:

[Emergency Side Quest (new!)]

Deflect Anomaly Surge – Sector 24F

▸ Secondary rift detected. Threat Level upgraded. Updated Threat Classification: A Class.

Reward: +350 Karma, +30 Qi Tokens

Eathan's HUD blinked red so hard it almost gave him retinal whiplash. Beside him, Willow spat out a sharp curse in Cantonese, scanning the jagged distortion now splitting the air above the plaza.

"That's impossible." Xenis' mouth tightened into a grim line. "No D-rift can give birth to a Class A."

Willow's fingers flexed, fire seal papers bristling between them. "Visual contamination confirmed."

She pointed sharply at the cracked pavement near the node junction, where a faint oily shimmer distorted the ground.

An embedded cursed artifact.

Something rotted at the core of this breach.

"They slipped sabotage right under our noses," Xenis muttered darkly. "Anchor poisoning—someone rewrote the stabilization fields."

Eathan's heart pounded. That wasn't just bad luck—that was intentional sabotage. And judging by the spiralling feedback crackling through the plaza, whatever was about to crawl through that rift wasn't going to be cute.

The air snapped, and a ripple of bone-deep pressure began to pour outward.

Then, it emerged.

Dragging itself through the violet tear was a monstrous beast—part wolf, part dragon, its form warped and glassy like frozen fractals, every ragged breath exhaling pure terror into the atmosphere.

[CALAMITY RADAR β]

Status: Auto-online.

Warning! Intense hostility detected! Aura Threshold Breached!

"Cryolorn Beast," Willow's voice over comms was tight and fierce. "Priority threat confirmed. Cryolorn class. Spread and suppress!"

Already, the plaza was coming apart. Wristpads clattered mid-selfie, while cyclists froze mid-air, still clutching handlebars; music from hidden speakers hiccupped and glitched into endless loops of shrieking synth.

All the mortals, and there were so many of them, every single one was trapped in their private nightmares, frozen in memories of their worst fears.

Eathan staggered, feeling cold needles crawl up his spine. Although untimely, his mind automatically flashed to something he read in Mister White's "Surviving Realms 101" handbook.

The Cryolorn wasn't just physically dangerous. It fed on fear—amplified it, froze it, solidified it until even reality bent around the terror.

For a second, Eathan could feel his mind slipping—

But something in his [SYSTEM] forcibly kicked in.

[Host Integrity Maintenance: Priority Override Engaged.]

A sudden blast of static cleared his vision, though it wasn't painless.

His [Humanity] stat dipped almost instantly, a flash on the interface he barely registered in the chaos.

[Humanity] has dropped by 3% (88% → 85%)

The moment the notice sounded, a faint shimmer of runic light had crawled under his skin, almost imperceptible. Eathan shivered, feeling that something had cracked deep within him, albeit only for a fraction of a second.

Willow barked orders fast and ruthless. "Xenis—barrier reprogram, now! Squad—Layer anchors, suppress signature spread! Intern—you're on tear management! Capture everything you can!"

"Not built for this, not built for this, not built for—override accepted!" Xenis hissed to himself while punching emergency runes onto his tablet.

Other operatives also spring into action. Wenrui, the jittery technician of the team, scrambled beside him, dragging portable stabilizer coils into a triangle formation. On the other side, Lindon, their field medic, calmly set up triage seals like he was prepping for brunch, while muttering, "Mortal arteries, rift arteries. Same difference."

Tanke—their second rookie—fumbled beside Eathan, holding his scanner upside down.

"You're doing great, champ," Eathan deadpanned, surprised there was someone even more frazzled than he was.

He pivoted and printed mid-air [Binding Receipt], slapping it onto a still-glitching Cloudleaper before it could spiral out of control. His printer hummed nonstop—receipts flying like desperate spells as he patched tear after tear in the wounded air.

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (45 → 44)

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (44 → 43)

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (43 → 42)

Tactical split triggered naturally.

Willow and half the team locked the Cryolorn into a frontal suppression engagement—using explosive seals, blessed chains, and sheer intimidation. Eathan flinched as he heard the woman roar something that sounded suspiciously like a threat against its mother.

On the other end, Xenis and Wenrui's squad was frantically rebuilding stabilization field geometry, so that reality wouldn't crumble entirely.

And Eathan, the self-proclaimed field medic, was for the world itself.

The man ran node patch after node patch, neutralizing corrupted Cloudleapers before they could amplify the instability—all while purple stormlight writhed above their heads like angry deities fighting over a spilled beer.

Eathan gritted his teeth, feeling his Qi meter burn lower and lower.

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (17 → 16)

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (16 → 15)

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (14 → 13)

"Hey!" He screamed over the roaring gust. "You missed one!"

…

1 Qi Token has been subtracted from your [PROFILE]! (15 → 14)

The last Cloudleaper shrieked as Eathan tagged it in mid-air with a desperate shot from his battered [Receipt Printer]. Seals flared bright, and the creature poofed into golden mist. Three unstable fractures stitched themselves together behind him—receipts plastered like messy tape on a cracked window.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The next second, the [SYSTEM] interface exploded across his vision:

[SYSTEM] NOTIFICATION:

You have completed [Side Quest]:

Stabilize Minor Rift T-0047 (Sector 24F)

You have been rewarded: +100 Karma, +40 Qi Tokens, +2 Integrity

[Integrity] has increased by 2% (40% → 42%)

Another window snapped open immediately after:

[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED!]

SKILL: Node Imprint (Lv. 1)

USE: Temporarily overwrites a destabilized node's core matrix to force immediate stabilization, bypassing normal protocols.

COST: 50 Qi Tokens and 1% [Humanity] per active imprint.

DURATION: 5 minutes before degradation.

COOLDOWN: 1 hour.

[Humanity] has dropped by 1%! (85% → 84%)

Eathan blinked, the text burning into his retinas.

Wait, isn't this kind of useful?

He blinked again.

No—this isn't just useful, it's a goddamn cheat code.

Above him, the Cryolorn beast was still thrashing against the stabilization grid, every breath it exhaled turning the plaza colder, heavier, more brittle.

Another shockwave rippled out—this one aimed straight at the mortals frozen mid-dream. The distortion spiked again, and the node's pulse jittered dangerously. One wrong move, and this entire place was going to implode**.**

Eathan inhaled sharply, adrenaline screaming through his veins.

"Hey—team! Give me a window!" he bellowed over comms.

The team heard him.

He barely finished shouting before Willow, halfway through physically body-checking the beast away from the node anchors, slashed a hand sideways. Across her, Xenis twisted two overloaded rune-stabilizers and detonated them in a controlled burst, slamming a shockwave outward that knocked back the Cryolorn for just a heartbeat.

It was messy; it was risky.

But it was enough.

Without missing a beat, Willow's voice cracked through the comms, half-strained, half-laughing, "You heard the intern! Wenrui, Tanke—launch him!"

"What—" Wenrui yelped—but his hands were already moving.

Tanke grabbed Eathan's jacket without waiting for permission, grinning through his exhaustion. They braced on either side of Eathan like a makeshift catapult.

"On three?"

"On three!"

Not practiced, nor rehearsed.

Born in the crucible of panic and trust.

"Hold your breath, Eathan!"

"Wait—WAIT—!"

Too late.

They heaved, and the world blurred.

For a half second, Eathan was airborne, hurtling like a dollar-store superhero toward the rippling crack in the sky. He didn't have time to think, didn't have time to second-guess. All he had was the certainty that behind him, there were people who had covered him without hesitation.

And somehow, that was steadier than fear.

With wind shrieking nonstop in his ears, Eathan stretched his hand out desperately—

—and brushed the rupture.

[Node Imprint (Lv. 1)] has been activated!

The world ripped into colour.

Contact seared up his bones like liquid fire, the sensation somewhere between touching broken glass, liquid nitrogen, and raw voltage. Golden circuitry unfurled across his right arm, fractal runes clawing up from wrist to elbow, ancient and futuristic at once.

Tutorial mode initializing. No Qi Token required for first-time activation…

[Humanity] has decreased by 1% (84% → 83%)

Space around him slowed, and through new sight, Eathan saw everything: the bleeding ley lines, the twisted anchors, the corrupted Qi currents—

The dying structure that needed stitching.

He slammed his burning hand into the heart of the tear.

A ripple blasted outward, gold-threaded seals erupting across the broken space like a supernova blooming in reverse. The rift screeched, folding inward violently.

The Cryolorn sensed it immediately, thrashing in panic, but Willow was already moving, chains of talismans locking it down. Behind her, Xenis deployed a net of compression seals like a tactical cage while Wenrui and Tanke double-layered mortal shielding around the frozen civilians.

Indeed, it was messy—incredibly so—but it worked.

The Cryolorn made one last, broken lunge, and a wall of reinforced glyph-seals slammed shut like jaws snapping closed. With a final, spiralling howl, the beast was swallowed by the dying rift in a shriek of frozen mist.

"…"

Silence collapsed over Sector 24F like an avalanche.

Mortals blinked awake, shuffling in dazed confusion—baristas still pouring coffee in mid-air, kids fumbling with their wristpads, one guy still slurping his bubble tea like nothing happened. Above the plaza, the [SYSTEM] banners flashed in proud, crystalline light:

[SYSTEM] NOTIFICATION:

You have completed [Emergency Side Quest]:

Deflect Anomaly Surge – Sector 24F

You have been rewarded: +500 Karma, +75 Qi Tokens

Host [Level]: Lv. 25 → Lv. 26

Eathan crashed back onto cracked stone, sucking in sharp, frozen air.

After five slow exhales, he pulled himself back onto his feet, watching as the frozen world around them blinked back to life.

Mortals stumbled forward like nothing had happened—wristpads buzzing, bubble tea slurping, motorcycles revving up. A couple of influencers nearby adjusted their ring lights, as if the apocalypse hadn't just glitched reality sideways.

Guess this is what it means to be a nameless hero, he thought, wiping ash-dust from his sleeves.

Save the world quietly. Get no thanks. Rinse. Repeat.

He peered at the spot in the starry sky where the rift had been. A darker thought trailed behind it, sharp as broken glass:

The Cylorn was something that fed on fear.

If fear could empower monsters... then could hope, trust, or ambition empower something else?

The [SYSTEM] thrummed faintly at the back of his mind, as if listening.

Eathan shook himself out of it. This wasn't the time to spiral into existentialism. They still had cleanup protocols to follow. He glanced at his watch—and almost cursed out loud.

It felt like barely twenty minutes had passed since the rift surge.

Reality said otherwise.

Two hours.

Gone.

Eathan squinted up at the node stabilizers, faint dread curling under his ribs. If severe rifts could bend time perception like this... then future battles could be way, way worse.

He wrinkled his nose.

That was a problem for Future Eathan.

Willow smacked him lightly across the back of the head. "Good hustle, intern! Didn't know you had something like that up your sleeves," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching into a grin. "Now get moving before you turn into plaza fertilizer."

Eathan stumbled forward, grumbling with a half-hearted salute.

"Yes, ma'am."

***

By the time they staggered back toward HQ, the skyline was already bleeding faint orange. Faint streaks of light smeared across the Shanghai skyline—the first signs of dawn seeping into the city's arteries.

Eathan barely felt it.

His body was screaming. His legs wobbled every few steps. His [HP] was still at a critical low, despite having used [Minor Reconstruction] the entire way back.

Ever since that damn plane ride, he thought dimly, I've been working like a dog... without pay... without food vouchers...

He trudged behind the squad like a barely functioning NPC. Out of sheer misery, he glanced sideways.

Willow marched ahead, calm and unbothered; Xenis wiped blood off his cheek with the same grace he used filing paperwork.

Wenrui hummed some brain-melting EDM song, while Lindon casually texted someone while still lugging rune-stabilizer gear.

The only soul on the same death frequency as him was Tanke.

The poor rookie stumbled beside him like a dying gazelle, half his stabilization gear dragging in the dust. He looked like he was ready to file for early retirement at the brilliant age of nineteen.

Their exhausted eyes met across the battlefield of shared suffering, and a silent pact was formed instantaneously. Brothers-in-arms. Comrades-in-unionized outrage.

[SYSTEM] NOTIFICATION:

You have completed [Side Quest]:

Bond with Team B!

You have been rewarded: +80 Karma, +25 Qi Tokens, +5% Humanity

[Humanity] has increased by 5% (82% → 87%)

True bonding at its finest, Eathan thought bitterly.

His fingers twitched around the [Receipt Printer] clipped to his belt. His arm still tingled faintly from where he'd triggered [Node Imprint] for the first time.

Despite the undeniable fatigue, however, he had felt it—not just surviving by luck, not just being dragged along.

Actually helping.

Eathan made a mental note to himself—some serious conversation needed to happen with Mister White soon. About, perhaps, politely suggesting that Area 001 adopt basic labour laws. And to implement minimum wage.

Eathan yawned. Maybe after he slept for forty hours straight.

The bulletproof doors of Shanghai HQ loomed ahead, polished glass glittering eerily under the rising sun.

He entered—and the atmosphere punched him awake.

Silence, but not the peaceful kind.

The bad kind.

The kind that smelled like static, blood, and "something evil is about to happen."

The main operations floor was dimly lit, with emergency lighting flickering quietly. Somewhere far off, footsteps echoed, clipped and efficient. Even the security guards weren't joking around anymore.

The whole building was holding its breath.

Eathan's survival instincts screamed mission abort. Even Team B, seasoned and exhausted, straightened subconsciously.

No words were needed. They filed silently into the main elevators, a strange tension wrapping tighter around them with every floor. Eathan watched as the light above the elevator frame flickered one time after the next, more than he had ever been cleared for before.

Ding.

The doors slid open, and waiting at the landing, perfectly casual in her school uniform, oversized leather jacket slung over her shoulders, was Chewie.

The eleven-year-old leaned against the wall, one leg crossed over the other, nibbling on a bright red skewer of tanghulu. The candied hawthorn fruits glinted like blood drops under the corridor lights.

Crunch.

One bead snapped between her teeth.

Eathan blinked, brain lagging two full seconds.

"...Uh," he said intelligently, "Where's Mister White?"

Chewie tilted her head slightly, glossy round eyes blinking once, like a doll booting up. "Interrogating."

Crunch.

Ignoring the look of a thousand question marks on his face, Chewie licked her fingers clean and gestured behind her.

"We caught the mole."

Her voice was casual, like they hadn't just been patching collapsing reality for the last six hours, like interrogation wasn't the final, inevitable step for traitors in a system where survival came before mercy.

Somewhere deep inside, Eathan's exhausted brain let out a tiny, very mortal whimper.