A man was walking down the street, barely able to walk straight, holding onto a bottle of beer.
"Ugh... what even is the point of living?" Lucius, the drunk man, muttered, his eyes almost closing on their own.
He had spent most of the night drinking, trying to have some fun... but he didn’t. He was just lost. He had no idea what to do with his life.
He had just turned 21 years old.
The universities he had tried to join had refused him. Everything he had worked for, for his entire life, was now useless.
He was just depressed.
Lucius took a few steps forward and turned into a small dark alley, crumpling and falling asleep.
"Ugh, let me sleep, Mom," Lucius muttered with his eyes closed, waving his arms around as he felt something poking at him repeatedly.
But then it continued again and again.
"Stop..."
Then, Lucius’ eyes opened, and he realized that what had been poking at him wasn’t his mom trying to wake him up, but a random bird.
"Ah... right, I fell asleep while going back home yesterday."
Lucius stretched and stood up after a bit of time, his head hurting like never before.
"Just how much did I drink yesterday?" he muttered, his eyes squinting as he held his head. "Ugh, too much... I drank way too much."
Lucius cleaned his clothes a little, but they were extremely dirty. After all, this dark alley hadn’t been the cleanest. There was a bunch of trash lying around him; he had even been sleeping on some.
Easy to say that right now, Lucius smelled like actual trash.
"Wait, what is that?"
Lucius gave one last look at the alley behind him. However, for the first time, he noticed that at the end of this alley, there was some kind of store.
"Multi... General Store..."
Lucius frowned.
"Who would be stupid enough to open a general store in the middle of nowhere? Has to be brain-dead."
Still, as he uttered those words, Lucius was curious about this shop, and unconsciously, he began walking in its direction.
The closer he got, the more he realized just how run-down this store was.
The wooden door barely had any screws in it. The sign he had been trying to read was on the verge of falling down, and the wooden walls had holes all over them.
"Heh. Makes sense; I thought anyone would have ever owned this store... Hm, it has a weird name though. Multiverse General Store. Yeah, whoever created this was clearly having some issues."
Nevertheless, Lucius walked forward and pushed the wooden door before him. A small bell rang as he did so.
He looked around and saw that most of the shelves were completely empty.
"Hello!? Anyone here?"
Complete silence.
"Heh. I guess it was abandoned..."
Lucius walked around, but everything was in such bad condition. Never in a million years would he ever want to become the owner of that store.
It was a project bound to fail from the looks of it.
[A capable host has been recognized.]
"AH!" Lucius jumped in surprise.
All of a sudden, a robotic voice entered Lucius’ mind.
"Who spoke just now?!"
[You have been chosen as the successor of the Multiverse General Store.]
The robotic voice continued to speak in his mind.
’What’s happening? Am I hallucinating? Is this all a dream?’
Lucius pinched his right arm and felt the pain instantly.
This was definitely real.
[Do you wish to begin the cleaning process?]
As those words entered his mind, two buttons appeared before Lucius.
A yes button and a no button.
"I don’t want to clean anything! I don’t want to be the owner of this store! I don’t want anything to do with it!" Lucius shouted, scared out of his mind. "I never asked for any of this!"
Lucius immediately turned around and began heading for the exit. However, just as he was about to step outside, he collided with an invisible wall.
"Argh! What the hell is this?!"
Lucius stood up and put his hand forward. Instantly, it came into contact with the invisible wall.
[The owner of the Multiverse General Store cannot leave yet.]
[You must fix the store’s problems before doing so.]
The buttons reappeared before him.
[Yes] [No]
"W-Wait... am I stuck here?"
[Yes and no. As soon as you can have the store running without your presence, you will be allowed to leave.]
Lucius felt dread. He froze.
He should have never entered this rundown general store. It had clearly been a trap.
"Do I even have a choice? Can I refuse to be the owner of this place?"
[No.]
Lucius shook his head and sighed, looking at the two buttons before him, and pressed "Yes."
Immediately, the store began cleaning itself up.
The trash on the shelves disappeared. The holes in the walls were fixed. The wooden door on the verge of falling down was repaired. The store’s sign was also fixed.
Within seconds, the entire shop had regained life.
It was no longer rundown. It was brand new.
Lucius honestly couldn’t believe his eyes.
’Is this what magic feels like?’ he thought, his jaw wide open.
[Cleaning Process: 0% -> 45% -> 88% -> 100%]
[The store has now been restored. It is ready to welcome customers.]
[However, before you open the store, you need to craft your first item to sell.]
[Please have a look at the crafts’ catalog and make your first choice.]
Suddenly, a catalog appeared in Lucius’ hands.
[Multiverse General Store’s Crafts.]
Lucius opened it, and more than 95% of the content seemed to be locked, as most of the writings on the pages were marked with a notice above them.
[Will be unlocked once the owner reaches Level 5.]
[Will be unlocked once the owner reaches Level 10.]
...
And it went on and on.
[Current Level: 1]
[Progression to next level: 0%]
At Lucius’ level, there was only one possible recipe for him to make, and it looked like something that came out of some fantasy book.
[Love Potion Recipe]
[Effect: The person who drinks this potion will fall in love with the next person they lay their eyes on.]