Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Opening an Online Store

"White! White!" Melody Summers called out. "I think I found a way to make money! We can sell so many things from The Arcadian Space. Let’s see if we can get on this platform!"

"But how do we register as a vendor?" Melody Summers fretted.

Albus glanced at the screen, then confidently tapped its paws.

Leave a simple process like this to me.

Shortly after Albus finished, Melody Summers saw her phone switch to a back-end management interface. On this page, she could directly list products for sale. She also received a notification: "Welcome to the platform."

Melody Summers swiped her finger across the screen, browsing the back-end page. "I never would have guessed, White," she said in amazement. "You have this skill too?" ’I thought The Arcadian Space was just a simple farming system. I had no idea it could handle programming.’ 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

It’s one of the Space’s abilities. It’s like transplanting our shop into their server space, Albus replied.

For security, I created a virtual collection account. Your account will receive the money, but they’ll only be able to trace it back to a dead-end number.

Melody Summers was dumbfounded. She felt like she had really underestimated this little white cat.

Melody Summers familiarized herself with the back-end controls, but when she got to the delivery address section, she became troubled again. "If someone places an order, how are we supposed to deliver it?"

Other brands and businesses had their own delivery teams and security personnel, but Melody Summers was all by herself. Was she supposed to drive and make the deliveries herself?

With the world in such chaos, Melody Summers doubted the few stun guns she’d bought would be of any use.

Leave it to me. As long as we have an address, I can use the Space’s power to teleport the items over, Albus said confidently.

With my current energy levels, I can deliver any agricultural or pastoral products from the Space to pretty much anywhere within Anworth.

Melody Summers scooped up Albus and gave him a couple of rough pets. This cat was just too incredible. But then another problem occurred to her. "We can’t just have things appearing out of thin air. It’ll be investigated as a paranormal event. If they discover anything, we’ll be captured and dissected for research."

The two of them thought for a long time. Finally, they decided to suspend a drone above the package. Albus would teleport the goods to the airspace near the delivery address, making it look like a drone delivery.

If someone still noticed something was off, there was nothing they could do. Fortune favors the bold. To complete the one-hundred-million-dollar unlock mission, they just had to take the risk!

With the plan in place, Melody Summers began listing the Space’s crops on the store’s back end.

First were the fruit trees from The Arcadian Woods. The apricots, plums, and peaches that had ripened earlier were still in the Space’s warehouse. Melody Summers listed a small box of apricots for 4,000, a small box of plums for 4,000, and a small box of peaches for 4,000.

The workshop could use wood to make cardboard boxes. Melody Summers used to think this feature was useless, but now it was coming in handy.

Then came the crops from The Arcadian Fields. Melody Summers listed cherry tomatoes and strawberries, both priced at 5,000 for a small box. As for the previously harvested vegetables—cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, spinach, cucumbers, loofahs, lettuce...—she priced them all at 3,000 per box.

The rabbits in the breeding pasture had already produced several litters, and the chickens and ducks had multiplied as well. Melody Summers listed whole dressed rabbits, chickens, and ducks, pricing them all at 5,000 each.

Finally, after some thought, Melody Summers also listed the honey from The Arcadian Woods. It was a product of the Space, after all. She had found several more large hives. The bees were very diligent, and since she only ever harvested a portion of the honeycomb, she could keep harvesting indefinitely. She set the price for honey at 9,000 a jar.

After listing all the products, Melody Summers felt a surge of motivation. She tilled a large new patch of the vegetable garden and planted stem lettuce, kale, melons, snow peas, and water spinach...

She kept busy until evening. When she finally checked her phone, she was surprised to see two orders had come in.

"Order One: One box of apricots, one box of plums, one duck, two rabbits..."

"Order Two: One box of peaches, three rabbits, two boxes of cucumbers, one jar of honey..."

Melody Summers had thought the honey was priced so high that no one would buy it. She never expected to get a customer as soon as it was listed. It seemed that even in these disastrous times, the rich weren’t short on cash.

She packed the goods, attached the drone on top—it couldn’t actually carry the weight and was just for show—and Albus used the Space to send the items to their destinations. Melody Summers stared nervously at the drone feed on her phone, watching as the packages were teleported directly to the vicinity of the delivery addresses.

Both addresses were for villas. Albus maneuvered the drones with the packages into the yards and set them down. Melody Summers watched with apprehension, only breathing a sigh of relief when she saw a housekeeper come out to accept the delivery.

A short while later, the money from both orders arrived in her account. Watching her balance increase, Melody Summers hugged Albus, and they celebrated together. With this method, one hundred million was within reach!

*

"Joanne, where have you been these past few days!?"

"Joanne, you’re pregnant with our child! Don’t scare me like this!"

"Joanne, hurry up and message me back!"

"Joanne, what happened? No matter what, just reply and tell me!"

"Joanne, if I can’t reach you, I’m calling the police!"

"..."

Austin Hale had been messaging Joanne White nonstop, but every message was met with complete silence. No replies at all.

Sometime after Joanne White had moved back to the school dorms, she sent him a message saying she wanted to break up. He was shocked and couldn’t believe it. He immediately tried calling her, but he could no longer get through.

It wasn’t just Joanne; her parents weren’t answering his calls either.

He went to her school, only to be told that Joanne had already collected her diploma and moved out of the dorm. All her things were gone.

Austin Hale was frantic. He went directly to her parents’ house, but to his dismay, they wouldn’t even open the door for him.

Austin Hale waited outside their house for half the day until he collapsed from heatstroke. A neighbor found him and took him to the hospital, but the White Family never showed up.

When Mrs. Hale heard the news, she rushed to the hospital and took the now-conscious Austin Hale back home.

Seeing her son so listless, Mrs. Hale cried sorrowfully. "That woman just ran off! You have to stop looking for her! Look at the state you’ve worked yourself into these past few days!"

"No!" Austin Hale denied anxiously. "Joanne would never abandon me! She’s pregnant with my child!"

Austin Hale saw that it was getting late and the temperature outside was much lower than at noon. He decided to go to Joanne’s parents’ house one more time. He had to wait until she came out.

Mrs. Hale tried to stop him, but he forcefully pushed her away.

Austin Hale sped on his bike all the way to Mr. and Mrs. White’s house, ran up the stairs, and started pounding on the door, shouting:

"Joanne! Joanne, come out! I have to see you today!"

"Joanne! Joanne, open the door!"

Inside, Mr. and Mrs. White were frowning as they discussed what to do.

Austin Hale’s continued ruckus outside was giving them a headache.

Mr. and Mrs. White had been living very well lately. Zane Simmons was generous, and Joanne White sent them a sum of money every month. Now, they could run the air conditioning every day and even buy exorbitantly priced fruits and vegetables from online shopping platforms.

Although they didn’t want their daughter to be a rich man’s mistress, people naturally act in their own self-interest. Compared to dying of heat or starvation, they had ultimately yielded to this new, comfortable life.

"We should call Joanne. Him making a scene outside like this isn’t a solution," Mr. White said with a frown.

Mrs. White sighed and retreated to the bedroom to call Joanne White.

Joanne White was soaking in the bathtub. Zane Simmons had gone out, and with her belly growing bigger, it was inconvenient for her to tag along, so she had no choice but to stay home.

"Mom, what’s wrong?" Joanne White asked as she answered the phone.

"My dear, that Hale boy is here again, pounding on the door. What should we do?" Mrs. White whispered from the other end of the line.

Joanne White could faintly hear the sound of pounding on the door through the phone. She frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "Mom, Dad, don’t open the door. I’ll call him and try to convince him to leave."

After hanging up, Joanne White sighed. She couldn’t have any connection to Austin Hale now, but his constant pestering was giving her a major headache.