Dragon Country, Yangcheng City, Old Town District.
The faded sign for "Old Lu Hardware Store" made one think it was an old store.
Lu You, male, twenty-three years old.
Just graduated from a mediocre university.
After three months of sending out resumes that were "read but not replied to," he honorably joined the ranks of the "lying flat" generation.
Returned to his hometown to inherit this Hardware Store left by his grandfather.
At this moment, he was slumped in an old rattan chair behind the counter.
"Sigh..."
A long sigh, filled with all the confusion a contemporary young person felt about the future.
It had been a month since he took over the store, and business was so dismal.
How bad was it?
Last week's total revenue wasn't even enough for him to eat a decent hotpot meal by himself.
"How am I supposed to live like this?" Lu You grabbed his phone and skillfully opened a Short Video App.
His account was called "Boss Lu of the Hardware Store," with a follower count—231, all of them zombie followers.
The video content was even more lackluster.
The latest video was one he had posted just fifteen minutes ago.
The content was him, looking utterly lifeless into the camera, giving his own store a shoutout:
"Don't miss out if you're passing by! Old Lu Hardware Store, your neighborhood hardware expert. The store might be shabby, but the boss is handsome... If you need screws, nails, or faucets, come to me and I'll give you a big discount."
The likes and comments section was as deserted as ever.
Lu You glanced at the backend data, curled his lip, and idly fiddled with the screwdriver in his hand.
But then, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Ding! Detecting the Host's strong desire to operate a business, the [Everything You Need] system is officially activated."
"Host bound: Lu You"
"Store bound: Old Lu Hardware Store"
"Initial level: Lv1 (Dilapidated Hardware Store)"
"System mission: Transform 'Old Lu Hardware Store' into the ultimate number one store in the entire universe! Young man, I see you have extraordinary potential, a one-in-a-million sales prodigy. The task of maintaining universal peace... no, becoming the god of commerce across all realms is now entrusted to you!"
Lu You jolted, almost leaping out of the rattan chair.
He frantically looked around the store; besides himself, not even a fly was in sight.
"Hallucination? Have I been eating too much cheap takeout and started hearing things?" He slapped his face hard.
"Host, there is no need to panic. This system exists within your consciousness."
The voice sounded again.
Lu You: "..."
He was utterly dumbfounded.
Having lived for over twenty years, he had read plenty of novels.
But when something like this actually happened to him, his first reaction wasn't excitement—it was bewilderment.
"Everything You Need... system?" Lu You tentatively asked in his mind.
"The core function of this system is 'everything is available.' No matter what product a customer needs, as long as your store level is sufficient, this system can materialize it for you from the Dimensional Warehouse."
"Level-up mechanism: Earn 'business points' through sales. The rarer the product, the higher its value, and the more important it is to the customer, the more business points you gain."
"Example: Selling one ordinary M4 screw earns 1 Business Point."
"After the store level increases, you can unlock catalogs for higher-value products that surpass real-world limitations."
"Lv1 store sales range: All industrial and civilian products that have truly existed on Blue Star, with a single unit value not exceeding 1000 yuan in Dragon country currency."
Lu You listened in stunned silence, digesting it for a long while before finally squeezing out a sarcastic remark:
"Everything Available? Really that amazing? Then if I want a girlfriend, can you conjure one up for me?"
"..."
"..."
Lu You rolled his eyes. Even though it still felt absurd, he couldn't help but believe about seventy to eighty percent of it.
Adopting a "since it's already here" slacker mentality, he decided to play along with this system that had appeared out of nowhere.
After all... how much worse could business possibly get?
Just then, with a creak,
the glass door of the Hardware Store was pushed open.
An auntie walked in, carrying a cloth bag. Panting, she approached the counter.
Lu You hurriedly sat up straight.
"Auntie, what do you need? Faucet valve cores or drain pipes?"
"Neither." The auntie sighed.
Then, from her cloth bag, she carefully took out a small part wrapped in a handkerchief and laid it on her palm.
"Boss, take a look at this. Do you have this kind of screw here?"
Lu You leaned in for a closer look. It was a screw with a somewhat peculiar shape.
The head had a special groove, and the threads were finer and denser than usual ones.
It looked quite old.
"This is..."
"It's from my old sewing machine!" Her tone was full of anxiety.
"It was part of my dowry when I got married, given to me by my mom. It's a 'Flying Man' brand, and I've been using it for almost forty years!"
"Recently, it stopped moving when I pressed the pedal. I took it apart and found this little thing broken."
"I took it to every hardware market in the city, even went to the biggest market in the west of the city. They all said this thing has been discontinued for ages and is impossible to find."
"So, passing by your store, I thought I'd ask again... Sigh, I guess you don't have it either."
Holding onto her last shred of hope, she looked up at Lu You.
At that very moment, the system's voice sounded again in Lu You's mind.
"Customer demand detected: 'Flying Man' brand old sewing machine pedal connecting rod fixing screw."
"Rarity: High."
"Value: Extremely high (to the customer)."
"Store level (Lv1) permissions: Sufficient."
"Product has been generated on the back warehouse shelf. Please retrieve it, Host."
Lu You's heart gave a thump.
Looking at the auntie's eyes, filled with hope yet afraid to expect too much,
almost as if possessed, a single word slipped out of his mouth:
"Yes!"
His voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear.
The auntie abruptly looked up, her eyes instantly sparkling with disbelief. "You really have it?!"
"Mm-hmm, I do." Lu You nodded, feigning calmness.
Putting on an expression that said "this is just routine," he stated, "Please wait a moment. I need to look for it in the back warehouse. We don't have many of these in stock; they're buried at the bottom."
With that, he turned and walked into the back room cluttered with miscellaneous items.
The back room was still the same back room—dim, messy, with dust floating in the air.
But what was different was that on an empty wooden shelf right opposite the door, a brand-new small cardboard box lay quietly.
With trembling hands, Lu You opened the box. Inside lay a screw.
Exactly identical to the broken one he had seen in her hand earlier.
He took a deep breath and walked out with the screw.
When she saw the intact screw, she was so moved her eyes turned red.
"Oh my! It's exactly the same! You really are... truly, thank you so much! Auntie doesn't even know how to thank you enough!"
"System pricing: 20 yuan Dragon country currency."
"Auntie, you see, this thing really is hard to find nowadays. I'll just charge you twenty yuan, cost price," Lu You said.
"Twenty? That's too little! I spent the whole day running around; the gas money alone was more than twenty!"
Without another word, she directly scanned and transferred fifty yuan.
"Consider the extra money as Auntie buying you a soda! Thank you, boss!"
Holding the brand-new screw, the auntie left, expressing endless gratitude.
"Ding! First high-value transaction completed!"
"business points earned: 1000 points."
"Current business points: 1000/100000."
"Congratulations, Host. You have taken the first step toward becoming the god of commerce across all realms!"
Lu You looked at the extra fifty yuan on his phone, then at the clear system prompt in his mind.
Finally, his heart settled back into place.
He slumped back into the rattan chair, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably turning upward.
"Everything You Need... really does have everything!"
Later, when neighbors came to buy sockets, light bulbs, or pipe fittings, he now confidently responded with a single "Yes!"
These ordinary products only brought him a few measly business points each.
But little by little adds up, and he became more and more familiar with how the system operated.
However, problems soon followed.
A hundred thousand points were needed to level up to Lv2.
Relying on selling these common goods, how many years would that take?
To earn high business points, he needed to sell rare items.
To sell rare items, he needed customers who required rare items to come!
His gaze once again fell on the short video account on his phone screen, where the follower count was still stuck in the low two hundreds.
"Looks like... I need to figure out a way to get more customers to come knocking."