Chapter 170: Paradise Mart Grand Opening Event
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 170: Paradise Mart Grand Opening Event
First, ahead of the large mart's grand opening, I installed additional trams.
I reduced the eight trams that previously circulated around Seongsu-dong to three, added three more, and created a new, large loop route with eight trams. This route ran through Dong Seoul Terminal, passed Junggok Station, and circled back around the right side of the Seongsu-dong Safe Base.
Next, I added eight trams for a northern route that headed straight toward Hanyang University Hospital and looped around Cheonggyecheon.
I also set up eight trams heading west to Yongsan, and another eight-tram route looping through Gangnam.
While I couldn't cover every single area, I made sure that anyone within the Safe Base could at least walk to a tram stop and ride it back.
For now, I only operated trams because clearing the roads for other vehicles was too much of a hassle. However, since I was planning to clear the subway lines and get the trains running in the near future, the trams were best viewed as a temporary measure.
It took four days to open the large mart.
Although the building itself was erected instantly, the interior design, product placement, and various other tasks had to be done. Kim Ji-hee had literally stayed up all night for four days straight just to get it to this point.
She had even put the large warehouse on hold, leaving it as barely a frame, to focus entirely on the mart.
"Wheeew..."
"Are you okay, Ji-hee? You've got massive dark circles under your eyes."
"I'm okayyy... Hehe. It looks so pretty. Paradise Mart."
"It really does. You have great taste. Between this and the cafeteria, you've been a huge help, Ji-hee."
A large mart, a cafeteria, and a hospital.
The mart, housed within a single building, required a membership to enter.
Level 1 was enough for the first floor, but riding the escalator to the second floor required a Level 2 Membership.
While building it, I also threw a bathhouse into an empty space on the second floor.
Even though I had built the cafeteria and hospital on a massive scale, the overall area was so vast that it would take a long time to fill. Even after adding a large bathhouse, the building wasn't even half full.
I decided to charge only 10 Coins for the bathhouse so that as many people as possible could use it.
Honestly, anyone using the water service didn't really need a bathhouse, so I added a healing effect to it.
If they could invest 10 Coins to get a healing effect before going out to hunt, they'd spend more time lingering around Paradise Mart, which meant they'd be more likely to spend more coins on other things.
Having burned all her energy on the mart's grand opening, Kim Ji-hee went off to sleep, saying she would return to organize the warehouse once she woke up.
Right on cue for the opening, customers began arriving on the trams.
The crowd was immense.
Even when the trams only circled Seongsu-dong, a fair number of people had visited. Now that accessibility had been extended to everyone within a 5-kilometer radius beyond Seongsu-dong, the sheer volume of people was bound to skyrocket.
On top of that, quite a few people were arriving on foot, not just by tram.
"Alright, step right up! Paradise Mart Grand Opening Giveaway! Buy plenty and try your luck with a scratch card!"
Despite the massive influx of customers, Paradise Mart easily accommodated every single one of them the moment it opened.
The space was more than enough.
At around 13,800 pyeong, just walking around the entire place would take an immense amount of time.
After all, it was a colossal mart built by tearing down the Acro-whatever apartments next door. The additional construction costs alone had nearly doubled, making the place so vast that shopping might actually be exhausting.
"Wow. There are so many people."
"Whoa, you can buy weapons and armor here too."
"It's the survival gear zone!"
Once inside, the Paradise Map automatically synced to their devices, making it easy to find where everything was located.
There was also a system where they didn't even have to walk over to find an item; they could just order it through the mart system, and it would be brought to them.
Best of all, they could even place orders without coming to the mart in person.
Of course, since feeling and trying on weapons and armor in person was crucial, many still preferred to go and see them for themselves.
Food, meat, snacks, drinks, and more.
The variety of food was even grander than a pre-apocalypse hypermarket. The frozen foods and the "Special Meal" corner—which I had ambitiously prepared for this grand opening—were incredibly popular.
Lee Mi-sook's culinary skills were impressive enough to change the menu daily, but even she couldn't match the sheer variety of the Special Meals.
"Burgers! I can't believe we can eat burgers again!!"
Reviews of the large mart quickly spread across the Paradise Gallery.
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A group chat created on Paradise Talk.
Participants: 49.
It was a chat room where executives from various large and small factions in Seongsu-dong gathered.
It included groups with over 200 members, which were considered small factions, and because they invited people they met while roaming around, the membership of this chat room was growing by the day.
Lately, their main topic of conversation was their dissatisfaction with Paradise's actions following the "Beggar Execution Ceremony" held a few days ago.
The price hike for services was their biggest grievance, and the same went for the prices of food and meals.
While some factions agreed with Paradise and took its side, the ones gathered here were those who did not.
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The people here weren't praying for Paradise to fail.
If they were, they would have protested directly to Paradise or campaigned to stop others from going.
They simply had complaints because they needed to use the services, but the prices had gone up.
The best way was to go and protest in person, but they lacked the courage.
After all, a quick search on the Paradise Gallery would show exactly what happened to those who dared to defy Paradise.
If they paid their hard-earned Coins for a membership and used the services only to get banned, they would be the only ones losing out.
They were simply praying for Paradise to take a hit.
Hoping that a decline in business would force them to fix that obnoxious attitude.
Hoping they would realize Paradise wasn't the one in absolute power, acknowledge their equal relationship with their users, and accept their demands.
They weren't even asking for much.
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In reality, the opening of Paradise Mart and its timing did align strangely well with their delusions.
The drop in customers after the price hike.
The sudden announcement of the mart's construction.
And the four-day closure of the cafeteria and shops was highly reminiscent of the Zombie Rush.
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If they just held out a little longer, cheap food and services would return.
This firm belief shattered completely on the day the mart opened.
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Even the people in the group chat had suddenly become captivated.
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Everyone desperately bashed Paradise Mart to ease their own anxiety.
Yet, even in such a moment, there was always someone completely oblivious.
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Just as the sparks of conflict began to flare up...
...people in the group chat started leaving one by one.
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And just like that, the "Praying for Paradise's Downfall" group chat vanished.