Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 45: Rewards and Payback

The three-minute timer on the Feather Potion hadn’t completely worn off yet, leaving Julien firmly to Chris’s broad back like a captive balloon. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

As he carefully navigated the shattered road of District 9, the true horror of the apocalypse settled over the group. The air was thick with the suffocating smell of concrete, ruptured gas lines, and burning rubber.

The tall apartment blocks that used to block out the sun were now reduced to mountains of wasted rubble.

But it was the sounds that truly haunted them.

Beneath the shifting debris, the groans and desperate pleas of the injured echoed through the unnatural silence.

People who hadn’t made it to the subway tunnels or sturdy basements were trapped. Chris paused near a collapsed grocery store, his jaw tight as he looked at a pinned civilian, but the massive slab of concrete burying them was far too heavy for even his enhanced strength to lift without causing a secondary collapse.

Alice floated silently beside them, having successfully channelled her emerald ring to restore her spectral form. She looked down at the devastation, her usually detached demeanour replaced by deep, uncomfortable sorrow.

"We can’t help them all," Julien murmured from Chris’s back, his voice thick with guilt.

He hated how cold the logic felt, but it was the undeniable truth of their reality.

"We don’t have the manpower, and my healing potions are strictly single-target. If we stop to dig one person out, the rest will fight for it."

Chris gave a single nod, forcing himself to keep walking. He knew the merchant was right, but it didn’t make leaving the trapped survivors behind any easier to stomach.

Suddenly, a chime echoed directly inside Julien’s mind, entirely cutting through the grim atmosphere of the ruined street.

A bright, glowing interface abruptly expanded across his vision, completely blocking out the smoke and destruction.

The system text wasn’t the flashing red of an emergency warning but more like a cheering applause.

[SYSTEM ALERT: Exceptional Item Utilisation Detected!]

[You have successfully manipulated Tier 1 Utility items to survive a Class-S Event. Your understanding of market mechanics and inventory application has exceeded basic parameters.]

[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]

Class: Dimensional Merchant

Level: 12

[Tier 2 Item Registry: UNLOCKED]

[You now have access to mid-grade survival gear, advanced alchemical components, enchanted defensive items, and dimensional contracts.]

[Passive Perk Acquired: Wholesale Supplier] A good merchant knows how to stretch a budget. Every time you purchase a low-tier potion from the system, you will automatically receive one free duplicate of the same item.

Julien blinked, reading the glowing text twice to ensure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him in the dust.

A ’Buy One, Get One Free’ perk.

On an Infinite Warehouse.

A sudden, breathless laugh escaped Julien’s lips. It started as a chuckle and quickly escalated into full-blown laughter.

It was entirely inappropriate for the grim setting, but the sheer relief of finally getting a win from a system that had kept him in absolute poverty for months was intoxicating.

"Bro, did the shockwave mess with your brain?" Chris asked, glancing back over his shoulder with deep concern.

"What is so funny?"

"The system, Chris," Julien laughed, his eyes practically gleaming with newfound capitalist ambition.

"It just levelled me up. I have Tier 2 items, and it just cut our potion overhead costs entirely in half. After so long, it finally gave me something incredibly broken!"

Fifty yards away, entirely hidden within the shadows of a collapsed parking garage, a heavily modified armoured van idled silently.

The vehicle had been reinforced with welded steel plates and thick grating over the windows, allowing it to survive the initial kinetic blast with only a few dents.

Inside the dark, cramped cabin, a man known to the local syndicates as Cobra sat in the passenger seat.

He drummed his scarred, heavily tattooed fingers against the dashboard, his cold eyes tracking the giant carrying the laughing merchant.

"Boss," the scrawny scout in the driver’s seat whispered, pointing a dirty finger through the reinforced windshield.

"That’s the guy. The one I told you about from the Apothecary."

Cobra narrowed his eyes, studying the trio.

"Are you sure his products are worth the risk? The shockwave just levelled the entire sector. Won’t his glass potions and gear be completely crushed under all this rubble?"

"No way, boss," Viper replied quickly, shaking his head.

"He’s an Awakened with a class who doesn’t keep his stock in a physical storeroom. And the potions... are they scarily good? Top-tier Association quality, but sold at slum prices. If we bag him, we control the only intact medical supply in District 9."

Cobra’s lips curled into a predatory smile. With the official supply lines cut off, whoever controlled the resources controlled the surviving population.

"Take them," Cobra ordered, his voice cold and flat.

"But keep the merchant alive. I want his inventory."

Viper slammed his foot down on the accelerator.

The heavily armoured van roared to life, its massive tyres screeching against the concrete as it shot out of the parking garage like a bullet.

It tore down the ruined street at top speed, aggressively weaving through the scattered debris directly toward Chris’s blind spot.

Chris’s combat instincts sensed instantly. He spun around, his boots planting firmly into the cracked road as he prepared to intercept the charging vehicle with his bare hands.

"Look out!" Alice screamed, phasing entirely through a piece of falling rubble to flank the incoming threat.

But the van wasn’t trying to run them over.

As the vehicle swerved violently to the side, the heavy sliding door in the back ripped open.

A massive, bald syndicate enforcer stood in the doorway, the roaring wind whipping against his face.

He held a highly customised, mechanical crossbow mounted directly to his forearm.

His eyes locked entirely onto the thick Enlarge Rope binding the two men together.

THWACK.

The heavy steel bolt shot through the air with terrifying precision and sliced cleanly through the tension of the magical rope, severing the cord right at Chris’s shoulder.

The abrupt release of tension was catastrophic. Julien’s Feather Potion still had exactly twelve seconds left on the timer.

Without the heavy man anchoring him to the ground, the young merchant was instantly swept backwards by the residual wind currents flowing through the ruined street.

"Julien!" Chris roared, lunging forward with his massive arm extended.

But he was a fraction of a second too late.

The armoured van drifted aggressively, the open side door perfectly aligning with the helplessly floating merchant.

The bald guy leaned completely out of the vehicle, his heavy arm extending into the air.

His fingers grabbed brutally around the collar of Julien’s coat, snatching the weightless merchant right out of the sky.