"In our shop, we don't discriminate whether you're human or a ghost. Once you step in, you're a guest of ours."

The female proprietor appeared to be in her thirties, with a kind face and a tone that felt warm and inviting.

Of course, if it hadn't been for that knife incident just now, John would have thought she was human—and a beautiful one at that.

"What are you looking to buy?"

Just as John was about to speak, the male proprietor suddenly stood up, yanking a fruit knife from around his neck.

Then, with a vicious thrust, he plunged the knife into the woman's head!

The female proprietor didn't flinch; her face still beamed with that radiant smile.

"You damn woman, are you trying to revolt?" the male proprietor cursed.

The woman turned around, grabbed the man, and threw him into a dimly lit room.

Then, she reached under the counter, pulled out an axe, and followed him into the room.

For a long while, the sounds of a fierce scuffle and the chopping of fresh meat echoed from within, sending shivers down one's spine.

About two minutes later.

The female proprietor emerged, covered in blood, yet still polite: "I apologize for letting you witness our domestic disgrace."

"It just goes to show, if you don't give a man a good thrashing, he'll never learn who really runs the household!"

"..."

John's mouth twitched slightly as he echoed, "Well said, well said."

"Alright, let's talk about what you want to buy."

John named the ingredients he wanted to purchase.

Upon hearing X ingredient, the female proprietor's brow furrowed slightly.

"Don't have it?" John asked, noticing her expression.

"What would a human like you want with that?" she countered.

"Actually, I work for the Fierce Ghost Restaurant, and they sent me to buy these ingredients," John explained.

The female proprietor laughed, "That's as good as sentencing yourself to death."

"What do you mean?"

"Even if I gave you X ingredient, you wouldn't be able to take it back without losing your life in the process," she said, sitting down and pouring herself a glass of water. "Such ingredients are extremely dangerous. Humans can hardly control them, and they might even end up dominating your soul."

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John's face paled with shock.

Damn!

Was this ingredient actually a monster? That sounded terrifying!

"And I won't sell it to you either."

"Why not?"

"It's too precious. Those guys at the Fierce Ghost Restaurant send someone over to try and buy X ingredient almost every so often."

"But this item can't be bought with just ghost Coins," the female proprietor said indifferently. "If that's all you came for, then you might as well head back."

John looked troubled: "Going back means death for me too."

"Is there anything other than ghost Coins that I could trade for it?"

The female proprietor glanced at John's crotch and said with a teasing smile, "Although you seem to be in good shape, and your manhood looks quite impressive, I'm not interested in that department. Besides, human flesh isn't worth much in my supermarket."

John fell silent.

He suddenly understood.

The hardest part of this mission wasn't just making it to the Sinister Supermarket alive; the real challenge was that they simply refused to sell X ingredient!

Perhaps that puppet guy never really expected John to bring back X ingredient.

Bang! Bang!!

Suddenly, a huge commotion erupted inside the supermarket.

From a distance, John saw a flurry of goods flying around, shelves collapsing, and in an instant, the area was a complete mess.

Bang!

The door to the dark room burst open, and the injured male proprietor charged out, wielding a bone cleaver and bellowing with a ferocious expression, "It's that damn thief again, I'll chop it to pieces!!"

With that, he rushed into the shelving area with the cleaver in hand.

Not long after, he returned, looking dejected.

He held the knife, grinding his teeth in anger.

"Idiot, stop making more of a mess in the shop! If you were that capable, you would have caught that thing by now. What's the point of all this fuss?" the female proprietor scolded, tugging at her husband's ear and cursing.

The male proprietor swung back with his knife, striking the female proprietor's arm. He looked incredibly irate: "All you do is nag me, why don't you go catch the thief yourself?"

The female proprietor didn't argue with him. She went over to the shelves, and soon an angry scream echoed: "It stole eight items again, worth a total of 1000 ghost Coins!"

John, listening to this, roughly understood what had happened.

A thief in such a supermarket?

And from the sound of it, this wasn't the first time; the culprit was a repeat offender.

"Maybe I could help if you tell me more about it," John ventured.

"You? Get lost, don't get in my way!" The male proprietor was very dismissive of John, or more accurately, of humans in general.

The female proprietor walked over, pushed the male proprietor aside, and stared at John. Suddenly, with a meaningful smile, she said, "Alright, if you can help us catch that thief, I'll sell you the X ingredient!"

"Deal!" John didn't hesitate.

What other choice did he have?

"Heh." The male proprietor scoffed but said nothing more.

"Boss, give me two human skin coats," a passing customer stopped and called out.

"Can't you grab it yourself, got no hands or feet?" the male proprietor turned and cursed.

"Fuck, with that attitude, you might as well go out of business!" the ghost cursed and walked away.

The female proprietor then plunged her knife fiercely into the male proprietor's anus, her eyes splitting with ferocity: "Do you even want to keep this shop running?"

John ignored the loving couple who were prone to stabbing each other and walked towards the shelves.

The supermarket was actually quite large.

Just the arrangement of the shelves alone numbered in the hundreds. As John made his way deeper inside, he noticed that the goods were either covered in dust or scattered on the floor; in short, it was a mess, as if it had never been tidied.

Suddenly, John heard some noise.

He quickly pinpointed the source of the sound, pulled out his Bloodied Bone Mallet, and turned to swing.

"Bro, calm down!"

The figure hurriedly spoke out.

"You're human too?" John was taken aback, sensing the scent of a person on the other.