âLetâs sign the contract!â Aakesh smilingly announced.
The next moment, the space around Aakesh began to crack like glass. Aakesh seemed unfazed by it, while Jonnah and his family members had surprised expressions.
In no time, the cracks in the space stabilized as it took the shape of a spherical portal.
âCAW!â
The next moment, a bird cry rang in the store as a silver paper flew out from the portal into Aakeshâs hands.
A familiar sensation attacked Aakesh as he held the silver paper in his hands.
The silver paper was the skin of a high-level creature, Silver Crow. When the store was in the void, the store sold items on credits, so whenever there was a successful transaction, a contract signing followed after it.
But since the store had a permanent residence, the process of contract signing disappeared. Only now that Aakesh was to hire an assistant to the store, the system took another silver skin from its pocket.
Aakesh then looked at the skin and found the content of the contract published there.
âYou can read the details and sign the contract,â Aakesh told Jonnah and handed over the skin piece to him.
As Jonnah respectfully touched the skin, he felt a current running through his body.
Silver Crow was also a member of the beast race in higher dimensions, so the skin also contained some part of its bloodline.
Jonnah felt that he was carrying an entire planet in his hands as the released pressure from the skin attacked Jonnah.
Aakesh and the system didnât act this time as what Jonnah felt was only an illusion. In reality, he looked without any pressure as his hands had silver skin.
The next moment, Jonnah returned to reality as his back had become cold with sweat.
Jonnah then looked at his wife, who had a mixture of worry and excitement in her eyes.
Worry since Jonnah was becoming a member of the store, and excitement because he was becoming an assistant to the store.
Jonnah then took a deep breath and focused his sight on the silver skin in his hands.
The contract was simple. The benefits Jonnah would have as the storeâs assistant and the conditions that were put on him covered the contract.
There was no limit to the time Jonnah could work in the store since it all decided on him. There were two ways by which he could leave the job. First, his dying would automatically result in his leaving the job. The second was that if he ascended.
The store clipped the freedoms of its assistants, but it would never restrict their talent. If Jonnah grew powerful enough to ascend, the system would release him from his contract. Then Aakesh would have to hire another assistant for the store.
Since there was no issue with the contract, Jonnah decided to sign it.
âArgh!â
Suddenly a soul-pricking pain attacked Jonnah, and he couldnât help but scream. The sound of his screams hadnât even subsided when Jonnah suddenly felt the space inside the store becoming turbulent.
With a pained face, Jonnah turned in the direction of the turbulency to find a sudden arrival of a creature.
Everything in the store came to a halt, including Lilyâs playing with Jonnahâs kids. It was as if only that single eye was there.
The eye first looked at Aakesh. Aakesh looked back at the eye.
Even someone like Aakesh couldnât maintain his indifference in front of the eye as it belonged to a Deva, the mightiest race of the Multiverse.
It was the Cosmos Contract Beast. The eye in the store wasnât truly Deva but one of its countless incarnations. A Deva wasnât actually going to oversee all the contracts signed in the Multiverse.
The eye then moved its sight away and focused on the being, who was the reason behind its summon.
As Jonnah became the center of focus in the eye, he felt himself turning into an ordinary beast and then standing naked in a snowstorm.
There was only one feeling echoing in Jonnahâs heart at that time, inferiority. Jonnah wanted to prostrate in front of the eye, but he controlled himself as Aakesh told him to sign the contract, and the eye was only there to oversee the contract.
Jonnah took a deep breath as he returned his focus to the silver skin. On the silver skin, half his name was there, but slowly it was disappearing.
Jonnah was in the midst of signing the contract when he suddenly stopped midway due to the arrival of the eye.
Jonnah then thought of signing the contract again, and the unbearable pain attacked him once more.
Jonnah didnât scream in pain this time, but he clenched his hands and silently endured it.
The next moment, his name and soul signature appeared on the contract, and he got a familiar feeling from it.
As the contract process came to an end, the eye took a last glance at Jonnah and then disappeared into the void.
The next moment, the store regained its calm as Jonnah returned the silver skin to Aakesh.
âDonât break the rules, or you will meet that eye again,â Aakesh told Jonnah as he took the contract back.
Jonnah couldnât help but shudder, imagining the scene of meeting the eye. He then vowed never to break the rules set by the store on him.
The eye had no ill intentions. Yet Jonnah had never felt more uncomfortable than what he had experienced at that moment.
Aakesh nodded and thought of the contract disappearing after taking a last look at it.
The next moment, the contract turned into streams of light particles as it flew toward the top of the store. This process was only visible to Aakesh. Even Lily was unable to see it.
The people inside the store only saw the silver paper suddenly disappearing.
âWelcome to The First Store!â Aakesh welcomed Jonnah to the store. Since the contract had gotten signed, Jonnah was going to be here until he didnât break any rules.
âThank you, senior,â Jonnah thanked Aakesh in response.
âNow that you are the storeâs assistant, you have two choices for your residency,â Aakesh suddenly spoke.
Jonnah didnât talk in between and waited for Aakesh to complete his sentence.
âThe first choice is the store would provide a residence to you, and the second is you can continue to live where you are currently living.â
âIf you choose the storeâs provided residence, then I would personally create a home for you in this vast empty space next to the store.â
âBut, asking for the storeâs provided residence isnât without any rules.â
âThe residence would follow the same set of rules as the store. After the sunset, the doors to the house would automatically close, and it would only appear after the next morning sunrise,â Aakesh told Jonnah.
âBut, at the same time, there are also benefits for choosing the store-provided residence,â Aakesh didnât stop and continued.
âYour house would have a space array automatically installed, resulting in the inside space being equivalent to a town.â
âYour house would have a training area specially designed for members of your race.â
âThese are free benefits in the store-provided residence. There would be more, but you would have to pay for them,â Aakesh finally stopped with his introduction to the houses.
A round of silence fell in the store as Jonnah asked for some time before making his decision.
Aakesh was patient with Jonnah since there was nothing for him to do till the next morningâs sunrise.
âSenior, we would take the store-provided house,â Jonnah answered after discussing it with his wife and mother.
Since they would live with him, Jonnah decided to take their suggestions into consideration.
The no-getting out or inside after the sunset rule wasnât troublesome for them since the majority of the Kakot city fell asleep after the sunset in the dark of the night.
Their main reasoning behind choosing the store-provided house was its proximity to the store.
Due to the Kingâs order, there was nothing to be built within three thousand miles of radius around the store. Only one other building was there, and that too belonged to the top-ranked Panagea organization.
At the same time, those benefits Aakesh talked about also excited them.
Aakesh nodded after getting Jonnahâs answer.
âWait a few seconds,â Aakesh suddenly told Jonnah.
The next moment, several materials appeared in the store. Many of them were those that Jonnah had never seen.
Aakesh ignored the surprised eyes of Jonnah and his family members as he busied himself in his smithing session.
A few seconds later, Aakesh stopped as a miniature house was in his hands.
âPlace it next to the store, and then drop a drop of your blood on it,â Aakesh then told Jonnah.
The future home of Jonnah cost a few seconds of Aakeshâs efforts while a few million supreme Primal stones.
***
A/N: Sorry, only one chapter today!
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