Universe Infinite Canteen

The dark figure by the wall, to his surprise, was even darker than elsewhere and had stood there, unmoving, as if frozen in time.

This was clearly not a pose that a normal person would have. Realizing that something was off, Ma Lu turned and ran, taking out the protection of fate as he did so, tossing it and catching it again.

The blank space on the token now displayed the number 9.

Ma Lu pocketed the protection of fate and kept running without stopping, glancing back as he fled. Fortunately, the dark shadow on the other side of the street didn't follow.

Could it be... a misunderstanding? Was it just a statue?

However, to be cautious, Ma Lu didn't go back; instead, he decided to look around elsewhere. But the further he walked, the stronger that odd feeling in his heart became.

The street he was on now reminded him a bit of Shanghai Beach from the last century, in a bustling district.

The street was lined with small buildings made of green and red bricks, above which hung all kinds of neon signs, yet without exception, none were lit.

On his previous Plane, Ma Lu had unlocked over 600 entries in the Illustrated Handbook, earning himself a new title—Scholar.

After donning this title, he finally shed the identity of an illiterate and could understand the text of other Planes. However, the cost was that he could no longer use his former title, Ingredient Collector, and the maximum carrying capacity of the Collection Bag had decreased by 100 pounds.

Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire

But it wasn't much of a problem since Ma Lu had money now. He spent some and upgraded the Collection Bag to Level 1, maintaining its maximum capacity.

After walking in the dark for a while, his eyes gradually adapted to the dim environment.

He barely made out the words on the neon sign in front of him—Yangyang Dance Hall, with several vintage cars and bicycles parked outside its main entrance.

In addition, the street Ma Lu was walking on had tram tracks laid down its center, and above his head hung dense tangles of wires, enveloping the entire city like a cobweb.

Next to the Yangyang Dance Hall was Zheng's Pen Store, and diagonally across from it was a newsstand.

This confirmed Ma Lu's earlier guess; this area should be one of the city's bustling regions, with many shops.

But what was strange was that there wasn't a single person on the street besides him; in fact, not just on the streets, there was no one inside the buildings either.

This reminded Ma Lu of the Plane before last.

Could it be that some large-scale Disaster had erupted here, causing all the people in the city to have either fled or perished?

But when Ma Lu reached out and touched the hood of the black car beside him, he found it was still slightly warm.

This was even stranger; it wasn't as if the people in the city could have just vanished into thin air all of a sudden.

With his questions unanswered, Ma Lu continued onwards and soon arrived outside another shop.

It was a toy store, and through the window, Ma Lu could see the toys inside: music boxes, tin frogs, kites, pellet drums... but what really caught his attention was a set of dolls.

The dolls were carved from wood with impressive craftsmanship, intricately lifelike with various postures—some holding guns, some throwing fists, and others suspended by silk threads in mid-kick...

Additionally, their bases were engraved with their names—Great God of Loss, Fire Bodhisattva, Storm Fist...

What was this, Republic-era collectible figurines?

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Of course, considering that little devils from any plane love cool stuff, it's not surprising that someone from this plane spotted the business opportunity early and brought toy figurines here a couple of hundred years ahead of time.

What truly caught Ma Lu's attention was the slogan posted on the glass—perfect real-life replicas, let the hero accompany you as you grow!

Not far from the toy store was the cinema. An entire wall of the cinema had been transformed into a billboard, showing a masked woman in ice armor fighting a fiery beast.

The caption read in big black letters—"Ice Phoenix vs. Six-tailed Hou Premieres Across the City on April 19th! Witness the heroine's grace up close!"

Marvel and DC would probably nod in acknowledgment; the superheroes here not only emerged earlier but had a very comprehensive range of merchandise as well.

Ma Lu was quite tempted, but alas, there was no one in the cinema, and the projectionist was nowhere to be found—no one to play the movie.

At that moment, Ma Lu remembered something and made his way back to the newspaper stand he had seen earlier.

He picked up a newspaper, unfolded it, and saw that it was dated the 79th year of the Qi Yuan Calendar, April 15th. The front page headline was about a war in a neighboring country, followed by the newly enacted Motor Vehicle Road Law—mostly governmental news.

But soon, Ma Lu found the promotion for the "Ice Phoenix vs. Six-tailed Hou" movie on the second page, including news that Ice Phoenix herself would arrive in Xindu on the evening of the 18th, in collaboration with the distributors for the premiere.

Huh, she's a real person, an actress?

Ma Lu continued to flip through the pages and, on the third page, he stumbled upon a disaster warning. It said that the Jiulong Instrument had detected a possibility of a minor disaster occurring soon in Xindu and advised residents to avoid entering the disaster area.

By now, Ma Lu had some guesses, but he wondered if it really was okay to place such important news behind entertainment news on the third page.

Following the disaster warning was another piece of news about the closing admissions of talisman master schools, reminding new students to enroll in time.

Having read this far, Ma Lu roughly understood what was going on here, but he still patiently read through the rest of the newspaper.

He mainly wanted to gather more intel on the imminent minor disaster.

Unfortunately, apart from the tofu-sized warning, there was no other relevant news in the newspaper. Instead, the gossip about the police chief of Xindu marrying his ninth concubine had been sensationally reported over two full pages.

The articles vividly described the concubine's beauty and youthful charm.

Seeing no valuable clues, Ma Lu put the newspaper down.

From the lackadaisical manner of the Xindu News, maybe the disaster wasn't so severe? But where had all the people in the city gone?

As Ma Lu walked and pondered, he suddenly bumped into something.

He rubbed his nose, only to find nothing in front of him.

He tried to take another step, and his left foot felt as though he had kicked a cotton puff, only to be bounced back once more.

An Air Wall? That meant this area was sealed off, no wonder he hadn't seen anyone for so long.

Ma Lu wasn't too panicked because, according to the newspaper, the locals seemed to be quite familiar with such situations and likely had corresponding solutions.

He looked around, spotted the tallest building, a bank, and climbed to the top to get a better view. Looking down from three streets away, he saw a faint light.

Though dim, the light was quite conspicuous in the pitch-dark city.

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