Chapter 41: What Kind of Plot Armor is This?!
Donape woke up feeling fully refreshed, though his deadpan, expressionless face betrayed none of it.
His irritation wasn’t caused by mental fatigue, but by the store’s rigid operating hours.
’Six AM on weekends, seven AM on weekdays...’ he thought, rubbing the back of his neck as he swung his legs out of bed.
Still, based on what he had gradually learned from the store’s hidden benefits, physical exhaustion was no longer a burden. His mind felt sharper than ever. It was just... dealing with the Tyrannical System was as infuriating as always.
After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Donape walked out into the quiet cafe, stopping in front of the counter.
It was Monday morning, exactly six o’clock—a full hour before the shop was scheduled to open.
Impulsively, Donape sat cross-legged right on the pristine floor behind the counter.
Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing, isolating his mind from his surroundings and diving deep into his own consciousness. As the seconds ticked past, his Qi Perception heightened exponentially.
Time itself seemed to dilate in his senses.
One minute.
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
Beads of sweat began to roll down Donape’s forehead, but the deep meditation felt remarkably serene. He was right on the precipice.
Until—
[Mortal, it is almost time to open the establishment. If you are even a single minute late, the Great Me shall summon the Divine Lightning to gently remind you.]
Donape’s brow furrowed, his immersion instantly shattered. The sudden disruption snapped his focus, making his breathing labored as sweat drenched his shirt.
’Damn it! I was so close!’ he cursed inwardly, wiping his brow.
In that meditative trance, he had finally caught a faint trace of the energy flowing through the air—a single step away from grasping the real-world Qi he had mastered inside The Path of the Heavenly Martial Arts.
Yet the System’s obnoxious pop-up message had stabbed directly into his subconscious like an alarm. Fortunately, he was only practicing basic sensation rather than circulating energy through his meridians. Had he been actively absorbing spiritual energy, a sudden disturbance like that could have easily triggered Qi Deviation.
While Donape took care of his disheveled, out-of-breath state, he headed to the front entrance and flipped the hanging sign from CLOSED to OPEN.
[Mortal, seeing as the establishment now has customers from law enforcement, a Novice Quest has been generated.]
Donape frowned. ’Police? Which ones? Ah, those two guys who came in yesterday wearing hoodies? But I don’t even know their names!’
Ding!
A semi-transparent, deep-blue panel flared directly in front of his vision.
[Novice Quest: Enforcement Support]
---------------------------------
Overview: A localized, lawless element within S City poses a minor threat to public order and the quiet operation of your surrounding sector. Local enforcement officers are currently preparing a tactical intervention.
Objective: Assist the local enforcement officers in neutralizing the local wild gang threat.
Failure Penalty: The System will enforce a mandatory one-week house arrest within the establishment under 2x Gravity. The Shopkeeper will be strictly forbidden from stepping outside under any circumstances.
Reward: Wait for the surprise!
---------------------------------
Donape stared at the floating interface, his expression deadpan as usual, though a slight twitch appeared near his eyebrow.
’Enforce house arrest and force me to do everything under double gravity?’ he grumbled inwardly, walking back toward the bathroom to clean himself off. ’This shitty System really never runs out of ways to make my life miserable, does it?’
[Mortal, did you just curse the Great Me in your head?!]
"Of course not! How could a mere shopkeeper ever dare to insult the Great System?" Donape blurted out, rapidly rubbing his palms together like a corrupt sycophant.
[Hmph. Good. Be obedient, for the Great Me provides structured discipline to foster your growth. A true Master of the Ultimate Realm does not whine over trivial tasks.]
’Whatever. Keep spouting your self-righteous garbage. Just you wait... the moment I’m strong enough to null that Divine Lightning, I’m going to tear you apart piece by piece!’ Donape vowed inwardly, holding an absolute grudge and officially declaring the Tyrannical System his lifelong nemesis.
"Right, right. And a true Master doesn’t pop up like a cheap alarm clock while their host is trying to sense Qi," Donape retorted casually, rinsing his face with cold water.
Luckily, the System didn’t react to his lingering sarcasm. Otherwise, Donape would currently be lying on the bathroom floor, twitching uncontrollably from electrocution.
The doorbell chimed as the entrance door swung open.
"Huh? Empty? Where’s the shopkeeper?" Irene asked, walking in alongside Mira and Ga-Eun.
Confused, the three were about to turn around and check back later when Donape emerged from the back bathroom. His hair was damp, his shirt was off, and his upper body was exposed as he casually dried his head with a towel.
"Oh, you guys are early," Donape said, barely glancing up. "If you want to play, go ahead and log in. If you want food or drinks, give me a minute."
The three young women froze, their voices catching in their throats. Blushes rapidly spread across their cheeks as their eyes landed on Donape’s toned physique. Although his muscles weren’t overly bulky, his torso possessed lean, sculpted definition—a direct result of the VR Capsule’s 20% more real-world stat synchronization.
It was a stark, captivating contrast to his usual lazy demeanor in baggy hoodies and sandals.
Noticing their frozen gazes, Donape wrapped the towel around his shoulders and narrowed his eyes.
"You guys are perverts," he said deadpan, turning around to walk into his break room to change.
Snapping out of their daze, Irene, Mira, and Ga-Eun hastily looked away, fanning their flushed faces in embarrassment.
By the time Donape walked back out in his standard casual clothes, the three had managed to regain their composure since the charm no longer existed.
"Ahem. Let’s sit," Irene said, clearing her throat with a dry cough and tapping the counter stools for her friends.
They sat down quickly, eager to shake off the awkwardness of being caught staring.
"Three Obsidian Roast Coffees," Mira ordered immediately, desperate to shift the topic.
"Coming up," Donape replied, pulling four warm cups of Obsidian Roast Coffee from the warm fridge.
He slid three across the counter to Irene, Mira, and Ga-Eun, keeping the fourth for himself.
He didn’t know whether the System had calculated it intentionally, but the Obsidian Roast Coffee was genuinely top-tier. Smooth, rich, and deeply satisfying, it was the ultimate beverage for a relaxing session at an internet cafe.
Raising the cup, Irene took a sip and decided to break the lingering silence. "Shopkeeper... do you happen to know what the biggest issue with your shop is, aside from the outrageous prices and being far from commercial places?"
"Dunno," Donape replied nonchalantly, cracking open his own coffee. For him, customer volume wasn’t a concern unless a System quest explicitly demanded it.
Still, after a brief pause, he figured there was no harm in hearing her out. "What is it?"
Irene shot him a sharp, exasperated glare, while Mira and Ga-Eun rolled their eyes at his complete lack of business anxiety.
"Your shop’s hyper-realism won’t keep people hooked forever," Irene said, taking another sip of her coffee as if giving Donape an expert business lecture. "For most people, even if the virtual world feels identical to reality, it just isn’t worth the outrageous price tag."
"Makes sense," Donape interjected, taking a sip from his own can of Obsidian Roast Coffee and mimicking her gesture. He looked as if he were deeply contemplating her words, though in reality he couldn’t care less about marketing strategies.
"If you want this place packed, you need to prove your claims about acquiring real-world martial arts and superpowers aren’t just false advertising," Irene added, closing her eyes with a slight huff, clearly annoyed by his nonchalant attitude. "Only that will bring in serious crowds."
Donape almost replied that it had already been proven by Ji-Hong and his entourage, but he stopped himself and nodded. "Soon."
Irene’s words naturally made him connect the dots to his newly issued Novice Quest regarding the local gang.
’Assist the police... without giving me a single clue on how to do it,’ Donape thought, cracking his neck slightly. ’The System didn’t state it clearly, but can I just do it myself? Like, find the gang and wipe them out? Wouldn’t that finish the quest without a hassle?’
He paused, a wave of reality crashing over his initial scheme.
’Wait... I don’t even know which gang it is, what case they’re tied to, or where their hideout is.’
He had initially assumed that helping the police solve the case would be a simple task—and an effortless way to score free advertising.
In a typical web novel, he would just show up, flex his real-world strength to subdue the thugs, and plug his shop to the media afterward.
But as reality set in, a thousand wildly impractical questions began to present.
He shook his head inwardly. ’Tonight after closing, I’ll head out toward the city center or the central police precinct to scope things out,’ he decided. ’There has to be a lead somewhere.’
As the night grew darker, Donape lingered near the perimeter of the nearest police precinct past nine o’clock, feeling thoroughly embarrassed.
’If it weren’t for this damn quest, I wouldn’t be lurking around here like an escaped lunatic,’ he thought, pulling his hoodie lower over his face.
He was just about to squat down when two police cars parked in the courtyard suddenly burst to life. Red and blue emergency lights flashed violently against the asphalt, and sirens blared as the vehicles tore out of the station gates.
Over the external loudspeaker of the lead vehicle, a static-heavy radio transmission cracked loudly into the night air:
"Unit 17, copy! We are rolling Code 3 as reinforcement for the gang interception on 13th Street!"
Donape watched the screeching tires and flashing lights disappear down the main road, his jaw practically dropping under his hood.
"Holy shit..." he breathed, utterly stunned. "What kind of ridiculous plot armor is this? If I hadn’t forced myself out of the shop, I wouldn’t have believed this timing in a million years!"