The Flying Emporium

Severin ran as hard as he could, ignoring the aches of his out-of-shape body, and towards his store and cafe at the center of the mountaintop.

Halfway there, he saw a dwarf rushing towards him.

{{Bandur!}} he shouted once the other was in transmission-range.

{{T-The map! It suddenly disappeared. And then when I tried to reach you... what is going on, Sev?}}

Severin was too worked up to stop and explain. Instead he asked, {{Did you notice any other changes?}}

{{Wha-? Other than map and communication? What do you mean? What else-}}

{{Your class? Your skills? Our tools?}} Severin almost began shouting; the more he thought about all the possible ways the System could screw him over, the more upset he became.

{{… non-critical systems… disabled… System is hibe- sleeping…}}. It was the youngest of the bunch who, out of breath, tried to explain what was going on, as Severin himself just kept running onwards without waiting for an answer.

Instead, he started shouting instructions to his [Employees].

Bandur’s eyes widened after the moment it took him to process everything that was going on.

“Oh, shit!” were the words that involuntarily escaped him. He turned around and at full speed followed behind the others, who by now had all passed him by.

***

“Kitchen appliances are still working,” the dwarf reported. “And judging by some short tests, it seems I haven’t lost any of my cooking abilities either. Hard to say for certain, however, considering how most kitchen work has basically become second nature by now.”

“No, it’s still working. We pretty much confirmed as much on our end. Still, that’s good to hear.”

With this concluded, Severin turned his attention to the old woman. “What about you?”

“Well, there was no opportunity for me to check the Class-Orb Removal Device, but everything else seemed to be working as usual. So I would be surprised if that machine wasn’t as well.“

Phew

A collective sigh of relief.

“Ah!”

But before anyone could truly relax, Emily’s shout alarmed everyone.

“What about the portal station? Has anyone checked that one?!”

“No need to worry about that,” Severin gave the immediate all-clear. “If that one was down, we would already know about it.”

“The [Princess] would already be up our- she would be standing in front of us demanding an explanation. The fact she isn’t means everything is still working,” Bandur added to his boss’ explanation when he noticed the girl’s incomprehension.

“Then that means…”

“That means things might not be as dire as we first thought. Inconvenient, yes. But nothing we can’t handle.”

“Right, right.”

The atmosphere in the small room loosened up.

But again came another interjection. This time from Mylana.

“What about our supplies?”

“What about them?” Severin asked.

“Do we still have access to them?” Mylana paused for a moment, but realized the others weren’t catching on. “Not the ones sitting in our inventory. I’m talking about when they run out. Will we still get new ones?”

“I…” Severin was momentarily taken aback; that had obviously been nothing he had even considered until now.

But at least in Bandur’s mind, there was no question about it. “I’m sure we will,” the dwarf stated confidently.

“Why? What makes you say that?” Mylana asked back, not in a challenging tone, but with genuine curiosity.

“Because nothing indicates otherwise. We just went through everything. And the only things not working are relatively small, unimportant things. Even much less important-critical- systems are still working. The devices out there, for example,” the dwarf pointed through the closed door towards the salesroom where Mylana herself had just checked up on things.

“Hm,” she nodded in agreement. “But consider this for a moment. My understanding is that all the systems currently out of order are directly powered by the System itself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that without the System, there would be no minimap to begin with. No special store. No telepathic connections. Those things only exist within the System itself.

But granted skills and abilities? Those are now all part of us.

As for those machines out there, for all we know, those aren’t actively powered by the System either. And that’s what hibernation implies, doesn’t it? The saving of energy. For all we actually know, everything directly powered by the System isn’t currently working. All but the defensive systems, that is.”

“But... but even if you were right- and that is a big if- the supplies are just as important!”

“For us running the Emporium? Sure, maybe. But for the System? Who knows?

If its existence is directly bound to Savr-”

“Severin!”

“-to Severin and his well-being? Then, from its perspective, there is nothing more important than his survival. It called him its host, no?”

“Wha-What exactly are you saying?”

“Nothing. Nothing definitive. Only that we should be prudent going forward. And that we should expect the worst. At this point, we don’t even know how long we’ll have to manage.”

All this was hard for Severin to accept. But even if he thought the probability of Mylana's theory being correct was low, he couldn't just pretend it was zero. And he said as much,

“We can’t be sure Mylana’s theory is right- I hope it isn’t- but… I fear we’ll have to act like it is. Which begets the question of what to do next. What do you guys suggest? Any ideas?”

Shrug

“First, we should check how long we’ll last with what we still have available. At that point, we’ll know for certain.”

“Bandur?”

“One day wouldn’t be a problem with our current stock. Two might be tight, but probably still doable. Any longer than that…”

“Em?” Severin was massaging his temple as he prompted the girl.

“Uhm. We’re still fully stocked. Got a new batch just before you called for me.”

“Well, that’s at least some good news. Still, we should plan ahead for at least a few days.”

“We could shorten our opening hours during this time,” Emily tried to be helpful.

“If anything, that would only make it worse, girl,” Mylana explained. “Best case, the demand would remain the same. But now everyone would come shopping at the same time, only making more work for us.

Worst case, this rush would lead to panic purchases and cause an actual raise in demand of our products- the last thing we would want in a situation like this- because people fear there might not be enough for everyone. And they would be right.”

“Oooh.”

“I mean, we could always just close the store and wait things out.”

“Yes. Thanks Bandur.” It was impossible for Severin to hide his annoyance. “But I would prefer not to. Not until absolutely necessary.”

“Can’t we just send those people away?”

“How is turning them away any better th-”

“No, no, you misunderstand. I don’t mean to refuse them. Give them something else to do. Give them a reason to stay away for a while.”

“Right! Issue another request with the Society or something like that.”

“Or use that stu- that event of yours as a pretext! These people will do anything for one of those black cards!”