The Store was unusually still the next morning.
Even the floating orbs of light that normally bobbed near the ceiling seemed hesitant, hovering lower and pulsing softly—as if trying to remain unnoticed. Li Kai stood behind the main counter, flipping through the shimmering pages of the active quest ledger. Each name and request glowed faintly, pulsing with urgency or desperation. Yet one line at the very bottom flickered inconsistently, like it didn't belong.
[???: Contract Pending Review – Requires Direct Storekeeper Acknowledgment]
There was no name. No details. Just a pulsing silence in the shape of a request.
"Another anonymous entry?" Xiaomei asked, stepping up beside him. Her usual confident air was tinged with tension.
"Not just anonymous. It's incomplete," Li Kai muttered. "But the System isn't rejecting it."
System Alert: Incoming customer request.Identity: Unknown.Medium: Astral Relay – Type: Soul Echo.Risk Level: Red.Initiating customer access...
A thin silver thread descended from the ceiling, dangling in the air like a spider's line. From it unraveled a scroll—tattered, burnt at the edges, and faintly bleeding black mist. As Li Kai touched it, he felt an overwhelming pressure fall over the Store, like someone had just opened a door to a vacuum.
The scroll unfurled.
It wasn't written in ink. Instead, words formed from pain, grief, and memories burned into the parchment. Not visible to the eye—felt through the soul.
"I have no voice.I have no form.I have only one wish:Let me rest.Let the world forget me,as I have forgotten it."
The Store fell completely silent.
Even the System didn't offer its usual alerts or prompts. Instead, the ledger shimmered and reshaped itself, showing a new tab titled:
The Silent Contract
"This… this doesn't feel like a customer," Li Kai whispered. "It feels like a… remnant."
Xiaomei nodded slowly. "A soul too damaged to retain its identity. These are rare. Dangerous. A contract like this could unravel the Store if not handled correctly."
Serin Velora appeared in the doorway behind them, dressed in a simpler uniform of black and silver now marked with the Store's emblem—a rising sun over a book. She studied the scroll from a distance.
"That's not a person," she said after a pause. "That's a regret. A powerful one."
Li Kai hesitated, but then reached out and pressed his hand to the scroll. "We'll answer it."
Contract Accepted: The Silent One's RequestObjective: Locate the resting place of the Forlorn Echo.Restore peace to the soul fragment trapped within.Reward: ???Risk: Systemic Instability (Mitigated by Store Core Strength)
The silver thread pulsed once, then vanished—taking the scroll with it. A second later, the room dimmed and the portal chamber began to glow.
"Destination locked," Xiaomei said quietly. "We're going somewhere old. Somewhere far removed from history."
Li Kai sighed and gathered his cloak. "Let's go answer a call no one else can hear."
The portal led them to the edge of a desolate battlefield—one not marked on any maps. The sky above was eternally crimson, heavy with a storm that never fell. Broken weapons jutted from the ground like gravestones, and skeletal remains of long-fallen titans sprawled across the land.
"This place isn't part of our world anymore," Serin muttered. "It's… dislocated. Detached from time."
"It's where regrets go to die," Xiaomei added.
In the center of the field stood a single monument: a stone obelisk carved with names. Thousands of them. Most were unreadable—erased by wind, weather, and something deeper.
Li Kai approached it cautiously. As he neared, he noticed a small flame at its base—barely burning, flickering blue. He knelt beside it.
"This must be the last memory keeping the regret tethered," he said. "The final echo of their existence."
Then he heard it—a voice, not with sound, but through feeling. A deep sorrow that pressed against his chest like a weight.
I was a healer.I could not save them.I erased my name from their lips.And I walked away from the world.But I still hear their cries.Please… silence them.
Li Kai's throat tightened. "You don't want to be remembered," he said softly. "You want to be forgotten—truly, finally."
The flame flickered in agreement.
Serin stepped beside him. "You know if we do this, there'll be nothing left. No name. No soul to pass on. They'll vanish completely. Is that… mercy?"
Xiaomei nodded slowly. "To some, it is."
Li Kai stood and reached into the side pouch of his cloak, pulling out a thin shard of memory crystal—one the Store had stored long ago. It could hold a single whisper.
He held it to the flame and spoke gently. "Let your pain be remembered, so you can forget it."
The crystal absorbed the flame, pulsing once with soft blue light before fading to gray. The moment it did, a great sigh passed through the battlefield—like the wind of a century finally released.
The sky cleared. The weapons crumbled into dust. And the obelisk faded from view, taking with it the last trace of the Silent One.
Contract Completed: The Silent One's Request
Soul Released: True Oblivion Achieved
Memory Crystal Obtained: [Echo of Mercy]
Reward: Stability Matrix +1, ???
Store Reputation with Anima Fragment Network: +10
Back in the Store that evening, Li Kai placed the gray crystal on a high shelf in a shadowed corner, surrounded by soft blue light. No plaque. No title. Just a quiet space.
Serin placed her hand over her heart and bowed her head. "They wanted to be forgotten. But we'll remember that they once were."
Li Kai looked around the Store—the floating lanterns, the shelves full of impossible things, the walls that whispered stories.
"There are many kinds of customers," he said. "Some want power. Some want healing. And some just want silence."
Xiaomei nodded. "And we'll serve them all."
Because in this Store, even silence had value.