Back in the Original Vault Realm, Ethan Thompson's greatest pride in life was not his achievements in cultivation, but rather his talent and instinct for doing business.

Ever since he took over the Shenxiao Sect, the sect’s annual income had increased year after year, tripling in total.

Because of this, he was mocked by many cultivators in the Original Vault Realm as the “Immortal King obsessed with money.” Yet, during these years, the number of disciples in the Shenxiao Sect expanded by a full fifty percent. Every core disciple would go out carrying a large bag of talismans, pills, and other supplies, never again having to worry about shortages. As a result, the casualties from slaying demons and monsters in the Shenxiao Sect over the past forty years had greatly decreased, allowing the sect to accumulate enough foundation to face the coming demonic calamity.

William looked quite puzzled: “Buying everything you need all at once? Isn’t that just like a market street? Doesn’t seem necessary, does it?”

“But what if it’s not concentrated on one street, but inside a single store? If you could buy everything you need in one shop, conveniently located in our neighborhood, William, would you go there?”

Ethan Thompson smiled and said, “Super Market! Supermarket.”

Chapter 9: Comics

“Super Market? You even created a new term?”

William looked hesitant: “Supermarket, huh? That idea sounds pretty cool. If it could really be done, I think I’d like it a lot. Ethan, are you planning to open a store like that in the future?”

This time it was Ethan Thompson's turn to shrug helplessly. He had the idea, but not the capital. A big store like that obviously required a lot of money—without at least half a million gold shields, it would be impossible. He also had to consider the local gangs and government factors.

He didn’t dwell on it further. After walking less than twenty meters down the street, he turned and entered a bookstore.

William looked helpless and could only follow Ethan Thompson inside. He thought Ethan Thompson was going to look for some supplementary textbooks or books on magical energy. But once inside, he saw the latter putting several newspapers from the periodicals section into his shopping basket.

“Wow, I remember you never used to be interested in these current affairs newspapers. If you want to read the news, why not just turn on the TV?”

“Sometimes I want to know about current events, and it’s a way to increase my reading.”

Ethan Thompson casually made up a reason, then stared at the book in William's hand: “What’s that? A comic?”

“What else could it be?”

As he spoke, he even struck a pose: “It’s my favorite one—Iron-Blooded Lion Fang, the first ever Black hero, so cool! This is the latest issue, and I’m planning to buy it. And this one, Black Iron Knight, I like it too. It’s a new anti-hero type. Dressed in black iron armor, kills without blinking, doesn’t care about the police or government, just keeps killing and killing—so awesome. He’s the most popular hero right now. At our school, nine out of ten people like him.”

After thinking for a moment, Ethan Thompson also picked up a few books and tossed them into his shopping basket: “I’m planning to buy a few novels to read. William, do you have any good recommendations?”

He thought that since these things were so popular now, they should help him understand the culture and current state of this country called the ‘United States of America.’

“Novels? Ha, who reads those?”

William looked completely uninterested: “Those books are all huge, and there are so many words nobody understands. We never read that kind of thing.”

Ethan Thompson couldn’t help but laugh at that, then fell into thought again.

What William said was a bit unexpected. But after thinking carefully, he found some memories from the original host.

In the year 3975 of the Bright Era in this world, the famous writer Jonathan Coro, in his groundbreaking work “America’s Illiteracy,” used “One third of this country’s people don’t recognize these words” as the title of the first chapter. In this book, Jonathan Coro claimed: America has 355 million adults who can’t understand the toxicity warnings on pesticide bottles, letters from their children’s teachers, or the front page of a newspaper. In addition, there are 365 million people whose reading ability doesn’t even meet the basic level needed to survive in society.

And in the year 3981 of the Bright Era, according to an educational institution’s survey, one third of 17-year-olds didn’t know who America’s founding fathers or the first Grand Leader, Abraham Swiden, were. Among Americans aged 8 to 24, only 13% could locate the small country of Babylon on a map.

By the recent year 3988, America’s literacy rate had declined even further: 14% of the adult population (that is, 492 million people) were barely literate, and 21% had reading skills below the fifth-grade level. Nineteen percent of high school graduates were illiterate.

It sounded exaggerated, but these were the official survey results from the American Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy.

This was the consequence of the elite education system implemented in America. Children of the rich and middle class studied hard in private schools, rushed between various tutoring classes, and joined all kinds of magical energy training organizations. Meanwhile, children from poor families received so-called “quality education” in public schools.