this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!
Er Niu sat by the wooden table, inhaling the faint aroma of food wafting from the hotpot restaurant. “I’ve missed this flavor so much, Captain. Hurry up, let’s order!”
“By the way, we have spicy hotpot now,” Jiang Ci mentioned. After completing the previous mission, the spicy beef tallow soup base had been unlocked. Earlier that morning, Jiang Ci had gone to the kitchen and found the spicy soup base sitting right next to the clear soup base.
“Spicy hotpot?! Finally, we have spicy hotpot?” The survivors’ eyes lit up instantly, and without hesitation, they ordered the beef tallow soup base, along with forty servings of meat and five servings of potato slices.
The total cost was nine third-level crystals, seven second-level crystals, and five first-level crystals.
As soon as the spicy broth was poured into the pot and mixed with water, the rich, pungent aroma of spiciness began to fill the wooden cabin.
The survivors inhaled deeply, feeling as if all their memories and taste buds had come rushing back.
This flavor was far more intense and robust than the milder clear soup broth they had before. The air was thick with the scent of spice and the savory richness of beef tallow.
Er Niu didn’t wait for Jiang Ci to bring the pot over. Instead, he went over to help carry it, while the others pitched in to help bring over the dishes.
By now, they were so familiar with the place that they felt completely at ease in the hotpot restaurant—even serving themselves.
Once the pot was set up, they invited Xiao Yu, who was standing nearby, to join them.
Xiao Yu waved his hand, speaking softly, “No, thank you. Sister already fed me earlier.”
After saying this, he lowered his head again, seemingly uncomfortable around strangers. For now, Jiang Ci was the only person he truly trusted.
Chen Cheng and the others didn’t press Xiao Yu. They just asked him once and then left him alone, giving him the space he needed. After all, he would be leaving with them soon anyway.
All the meat and potato slices cooked in the spicy hotpot had a completely different texture and flavor compared to those cooked in the clear broth. The taste was more intense, with a rich blend of spiciness, fragrant aroma, and the distinct flavor of beef tallow.
The survivors’ lips turned red from the spiciness, but they couldn’t stop eating, feeling that the flavor was incredibly delicious, striking them deep in their souls.
After finishing the meal, the survivors felt exceptionally satisfied despite their lips still throbbing from the spice.
After resting for a while, they prepared to head back since they still needed to exchange the mutated black ox for crystal cores.
Xiao Yu also had to leave with them. Although he was filled with reluctance and unease, he knew he had to adapt to avoid causing trouble for Jiang Ci.
He didn’t have much to pack, having arrived with nothing but the clothes on his back. However, Jiang Ci gave him a backpack she found in her wardrobe. Inside were a few sets of clothes, pants, and some potatoes.
“No need…” Xiao Yu awkwardly held the somewhat heavy backpack. The items inside were particularly valuable in this post-apocalyptic world. He wanted to return it to Jiang Ci, but she insisted on handing it to him.
“Since you call me ‘sister,’ I should take care of you a bit more. My place is too small right now, and I can’t let you stay here permanently. You need to live with the others, but you can come over anytime during the day,” Jiang Ci said calmly, her words bringing tears to Xiao Yu’s eyes.
Xiao Yu left with frequent backward glances, while Jiang Ci stood in place, watching them until their figures faded into the faraway distance before turning back to the cabin.
Once again, the shop was left with only her, the almost invisible Hui Hui, and three tortoise eggs.
Jiang Ci remembered that normal tortoise eggs took about two months to hatch, but she wasn’t sure how long it would take since these were the eggs of mutated beasts.
[Detecting no outside humans in the restaurant, the store will now begin upgrading. Please proceed to your room and wait,] the system’s voice announced.
As Jiang Ci turned to leave, she noticed Hui Hui. She walked over, intending to carry it, but she hadn’t expected the box with the tortoise eggs and Hui Hui itself to be so heavy.
She was momentarily at a loss when Hui Hui seemed to sense her dilemma. It actively stepped out of the box and began walking toward Jiang Ci’s room on its four short legs.
“It really has become sentient,” Jiang Ci marveled.
[A level nine mutated creature is almost like a sentient being. They can understand human speech and sense human emotions,] the system explained.
Hui Hui made its way to her room, with Jiang Ci following behind, carrying the cardboard box.
Once inside the room, Jiang Ci closed the door and placed the box by the wall. Hui Hui slowly crawled in after her, leaving her free of any other worries.
As the door closed, the lights outside were turned off, and the main door shut tightly. The upgrade had begun.
[Alright, host, the fourth task has been successfully completed. Please draw your reward,] the system’s voice sounded again.
The large lucky wheel appeared before Jiang Ci once more, just like before, with twenty two green options, twelve blue options, and one orange option.
However, the contents were different from last time. The system explained that the wheel refreshed every seventy two hours, or every three days.
“So, does that mean if I miss out on something, it won’t come back?” Jiang Ci asked. She had quite liked the automatic vegetable cutter from last time.
[There’s a chance it may reappear in the lucky wheel in the future,] the system said.
Hearing this, Jiang Ci felt reassured.
This time, the orange item was a cleaning robot that could thoroughly clean all visible surfaces, including both floors and walls.
Jiang Ci also liked this household appliance, but being self aware of her own luck, she pressed the button with a slight glimmer of hope.
The roulette wheel began to spin, starting slowly, speeding up, and then gradually slowing down. The pointer slid slowly and eventually stopped on the green option once again.
Jiang Ci’s heart, which hadn’t fully risen, quickly sank back down. After all, she had expected this outcome.
This time, she drew chili sauce, adding another condiment to her sauce station. She could only console herself by thinking that the chili sauce in the picture looked quite delicious.
This upgrade took longer than the previous one. Jiang Ci finished watching two movies in her room before it was finally completed.
When she stepped out, an involuntary ‘wow’ escaped her lips.
The original wooden cabin had transformed into a brick-and-tile house reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s. The four tables in the main hall had increased to eight, and the space had expanded significantly.
After looking around inside, she decided to check outside the shop. Since the interior had changed, the exterior must have also transformed from the previous hunter’s cabin.
The wooden door had been replaced with a sturdier iron one. As Jiang Ci opened the door, the entire hotpot restaurant came to life, with the lights flickering on once more.
pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:
As soon as the door opened, Jiang Ci heard voices. Looking up, she saw a group of survivors standing outside the hotpot restaurant.
“Boss!” A voice from the crowd interrupted their chatter, and they all turned to look in unison.
Jiang Ci recognized a few familiar faces, but most were strangers. Among them was Zhong Xiaofeng, who had visited before. This time, she was accompanied by a woman.
“You finally opened, Boss! We knocked earlier, but there was no response, and the lights were off. We thought you had closed for good,” a regular customer said from the crowd.
“Sorry, the shop was under renovation, so I didn’t hear anything,” Jiang Ci quickly opened the door and let the survivors in.
“Renovation?! You can still do renovations now?” The survivors seemed to find this an incredible notion.
However, when they saw the interior of the hotpot restaurant, they were stunned. It had indeed been renovated and was now at least twice as large as before.
“Hey, Boss, I’m back, and I brought a friend. This is Zhong Chu, the leader of the Crimson Base,” Zhong Xiaofeng introduced.
Zhong Chu nodded at Jiang Ci, who noticed that even though Zhong Chu was dressed simply and smiled warmly, she exuded the aura that came from someone in a position of authority—quite fitting for the leader of a base.
“Welcome, please come in and have a seat,” Jiang Ci smiled back at Zhong Chu.
In fact, she was still a bit dazed, not understanding why so many customers had suddenly arrived.
Upon asking, she found out that they had all heard about it from friends, relatives, or other survivors from various bases.
If only one person had mentioned it, they might have still doubted the reliability of the news, but since everyone was talking about it, it proved that the matter was indeed true.
“The leader of our base is currently having discussions on coming to buy water. I heard that the Crimson Base bought a hundred boxes, which made us really envious,” said a straightforward survivor.
Under usual circumstances, it was already difficult for their base leaders to meet other base leaders, let alone ordinary survivors, so they didn’t recognize that the person with Zhong Xiaofeng was actually the base leader of the Crimson Base.
Zhong Chu just smiled and didn’t respond. They indeed had quite the foresight, being the first base to establish a connection with the hotpot restaurant.
“Boss, your renovation is quite grand, and the space has been expanded so much,” Zhong Xiaofeng said, feeling amazed. This sort of capability was already beyond their comprehension.
“Yes, we’ll expand further in the future, otherwise, there won’t be enough seats when more people come,” Jiang Ci replied.
With the amount of people now, they could just barely squeeze everyone in, but if there were any more, this small space really wouldn’t work. So expansion was definitely necessary.
Zhong Xiaofeng and Zhong Chu exchanged glances, becoming even more determined in their mind.
The hotpot restaurant was bustling with noise as everyone was very interested in the menu on the small blackboard, discussing whether the meat was really beef and pork.
“I’ve heard from them that it’s real, and it tastes really good,” one survivor said. “I want to eat meat. It’s been almost ten years since I last had any.”
“I want to eat potatoes. They were my favorite before, but unfortunately, they couldn’t be grown after the apocalypse.”
Everyone discussed and then wrote down what they wanted to order on the notepads. Survivors her for the first time ordered conservatively, usually around twenty plates of meat, while regular customers directly started with sixty plates.
Seeing the availability of beef tallow hotpot, the survivors were very happy. Although the clear soup was delicious, the more stimulating flavor of the beef tallow hotpot left a stronger impression on the survivors.
So all eight tables ordered the spicy soup base, with Jiang Ci in the kitchen, her knife almost sparking from the speed of her chopping.
One by one, the hotpot bases and ingredients were served. When she came out, she noticed a few more survivors had arrived at the door.
There were no more seats left in the restaurant, so they had to wait outside. Jiang Ci found some stools from the warehouse and let them sit for a while.
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