this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!
The person left to man the convenience store was a woman named Cheng Feng, who only had nine fingers. She said her finger had been cut off by someone in the past.
When talking about this, Cheng Feng’s expression was calm and indifferent.
When Jiang Ci asked about the person who had cut off her finger, Cheng Feng simply smiled, saying that the person was already dead, and that she had already personally avenged herself.
At that time, she had been in a predicament, pushed to the brink of death by others, yet she didn’t die. After turning the tables on them, the first one she had dealt with was that enemy of hers, even cutting off their fingers one by one.
With Cheng Feng guarding the store, the convenience store opened smoothly.
The survivors had already noticed the supplies here and gathered around after the opening. Seeing the announcement that gold could be exchanged for supplies in the early stages, they regretted not having obtained some gold earlier.
In the apocalypse, gold was practically worthless, equivalent to scrap iron. Being able to buy so many good things without using crystal cores naturally made everyone very happy.
After reading the announcement, the survivors glanced at the supplies in the convenience store through the glass, feeling a surge of motivation and quickly left.
Meanwhile, the fourth floor of the hotpot restaurant officially started its business. Sharp-eyed survivors quickly noticed the changes in the hotpot restaurant—the initial three-storeys had become four.
Just as everyone was curious about what had been added to the fourth floor, they saw a small blackboard at the entrance announcing the addition of rotating mini hotpots on the fourth floor, along with various snacks and drinks, followed by the prices for the rotating mini hotpots.
A hotpot sushi train, with one pot per person, sounded quite interesting. However, some survivors thought the pots were too small and not satisfying enough, preferring the larger communal pots.
In any case, the seats for the mini hotpots on the fourth floor were soon filled. The conveyor belt was already loaded with plates, including snacks like fried chicken and small cakes, and the beverage counter had ice-cold cola and bubbling soda.
The soup bases included clear broth, beef tallow, and seafood tomato, the same as the hotpot restaurant downstairs.
However, cooking only the food you like in individual pots had a different feeling compared to sharing a large hotpot with others.
Not long after, the survivors who went out to find gold returned, and the convenience store was instantly packed with people. Jiang Ci had to ask Song Jinchuan to maintain order, making the crowded survivors form a line.
Jiang Ci told everyone that although the convenience store had purchase limits, their inventory was definitely sufficient, and everyone could buy what they needed.
The restless survivors were immediately calmed by her statement and began to queue up obediently.
In front of Cheng Feng was an electronic scale used to weigh the gold.
Jiang Ci stood next to her, watching piles of gold being placed into the cash register, feeling an immense sense of satisfaction.
At that moment, the electronic scale suddenly let out an alarming beep.
Jiang Ci turned to look over and saw a man standing in front of the counter, with a pile of gold on the scale’s tray.
Cheng Feng frowned slightly, “Sorry, this doesn’t seem to be gold.”
“How could it not be gold? Take a closer look!” The man’s voice suddenly rose significantly.
“Let me see.” Jiang Ci walked over, picked up a piece of gold, weighed it in her hand, and examined it carefully. Compared to other gold, his pile seemed to have a brighter luster.
However, the electronic scale could distinguish real gold from fake gold. Since the man was still trying to deceive and pass off the fake gold to her, Jiang Ci directly called Song Jinchuan over to use his fire ability to melt the gold.
After the surface layer melted, the inside was entirely black.
With the evidence laid out before him, the man could no longer argue and had to admit his wrongdoing. When he went to look for gold, most of the nearby gold shops had already been emptied. Fearing that he might miss out on good items if he delayed any further, he came up with a crooked plan—to use the leftover fake gold that no one wanted and pass it off as the real thing.
Jiang Ci kicked the man out of the convenience store and added him to the blacklist, “I don’t need customers who resort to such underhanded tactics.”
Her words instantly turned the man’s face pale. Such a great opportunity, and he had managed to ruin it with his own actions.
Although he was now belatedly filled with regret, it was already too late to change anything. He knew the fate of those who were blacklisted by Jiang Ci’s stores—no matter how much they changed their appearance, hairstyle, or clothes, they would still somehow be recognized immediately upon entering. Now, the man could only think about how to make amends.
This incident served as a warning to others. Jiang Ci noticed that many survivors secretly discarded the cheap jewelry they had mixed in with their items.
Jiang Ci had previously mentioned that she would accept particularly beautiful gemstones or diamonds, either to keep for herself or for her mother. As a result, the survivors would deliberately set aside such items to show her.
It had to be said that the jewelry in this world was exquisitely crafted. Jiang Ci was very fond of the gemstone necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other items the survivors brought to her.
In the end, she accepted all of them and exchanged them for supplies based on the prices in this world. Gradually, not only did Cheng Feng remember her preferences, but even the survivors in line began to take note, carefully selecting items they thought would catch Jiang Ci’s favor.
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:
After the convenience store was running smoothly, Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan visited the food processing factory.
She hadn’t forgotten her task—to produce three new products at the food processing factory.
Jiang Ci looked at the existing ingredients and decided to combine braised meat, hotpot base, and rice, since braised meat cooked in hotpot was a common dish in her world.
After adding these ingredients, the main control panel didn’t alert her by saying that production was impossible.
Next, Jiang Ci entered beef, hotpot base, and rice into the blank food template, and out came self-heating beef hotpot rice.
Finally, she combined potatoes and beef to create potato beef rice.
With that, the three new products were set up. Jiang Ci exchanged a large amount of ingredients from the store and placed them in the raw ingredients section of the main control room. The ingredients would then go through washing, chopping, cooking, seasoning, and packaging before the finished products were ready.
The factory workers were unaware of the changes to the menu, but even without Jiang Ci supervising them, they remained exceptionally diligent and responsible.
The task wasn’t yet complete, as only after all three dishes were produced would Jiang Ci’s mission be considered as completed.
As the two left the factory and approached the hotpot restaurant, an alarm suddenly started beeping in Jiang Ci’s mind.
Jiang Ci paused for a moment, then quickened her pace toward the hotpot restaurant.
However, the situation in the hotpot restaurant wasn’t as tense as she had imagined; in fact, it was no different from usual.
Jiang Ci furrowed her brows slightly and scanned the crowd. Suddenly, she sensed a gaze falling from above. She quickly looked up and saw a particularly noticeable explosion of hair.
It was the person she had encountered outside the base that day!
Their eyes met, and the other person didn’t avert their eyes. Instead, they smiled at Jiang Ci, though there was no warmth in their eyes.
Sitting with the static-hair were eight people in total. One of them had cold, vertical pupils that didn’t seem to belong to a human at all.
He seemed to still be doing such experiments. She couldn’t understand why these people would agree to have their normal bodies mutilated into such a state.
“What’s going on? Didn’t you say the system would handle it?” Jiang Ci asked in confusion.
[I also mentioned that the system can only handle the system itself, not humans,] the system’s voice echoed in Jiang Ci’s mind. [But don’t worry, host. The entire area around the shop, as well as you, are under the system’s protection. I just checked, and although the other system’s energy is weak, it had its own methods, which was why it could hide for so long. That’s also why it took some time to for us to locate it. I’ve already reported its position, so it should be dealt with soon.]
Jiang Ci knew her system was reliable, so she wasn’t too worried about herself or the shop. Instead, she was more concerned about whether the other party would target the survivors nearby.
She briefly explained the situation to Song Jinchuan, who was beside her. He also glanced up, but the explosion of hair had already turned their head away.
After some thought, Jiang Ci decided to head up to the third floor of the hotpot restaurant.
The floor was filled with small private rooms, each one isolated from prying eyes.
When Jiang Ci arrived, the door to the private room was already open, and she locked eyes with the static-hair.
“Boss Jiang, you’ve really done a great job here. I really like both the architecture and the scenery,” the static-hair said, starting with an irrelevant remark.
Behind them, the man with vertical pupils closed the door to the private room.
After Jiang Ci entered, she noticed that everyone in the room was wearing a large cloak that covered their bodies.
However, she still caught a glimpse of something writhing beneath the cloaks.
“So, are you here to take over my shop?” Jiang Ci showed no fear as she sat down on an empty chair in the room.
“No, no, no. My dream isn’t to run a shop,” the explosion of hair chuckled, propping their chin on their hand with a lazy demeanor. “If I’m not mistaken, you have one too, don’t you?”
Although the statement seemed a bit random, Jiang Ci understood what he was trying to say. He was referring to her system.
Originally, the man with the explosive hairstyle hadn’t known about this. Although his system hadn’t detected anything, he was still clever enough to deduce a lot on his own.
Before becoming a host, he had been considered a genius among geniuses. Back then, his dream had been to dissect living humans.
Later, this idea was deemed too dangerous, and he was scolded by his mentor.
Others thought he had just been joking, but only he knew the true depth of his desire.
Hearing this, Jiang Ci instantly became alert, but then she remembered the comparison her system had made between the two systems and gradually relaxed.
She didn’t respond, just watched as the man with the explosive hairstyle enthusiastically rambled on, “Don’t you think we’re the chosen ones of this world? It’s only right for the world to be at our mercy. Isn’t it such a waste to just use it to open a restaurant?”
As he spoke, his eyes lit up, lost in his own fantasies of the future, “Just imagine, with a single thought, you could control life and death. Doesn’t that sound exhilarating?”
bro,,,idk i feel like this is the system’s responsibility to handle. isn’t it their negligence that caused this to happen? so doesn’t it only make sense for the system to handle it? not to mention,,,lowkey JC is useless without HH the tortoise and SJC, so if she didn’t have these two by her side and still met this guy, just how is she supposed to handle him?
