【Task Released】
【Task One: Get one guest to check into room 101.
Task reward: Unlock rooms 102 and 103.
Task Two: Set up the vending machine and sell 10 items.
Task reward: Egg (vending machine item), sausage link (vending machine item).】
Oh right, she still hadn’t set up her vending machine!
She quickly pulled it out, picked a pink casing, definitely not because she liked pink, of course, and set it up by the front courtyard gate, spending another 20 points on a simple white table and chairs to go with it.
To be honest, this early into the apocalypse, business was probably going to be slow, she’d likely need to wait at least a month, until people outside had either used up or lost access to what supplies they still had.
Yuan Gungun curled its lips into a smirk that was thirty percent disdain, seventy percent mockery.
With all that sorted, Bao Taozi gave Qi Heng a room, he moved into 101, priced at 50 points a night, with rent rising as more amenities got added.
“Uncle Qi, once I’m able to hire staff, you can come work here. For now, you’ll just have to stay as a guest.”
“Haha, no worries at all, Taotao. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even be living somewhere this safe. Besides, your Uncle Qi came pretty well-stocked, I’ve got plenty of points to spare!”
Bao Taozi smiled, and just then the system’s voice chimed in.
【Task One complete. Reward received: Rooms 102 and 103 unlocked.】
【Points received: Electricity top-up, 200 points.】
Ooh, that must be from Uncle Qi topping up his electricity credit!
Guests’ electricity rates were much higher than what she paid herself, 200 points would probably last him about a month.
Heading back upstairs, Bao Taozi pulled out a portion of tomato and egg over white rice to eat, eating rich food every single day was getting old.
She opened the panel.
Points held: 2,030
Inventory: Points-based air conditioner x1, luxury hotel building fragment x1, hotel single bed x1, lottery ticket x1.
Staff: 0
Hotel rooms: 0
Level: 2,030/100,000
Task: Sell ten vending machine items, 0/10 complete.
“Just a reminder, you can’t go around telling people to buy things. It has to be voluntary.”
Yuan Gungun said, a little smugly.
“I know, I know!”
The thought that had just started forming in her head got squashed right back down. Damn it.
“By the way, room 102’s open now, don’t say I never gave you anything. Go tell your eldest uncle’s family to move in.”
“Let me finish eating first.”
Bao Taozi wolfed down the rest of her meal in a few bites and headed to the main hall, where the eldest uncle’s family was already waiting.
Whenever the hotel unlocked a new room, it announced it to the whole building, so of course they’d heard.
They didn’t want to be a burden on Taozi, and they also knew it wasn’t proper to keep staying in her grandparents’ room, besides, it wasn’t exactly comfortable for a daughter-in-law to be sharing space with her in-laws either.
“Eldest Uncle, coming right up!”
“That’s right, better grab our room early, haha.”
Room 102 hadn’t been decorated yet, so Bao Taozi had her uncle wait a moment.
She opened the renovation panel, first applying the same one-click layout as room 101. Since she didn’t have a double bed in inventory, she spent 100 points on a nice-looking one in the renovation menu, since this was a whole family, not a lone bachelor like Uncle Qi, Bao Taozi expanded the room size a bit and added a bathroom with separate wet and dry areas, following the same layout as the rest of the hotel. She also installed one of the points-based air conditioners. Unfortunately she didn’t have a spare points-based fridge, appliances in general were pricey, so her uncle’s family would just have to make do without one for now.
Figuring the room was a bit small and they’d have nowhere to eat together, she set up a large white dining table with six matching white chairs right across from the two rooms’ doors, by the window, that gave it the right feel.
Once it was ready, Bao Taozi asked her uncle for his card and swiped it at the machine on the front desk, 80 points deducted.
“Uncle, your family’s staying in 102, rent is 80 points a day. Just swipe your membership card at the door.”
A real all-in-one card system now, haha.
“Alright, we’ll go get our things moved in!”
Bao Taozi smiled and nodded, then handed her eldest uncle a vegetable salad and a serving of pickled fish soup.
“This is for little brother’s meal. Just have him come find me every day from now on.”
“Thanks, Taotao!”
Bao Taozi suddenly realized something, she’d collected room payments, so why hadn’t her points gone up?
“The points from rent all sit in the system store’s balance, you just didn’t notice the balance display when you paid. Although if you want, you can withdraw it, just a 1% service fee!”
Watching the little system practically glow with excitement over that one percent fee, Bao Taozi laughed helplessly.
“Don’t you systems have some kind of ranking system too?”
Yuan Gungun froze for a second, then bristled all over.
“Are you here to mock me?! Even if I’m ranked last, I’m still a capable little system! Don’t look down on me!”
Confessing without even being asked, haha. Bao Taozi found it genuinely pitiful how dim it could be. She’d have to help it earn more points from now on! Get it out of last place as soon as possible!
“No such thing, I’m just thinking about how to help you earn more points. Come on, hurry up and release a task.”
Hearing that, Yuan Gungun was touched, and went off tearfully to fetch a task.
【Task Released】
【Task One: Rescue your aunt’s older brother, Li Jianguo, and his family of four.
The four of them are located in Hai City District One, Chengfeng Residential Complex, Building 1, Floor 17. Given the risk involved in this mission, protecting the host’s life is the system’s responsibility. A protective pendant has been issued, capable of blocking all damage, equivalent in effect to the protective barrier. It has been placed in the system inventory, simply wear it to activate!
Task reward: Auto-renewal machine x1, 5,000 points, unlock room 104.
Task time limit: 24 hours.】
Bao Taozi accepted the task and sat up straight. The fact that this task had come with a time limit, didn’t that mean her aunt’s older brother’s family was in genuine danger?
She decided not to mention this to the rest of the family. She’d head out right now, leaving only a message for the system to play after she left.
She pulled the protective pendant from her inventory and put it on, then got into her RV and set off.
Just then, her recorded message played back at the villa: Everyone, I’m heading out for a bit. Today’s dangerous, zombies and other mutated creatures are probably going to show up before long! Just stay safe at home and there’s no danger. Don’t worry about me, I’ll come back safely!
The world was still eerily quiet, people probably hadn’t woken up yet. But since the system’s task had warned of danger, that likely meant things would start waking up along the way.
Sure enough, only about ten minutes into the drive, as she crossed the bridge, she started hearing screams and zombie roars coming from every direction.
They’re here. The zombies are here.
She stomped the gas pedal, and twenty minutes later reached the residential complex. She found the building, parked, pulled out the sharpened cleaver she’d bought, and headed toward the elevator.
The elevator had already stopped running, so she had to take the emergency stairwell instead, climbing up floor by floor.
Along the way she only ran into two zombies, and cut both down without a moment’s hesitation.
After all, she’d already braced herself mentally, killing zombies wasn’t much of a burden for her.
Finally reaching the seventeenth floor, she found four units total. Three of them had sounds of someone banging on the door and horrible zombie shrieking. Once even one family member turned into a zombie, the rest of the household was pretty much doomed.
She walked up to the one door with no banging sounds and knocked.
Someone came to answer, a man’s trembling voice asking, “Who… who is it?”
“My aunt is Li Qing, do you know her?”
“I know her! I know her! She’s my little sister! You’re here for us? Is my sister safe?!”
Bao Taozi didn’t answer him right away, only telling him not to open the door yet, she’d clear out the zombies first.
The shrieking was giving her a headache.
She kicked open each of the other three doors, cutting down whatever came out of each one, she couldn’t be hurt anyway. As she’d climbed the stairs, she’d noticed that any zombie that got close to her simply got knocked away.
Within a few minutes, everything outside was cleared. Only then did she remember that the spirit spring space needed crystal cores to level up. Using her cleaver, she cracked open a zombie’s skull and, sure enough, found a white crystal inside, this had to be a crystal core.
She cracked open every zombie’s skull, collecting fifteen crystal cores, and stashed them all in her space.
Only then did she knock on Li Jianguo’s door.
Li Jianguo, having heard the banging outside stop, had thought about going out to help, but the door was blocked by the zombie corpses Bao Taozi had piled up, it seemed she’d anticipated he might try to come out and had planned ahead.
The door opened. Bao Taozi gave Li Jianguo a bright smile and said, “Uncle Jianguo, I’m here to take you all somewhere safe. My aunt’s there too.”
“You’re Taozi, aren’t you? You’ve grown so much! Come in, come in, quick!”
Li Jianguo’s wife exclaimed with delight.
“We really owe you everything! Otherwise your Uncle Jianguo and I wouldn’t have known what to do! How are you so capable? My legs went weak just listening to the noise outside!”