“This water flow is way too small. Can’t I even take a shower?”
After returning to the employee dormitory from outside, Su Su ate her dinner. When she went to the bathroom, she discovered that even with the faucet turned to the maximum, the stream of water was only as thick as her pinky finger. Next to the mirror was a small display screen used for swiping cards to use water.
She had been covered in sweat earlier, and the clothes on her body were practically turning sour.
— Apologies, Host. The inn is currently only equipped with the most basic facilities. If you wish to have a shower room, you must purchase it yourself.
Su Su opened the Store to search and found that the cheapest shower room cost five hundred points. Splendid—it was completely incompatible with a pauper like her.
“No way. My clothes are already stinking. You’re the one who brought me to this place; you have to take responsibility.” Su Su stood in the bathroom and decided she wasn’t leaving.
— It’s not as if there’s no other way, Host. Although you can’t afford a separate shower room right now, you can buy a showerhead set directly.
A showerhead?
Su Su searched again and quickly found the most basic shower equipment. It cost exactly one hundred points, which she could just barely afford. She bought it immediately and installed it inside one of the toilet stalls.
She didn’t let the remaining ten points go to waste either, buying a plastic basin, a towel, a toothbrush, and toothpaste to complete the set. The kit cost exactly ten points. Once the items were purchased, her points balance officially dropped to zero.
Half an hour later, Su Su walked out of the bathroom with a relaxed expression, carrying her basin. In the lobby, she happened to run into the mother and daughter coming in from outside. Seeing Su Su’s wet hair and her clean face, their mouths dropped open in surprise.
“Bo—Boss, did you just take a shower?” Li Xiaoxi stared at Su Su blankly. The woman had suddenly become so clean that she almost didn’t recognize her.
“Yes. I installed a showerhead in the bathroom. If you want to wash up, you can go as well, but you’ll have to swipe your points for water usage.” Everything in the inn cost points, so Su Su had no choice but to become stingy. “Oh, right, the water in the bathroom is non-potable.”
“Alright, we understand.”
The mother and daughter felt this was perfectly normal. After all, seawater was toxic; without filtration, it couldn’t be used for drinking, let alone general washing. They had no objections and walked past Su Su toward the bathroom.
The moment they crossed paths, Su Su realized why they were so agitated. Having drifted at sea for so long, Su Su’s body had long been pickled in the smell of sweat and fish, making her desensitized to the odors of others. Now that she had showered and the sweat and brine were gone, she could naturally smell them.
Less than a minute later, after confirming there really was a showerhead, the two walked out looking exceptionally excited.
“Boss, do you have any extra toiletries? We’d like to buy a set as well.”
“Of course. As many as you need.”
Since there was only one showerhead, the mother and daughter tried to share whatever they could, such as toothpaste and shampoo. Su Su collected forty-five points from the two of them, then spent fifteen points in the Store to buy the items for them.
With a flick of her wrist, she had earned thirty points. This was much easier than earning money through providing lodging. Su Su watched with a grin as the pair went to top up their cards again, while she turned and returned to the employee dormitory.
Ever since she landed on the lighthouse, the ownership of the lighthouse belonged to her. Without her permission, non-guests could not enter the inn during non-business hours. This level of security made her feel particularly at ease when returning to her room.
“It would be nice to have a hairdryer. Drying my hair by hand like this is too tiring.”
— Host, you will have everything in due time.
Amidst the System’s coaxing, Su Su slept soundly until dawn.
After she got up, performed a simple wash, and ate breakfast, she sat at the door watching the sky for a while before anyone came out of the rooms. Li Xiaoxi had changed out of her greasy clothes from the day before and was wearing a white long-skirt nightgown, stretching as she walked out.
“Morning, Boss!”
If it weren’t for the twelve o’clock checkout time, Li Xiaoxi really would have wanted to sleep forever. She never expected this inn to be the real deal! Last night was the best, most stable sleep she’d had in five years. No stormy waves, no roaring monsters; she and her mother didn’t have to worry about falling into the sea to feed the monsters if they let their guard down. It felt as if her life from before the apocalypse had returned.
Unfortunately, they had already made an appointment with others to head toward a Sea Base today and were forced to leave. Before departing, Li Yang and her daughter each bought fifty points worth of steamed buns and water. They also noted down the lighthouse coordinates and only left the inn reluctantly when they ran out of time.
Once the guests were gone, Su Su got up to check the rooms. She had to admit, the rooms were indeed shabby; the mattresses on the beds were barely thicker than shoe insoles, and the pillows were as hard as rocks.
Su Su took a quick scan and found that the mother and daughter hadn’t left behind a single piece of trash. She wasn’t sure if they hadn’t made any or if they took it with them when they left.
— Host, it’s neither. The trash was swallowed by the trash bin. The System suddenly spoke with a very proud tone.
“Swallowed?” Su Su looked down at the trash bin under the desk. It looked even more broken than the ones she used to buy at two-dollar shops. This thing could swallow trash?
— Of course. This is a System product. All trash generated within the inn will be automatically processed as long as it is placed in the designated location.
Not bad. It saved her the trouble of dealing with the inn’s waste. Seeing that the room was the same as it was before the guests checked in, with nothing much to clean, Su Su simply opened the window to ventilate before leaving the room.
No phone, no computer, and not even any guests—Su Su’s entire day was incredibly boring. She spent five points to buy a wall clock and hung it on the wall behind the cashier desk. Watching the sky turn dark outside as the time reached nine in the evening, she stood up, prepared to close the door and go to sleep.
She hadn’t expected that coming to this world would actually cure her habit of staying up late. She gave a helpless, bitter smile and was just about to close the door when she suddenly caught a glimpse of a white light shining across the sea outside the iron door.
“Brother Xin, look! There seems to be someone inside that doorway.” A man was holding a pair of binoculars, looking in the direction of the lighthouse.
The man called Brother Xin quickly took the binoculars. In the center of his vision, a bright light shone from the open door, with a silhouette standing at the entrance blocking part of the light.
“Yeah, someone’s there.” Although the figure remained still, Yu Xin was certain that it was a person.
“Then, Brother Xin, do we keep moving forward?”
Yu Xin held the binoculars without moving for a long while before speaking in a low voice, “Forward.”
Their group had lived in the waters around this area for about a year. When they set out for the Sea Base to buy supplies last week, this place had been empty. Where did this lighthouse come from? Yu Xin knit his brows, finding the matter eerie yet being unable to make sense of it. He was especially shocked when he saw the glowing sign high above.
An inn? In a place like this, how could there be an inn?
Filled with doubt and curiosity, a white yacht sped toward the lighthouse.
Oh, here comes some big business.
When the vessel got closer, Su Su saw that what was approaching wasn’t a small, broken wooden boat like the one used by Li Yang and her daughter, but a small yacht. A white searchlight was mounted on the front of the yacht, and it soon arrived before the lighthouse.
“Secure your boat to the chains!” Su Su stood at the edge of the platform and shouted down toward the base of the lighthouse.
The sudden sound startled several people standing on the yacht’s deck, nearly making them fall into the sea.
“How is it a woman?” someone whispered.
“What? A woman isn’t good enough for you?” A short-haired girl dressed in all black glanced at the boy who spoke and was the first to disembark. The boy shivered and didn’t dare say more.
Qiao He quickly climbed the steep stone steps to the platform. As soon as she arrived, she saw Su Su standing there.
“Hello. Are you the boss of this inn?”
“Yes. Are you looking for a place to stay?” After Su Su briefly introduced the inn’s conditions and regulations, she didn’t wait for the people who hadn’t climbed up yet and led the girl directly back inside the inn.
The moment Qiao He stepped through the door and saw everything before her, her eyes widened in disbelief. She wanted to ask something, but remembering there were only two rooms in total, she said nothing and immediately pulled out heart cores to process a membership card.
Five hundred points. She was indeed a wealthy person. Su Su’s gaze toward her became much more enthusiastic.
“Boss, you said the steamed buns and water… do I just swipe the card here to choose them?” Qiao He stared intently at the warming box.
“Yes. There are options on the screen. Once you’ve made your choice and swiped your card, you can retrieve them yourself.” Before a product was purchased, the warming box remained locked; only guests who had paid could open it.
While introducing the system to the guest, Su Su bought a notice board from the Store. She could handle one or two guests now, but if there were more in the future, wouldn’t she be worked to death every day? She took out the matching writing pen and wrote in white ink on the black board, listing the inn’s requirements and rules one by one. She included how to process a membership card, how to top up, how to buy food, how to shower in the bathroom, the price standards, business hours, and so on. Once finished, she placed the notice board directly in front of the cashier desk to ensure all guests could see it.
“Boss, we can actually shower in your shop?” While Su Su was writing, Qiao He had successfully bought ten bottles of water and ten buns. As a Space Ability User, her greatest wish was to fill her entire space with supplies. Unfortunately, everyone’s abilities had awakened after the ocean apocalypse began, and the supplies Qiao He had hoarded in the early years were mostly gone. If she hadn’t needed to confirm if the buns and water were safe first, she truly would have wanted to exchange all her heart cores for food.
“Of course. It’s right inside the bathroom; you can go see for yourself. But the water is non-potable.” For guests staying at the inn, the daily room fee included a standard amount of water for washing, but if usage exceeded the limit, they would have to spend extra points to buy more. Since this portion of the money didn’t count toward the System account, Su Su didn’t care much. After explaining, she stood to the side to wait for the other guests.
Hearing Su Su’s words, Qiao He didn’t stop for a second. She ran into the bathroom with excitement in her heart, saw the faucet, turned it on, and used her hand to catch the fine stream of water. Confirming there was water in the bathroom, she opened a toilet stall. When she saw that familiar showerhead, tears nearly came to her eyes.
Because water on the yacht was limited, she hadn’t taken a shower in half a month. During the day, the temperature on the sea surface could reach about fifty degrees, and this wasn’t even the hottest time of the year. In another month, the temperature would reach a staggering seventy or eighty degrees. By then, the entire sea surface would be like a giant steamer; the seawater would constantly evaporate, and the water vapor would congeal in the air, threatening to steam all surviving humans.
Qiao He swallowed. Whether it was real or fake, she was going to have a satisfying shower today. Like a gust of wind, she rushed out of the bathroom and straight out of the inn, heading for the yacht.
“Hey, why are you coming out?” The others in the yacht had hesitated on the deck for a long time. The lighthouse’s appearance was far too eerie, and they didn’t dare to gamble easily. In the end, Yu Xin made the call, deciding that they had to go up and look regardless.
The group had just reached the platform when they saw Qiao He rushing out excitedly. They called out to her, but she ignored them.
“What’s going on?” The courage the group had finally mustered began to falter again. They looked at each other, unwilling to move forward.
Meanwhile, Qiao He quickly put all her things into her space inside the yacht. In less than five minutes, she came running back to the inn. Standing on the platform, the group heard footsteps behind them and looked over, only to see that Qiao He still didn’t pay them any mind and charged straight into the hotel.
“Hey, Qiao He! What are you doing?”
The only response they received was the sound of the iron door closing. Yu Xin’s face turned grim for a moment. After a long while, he waved a hand to the others.
“Let’s go. We’re going in.”