Lin Xia opened the task panel and flipped directly to the page for the orange-level upgrade task.
The orange-level task was a high-level enhancement quest. It consisted of four requirements: storing 500 catties of edible ingredients; using the collected ingredients as raw materials to create 10 distinct recipes, with each recipe requiring a submitted finished product for review; achieving an “Excellent” rating in the review; and completing all of this within a 24-hour time limit.
Similarly, the yellow-level upgrade task also required submitting ten combined recipes. Aside from the amount of ingredients collected, if the recipes he had just submitted all achieved an “Excellent” rating or higher, the third requirement of the orange-level task would show as complete, and the progress bar would move forward. Conversely, if they didn’t, there might be a certain degree of score deduction.
Lin Xia swallowed his saliva and looked directly at the result of the third assessment.
5/10!
Lin Xia couldn’t believe his eyes; he pulled Chi Zheng over to confirm it again. It was indeed 5/10!
“But I only received three ‘Excellent’ feedback forms…”
Lin Xia scratched his head.
“So, is the assessment standard of the diners different from the system’s, or did someone who didn’t fill out a feedback form give me an ‘Excellent’? Which 5 dishes actually got an ‘Excellent’ rating?”
The stall cart remained quiet; no one could answer him.
However, it wasn’t a total loss. At least he could confirm that the braised leg bone and mixed meat soup was an “Excellent” dish. The customer had explicitly written in the feedback form that they liked the texture of the bone, and among the 10 dishes Lin Xia had submitted, this was the only one that was braised with the bone-in.
“Five ‘Excellent’ ratings, so the yellow-level task should be successful, right?”
Chi Zheng looked around.
“Didn’t you say I’d get a bed?”
Who cares about the bed? Lin Xia was still studying the orange-level task progress bar.
Counting the previous white-level task, he had already collected 300 catties of ingredients, so the first requirement of the orange-level task had advanced to 3/5. The second requirement, “Submit Recipes,” was already marked as complete, but because the number of recipes was tied to the rating, it was not displayed on the progress bar.
As for the third requirement—the one he was most concerned about—the previous attempt had resulted in a score deduction due to submitting unqualified recipes. While there was a clear improvement this time, it still hadn’t reached the goal.
However, overall, the orange-level task was temporarily stabilized. Even if he submitted unqualified recipes next, the current progress bar had a certain margin for error, avoiding the dire situation of having the task directly judged as a failure.
Lin Xia was quite satisfied with this result.
Through this round of experimentation, he had also determined his seasoning preferences and cooking methods. Being rated as “Passing” before was mainly due to the ingredients; replacing them with mutated tiger meat was much better. Even when mixed with ordinary ingredients, the feedback from diners had improved significantly.
Therefore, for the remaining 200-catty gap in ingredients, he decided to select only mutated beast meat.
Chi Zheng asked him about the bed again, saying he wanted to see the dimensions of the new bed so he could prepare the bedding.
Lin Xia’s mind was still preoccupied with the ingredients. Hearing this, he didn’t think much of it and opened the panel to collect the rewards for the yellow-level task.
There was the familiar dazzling white light. Inside the cart, there was now a high chair, a bed, and a pure water bucket that was clearly much larger, making the space suddenly feel crowded.
“Tsk, it’s a wall-mounted bed.”
Chi Zheng tried pulling it.
“Integrated. You can fold it against the wall when it’s not in use.”
He unfolded the bed, pretending to be casual, but actually stealthily observing Lin Xia’s expression:
“This bed doesn’t look very big. It probably won’t fit two quilts, so we’ll have to squeeze in together.”
“Oh.”
Lin Xia nodded.
He was still researching the vehicle attributes after the upgrade and wasn’t thinking too much about it.
When the two of them were wandering the streets, they had slept in bridge tunnels. In the middle of winter, they didn’t even have a straw mat, and they had survived by curling up and holding onto each other, hadn’t they?
Having a bed and a quilt was already very good.
With both upgrade tasks completed, the stall cart’s panel attributes updated once more:
Initial Version: An ordinary stall cart, made of thick sheet metal, Defense 30, can withstand 6 attacks from a Level 1 mutated beast; the glass is Level 5 explosion-proof glass, Defense 15, can withstand 3 attacks from a Level 1 mutated beast.
Thermal insulation Level 1, cold in winter and hot in summer. Built-in set of gas stoves, some basic seasonings, can cook simple food.
Furniture: Two chairs, one wooden bed.
Power: None. (But it has four wheels.)
Lin Xia nodded.
After two upgrades, the stall cart could now withstand a certain intensity of attacks from mutated beasts, and its safety already exceeded that of the luxury cars they used to rent at high prices.
But the lack of a power source remained a shortcoming.
Renting luxury cars to run away wasn’t a long-term solution. The Alliance credit points would eventually run out, and currently, all public services in the Fourth District had been halted. Once the car’s battery died, they wouldn’t even be able to find a place in the city to charge it.
The red-level task had to succeed!
“We still have one mutated tiger hind leg we can use to make dishes, but we are still short 200 catties of ingredients.”
Lin Xia squatted on the ground, observing the tiger carcass.
“So, are there any other edible parts? The ingredient collection task is still lacking. How about the front legs of this thing?”
Chi Zheng shook his head.
“The front legs are inedible.”
He pointed to the poison gland sacs on the mutated tiger’s front paws.
“When it attacked me earlier, some of the venom was sprayed from here—it came out in spurts, very quickly.”
“Look at this circle of lymph nodes; this is where several glands meet, so the meat quality will definitely be affected.”
“If you really need to put something in your mouth, you can look at the tail.”
The tail?
Lin Xia went to look at the tail. He found that although the meat quality couldn’t compare to the hind legs, there weren’t any obvious glands. He just wasn’t sure about the texture.
Between the two of them, Chi Zheng had always been the one responsible for finding food, and he had always been able to find things that were edible; he had never let Lin Xia go hungry. This habit was formed when the two were wandering the streets. Initially, Lin Xia was worried about food poisoning, but facts had proven that Chi Zheng had never once been wrong.
“The tail weighs 50 catties, so we’re still short 150…”
Lin Xia was just pondering this when he was unexpectedly pulled up from the ground. He looked up and saw Chi Zheng staring expressionlessly in a certain direction.
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone is coming.”
Lin Xia was startled, then suddenly realized.
Right. After surviving the first wave of pollution, other survivors would definitely come out to collect supplies. In Green Bay City, this was the only chain supermarket of its kind, and there were quite a few people who knew the location of the warehouse.
Just as he was thinking about it, the sound of an engine reached his ears.
An off-road vehicle sped onto the freight ramp. It was packed to the brim with five people—three men and two women. The one driving had a scar on his face, his lips tightly pressed, and his serious expression looked quite fierce.
He drove the car onto the rooftop terrace. When he saw that a luxury car was already parked in the vast open space, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.
“Oh, someone beat us to it!”
The yellow-haired man in the passenger seat poked his head out.
“At least it’s just a shared car. The trunk capacity is limited, so it won’t really hold us up.”
As he said this, a short, thin man in the back seat immediately chimed in to flatter him.
“Haha, you’re right. How big can a trunk be? It’s about the same as going to a small convenience store. Why bother coming to the supermarket warehouse? You can see it, but you can’t take it!”
“Our spatial ability user’s storage space is a full 100 cubic meters, right, Xinxin?! This time, you can take as much as you want.”
“You can’t put it that way.”
Chang Xinxin pursed her lips and smiled.
“The Great Cataclysm has happened, so everyone depends on their own skills. Maybe they have a spatial ability user too.”
Although she said that, in her heart, Chang Xinxin didn’t believe it.
Spatial abilities were rare; how could it be so easy to run into one?! Among the many survivors around her, the most common type was physical enhancement. Like the siblings Chen Song and Chen Mei—one a fire-type ability user and the other a water-type—they were already one-in-a-hundred standouts; otherwise, she wouldn’t have agreed to team up with them.
Before Chang Xinxin joined, the team consisted of people who knew each other. The scarred man, Chen Song, and the braided girl, Chen Mei, were siblings. The two young men, the yellow-haired man and the “monkey,” were Chen Song’s subordinates, but both of them only had physical enhancements.
Before the Great Cataclysm, Chang Xinxin had rented an apartment in the Chen family’s building. She knew that Chen Song operated a second-hand car dealership, and the off-road vehicle they were currently driving was merchandise from that dealership.
Chang Xinxin didn’t think much of a small boss from the Fourth District, but things changed after the Chen siblings awakened their abilities. So, she took the initiative to reveal her own ability and successfully joined the team.
“Monkey, take the rear. Golden-hair, protect Xiao Mei and Xinxin. Everyone, follow me.”
Chen Song had a very good sense of being the “big brother.” He was the first to push open the door to the terrace. He was very cautious, lifting his flashlight to shine it around the interior to confirm there was no danger before carefully stepping into the corridor.
Before they arrived, Chen Mei had already told everyone about the situation in the warehouse: the third floor was the logistics warehouse, the second floor was daily necessities, and the food and cold storage were on the first floor and the basement, respectively.
Although they knew that someone had already entered the warehouse ahead of them, everyone was still extremely careful. The “monkey” and the “yellow-hair” kept observing the surroundings; if they discovered anything unusual, they would immediately protect the two girls and retreat.
And the core of the entire team, of course, was Chang Xinxin, who possessed a personal storage space. The Alliance had already suspended public services below the First District and would not replenish life supplies to these areas; everything had to rely on the survivors’ self-reliance. To survive, of course, they had to do their best to store necessary resources. Resources were hard currency—this point remained true even at the survivor bases.
Walking to the middle section of the third floor, all five of them saw the scene of the overly tragic fight.
“They really made a mess of this place!”
The yellow-haired man looked at the mottled ground of the corridor and clicked his tongue.
“No wonder they dared to be the first to enter; they’ve truly got some skills.”
When he said this, Chen Song, who was walking in front, had already seen the mutated tiger’s head, which was only half intact. He stopped, shone his flashlight on it, and his expression grew more solemn.
A one-hit kill—clean and decisive. He asked himself and knew for certain he couldn’t have done it.
But why was only the head left? Where did the part below the neck go?
And the crystal core…
Chen Song had found a crystal core in the ashes of the mutated rat, but he didn’t know how to use it. Intuition told him this was something good, something that should be collected as much as possible and carefully preserved.
Looking at the remains of this mutated tiger, the crystal core must have at least been at the intermediate level, right?
How powerful must the person who killed it be? Could it be a high-level ability user!?