[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing Novice Quest (3): Have a guest purchase an item from the vending machine!]
[Reward: 30 Hotel Experience Points!]
[Reward: Unlocked the second floor of the hotel! Room construction quota increased by 5!]
[Congratulations to the host for leveling up the hotel! Current level: LV.1 (0/200)! The protective shield has been upgraded to a Level 6 shield, capable of withstanding attacks from Level 6 mutants and below! The range has expanded to 5 meters around the hotel perimeter!]
[Upgrade Rewards: 1. All-purpose Robot Xiao Yi. 2. Room construction quota +3.]
[The following new quests are now issued:]
[Novice Quest (4): Reach 8 hotel rooms (5/8)]
[Description: Congratulations on taking another step closer to your goal of becoming the chain hotel king! As the most, most, most, most awesome hotel in the wasteland, how can you possibly have a mere five guest rooms?! Expand! You must expand!]
[Rewards: 1. Hotel Experience 80 points. 2. Laundry room development authorization.]
Expansion, huh…
Right on cue, Chu Yi was planning to redesign the layout anyway.
He first stood up, walked over to the hallway, and took a moment to inspect and organize.
The three rooms on the left side would be shifted backward, leaving a space at the front to install a staircase.
Walking up the stairs led to a long corridor that branched off to the left and right.
Since the hotel faced south, using this corridor to arrange rooms meant that one entire row of rooms would face north, making it difficult to get much sunlight.
After some thought, Chu Yi decided to move the first-floor rooms up to the second floor.
Because the first-floor hallway, unlike the second floor’s, ran east-west, extending all the way back made the exterior architecture look rather strange.
He preferred square, neatly proportioned layouts, so that hallway had to go.
The system, listening in on Chu Yi’s thoughts: […]
He couldn’t care less about the silent system; the moment an idea popped into his head, he put it into action.
First, he purchased three basic rooms on the south-facing section, then selected the expansion option.
Each room expanded from 10 square meters to 15 square meters, which included a 3-square-meter bathroom complete with a toilet and sink, achieving a dry and wet separation.
The entire package cost a total of 320 points.
Remaining points: 700.
With that done, the quest was completed.
[Congratulations to the host for completing the quest!]
[Reward: Hotel Experience 80 points!]
[Reward: Laundry room development authorization!]
[Novice Quest (5): Build a laundry room (0/1)]
[Description: The wasteland is filled with radiation and garbage, meaning clothing naturally picks up all sorts of viruses. Having a laundry room is absolute necessity! Hurry up and let the guests try out the new hotel facilities!]
[Rewards: 1. Hotel Experience 40 points. 2. Unlock the third floor of the hotel.]
No need to rush.
Chu Yi went downstairs first, retrieved the quest reward from the system’s storage space—the all-purpose robot Xiao Yi.
Resembling a hotel robot from Blue Star, it was a mobile machine about half a human’s height, topped with a screen displaying a smiling expression.
“Hello, Master, I am the all-purpose robot Xiao Yi. Do you have any instructions?” It spoke in an adorable child’s voice.
Chu Yi carefully read the manual.
Aside from running errands and cleaning, it also featured a combat system, allowing it to substitute for him in introducing the hotel to guests and guiding them through the check-in process.
“Help me input this: currently, there are two types of rooms here. One is a 15-square-meter standard single room priced at 150 points per day. In addition to the base room cost, this includes a 5-point daily bathroom maintenance and usage fee (including water), a 5-point daily electricity fee, and a 10-point per-person oxygen/breathing fee.”
Xiao Yi’s screen displayed the words [Recording…].
“Alright, good, continue,” Chu Yi said. “Then there’s the second type: a 12-square-meter discounted single room at 120 points per day, which also includes the three miscellaneous fees mentioned above.” Pointing at the wall, Chu Yi added, “Help me print out a price list—including the breakdown of miscellaneous fees within the room rate—so guests can see it clearly.”
“Received! Xiao Yi will execute immediately!” The tiny robot spun its wheels, whirring as it got straight to work.
By evening, Chu Yi acquired another boxed meal and placed it back into the vending machine for 30 points.
Spotted by Xue Xiaobai, who had come out to hunt mutants, it was promptly purchased.
The next morning, just as Xue Xiaobai and Zhu Bei were heading out together to hunt, Chu Yi called out to stop them.
“As it happens, could you please call your family members out?” he said casually. “The hotel is undergoing an upgrade today, adding a bathroom to every room, which means the prices will be adjusted accordingly.”
Without waiting for their reaction, he pointed to a newly appeared chart on the wall right next to the crystal core exchange list.
“This is the expense overview for each room. After today’s upgrade, your rooms will become discounted single rooms. Any questions?”
Hearing that the hotel was upgrading, Xue Xiaobai felt a brief flutter of anxiety.
Yet after reading the standards, his worries melted away.
The manager truly was a wonderful person!
“In other words, since my mother and I are sharing a room now, it’ll be 130 per day, right? Because there’s an extra person, we pay an extra breathing fee.”
Not bad, still quite sharp.
Chu Yi raised an eyebrow and answered, “Correct.”
Xue Xiaobai nodded vigorously. “That’s fine! The manager’s pricing is completely fair!”
Having a bathroom right inside the room meant neither he nor his mother had to trek to the public restroom outside—how convenient was that! Plus, the room had gotten bigger!
All things considered, factoring in the protective barrier maintenance fee, it only cost 8 extra points. What a bargain!
Zhu Bei had no objections either.
His sister was in poor health, so having a private bathroom would make things much easier for her—everyone in the base used honey buckets that had to be emptied daily, not to mention this place featured auto-flushing public restrooms, let alone independent en-suite facilities!
Most importantly, they were entirely counting on the hotel to help heal his sister’s condition. Even if the price doubled, they would grit their teeth and buy the right to stay.
Besides, getting a private bathroom and an expanded room area for just 8 extra points?
It wasn’t price-gouging at all; it was an absolute steal!
As for Chu Yi, he completely tuned out the system’s nagging about “free room upgrades.”
“Alright, then please tidy up your luggage and head up to the second floor. Mr. Xue, you and your mother will take 201.” He turned his gaze to Zhu Bei. “And Mr. Zhu, your rooms are 202 and 203.”
These guests were relatively low-maintenance with minimal luggage.
After communicating with Auntie Xue and Zhu Nan inside their rooms, they helped each other up to the second floor.
During the gap while they were taking the stairs, Chu Yi immediately commanded, “Quickly relocate the first-floor rooms to the second floor and add bathrooms and sinks.”
[…]
And just like that, the north-facing corridor on the second floor gained five discounted single rooms.
[Added 2 square meters per room across five rooms. Added five sets of sinks and toilets. Package cost total 15 points, deducted from mall points.]
[Remaining points: 685]
Once all this was completed, the system timidly piped up: [Host, won’t this look a bit bad? After all, upgrading the rooms without the guests’ consent feels a bit like forced buying and selling. If nothing else, we could gift them a day of free stay to win over the guests.]
Chu Yi frowned. “Didn’t they all agree? They didn’t look unhappy to me.”
[It just feels against protocol…] Training manuals had never mentioned tactics like this.
Hearing this, Chu Yi waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t understand. Ever heard an old saying?”
[Huh?]
“Making freebies a habit turns guests into deadbeats.”
The system was completely bewildered: [What kind of old saying is that? My database doesn’t seem to have it…]
“Of course you won’t find it,” Chu Yi said. “Because I just made it up right now.”
[?]
“The logic stands though. Tell me, does my made-up quote rhyme or not?”
[Rhyme, rhyme?]
Seeing that the system was no longer objecting, Chu Yi was finally satisfied. He walked up to the second floor a step behind Xue Xiaobai and the others.
Right next to the stairs, he converted the space he had deliberately left vacant into a laundry room.
Ten square meters in size, outfitted with six washing machines operated by card-swiping at 5 points per wash.
Naturally, this point total included the cost of laundry detergent.
[Laundry room construction successful! Deducted 10 points! Initial setup includes six washing machines; purchase more using points!]
[Remaining points: 675]
After posting the notice in the laundry room, Chu Yi swept his gaze around, looking at the spotless floor as another thought flashed through his mind.
The thought flickered by so quickly the system couldn’t even catch it, leaving the digital entity feeling somewhat nervous, convinced the host was about to pull another bizarre stunt.
Yet Chu Yi said nothing and did nothing.
He simply walked back downstairs while listening to the system’s notification chime reporting a completed quest.
[Congratulations to the host for completing Novice Quest (5): Build a laundry room!]
[Reward: Hotel Experience 40 points!]
[Reward: Hotel third-floor space! Room construction quota +5! Current remaining buildable rooms: 8]
Completing three quests in a single day—how could that not be considered rapid progress?
[Congratulations to the host for completing all Novice Quests! Main quests are now updating!]
[Main Quest: Total revenue of 1000 points! (0/1000)]
[Rewards: 1. Hotel Experience 100 points. 2. Restaurant development authorization.]
[Daily Quests unlocked!]
[1. Daily Quest (1): Have a guest check in (0/1)]
[Reward: Hotel Experience 10 points.]
[2. Daily Quest (2): Have three guests check in (0/3)]
[Reward: Hotel Experience 30 points.]
[Note: Daily quests consist of three slots every day. The first two remain fixed, while the third slot randomly refreshes with special tasks (if none appear, there are none). Special tasks offer generous rewards, so be sure to complete them!]
Chu Yi folded away all the quest notifications. Looking at the 0 revenue count, he knew the previous earnings didn’t count toward this.
The system really was a stingy one.
He sighed.
Retaking his seat, he heard footsteps approaching down the stairs.
It was Xue Xiaobai and Zhu Bei heading downstairs, gearing up to hunt mutants around the hotel perimeter.
Chu Yi noticed they had changed into fresh clothes. Checking the laundry room through the system interface, he saw that one of the washing machines was indeed currently running.
They used it that quickly?
He had assumed these “commoners” wouldn’t waste points on such luxuries.
If only one washing machine was running, it must have been Zhu Bei who swiped his card. After all, this young man had previously bought out all the food as a thank-you gift for Xue Xiaobai.
Chu Yi didn’t dwell on it.
What he wanted most right now was for new guests to check into the hotel.
Hmm… Should he wait for them to walk right into the trap?
Or take the initiative?
Right at that moment, a notification chimed from the system.
[Ding! Your ability has successfully awakened!]