500 bottles of water cost 1,000 points, leaving Wang Yan with only 39 points remaining in his account.
Looking at the ground covered in water bottles, Lu Tianxin smugly curled his lips into a satisfied smile.
Outside, Yu Qing and Yu Chun had finished clearing out the mutants within the protective barrier, and following their earlier route through the ruined city, drove the truck back to the inn.
Seeing the inn entrance piled high with water, the two of them gaped in shock, mouths hanging open.
“This… this is…”
Lu Tianxin rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed by their reaction, and pointed at the water. “Are you going to hurry up and move it or not?”
Everyone knew his temper — the slightest inconvenience and he’d start cursing people out. The Yu sisters said nothing, put their heads down, and started loading the water into the truck.
Once Lu Tianxin had gone back into the truck to rest, Yu Chun sidled up next to their captain, Wang Yan, and asked quietly, “Captain, what exactly is going on with this water?”
Wang Yan’s feelings were complicated. He wasn’t sure if what he was doing was right.
Someone who could run an inn out in the wasteland, keep it this clean, and hand out this much in supplies — this person had to be extraordinary.
And the key thing was, they were kind-hearted too. They’d saved them, and only charged a few tier-one crystal cores for it.
But if they brought these supplies back to base and handed them over to the deputy base commander, given that man’s ambitions, he’d definitely find some way to seize the inn and claim it for himself.
Then they would be repaying kindness with betrayal.
But what if they refused to obey orders?
He’d be hunted down by Panlong Base.
Out in the wasteland, there was nowhere for him to go.
Thinking of this, Wang Yan closed his eyes and said quietly, “Just load it. This water has no radiation in it.”
“No radiation?!” No matter how much Yu Chun tried to keep her voice down, Yu Qing next to her still heard it.
Both their faces went slack with shock, mouths open wide enough to swallow an egg.
Wang Yan gave a bitter smile. “This isn’t something we get to decide. We just… listen to him.” He tilted his chin toward Lu Tianxin, snoring away in the truck.
That was the one who held the power of life and death over them.
Yu Qing, being more mature than Yu Chun, bent down, gathered up several bottles of water in her arms, and silently began hauling them without another word.
Yu Chun muttered under her breath, “Won’t that person get angry, doing this? If we anger him…”
“Before that happens, the deputy base commander will have already ‘optimized’ us out,” Wang Yan said.
None of them had any control over their own fates.
Meanwhile, inside the inn.
Watching the group hauling bottled water outside the entrance, Chu Yi suddenly spoke up. “What do you think will be waiting for me once this water gets carried back to the base?”
[This… a lot of people will come stay at our inn, and then the host will level up like crazy!]
“No. They’ll send troops over here, to try and seize these resources by force.”
[But host, you’re invincible within the inn’s territory, so there’s nothing to worry about — anyone who tries that will bring ruin on themselves.] The system sounded remarkably cheerful. [Actually, instead of worrying about that, why not just let them resell the water? It would boost trade and be great advertising for your inn.]
“You don’t get it.” Chu Yi’s expression stayed flat, but his words carried real weight. “Watching someone else make money off my stuff is worse than killing me. I can’t stand the thought of them taking what’s mine and earning more from it than I do — it would make me want to die.”
With that, he delivered his verdict, final and absolute: “So. Absolutely not.”
[…] Absolutely not, huh? Truly worthy of being the host.
Once Wang Yan’s group had driven off in their truck, Chu Yi finally got up from his seat and began building the restaurant.
Previously, the right side of the front desk had been a wall with a notice board on it.
Now he built an automatic door in the middle, and extended the storefront another three hundred square meters to the right.
[Build Restaurant — Cost: 100 points]
[Expand 200 sq. meters, total 300 sq. meters — Cost: 200 points]
[Remaining points: 1,203]
The restaurant came with a preset template — five service windows and two food-serving robots.
Overall, it resembled a large cafeteria or fast-food hall more than an order-at-the-counter shop.
Chu Yi looked over the restaurant’s usage instructions.
The cafeteria currently had 300 recipes built in, with dishes randomly selected each day, guaranteeing at least 5 meat dishes.
Ingredients were purchased once a week as a package for 10 points, covering everything needed for seven full days. Even if supplies ran short by day six or seven, there was no need to buy extra — the system would automatically restock for free from the shop.
Of course, if that didn’t seem worth it, he could also purchase ingredients daily himself, or even set the menu entirely on his own.
Chu Yi sat at a dining table and reviewed the pricing standard for each of the 300 dishes.
After all, different meats cost different amounts — if every dish sold for the same price with the same portion of meat, wouldn’t buying the pricier meat be a loss?
Fortunately, the system was quite smart about it.
Cheaper meats, like chicken, came with slightly larger portions once made into a dish.
Pricier meats, like lamb, came with slightly smaller portions.
Satisfied the allocation was fair, Chu Yi selected the automatic management mode.
And set the prices himself.
A vegetable dish: 15 points. A small meat dish: 20 points. A large meat dish: 30 points.
Rice was 5 points per serving, with free refills — but it had to be finished; anyone who wasted it would have points deducted.
Likewise, the soup, originally free, now came with a 2-point charge for unlimited refills, with the same penalty for waste.
Chu Yi had plenty of justification for doing this.
“I’m cultivating good spending habits in them. Can’t have everyone thinking they can mooch off everything for free — once that habit sets in, it’ll be much harder to fleece them later.”
Looking at his newly finished restaurant, Chu Yi immediately moved on to expanding the rest of the inn.
Third floor: five large-bed rooms, plus a laundry room.
Fourth floor: five twin rooms, plus a laundry room.
His plan was that discounted single rooms would stay on the second floor only, large-bed rooms would be on the second and third floors, and twin rooms on the fourth.
All told, this cost another 1,085 points.
[Remaining points: 118]
Money really did flow like water.
Chu Yi sighed to himself, then spent another 3 points to buy 750 bottles of mineral water, stocking them in the vending machine. Watching the balance settle at “5,” his compulsive tendencies finally felt satisfied, and he sat back down at the front desk, at ease.
While he was at it, he added a listing for twin rooms under the price chart — 170 points per night.
Oh, and he also added an elevator next to the stairs.
Once that was done, Chu Yi thought it over, confirmed there was nothing else left to handle, and settled in comfortably for a massage.
By the time he came back out of his room, he found Zhu Nan pacing around the lobby.
Zhu Nan — Zhu Bei’s younger sister — was fifteen this year.
Ever since she was five, due to her frail constitution, she had been forced to contract Wasteland Dust Disease, and from then on had been confined to a sickbed, unable even to go outside.
But miraculously, after just one day at the inn, Zhu Nan felt that her body had improved dramatically — she barely coughed anymore, and breathing no longer felt difficult.
Following her brother’s instructions, she went to collect the clothes from the laundry room.
The clothes that came out of the machine, freshly dried, carried a wonderfully pleasant scent and were still warm to the touch.
Looking down at her own clothes, covered in patches, Zhu Nan almost didn’t dare hug the clean laundry to herself.
So warm…
She felt like crying.
But — she couldn’t cry.
She wanted to become strong too, so she could share her brother’s burdens.
Now, she no longer ran out of breath after just a few steps, and her coughing fits no longer went on without end.
Zhu Nan rummaged through her small backpack and found the dagger Zhu Bei had once used and discarded.
It was the knife her brother had carried in his youth. Once he’d grown up, he’d retired it, and it had nearly been thrown away.
Zhu Nan had secretly kept it hidden.
She had originally meant to use it as the instrument to end her own life —
— so she wouldn’t be a burden holding her brother back any longer.
But now, maybe… maybe she could become someone different.
Zhu Nan wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and steeled herself.
She walked down the stairs into the lobby.
And happened to see Chu Yi stepping out of his room.
“Hello… hello, Mr. Innkeeper.” Zhu Nan mustered her courage to greet him.
Fifteen years old, she looked more like twelve or thirteen — thin and small, with ashen-gray spots covering the skin of her arms and neck, spots that clung to her life like stubborn parasites refusing to let go.
Chu Yi was somewhat surprised to see her.
This little girl in the late stages of Wasteland Dust Disease, practically at death’s door — she’d actually come out of her room?
“What is it?”
“Um… I — I want to try killing a mutant inside the protective barrier. I don’t want to be a burden to my brother anymore.” As she said this, Zhu Nan lowered her head, fidgeting endlessly with the hem of her clothes. “But I don’t have any points. Could I… kill a mutant first, and pay you back afterward?”
She didn’t dare look at the innkeeper’s expression, terrified of being scolded.
Because that was how every single day in the outer district had gone for her.
“Plague-death,” “filthy thing,” “source of contamination”…
People always cursed at her, wishing she would just hurry up and die so she could be sent off to the base’s crematorium.
But Chu Yi didn’t scold her.
In fact, his tone was even gentler than usual.
“Normally, this wouldn’t be allowed. But you’re all guests of the inn — you ought to have some privileges.”
“Go on and kill it. If you can’t manage it, I’ll be sure to collect the points from your brother when he gets back.”
At those words, Zhu Nan’s head snapped up, light flickering in her eyes.
How to describe the feeling?
Like the first star lighting up in the night sky — so brilliant.
That was hope.
“Th-thank you, Innkeeper!”
Zhu Nan clenched her fists.
Under Chu Yi’s gaze, she stepped out of the inn and stood before a tier-one mutant.
…
It stood a full head taller than her.
Chu Yi let out a soft chuckle.
“Commendable courage,” he said, four words.
Outside, Zhu Nan didn’t hear him. She brandished the dagger, unsure where to even begin.
The wasteland held countless mutants.
Wang Yan’s group had only just finished clearing the area, and already more mutants were drifting over, drawn by the scent of humans.
There was no killing them all.
“You’re doing this wrong.”
Just as Zhu Nan rose up on her toes, trying to strike at the mutant, Chu Yi’s voice came from behind her.
He leaned against the doorway and gave a calm instruction: “Crouch down.”
Zhu Nan didn’t understand, but did as told.
The moment she crouched, the mutant let out a roar and lunged forward.
It slammed into the barrier with a thud, its whole body collapsing onto the ground.
“Now,” Chu Yi said. “Strike its eye.”
The girl put all her strength into it, resolve hardening — and thrust forward!
The mutant’s eyes instantly went lifeless, its body slumping limp to the ground.
She let out a joyful cheer.
Chu Yi’s mouth curved slightly upward as he turned to head back inside.
He could sense the system holding something back, wanting to speak.
“Out with it.”
[…I never expected the host to be this kind-hearted.]
Given how he charged for absolutely everything, it had half-expected him to try squeezing a few points even out of a teaching moment.
But hearing that, Chu Yi didn’t argue. He only murmured, reflective.
“Just think of it as… I saw…”
“…my past self, in her.”