These dishes, vivid in color, aroma, and flavor, tempted them mercilessly through a pane of glass, setting their mouths watering nonstop.
Various flavors mingled together — sour, spicy, and some sweet.
Every single flavor was an unimaginable delicacy to people accustomed to eating nothing but insect biscuits.
“Is the innkeeper really willing to give us something this good to eat? And… it’s this cheap on top of it?!”
In truth, each portion at the cafeteria was quite small — only slightly bigger than an ordinary bowl of rice.
Compared to the portions from Chu Yi’s former world, these were cut in half.
But even so, the price still left Xue Xiaobai and Zhu Bei in disbelief.
Could a small portion of vegetables really cost only the equivalent of one and a half tier-one crystal cores?
The two of them stood frozen at the window.
Chu Yi’s voice came from behind them. “What is it?”
They spun around hastily, and Xue Xiaobai stumbled over his words trying to voice what was on his mind. “Innkeeper, sir — this, this dish really only costs 15 points?”
To people from the lowest rungs of society, who never got to eat leafy greens at all —
this kind of vivid green vegetable was practically a treasure fallen straight from the heavens!
As the saying goes, scarcity makes things precious, and Chu Yi understood this principle perfectly well.
Never mind 15 points — even at 1,500 points, there would still be people willing to buy it.
In a wasteland where his inn held an absolute monopoly, however he chose to set prices came down purely to his own conscience.
And Chu Yi felt he didn’t have much of one.
After all, the Inn Management Assistance Handbook recommended a price of 1 point per serving for vegetable dishes.
Factoring in various considerations, even settling on a final price of 5 points per serving would already have been remarkable.
But Chu Yi had bluntly jacked the price up to 15 points.
Large meat dishes had been marked up tenfold as well, now priced at 30 points.
That small portion probably didn’t even contain ten slices of meat, with most of the dish still padded out with barely-edible things like green peppers.
Still, Chu Yi figured the wasteland folk wouldn’t care about any of that — they’d probably devour it happily regardless.
After all, even green peppers were a delicacy they’d never tasted in their entire lives.
Looking at the two of them standing there in delighted surprise, Chu Yi began layering on some additional charges for his restaurant.
Just as he was gathering himself, about to speak, the system had already started trembling.
“Yes,” Chu Yi said. “The dish prices are as listed. But beyond that, I don’t know if you’ve read the restaurant’s fee policy — each time you dine, there’s a 5-point seating fee and a 5-point cleaning fee.”
[…Host, what in the world is this now?]
The system could barely hold itself together.
Chu Yi ignored it and explained to the two in front of him: “The seating fee is what you pay to occupy a spot while dining in the restaurant — this way, it effectively prevents other guests from taking your seat.”
“For example, say three of you come to eat, but one person is running late and needs to arrive afterward — you can pay the seating fee for all three, and that reserves a spot for them.”
Xue Xiaobai and Zhu Bei nodded, not seeing any issue with this at all — in fact, they found it quite reasonable.
So Chu Yi continued: “As for the cleaning fee, that covers clearing the table and washing the dishes and utensils after you’ve finished eating.”
“If you don’t dine in and need your food packed to go, the packaging fee is charged per dish — 1 point per dish for packaging. Naturally, in that case you’d save on the seating fee.”
“Lastly, you’ll need to pay a 100-point deposit. If you don’t finish your food and it goes to waste, that will be deducted from it. Of course, the deposit can be refunded anytime after you finish eating — but if you plan to keep dining here regularly, it makes sense to just leave those points on hold as an ongoing deduction.”
All of this, in fact, was posted on a notice on the wall.
Chu Yi genuinely believed his pricing was completely transparent and fair, with no hidden charges whatsoever — no matter how hard these wasteland folk racked their brains, they wouldn’t find any grounds to argue against it.
So he looked back at them, quite satisfied with himself.
Xue Xiaobai nodded immediately. “We understand!”
The two began selecting their food.
Zhu Bei had originally only taken two vegetable dishes — one hand-torn cabbage, one stir-fried indian lettuce.
This kind of green leafy vegetable, he’d only ever seen before inside the base’s greenhouses, and had never actually gotten to eat — the low-radiation greens cultivated in there cost five or six hundred points per head, something an ordinary family could never afford.
But here, he could get a taste for just 15 points!
Watching the robot behind the window place the food onto his tray, his mouth was practically watering, though on the surface he tried to keep a composed, unbothered expression, pretending it was nothing special.
By the time they’d passed all five windows, Zhu Bei still couldn’t resist the temptation of meat, and ended up buying a serving of black pepper beef strips.
15+15+30+5×2 (rice)+5×2 (seating fee)+5×2 (cleaning fee)+100 (deposit) = 190
[Remaining points: 7,336]
Meanwhile, Xue Xiaobai, thinking of his mother, had originally only planned to try a small vegetable dish for himself. But he gritted his teeth and, like Zhu Bei, ended up ordering meat as well.
Garlic bok choy, dry-fried green beans, braised chicken with mushrooms.
He paid the same set of fees.
[Remaining points: 240]
After settling up, they were each handed a small table marker — placing this on a chair or table meant the spot was already claimed.
They picked out a four-person table, then went upstairs to call down Xue Xiaobai’s mother and Zhu Nan.
Seeing the delicious food laid out on the table, even someone as composed as Xue Xiaobai’s mother, a middle-aged woman not easily rattled, couldn’t help swallowing hard.
Once she saw the pricing posted in the restaurant, she finally let out a breath of relief.
Having her son go out hunting alone was already hard enough on her — if he were spending a lot of extra points just for her sake, the guilt would have been unbearable.
She needed to find some way to earn points herself, too.
“Sweetheart, next time just come eat by yourself. Mom’s fine — insect biscuits are enough for me. You need to eat well since you’re the one going out hunting,” Xue Xiaobai’s mother said earnestly.
“Mom, just eat! Don’t worry! I got a ton of crystal cores today following Brother Bei around!” As he said this, Xue Xiaobai piled a piece of chicken into her bowl. “Going forward, I’m going to work toward getting us each our own separate room! I saw the innkeeper just added twin rooms too — 170 a day, such a good deal!”
“Besides, the food here really isn’t expensive. If we each order one vegetable dish and one meat dish every day, that’s more than enough for us!”
Xue Xiaobai’s mother looked at the chicken sitting atop the rice, braised until tender, giving off an overpoweringly rich, savory aroma — she simply couldn’t help herself; her gaze kept drifting back to it.
In that same span of time, Zhu Bei had already finished off an entire bowl of rice!
Seeing everyone’s shocked expressions, he scratched his head sheepishly and said, “It’s just too good. You all really need to try it — with dishes like these, I feel like I could eat ten bowls of rice.”
He genuinely couldn’t control the pace at which he was eating.
The moment one mouthful went down his throat, the next was already being shoveled in — that ravenous, desperate feeling, as if he wanted to drink every last drop of the sauce, left him completely lost in a dream.
To get to eat a meal like this… even if he died right now, he’d have no regrets!
Zhu Nan carefully picked up a small bite of the stir-fried lettuce with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.
The crisp texture of the fresh vegetable, combined with the salty flavor of the sauce, brought a redness to the rims of her eyes.
So good… it was really, truly so good.
She chewed slowly, over and over, almost too afraid to swallow, terrified this might all just be an illusion.
Watching her brother, who had already finished a second bowl of rice and didn’t quite dare ask for a third, Zhu Nan made up her mind.
She would kill even more mutants too, and save up a lot of points, so she could surprise her brother someday!
At the very least, she wanted the two of them to be able to eat meals like this every single day!
Just as the group was enjoying their meal —
More than a dozen people walked in outside the inn.
Leading the group were none other than Wang Yan and the other two members of the Giant Mountain squad, the very same people who had appeared here earlier that day.
To explain this, we need to go back to Deputy Base Commander Lu Chenggong and his son Lu Tianxin.
Lu Tianxin felt his father was simply overthinking things. Aside from the protective barrier, that place had nothing but one effeminate-looking man guarding it — it hardly looked well-defended by any measure.
As for why they had that kind of water… maybe that guy just happened to have a purification-type ability.
Such abilities, while rare, did genuinely exist — ability users with them were generally kept firmly under the control of the major bases, dedicated specifically to purifying food for the higher-ups.
Lu Tianxin’s imagination ran wild with grand plans.
He’d lead the ability users to seize the place first, and then tell his father afterward — his father would surely be thrilled and praise him for his cleverness!
With that thought, he wasted no time and gathered together several tier-six ability users from within the deputy commander’s faction, bringing them all to Heavenly Delicacy.
He treated them to a meal first, then handed out a cup each of the water purchased from the inn.
Watching their stunned expressions, Lu Tianxin knew he’d already won them over.
“Follow me, and we’ll take that place down. Afterward, we’ll split the supplies among everyone! And my father’s bound to reward us generously once it’s done!”
The ability users exchanged glances with one another. Verbally, they agreed with Lu Tianxin, but privately, every one of them harbored doubts.
— A place capable of producing this kind of water resource — how could even tier-six ability users possibly fail to overpower it?
They sought out the Giant Mountain squad, who had gone out with Lu Tianxin earlier that day, hoping to learn more from them directly.
But the more they listened, the more extraordinary it all sounded.
What kind of person could possibly build such a fully-equipped establishment out in a wasteland crawling with mutants —
without even needing a perimeter wall, relying solely on a barrier to keep all danger out?
If they blindly followed Lu Tianxin and charged in swinging, they might well end up offending someone far above their station!
Of course, if the other side really was that weak, then why not seize it themselves, rather than handing all the credit over to the deputy commander?
They were all ability users, all tier six — there was no such thing as one being nobler than another.
And so, the tier-six ability user leading the charge, Guo Fanxiang, paid Wang Yan a sum of money to have his squad guide the whole group to the inn.
Spotting it from a distance, Yu Chun of the Giant Mountain squad let out a startled cry: “It’s different!”
Seeing everyone turn to look at her, she quickly explained: “This morning, this building only had two floors — now it’s somehow become four stories tall! And — it’s gotten several times bigger too!”
She gestured with her hands, her face full of shock.
By the time they’d walked closer, everyone saw the mutants slamming uselessly against the protective barrier, and then took in the interior — decor so exquisite it outshone even the grand central tower of the base itself —
The whole group suddenly realized this situation was nowhere near as simple as they’d assumed.
Not until Wang Yan led them inside the inn —
did a wave of food aroma come rushing straight into their noses, eager to be first.
“That smells amazing! What is that scent?!”