The system froze for a moment.
[…Sure?] it answered cautiously.
[After all, this is an ability-awakening serum — technology this world doesn’t have. As long as you can sell it to them, even at a hundred times the price, someone would buy it.]
“Well, that’s true enough,” Chu Yi said.
The system flickered, seeming pleased: [So that means…]
“But if I sell it at a high price, in the end, the only people who’ll actually be able to buy these serums will be this world’s upper class. They’ll keep tight control of the serums in their own hands, never let them circulate in the open market, and ultimately they’ll just become one more piece reinforcing the entrenched order here.”
[Then— then you’ll sell it cheap?]
“This place isn’t short on people, and it’s even less short on people without abilities.” Chu Yi crossed his legs, watching the movie’s protagonists locked in fierce battle against alien insectoid creatures on screen, and mused lightly. “But the problem is, they’re too poor. They simply can’t afford the price.”
“But if I sold it cheap, that would obviously be a poor return on investment. An ability serum is a one-time-use service — maybe right after using it, they’d feel deeply grateful toward me, the one who gave them the opportunity, but that gratitude would inevitably run out eventually.”
“After that, they’d climb higher and higher, gaining more and more power — none of that would have anything to do with me anymore. Naturally, they wouldn’t keep that debt of gratitude in their hearts forever. And it’s not as though I’d even be giving it to them for free to begin with.”
“What I want is for them to feel grateful to me while they eat, to pray to me before heading out to hunt, and to keep me in their thoughts even as they sleep — grateful to the point of tears, even in their dreams.”
“I want them to understand that without me, they are nothing.”
“Every blessing they receive flows from me.”
Having said this, Chu Yi asked, “Do you understand what to do now?”
[…] The system racked its brains and finally came up with one idea. [Are you planning… to have them purchase the ability serum in installments? That way, every so often, they’d think of you again.]
“No,” Chu Yi said.
“I’m going to ‘rent out abilities’ to them.”
[*@&%¥#huh?] The system was so startled it spat out a burst of garbled text. [Host, there’s no such item in the system shop.]
“I don’t need the system shop. I have my own methods,” Chu Yi said, then turned his attention to the surveillance feed.
The dead ability user had been dragged outside the inn by Xue Xiaobai and Zhu Bei, and had already become the mutants’ favorite dinner.
Seeing this, was there anything left unclear?
This place was obviously the territory of some unknown powerhouse!
Guo Fanxiang, in fact, wasn’t all that surprised — if anything, he felt nothing but contempt for that dead ability user, so reckless and utterly incapable of reading a room.
That noble figure running this establishment must have been quietly observing everything happening here — to be able to eliminate an enemy without ever showing himself, without a sound, his ability had to be at least tier eight or higher!
That was exactly why he dared to so openly run an inn out in a wasteland crawling with mutants, and even offer such a wealth of rare dishes.
As for why the prices were set so cheap…
Guo Fanxiang guessed this had to be some compassionate powerhouse, wanting to give relief to the common people, to change the current entrenched order where so many suffered in dire straits.
Ah! How magnificent!
Thinking back to his own first reaction upon seeing that crystal-clear water — to claim it for himself and sell it at a high markup — he suddenly felt disgusted with himself.
And in Guo Fanxiang’s mind, the image of this unnamed, powerful innkeeper grew even loftier.
With that thought, he mulled it over and spoke up: “I’ve decided to stay at this inn. If the rest of you want to go back to the base, go ahead.”
Go back to the base?
At this, all the dozen-plus ability users froze in place.
Was he joking? After they’d witnessed the inn’s miracles firsthand and tasted food this delicious and this cheap, and now he wanted them to leave?
Wasn’t that like carving flesh straight out of their hearts?!
Yu Chun — the younger of the twin sisters in the Giant Mountain squad — merely rolled her eyes for a moment before immediately slamming her hand on the table, decision made.
“Sis.” She leaned in close to her older sister, Yu Qing. “While they’re all still busy eating, let’s go lock down our room now! What if all the rooms get snatched up later — we’d have no one to blame but ourselves! Don’t you want to keep living here, eating food this good, forever?”
Wasn’t the whole point of living in this world just to get a good meal in your belly?
They were high-tier ability users, so they didn’t have to eat insect biscuits every day — the base did raise black-feathered chickens, which they got to eat every few days too — but none of it could compare to the inn’s food.
Yu Chun had a feeling this place was destined to become somewhere people would flock to in the future!
In that instant, she thought back to their meal at Heavenly Delicacy earlier that day.
A meal she used to be able to savor in her memory for months afterward now seemed utterly bland by comparison.
“If I’d known, I never would have agreed to go along with that idiot Lu Tianxin,” she muttered under her breath, annoyed. “Isn’t this place better than Panlong Base by miles?”
“Shh!” Yu Qing shot her a sharp look the moment she heard that. “Do you want to live? There are too many ears around here — what if someone overhears you? Do you still want to go back to the base at all? Do you want to be branded a traitor?”
Yu Chun pouted. “What traitor? We don’t owe the base anything. Don’t you want to eat the inn’s food every single day?”
Yu Qing hesitated.
Without waiting for her sister to make up her mind, Yu Chun didn’t push further — she simply got up first, rushed over to the machine, dropped in her last ten tier-two crystal cores, and registered for a twin room.
The room number was 401.
Seeing her go through the process, the rest of the ability users finally snapped out of it. Guo Fanxiang immediately rushed over and secured himself a large-bed room.
The other ability users followed suit, racing each other to claim a spot.
“Move! I was here first!”
“Let me go first! Can’t you see I got here before you?!”
The scene descended into chaos for a moment.
Watching this unfold, Chu Yi frowned.
He disliked scenes of disorder like this.
He simply spent 10 points to purchase a one-time-use amplification item from the shop — the kind that let people feel the weight of authority behind it — and addressed everyone at once:
“Please form a line to check in. Anyone caught fighting will be immediately removed from the inn and permanently blacklisted from making any purchases here.”
Hmmm.
The instant the voice rang out, everyone flinched.
That crushing sense of pressure, as though they could be squeezed to death at any moment…
Definitely someone powerful!
No one dared make another sound.
They never imagined that one day, they themselves would be lining up obediently in front of a machine, just like the outer-district civilians queuing for relief rations.
After all, the ability users here were people who could walk sideways through Panlong Base, whose word was law.
But no one voiced any objection, and no one felt any resentment about it either.
This shop was run by a powerhouse — didn’t that alone guarantee their safety? And on top of that, food this delicious, air this clean!
How could the base possibly compare?!
If they could live here for the rest of their lives, they’d gladly sell themselves into servitude for it!
Soon after, Chu Yi received one hundred seventy tier-two crystal cores, and thirty-five tier-three crystal cores.
[Total income: 15,500 points. You have earned 10,850 points. 850 points deposited into the shop balance, 10,000 points converted into personal experience.]
[Remaining shop points: 3,538]
[Personal Level: LV.14 (0/4000)]
[Main Quest: Total Revenue of 5,000 Points! Complete!]
[Reward: Inn Experience +300!]
[Inn Level Up!]
[Barrier performance upgraded — now Tier-8 Barrier (blocks attacks of tier eight and below, range 50 meters, self-status: invincible)]
[Reward: Branch development rights!]
[Daily Quest (1) Complete! Reward: +10 Inn Experience!]
[Daily Quest (2) Complete! Reward: +30 Inn Experience!]
[Current Level: LV.3 (60/1000)]
[New main quest issued!]
[Main Quest: Total Revenue of 20,000 Points! (12,330/20,000)]
[Reward: 1. Inn Experience +500. 2. Supermarket development rights. 3. Fifth floor of the inn unlocked.]
Watching the notifications refresh one after another, Chu Yi closed his eyes and took stock of his own physical condition.
Sure enough, compared to when he’d been LV.10, he’d grown stronger by nearly half.
But…
Leveling up his personal level seemed to be considerably harder than leveling up the inn.
Past level ten, the experience required for each subsequent level increased by 1,000 points over the last.
Which meant that to go from LV.10 to LV.20, he’d need 55,000 points.
Not to mention what came after level twenty.
Meanwhile, completing the next main quest only required 20,000 points in revenue.
…It really was a grueling process.
Chu Yi understood deeply that he was still far too weak right now.
Even though he was invincible within the fifty-meter radius of the inn, that alone wasn’t enough to put his mind at ease.
He wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed staying cooped up at home.
In the past, due to his illness, he’d had no choice but to remain confined at home or in the hospital for long stretches. Now that his body was healthy, he no longer wanted to be trapped in one corner of the world.
The wasteland was so vast — why shouldn’t he be able to travel around and see it?
He’d need to build branch locations eventually anyway.
But to go out and about, he’d need real strength first.
Honestly, Chu Yi had only been staying at the inn for four days, and he already felt like he was starting to go moldy.
He genuinely couldn’t imagine spending the next month, or even several months, stuck in the same place, unable to move around.
And then there was his ability-rental business — that needed setting up too.
Chu Yi mentally listed out everything he needed to do, then turned his attention to the inn’s occupancy situation.
All four remaining rooms on the second floor had sold out, and three rooms on the third floor had been claimed as well.
And judging by how these ability users were behaving, it looked like they intended to settle in for the long term.
With that, the people who’d checked in finally relaxed, ambling back to the cafeteria to properly enjoy their meal.
Of the group that had come together, including Wang Yan, only three people in total chose not to check in.
The ones who had already registered started trying to persuade them: “There are still rooms open right now — you should grab one while you can! Stay as long as you’re able to. If the rooms get snapped up later, you’ll have no one to blame but yourselves!”
Yu Chun tried to convince her captain as well: “That’s right, Captain Wang — do you really want to go back to the base and keep working for that father-son pair? That Lu Tianxin is an idiot, he had no idea attacking this inn would bring down all this trouble on himself! Staying here like this is basically the same as pledging our loyalty to this place now!”
“Do you honestly still think the inn can’t hold its own against the base?”
Wang Yan remained deeply conflicted. After a long silence, he let out a heavy sigh. “Deputy Commander Lu has shown me kindness before. I can’t just abandon them and enjoy myself here — no matter what, I need to go back and report on this.”
The other two who hadn’t checked in shared similar reasoning.
“Besides, we’ve already taken favors from the deputy commander — just up and leaving the base like this wouldn’t sit right.”
Hearing this, Yu Chun stuck out her tongue and said, “Wasn’t that just hush money to keep us quiet? We never even told anyone else — it was Lu Tianxin himself who got impatient and dragged all of us out here.”
With that, she started looking forward to things again.
“I wonder what the rooms look like, in an inn with food this delicious.”