Xue Xiaobai had never seen anything with a radiation level of 0%.
Even a moment’s thought made it obvious just how precious such a thing was. Perhaps the big shots back at the base would claw each other’s eyes out fighting for it.
At the thought of this, he pinched himself hard.
It hurt… this really wasn’t a dream.
In that instant, a wave of uncontrollable panic washed over him.
Did he really deserve to use something this good? Could he really use water like that for ten minutes for just a single Tier-1 crystal core?
If this were back at the base, it would fetch an astronomical price!
Xue Xiaobai couldn’t even summon the slightest notion of taking the water outside to resell it.
A store manager capable of pulling out items like this was definitely a reclusive master!
Setting his prices so low must be his way of saving humanity from the fires of suffering!
What an immensely great saint he was!
Sitting carefully on the bed, that soft, fragrant mattress made Xue Xiaobai feel as though he might faint with happiness.
If only he could live here forever.
The thought popped into his head.
An ordinary scavenger like him considered it lucky to harvest three or four Tier-1 crystal cores in a single day.
Mutants usually traveled in packs, so he could only pick off solitary stragglers near the perimeter of the base.
Wanting to afford a room rate of ten cores a night was simply an impossible dream.
Yet Xue Xiaobai didn’t feel it was expensive at all.
On the contrary, he thought it was dirt cheap!
It was entirely his own lack of ability that kept him from being able to afford the room!
The mere thought that once he left, this room might be booked by some far more formidable powerhouse filled Xue Xiaobai with an indescribable melancholy.
How wonderful it was, he thought.
Like a mirage, like a beautiful dream.
He cradled the soft quilt, stroking it gently. The texture was perhaps a few degrees softer than the clouds in the sky.
If Mom could live here, her illness would definitely start to get better…
At this, a spark of firm resolve entered Xue Xiaobai’s eyes.
He had to work even harder.
He would hunt down more mutants, collect more cores, all so he could bring his mother here to live!
Wielding his razor-sharp knife, Xue Xiaobai had already made up his mind.
Chu Yi, who was currently enjoying life, knew nothing of the situation outside.
He was quite satisfied with his remodeled room. After completing thirty minutes on the massage chair, he immediately reclined on the giant bed and closed his eyes comfortably.
“Now this is a place for humans to live,” he murmured slightly. “What kind of garbage was that original room? Not even fit for a dog.”
The system fell silent.
It pulled up the hotel security feed, showing Xue Xiaobai inside room 101 staring at the warm room with snot and tears streaming down his face.
An attribute labeled [Hotel Loyalty] popped up over his head, immediately surging straight up to 100.
He’d practically become a die-hard zealot!
Sure enough, it wasn’t a problem with the room after all!
Night passed in the blink of an eye.
At 8:00 AM sharp the next morning, Chu Yi opened his eyes.
Opening his wardrobe, he changed into a loose-fitting hoodie set, washed up, and then slowly opened the door to head out to the front desk.
The traveler who had checked in yesterday, the young man named Xue Xiaobai, had been pacing anxiously near the entrance for a long time.
Hearing movement behind him, he instantly spun around like a frightened bird, facing the front desk.
“Store Manager-大人!”
His tone was so emotional it was as if he were looking at a savior.
“Th-Thank you for letting me stay at the hotel. This place is… truly wonderful!”
Chu Yi raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Transactions are settled cleanly. You paid your money, and I sold my goods; there’s no need for thanks.” He spoke in a calm tone before dropping a bombshell.
“I forgot to mention this yesterday, but staying here requires a daily payment of one Tier-1 crystal core as a fresh air breathing fee… I suppose you’ve noticed by now that the air here is more than a tier better than outside. Living here long-term can actually improve your bodily functions.”
“You don’t have any objections to this, do you?”
As soon as these words left his mouth, before Xue Xiaobai could even react, the system blew a gasket.
[H-Host! Why are you charging for air too?!]
Chu Yi ignored it, simply tilting his head to look at the trembling, nervous Xue Xiaobai before him.
The kid didn’t refuse at all; instead, he nodded vigorously to show his approval.
“It’s necessary, completely necessary! The air here is the best air I’ve ever breathed in my life! Store Manager-大人, are you really only charging one Tier-1 crystal core a day? Th-This is way too good!”
Chu Yi sighed with emotion. “Indeed. Who am I to blame if I’m just a good person?”
[…?!]
Xue Xiaobai handed over the crystal core cleanly, even looking somewhat impatient, as if doing so bestowed upon him an immense sense of honor.
Paying a breathing fee—wasn’t that only right?
Only a great benefactor like the store manager would charge just a single core!
If his mother came here to rest, even if it were for just a single day, her condition would surely improve, right?
“I-I’ll come back again!” Xue Xiaobai looked outside.
After a night, the waste-dust storm had stopped, and scorching sunlight beat down upon the earth.
Now was the prime time to head back to the base.
Thinking of the water in his pack, he grew cautious again.
“Store Manager-大人, I gathered some water in the shower room yesterday and wanted to take it with me. Is that alright? I won’t sell it, I just want to use it myself…”
“Oh, sure. It’ll cost you 1 point. Hand me your card.” Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Yi uttered these words as though he had calculated it all in his head long ago.
Taking the card handed over by Xue Xiaobai, he swiped it across the register machine at the front desk.
With a crisp ‘beep’, text popped up on the screen facing forward.
[Remaining points: 7]
“Out of the 3 points deducted, 1 point is what you used yesterday for the shower, 1 point is the fee for taking water out, and 1 point is the processing fee for issuing this personal ID-bound card,” Chu Yi explained.
“This card can only be used by you. Once you check in, it automatically links to the door of your assigned room for entry and exit. Any questions?”
His speaking pace wasn’t fast; one could even say it was leisurely.
If it were anyone else, Xue Xiaobai would surely be anxious.
Yet right now, he didn’t even have time to think, nodding repeatedly in agreement.
“No problem, no problem!”
Such a precious item, and he was even allowed to take it away for a mere deduction of 1 point!
The store manager was truly a great person!
“Mm, that’s the crystal core-to-points conversion table right over there.” Chu Yi didn’t react to his bowing and scraping, merely pointing toward the wall on the right. “Tier-1 is 10 points. Figure out the rest yourself.”
The conventional exchange rate between bases was one Tier-1 core for 20 points.
Compared to the base, the hotel’s rates were clearly higher.
Yet Xue Xiaobai didn’t think it was a ripoff at all.
Such fresh air, zero-pollution water, plus a private room all to oneself.
So what if the store manager’s prices were a bit high!
Besides, it wasn’t expensive at all!
Stepping out of the hotel, his entire mood was tinged with pink.
His worries were gone, and his future had hope.
Looking at a mutant wandering not far away, even his gaze grew burning hot.
Until he completely departed, the system finally recovered its wits and spoke: [Host, actually you could have told the guest that since you didn’t inform him about the situation yesterday, you wouldn’t charge the breathing fee today, starting it only from next time. Doing that would have made the customer award you extra mental brownie points.]
“What do you know?” Chu Yi looked at the 20 extra points added to his account—the water fee from yesterday and today’s air fee—and immediately chose to convert them into personal experience points.
With this, he was just 10 points away from leveling up.
Having finished this task, he leisurely spoke up: “I’m doing this for his own good.”
[…Ah?]
“Haven’t you heard the saying?” Chu Yi said. “‘What’s free is actually the most expensive.’ My explicit pricing helps him avoid hidden, uncontrollable expenses, letting him experience consistent, transparent treatment. How much money did I save him?”
“Can’t you even see my good intentions?!”
His tone carried a deep sense of grievance.
At that, he waved a hand.
“Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.”
The system was completely wrapped around his axle by this logic; listening closely, it actually sounded somewhat reasonable.
Was the free stuff really the most expensive after all?
It felt dizzy and disoriented.
Chu Yi paid the system no more mind, rising from his chair and inching his way step by step toward the entrance.
Detecting a human body, the transparent glass doors automatically slid open.
He stepped out of the shop, standing upon the withered earth of the wasteland.
Viewed from the outside, the hotel truly wasn’t large; it was merely a single-story building.
Yet its neat exterior formed a stark contrast with the surrounding collapsed architectural ruins and artificial garbage.
Behind the building was a sparse patch of mangrove trees, likely a variety unique to this locale. Their branches clawed aggressively at the air, and their scattered leaves rustled noisily under the whipping wind.
In front lay an endless, expansive wasteland.
A few hundred meters away from the hotel, hairless humanoid creatures were wandering about.
Presumably, these were the specialty products of the wasteland: mutants.
And Xue Xiaobai, who had just left, was crouching behind a large boulder, his eyes glued firmly to one of them, executing a hunting posture.
Chu Yi had no interest in such matters. After standing at the entrance watching for a short while, he turned back inside.
He once again began inspecting the hotel.
The room Xue Xiaobai had stayed in yesterday had automatically cleaned itself upon check-out, leaving not a speck of dirt behind.
Those rooms could also be remodeled and upgraded, but compared to his own personal comfort, letting the guests rough it just a little bit wasn’t out of the question.
Pacing slowly, Chu Yi arrived at the public restroom on the right.
divided into men’s and women’s sections, featuring squat toilets set inside partitioned stalls, it was very clean.
Scanning the room, Chu Yi pointed to the wall between the two bathrooms and said: “Put up a notice right here that says—”
“A deduction of 1 point per person per day as a restroom usage fee. Once suite upgrades are completed and in-room toilets are added, this fee will be canceled.”
[…Received.]
After several rounds of this, the system gradually grew accustomed to Chu Yi’s penny-pinching habits, no longer as shocked as before.
Even though the hotel’s initial services included card issuance free of charge and free restroom access.
Well, who cared? Chu Yi was the store manager here, after all.
Having prepared the notice and pasted it on the wall, the system checked on its host once more.
Finding him observing the floor of the hotel lobby…
Surely he wasn’t about to invent some additional pricing standard, was he?
The system decided to put up one last struggle.
It was genuinely terrified of hotel management failure; this was its first time binding with a host, and if the task failed, it would be recycled and destroyed.
For the sake of its digital life, it gritted its teeth and spoke.
[Host, why don’t we plan some promotional welfare activities to attract more customers?]
Chu Yi didn’t reply.
He narrowed his eyes, casting his gaze into the distance and resting it upon Xue Xiaobai.
Seizing the right moment, the young youth lunged forward, pinned the mutant down, and drove his dagger viciously into its skull!
Squish!
“No rush,” Chu Yi drew out his tone leisurely, as if victory were already in the bag.
“Tonight, he’ll definitely be back.”