Chapter 12: Candied Haws and the Cat-Eyed Boy

I don’t know if it was because of the fermentation of the forum post a few days ago, but after Zhu Yu opened for business in the morning, he found that there were many more unfamiliar players active in the dungeon.

According to her observation, most players like to hang out on the first and third floors of the dungeon, while far fewer players choose to check in at the second-floor apartment.

After careful observation, she discovered an interesting pattern - most of the players who checked in were loners, without any union logo on them.

Out of curiosity, she opened the forum to search and check.

Unexpectedly, there was a related post in the forum that solved her doubts.

In this dungeon, not all players will choose to join the guild.

Except for a small number of players who are forced to be independent for special reasons, the remaining lone rangers either have unique abilities or are so strong that they do not need to rely on a union at all.

Such people are often referred to as “loners”.

Just as Zhu Yu was pondering this information, a system prompt suddenly sounded in his ears:

[Congratulations on triggering the "Good Luck" time period of 60 minutes, during which your turnover will double]

She immediately looked up at the money tree at the door.

She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but the money tree seemed to have grown taller than before, and there was a faint golden glow on its leaves.

But before she could take a closer look, a cold voice interrupted her thoughts.

"A cup of succulent mango, full of sugar, without ice."

Zhu Yu was stunned for a moment. Succulent mango tea itself is a fruit tea with a sweet taste, and there is no sour flavoring such as lemon in it.

Removing the ice and adding full sugar will undoubtedly make it taste sweeter.

This was the first time she had encountered such an ordering demand.

She couldn't help but look up at the customer who was ordering, and was immediately stunned for a moment.

The other person had a face that was so delicate that it was almost unreal, and a pair of amber cat eyes that were so beautiful that they looked like they were painted, but there was no trace of emotion in his eyes.

When Zhu Yu prepared the fruit tea and handed it to him, he poked the surface of the cup with a straw in front of her and drank it directly.

"It tastes good, give me another cup."

The cat-eyed boy said slowly.

"Okay," Zhu Yu nodded in response, then paused and reminded:

“If you have a sweet tooth, you can try the strawberry candied haws at the counter next to it.”

The other party glanced at the candied haws counter and nodded:

"Then give me a bunch."

When the other party took the strawberry candied haws wrapped in glutinous rice paper, he still took the candied haws directly out of the brown paper bag and took a bite.

“Sweet strawberries.”

Finally, a trace of fluctuation flashed in the eyes of the cat-eyed boy.

He pointed to the second floor of the candied haws counter and said:

"Wrap up all the remaining strawberry candied haws."

Before Zhu Yu could say anything, several players queuing behind him couldn't help but complain.

"You wasted so much time standing here alone, and you still want to buy all the candied strawberries? Don't other people need to eat them?"

"Yes, there are only so many candied haws. Can you leave some for us?"

The cat-eyed boy stopped what he was doing, turned his head slowly, and scanned the crowd with his calm eyes.

The player who had opened his mouth to complain suddenly froze, and his friend next to him quickly tugged at his sleeve and scolded him in a low voice:

"Stop talking!"

He turned to the cat-eyed boy and said with a sneer:

"I'm sorry, my friend has a quick temper and is not very good at talking. It's okay. If the strawberry candied haws are gone, don't we still have the hawthorn flavor? It's just as delicious."

The cat-eyed boy did not respond. He just looked at the other person expressionlessly and then looked away.

Zhu Yu quickly wrapped the remaining strawberry candied haws one by one and handed them to him.

He took the bag, didn't even look at the man, paid and left the fruit tea shop.

After his figure completely disappeared outside the door, the player who had just complained asked his friend unhappily:

"Why did you stop me just now? I wanted to eat the candied strawberries, but if he bought them all, I would have nothing to eat."

My friend sighed helplessly and said in a low voice:

"Do you know who he is? That's Luo Xi, the only A-level healing psychic in the dungeon. I heard that he will soon be promoted to S-level. More importantly, he is a loner, and the presidents of various guilds treat him with courtesy. It's really not worth it for you to offend him for a few strings of candied haws."

When the complaining player heard this, his expression suddenly changed a bit, and he muttered in a low voice:

"You should have said it earlier..." He said no more.

Zhu Yu listened to the conversation between the two and lowered his head to continue processing the order.

Her face remained calm, but in her heart she was more interested in the cat-eyed boy.

After some thought, Zhu Yu contacted robot A1.

Soon she learned that the cat-eyed boy had already checked in at the second-floor apartment and would obviously not leave the dungeon for a while.

Now that he had been settled in the underground city, she was in no rush to find out his background or purpose.

*

At night, after a busy day, Zhu Yu finally had time to open the management panel.

[Sold 20 strings of any flavor of candied haws (20/20) (Completed)]

[The supermarket welcomes at least 10 new customers (10/10) (Completed)]

The countdown for this side quest is 48 hours. Zhu Yu learned his lesson this time and left a task that can be completed at any time to avoid being chased by tasks.

Then she called out Huahua and fed her her daily fruit tea.

Then she came to the orchard.

As the day goes by, the fruits in the orchard ripen again, and the air is filled with fresh fruity fragrance.

Zhu Yu skillfully harvested a batch of fresh fruits such as strawberries and lemons. The system prompted that her experience points had increased. She took the opportunity to use the experience points she had just gained to buy several new pieces of land and planted an appropriate amount of fruit seeds.

Now her orchard has expanded to 30 plots of land.

Zhu Yu was thinking to herself that it wouldn't be long before she could further increase the amount of special fruit tea she supplied to the Oasis Union.

Just when the harvest was completed, a new prompt popped up on the system:

[Congratulations on unlocking the new fruit tea "Cheese Berry"]

Zhu Yu returned to the fruit tea shop with a little excitement and ordered himself a cup of cheese berry tea.

The flavors of strawberries and cheese milk intertwined together, sweet but not greasy, giving her tired body and mind a moment of relaxation.

However, before she could enjoy it, an update prompt popped up on the system interface again:

[Fruit consumption methods ≥ 2, "one-click selection" mode has been turned on]

What does this mean?

Zhu Yu looked at the prompt with some confusion.

According to the system's instructions, she opened the storage space, found the fruit column, and clicked on the strawberry. A new option box immediately popped up on the page:

【Please select and click the item to use the strawberry】

【1. Fruit tea】

【2. Candied Haws】

After Zhu Yu pressed the second option, the light on the candied haws counter flickered slightly, and then a new change attracted her attention - the bottom layer of the counter slowly extended downwards, and a brand new fourth layer appeared.

There were five strings of beautifully packaged candied haws neatly arranged inside.

The packaging of these candied haws is completely different from ordinary kraft paper bags. Each string is wrapped in paper shell with exquisite patterns and tied with a thin ribbon on the outside. There is also a small label hanging at the end of the ribbon with the words "Special Edition" printed on it.

[Please set the price of special candied haws]

[It is recommended that you set the price to: 40 gold coins/string]

Looking at these special candied haws in front of him, Zhu Yu opened his player bracelet after setting the price and sent a message to Yunze:

"Master Yun, do you want to try some candied haws made from special fruits? I happen to have 5 bunches of strawberries in stock, 40 gold coins each, and the additional effects are unknown."

Yunze replied immediately:

"Yes! Just feed the candied haws to Huahua!"

Having happily made another fortune, Zhu Yu picked up the unfinished bottle of Cheese Berry and returned to the lounge yawning.

With the unlocking of the supermarket on the third floor last night, the lounge also underwent a round of upgrades.

The size of the bathroom was doubled, the layout was more spacious, and a large bathtub that she had always dreamed of was added in the center.

When Zhu Yu opened the bathroom door, System 996 had already thoughtfully prepared hot water at just the right temperature.

The steaming water exudes a light floral scent that soothes people at first sniff.

Zhu Yu slid comfortably into the bathtub, letting the hot water wrap around his whole body.

"Sure enough, taking a bath is the happiest thing."

Zhu Yu leaned on the edge of the bathtub, took a sip of ice-cold fruit tea, sighed softly, opened the forum and began to read the latest posts.

As the air was filled with mist, Zhu Yu's eyes swept across the contents on the screen.

She noticed that even though there was a hidden force behind the scenes constantly deleting posts about the dungeon, players still re-posted messages through various means.

Some people communicate in code, some set up obscure code forms, and some even post melodramatic gossip posts, "hiding secrets" in seemingly irrelevant content.

Seeing these posts, Zhu Yu couldn't help but smile.

Everyone has a rebellious nature.

The more you try to stop something from spreading, the more people's curiosity and attention will be aroused.

She put the fruit tea back on the small table next to the bathtub, lazily opened the trading forum next door, and continued to browse.

Posts about rewards and transactions came into view. She scrolled through the pages slowly, but her eyes paused on a certain reward message.

[High Price Wanted] High-grade ice crystal core, starting at 200,000 gold coins, the better the quality, the higher the price! We also accept rare ice attribute materials, please private chat to negotiate the price.

Seeing this message, Zhu Yu's expression changed slightly and he couldn't help but sit up straight.

Different from the setting of the previous world, the props, materials and weapons in this world are simply divided into three qualities: primary, intermediate and advanced.

Each time a monster is killed, players can usually only obtain crystal cores of corresponding attributes as drops.

From the countless trading posts just now, Zhu Yu slowly figured out a pattern:

In this high-temperature world, the prices of attribute items are greatly affected by the environment.

For example, there are a lot of fire crystal cores and items, and even high-grade ones are much cheaper than other attribute crystal cores and items of the same quality.

However, the situation is completely opposite for ice-attribute crystal cores and props. Not only are they so rare that they are almost impossible to find, but their prices are also ridiculously high. There are often even people with ice-attribute abilities who pay high prices to buy them but get nothing in return.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he realized something.

She quickly opened her backpack and glanced over the various items she had brought back from the previous extremely cold world.

The largest amount of materials are those dropped when she kills the Arctic Earth Spider:

Spider shells and spider silk covered with frost, spider cores and spider eyes emitting faint light, poison sacs filled with cold poison, and frost fragments extracted from the spider's nest...

At that time, because there were too many polar snow spiders, these materials were in short supply and almost no one was willing to collect them, so she just hoarded them.

In addition, there are of course other ice-attribute props and materials in the backpack.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Yu picked up the cheese berries beside him and took a big gulp.

At this moment, she only had one thought in her mind:

She is going to get rich!