Chapter 2 The First Customer
Ou Qi was pulled into the game on the way to register at the university.
When she was standing alone in the snow, dragging a 23-kilogram suitcase, she was completely confused and wondered, "Who am I?" and "Where am I?"
It wasn't until the game prompt sounded that she realized her situation.
Ou Qi checked her personal panel according to the novice instructions and found that except for her slightly higher luck value, her other basic attributes were mediocre.
What makes her feel even more helpless is that her profession in the game is an "explorer" who seems to have neither combat power nor life skills.
She sighed and continued to check the game rules and chat forum. Just as she was about to look for a suitable place nearby to build a shelter like other players in the group, a rabbit monster suddenly jumped out of the snow and pounced on her fiercely.
This rabbit monster was as big as a hound, completely snow-white, with red eyes and sharp teeth that instantly frightened Ou Qi.
In order to save his life, Ou Qi quickly put the suitcase into the player's backpack, turned around and ran without hesitation, almost at the speed of a high school 800-meter sprint.
The thick snow made it difficult to walk, so she stumbled and ran away in panic, with the rabbit monster chasing her closely. Just when she was about to be forced into a desperate situation, the rabbit monster suddenly crashed into a big tree in front of it.
Ou Qi was stunned for a moment, stopped, walked over carefully, and found that the rabbit monster had died due to the excessive collision.
With a confused look on her face, she picked up the materials dropped from the rabbit monster: [rabbit skin*1, wood blocks*5, gold coins*2].
After picking up the items and looking up, Ou Qi noticed that a faint light suddenly appeared not far away, which seemed to be a building.
She walked forward for another ten meters and finally saw clearly that it was a small shop with a simple sign hanging at the door with the five words "Fengxue Hot Pot Restaurant" written on it.
She could hardly believe her eyes. She actually came across the offline hot pot restaurant that the players in the chat channel had discussed and might exist and was run by the game NPC? !
Ou Qi's heart beat faster, and she used up almost all of her strength to push open the door.
The warm air blew on my face, and the coldness was instantly dispelled.
"Welcome to Fengxue Hotpot Restaurant."
After checking the personal panel of the player in front of him, Zhu Yu saw that the other party was still standing there in a daze, so he couldn't help but stretched out his hand and pointed inside: "It's cold outside, do you want to come in first?"
"Oh, ok, thank you."
Ou Qi, who hadn't fully reacted yet, subconsciously thanked him politely.
Then she walked into the store with somewhat stiff steps.
Ou Qi sat down at a small wooden table and looked around. The warmth of the hot pot restaurant formed a sharp contrast with the icy and snowy world outside, as if it was a touch of warmth jumping out from another time and space.
Seeing her dazed look, Zhu Yu smiled softly, "Don't be nervous, this is a safe zone in the game. If you are hungry, you can directly place an order from the menu that was triggered when you sat down just now."
"Oh, ok, thank you."
Ou Qi took a look at the price of the hot pot and couldn't help but feel lucky that he had just encountered the rabbit monster. Otherwise, it would have been too miserable to enter the hot pot restaurant but not be able to eat hot pot.
Thank you for the gift of nature!
After placing the order, Ou Qi watched in amazement as steaming clear soup rose from the small copper pot in front of her, and paired ingredients and dipping dishes appeared on the table.
She glanced at the shop owner who received her and found that he had no reaction to all these magical phenomena. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart: He is worthy of being an NPC in the game. He is so calm after seeing these scenes.
The ingredients in the pot were cooked quickly and floated on the surface of the pot. Ou Qi picked up a beef ball and stuffed it into his mouth without even having time to dip it in the sauce.
When you bite into the beef balls, the outer layer is chewy and the inside is full of hot juice.
"Hiss~ It's burning me to death!"
Ou Qi quickly fanned the air with one hand, trying to drive away the scorching heat, but she would rather be burned than spit out the beef balls.
She had just had dinner with her friends at a hotpot restaurant a few days ago, but the taste of the hotpot was completely different in these two completely different environments.
Fortunately, there is such a warm haven in the game, and there is such a kind NPC as the owner of the hot pot restaurant.
Otherwise, she really didn't know what motivation she had to survive in such a hellish place.
…
Zhu Yu didn't know that her image in Ou Qi's heart had been infinitely elevated. At this moment, she was sitting behind the counter and secretly continuing to study the game and trading rules.
The rules of the game are quite simple, there are only three.
[1. Players can obtain materials, gold coins and experience points by killing monsters, and there is a 20% chance that a random treasure chest will drop. ]
[2. There will be wandering merchants in this game. If players need items or materials, they can buy them from them. ]
【3. Players cannot maliciously attack each other. Those who violate this rule will be punished by the game.】
Although there are not many rules, the basic survival gameplay of the game has been outlined.
Especially the last rule, which saved Zhu Yu’s life to some extent.
After all, there are so many players in total, and it is inevitable that there will be some players with bad conduct. If there is no constraint of this rule, the difficulty of Zhu Yu’s work tasks will increase sharply.
Due to the word "malicious" in the rules, Zhu Yu plans to hide his identity as a player for now. Who knows if ordinary provocation will be penalized by the game.
The better off you are, the less trouble you can avoid.
In addition, Zhu Yu discovered in the chat channel that the game released many low-level monsters in the first period of time.
No wonder so many players with the financial resources rushed to buy the clear soup hotpot as soon as she put it on the shelves yesterday.
Zhu Yu also noticed two small icons in the lower right corner of the personal panel.
The two icons are blue and red, and both have a small house in a stick figure style printed on them.
Click on the small blue icon on the left and you will see a thumbnail of the hot pot restaurant.
Zhu Yu clicked on it curiously and found that not only could he zoom in and out of the page, but long pressing a certain place would also cause the words "Replace xxx with xxx" to appear.
She even accidentally clicked on the little figure of Ouqi who was eating in the picture, and a line of words appeared next to it: Do you want to kick this customer out of the store?
Seeing this, Zhu Yu was shocked. She looked in the direction of Ou Qi and only felt relieved to continue her research after seeing that the other party was not affected in any way.
However, this unexpected discovery proved that System 996 did not deceive her. Within the scope of her camp, she could make all the decisions.
Then Zhu Yu clicked on the small red icon, which was the thumbnail of the player’s shelter.
At this moment, Zhu Yuren was in the hot pot restaurant, but she could clearly see every corner of her tent through the thumbnails.
The other operations are the same as the hot pot restaurant thumbnails, and they each have a system mall and expansion button.
She clicked on the former and took a quick look, only to find that the mall only contained furniture and decorations related to hot pot restaurants and shelters.
The latter means that even if the safety level of the camping site where Zhu Yu is currently located has been maximized, if she wants to expand the area of the hot pot restaurant and the shelter, she still needs to collect relevant basic materials such as wood and iron blocks.
After seeing this, Zhu Yu took a look at the expansion materials needed by both sides.
The expansion of the hot pot restaurant requires 1,000 pieces of wood and 500 pieces of iron.
Since the original area of her tent is not small, the next expansion will require 500 pieces of wood and 250 pieces of iron, which is much higher than the initial conditions mentioned by other players in the chat channel.
Seeing these conditions, Zhu Yu frowned at first, and then he suddenly thought of something.
She opened the trading hall and found that most transactions between players were for one gold coin to be exchanged for 10 pieces of wood, or 5 pieces of iron. This could roughly deduce the relationship between the drop rates of gold coins, wood, and iron blocks!
Zhu Yu set the price of the newly launched clear soup hot pot to 20 pieces of wood and 10 pieces of iron.
As expected, since the drop probability of wood and iron is relatively high, most players have some stock on hand, and these hot pots were sold out again as soon as they were put on the shelves.
Zhu Yu checked her current balance. She has sold more than 650 single-portion hotpots so far. After deducting the cost price, she earned more than 150 gold coins, more than 2,000 pieces of wood, and more than 1,500 pieces of iron.
The selling price of a hot pot for 4-6 people is 10 gold coins. Perhaps because the game has just started and players have not had time to form a group, almost no players traded after it was put on the shelves.
Even so, Zhu Yu calculated that she could still upgrade both the hot pot restaurant and the shelter today relying on the sales of single hot pot!
After seeing off the only customer of the night, Zhu Yu closed the shop and began to expand.
The next second after she pressed the button, the hot pot restaurant, which could only accommodate three small tables, suddenly changed.
The wall seemed to be pushed open by an invisible force, and the space quickly expanded in all directions.
The floor of the store shook slightly beneath her feet, and a new area expanded.
Wooden tables and chairs were quietly added and arranged neatly. The originally small hot pot restaurant is now much more spacious, enough to accommodate more customers.
With the completion of the expansion, several newly installed chandeliers appeared on the ceiling of the store, emitting a soft warm yellow light, making the entire space brighter and warmer.
Zhu Yu looked around and noticed that a small bar had automatically appeared in the corner, making it convenient for customers to get their drinks after ordering.
Well... although the only drinks available at the moment are hot water and boiled water.
If every expansion brings a new facility, can she expect that one day there will be a self-service condiment area in a hot pot restaurant?
After all, the current hot pot dipping sauces are still too monotonous, and she believes that most players would prefer to DIY their own unique dipping sauces.
Although Zhu Yu was satisfied with the improvement in the overall layout, she frowned slightly when her eyes fell on the still simple and shabby walls.
Although the walls made of wooden boards are sufficient, in this windy and snowy game world, such walls are not only unsightly, but also feel not strong enough, as if they would be eroded by the cold wind outside at any time.
She opened the system mall and carefully browsed the various wall decoration options.
The items in these malls are also divided into four quality categories: white, blue, purple and orange, with white being the lowest quality and orange being the highest quality.
According to Zhu Yu’s current financial resources, it is only enough to buy white quality items.
After some selection, she finally locked on a white high-quality brick and stone wall. The wall in the picture has a slightly retro texture, which not only enhances the stability of the store, but also blends perfectly with the overall atmosphere of the hot pot restaurant.
The most important thing is that this brick and stone wall is very cost-effective, and the entire wall can be replaced with only 50 gold coins.
Zhu Yu clicked the purchase button without hesitation, then long-pressed the wall in the thumbnail to replace it.
I saw that the walls around the store changed rapidly. The original simple wooden walls gradually faded away, and were replaced by thick brick and stone walls.
Not only are the new walls stronger, but the delicate texture on the walls even has a work of art-like quality under the light.
Zhu Yu looked at the changes with satisfaction, feeling that his hot pot restaurant had reached a higher level.
After renovating the hot pot restaurant, Zhu Yu also felt tired.
She yawned, turned off the lights, locked the door, and returned to her tent.
After returning to the tent, she did not forget to expand her shelter.
This expansion not only increased the floor space of her original tent, but most importantly, it provided an additional toilet for people to use.
It’s a pity that this toilet only has a simple squat toilet and a crude shower. If Zhu Yu wants to change to a sit-down toilet, he has to pay for it himself.
Of course, she also needs to buy the washbasin mirror and other things from the mall.
Zhu Yu took a look at his balance and decided to make do with it for the time being.
After leaving the hot pot restaurant with a warm stove, she soon felt the tent was extremely cold.
Zhu Yu shivered as he opened the system mall again. After some selection, he finally made up his mind and spent a huge sum of 35 gold coins to buy an ordinary small radiator (white).
A radiator quickly appeared in the corner of her tent, and after the device was turned on, warm air slowly filled the entire space, dispelling the icy chill.
Zhu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the comfort brought by the heating, and his body finally relaxed.
She boiled a pot of hot water, washed up quickly, wrapped herself in her sleeping bag, let the warmth surround her, and gradually felt a little sleepy.
Before going to bed, she was worried that some players might get hungry in the middle of the night and suddenly want to eat hot pot, so she spent another 50 gold coins to purchase hot pot and put it on the shelves.
"If online food delivery sells well enough, I don't really need to work hard to open a physical store."
Zhu Yu couldn't help but sigh as he watched the hot pots being snatched up one by one.
"That won't do, host!"
The sudden appearance of System 996 scared Zhu Yu.
"In fact, there is a daily limit on the number of takeout orders for each type of hotpot. It's just that you just opened today and haven't touched the bottom line yet."
The small light ball of System 996 was circling above Zhu Yu's head. It continued:
"And as the temperature drops further, the danger will intensify, and it will become increasingly difficult for the players to survive. So host, you'd better attract more players to the hot pot restaurant as soon as possible. In this way, they may choose to set up camp nearby. Isn't it safer to let these players stay under your nose?"
As soon as System 996 spoke the first sentence, Zhu Yu woke up instantly.
"Why do you always tell me the key information so late!"
After it finished speaking, Zhu Yu took a deep breath and pinched his philtrum frantically.
She regretted that she was busy studying the calculations and forgot to stop the customer. It would have been great if she had asked her to share the location of the hot pot restaurant in the group and given her some free publicity.
Wait, isn’t she a player too!
Zhu Yu jumped out of his sleeping bag, quickly opened the chat channel, and typed a long string of words:
[Player 0996]: "Everyone, pay attention! Just now when I was exploring outside, I found an offline hot pot restaurant opened by the game NPC. The location is [click the link to view the shared map]."
"The boss also said that if you bring friends along, you can get a discount! You definitely won't regret it!"
As expected, after she continuously refreshed the screen, within a few minutes, players began to ask for more detailed location and route of the hot pot restaurant, and some even directly said that they would bring a group of people there.
Zhu Yu watched the increasingly lively discussion in the chat channel, and she could finally close her eyes and go to sleep peacefully!
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