Chapter 28 Caramel Hot Orange Tea + Sudden Support...
[Extreme Cold Disaster: Day 18, Temperature: -109℃, Number of Players: 5449/10000]
The 18th day of the game.
It's rare that the snow has stopped outside.
The quiet cabin is moderately warm - System 996 consciously controls the heating and air circulation every night, meticulously maintaining the indoor comfort level.
When Zhu Yu woke up, he was wearing only a single layer of clothing and walking barefoot on the soft cashmere carpet.
She walked to the window and drew aside the curtains.
The light outside the window is bright, and the white snow reflects a warm glow in the morning light, filling the whole room with the clearness of a day after a heavy snowfall.
The weather is really nice.
Zhu Yu cheered himself up, rushed into the bathroom to wash up, and then - then lay back on the bed.
She had a great time yesterday, and it was not until 996 kept reminding her that she reluctantly said goodbye to the foundry master and the others before the drug's effect expired, and returned to the cabin to rest.
It was just that she drank too much milk tea last night and accidentally ate too much, so it took her a long time to fall asleep after going to bed.
It has to be said that the tea substitute found by Yang Xueling far surpasses the effect of tea and can be used to make stimulating potions.
"996, please turn on the light."
The small bedside lamp flickered on.
"Host, what are you holding in your hand?"
Worried that his own light ball was too dazzling, 996 shrank himself into a palm-sized ball of light and floated on Zhu Yu's shoulder.
"These are the comics and novels that Li Qinglan stuffed into my pocket when I left."
When Zhu Yu first saw these things, he was also surprised.
However, after hearing that some life players are actually writers or painters' wives, and that they use their skills and super-efficient additional effects in the dungeon to create these reading products for everyone's entertainment, she thinks this behavior is quite reasonable.
According to Sheng Miao and her friends, since resources are scarce and they are not released on some green app, these books contain more or less some... indescribable plots, so they are very popular.
After Zhu Yu finished reading the few books in his hand, he had to return them to Li Qinglan so that she could exchange them for some new "spiritual food".
The book in her hand is a non-human comic book. Perhaps because there are no censorship restrictions, the author is quite free in the style of painting and the plot is also quite exciting.
I couldn’t sleep and stayed up late last night, partly because of this comic.
"Wait a minute." Zhu Yu suddenly reacted and covered the scene on the screen where five men of different styles surrounded the heroine with one hand. He asked the system vigilantly: "996, do you understand these things?"
"Zhu Yu," 996 said with a hint of helplessness in his voice, "I am a system, not an illiterate or mentally retarded person."
As soon as 996 finished speaking, Zhu Yu bounced it back into the system space with a "pop".
Suddenly, everything in front of me went dark: 996: "..."
After watching for about half an hour, Zhu Yu felt a little hungry.
Thank God, after a night she finally managed to digest the food.
However, Zhu Yu was not interested in the food in the hot pot restaurant for the time being. She was eager to eat or drink something to relieve the greasiness.
After thinking it over in her mind, she got out of bed and went to the kitchen.
The sunlight shines into the kitchen through the light green floral curtains, and the lemons and sweet oranges in the ceramic fruit bowl emit a faint fragrance.
Zhu Yu looked at the neatly arranged spice jars and kitchen utensils on the cooking table and had an idea in his mind.
When she said goodbye to Li Qinglan and the others yesterday, in addition to receiving a few comic novels, herbalist Yang Xueling also gave her a bag of processed "Star Bud Grass", which is the tea substitute she mentioned.
After washing his hands, Zhu Yu took out a few oranges from the fruit bowl, carefully peeled them and cut them into thick slices.
Then she took out a handful of star sprouts, scattered it into the butter-colored pan, and gently sautéed it.
While cooking, Zhu Yu did not forget to open the management panel to check the income and expenditure of Fortress yesterday.
[Total cost of fortress operation]: 170,940 gold coins.
[Teleportation array maintenance cost]: 10,000 (10,000 gold coins/each).
[Total maintenance cost of city gates and walls]: 12,000 gold coins.
[Butler's salary]: 120 gold coins.
*
Residential area (40,200 gold coins):
[Maintenance cost of small igloo (single person)]: 17600 (20 gold coins/room * 880 rooms).
[Medium-sized igloo (double) maintenance cost]: 16840 (40 gold coins/room * 421 rooms).
[Maintenance cost of large igloo (3-5 people)]: 5760 (80 gold coins/room * 72 rooms).
Total number of guests: 2010.
*
Central Hall (1090 gold coins):
[Task bulletin board maintenance fee]: 50 gold coins.
[Vending Machine]: 20 gold coins*2.
[Public lounge cleaning and maintenance fee]: 1,000 gold coins.
*
Training Base (95,920 gold coins in total):
[First level training maintenance cost]: 1800 gold coins.
[Second floor training room maintenance cost]: 53640 (60 gold coins/each * 894 rooms).
[Maintenance cost of three-story simulated battle room]: 40480 (80 gold coins/room * 506 rooms).
*
Underground Hot Spring (13230 gold coins):
[Maintenance cost of small hot spring pool (single person)]: 4965 (15 gold coins/pool * 331 pools).
[Medium-sized hot spring pool (double) maintenance cost]: 2825 (25 gold coins/pool * 113 pools).
[Maintenance cost of large hot spring pool (3-5 people)]: 5340 (60 gold coins/pool * 89 pools).
[Basic shower room maintenance fee]: 500 (250 gold coins/room * two rooms for men and women).
[Hot spring rest area maintenance fee]: 100 gold coins.
Total number of people taking hot spring baths: 913.
*
After the star grass was fried until fragrant, Zhu Yu sprinkled a layer of white sugar evenly on the bottom of the pot. She flipped the operating panel while waiting for it to melt slowly over low heat.
The sugar gradually turns into golden caramel liquid with slight bubbles.
After the sugar liquid was completely dissolved, she put the cut orange slices into the pot, frying them for about a minute before turning them over. A layer of translucent honey-colored luster seeped out from the surface of the orange slices.
After a while, Zhu Yu slowly poured in hot water, and the boiling water instantly brought out the complex aroma of star grass, caramel and orange.
She covered the pot in time and prepared to let the ingredients cook in the pot for a while.
After seeing the huge expenditure costs of the fortress, Zhu Yu covered her heart, glanced at it quickly, and quickly slid down to her favorite income page.
[Total income from fortress operation]: 240,183 gold coins.
[Teleportation Array]: Teleported 174 players in total, earning 13,920 gold coins (80 gold coins/person once).
[Fortress Pass]: A total of 435 players entered the fortress, earning 4350 (10 gold coins/person).
*
Residential area (73,310 gold coins):
[Small Ice House (Single Person)]: 35200 (40 gold coins/room * 880 rooms).
[Medium-sized igloo (double) maintenance cost]: 29470 (70 gold coins/room * 421 rooms).
[Maintenance cost of large igloo (3-5 people)]: 8640 (120 gold coins/room * 72 rooms).
Total number of guests: 2010.
*
Central Hall (914 gold coins):
[Vending Machine]: 914 gold coins.
*
Training Base (127,235 gold coins):
[First floor training equipment usage fee]: 5115 (5 gold coins/person/8h).
[Second floor training room]: 71520 (80 gold coins/each * 894 rooms).
[Three-story simulated battle room]: 50,600 (100 gold coins/room * 506 rooms).
*
Underground Hot Spring (20,454 gold coins):
[Small hot spring pool (single person)]: 8275 (25 gold coins/pool * 331 pools).
[Medium-sized hot spring pool (double)]: 4520 (40 gold coins/pool * 113 pools).
[Large Hot Spring Pool (3-5 people)]: 6675 (75 gold coins/pool * 89 pools).
[Towel]: 466 gold coins.
[Bathrobe]: 518 gold coins.
Total number of people taking hot spring baths: 913.
[Net income from fortress operation]: 69,243 gold coins.
Sure enough, as the number of new players entering the fortress gradually decreased, coupled with a significant drop in the number of people using the teleportation array, the fortress's net income inevitably shrunk a lot.
Fortunately, Zhu Yu was well prepared and took a number of countermeasures in time, such as removing three teleportation arrays and hiring a housekeeper, using the combat power rankings and the reputation of 996 to encourage and stimulate players to spend money at the training base. This not only helped her reduce the maintenance costs of the city wall, but also greatly increased the income of the training base area.
This series of changes allowed her to barely maintain a good net profit.
In addition to these, she also has a stable income from the hot pot restaurant, which makes her small treasury more abundant.
Zhu Yu did some rough calculations in her mind and found that she could now rely solely on the operating income of the hot pot restaurant and the fortress, and no longer had to go out to fight monsters every day to make a living.
Just as she was happily planning the future in her mind, she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
Zhu Yu closed the management panel and left the kitchen to open the door.
Outside the door was the butler Chai Junliang. He seemed to have jogged over and was breathing slightly.
This time he was wearing a clean and neat shirt, with a few strands of hair hanging in front of his forehead, trembling slightly with his breathing, and his usual sunny smile on his face.
"Boss, an A-level task suddenly appeared on the task bar in the central hall." Chai Junliang's tone was a little confused. "This task does not show the identity of the publisher. I think there may be a bug in the system, so I came to report it to you."
An A-level task with no publisher?
Zhu Yu was stunned when he heard this.
At this moment, a new message alert suddenly popped up on her personal panel.
[Triggered: Side quest - "Assist players to eliminate all extremely cold polar spiders"]
[Task Description: As players continue to explore the dungeon, a team accidentally entered the nest of an arctic ground spider while performing a mission today. All members died and eventually became nutrients for the eggs in the nest. The game system accepted the team members' last wishes and issued an A-level mission on their behalf - to eliminate the arctic ground spider.]
[Task Reward: Clue about Orange Quality Flame Crystal*1]
Zhu Yu's eyes widened when he saw the task pop-up window that suddenly appeared.
Isn't this crappy game supposed to let her run free? There's even a side quest?
"Wait a minute, let me think about this, come in and sit for a while."
Zhu Yu took a deep breath and felt that he needed some time to relax.
But it was not good to leave the person outside like this, so she invited the housekeeper into her cabin.
Chai Junliang followed her into the cabin, sat down on the velvet sofa in the living room a little stiffly, and waited for her response.
Zhu Yu stared at the side quest and began to think.
No wonder Chai Junliang mentioned just now that the newly appeared A-level tasks have no publisher. It turns out that this is because the player who published the task has died, and the game system finally took over the publishing, so there is no signature ID on the task bar.
Zhu Yu opened the group chat and found that the players were discussing this matter enthusiastically.
She noticed that the victims were not limited to that team, and there were other players who survived and witnessed the incident and shared their specific locations.
She clicked on the map and took a closer look, and found that there were a large number of herbs growing near the scene of the incident, and it was an area that many players often went to collect.
If no one goes to eliminate these suddenly appearing polar snow spiders, players who go there to fight monsters or complete tasks may be injured or even killed.
Although she was not forced to complete the side quest, considering the safety of other players and her desire for clues about the orange flame crystals, Zhu Yu decided to take on the side quest, intending to nip the potential danger in the bud before it spread.
Well, well, just now she was thinking that she could live comfortably without having to take risks to fight monsters, but the next moment the game system threw a side quest to speed up the progress, which directly disrupted her plan. This coincidence made Zhu Yu roll her eyes in her heart.
Just as she was about to start chatting, she suddenly heard the sound of liquid overflowing from the kitchen.
Zhu Yu's heart tightened. Oh no, she was still in the kitchen making her caramel hot orange tea!
She stood up hurriedly, but Chai Junliang, who was sitting opposite her, rushed to the kitchen faster than her.
However, what was faster than him was System 996 - it intervened quickly, directly controlled the stove, and instantly turned off the fire.
Zhu Yu ran to the kitchen and saw that the tea had not spilled too much, and Chai Junliang had already helped her wipe the stove clean. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and thanked him.
"Boss, do you need me to fix the taskbar?" Chai Junliang returned to the living room and asked worriedly when he saw that Zhu Yu had not responded yet.
"Don't worry, that mission is not a bug, you don't need to fix it," Zhu Yu smiled and comforted his butler, "I will go to the central hall to check the situation later, you don't have to worry."
"But you came at the right time. I just made this pot of caramel hot orange tea for you and Jing Miao to taste."
Zhu Yu poured the cooked caramel hot orange tea into a cup that had been wiped clean beforehand, put it in a bag and handed it to Chai Junliang.
"Can you please bring some tea to the other employees of the hot pot restaurant when you pass by it on your way back?"
"No problem, boss."
Upon hearing this, Chai Junliang thanked him with some surprise, and left carefully with a few cups of hot orange tea.
Zhu Yu watched him walk out the door, then returned to the kitchen and started making the second pot of caramel hot orange tea.
This time she was not distracted and after careful supervision, the second pot of hot orange tea was ready.
She picked up the cup and took a sip. The sweet fruity aroma with a hint of bittersweet caramel spread between her lips and teeth.
Zhu Yu packed up the remaining hot orange tea with great satisfaction, then drank the disguise potion and prepared to go to the residential area to share these cups of caramel hot orange tea with the foundry masters, and then go to the central hall to take on the A-level task.
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